Hiss.
A giant python patterned with violet latticework slid through the undergrowth.
Muscle ripples rolled beneath its scales like waves. Its forked purple tongue flicked, testing the air.
Thump, thump.
Ahead came an odd tapping, heavy footfalls, and a bright voice. The snake reflexively coiled tighter.
Compared to its thick body, the small head lifted and tilted back, hunger sharpening into attack.
Thump. Thump.
The tapping drew near. A metal-capped cane parted the grass.
Boot tips stepped forward, heedless, a pale ankle flashing beneath a trouser hem.
Hiss.
The python waited for the prey to enter range.
Then it rose from the grass and struck.
Its jaws gaped, lower mandible unhinging, two rasps of fangs bared.
Air whistled in its throat.
It launched so fast it left a blur. A bite like that would shear human tendons and likely cripple for life.
The target seemed unaware, walking on.
The hot reek of the python's breath rolled toward skin.
Hum.
Light skimmed across the girl's skin and vanished. The air itself puckered like rain-dimpled lakewater.
The snake did not notice.
It clamped down hard on the soft skin ahead.
No weight, no shape.
No gleam, no shadow.
From the hinge of its jaw to the tip of its tail, a fine line split the ten-meter body. Violet scales parted. A surge of blood folded outward.
Whip.
Momentum carried the python forward as it separated midair, two halves flashing past Konome's calves as if something had politely moved them aside. Even the blood was sheared clean by pressure, falling in two sprays.
Thump.
Thump.
Both halves hit the dirt, kicked up dust, and bled freely.
Nerves still firing, the bisected body thrashed and writhed.
"Konome, that was awesome. More food for us," Naruto crowed, blue eyes sparkling at the self-halved snake.
Anywhere Konome walked, prey split on its own. She never even raised a hand.
Cool enough to split the sky.
"Do not pick it up."
Her voice was cold in the air. Konome stopped Naruto's reaching hands, nudged the brush aside with her blind staff, and kept moving.
"Huh. Again. If we do not grab it, we are going hungry tonight," Naruto groaned. "You eat a ton, Konome."
"Can you cook it."
Naruto looked up, thought of his tragic skill, and hedged. "I can probably get it cooked through."
"Then keep walking."
Konome did not look back.
She had known a brilliant cook once, brash and sunny like Naruto. He lay buried forever in the Land of Water.
Naruto gave the fallen prize a sorrowful look, then jogged to catch up, pack bouncing.
"Konome, that move is insane. Teach me."
"You need Wind Release nature transformation. You cannot learn it yet," Konome said, smashing the dream without pity.
Days of waterfall training had deepened her Wind Release. It came quicker, hit harder, and obeyed like a limb.
There was a reason Wind was called the strongest element.
Fast, efficient, clean.
Wind that could tear the world made the perfect killing engine. With a flicker of chakra, anything that came close to Konome was parted head from tail.
Her Gentle Fist Rotation had just entered its first stage, the point where chakra could be expelled from the tenketsu. She was far from mastery.
Even so, she had already coupled it to Wind Release.
What once could be exhaled only by hand or mouth now burst from any tenketsu in her body, thanks to Rotation's principle.
Layer Wind Release onto that, and you got what the python had just shown.
Get close, and a gale from a tenketsu cut you open.
Snakes were no exception. People would not be either.
In the future,
a shinobi with poor defenses might not even know they had died until they looked down and saw the halves.
The Hyūga's taijutsu truly flowed from the Byakugan.
Byakugan was a universal key.
Intel, control, ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, it interfaced with everything.
Their Gentle Fist was just as universal. Pair it with almost any power and you got effects greater than the sum.
Konome happened to have many strange powers.
Add Gentle Fist,
and all of them began to resonate.
Wind Release was only the start.
…
Fwoosh.
Smoke boiled up.
Flames licked a char-black boar. Fat sizzled under searing heat, turning the skin a tempting gold.
The crisp surface beaded with juices.
Sizzle.
Drippings spat on coals. The smell grew indecently good.
In a nearby tree, a Konoha "teacher" kept stealing glances over, fingers rubbing bark as visible impatience took hold.
"Konome" sat properly with her blind staff, face blank, maintaining the poise of a master.
"Naruto" pinched spices between finger and thumb, hand shaped like a serpent's head.
Fat popped, spices bloomed, and the already rich air turned intoxicating.
"Done."
"Naruto" dusted the last pinch and spun with a grin.
The lurking "Academy instructor" could not wait any longer. He dropped to tidy the smoky charcoal bed.
"If we roast a haul like this at once, all we need is a water source and a quiet hide. Then we sit tight until the drill ends. Shikamaru, you are a genius."
Ino, disguised as Naruto, flashed a smile and gave a thumbs-up to the silent "Konome" beside her.
Shikamaru, wearing Konome's face, slouched back against a tree. "A gamble with no ante. If it works once, the rest is easy. The supplies we brought are stashed in a cave. If we get found and tagged, we only lose this boar. Whether it flies or not, we pay almost nothing. The real issue is the rules. Too many holes."
"Hot, hot."
Smoke puffed as Chōji snuck a shard of crackling skin and yelped as it burned his fingers.
"Chōji, stealing again."
Ino planted fists on hips, a big tic mark popping on her brow. "Change back. If someone else wanders in, we are sunk."
Thump, thump.
Before she finished,
the signature tapping came closer.
Shikamaru, still as Konome, snapped upright and looked.
A silver-haired blind girl with a cane walked toward them, a blond boy at her side.
"Shikamaru, could you share half that boar with us."
Konome smiled a knife-edged smile at her own face, long-suffering and pale on Shikamaru.
If you strut around wearing my looks,
you are going to pay a toll.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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