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"Shin-nii, what happened to you?" Konan asked, blinking in surprise as she eyed Shin's torn, disheveled clothes.
Shin's expression soured. This sorry state was entirely thanks to Kushina venting her anger on him. Though he hadn't been injured at all—his outfit ended up in tatters.
But Shin couldn't bring himself to admit this to Konan. He couldn't let her image of him, the "great and shining hero," be tarnished.
"Ah… I was, uh, messing around with a new jutsu," Shin lied, giving a light cough.
"It blew up in my face. Hence, I ended up looking ."
Konan seemed to buy it. She had no clue that Shin's true predicament was due to Kushina's fists of rage.
They returned to the house, where Kushina stood waiting, arms folded. The moment Shin stepped through the door, she gave a dismissive snort and lifted her fist in a silent warning.
"Damn, that's a pitiful look," Tsunade added. "But serves you right."
Shin rolled his eyes. Best to ignore her jab.
He headed straight to Mikoto's room to see how she was feeling. She was still napping, and he wasn't about to disturb her, so he closed the door gently and made his way into the kitchen.
With Mikoto out of commission, and Tsunade and Kushina hopeless at cooking, lunch fell to him.
That was how it always went: Mikoto or Shin took on the cooking, never the other two. Tsunade and Kushina's "Dark cuisine" was a taste no one dared suffer twice.
Konan, sensing Shin was preparing the evening meal, trotted over to help. She wasn't much of a chef, but she could at least wash vegetables and pass him cooking utensils.
"Still not ready yet?" Kushina called from the hallway, poking her head inside the kitchen. She looked oddly cautious, glancing around as if worried.
"I'll be done soon. Just wait a bit longer," Shin said.
"I'm starving here," she muttered. Then her eyes narrowed. "By the way, about earlier… are you mad at me?"
She sounded nervous. During her outburst earlier, she hadn't exactly gone easy on him.
"Why would I be mad? I figure you needed to blow off some steam," Shin answered.
"But hurry out of the kitchen—I can't focus with you around."
Kushina let out an embarrassed huff before stomping away. As soon as lunch was done, Shin had Konan help carry dishes to the table, then went to fetch Mikoto.
After half a day's rest, she'd mostly recovered—Shinobi bodies bounced back fast. Even so, Mikoto's cheeks flushed bright red when she took her seat.
Shin gave her a slight smile. She still seemed mortified, and he wondered if there was a way to help her relax.
Meanwhile, Tsunade and Kushina exchanged some cryptic whispers, leaving Shin to wonder what they were plotting.
Once lunch was over, Shin headed outside with Konan in tow, taking her to practice.
He gave her pointers on her technique, occasionally stepping aside to attempt melding the seven nature transformations to achieve Kekkei Mōra, but as usual, found no immediate success.
"Some people are born with it. Others have to claw their way there," he muttered.
"It's almost unfair."
But upon remembering his own cheat-like System, Shin shook his head. He really had zero right to complain about "unfairness."
[Ding—System upgrade initiated. System functions will be unavailable during this process.]
Startled, Shin checked the system panel—only to see:
"Hey, System, you still there?" he asked mentally. Silence.
It really had gone offline—no warning, no time frame for completion.
He still had four Replication Cards—one Divine, one Advanced, and two Common—left unused.
"Hopefully they won't vanish by the time you're done upgrading," Shin muttered to himself.
He exhaled and forced a grin. The System would upgrade at its own pace. So for now, he'd just focus on daily life and training without worrying about copying new abilities.
"Shin-nii…?" Konan asked, tilting her head. "Something wrong?"
"Nope, I'm good," he said, giving her hair a gentle ruffle.
"You wanna rest? You've been pushing yourself pretty hard."
"I can keep going," Konan insisted.
"Take it easy. You're already more talented than most Shinobi your age—no need to strain yourself."
Eventually, they paused for a break, and Shin helped refine her Paper Ninjutsu a bit more. Though, for him personally, it wasn't that useful.
He had far too many other jutsu at his disposal—Rinne-Tenseigan powers, Wood Release, Ice Release, Magnet Release, and so forth. Paper Ninjutsu felt trivial in comparison.
By the time they wrapped up, Shin decided to head back and call it a day.
He had also been researching how to fuse the seven Chakra natures, but he hadn't made much progress.
He was tempted to just give up and copy Kekkei Mōra from Kaguya Ōtsutsuki after she was revived. The System would probably be done upgrading by then.
But he had nothing else to do, so he might as well keep trying. If he really couldn't figure it out, he could always copy it from Kaguya.
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