"Shadow Clone, I leave them to you." Kaito handed the dog leash to his duplicate.
"Understood. I'll dispel the technique when the time comes."
Being Kaito's shadow clone, it naturally understood the deeper meaning.
The clone's mission was to care for the two dogs by the river while keeping itself hidden.
When Shisui eventually jumped from the cliff, the clone would cancel the technique, and Kaito would immediately receive the information through memory transfer.
His home was about 6 kilometers away. Limited to a 500-meter teleportation range, he'd need to stop by the kennel on his way back to purchase more dogs and station them at intervals along the route.
As for whether this would arouse suspicion...
Unlikely.
After all, he and Sasuke had practically dragged the Uchiha clan's reputation through the mud by now.
The entire village was saying that Fugaku Uchiha's two sons would surely rival the Inuzuka clan someday.
Well...
In terms of ninja dogs, at least.
After settling the dogs and reminding his clone to keep a low profile, Kaito gathered his things and left Naka River.
"Yawn—"
"Seems like it's over."
Kakashi stretched lazily, yawning as he closed his book and quietly trailed behind Kaito.
Eager to clock out, Kakashi completely missed something important.
Or perhaps, he simply didn't care.
"I'm home."
Kaito timed his return perfectly for dinner, the aroma of food greeting him as he opened the front door.
"You're back?"
His father stood like a sentinel in the small courtyard, offering a tepid greeting before his gaze drifted toward the sunflowers.
"Father... is something wrong?"
Kaito could tell his father had been standing there for a while, guessing he probably had something to discuss.
Could it be...
Clan matters?
Was the clan preparing to move against Konoha? Or had Danzo already made his move against Shisui?At this moment, Kaito's mind was racing.
Then...
He saw his stern father raise a hand and point toward the sunflowers in the small courtyard.
"Drag your brother out here."
"Hmph!"
After saying this, Fugaku clasped his hands behind his back and turned to walk inside.
Before leaving, he shot Kaito a glance. "This is getting more and more outrageous!"
Fugaku had returned home exhausted after a long meeting, only to find Sasuke squatting in the flowerbed the moment he stepped inside.
He could understand childish innocence.
But...
His youngest son seemed to have lost his mind—he had uprooted two sunflowers and placed them on his shoulders.
All the while, he kept shouting, "Talk!" "Transform!" "Hurry up and spit something out!"
The sight left Fugaku utterly speechless.
Bound by his role as a father, he stood in the most conspicuous spot as usual, hoping Sasuke would notice him and come out of the flowerbed on his own to apologize.
However...
Fugaku remained rooted in place for over an hour, yet Sasuke persisted in his bizarre behavior.
This not only frustrated Fugaku but also deepened his resentment toward Kaito, the instigator of this mess.
After all, it was Kaito who had first gone mad planting so many sunflowers in the yard.
"And one more thing..."
"Clean up the yard before dinner."
Fugaku's low voice carried from inside the house, leaving Kaito utterly baffled.
So...
You stood there all this time just because you didn't like my flowers???
Seriously, why didn't you say so earlier?
With a sigh about the unpredictability of living with his father, Kaito obediently bent down and began uprooting the sunflowers at his feet.
"Transform!!"
"Why won't you transform?!!"
Just then, the voice of his foolish little brother suddenly rang out from the sea of flowers. Kaito followed the sound and saw Sasuke crouched in a corner, his body wrapped in transparent tape with half-wilted sunflowers stuck all over him.
Apart from his head, every possible spot was covered in sunflowers.
Blending into the sunflower field, he was nearly invisible unless someone looked closely.
What made it worse...
Sasuke was slapping the sunflowers taped to his body while muttering to them.
From Sasuke's absurd behavior, it wasn't hard to deduce that after Kaito left, the boy must have touched the glowing orb and experienced its healing effects.
And now...
He was trying to summon his summoning beast from this flower field?
Kaito smacked his forehead with a crisp slap, his expression mirroring their father's.
The flowers in the yard...
Really needed to go.
"What are you doing?"
Kaito appeared silently behind Sasuke, startling him.
Sasuke turned his head, glanced at the plastic bag in Kaito's hand, swallowed hard, then stubbornly resumed slapping the sunflowers.
His face, however, had turned bright red.
It seemed only by continuing this ridiculous act could he ease his embarrassment.
"Transform! Talk!"
Kaito: "..."
At this moment, standing behind Sasuke, Kaito deeply regretted his earlier prank on his foolish little brother.
But there was no easy way to explain this.
He almost wished Itachi would come back just to distract Sasuke.
"Aren't you practicing the Dog Clone anymore?"
Kaito asked, but Sasuke remained silent, only slapping the sunflowers faster.
"You can't give up halfway. Didn't you say you were close to mastering the Dog Clone?""Besides, are you sure doing this will let you have a summoning creature like mine?"
Kaito's words finally made the stubborn Sasuke pause his movements. Clenching his teeth, Sasuke shouted at Kaito with great dissatisfaction.
"None of your business!"
"I can become strong all by myself!"
Sasuke's voice trembled slightly.
Just as Kaito had suspected, Sasuke had indeed experienced the healing abilities of the sunflower.
But this only made Sasuke realize that the gap between him and Kaito was growing wider...
He was angry, but not at Kaito.
He was angry at himself, frustrated that he couldn't become as strong as Kaito or Itachi, that he couldn't make his parents proud.
Hearing this, Kaito's lips twitched uncontrollably.
Just this morning, who was it that kept shouting 'only idiots would believe you' and 'how could there be a summoning creature like Shinobi Flower in the Shinobi World'?
Kids are really hard to handle.
Kaito sat down beside Sasuke and casually took out some rice dumplings he had bought that day, offering them to Sasuke.
"Tomorrow, I'll take you to train."
"As for the Dog Clone..."
"It's not really suitable for you."
At these words, Sasuke, who had his back turned to Kaito, seemed to waver internally.
After a long silence, Sasuke finally spoke.
"School starts the day after tomorrow..."
"Can we start tonight?"
When he had touched the glowing orb, he also discovered that it seemed to alleviate the fatigue from training.
In other words...
With the Shinobi Flower sunflower, he could train relentlessly without worrying about injuries or the damage caused by excessive Chakra consumption.
This was why he was so fixated on obtaining a summoning creature.
Kaito knew that part of Sasuke's desire to grow stronger stemmed from not wanting to embarrass the Uchiha clan at school. Without exposing the boy's hidden thoughts, Kaito chuckled lightly and said,
"Sure, we'll start tonight."
"Perhaps..."
"You could try training in Lightning Release."
...