On the training field, Pakura of the Scorch Release was personally evaluating the three genin.
After the initial probing exchange, she already had a rough grasp of their capabilities. The fireball in her hand flared to life once more, its heat distorting the air.
Among the three, Maki was a sensory-type ninja. At this stage, her defensive ability was clearly the weakest, making her the most obvious breakthrough point.
With that judgment made, Pakura vanished in a blur. Like a phantom, she appeared beside Maki. As the fireball in her palm rapidly condensed, Maki's sensing chakra suddenly transformed into a peculiar illusion technique, lashing straight toward Pakura's mind.
For an instant, Pakura's vision warped.
Maki's distorted silhouette made her realize something immediately—this girl's sensory chakra carried a special hallucinatory effect.
A genjutsu?
The unexpected move delayed Pakura by a fraction of a second.
That was all Tsukasa needed.
Seizing the opening, Shirogaki Tsukasa attacked decisively. Aka Hiremaru darted in once again, its body gliding low as a sword shot straight out from its mouth, thrusting toward Pakura.
In that split second, Pakura smiled.
A kunai flew from her hand with vicious precision, striking Aka Hiremaru and pinning it in place. Then, with a flash of Body Flicker, she appeared in front of Maki and flicked the girl's forehead.
The violent shock traveled straight through Maki's body, and her eyes rolled back as she collapsed into unconsciousness.
At the moment, Pakura focused on Maki, a silver blade swept in from the side.
Shiraishi had already disengaged the weighted restraints on his body. With the burden gone, his explosive strength surged. Enhanced by high-speed movement, he attacked from an extremely sharp angle—aimed directly at Pakura's back.
A flash of light—
Pakura's body turned into a small cluster of flames.
Substitution?!
Using the technique with flawless timing, Pakura reappeared behind Shiraishi. The fireball in her hand was just about to be released when she noticed something unexpected—
Shiraishi's true target wasn't her.
His blade sliced cleanly through the kunai, pinning Aka Hiremaru, freeing it in a single stroke. At the same time, Tsukasa reasserted control through chakra threads, unleashing a storm of poisoned needles in support.
The needles scattered across the ground, failing to land a direct hit on Pakura, but forcing her to evade.
Yet Shiraishi possessed keen perception as well.
Without even turning his head, he flicked his finger, releasing a thin chakra thread as he called out:
"Right side!"
Aka Hiremaru's attack speed increased sharply. Poison needles erupted once more in a furious barrage.
Pakura formed a fireball to block—
And at that exact moment, Shiraishi closed in.
Wind chakra gathered in his palm.
"Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm!"
The attack burst forth as a compressed shockwave.
Pakura didn't even spare him a glance.
The fireball she had just formed was incomparably sharp. It intercepted the Beast Wave Palm head-on. At the same time, a kunai shot out without warning and embedded itself into Aka Hiremaru once again.
Damn it!
The puppet maneuver had failed.
Tsukasa immediately realized the situation had turned bad—but Pakura was faster.
She became a streak of crimson, appearing right in front of the puppeteer. A single punch struck Tsukasa squarely, instantly neutralizing his weak close-combat defense.
At that moment, the short sword hidden in Aka Hiremaru's mouth suddenly fired out.
"…This chakra thread isn't Tsukasa's."
Chakra threads crisscrossed the battlefield.
Everything that had happened—Shiraishi's prolonged engagement with Pakura—had been for this single instant.
The three explosive tags he had deliberately conserved earlier surged forward together with the flying short sword, all aimed at Pakura.
"An impressive mind," Pakura said coolly. "But you forgot one thing—Scorch Release."
The temperature of the surroundings changed abruptly.
Under Pakura's control, scorching air currents surged outward. A pulling force detonated the explosive tags prematurely, obliterating the short sword midair.
In the same instant, a kunai flashed up and stopped at Shiraishi's throat.
"It's over."
Shiraishi immediately dropped his silver blade to the ground, signaling surrender.
In truth, he had already reached his limit. Combining Beast Wave Palm, weighted-enhanced high-speed movement, telekinetic sensing, and chakra thread manipulation was far beyond what his current stamina could sustain.
The battle was over.
Pakura had decisively defeated all three.
Even so, her evaluation of them was extremely high. The fight had lasted nearly three minutes—more than enough to demonstrate the potential of this three-man squad.
Perhaps that was precisely why the higher-ups had assigned Pakura to lead them.
That realization only made her more eager to see how far these three could go.
After some brief treatment, Maki and Tsukasa gradually regained consciousness. Remembering his performance during the fight, Tsukasa's expression darkened as he clenched his fist.
"Tomorrow morning at nine," Pakura said. "Assemble. We'll be carrying out your first mission."
In this era, a guiding jōnin was not a nanny who personally handled every aspect of training. Most genin were expected to cultivate themselves outside of missions.
Tree climbing, water walking—basic training like that had long been routine for Shiraishi and Maki. Everything beyond that was honed through real missions and live combat.
With team formation and combat assessment complete, Maki stepped forward, rummaged through her pack, and handed over a neatly wrapped bento.
"Shiraishi, this is your dinner for tonight."
Seeing the exquisitely prepared bento, even the usually stern Pakura felt her stomach growl.
Maki smiled gently. "Sensei Pakura, I prepared one for you as well."
"Then… I won't refuse."
"Shiraishi," Tsukasa asked suddenly, "how did you remove your weighted gear so quickly?"
During the battle, he had noticed it immediately. The speed at which Shiraishi disengaged the weights was abnormal.
As a member of the Shirogaki clan—famous for ninja tool crafting—Tsukasa was well-versed in such matters. Yet he had never seen weighted gear removed so effortlessly.
"I just added a small switch," Shiraishi replied. "So the weights can release themselves."
He explained the principle simply. The device was something he had designed after deciphering fragments of residual knowledge from the lenses—learning, understanding, and then building it himself.
As Tsukasa listened, his gaze grew serious.
This teammate of his was far from simple.
The principles involved multiple formulas and calculation methods—some of which were concepts unheard of in the current shinobi world. He would need to test and verify them himself after returning home.
A puppeteer was, by nature, a researcher with exceptional learning ability. Tsukasa fully intended to experiment with the parameters and validation methods Shiraishi had mentioned.
That night, after Shiraishi finished eating the bento, Maki had left and cleaned everything meticulously. He returned indoors and closed his eyes.
He began to replay the entire battle with Pakura in his mind.
Every exchange, every movement, reconstructed with perfect clarity.
The pen in his hand moved rapidly, covering pages with formulas, derivations, and overlapping calculations.
Useful hypotheses, discarded assumptions, and theoretical inferences about Scorch Release flashed through his thoughts one by one.
He then took out an old calculation device.
Beeping softly, the machine clicked with a unique rhythm as he entered values. It was a device he had personally scavenged and assembled.
With the help of auxiliary computation, Shiraishi gradually outlined the next stage of training for high-speed movement.
"…As expected," he murmured, "weight training only allows basic mastery. To truly perfect it, I'll need another method."