After walking Naruto all the way home, Shikage didn't head back to the Naka River forest. He decided to crash at his own house for the night.
Lying on the familiar tatami, he stared up at the ceiling — or more accurately, at the glowing system panel floating in the shadows.
It was already past three in the morning, but sleep? Not happening. He was too wired, heart still pounding with excitement.
Tonight's haul had been ridiculous.
First, the level-up.
Just hitting level 1 gave every single stat a clean +1 boost.
[Strength: 20.2 → 21.2]
[Stamina: 23.3 → 24.3]
[Agility: 27.1 → 28.1]
[Intelligence: 32 → 33]
[Perception: 26 → 27]
Raw attributes alone meant he could now stomp a regular genin without breaking a sweat or using a single jutsu.
Next, the skill upgrades.
[Three Basic Jutsu (Lv.1), Shadow Binding (Lv.1), Shadow Imitation (Lv.1), Shadow Neck Bind (Lv.0)]
Three Basic Jutsu had ranked up from daily training.
Shadow Binding and Shadow Imitation both hit Lv.1 tonight.
Higher levels cut chakra cost, boosted power, and made everything feel smoother — faster activation, more forgiving conditions.
In short, the techniques sat in his hands like they belonged there.
These gains also taught him something crucial:
The level system and class system ran completely separate.
Levels pumped up his base stats.
The class was a full skill tree.
Skills on that tree weren't auto-unlocked by level — you had to learn them yourself.
Any self-learned technique that belonged to the class got added to the panel automatically.
Of course, Legendary [Shadow Lord] played by its own rules.
These little revelations hinted the system still had plenty of hidden layers left to crack.
But "more to discover later" didn't beat the shiny new toys sitting right in front of him.
So he quickly reined in his wandering thoughts and pulled up the [Shadow Lord] panel.
[Current Compatibility: 5%]
[Class Quest · Stage One]
[Command Shadows: 1/5]
[Shadow Soldier (Unnamed)]
Level: 0
Attributes: View Details
Talent: Shadow Body
Skills: Three Basic Jutsu (Lv.0), Large Shuriken Technique (Lv.0), Curse Mark · Incomplete (Lv.0)]
Average stats overall. The real highlights were [Shadow Body] and the incomplete Curse Mark.
Shadow Body let the soldier hide inside any shadow.
The Curse Mark gave a flat 20% power boost.
Not bad at all.
For his very first shadow soldier, Shikage's honest rating was "decent enough for now."
Naming it felt like too much work, so he just slapped [No.1] on it and called it a day.
He'd expected nothing flashy from a chūnin like Mizuki anyway.
What actually had him curious was the surprise bonus from Naruto.
[Shadow Vassal · Uzumaki Naruto]
Effect: Learning Efficiency +300%
Attached Skill: Yang · Nine-Tails Power (Fully Sealed)
Note: Grows stronger as the main body grows stronger
At first he thought it was another soldier type.
Then he looked closer and realized it was actually a full template.
Catch? He couldn't equip it on himself — only on shadow soldiers.
A little disappointing, but still a straight power-up.
And it was a growth-type template.
Hell yes.
No hesitation. He immediately slotted [Shadow Vassal · Uzumaki Naruto] onto No.1.
With the big-ticket items checked, his focus shifted to [Power of Shadow].
Tonight's fight had shown him just how badly he'd underestimated this passive.
Seal-less Nara shadow techniques weren't some minor convenience — they completely changed the game in combat.
The Nara arts had three classic weaknesses:
1. Long hand-seal sequences — easy to read and interrupt.
2. Limited shadow surface area, which tied down the user's own movement.
3. Powerful control, but it locked the user as well as the target.
Under Power of Shadow, the first and third problems basically vanished.
No seals needed. Instant cast, instant release. He'd lost long-duration control… but gained way more creative, deadly applications.
He'd already broken them into three combat tricks based on the core jutsu:
"Lag" — twisted Shadow Binding. Instant on, instant off. As long as the enemy stayed in his shadow range, he could interrupt their actions at will, creating a stuttering lag-spike effect.
"Misinput" — twisted Shadow Imitation. Same principle, but instead of freezing them, it forced them to copy whatever split-second motion he chose — like accidentally mashing the wrong button and making your character do something stupid.
"Disconnect" — derived from Shadow Neck Bind. Instant cast. In a fight it let him silently choke the enemy's throat and drop their connection on the spot.
These three techniques had turned the Nara shadow arts from passive support tools into proactive, aggressive weapons. No complex setups, no teammates required. Pure wheelchair-tier cheese.
Even though his current kit was already filthy strong, Shikage was still drooling over the Shadow Imitation Shuriken that Shikamaru would eventually invent.
That was the jutsu that would truly take the Nara shadow arts to the next level.
"I'll try developing it myself first."
"If I can't… guess I'll have to bully my little brother a bit."
Shikage chuckled, then opened his system inventory.
Two items sat quietly inside: the Large Shuriken and the Scroll of Seals.
Both generous parting gifts from good ol' Mizuki.
System drops didn't affect the real world, meaning the versions in his inventory were perfect copies.
That was also why he hadn't bothered snatching the physical scroll from Mizuki's hands earlier.
Why ride the bus when you can drive your own car?
With a thought, a brand-new Scroll of Seals appeared in his hands.
[Item: Scroll of Seals]
[Acquisition Difficulty: A-rank]
[Type: Book]
[Description: A forbidden scroll containing numerous prohibited techniques]
[Price: 300,000G]
The price made his eyes burn with greed. If the shop didn't have anything better right now, he might've actually considered selling it.
"Of course… I can always sell it after I'm done studying."
Completely shameless about treating the scroll like a one-night stand, Shikage carefully carried it to the window. Under the soft moonlight he untied the cord and began his all-nighter.
Time to study.