Poison Trials and the Feeder

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Early in the morning, Naoki arrived at the Forest of Death with an overstuffed pack.

He had expected to spend some time searching for the little wild boar. Unexpectedly, the moment he arrived at the small pond where it often appeared, the boar darted out of the grass.

Rather than Naoki finding the boar, it was more accurate to say the boar found him.

Today, the little wild boar was visibly larger than yesterday. However, the fur over the back half of its rump had been bitten off until the skin showed through. It seemed to have been badly beaten by another beast in the forest.

Looking at the limping little boar, Naoki smiled. "Who did you provoke to get roughed up that badly?"

After laughing, Naoki set down the pack on his back, took out a large chunk of meat, and used a short knife to cut it into strips on the ground.

The little boar squatted nearby, staring greedily at the meat strips.

After arranging the strips, Naoki numbered them one by one. Then he took out five bottles of paralytic toxin and injected them separately into meat strips numbered one through five.

All five bottles of paralytic toxin used the same venomous ingredients. Only the proportions between the ingredients differed.

What Naoki wanted to test today was which of the five bottles had the strongest effect. After that, he could fine-tune the paralytic toxin further based on the results.

Once everything was ready, Naoki tossed meat strip number one to the little boar.

The little boar had long since been drooling with hunger. Seeing the strip fly over, it grunted and ran forward, swallowing number one in two or three bites. Then it squatted back down, staring straight at the remaining strips.

Naoki immediately observed it carefully with the Tenseigan.

However, after eating the meat strip injected with paralytic toxin, the little wild boar behaved as if nothing had happened. Neither the faint strand of chakra inside its body nor the muscles throughout its body showed any obvious change.

The only thing that changed was the drool running from the corner of its mouth, which seemed even heavier than before.

"You cannot be serious."

What he had injected into meat strip number one was not some ordinary toxin. It was a compound paralytic toxin Naoki had carefully mixed. In his estimate, even a chunin's constitution might not withstand it.

Yet this completely ordinary-looking mottled little wild boar had eaten the toxin-injected meat and felt nothing at all. That was hard for him to accept.

Unwilling to believe it, Naoki tossed out meat strip number two, then number three, number four, and number five.

The little boar accepted every strip without the slightest politeness. After eating them all, aside from an oily mouth and drool all over the ground, nothing else changed.

Watching the little wild boar rub against his leg affectionately, even smearing drool all over his pants, veins jumped on Naoki's forehead.

This little boar had absolutely no awareness of being a poison-test subject. It had actually decided Naoki was its feeder.

"You think I really cannot deal with you?"

A little embarrassed, Naoki lost his temper. He took out the compound lethal toxin, injected it into meat strip number six, and threw it to the little boar.

One hour later, Naoki returned home and began mixing new toxins.

As for the previous batch, he threw all of it away.

If those compound toxins could not even deal with a little wild boar that had some resistance to poison, they had no value at all.

Over the next several days, Naoki repeated the same cycle: mixing toxins, testing them, then mixing them again. He could not say he gained nothing. At the very least, the little wild boar he used for poison testing became round and sturdy from all the feeding.

One morning, just as Naoki stepped out of his house, he discovered that someone was already standing at the entrance.

When the man saw Naoki come out, he stepped forward, blocked his path, and said, "My name is Hiiragi Uchiha. I assume you already know why I am here. We can do it here, or somewhere else. Your choice."

Looking at the thin, cold-eyed Uchiha clan member before him, Naoki immediately remembered the contents of the small note Shisui had passed him the previous night.

'Hiiragi Uchiha. Jonin. Cold personality. Skilled in Fire Release, Wind Release, taijutsu, swordsmanship, and ninja-tool throwing. Weaknesses: poor stamina; habitually takes risks when using a blade; excessive killing intent.'

Judging from Shisui's description, Hiiragi Uchiha's abilities were very well rounded.

Poor stamina might be a serious weakness in a life-and-death battle, but in a spar between shinobi from the same village, it did not count as much of a flaw.

Clearly, the Uchiha Clan had put in real effort to regain face this time.

So at present, the only things Naoki could use were Hiiragi's habit of taking risks when using a blade, and the fact that his mindset was easily affected by killing intent during battle.

After considering briefly, Naoki said, "Follow me."

Hiiragi did not answer. He only nodded coldly.

After leading Hiiragi to a quiet grove, Naoki asked, "What do you want to compete in?"

Hiiragi froze slightly. He had not expected Naoki to ask that. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Ninjutsu or taijutsu are both fine. Whatever you want."

Naoki smiled. "Then taijutsu."

After his fight with Iwamata, he had realized that conventional Hyuga methods were somewhat lacking against strange and unpredictable ninjutsu specialists. That was why he had deliberately provoked Hiiragi a little. He had not expected much from it, but to his surprise, Hiiragi actually let him choose the method of the spar. Naturally, he chose taijutsu.

Once the terms were set, Hiiragi slowly drew his short blade.

Morning light filtered through the treetops and shone along the blade, reflecting a dazzling gleam that added a touch of brightness to the dew-damp grove.

Naoki lowered his body slightly. Blue chakra wrapped both his palms as he set one forward and one back, guarding the front.

A light breeze blew through.

Several leaves drifted down. One spun through the air and landed on the edge of Hiiragi's short blade, silently splitting in two.

Naoki's expression sharpened, and he thought, 'Good blade.'

A master swordsman paired with a good blade would see his combat strength rise sharply. The short blade in Hiiragi's hand was a rare weapon.

The sharp aura around the blade alone was enough to startle Naoki.

Whoosh.

Hiiragi suddenly moved. His entire body turned into an afterimage, accompanied by the sound of tearing wind as he lunged fiercely at Naoki.

Hiiragi was fast, but in Naoki's Tenseigan, every movement and every expression was visible down to the smallest detail. So Naoki did not panic. He circulated the Eight Trigrams Palms and met him head-on.

In an instant, blade and palm fought for advantage within inches.

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