I woke up the next morning on the floor as Leaf had edged me off the other side of the bed. I guess she tosses and turns in her sleep…. She was laying on one side and moved me all the way to the opposite side… These beds are ludicrously big, 5 to 10 people could sleep on them. Me plus all 7 of my pets fit easily on my bed, including Darkclaw… So she managed to push me all the way across this comically large bed in her sleep.

Getting up, I notice that she has taken the middle position on the bed. Any hint of embarrassment is gone in her sleep. She is spread across her bed, legs and arms wide open. Her loose cloth shirt is now rolled up slightly revealing more her stomach. I'll let her sleep in, there is still so much to do. I cover her with a blanket before leaving the room.

I get up and head towards the time tree. I start carrying the gear and supplies out of the tree… I didn't tell anyone to do it yesterday and it is too early for anyone to be awake to help. Moving Troll's bow outside is fairly difficult. It barely fits through the door. The bow weighs about 70 pounds. I doubt many people could hold it let alone fire it… I'm hoping Troll is someone who can fire it. Moving everything outside takes about an hour by myself.

It will still be about 1 hour before anyone starts to wake up… What is there to do? I start looking at the food we've taken from the fridge. The rations all have meat… But it isn't normal meat. It was very thin… It just looked different… I look at it, comparing it to a slice of basilisk meat. My men were able to easily make there way to the raid and slay the bosses. Even normal troops can take down raid bosses now.

I look at the difference… I looks like the meat is just thinner… Ripping each apart I can tell that the meat my men had taken is far wetter. So the thinner meat has been dried out… Another thing we found out from my men killing the basilisk. It instantly filled up 2 transmutation circles for false soul stones. Four bosses and a few hundred fish later, I have another 12 false soul stones to give away… I don't want to waste these but… I want to try something.

I step inside the time tree. Asking him a question.

“Do you… Have a mouth?”

“Do normal trees have mouths? I absorb light through photosynthesis.”

“Yea but… The sun outside isn't even a real sun… So how do you get nourishment?”

“...I guess through my roots. It does sometimes rain inside the castle mimic… Depending on where the castle mimic is located.”

“So if it is raining outside it rains inside the mimic?”

“No… If the mimic is submerged underwater it rains inside.”

“Hmm. That gives me an idea… But it will take far more vials of false soul stone to attempt.”

“Hey… Did the greater god say anything about this food?”

“Nope.”

“Alright… Goodbye then.”

Examining the food had only taken 10 minutes… I still have another 50 minutes to mess with this food before people start waking up… I've got an idea on how to drain the water from it. I head outside the castle mimic, grabbing a hundred pound chunk of the basilisk. It is a good portion of the basilisk we have remaining (a days worth). I need this much for experimenting.

I lay the slab of meat on a plate and start cutting it into small thin pieces. I expect that even with the loss of water, the meat to shrink that much. I cut the 6 inch thick slab of meat into 1 inch thick 6 inch long pieces. Laying them across a slab to heat them from the sun. I also have a light fire going underneath to keep an even higher temperature… I don't want to cook it too fast, just cook the water out of it slowly.

I hope this doesn't spoil the meat… I won't be able to check on this for a long time. So I tell one of the now awake demon tribe to watch it. I take the 50 pounds of meat back into the kitchen. Everyone should be awake now. I want to spar with both of my sensei before I ask for them if they wish to come to my war strategy meeting.

Heading inside the ninja village. I start to get weird looks, like I'm someone they've never seen before… Then I remember I look far older than I did a few days ago to most people. I ignore it for now and continue to head to the shogun's room. Leaf rushes up behind me and punches me once she catches up.

“You should have woke me up!”

“Sorry you looked so cute sleeping I couldn't bring myself to disturb you.”

She punches me again before we proceed to the shogun's. I try to grab her hand and she lets me... This is a good first step. I also want to see how strong Leaf had gotten. She primarily focused on the shogun as a teacher. She visited the old man with me but after he creeped her out she quickly left. He did his normal “I'm a crazy person!” act and it was enough for her to not want to learn from him. I enter the shoguns room. He puts his book down and talks to me.

“Ah, I wasn't expecting guests so early. What might you… Wait… What!?”

He gets up and inspects me far closer. Looking at me he pricks me with a needle.

“Hmm… It doesn't seem that you are an illusionary skill… So you must be the real Kite… What happened to you?”

“I grew up a bit.”

I only smile, being as vague as possible as I enjoy the sight of watching this old man be flustered… He proceeds to speak.

“Alright… I'm guessing you're here to practice? Does that new look come with new talent?”

“It does. Please don't hold back sensei. I need to know where I stand against a true master now.”

“Take your stance then.”

I stand there, arms at my side. Legs slightly separated, it almost looks like I don't have a stance. He questions me.

“Is that your stance… I see far too many holes in your defenses… Are you sure you don't want to take a proper stance?”

“Yes… This is my stance.”

“Alright… Don't complain if you're throw on your ass like always then.”

I only get a tiny laugh before he starts inching forward. I immediately focus ten fold of what I was. I start edging closer to him as well. Tiny, almost baby steps where I move my first foot a few inches. Then move my second foot to the same distance. We are nearly in range… He doesn't make another movement, he is waiting for me to attack… I guess it is time to see if my new fighting style is worth anything.

I put both my hands out. I'm still not in range to hit him, my hands are about 2-3 feet from him now. He normally would have attempted to grapple me, I have a feeling my new style is throwing him off. I fall forwards using my hands as a springboard I kick upwards at him with my feet. He barely dodges backwards, the attack was to push through him so my spring attack shot me above him. The forward momentum carrying me as I do a flip.

I expected the backwards retreat. The momentum pushed me right above him. He definitely looked shocked. I swing a fist at him but he pushes it downwards. Yet another expected attack, I continue to swing my body to move in the forwards motion. Normally this would be where I'm at my weakest… Not quite. I continue my momentum down with an ax kick. He must have guessed my next attack because he had his hands up to block instead of trying to counter.

My first hit lands against both his arms as he guarded but I have two feet. I swing down another ax kick with my other leg, I break his guard. This is the first time I've broken the shoguns guard. I had gotten a lucky throw on him but he immediately recovered mid air. This time I've intentionally pushed through his defenses. If only for a second that means I've come further in my fighting. I'm still fighting him though. As haven't landed on my feet yet as he pushes forwards to counter.

I clap my hands right in front of his face. Stunning him for only a half second but it is enough for me to land and jump backwards. I count that as a win for me. His hands must hurt like hell. He should have noticed my new shoes. I made a special pair of shoes for using in combat, each covered in the remaining Darkclaw's feathers. They are cushioned against piercing and blunt damage so I can use them to block as well.

I retake my stance… His stance changes… He drops the aikido stance, dropping to a stance I've never seen before. I call out.

“Hey now… If you want to teach me another style I'm game but I haven't seen this before. Am I that much of a threat?”

“Safe to say you aren't the same person. I barely blocked that so you get to move up to the next level of training.”

His feet were almost touching before. Very close together, now they're separated. His hands which were down by his sides before are now up in front of him. This stance looks far more attack based than the last. He looks like a different person now. I take my stance again, almost like a nonexistent stance. Should I remove my training weights? No this is only practice, I will only take them off if I feel my life is threatened.

We both start slowly edging towards the other. The pretense that we were on the same level is gone. I know for a fact that once I get into range he is going to destroy me like always. This is all part of getting stronger though. I'm alm-. He moves lightning fast, he is already underneath me.

Grabbing my pant leg he pulls my leg forwards pushing my leg up, I'm going to do a crescent kick from underneath before he tosses me with my other leg. Or so I think, he launches me backwards. I do several flips through the air before he jumps at me, slamming me in the stomach with both his feet. I immediately expel all the food in my stomach. I still have so much farther to go. I catch my breath, before finally speaking.

“How… How much were you holding back in the beginning?”

“I was fighting at 20% of my full power. That was 100%, you were getting too arrogant so I had to knock you down a peg before you fight the transmutation master… If you show up acting like that, he would most likely have killed you or done you permanent harm for being so arrogant.”

“Fuck! I thought… I thought I was so much stronger than before... These old men are too strong to compare myself with still... I am still just their student.”

“You are that much stronger. That is why I decided to not hold back anymore. If I didn't hold back before, I would have killed you.”

“Well that makes me feel a little better… Compared to Nami… Where do I stand?”

He pulls on his goatee a little… Most of the old murine folk have old goatees. Perhaps it is a cultural thing? He responds.

“Hmm… If you went all out… And she didn't take you seriously… You could beat her… If she realized how much stronger you had gotten… Maybe she could fight evenly with you… If you were to fight with weapons, I doubt she would stand a chance now… But fighting bare handed it would be close.”

“That's good to know… I feel bad for her then.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“Because, two of her students are going to give her some trouble today.”

“Haha, I would like to see that. It will be a good experience for her.”

“Speaking of which… Can I get like... 12 more animal contracts?”

“Hahaha, I don't understand you. You realize how much work goes into making the scrolls? You're asking for years of work, work you have no idea how hard they are to make.”

“Can you show me, or at least go through the methods involved in making them? I might be able to start making them myself if you teach me. I could possibly find easier and faster methods of making them as well.”

“...That isn't a bad idea.”