Seeing that the smoke screen had dissipated, I canceled my transformation and, assimilating Kiba's smell, transformed into his current beaten-up appearance.

"You bastard...!" Kiba, upon seeing this, said through gritted teeth.

"Hahaha, if I want to continue, I need to adapt to your current appearance, right?" I said with a calm smile.

Kiba remained silent as he looked at me intently.

"By the way, Kiba." I continued. "I was thinking of something. It's more of a suggestion, maybe with this, your chances against me will increase."

"Oh?" He adjusted his posture, and his eyes lit up a bit. "Tell me."

"Why don't you try a joint transformation with Akamaru, transforming into a larger version of him?" I suggested. "With both of you working as one, it could generate an interesting result. Plus, this could provide a deeper understanding for you about Akamaru, since I don't think it's fair for only Akamaru to take your appearance."

"Huh?" Kiba was obviously confused, but soon became pensive.

Akamaru, understanding what I said, looked at Kiba.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" Kiba murmured. "Actually, when I saw you transform into Akamaru to deceive me, I even thought it was something useful, but I didn't know exactly how to use it..."

As he lost himself in thought, I whispered softly, "Book," and went to my page, seeing that I was making progress. I smiled a little.

With my hands in my pockets, I waited.

It took almost 10 minutes for Kiba to stop thinking.

"Akamaru, let's try to make this happen!" He exclaimed intensely.

"Woof!" Akamaru responded with the same enthusiasm.

Soon, Akamaru canceled his transformation and climbed onto Kiba's head. Then, the two began to manipulate chakra, accumulating more and more, until I heard Kiba shout, "Transformation!"

With a 'Puff,' a smoke screen rose.

From it emerged an Akamaru completely white as snow, at least 4 meters tall and about 6 meters in wingspan.

Growling, he looked a bit fierce to me.

Honestly, if I didn't know it was Kiba and Akamaru's transformation, I would have run away.

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"Not bad," I said.

Walking slowly, the fusion of the two began to surround me.

'Smart.' I thought.

It seemed like a strategy to find an opening, but I could understand that the real strategy was to adapt to this form.

However, I let it happen; otherwise, it wouldn't be fun. Besides, finally, Kiba was using his brain...

It seemed pointless to maintain my transformation, but I didn't cancel it.

The reason was that I assumed Kiba would be more reluctant to hit someone with the same appearance as him. Even if he didn't initially feel any psychological pressure, I noticed that he innocently had difficulty attacking me while I was in his appearance.

The same could be said for Akamaru; attacking his owner must be difficult for him. Even though he knew I wasn't Kiba, using my illusion to confuse their five senses, even Akamaru wouldn't get away unscathed.

I might not be the best at this, but I must be at a level where I can deceive a 7-year-old child...

And I could feel my progress, even seeing it on my page.

Seeing the fusion of Akamaru and Kiba shaking their large dog head, I smiled a bit recklessly.

Yes, it was working.

"Roar!!"

As they roared, they attacked me.

Just the paw that came at me was almost as big as me. Dodging to the left side, I felt a slight tremor on the ground.

'Not bad,' I thought.

Seeing that they missed the target, they attacked again with the right front paw vertically this time.

However, this time I crouched, dodging again.

"Damn it..." I heard Kiba's voice, which was almost unrecognizable.

"Take it easy," I said, giving my opinion. "Don't pressure yourselves too much or overthink it, just try to act on instinct at first."

It seemed like they heard my opinion, as they seemed to have thrown reasoning to the wind and started attacking relentlessly in my direction with their paws and mouth.

In just 5 minutes, I had started to sweat.

The number of times I had to dodge had increased greatly, and it was difficult to find an opening to attack while they were acting like this.

But nothing is perfect. When I saw an opening, I jumped, getting to the same height as their large head, and kicked with a little more than half of my strength.

"Bang!"

To my total surprise, their head only turned slightly to the side. Soon after, the right front paw came at me diagonally from top to bottom and managed to hit me for the first time.

"Boom!"

I was thrown a quick distance and only stopped when I collided with the dirt ground, forming a small crater.

Getting up, I felt some pains spread throughout my body.

As I got up, I brushed the dust off my clothes with my hand.

Canceling the transformation, I saw Kiba and Akamaru returning to their normal form.

Kiba had a wide grin from ear to ear and said while laughing uncontrollably, "Hahaha! This is more like it when I take it seriously!"

"Woof!"

Akamaru barked.

"Yeah, we take it seriously, partner!" Kiba corrected himself, emphasizing 'we'.

"Woof, woof!" Akamaru nodded and looked in my direction, showing all his sharp, white teeth.

"Aizen, let's call it a day for now," Kiba said. "Thank you for training with us, I really appreciate it. Especially your advice to transform myself with Akamaru."

I said with a smile as I canceled my transformation, "Want to bail after getting a win?"

Caught off guard, Kiba laughed awkwardly as he scratched his head, "Haha, you got me."

"Alright, I'll let this one slide," I said. "Let's have a rematch another time, and I'll have my revenge."

"Revenge..." He murmured softly. "After the beating you gave me, you still want revenge?"

"Did you say something?" I heard, but pretended not to.

"No, I didn't say anything," he denied.

"Haha." Just as I expected, he denied it. That somehow amused me a bit.

━━━━

* Chapter 16 is already released on Patreon!

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