On an early morning, Raito used “[Observe]” on a fruit bowl near him.

A box popped in front of him but soon disappeared.

Raito finished his bowl of food then grabbed an apple before using his skill again.

[Apple] (Common)

[Skill “Observe” leveled up.]

[Skill “Observe” has reached level 50.]

[OBSERVE]

[Skill [Observe] combined with skill [Analysis].]

[Skill [Observe] has new functions.]

[Observe Lvl 50 (Active/Passive) CP Cost 50]

A skill used to display information about a specific individual or item.

Due to skill ‘Observe’ combination with ‘Analysis’, the hidden function has been opened.

Item blueprint and formula can be obtained.

Purchase is available.

“Something amazing happened right now.” Raito said aloud on the dining table, dropping his chopsticks.

“What happened?” Anko asked.

Raito quickly finished his food and wiped his lips with his hand. “Nothing, please, wash the dishes, Anko-nee.”

Calling out his skill list, he checked the ‘Observe’ skill.

Checking the new skill, Raito was amazed.

‘The skill ‘Observe’ may not rival ‘Sharingan’ or ‘Byakugan’. I will say it is even better. Can ‘Sharingan’ know people’s names, status, and chakra levels?’

Well, chakra level, I don’t know, but they probably can.

Raito was jumping as he reached the backyard. ‘[Observe]’

[Uzumaki Naruto Lvl 12]

[Status]

[Skill]

[Body Features]

[Family Structure]

[Likes]

[Dislikes]

[Mood | Affect]

Raito looked at them one by one, found that most of them were what he had known, but there were also so many other things that he had not known. Maybe, even Naruto, himself did not know about himself this much.

“Naruto like slightly runny eggs over hard-boiled eggs on his ramen?” Most of the data were just a waste but this was amazing.

[Wild Grass]

[Lifecycle]

[Advantage]

[Disadvantage]

[Improvement]

[Raito’s Footstep]

[Dimension]

[Estimation]

[Verification]

[Uniqueness]

‘What on earth is all this?’ Raito looked at his improved skill and felt baffled about all these new things. This much information was just too much. ‘I only need stat.’

Returning to the house, Raito cast a gaze at Anko.

Upon catching Raito's gaze, Anko squinted.

Ignoring her, Raito retrieved two bowls of salad, adding ginger extract to one and chili oil to the other.

“Give it a try, Anko nee.” Raito passed the bowls to Anko, his eyes burning with anticipation.

Before her lay two bowls and two sets of chopsticks. With the pre-prepared salad, he had added chili oil to one and something else to the other.

She looked at it for a long time before grabbing the one with chili oil. “Mm, it’s better.”

“Really?” Raito looked at Anko, like he was looking at a freak.

He banged the table and asked, “Who eats salad with chili oil?”

“I do. Got a problem with that?” Anko snorted and added, “It would have been better if that chili oil was made by those small chilies.”

She finished the bowl of salad and added, “There was nothing sweet to go with it.”

Raito scrutinized the boxes, reading line by line. It was written that Anko did prefer a little sweet with spicy. “This damn…”

“Oi, brat?” Anko jumped and grabbed Raito from the behind. “Watcha doing?”

“Nothing, I was thinking, you know, THINKING.” Raito struggled, but to no avail.

“Liar.” Anko gave him a word. “You are hiding something from me, and I really want to know what it is.”

‘Don’t you know, a woman’s curiosity is the most dangerous?’

“We are here.” Shun and Mari walked in, with Shun holding Mari’s hand and a big smile on his face.

Sitting lazily on the sofa, Mari and Shun ate the cookies Raito made, “My cooking skills leveled up quite a bit.”

“Yep, more into cooking than training.” Shun said in a low voice. “Just be a cook for Kami’s sake”

“This chocolate is quite good,” Mari said and took out the chocolatey part from the cookie.

“So, where is Naruto?” Mari asked.

‘He was here just now.’ Raito looked at the backyard but Naruto wasn’t there. He then looked upstairs and found Naruto grabbing bunch of things.

“Upstairs, doing something I don’t care about,” Raito replied after placing a glass of flavored milk on the table.

“Something about making his own ink.” Raito shook his head.

“Ah, an Uzumaki tradition, preparing everything oneself,” Shun said after a thought, then added. “The Uzumakis liked to do everything on their own when it came to Fūinjutsu. Even Mito-sama did until her last day, or so I heard.”

‘Helping him did level up my crafting skills.’ Raito said to himself.

“After Jii-chan gave the okay sign, Naruto has been going crazy for the past couple of days.”

“I FORGOT!” Mari shouted.

“What!?” Anko jumped hearing Mari shout.

Mari looked at Raito in embarrassment and said softly, “You can start doing Fūinjutsu too.”

Giving her a blank stare, Raito said, “I can already do Fūinjutsu, you know. Last night, a clone of Shun-nii was a victim of it too.”

The two women looked at Shun, asking for confirmation.

“It’s true and the activation speed was also quite fast.” The information transferred from clone gave the necessary details to Shun. “Better than some level three seal masters.”

“Raito,” Mari glared at Raito and asked. “Since when have you been practicing?”

“Um since… I promised Anko-nee.” Raito answered honestly trying not to look at Mari’s eye.

“Really,” Mari appeared behind Raito in a flash and grabbed his head.

Slowly turning his head, Raito could see Mari clad in the purplish aura, “Didn’t I tell you, you mustn’t make a seals without permission?”

“But all I did was read then.” Patting the hand grabbing his head, Raito lied.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You, you promised you wouldn’t do Fūinjutsu. Ugh…when did you turn bad?” Mari even shed crocodile’s tear.

“I must probably be learning from you all.” Raito rolled his eyes and walked away.

Hearing the reply, Mari wanted to punch Raito’s head but the next moment Naruto’s voice made everyone look, “I am ready.”

All the attention was now centered on the yellow-haired blue-eyed boy.

“I worked for the last few days with normal paper and ink. But now that I have mastered the basics. I am proud to show you all this most awesome super Naruto style Fūinjutsu.” He worked the words and took out a scroll and a rectangular paper. “This is my improved explosion talisman.”

“Make it fast, Naruto.” Interrupting Naruto, Raito shouted.

“My entrance.” Naruto grumbled.

Shun intervened seeing the two, “Continue, Naruto. Just don’t make this longer than needed.” His warm smile melted the thousand-year ice, encouraging Naruto.

Sitting on the side of the table, Naruto clapped his hand in prayer, mumbling a few phrases. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled loudly, “Let’s start.”

Hearing the declaration, Raito and Anko took a huge step backwards. Seeing their action, Mari gave them a glare.

“What? We are just taking protective measures.” Anko mumbled.

Shun looked the two in disdain, “I am a level eight seal master; if anything happens, I can take care of it easily.”

“How, How can it be? Damn, something must not be right in this world; Naruto is an Uzumaki, so I can understand, but Shun-nii too…” Raito made an exaggerated surprised expression.

Shun had his nose high which looked like it was growing.

“How can a baka like Shun-nii be a seal master? Just how, kami-sama?” Raito looked up in prayer, asking his question with earnest devotion.

“Oi, who are you calling baka, you baka.”

“Shun-nii baka, bakakaka-.”

Both Shun and Raito were chopped at the head, “Play nice; Naruto is going to do his first Fūinjutsu. According to an Uzumaki tradition, it is an important day for him.”

Rubbing their head, both the boys nodded.

On a bright sunny day, Naruto sat on the floor with his hands clasped.

In his hand, a brush, which he dipped into the ink slab, rolling it few times, then moving it into the side, making a trail, draining the excess ink. Taking a huge breath of air, then exhaling, Naruto started drawing the character seals, one seal after another. Very quickly, a dozen lines filled the scroll. Exhaling a mouthful of air, Naruto wiped his nonexistent sweat then took the smaller rectangular yellowish paper from the side and placed it in the middle of the dozen of the lines of character seals. With a few strokes, Naruto lined the borders, symbolizing the house.

Shun’s muscles tensed as he saw Naruto finish the strokes.

Placing the brush on the slab, Naruto made the rat hand seal and then tiger hand seal. Chakra concentrated on the thumb, Naruto placed his thumb in the center of yellow paper.

“Fūinjutsu – Seal”

Seconds passed by with no visible effect. Just as Naruto was about to retract his hand, Shun shouted, “Pour a bit more chakra.”

Making a noise in agreement, Naruto poured more chakra.

As he did, the character seals in the scroll started to move towards the yellow paper, towards Naruto’s thumb.

“Imagine the seal and press your thumb a bit harder.”

The ink under Naruto’s thumb spread all over the small rectangular yellow paper, then the ink started forming new characters.

‘I did it.’ Naruto’s eye lit up and his mouth opened in joy, then his thumb rose up by just a millimeter.

“No, wait.” Shun wanted to stop Naruto but it was already late.

The character in yellow paper lit up in glowing light.

Snake, Tiger, Rat.

Pressing both his hand on the table, ink started forming characters spreading from his hand to the talisman.

“Fūinjutsu – Core Overwriting.”

The glowing seal dimmed down, probably stopping the explosion.

“It’s suppressed.”

“It’s not going to go KABOOM anymore, right?” Raito looked at the table and wiped his sweat.

“…I am sorry.” Naruto said in a sad tone. Looking down, he could see the talisman paper destroyed and the table filled with Shun’s Fūinjutsu.

Shun wore a stern expression as he stared at Naruto. Unsealing a stick, he made Naruto sit in seiza in front him. “You have things to reflect on, Naruto.”

Shun went into lecturing mode and listed Naruto’s faults.

“You should improve your calligraphy; it’s still not good enough. You want to talk about chakra control; I have only one word - poor. Now let’s talk about the talisman…”

Shun continued pointing out issues related to paper, the ink, and his brushing technique. Shun continued pointing out while Naruto with his head down would earnestly nod his head.

On the side, Raito was using a small notebook to write numbers. “Shun-nii is telling the exact thing that observe has in the flaws section.”

‘Observe-sama, are you a god?” Raito inwardly cheered.

Shun and Naruto were as teacher and student, enveloped in a holy aura while the others were labeled as bystanders.

“Anko-nee, Mari-nee, I made some new sweets, wanna try?” Raito asked as Anko and Mari got out of the mood.

Naruto and Shun, who had already tasted had twinkles in their eyes.

[Cooking Lvl 26]

- Knife Skills

- Flavoring and Seasoning

- Baking and Pastry

- Cooking techniques

- Sauce and Soup

- Nutrition, Medicinal Cooking

The ‘Cooking’ skill brought gifts every time it leveled up. Instead of giving recipes and making life easy, it gave techniques. That was bigger gift than any other, especially the last one.

Raito hummed a tune while taking out two bowls, each one containing three fried dough balls covered in sugary syrupy water. The fragrance of the sweet-filled the room; sweet, herbal, and melting.

Sniffing the sweet and tasting the liquid, Anko and Mari said in unison, “Sweet.” Immediately, both women ate all “Gulab Jamun” along with syrup water.

“There’s some- what’s this taste? Herbs?”

“Yup, it’s just some dried herbs added later on. How about it? Isn’t it great?”

Then looking at Anko specifically, he asked, “What say Anko-nee, this or…dango?”

“Of course, it’s…it’s you know…it’s. It is Dango. I am not going to be tempted by the food of the devil.”

“Dango is goodness, dango is the only food for god, dango is…is…”

Anko kept mumbling, staring at space.

“Hehe.” Raito chuckled evilly. “Naruto and Anko-nee will both turn one day.”

Looking at the scene, Mari sighed deeply. ‘What are they doing?’

“And lastly, this part, you see, you have to be more careful. Image, Naruto, image, you need to draw the characters in explosion talisman hundred times in your mind then only you can create a real one.” Raito heard Shun giving Naruto pointers.

Shun, while explaining, made several side-glances, where Mari and Anko were.

Raito was standing on the side, listening to Shun talking about the seal, helping Naruto. He would write a number, then again, other times he would just cut the number.

Closing the notebook, pulling it to close to his chest, Raito turned and the book disappeared.

Mari had noticed Raito’s small action when nobody had.

*SFX for Eagle’s caw*

Anko walked outside and saw a blue ribbon on the eagle’s leg. Making Raito fill her bowl once again, she ate all in one go.

“Midori-chan, we are going.”

The white snake slithered out of the Raito’s body and jumped onto Anko’s.

Mari looked at her bowl and took a sip. After that, she frowned and looked at Raito then at the big pot Raito had kept in the kitchen. Contemplating, she patted her stomach before sighing and submitting to fate. “Raito give me some more.”

Raito looked at Mari then nodded. “Sure, give me a moment.”

Concentrating chakra to her ears, Mari tried hearing Raito’s footsteps but failed. A sweet smile hung on her face and jumpy feelings swayed. ‘He has improved.’

On her side, Shun walked holding a small bowel. He looked at the dazed Mari, then activating his chakra, he switched the bowel in an extremely quick speed.

Feeling the subtle change, Mari looked down at her bowl and then on her side. Shun was sipping the last of the sweet water, “Wow, it’s something different.”

Mari found that Shun’s lip had touched the very same spot her lips had touched, which was marked by her lipstick. In embarrassment, Mari punched forward but was caught by Shun. Jerking her towards him, Shun grabbed her perfect waist from behind, his face on her neck.

Raito approached to refill Mari’s bowl, but saw the scene and gave suggestion carefully. “If you two are going to do something, do it in your own place.”

“Anyways, I am not looking.” Raito turned around, taking the sweets with him.

Mari blushed and grabbed Shun then flickered away.

Bringing a bowl from the cupboard, Raito filled it with sweet water and fried dough balls then gave it to Naruto, “Would you like some?”

“Mm, Naruto nodded and started eating.

When Naruto took the first bite, he was shocked. His small tongue licking the corner of his lips, and his eyes smiling in happiness. Taking a few sniffs, he ate the other half.

“Wow, these are amazing.” With that, Naruto grabbed another one and ate it whole. Finally, he drank all the water.

Letting out a stream of hot air, Naruto faced Raito and asked or begged, “Raito, why don’t you try making ramen?”

Feeling amused, Raito acted wisely and chopped Naruto’s head, “Maybe later.”

Waving his hand, Raito walked outside, looking at his inventory. There were bunch of useless things like zombie skin, eye, and ribs, which he had no idea what to do, even more so, they had negative effects. Then there were a bunch of books, some clothes, healing aids, and tons of food.

Raito looked at the Shadow Clone skill book and found that he was nearly ready to use the ‘Shadow Clone’. Looking at the requirements, Raito desperately wanted to use the status points, but he controlled his desire and closed the box.

Raito quickly selected the three logs then threw them on to the ground. Injecting the strand of chakra into these logs, Raito threw the logs far away.

After a few hand seals, Raito activated the ‘[Replacement]’ technique and switched with the logs. Once, twice, Raito kept on repeating until he exhausted his chakra.

Sitting down in exhaustion, Raito wiped away his sweat, drank a mouthful of water and started meditating.

Looking from the window of the house, Mari smiled brightly. Shun walked towards the window and said, “He has been doing it for over two hours.”

“Hmph, I like this.” Pausing for a second, Mari added, “It’s better than wasting time on those ‘games’.”

Shun looked at Raito and said, “We never got to know who that traveling merchant was. After registering for the first time, he never came back. Raito was heartbroken, knowing that there was no information about him.”

“It’s fine. The village is not accepting those ‘games’ right now or in the near future.” Mari turned her head to the wall, where the games were stocked.

Mari let out a laugh then looked towards the library. “After that, he went for the books.”

“Aren’t books good?” Shun asked softly.

“Only if he brought what he needed.” Mari shook her head as she remembered that day. Raito even took a small loan from Inoichi. “He brought everything they had on the shop. Thank Kami; the traveling merchant did not have ‘their nicer goods’.”

Shun and Mari then made small talks while keeping an eye on Naruto and Raito. After some time, there was signal for Mari and so, Mari left, leaving Shun to supervise the two.

Naruto finished his exploding talisman and proudly approached Shun, “Shun-nii, look. I did it. I made the explosion talisman.”

After enjoying these moments of bliss, Shun had to come to present as he grabbed the talisman and scrutinized for a long time, then said one word, “pass”.

“Really?”

“Yay I did it, I did it, dattebayo.”

Outside the house, at the backyard

Raito opened his eyes, stood up, stored his logs, and then entered the house. He found Shun teaching Fūinjutsu with Naruto.

“We were talking about Fūinjutsu; do you want to join us?” Shun asked, waving at Raito.

“Nope, I am fine. Jii-chan told that everyone had their unique style of sealing arts. Some need to plant tree while other need to feed a fish.”

Shun sighed than grabbed Naruto. Facing him, Shun said, “Looks like Raito has turned to old man’s side. Don’t be like that, kay?”

Rolling his eyes, Raito took out water bottles from the fridge and storied them in his inventory

Later, Shun walked out with Naruto, then called Raito. He then gave the two some advice and offered them to real hand to hand action.

Naruto nodded and dashed towards Shun. Even though it was a straightforward decision, Naruto included shadow clones and attack together.

“[Physical Reinforcement], [Sprint]”

Raito jumped straight forward, a kunai in his hand, breaking Shun’s circle and stood in front of him. Jumping forward with kunai aiming for his gut.

Shun grabbed the kunai aiming for his gut, then with the other hand, in knife shape, went for Raito’s throat.

Raito also used ‘Fast Thinking’ and grabbed Shun’s hand then his arms with his legs.

“I am better, right?” Raito tried a hold on Shun.

“Um, yea.” Shun turned around his hand, escaping from Raito’s hold then throwing him away.

“Damn it.” Being thrown in air was not a pleasant experience. Raito grabbed a couple of kunai and shouted. “Attack him.”

“OK,” Naruto did a kick to middle section. His clone did a low sweep and another did a high kick.

In simple words, Shun was surrounded and attacked from every possible direction. “Take this.”

“Heh,” Letting out a short laugh, he jumped, somersaulting and grabbing Naruto’s leg then throwing him away.

Raito used ‘[Stealth]’, appeared out of nowhere then threw a straight while grabbing kunai.

Without even knowing what happened, Raito found himself upside down then pinned into the ground, his hand in a submission hold. “Ow.”

Naruto rushed to the rescue with his ten or so clones, but Shun smiled and made a half ram hand seal, creating a body double appeared by his side. The next second, Naruto clones disappeared and Naruto was pinned beside Raito.

“You are not the only one who can do ‘Shadow Clone’ technique. What you can do, others can do too.”

Looking at the two, Shun smiled and then released the two. Taking a step back, he raised his hand and said, “I know you two couldn’t use your full power. So, if you want, we can try again.”

Looking at his playful smile, Raito wanted to smash his face but for now, he could not do anything. He stood up, ignored Shun then walked inside. “Bully,”

Naruto followed Raito after giving Shun a glare. Probably something may happen to him as he reaches his house or anywhere in the middle.

‘Sorry kids, I was asked to bring you down.’

“I’ll take you guys out for something to eat.” Shun hurried in with a smile. His mission was complete. Taking the two of the rising duo a notch down and make sure they do not slack off.

“Let’s go for a bath,” Naruto nodded then looked at Shun, “Shun-nii, you coming?”

“Why are you calling him?” Raito knocked Naruto’s head, then walked in.

“Nope, will be waiting here.” Shun replied as he switched on the TV.

Naruto and Raito went upstairs while Shun sat on the sofa, watching TV.

“Shampoo, shampoo.”

Shun stood up, walked towards the library, activated the mirror seal, then entered the room of NULL.

Shun disappeared from Raito’s senses.

Taking out a bunch of files and a packet full of the photo, Shun placed them on the floor then went back to the sofa and continued watching TV.

Bored from waiting for the boys, he took out a bowl from his seal, near his heart. He looked at it like a fool, smiling from ear to ear.

‘He is doing weird things again… baka-nii.’ Raito sighed.

Raito and Naruto walked down and looked at Shun.

Only after Naruto called him did Shun sealed the bowl and said, “You boys ready?”

“Yeah.”

They left the house and ate at Ichiraku. Naruto may have broken his record of 23 bowls of ramen a day, making father-daughter duo happy and making Shun-nii wallet a bit lighter.

T & I department

Knock. Knock.

An ANBU waked inside, dropped a few files, and whispered into the ears of Anko then left the chamber.

Smiling evilly, Anko said, “We got some news for you, Mizuki.”

Looking for any reaction, she continued, “Just now, you wife, fiancée or whatever filed for divorce.”

“That women…” The restrained Mizuki growled.

“We found something else. So, you remember just a few months ago, she halted her mission and has been visiting the hospital.” Anko picked up the paper and at the same time told Mizuki. “You are something like a simple minded man, a guy who doesn’t think clearly.”

“Look at this paper, positive for pregnancy.” Anko showed Mizuki a paper and then a white UPT stick in a plastic bag.

Holding up another document, she continued, “We had her do a bloodline test against yours. I don’t know much, but here, this line says that this baby is yours.”

“This child is about nearly 12 weeks old.”

“The medics say that it’s probably a baby girl.”

“My nice day to eat and enjoy was interrupted by you.” Anko put the pictures on the wall, opposite to Mizuki, then closed all the documents.

“Next, Ibiki and Inoichi will come to scour through your memories again, then maybe again, and again, and again.”

“For the member of our own village, Hokage-sama isn’t willing to let me play with you. He is giving you time, if you want to come clean, then your punishment will be reduced.”

Hearing the certainty, Mizuki trembled.

“My hands are tied. I’m only allowed to talk and hear, doing grunt work.” Anko sighed, “If you wish to tell me, I am right here.”

“…Not for you, not for the women, you call dear wife or ex-wife, but for your future daughter, your own blood, and… legacy.”

Anko sat quietly, staring at Mizuki while he focused on the stick.

Knock. Knock.

An ANBU entered the room once again and came with him were a few other ANBU, who pushed a TV placed on a moving table. Staying silent, the ANBU inserted the cord and opened the TV. In his hand, a videotape, which he inserted in a video player.

The video played, and there was Tsubaki, in a hospital room, and in her hand, a paper, her eyes filled with tear.

“Sound?” the ANBU asked.

Anko nodded.

A prickling pain engulfed Mizuki's heart, making it harder for him to breathe, his stomach and intestines twisting in pain and anger.

Mizuki did not dare to look forward.

In the corner of the chamber, a shadow listened to the conversation. With his ability to hear the thoughts of the evil and the desperate; it could tell that a small light was lit in Mizuki’s heart.

The creature in shadow just smiled and hid itself in the shadows, bidding its time.