- That's okay," I waved my hand, dismissing the apology.
- How about a cup of tea? I've just baked some cookies," she offered.
- Thank you, but I'm from home now, and I've already had a proper lunch," I declined with visible regret, and after a little thought, offered Akiko a little upset, "maybe a little later.
- Okay, sensei.
- In that case, let's move on to the purpose of my visit, - I got serious, - do you do the exercises completely?
- Everything is exactly according to your instructions, - the girl nodded.
- Great, then it's time to deal with the problems of chakrochannels.
Thanks to the opportunity to spend more time practicing, my control has increased a bit, making it much easier and faster to sprout new keirakukei, replacing the crude semblance that I had spun the first time from the leftover scraps. At this point, Akiko had a circulation system in her torso only slightly inferior to her natural counterparts and I was going to supercharge that framework with chakrochannels in her limbs with a pair of tenketsu.
The body was consuming a huge amount of chakra from a source that had just begun to work properly, but excessive pressure in the new channels could damage the still unstable walls and add to the work. So I preferred to build up the circulation system slowly but surely rather than rush too much and start all over again. Provided, of course, that the subject could survive it.
*
When I felt a fleeting glance of attention on me, I didn't let it show, continuing to move along the street and occasionally stopping at the windows of various stores and stores in the shopping district. I had noticed the unobtrusive observers about a week ago.
War quickly teaches you to sense the gaze of others, even if its owner is completely hidden from the senses of the sensor, otherwise you can lose your head in an unexpected attack, and the constant pursuit of obsessive admirers allows you to hone this skill to razor sharpness, so the appearance of new observers almost immediately attracted my attention.
Among other things, it was different from the curiosity of my fan club, which is eager to get photos of my face without a mask and glasses, and just curious about the daily life of their idol. And it is simply impossible to confuse their gazes with professional-cold interest. Considering the fact that the existing pair of observers demonstrated quite outstanding abilities to conceal their presence and surveillance, there were only two possible candidates - Anbu and Root.
After all, it would be sheer moronic to assume that said organizations would allow spies to spy on clan shinobi in their territory or fail to detect them at all. So some of the older guys got tired of waiting, which is what led to the observers showing up. Either Danzo dislikes my proximity to the jinchuriki too much, or Hiruzen is too pissed off about recent events.
Because of those freaks, I even had to cut short my visits to Linley and Mito to avoid giving them too much thought. So I should give them a great chance to get rid of me, and the sooner the better.
At work, the excitement of the post-war days had gradually subsided, and sometimes there were even some free hours, so why wouldn't one bored Iryo-nin take a simple courier mission to, say, Hot Springs Country and have a little fun?
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