My Techniques are a bit off

A few days later, in the Main World, Konoha Village's Forest of Death.

"Huff… huff…"

A pink-furred, humanoid rabbit stood upright, baring its teeth and emitting a snarl-like sound from its mouth. When it opened its jaws, rows of sharp teeth were revealed—nothing like a typical rabbit's. Two long ears drooped down its back.

Thank goodness, at least it doesn't look like any weird "furry" design—just a big rabbit.

Standing on a tree branch, Link felt a hint of relief. Even if they ended up killing this creature, there seemed to be no ethical reason to hesitate. Given that it looked nothing like a normal rabbit—more like a savage beast—one wouldn't associate it with a person. Just as Link was thinking this:

"Boom!"

The pink rabbit opened its mouth, launching a massive fireball. The fireball whooshed through the air and struck the trunk of a tree, instantly exploding into bursting flames. Fragmented embers scorched the upper half of the tree to cinders.

Right after spitting the fireball, it dropped to all fours and fled without hesitation. Taking advantage of the smoke and countless embers, its speed was frighteningly quick, vanishing beyond view in a blink.

So perceptive and smart, huh.

Link quietly hopped to another branch in pursuit. Shadow clones trailed the pink rabbit from behind, making it impossible for it to truly escape. Yet the rabbit seemed able to sense the shadows' presence, darting left and right, refusing to stop at all.

Suddenly, it dove into an underground rabbit hole.

Even though it's become the apex predator in this Forest of Death, it's still extremely wary.

That intelligence is definitely high.

In just a moment, Link's clone reappeared with intel: The rabbit was continuing to flee deeper underground. Unhurriedly, Link followed. After all, his shadows could dig down as well, ensuring the rabbit had no real chance to escape.

Shortly later, the pink rabbit again sprang out at a new location.

"Huff… huff…"

Two towering brown bears, both standing upright at over two meters in height, roared at the approaching shadows.

They can sense the shadows in this shadow-laden forest?

Link was quite intrigued by their heightened senses. Usually, only specialized ninja beasts or Summons would be able to detect subtle presence, yet these mutated beasts were doing it too.

The pair of brown bears glared at the powerful human, evidently feeling threatened. They lowered themselves, shielding a small cub behind them. Even though their instincts told them to run, they stayed to protect the young—apparently their intelligence and maternal instincts had grown significantly thanks to the Original-Body cell infusion.

"Boom! Crash!"

A bulge abruptly appeared in the ground, then burst open. The large tree overhead tilted and collapsed, snapping branches and revealing thick, twisted roots. From within the torn earth, two shadows emerged, holding the unconscious pink rabbit. They leapt onto a nearby treetop.

Such a high intelligence… and it still got caught anyway.

The moment the pink rabbit had tried to hide behind the two bears, the shadows took advantage of the opening, subduing it and knocking it out.

Link took a final glance at the two towering brown bears who remained behind, then vanished from that spot with the subdued rabbit.

…

In the Second Parallel World, within the Shinobi Alliance building, at the Executive Committee Office…

"How do you plan to handle these mutated experimental creatures?"

Link asked idly, toying with an ornament on the desk.

"You must be really bored lately," Tobirama replied, setting aside his paperwork. "I read your messages about capturing that pink rabbit."

Link sighed. Yesterday, after bringing the pink rabbit back, Shizune had scolded him for messing with test subjects from a restricted enclosure. Although the rabbit's intelligence was alarming—it had apparently concealed itself from monitors—Link had forcibly captured it.

If you look from the rabbit's perspective, it's basically the protagonist of a story: awakened from ignorance, striving to survive under the watchful terror of upright apes…

Still, the rabbit ended up unconscious and sent to a lab for thorough examinations, revealing it to be more intelligent than anticipated. Because of that, it received an official classification in the Original-Body cell experiments.

"I watched over your previously submitted 'Naruto Chronology' file," said Tobirama, closing a folder. He was ready for a real talk with the restless kid in front of him. "I never realized until now: the moment you don't have a big goal, you're so… idle."

"Indeed," Link replied. Since he'd decided to stop using Delicate Illness Extraction Technique and realized the world was effectively at peace, he'd truly relaxed, acting carefree.

"Weren't you going to go to all those parallel worlds like ours, dealing with threats of Kaguya, etc.?" Tobirama asked.

"No rush," Link said, flipping the desk ornament around. "I've worked so long for peace—let me rest a bit."

He had visited many parallel worlds. All that remained were worlds set earlier than Shippuden, nowhere close to the Fourth War. That gave him plenty of time to roam.

"About that pink rabbit—and the other mutated ones—how do you plan to handle them?" Link circled back to the topic at hand.

"Let's do this," Tobirama glanced at the time. "Give me an hour, and we'll talk it over properly."

He needed time to shuffle his duties aside.

~~~

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