Pushing open the enormous door, Uchiha Yoru immediately saw the white cat sprawled across the tatami.
It was a massive feline, even larger than those big northern golden tabbies, its entire body covered in snow-white fur. Only the insides of its ears were different, lined with long, dark blue ear tufts.
Yoru's footsteps were soft and soundless, but the act of opening the door was enough to alert Mao You.
Then instinct kicked in.
He sensed the terrifying power of the newcomer at once.
Mao You had never met Uchiha Yoru before. He couldn't understand how someone could enter his room without making a sound, much less carry such a dreadful presence.
As the strongest combat force in the Cat Castle, Mao You had spent years clashing with other ninja clans in order to protect the interests of the ninja cats. His guard had long since been sharpened to the extreme.
His first thought was simple.
An enemy had infiltrated the Cat Castle.
And most likely—
They had come to assassinate him.
The giant white cat opened his eyes and glared furiously. But his entire body was paralyzed. Other than baring his teeth in threat and lashing his tail in protest, there was nothing he could do.
Just as despair started to rise in Mao You's heart, he spotted Miwa Masayo perched on Yoru's shoulder.
Only then did he guess who the newcomer was, and finally relax.
Relaxing, yet still putting on airs, the big white cat asked, "So you're Lady Miwa Masayo's contractor, Uchiha Yoru of the Uchiha Clan, huh? What business do you have with me, meow?"
Yoru smiled. "I'm Uchiha Yoru. First time meeting you, Mao You."
He greeted the white cat politely—
But his feet never stopped moving.
He kept walking closer.
Closer and closer…
Until Mao You tensed up all over again and shouted, "Meow! What are you doing coming this close?!"
"Stop right there! You're not allowed to come any closer, meow!"
"You're not allowed to touch me!"
"Who said you could touch my ears?!"
"Meow! Wuwuwuwuwuwuwu!"
(Don't pull my tongue!)
"Don't touch my paws, meow! My belly too—absolutely not, meow!"
Miwa Masayo let out a sigh. "Yoru, can't you at least explain that I brought you here to treat him?"
"Sorry, I forgot." Yoru's tone was perfectly sincere. "It's my first time seeing such a huge cat in person. And the fur's so soft… petting a giant cat really does feel amazing."
"Let go of me, meow! Lady Miwa Masayo, aren't you going to stop him, meow?!"
"Mao You, you idiot, meow. He bullies even me. How am I supposed to stop him?"
"Meow hahaha—itchy, so itchy, hahahahaha, stop scratching already—itchy—!"
Yoru paid no attention to Mao You's protests.
While enjoying the sheer bliss of petting a giant fluffy cat, he also examined Mao You's physical condition. It didn't take him long to find the root of the paralysis.
It was more or less what he had expected.
Mao You was exceptionally gifted. Naturally, he had absorbed a tremendous amount of natural energy over time.
But there had been too much of it.
When he followed the natural energy absorption method Miwa Masayo had taught him, what he stirred wasn't only the energy in nature—it also affected the stockpile that had accumulated inside his body over several decades.
That stored natural energy had been adapting to Mao You for decades. The connection between them had already become extremely close, practically inseparable. So once the absorption method began circulating, that stockpile followed the same route as well.
But Mao You was, at his core, still a ninja cat—
Not a true Sage Cat.
His meridians simply couldn't withstand such a massive volume of natural energy.
As a result, the energy heavily congested the region from his cervical vertebrae all the way to his tailbone, blocking neural transmission and causing total paralysis.
Fortunately, Mao You's body had already adapted to that natural energy over many years. That was why he hadn't undergone grotesque bodily mutation like the other ninja cats.
Otherwise, his life would already be over.
After all, with Miwa Masayo's small frame and limited ability, there was no way she could disperse such an enormous quantity of natural energy.
By the time Yoru was done, Mao You had been touched from head to tail. Yoru had even lifted his tail and inspected his backside in full.
Feeling like all dignity as a cat had been thoroughly ruined, Mao You wailed miserably while unleashing an endless stream of curses.
Who would have thought that Mao You, who always put on the image of a boss, was actually such a chatterbox?
And he truly lived up to being a cat who had mixed around outside. The rustic slang spilling from his mouth came one after another. There were all kinds of insults that neither Yoru nor Miwa Masayo had ever heard before.
Combined with the deep grievance in Mao You's tone, it sounded practically like a one-cat stand-up performance.
The man and the cat listened with great interest.
Whenever he reached a particularly brilliant section, Yoru even clapped loudly and cheered him on.
Mao You was so furious smoke practically rose from all seven orifices, yet there was nothing he could do.
If he kept cursing, the other side treated him like some clown putting on a show.
But if he shut up and stopped cursing, he couldn't swallow that bitterness either.
It was a real dilemma.
Once Yoru saw that Mao You's attention had been completely diverted, he suddenly sprang onto the big cat's back like lightning.
His right hand seized the cervical vertebrae at the back of Mao You's neck.
His left leg shot backward, toes hooking against the tailbone.
Then—
Powerful natural energy erupted.
Using brute force alone, he forcibly shook the stagnant natural energy clogged within Mao You's spine.
"AOOOW—!"
The sudden vibration of natural energy stimulated the nerves without warning. Mao You's body, paralyzed for days, instantly arched straight.
The muscles around his spine received faulty signals, broke through the body's natural limits, and burst out with unprecedented force. Every vertebra ground and squeezed against the next, producing sharp creaking noises that made one's teeth ache just hearing them.
The sound was horribly similar to grinding teeth.
In an instant, Yoru was reminded of his university days in his previous life. The sound of his dormmate grinding his teeth had been a nightmare that lasted a full four years.
Of course…
His own earthshaking snoring had been the nightmare of the other eight brothers.
Well.
No point in the pot calling the kettle black.
After three rounds of shock, the natural energy within Mao You's spine finally began to move.
But long-term blockage was like opening a dammed lake—once the flow became uncontrolled, his meridians would be ruined.
The chakra of the ninja world wasn't some harmless martial arts qi.
Chakra possessed genuine, terrifying destructive force. Once it broke free of the restraints of the meridians, it would wreak massive damage.
Natural energy wasn't as directly destructive as chakra, but its mutagenic effects on the body were even more terrifying.
Turning into stone.
Wood.
A tree.
Rotting sludge.
The natural energy inside Mao You was primarily wind-aspected.
If it lost control, his body would probably turn into smoke.
Yoru wasn't making a blind guess.
He had already seen the change in the fur along Mao You's back. Under the influence of wind-aspected natural energy, the tips of the white hairs were slowly turning into thin drifting wisps of smoke.
He checked the white, scentless smoke briefly and found that it was made up of tiny, dry particles—
Even finer than the smoke people inhaled from cigarettes.
[Wind-aspected mutation involves cutting, pulverizing, and dehydration. This information is very important.]
But now wasn't the time to dwell on it.
Yoru stored that observation away in the back of his mind and focused on controlling Mao You's natural energy, preventing that immense power from breaking through its restraints and causing fatal damage.
Mao You was a powerful ninja cat, and naturally possessed a great deal of chakra.
Once he felt the pain, his body instinctively mobilized chakra to resist the damage.
And so—
Natural energy and chakra began to fuse within him.
Senjutsu chakra was born.
Mao You felt it immediately.
Felt the overwhelming power of senjutsu chakra.
And in his excitement, he started babbling nonsense.
"Ha, senjutsu chakra! This has to be senjutsu chakra! This great me is a Sage too, meow!"
"Thanks a lot, contractor of Lady Miwa Masayo! What was your name again?"
"I wasn't paying attention just now, so I didn't remember it, meow."
"Say your name one more time. This great me will definitely remember it properly this time, meow."
"From now on, this great me will cover you, meow!"
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