'His "Nen" power is split into ten, evenly distributed among every Sean. What else could this be but that kid Naruto's signature move?'
'The brat really managed to pull off an A-rank ninjutsu. In that case—'
'Will the S-rank ninjutsu "Edo Tensei" be far behind?'
Ripples spread across the old man's calm heart. He sniffed the air and locked onto Sean's main body.
'As expected, a dog's nose isn't so easy to fool.' Sean rolled his eyes at Maha. "Shouldn't you be in the cornfield looking for your auntie? What are you staring at me for?"
He waved his hand, signaling Sean No. 2 through No. 10 to expand. "Yahoo!" With a thought, in an instant, nine ten-meter-tall giants lined up, right under Maha's nose. They streamed out, did a beautiful backflip, and began their daily "10,000 Practice Swings"—
By "walking on their hands" around Kukuroo Mountain!
Rumble... The giants charged, and the earth trembled. The old man suddenly felt something cool on his forehead. He reached up and touched it—a piece of the wall plaster had fallen off. He was instantly heartbroken and glared angrily at Sean. "Tell those brats of yours to slow down!"
'One of them was bad enough before, and now he's made nine more. This brat really wants to destroy this family!'
Sean shrugged, looking innocent. "What do No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 have to do with me, No. 1?"
"Besides," the boy winked at Maha, "Grandpa, don't tell me you're jealous?"
"It's true. I can get big, and I can do a tag team... Thinking about it, I'm already worried for my future girlfriend."
"Pah! You shameless thing! A girlfriend? Go find an elephant!"
"Only an elephant can satisfy you." Maha's old eyes were red. He flopped back into his rocking chair in frustration, picked up "That Day Auntie Called Me to the Cornfield", and covered his face with it.
He said in a muffled voice, "There's still half a month left until the test. Brat, you don't really think you can snatch the bell from Silva with just a few half-assed clones, do you?"
'Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu combined with Expansion Jutsu... it looks pretty impressive. But from the old man's tone, he seems to have seen through something.'
Sean raised an eyebrow. "What else? Does Grandpa have any brilliant insights?"
"Heh! No brilliant insights, but I do have a shallow one." The old man sneered and said lightly, "Big just means hollow. More just means even more hollow. Spreading your qi out, dreaming of suppressing the enemy with a group assault... a genius-level idea, and utterly foolish!"
Maha peeked out from behind the H-manga and looked at Sean sarcastically. "Pot Shadow Ninja was drawn by you. Why an A-rank ninjutsu was classified as a forbidden jutsu... as the author, you must know better than this old man."
"Sorry, I don't know." 'This old man is sharp as hell!'
'In one sentence, he hit the nail on the head regarding the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu's drawback: "More" means "hollow," and the "more" you have, the "hollower" they get. The more clones you split off, the more terrifying the consumption of "qi" becomes!'
'He, Sean, wasn't that guy Naruto, who had the Nine-Tails, a "natural chakra source," and could recklessly split off hundreds or thousands of clones.'
'Right now, being able to maintain ten clones and control them without them collapsing was already his current limit.'
'But what did that matter? The old man didn't really think he, Sean, would be stupid enough to use shadow clones to fight, did he?'
'Grinding stats! Breaking the limit as soon as possible! That was Sean's real goal!'
Pretending his sore spot had been hit, Sean's face darkened. He left Maha with a view of his back and pushed open the door to walk out.
'Heh, why is this brat so stubborn?' Maha's eye twitched. He sat up and yelled at Sean's back, "Give up the struggle! Lying flat and taking the beating isn't embarrassing."
"The more clones you split off, the greater the consumption. When the time comes, Silva won't even have to do anything. You'll collapse first, dead from qi and blood exhaustion."
"Wouldn't that be perfect?" Sean stopped, turned, and made a face at Maha. "If I die, the old man won't have to worry about someone digging up his grave."
Bang! The door slammed shut. The boy disappeared from Maha's sight without looking back.
The old man watched him go, sneered, and lay back down.
'"Fine... 'Don't listen to your elders, and you'll suffer right in front of them.' It's fitting for you to suffer a bit, brat. You'll learn your lesson then."'
Maha leisurely opened the H-manga. 'Heh... Auntie's "snow-whites" are so big and white. Much more pleasant to look at than a certain brat.'
In the afternoon, the "beasts of burden" had worked diligently all morning. The butler manor was in sight, getting closer.
Little Amane was napping, her head pillowed on Tsubone's lap. She suddenly shuddered and was "force-rebooted," pouting unhappily.
"Grandma, I'm sleepy... let me sleep a little longer." The floor was vibrating. Amane thought Tsubone had shaken her awake. She had just opened her bleary eyes...
And the first thing she saw was Tsubone, with a serious expression, flashing forward to push open the French doors.
Whoosh! The mountain wind rushed in. Little Amane shivered from the cold. Just as she was about to complain, she heard the "earth dragon" rolling. The vibrations made the soles of her feet numb. She lost her balance and tumbled to the floor.
"Ow! It hurts... hurts... hurts..." Amane burst into tears. She stumbled and rolled to Tsubone's feet, reaching out to grab her pants leg, asking to be held.
In the past, whenever she acted spoiled, Tsubone would immediately scoop her into her arms.
But today, Amane waited for a long time but didn't get Tsubone's embrace. She held back her tears, feeling wronged, and followed Tsubone's gaze. She had to see which big villain had stolen her grandmother.
But one look, and her small body froze in place.
"Eh? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eigh-eight Young Masters?"
"Wrong. There are nine." Gotoh pushed up the glasses on his nose. He had appeared next to Tsubone at some point and said softly, "Senpai, this child Amane really needs to brush up on her math."
"As long as she can kill, math isn't important." Tsubone didn't even look at Gotoh. Her eyes were fixed sharply on the crowd of Seans rushing toward them. She said in a cold voice, "Gotoh, you haven't been following the Young Master recently?"
"Nine clones... something this ridiculous has happened, and you knew nothing about it?"
"Don't make me remind you. Report things promptly. Otherwise, if the Master blames you, you won't be able to bear it."
'That's right, I can't bear it... but is this my problem? Shouldn't it be that the Young Master is just too monstrous?!'
Gotoh's mouth twitched fiercely. He took a breath and said, "When it involves the Young Master, you can't use common sense. If I said... this is the first time I've seen such a grand spectacle... would you believe me?"
Tsubone turned her head to glance at him. "It doesn't matter if I believe it."
"As long as the Master believes it."
"He's here!"