"...Those are your terrifying animal familiars?" Tsunade asked speechlessly, staring down at the two tiny furballs. Despite their incredibly cute, fluffy appearance, Shiro and Kuro were doing their absolute best to strike menacing, intimidating ninja poses.

"Yes." Suzuki nodded with absolute seriousness.

"Seriously... what were you thinking?! How could you choose two furballs as your combat familiars?!"

Despite her harsh, scolding tone, Tsunade immediately bent down and scooped both Shiro and Kuro into her arms, her heart practically melting at their sheer cuteness. She aggressively buried her face into their soft fur.

"What are you doing, nyaa?!"

"Even if you are Suzuki-sama’s respected teacher, we won’t allow this level of disrespect, nyaa!"

Shiro and Kuro squirmed and complained loudly as Tsunade squeezed them tightly, completely ignoring their protests.

The two of them were great, highly intelligent ninja beasts! They were the newly appointed commanders of a global espionage network! How could this smooth, hairless human woman treat them like plush toys?! Even if Tsunade was their master’s teacher, there were boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed!

"Please take good care of her," Suzuki said smoothly, turning on his heel. "I have some work to do for a bit."

"Suzuki-sama, wait!"

"SUZUKI-SAMA!"

As Kuro and Shiro screamed for salvation, they were completely surrounded. Tsunade, Shizune, and even Yugao closed in, eager to pet and cuddle his new familiars. Suzuki ignored their cries for help; he had more pressing matters to attend to.

He needed to modify the newly acquired Shibuki, and he planned to do it by using the abilities of the Synergist, the crafting job owned by his alternate self from Arifureta.

He might not be able to instantly use 100% of Arifureta Suzuki’s abilities, but with a solid blueprint, he could replicate a significant portion of them.

The Arifureta Suzuki had meticulously prepared exhaustive blueprints and technical manuals for every skill, job, and magical theory he had mastered, sharing all of them across the multiverse via the Manager.

However, the fundamental laws of physics and energy differed between universes. The ’magic’ system in Arifureta operated on completely different conceptual rules than ’chakra’ in the Naruto world. Theoretically, it should have been impossible for the 6th Suzuki to use those abilities.

But they had the Manager.

By utilizing the Manager’s god-like analytical processing power, Suzuki could cross-reference the theories. Decades of grueling magical research could be simulated in seconds. All he had to do was provide the prompt, and the Manager would flawlessly translate the Arifureta magic formulas into workable chakra algorithms that a shinobi could actually use.

Originally, the Arifureta Suzuki had just been a normal human from Earth, yet he had managed to harness fantasy magic. Considering that the Naruto Suzuki already possessed superhuman chakra, applying those converted theories was well within his grasp.

While it would take extensive time and chakra to fully replicate all the advanced combat magic, Suzuki had already successfully downloaded the foundational Synergist skills—Transmutation, Appraisal, and basic molecular restructuring. It was more than enough to completely tear down and rebuild Shibuki into a vastly superior weapon.

"Sensei, I’m going to rest in my room for a bit," Suzuki announced.

"Okay," Tsunade nodded distractedly, still nuzzling Shiro. "But leave your familiars with us. We need to... interrogate them to make sure they’re suited for you."

"....."

Suzuki blinked at Tsunade’s blatantly terrible excuse. He looked down at Shiro and Kuro, who were staring at him with desperate, moist eyes, silently begging for rescue.

"Go ahead. Interrogate them thoroughly," Suzuki deadpanned.

Leaving those cold words behind, he walked away.

"SUZUKI-SAMA! BETRAYER!"

The group of kunoichi was absolutely merciless. Faced with two incredibly soft furballs, they completely bowed to their desires, aggressively rubbing the cats’ bellies like silly idiots.

As he walked down the hall, Suzuki didn’t say a word, but he briefly locked eyes with Yugao. She maintained her usual graceful, cold, and polite Anbu expression, but as he gave her a subtle, knowing nod, her face instantly flushed a lewd, deep crimson.

If this had been before their trip, she would have quickly regained her composure. But after everything she had felt and experienced with him behind closed doors, her body betrayed her. She couldn’t hide her flustered reaction. He was simply too impressive in that specific area. Even as a highly trained Anbu, she had absolutely no mental defenses against that kind of overwhelming, intimate dominance.

(According to her seniors—specifically a certain white-haired, masked Jonin—it was actually quite common for elite shinobi to completely lose their composure over adult material. Yugao was simply experiencing it firsthand.)

When Suzuki finally returned to his private room, he unsealed Shibuki from his storage scroll and laid it heavily onto the floor.

"It really just looks like a giant, stupid rolling pin."

The weapon’s design was absurdly inefficient. But now that he had access to his cross-universal skills, he could fix it.

What about the abilities of his Solo Leveling self?

Kim Min-Jun had successfully unlocked the ’System’, and because all the Suzukis were linked via the Manager, the system’s interface had technically been shared with the Naruto Suzuki as well.

However, there was a massive caveat. To ’level up’ and gain stat points, he had to kill enemies and absorb their lifeforce. While Kim Min-Jun could freely slaughter endless hordes of monsters in dungeons, who was Suzuki supposed to kill in the Naruto world to grind levels? If he started massacring entire villages just to level up, he would instantly become a global S-Rank threat hunted by every nation.

Therefore, actively grinding the Solo Leveling system was inefficient right now. It was better to focus on hoarding knowledge, mastering chakra, and crafting overpowered weapons to ensure a relaxed, comfortable life.

"Alright, let’s get to work."

Suzuki placed his hands on the bandaged blade. He knew exactly why Shibuki had originally been forged in this clunky, cylindrical shape: it was the most mechanically simple way to rapidly unroll the explosive scroll housed inside.

But it was dragging, aerodynamically terrible, and completely useless for actual swordsmanship.

What kind of weapon would he turn it into?

He had spent hours running simulations in his head. A good weapon acted as a massive force multiplier for a shinobi’s base power. He needed something lethal, but he also couldn’t make it too flashy. He didn’t want to attract Danzo’s greedy attention any sooner than necessary.

Furthermore, if Kirigakure ever found out he had their sword and formally demanded it back from the Hokage, Suzuki knew he wouldn’t surrender it. If they pushed the issue, he would simply remind them that Kirigakure had once tried to steal a Byakugan from the Hyuga clan. Political leverage worked both ways.

Pushing the politics aside, Suzuki focused his chakra, activating the Synergist Transmutation skills. The air in the room grew dense and sweltering as his chakra violently broke down the molecular structure of the legendary blade, reshaping the rare metal to his exact, brutal specifications.

Hours passed. Sweat dripped down his chin, his breathing heavy from the immense, continuous chakra drain required to transmute divine-grade steel.

Finally, the glowing metal cooled.

"It’s done."

Suzuki wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked down at his new, heavily modified weapon. A sharp, satisfied smile crossed his face. It perfectly suited his developing swordsmanship and would work flawlessly with his devastating Fire Release.

Yet, before he could take it outside to test the explosive fruits of his labor—

Sniff.

"I smell terrible. Let’s take a bath first."