After Shisui spoke, Katsumi Kei nodded and replied simply, not wasting words, "Yes."
After that, Katsumi Kei began searching through the crows with his eyes.
After the talent of sense of smell evolved into Wind Sense, Katsumi Kei developed the ability to "smell" chakra.
Since Shisui let him choose, he obviously wanted to choose a crow with a higher amount of chakra.
After a few moments, Katsumi Kei identified the crow with the most chakra.
Katsumi Kei looked at Shisui, pointed at the crow, and said, "Senior Shisui, I would like that crow."
Seeing the crow that Katsumi Kei pointed at, Shisui praised him, "You have a keen eye. That crow is the strongest and the smartest of the group."
Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy, so to a certain extent, higher chakra translates to a stronger body and a stronger mind.
Put simply, higher chakra means someone is stronger and smarter.
If this is not the case, such as Naruto Uzumaki in the later stages, or Senju Hashirama's ridiculous antics, then generally, their chakra count is due to a special bloodline or characteristic, i.e Sage Body.
After speaking, Shisui drew a whistle from his tool bag and blew on it.
As soon as the whistle sounded, the crow that Katsumi Kei had selected flew over to Shisui, perched on Shisui's shoulder, and observed Katsumi Kei quietly.
Then, it opened its mouth and made a short sound.
"Kaw!"
Actually, with its intelligence, it has a basic understanding that it is part of a transaction between Shisui and Katsumi Kei.
It knows that Shisui gave itself to Katsumi Kei.
Although it doesn't like this transaction, it hasn't reached the point of disobeying because of it.
As long as the "new owner" is good, it can accept it.
As for how it will judge Katsumi Kei? No matter how smart it is, it is still a crow. It planned to judge Katsumi Kei based on how well he was able to care for its needs in the future.
While the crow was having its own thoughts, Katsumi Kei was also observing the crow.
He asked, "Senior Shisui, does this one have a name?"
Hearing the question, Shisui forced himself to stifle a chuckle. "Junior Katsumi Kei, look around us. I have nearly a thousand crows. With so many of them, how could I possibly name them one by one?"
Watching Shisui struggle not to laugh, Katsumi Kei's expression didn't change much.
Because he was not asking for himself, but to line up his next statement, directed towards the crow.
"Since you don't currently have a name, I will give you one.
Crows are traditionally messengers in the night, a dark shadow in the night sky, so you will be called Shadow from now on."
"Kaw!" Hearing Katsumi Kei's 'thoughtful' naming, the crow seemed to be in a very good mood, as if he was very satisfied with his new name.
"It seems that you are satisfied with the same, so we will stick with it.
Anyway, onto more important business.
Shadow, I have the ability to evolve my summoning beasts.
As long as you are willing to become my summon, and give me your loyalty and strength, I will use this ability to make you stronger and help you evolve into a more perfect existence.
What do you think?"
After speaking, Katsumi Kei stretched out his palm, motioning for shadow to fly to him.
Shadow seemed very excited, and for a moment, looked into Katsumi Kei's eyes, as if discerning the truth of the latter's statement.
But the most surprised was Shisui.
'So Katsumi Kei has such a unique ability, how cool!
However, such an insane technique must have some sort of limitation.'
Thinking of this, Shisui's eyes swept towards Hayate, standing next to Katsumi Kei.
'Has this ninja dog also evolved? He seems to be pretty strong.'
Unaware of Shisui's thoughts, Katsumi Kei continued watching Shadow.
During this "conversation", Katsumi Kei was very upfront about his abilities.
To be honest, this world already has so many crazy abilities.
Secret techniques that revive dead souls, manipulate space, summon the Shinigami, and trap opponents in entirely imaginary worlds.
As long as they can't understand the concept of a 'system', the people of this world will just assume that it is some unseen or unheard of Kekkei Genkai, and they won't have any excessively strange thoughts about Katsumi Kei's abilities.
Additionally, this revelation was planned by Katsumi Kei.
These evolutions require materials from around the ninja world.
It is impossible to hide his transactions from those who are curious.
Additionally, in this ninja world full of strange abilities, there are also ninjas who have extremely powerful intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities.
With those people around him, Katsumi Kei recognized that he won't be able to hide his ability for long.
So Katsumi Kei decided not to hide it at all.
While these thoughts were going through Shisui and Katsumi Kei's minds, Shadow finally made a decision.
"Kaw!"
With a cry, Shadow flapped his wings and landed on Katsumi Kei's outstretched palm.
Although Shadow is larger than Katsumi Kei's four year old palm, Katsumi Kei's strength is at Chunin. No matter how heavy a crow is, its no problem to support its weight on his palm. In fact, with his current strength, a cow would barely be a challenge.
Seeing Shadow make its decision, Katsumi Kei smiled.
"Shadow, please assist me well in our future endeavors."
As he spoke, Katsumi Kei took out a summoning scroll that he had prepared not long ago from his back and unrolled it using his unoccupied hand.
After spreading the scroll, Katsumi Kei bit his fingertip and after pressing the blood mixed with chakra onto the scroll, he placed the scroll in front of Shadow.
Immediately, Shadow opened its mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the summoning scroll, inputting its chakra at the same time.
There was a small reaction as the chakra lit up slightly on the summoning scroll, and just like with Hayate previously, Katsumi Kei suddenly felt a vague connection between Shadow and himself.
The next moment, Katsumi Kei heard a familiar mechanical voice in his head.
[Ding!]
[Host has obtained a Summoning Beast: Ninja Dog Hayate]
[Opening the Summoning Beast Attribute Page]
[Opening...]
[Summoning Beast: Shadow]
[Race: Crow]
[Talent: Stealth, Concealment]
[Evolvable]
[Evolution Requirement: Crow Feather (100 units)]
[Ding!]
[Strength and Talent Shared]
In sync with the final prompt of the system page, the strength and talent of Shadow was shared with Katsumi Kei.
Although the physical strength of a crow is negligible, the amount of chakra shared was more significant.
There were also two talents shared, Stealth and Concealment.
While they are very similar talents, there are still distinctions.
Shadow's Stealth talent is the talent for moving silently, making it less likely to be noticed through the five senses.
The Concealment talent is the talent for hiding one's chakra fluctuations, making it less likely to be noticed by sensor ninjas who rely on chakra sensing to identify enemies.
Katsumi Kei thought that the Concealment talent could be useful for sneak attacks during battles.
These two talents could also be used in every day life to reduce his presence and avoid some unnecessary troubles.
Of course, these thoughts were secondary.
What attracted the majority of Katsumi Kei's attention was the column that displayed the evolution materials needed for Shadow's first evolution: one hundred crow feathers.
Looking at the ground of the forest, there were countless crow feathers strewn about.
(End of Chapter)
........
Hey Y'all. Happy New Years!
I wish all of you a very happy year in 2025.
From this point forward, I will be trying to publish 2 chapters a day, sometimes there might be a third depending on my schedule, but it should average out to about 10 chapters a week.
I hope that so far, y'all are enjoying this fic as much as I did when I first read it.
If not, please let me know what I can do better moving forward.
This is my first attempt at translation, so there might be a few rookie mistakes, so bear with me a bit.