A Familiar Feeling

"First friend? Looks like he was just like me..."

Nao was genuinely happy to have found someone in the same situation as herself and become friends with him.

"Then, as your friend, can I ask you a question?" She blinked her cute little eyes and smiled at her first friend.

"Sure."

Having received permission, she immediately asked, "Why did you act like that on the first day of school?"

Shin did not find the question strange in the slightest.

With her sensory abilities, there was no way she had failed to notice that he had deliberately put on an act that day.

So, from the perspective of a friend, he told her the entire cause of the matter without holding anything back.

The more Nao listened, the more surprised she became.

This person had actually chosen to be expelled passively just for the sake of his reputation.

And it was all because of that scammer, the eldest young master of the Senju clan, as he called him.

"Tell me, wasn't that guy an idiot? Nothing good ever happens when I run into him!" Shin excitedly concluded that Nawaki was the root of the problem.

He even felt that he had only been tricked because he was unlucky enough to meet that person.

"Mm, he was." Nao listened patiently and gave her reply.

Although she did not know what "idiot" meant in this context, she did not find the playful irreverence in his tone unpleasant at all.

Perhaps it was because they had both acknowledged each other? Or maybe... ahem.

"So today, I came to cause trouble. I planned to burn down the school while no one was around after classes ended!" Shin proudly revealed his plan.

The contents of that plan made Nao's delicate little face go pale. "Y-you... You trust me that much not to tell anyone?"

"Maybe? Today, I figured out something very important to me..."

"Thank you, Nao. Without today's duel, I probably wouldn't have figured it out until much later." Shin bowed deeply to Nao, his face full of gratitude.

"Y-you... D-don't do that." The little iceberg seemed to melt, her cheeks flushing faintly as she stammered.

Shin did not pay much attention to her state.

He was wondering whether he should continue with today's plan.

Only when he raised his hand did he realize that he had still been holding her wrist after treating her.

Seeing Nao's bright red face, he thought his actions had offended her. "Ah, I'm really sorry. I'll let go right now."

"It's fine, you don't need to apologize. By the way, shall we continue?" Nao successfully changed the subject.

Since childhood, this was the first time someone had thanked her face-to-face.

"No. Your cells are showing some signs of excessive fatigue. If you want to spar or exchange pointers in the future, you can come find me anytime." Shin shook his head and explained.

He probably never would have guessed that the reason for her blushing was not because he had been holding her wrist, but because he had thanked her directly.

"Then... all right. If you ever need help with anything in the future, you must come find me." Nao's tone was much gentler than before.

"Of course. We're friends!" Shin replied with a smile.

"So what do we do now? The classroom has become like this. The Hokage principal won't come after us, right?" Nao was very worried that they would be punished by the school because of the duel.

After all, so many classmates had watched them. Whether they would report it was still uncertain.

"Don't worry. Hokage Uncle isn't petty enough to trouble children over one classroom."

As Shin calmly explained, he suddenly slapped his forehead. "And this classroom is already such a wreck. Why don't we do a good deed and burn it down?"

"Then they can rebuild it!"

"..." Nao was speechless.

Just how much did this person enjoy causing trouble to say something like that so casually?

And that tone really made people want to beat him up.

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as agreement. I happen to have a ninjutsu I want to try." Without waiting for her reply, Shin immediately turned around and faced away from her.

Having been "agreed to," Nao's little iceberg state immediately returned.

Narrowing her eyes, she stared intently at the Fan Crest on his back.

She seemed to be considering whether to knock him out and stop him from continuing to cause trouble.

Shin activated his Sharingan, and Chakra began to flow through the meridians in his body.

With his powerful computational ability and bodily control, several separate streams of Chakra throughout his body quickly gathered at his throat.

"Fire Release: Multiple Great Fireball Technique!"

Several miniature fireballs, as though shrunken down, shot from his mouth.

However, the scene Nao's Byakugan could see was far more than that.

"Gather!"

With a silent shout, the miniature Great Fireballs that had just appeared gathered together.

Only after seeing the fire-natured Chakra concentrate toward his mouth did Nao understand what kind of ninjutsu he was attempting.

"Scatter!"

Fire-natured Chakra made contact with the miniature Great Fireballs from all around the air.

With a roar, the miniature Great Fireballs seemed to be ignited by an explosion, forming more than a dozen normally sized Great Fireballs that scattered toward the classroom.

Shin nodded in satisfaction at the experimental results.

Turning to Nao, he asked, "So? How powerful is the Multiple Great Fireball Technique?"

Unable to stop him in time, Nao nodded blankly.

Her little iceberg state had been thoroughly melted away by the burning classroom before her eyes.

"Let's go. If we don't leave now, the fire will reach us!"

After waiting briefly, Shin suddenly grabbed Nao's soft little hand and swiftly ran toward the door.

"..."

With her little iceberg state gone, Nao did not resist at all.

Perhaps she believed this was normal behavior between friends and felt no aversion to it?

The students at the edge of the corridor were still discussing things heatedly.

They were all extremely curious about the outcome of the duel in the classroom.

Soon, they saw the two of them running out of the classroom hand in hand.

This caused all their brains to collectively crash.

"Damn it, can you really make friends one hundred percent of the time by dueling that guy?" Heiji had clearly misunderstood something and wailed internally for quite a while.

"Y-you two are?"

Mikoto had always kept a close eye on the Second Young Master, the most troublesome member of her clan.

Ever since she had reported him to the family that time, she had been assigned the task of keeping an eye on that troublemaker at school for her clan head.

"We're friends. Don't misunderstand the hand-holding or anything..." Shin naturally knew he had been misunderstood again.

But since his friend was a girl, he did not think much of it.

"Also, the classroom is on fire. Everyone, hurry outside."

With both his emotional and intellectual intelligence online, there was no way he would fail to explain things to his classmates.

Otherwise, the friend he had just made might end up going their separate ways with him like Hashirama and Madara, only to fight to the death in the end.

"!!!"

Upon hearing that the classroom was on fire, the students no longer cared whether the friendship between these two was real or fake.

What gossip could be more important than their lives?

They all hurriedly fled toward the outside of the school.

Outside the Ninja Academy.

Shin released Nao's little hand, then instructed the other students, "I set the fire. If anyone has a problem with it, come straight to me, Uchiha Shin!"

"I have something to do, so I'll be leaving first."

After saying that, his entire body turned into a flash of white lightning and vanished into the air.

This left all the students confused.

Why would someone voluntarily admit to setting a fire after doing it?

If anyone had a problem, they should come to him? It sounded as though he was deliberately asking people to come cause trouble for him.

Nao returned to her little iceberg state.

Yet her moonlike white eyes stared blankly at the place where he had disappeared.

A question arose in her heart. What kind of person was Uchiha Shin? Was his goal really just to leave school?

Filled with questions, she once again took the lead in leaving.

"What is the Second Young Master doing? Setting fire to the classroom? I need to hurry back and report this!" Mikoto bid her classmates farewell and left as well.

The chubby Heiji blankly watched as his classmates left one after another.

He felt that this scene was strangely familiar.

When Heiji turned around and looked behind him, he indeed found their homeroom teacher, Nishinodera.

At that moment, Nishinodera was carrying a brand-new desk in both hands as he quickly walked toward him.

"Heiji, you..."

"Teacher, the classroom is on fire!"

"Also, Uchiha Shin said that if anyone asks, tell them he set the fire. If there's any problem, they should come straight to him."

Before Nishinodera could finish asking, Heiji swiftly interrupted him.

Then he stepped forward a few paces and even gave him a brief, encouraging hug.

That familiar feeling became even stronger.