The next morning, at the Uchiha Clan Head's home.
The family of four quietly ate breakfast.
Still don't want to go to school. Should I find a chance to blow up the school? No, that might make people suspect me...
Then how about pretending it was struck by lightning? That's a natural disaster. No one could blame it on me... Shin ate breakfast while his mind worked overtime.
Aoko watched the unusually quiet Shin and knew he was definitely up to something.
After setting down her bowl and chopsticks, she smiled at her youngest son. "Shin, you're never this quiet during breakfast. Are you planning something bad again?"
"!!!" Shin inwardly cried out in amazement. She could tell he had an idea just from that?
As expected, Mother was Mother.
But he didn't think she could possibly see through his plan to create a man-made natural disaster and strike down the school.
After thinking at lightning speed, he chose to make his good friend take the blame. "Huh? I wasn't planning anything bad. I was just wondering whether Nao and I might get kidnapped on the way to school from the Hyuga Clan Grounds."
"You little brat, it'd already be good enough if you didn't kidnap someone else..." Chiken clearly didn't buy that explanation. "Stop changing the subject and tell us what you're planning."
Recently, whenever he sparred with his old man, the man had started taking things a little more seriously.
Shin regretted it deeply. If he'd known, he wouldn't have used so many schemes during their father-son sparring sessions.
Now even his usually "honest and dependable" old man could spot when something was off with him.
"Shin, just confess. Even I can tell you're deliberately hiding something now." Fugaku added fuel to the fire from the side.
"Brother Fugaku, you've changed. You were never this sharp before! Tell me, who are you? How dare you impersonate my most respected older brother!"
"..." X3
The three of them were rendered speechless by Shin's dramatic act.
"Ahem... Fine, I'll confess."
"Do tell."
Shin displayed his years of dialogue practice. "Look at this Ninja Academy, so long and wide, just like this bomb, so big and round, yo, yo, yo, yo..."
"So you want to blow up the Ninja Academy?" The three suddenly understood.
"No, no, no. I've already risen above such lowbrow interests."
Chiken's face darkened. "Then why are you singing that, you brat?!"
"Because it's fun~"
To avoid an early-morning father-son sparring session, Shin immediately put down his bowl and slipped away. "I'm off to school~"
This was the Uchiha family's usual morning routine.
Senju Clan Grounds, Nawaki's home.
"Big Sister, I'm off to school!"
"Go on, go on..."
Nawaki had long since gotten used to Tsunade's lazy replies.
He didn't mind and headed out alone.
"Is that... Nao?" As Nawaki arrived at the entrance to the clan grounds, he spotted a white figure in the distance.
But the next second, boundless fury surged through him when he saw a boy in a black trench coat walk over to her.
Even from so far away, he recognized the boy at a glance.
That bright red fan crest stood out like a firefly in the night.
"Have you been waiting long?"
"No, I just got here too."
Shin had come to the Hyuga Clan Grounds early in the morning, but he hadn't expected Nao to arrive before him.
He had originally thought he would have to wait quite a while.
"Then let's go..." Before Shin could finish saying "go," a shrill shout forcibly cut him off.
"Uchiha Shin, let go of that girl! If you've got a problem, take it out on me!"
Shin and Nao were both dumbfounded by that move.
They both turned toward the voice.
"I told you he's an idiot, didn't I? What does he mean, take it out on him?"
"Nao, do you know what I'm supposedly doing to you?" Shin quickly recovered and complained to Nao beside him.
"Hm? Does idiot mean fool? If so, then he really does look like one."
"Nao is so smart. Just as expected of my friend—you can actually keep up with my train of thought."
Watching Nawaki charge over in a fury, neither of them cared in the slightest. They even kept chatting and teasing each other.
Facing Nawaki, whose rage meter had practically exploded, Shin had no intention of backing down. "Hello there, little idiot from the Senju family."
"Uchiha Shin, I'm definitely going to defeat you today! I'll end this battle in an instant!"
Seeing Nawaki take a stance to fight, Nao immediately stepped forward and shielded Shin behind her.
Her delicate brows furrowed slightly as she said coldly, "No. We need to go to school now."
"Nao, move aside..."
Veins bulged on Nawaki's forehead. "Did this guy force you to be his friend? Don't worry. Once I defeat him, you'll be free again!"
"..." X2
Faced with Nawaki's self-satisfied behavior, both of them fell silent and looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Nawaki felt thoroughly irritated under the gaze of those two pairs of eyes, one black and one white.
He always felt that look carried some kind of indescribable malice.
"Uchiha Shin, if you're a man, don't hide behind a girl! That'll make me look down on you!"
Perhaps the provocation worked. Shin raised a hand, grabbed Nao by the shoulder, and stepped in front of her.
"Don't worry, Nao. This won't take long."
"But..." Nao was defeated by the confidence in Shin's eyes.
She could only silently retreat and yield the space to the two who were about to duel.
"I, Uchiha Shin, accept your challenge." After saying that, Shin's aura turned sharp.
"Come on." Nawaki decisively attacked first.
Unfortunately, his right fist, charged with Chakra he had gathered for several months, only grazed the air in front of his opponent.
Shin had long known that Nawaki's Chakra affinities were water and earth, so he decisively activated Elemental Chakra Mode with the wind attribute.
His right hand gathered into a blade, making the surrounding air seem to vibrate apart with a buzzing hum.
"My turn."
Shin dodged Nawaki's attack and chopped at him with his right palm. The humming from its violent friction with the air became even louder.
Slap!
At the critical moment, Nawaki hurriedly pulled back his right hand and blocked the strike.
"Oh?"
Shin naturally noticed that something was unusual about Nawaki's right hand.
Even the wind-attribute high-frequency vibrating blade that could slice through steel like butter had been stopped by it.
He quickly concluded that it was because of Tsunade's signature monstrous strength.
"I've gotten stronger, Uchiha Shin!"
Nawaki forcefully raised his defending right hand and knocked Shin's palm blade aside.
Without pausing, he closed in, driving his shoulder toward Shin.
"Interesting. I'll play with you for a bit..."
Shin instantly switched to the earth attribute, raised his left hand to press down on Nawaki's shoulder before it could strike his chest.
Then he pulled back his right hand and pressed it onto Nawaki's other shoulder.
A thin earth-attribute shell formed over the surface of Shin's right knee.
Though the knee was second only to teeth in hardness within the human body, it still hurt when struck.
His knee slammed into Nawaki's lower abdomen.
Nawaki immediately flew backward like a fired bullet.
Through Nao's Byakugan, she could see that before Shin even touched Nawaki, he had already compressed a small amount of wind-attribute Chakra that had yet to be converted into the earth attribute around his knee.
Only when it struck Nawaki's abdomen did he release the compression.
The wind-attribute Chakra, compressed into a single point, instantly turned into enormous thrust and sent Nawaki flying far away.
"That was a bit too powerful. This should have settled it, right? Hm? Interesting..."
Suddenly sensing that something was wrong, Shin kicked off the ground and leaped away, dodging an attack from beneath the earth.
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