The Power of Music

While DJ Shin led the raving, little ice-mountain student unconsciously bounced up and down on her tiny feet.

Why can't I control myself either?

Nao stared a little blankly at Shin, who was jumping up and down on the stage.

She did not know why her body was obeying his command.

Only when she looked over and saw Meitoku, who had just been calling Shin a troublemaker, bouncing right along with everyone else did she finally relax.

Letting loose once in a while did not seem so wrong, after all.

"Awesome! Big Brother Shin is awesome!"

Heiji the chubby kid was covered in sweat now.

His clothes had long since been discarded somewhere.

Even though his voice was hoarse from screaming, he kept right on shouting.

What was the Uchiha Clan Head doing right now?

He had long since brought Aoko backstage to get hyped up with Fugaku.

The atmosphere backstage was not the least bit inferior to the crowd out front.

One had to remember that the Uchiha clan were all incorrigible tsunderes.

Though their mouths said no, their hearts wanted it very much indeed.

As the drumbeat faded, the spectators finally stopped jumping.

The soothing music that followed allowed them to let out a collective sigh of relief.

If that relentless rhythm had kept up, they feared they would never have been able to stop bouncing either.

Watching the audience universally wipe away their sweat and rest, Shin only wanted to say one word to them: naive.

Could the reputation of DJ Shin possibly be undeserved?

The Third Hokage accepted a handkerchief handed to him by an Anbu operative and began wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Incredible. This man is a master..."

Having his horizons broadened, he inwardly sighed with emotion: I never expected that the music transmitted through these dozen black objects could possess such terrifying power...

It makes people instinctively follow the beat and party. After such a ruckus, my entire body feels a lot more relaxed...

Watching Shin tune the music on stage, the Third Hokage suddenly birthed an idea.

Yet very quickly, he suppressed it.

Better wait until he grows a bit older...

This was a notion buried deep within his heart as the current Hokage.

Would this thought of the Third Hokage be realized in the future?

Please stay tuned.

Within the Senju Clan's designated area.

Tsunade and Nawaki, the sister and brother duo, slumped motionless in their seats.

"Ah, even though I'm exhausted, why do I feel so full of fighting spirit?"

"Sis, I have no idea either. From where I'm standing, this guy's music is just so-so."

Watching Nawaki, who was slumped just as limply in his seat, Tsunade's eye twitched violently.

Her own dear younger brother had even learned to speak utter nonsense with his eyes open?

He was covered in injuries yet had been bouncing up and down the whole time.

Even the bandages on his hands had drifted off to goodness knows where.

With him in that state, he was still stubbornly claiming it was just so-so?

As if unwilling to let the audience rest for too long, the situation on stage shifted once more.

Shin caught the trumpet handed over by a staff member.

That was right, even the trumpet had been custom-forged by an old blacksmith from a factory whom he had paid a hefty sum.

To pull off today's opening ceremony for the Shopping Street, Shin had wrung his brains dry to bring about such a grand spectacle.

He believed that after today, the level of discussion surrounding the Uchiha clan in Konoha would inevitably rise another notch.

"Doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot-doot..."

The playful and brisk sound of the trumpet instantly invaded the ears of everyone present.

The audience was frightened into pale-faced panic by this familiar sense of rhythm.

They all knew that after the rest came a new round of madness.

"My friends, the moon doesn't sleep tonight and neither do I! Let's party to the max with the music!"

Shin's words acted like an order, causing the audience below to perk up and stand back up in preparation.

"Three! Two! One!"

"Jump!"

A drumbeat, far heavier than the previous one, assailed the audience from all four directions. The tsunami-like bass left them utterly powerless to resist.

Even people who moments before had been too tired to lift their arms bounced back into the air alongside the explosive music.

"Everyone in Konoha Village, let's get even crazier!"

After shouting, DJ Shin pressed the switch controlling the lighting.

In broad daylight, a variety of reciprocating colorful lights reflected in the pupils of the crowd below.

As if igniting the wildness within their bodies, they bounced with even greater effort.

Shin, standing at the console, was filled with a sense of accomplishment at that moment.

This feeling was far more intense than mastering some powerful ninjutsu.

He seemed to understand something and secretly set a goal deep in his heart.

Only peace can bring people carnival celebrations, and only a prosperous era allows people to forget their troubles from the depths of their hearts...

Therefore, in the wars of the future, Konoha must absolutely not suffer such heavy losses as the ones in my memories...

Shin knew that a few years down the line, Konoha would even dispatch ninja academy students who had yet to graduate straight to the battlefield.

One could only imagine just how tragic the battle conditions were at that time.

Although it ultimately ended with Konoha's victory, it caused a severe generational fault line among Konoha's ninja ranks.

The fault line caused by the Third Great Ninja War a dozen or so years later would be even more severe.

Otherwise, why else would Kakashi be the only one among so many genius ninjas capable of tying with anyone?

Why was Obito the only one in the entire Uchiha clan who could catch Madara's eye?

Was it not simply because they were lucky enough not to die on the battlefield!

Indeed, Konoha decades later saw each generation grow worse than the last.

Looking at Boruto's era, any stinky fish or rotten shrimp could lead a team as a teacher, and even the Kages of various villages were utterly pathetic.

If not for the Seventh Hokage and Uchiha Sasuke—those two cheating existences—the Ninja World would have been wiped out by the Ōtsutsuki aliens long ago.

Ahem... I've said a bit too much. Let's return backstage at the Shopping Street.

"My fellow Uchiha compatriots..."

Chiken Clan Head began his pep talk addressed to the clan elites before him: "Are you ready? Today is a big day for our clan, and we must give it our all!"

"The Uchiha are the strongest!!!" a chorus of Uchiha clansmen shouted in response.

"The time to display the Uchiha flair has arrived!"

Draped in a greatcoat, Chiken stood majestic and imposing before his clansmen, his heart overflowing with indescribable pride.

The Shopping Street, which had originally been treated merely as a cash cow within the clan, had its atmosphere instantly ignited right at the opening ceremony.

Now they could no longer just fool around casually like before.

As the Clan Head, Chiken finally understood what kind of power the specific force Shin had mentioned truly was.

The power to influence the emotions of others without relying on words was a strength the Uchiha clan had never witnessed before.

This was the power that came from music.

Seeing that the time was right, DJ Shin announced the final segment to the audience below: "Please welcome the Uchiha etiquette troupe!"

Hundreds of Uchiha clansmen, dressed in matching black windbreakers, arrived on stage and began forming hand seals in preparation.

"Get ready, bounce!"

Following Shin's command, the Uchiha clansmen on the stage matched the beat one after another, releasing Great Fireball Techniques into the air in succession.

Keeping time with the heavy bass, they rhythmically spat fireballs into the sky either in pairs or groups of three.

"!!!h"

Because of the continuous and intense burning of the endless great fireballs, the heat in the air began to diffuse outward.

Quite a few spectators at the scene stripped off their upper garments due to the rising temperature and continued bouncing.

Standing before the console, Shin looked at this scene and felt a lingering sense of wrongness in his heart: Konoha's First Multiplayer Sports Meeting?

Looking at the fervent atmosphere of the Shopping Street before his eyes right now, he silently decided in his heart to hold another one next year.

Shin wanted to make everyone in the Ninja World fall in love with listening to electronic music and raving.

He seemed to have found a brand-new source of fun.