"Izumo, how was your vacation?"
"Hard to put into words. What about you, Kotetsu?"
"I'm still locked in a battle of wits with my vicious cousin."
"How vicious?"
"He actually ignored the peace agreement we signed before and started using that poisonous scheme again. Mom and Dad have lectured me several times already."
"That really is vicious!"
"But I'm not that easy to bully. I pretended to accidentally knock over his favorite Third Hokage figurine and broke one of its legs and one of its arms."
"Just what I'd expect from you!" Kotetsu Hagane gave Izumo Kamizuki a thumbs-up, thinking, You're the more vicious one here.
"What about you, Izumo? Why is it hard to put into words?" Kotetsu Hagane asked.
"Wasn't there that girl next door I liked? I'd planned to get a good score on the final exam, then approach her again as a strong person."
"And? Did it work?"
"No. I spent several days working up the courage, then summer special training began. I trained every day and completely forgot about it. By the time I remembered, I found her playing with another boy."
"It's okay. Maybe he's her relative." Hearing that, Kotetsu Hagane finally relaxed and tried to comfort him.
He can't be a relative! Please don't let him be a relative! Kotetsu Hagane thought.
"Didn't you two go out and have fun? I found a newly opened dango shop recently, and it's pretty good," Anko cut in.
Neither of them was interested in the dango shop Anko mentioned—unless Anko had a cute good sister who would go along.
"Oh, right. I looked at the schedule earlier. Today seems to be taijutsu class," Kotetsu Hagane suddenly remembered.
"I wonder who the new Taijutsu Teacher will be."
Mu Yue had told them during summer special training that