"Tap... tap... tap..."
Slowly closing the concealed wooden panel above his head, Chiba followed the light of the candle in his hand, climbing the underground stairs step by step. As he ascended, Yukina's voice upstairs teaching Itachi hand seals gradually faded away.
By then, they had already had lunch. Before leaving, Kushina had prepared the meal. After heating it up, he ate with Yukina and Itachi.
Originally, Itachi had brought a bento, but when Chiba saw that it contained too many vegetables and too little meat, he immediately declared that his meals needed improving from now on. In the manner of a master's order, he forcibly decided that Itachi would be eating lunch here from then on, with plenty of meat and fish.
However, Itachi was clearly very different from both him and Hirohiko.
Namely, Itachi's appetite was truly small.
Really small.
After eating a small bowl of rice and a few pieces of meat, he could not eat any more. This worried Chiba somewhat.
Still, considering that Itachi was only three years old, Chiba felt that appetite was something that could be trained. There was no need to rush; they could nurture it gradually in the future.
And after lunch—right now, in fact—while Yukina and Itachi continued their earlier hand seal practice, Chiba slipped into the kitchen while Itachi was not paying attention, then came downstairs.
Chiba was not worried at all about Yukina teaching Itachi hand seals. Although Yukina was from the Hyuga Clan and, due to her Byakugan, had always rejected ninjutsu, perhaps because she had been competing with him and Hirohiko, she had practiced hand seals to an exceptional level.
In terms of hand seal speed, even Hirohiko was somewhat inferior to Yukina.
Besides, Yukina would be bored staying up there all the time. Hand seals