"La la la~ La la la~ I'm home!"
Hearing the cheerful tune from the entryway, Tsunade, who was lazily sprawled across the sofa, reluctantly raised half her head.
"Shizune, when are you making dinner?"
"I'll get right to it."
Shizune was a little helpless. Lord Tsunade had promised her uncle that she would take care of Shizune, so why did it feel like their roles had been reversed?
Still, Shizune did not dislike this change. To her, it made the place feel more like home.
Tsunade slowly slid off the sofa like a slug. Then, something she caught from the corner of her eye instantly perked her up, and she asked excitedly:
"Shizune, did you get into a fight with someone at school?"
In Tsunade's eyes, Shizune was good in every way except that she was too soft-hearted, which would make her easy to take advantage of in the future.
Back when she was at the Ninja Academy, she had fought her way through it. How could a disciple of Princess Tsunade not know how to fight?
Shizune patted the dusty, dirt-stained sleeves of her clothes and nodded with a little too much excitement. "Mm-hmm!"
For such a well-behaved girl, today's experience of a group fight was like suddenly opening the door to a whole new world.
"I told you before, beating people up feels great, right?" Tsunade eagerly passed down her old bully wisdom to Shizune. "Of course, beating people up for no reason is bad too. Ideally, there should be one or two punchable bastards in your class, like Jiraiya!"
Shizune waved her little fist in displeasure. "That's not it! This was a just war against the oppression of evil forces!"
Tsunade looked utterly baffled. Where had she learned such strange new phrasing?
Seeing Tsunade's confusion, Shizune took the initiative to explain. "Those bad Third Years were bullying one of our classmates, so Soseki-kun led us to go settle the score with them!"
"Our whole class went together, and we scared those Third Years so badly they barely dared say a word! And then, after we beat them up, Soseki-kun had me treat those bad guys with him, and then we beat them up again!" Shizune grew more excited as she spoke, until her cheeks were flushed red.
That kid actually had that kind of nerve... A trace of surprise flashed through Tsunade's eyes. When she heard that he had treated those people, she had thought Soseki wanted to reconcile with them.
But unexpectedly, he had only done it so they could beat them up again!
"Still, it really was satisfying!" Tsunade nodded inwardly.
If what she had seen in him last time was Jiraiya's kind of "universal love," then this time, what she saw in Soseki was the same toughness she possessed!
At that thought, Tsunade suddenly realized another issue. "Wait, you said the whole class?"
Shizune tilted her head. "Is there a problem?"
Tsunade asked curiously, "Didn't you have any concerns about something like a group brawl? And from what you said before, the people you dealt with this time didn't seem like good people. Weren't you afraid they'd retaliate afterward?"
"Oh, right!" Shizune first nodded foolishly, as if suddenly enlightened. "We just heard Soseki-kun say it and followed him without thinking about anything."
But she quickly waved her hand with complete confidence. "But there's no need to worry! We stood up for that classmate this time, so if we get bullied next time, the other classmates will definitely stand up for us too! Besides, those bad Third Years are terrified of the Class Leader now. With Soseki-kun around, they won't dare provoke us at all!"
"With just a few words, he could make people follow him with everything they had. That kind of trust is truly enviable..." Tsunade sighed inwardly. "If not for my hemophobia... I probably would have gladly taken a disciple like that!"
Within the Uchiha Clan compound stood a grand residence with the distinct style of the Warring States period.
The middle-aged ninja sitting quietly in the central courtyard suddenly opened his eyes and asked calmly, "Where are you going?"
Shūnen, who had been tiptoeing through the courtyard, stiffened. Lowering his head, he turned around. "Father."
"Don't you intend to explain the injuries on your body?"
Shūnen curled his lips. "Someone already told you, didn't they?"
The middle-aged ninja demanded stiffly, "I want to hear it from you!"
Shūnen helplessly sat down on his knees, then immediately cried out in pain. "Ow!"
"What's wrong with you now?"
"My butt was beaten so badly I can't sit down."
Seeing Shūnen continuously squirm before ultimately ending up with his upper body bent forward and his rear sticking high in the air, the middle-aged ninja nearly fainted on the spot.
Taking a deep breath, the middle-aged ninja calmed himself down. "Can you speak now?"
With his butt still raised, Shūnen said, "Simply put, I got beaten up for the glory of the Uchiha Clan!"
The middle-aged ninja sneered coldly. "Should I praise you for that, then?"
Shūnen muttered quietly, "I think you could."
"Nonsense!" The middle-aged ninja slammed his palm against the table. "I only stopped keeping an eye on you for a while, and you started hanging around with that trash? Do you know those little punks are only using the Uchiha name? As for you, they never regarded you as one of their own!"
"I know."
"You know, and you still... Hm? You said you know?"
"I'm not actually an idiot. I can still tell whether people are treating me well or badly."
The middle-aged ninja suppressed his anger. "Then why are you still hanging around with them?"
Shūnen did not answer directly, instead bringing up something else. "Ever since I was little, aside from the companions in the clan compound, no one my age was ever willing to play with me."
"Something like that happened? How did I not know?"
"Of course you didn't know. You spent all day with the clan head and the others, and you never had time to care about me!" (Author's note: His father found out so quickly this time because the commotion was too big.)
The middle-aged ninja furrowed his brows but said nothing.
"I tried. I tried to become friends with people outside, but it always failed... Actually, none of that mattered. What I couldn't stand was them slandering the Uchiha Clan behind our backs—slandering the glory of the Uchiha Clan that you all regarded as your lives!"
"From that time on, I understood. Rather than making others like us, it would be better to make them fear us!"
A flicker of emotion passed through the middle-aged ninja's eyes, but he quickly hardened his expression and rebuked him. "Foolish! People cannot exist apart from a group. Not even our ancestor Uchiha Madara could do that, so what gives you the right to say such grandiose things?"
"That's still better than you all doing nothing! Such weakness doesn't deserve to be called Uchiha glory at all!"
"Get out!"
"Hmph! I can leave on my own!" Shūnen stood, supported his raised rear, and limped out.
After Shūnen left, the restored silence of the central courtyard was broken only by a barely audible murmur. "Were we truly wrong? We had clearly taken the initiative to restrain the clansmen. We had clearly shown goodwill toward the Hokage's faction. Why had the situation not changed in the slightest? Was our clan truly burdened by a curse, or was... someone secretly pushing things from behind the scenes?"
Thank you to Jiang Zui for the 10,000 donation, Infinite AFK for 7,500, Reading Casually and Donating Casually for 1,000, Sebtao for 500, Raw Fish Worries, Dead Fish Rests Easy for 300, Heavenboy Suhang for 200, and Shanjiao for 100. Thank you all very much for your support, but this author has clumsy hands and a busy job, so it is hard to provide extra chapters. I truly feel unworthy of everyone's kindness, so please try not to donate in the future. This author feels ashamed to accept it ω) If you really want to support this author, just donate one yuan as a token gesture (.).
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