False Peace

Uchiha Kyōmoto wanted to say something more, but in the end, he swallowed his words.

There was no helping it. Just as he had said, the weak submitted to the strong. Uchiha Chiri was the clan's genius.

She had awakened the Sharingan at the age of five and was held in high expectations by the clan!

In contrast, he was already six and had yet to awaken his eyes, so his status was undoubtedly lower.

"Let today's farce end here. On Kyo's behalf, I apologize to everyone! I hope you won't take this matter to heart. The Uchiha Clan is absolutely not what you think it is!"

Uchiha Chiri's words settled the disturbance and allowed the civilian children to regain a little of their dignity.

Their impression of the Uchiha had improved slightly, but some people still refused to buy it.

They now thoroughly believed their parents' warnings not to associate with the Uchiha Clan.

Maruboshi Kosuke was also released by his two friends at this time. He walked over to Torikaze and thanked him.

Then, after giving Uchiha Chiri an irritated glance, he returned to his seat.

In his view, Torikaze had been the one to speak first and put the Uchiha Clan on the spot.

Uchiha Chiri had only stepped in to stop it because of the clan's reputation. He now had absolutely no favorable impression of the Uchiha Clan.

Uchiha Chiri smiled bitterly. "Kosuke seems to dislike me."

Torikaze curled his lips. "It can't be helped. Uchiha Kyo's actions provoked everyone's anger, so it's only natural for him to form a negative impression first."

Uchiha Chiri understood that reasoning as well.

She had come to the Ninja Academy precisely because she wanted to ease the village's prejudice against the Uchiha Clan.

But now, it seemed Uchiha Kyo had ruined it all.

As a genius of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Chiri was not arrogant and never judged people through colored glasses.

She had always believed that the clan's ninja should not hold themselves so high above others.

It was obvious that, like Kagami Uchiha, she belonged to the relatively moderate faction within the Uchiha Clan.

It was also under Kagami's influence that Uchiha Chiri had chosen to attend the Ninja Academy.

Otherwise, a genius like her should have been trained within the clan.

"Changing the clan's views and people's views of the clan really is difficult."

Torikaze smiled. "It isn't."

"Why not?"

"As long as you're strong enough, won't everyone in your clan have to listen to you?"

"Just like the Shinobi World's seemingly peaceful state right now, it's nothing more than peace forced upon the great nations by Lord Hokage's strength."

Uchiha Chiri had not expected Torikaze to say such a thing.

But upon thinking it over, if she wanted those old fossils in the clan to accept her and her brother's ideals, she could not avoid the matter of strength.

After all, without strength, everything was empty talk.

"Then wouldn't that make me the same as Kyo? Using strength to oppress others." Chisato deliberately said.

"Of course not. He simply enjoys the thrill of suppressing and humiliating others to satisfy his own selfish desires."

"You want the clan and the villagers to stop treating each other as enemies, so the Uchiha can truly integrate into the village."

Chisato smiled. "Torikaze, you really are an interesting person. You don't seem to dislike the Uchiha."

Hearing Chisato say that, Torikaze revealed a gentle smile as well.

"We're all members of the village. The Uchiha are also Konoha's Uchiha. There's nothing to dislike."

From the moment Chisato first met Torikaze, though she could not explain why, she had felt that he was different from the other students.

When Maruboshi Kosuke had been mocked, Torikaze had stood up for him despite having known him for less than half a day.

He also held no prejudice toward the Uchiha Clan, whom everyone either feared or disliked.

As expected, Torikaze is a special person.

After a while, Sarutobi Mizuya returned.

Torikaze did not believe for a moment that he knew nothing about what had happened in the classroom.

Yet he did not mention the matter at all and simply began the next lesson.

"Alright, students. For the rest of the day, you will try refining Chakra on your own according to the knowledge we learned in the previous lesson."

Sarutobi Mizuya's words immediately made the students focus.

Uchiha Kyo's mockery during the break had left them feeling deeply powerless.

Now that they were finally going to begin refining Chakra, every one of them was full of motivation.

They were all five- or six-year-old children. They believed their talent was no worse than anyone else's, and they quickly began refining Chakra according to what they had learned in the previous lesson.

If they could not extract Chakra, they would not be able to proceed to the later lessons.

However, for those who had already extracted Chakra, it was incredibly boring.

They could not talk for fear of disturbing the other students, and they could not skip class on the first day either. They could only sit idly in the classroom.

Nearly three hours passed like that before someone finally extracted Chakra.

"Shinku, very well done. Extracting Chakra in three hours is excellent!"

Torikaze was not surprised by this result.

Soon after, Maruboshi Kosuke and Umino Ikkaku also extracted Chakra one after another.

Even children from some of the great clans might not have been able to achieve such speed.

Sarutobi Mizuya nodded to himself. It seems this class has quite a few geniuses. I should report it to Lord Hokage, along with what just happened.

As a member of the Uchiha Clan, although Uchiha Kyo had failed to awaken his eyes, he had successfully extracted Chakra long ago.

Watching these civilians he looked down on extract Chakra for the first time faster than he had, he felt indescribably resentful!

What he hated even more was that Uchiha Chiri, the clan's genius, had not spoken for him. Instead, she had taken the side of those civilians!

That white-haired bastard! I'll make you pay in Combat Training!

At that moment, he suddenly noticed that Torikaze also seemed to be seriously refining Chakra.

He quietly scoffed, "Tch! I thought you were someone important, but you're just a civilian."

This made him even more confident about next week's test. After all, he had already learned ninjutsu. His strength was definitely greater than that white-haired brat's!

If Torikaze had heard Uchiha Kyo's words, he surely would have rolled his eyes.

In truth, he simply did not want to waste time sitting around doing nothing, so he used the time to cultivate Cloud Release.

If he could successfully develop Kekkei Tōta, then the peaceful life he dreamed of would practically be secured.

Seeing Torikaze beside her, Chisato thought he was diligently cultivating, so she began cultivating as well.

As though it were contagious, all the students in the classroom who had extracted Chakra began cultivating too.

Of course, except for Uchiha Kyo.

The first day at the academy came to an end, and half of the civilian children had failed to extract Chakra.

This showed that their talent was not very good, and their future achievements would at most reach the level of Chunin.

Some in the classroom were happy while others were disappointed. Torikaze belonged to the former.

Although today's cultivation had also failed at the final stage, he had vaguely found the source of the problem!

If he tried a few more times, he might be able to develop Cloud Release.

After school, Maruboshi Kosuke and the others greeted Torikaze and asked whether he wanted to head home with them.

Torikaze agreed. After saying goodbye to Chisato, the four of them left the academy together.

Unfortunately, the four did not seem to be headed in the same direction. The Cloud Clan Grounds lay completely opposite from the other three's homes.

Thus, Torikaze could only head home by himself.