Drawing Attention

Ring, ring, ring...

The morning dismissal bell rang, and Gojo Yoru rose from his seat and left the classroom through the back door.

Having already received her books, Uzumaki Kushina was copying Gojo Yoru's notes when she saw this. She immediately got up and followed him.

Along the way, Uzumaki Kushina's little mouth never closed.

What had she seen?

Everywhere Gojo Yoru passed, whether boys or girls stood ahead, they all stopped and moved aside.

Some boys nearby even turned to face the wall, terrified that their eyes might meet Gojo Yoru's.

Even so, a few male students who encountered him in the hallway still could not escape disaster.

Simply because one boy took up too much space on a stretch of stairs Gojo Yoru was passing through, Gojo Yoru grabbed him by the hair and rubbed his face against the wall. The boy did not even dare let out a muffled groan.

Seeing this, the others hurriedly pressed themselves against the walls or crouched down with their knees hugged to their chests, lowering their presence as much as possible.

Only the girls did not receive Gojo Yoru's special treatment.

Watching Gojo Yoru deliberately pick fights, Uzumaki Kushina was dumbfounded.

She finally understood why everyone in the class was afraid of Gojo Yoru.

So this guy really was a delinquent!

"Why are you following me?"

After leaving the school building, Gojo Yoru suddenly stopped. Turning to look at Uzumaki Kushina, who had been secretly trailing behind him, he frowned slightly.

Startled by Gojo Yoru's gaze, Uzumaki Kushina instinctively looked away.

Then, as if she had thought of something, she suddenly gathered her courage and looked straight at Gojo Yoru. "Teacher Yuya told you to take care of me, so I wanted to follow you around and get to know the school."

Gojo Yoru stared at Uzumaki Kushina for several seconds, until she looked increasingly guilty and her eyes began darting away again. Only then did he slowly say, "If you're afraid of being bullied, just do what I do. Beat them into submission until they're afraid of you."

"I'm going to train. I don't have time to take care of you."

With that, Gojo Yoru headed toward the school gates.

Uzumaki Kushina blankly watched Gojo Yoru's back, and the confusion in her heart scattered like dark clouds.

So that was it!

No wonder she had felt something was off.

It was not that Gojo Yoru deliberately picked fights. Rather, if he did not do that, someone as unconventional as him would be bullied.

Instead of letting others bully him, he bullied them first and made everyone afraid of him!

Had he helped her because he saw his former self in her?

At that moment, goosebumps rose all over Uzumaki Kushina's body, and she felt the excitement of having found someone like herself.

So, Uzumaki Kushina caught up with Gojo Yoru again and continued following behind him.

Gojo Yoru acted as though he had not noticed Uzumaki Kushina behind him. After leaving the school, he came to an abandoned training ground in the forest and began practicing Body Flicker.

As the whooshing sounds of air being torn apart reached her ears, Uzumaki Kushina was once again left stunned.

Before her eyes, a black afterimage streaked about like a pencil scribbling wildly across the blueprint of the training ground, forming horizontal, slanting, and vertical strokes that crisscrossed everywhere.

This showed just how terrifying Gojo Yoru's speed was.

And this was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Five minutes later, after finishing his warm-up, Gojo Yoru appeared beside a Wood Golem in the clearing. He then rolled up his pant legs and untied the weighted iron plates strapped to his calves.

When he tossed the weighted iron plates aside, whether intentionally or by coincidence, they struck a Wood Golem not far away.

The next second, the Wood Golem shattered as though it had been rammed by a wild boar.

After hopping in place a few times, Gojo Yoru turned into an afterimage and vanished again.

This time, the training ground no longer filled with crisscrossing black lines.

Without using a Sensing Technique, only those with exceptionally sharp eyesight could barely catch a blurry afterimage.

Even more unbelievable, when the afterimages had flashed around before, they had swept up fallen leaves from the ground and produced piercing sounds of air tearing apart.

But now, the flashing afterimage did not make the slightest sound, appearing and disappearing like a ghost.

"Such Body Flicker... it's unbelievable. Is he really only a fourth-year student?"

Those words did not come from Uzumaki Kushina. The girl was already utterly stunned, too shocked to say anything at all.

The one who spoke was an Anbu member hiding in the woods, concealed with an Invisibility Technique as he secretly watched over and protected Uzumaki Kushina.

As the Hokage's special direct unit, every Anbu member excelled not in ninjutsu, but in assassination and reconnaissance.

Among their specialties was the Body Flicker Technique.

Every Anbu member had already trained the ordinary Body Flicker Technique to perfection, integrating the Five Elemental Natures into it to develop elemental Body Flicker techniques or taijutsu-based high-speed movement.

They believed that the ordinary Body Flicker Technique had already reached its limit when trained to their level.

Yet now, in a child far younger than himself, he saw a more advanced Konoha Body Flicker Technique that even they could not achieve.

That ghostly speed and silent footwork displayed powerful Chakra control and reflexes.

"A Body Flicker genius?"

The Anbu member and Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was still observing Gojo Yoru, both murmured those words.

Gojo Yoru had not discovered the Anbu hiding in the shadows.

But he could guess that he might already have caught Sarutobi Hiruzen's attention.

Today was Uzumaki Kushina's first day at the academy, so Sarutobi Hiruzen was surely paying close attention.

Especially Gojo Yoru, who had become her deskmate. He was definitely on the list of people being watched, and perhaps all of his information had already been investigated.

That was why Gojo Yoru had deliberately brought Uzumaki Kushina here during lunch break to train: to display a talent that was not yet too shocking.

In an era before Body Flicker Shisui was born, Gojo Yoru had successfully drawn Sarutobi Hiruzen's attention and regard with an ordinary Body Flicker that surpassed its limits, earning the label of a Body Flicker genius.

And this was only the beginning.

To obtain Sarutobi Hiruzen's tacit approval and investment, Gojo Yoru still had to prepare more surprises for the Third Hokage.

After practicing Body Flicker for another dozen or so minutes, Gojo Yoru finally stopped.

As he picked up the weighted iron plates and put them back on, Gojo Yoru looked at Uzumaki Kushina in the distance and frowned slightly. "Why did you follow me again?"

"I... I..."

With her mind still completely blank, Uzumaki Kushina stammered and could not get the words out.

"Forget it..."

Gojo Yoru promptly gave her a way out. "Can you fight? Do you want to be my sparring partner?"

"C-Can I?" Uzumaki Kushina's eyes immediately lit up. Then she nodded rapidly like a pecking chick. "I can fight! I'm really good at fighting!"

As if to prove it, Uzumaki Kushina rolled up her sleeves and struck a muscle-flexing pose. She looked absolutely adorable.

"Then don't start crying later."

A curve lifted at the corner of Gojo Yoru's lips before he charged toward Uzumaki Kushina.

The boy and girl engaged in close combat without the slightest concern for their genders.

"So that's how it is..."

Watching the scene through the Crystal Ball, Sarutobi Hiruzen could not help but smile, his eyes filled with appreciation.

He had thought Gojo Yoru was a troubled child whose parents had both died, leaving him with certain flaws in his personality.

But now it seemed that he was simply a good child who knew how to protect himself—cold on the outside, warm at heart.