"You two? You want to crawl back to the Ninja Academy and keep playing those boring make-believe games...?"
Aburame Keiichi questioned them coldly, his words thick with menace.
"Teacher Aburame, first of all, life at the Ninja Academy may have been dull, but it wasn't the make-believe you're talking about."
Uchiha Kai set down his lunchbox and replied without flinching.
"Besides, if I'm with my teammates, I don't care where we go." The boy shrugged.
"Oh, and the lunch was delicious. Thank you for the meal."
After he finished speaking, the three fell silent. Facing Aburame Keiichi, whose presence grew ever more chilling, they stood their ground in a wordless standoff.
At that, Aburame Keiichi raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting..."
"Do you think this little act is going to work on me?" The man's voice was cold, with a hint of mockery.
"Putting on a show about standing together against the odds and how close you are." Aburame Keiichi sneered. "Showing off your so-called bonds."
"Spouting a bunch of nonsense, then putting on a passionate look—is that really going to change how weak you are?"
"Do you think this will move me? Change how things end for you?!"
By the end, Aburame Keiichi was practically roaring.
"Bottom line, you're just a bunch of losers. Worthless brats who disobey orders. Take your stupid fantasies and crawl back to the Ninja Academy."
The cold-eyed man narrowed his eyes and delivered his final verdict.
"Understood, Teacher. We have no objection to your decision, and we respect it. We understand that you have our best interests at heart." The boy answered as calmly as ever.
"But as for everything else you said..." The boy's tone suddenly changed.
The arrogant Uchiha curled his lips and, in the calmest voice imaginable, made a brazen declaration.
"I think—it's all bullshit."
Aburame Keiichi froze, as if he couldn't believe his ears. He gave them a disbelieving twitch.
"Huh?" The man blinked, apparently so furious he'd started laughing.
"Go on. Keep talking."
"Well, even if you tried to stop me, I'd still finish what I have to say." Uchiha Kai smiled.
A vein bulged at the corner of Aburame Keiichi's eye.
"First, I don't know if you've been through some kind of trauma that made you so sensitive about the bonds between people. If I've said something wrong, please forgive me."
The boy smiled as he spoke with such "understanding," but his smile didn't fade in the slightest.
Aburame Keiichi didn't answer. His face darkened.
"Bonds aren't just what the three of us share. Any bond in this world that can truly bring people closer—"
The boy's gaze was unwavering, a light glimmering in his eyes.
"—is never something trivial, and it's certainly not something anyone else can casually trample on!"
His voice rang out in anger. The boy suddenly lifted his head.
The black Tomoe in his pupils began to spin. A fearsome, chilling surge of Chakra burst from the crimson eyes and slammed straight into Aburame Keiichi.
Aburame Keiichi didn't panic. If anything, he seemed to have expected this. Facing the famed Kekkei Genkai of the Shinobi World, the Sharingan, the man neither dodged nor looked away. He stared right back.
"Ha... Just a Single Tomoe..." he murmured disdainfully, not taking Uchiha Kai seriously at all.
Then, in the next instant, an ocular power twice as strong as he'd anticipated crashed down, violently battering the man's Chakra.
"Ugh..."
With a muffled groan, Aburame Keiichi actually staggered half a step backward.
Feeling the immense shock to his mind and the stabbing pain in his eyes, Aburame Keiichi's usually impassive face finally changed.
Even a seasoned veteran like him, who had spent years in the Shinobi World, had been shaken by that terrifying mental assault.
"That kid's eyes!? Are they really only a Single Tomoe?" Aburame Keiichi was stunned. It wasn't as if he'd never seen the power of the Sharingan before.
He'd spent so long in Anbu that he lacked nothing in experience or knowledge. That was exactly why he understood what Uchiha Kai had just shown him.
"Not bad, kid..." he couldn't help praising him, as though he hadn't been the one caught off guard just moments ago.
"I only shared my food with my teammate. If I'd been the one tied up there..." The boy paused, glancing at the youth beside him, who was glaring and cursing Aburame Keiichi nonstop.
"Morino Kei would have made the same choice."
"Even if things were more urgent—even if we were on a battlefield, and I was in trouble I couldn't handle—Morino Kei and Rei would still help me without hesitation."
The boy proudly lifted his head. It was only natural.
Behind him, the other two made their feelings clear through their expressions.
"Just like today, we'll never abandon a single teammate." The three spoke in unison.
In the middle of the field, Aburame Keiichi was just about to speak, but the boy cut him off.
"Besides, we didn't make this decision in a fit of passion, just for a moment's satisfaction."
The boy spoke with a confident smile.
"We did this because..." He paused.
"We can afford to take responsibility for our choices."
The boy sounded casual, as if he were talking about something insignificant.
"Oh-ho? Interesting." Aburame Keiichi rolled his shoulders, his tone playful.
"Then tell me, what exactly can you afford? I'm genuinely curious."
"It's simple. We're our own proof." The boy answered without a care.
"I'm Uchiha Kai. The strongest graduate in this class. In ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or genjutsu, no one in my year can match me. I'm also a member of the Uchiha Clan, and the door to the security force reserve list is always open to me."
The boy pointed to himself and spoke calmly.
"As for Rei, do I really need to explain the Hyuga Clan? She graduated after defeating the most outstanding member of her clan. She has a willpower second to none, awakened the Byakugan at this age, and has already developed her own understanding of the clan's secret techniques. She deserves every bit of praise she gets."
The boy continued his calm explanation, completely unaware that the girl's eyes were growing brighter by the moment.
"As for Morino Kei, this guy's a bit reckless. He's a hot-blooded idiot, careless, and always says the wrong thing and upsets people." The boy rattled off one thing after another, sounding like he couldn't decide whether he was praising or criticizing him.
"Hey, hey, am I really that bad?!" Morino Kei protested from where he was tied to the wooden post, but Uchiha Kai ignored him completely.
"But you must have felt it too, right? Morino Kei's strength and Chakra..." The boy's words trailed off as he gave Aburame Keiichi a meaningful look.
"Heh... There's no denying it. When that idiot grabbed my Insect Clone, I thought he'd been caught by one of those Cloud ninja who specialize in Taijutsu. And he had an incredible amount of Chakra too—he nearly killed all my Kikaichū by overfeeding them."
Aburame Keiichi couldn't help recalling what had happened.
The boy continued in the next instant.
"That's what we bring to the table. That's all the proof we need."
The arrogant Uchiha stood beside his teammates, stating an indisputable fact.
"The three of us will get the best treatment wherever we go. We're also the best option you could find, Teacher."
"The optimal choice."
After he finished speaking, the boy stood firm and resumed his standoff with Aburame Keiichi, whose face remained cold.
"So that's your answer?" the man asked softly.
"Do you all feel the same way?"
The three said nothing.
The air remained silent for a long while. Then, an image of his conversation with Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly surfaced in Aburame Keiichi's mind.
The corners of the man's mouth lifted. Looking at the three stubborn youths, he finally couldn't hold back his smile.
Then he said:
"You three!"
"You all pass!!"
Before you continue