A Day at the Ninja Academy

After placing a lock of Uchiha Sasuke's hair into the scroll, Yun opened the hidden compartment under his bed and tucked it inside.

Looking at the two scrolls in the compartment, he knew the three-quarters of Obito's arm could serve as a medium for both Hashirama and Obito, but as for Uchiha Sasuke's hair, he would have to wait until the time was right to test it.

However, making a deal with Uchiha Sasuke at this stage was impossible. What could a toddler over a year old possibly understand? Trying to communicate with him was like playing the lute to a cow.

Furthermore, it wasn't certain whether Indra's Chakra was even within Uchiha Sasuke at this moment; the Sage of Six Paths never specified when it appeared—did it come along with the reincarnation cycle?

"Poof."

Gently closing the compartment, Yun sat on his bed and pondered the hand seals for Wood Release.

Thinking it over, it seemed Hashirama never really used hand seals at all. He would just clap his hands together, perform a single seal, and whatever he shouted would manifest; both Hashirama and Madara seemed to operate that way.

Yet, the origin of hand seals was created by Indra, who discovered by chance that they could guide the power of Chakra. But did Indra and Asura actually need them?

The Sage of Six Paths clearly didn't need them, and Hashirama could use all Wood Release techniques with just the Snake Seal. No, that wasn't right—in his memories, the Kōan Nitten Suishu used to seal the Nine Tails required hand seals.

Madara's Great Fire Annihilation was the same, though summoning the Nine Tails did require them.

When the Second's Impure World Reincarnation body appeared in Part One, he could also trigger the Water Formation Wall with just one seal.

In other words... there was no logic to it?

Yun scratched his head. His clone, Sora, had been practicing the nature transformation of Water and Earth Chakra; once Wood Release took shape, techniques like Deep Forest Emergence would become essential.

The Scroll of Seals in the Hokage Building wasn't easy to obtain, and he had to maintain his current persona. It wouldn't be worth blowing his cover just for a few Wood Release techniques.

It seemed he would have to develop them himself, then?

The next day, Izumi stared blankly at her brother as he walked to the Ninja Academy with her.

"It's not a Shadow Clone?"

Yun smiled helplessly. "Yesterday's events were a bit significant; I didn't feel at ease sending a Shadow Clone in my place."

Whether the events were significant or not didn't actually matter; what mattered was that Yun discovered his Shadow Clone wasn't low-profile at all—it had provoked the entire upperclassman body after just a few taunts.

The fight had just finished yesterday, and he suspected the trouble wasn't over yet.

What if one or two Chunin or Jonin showed up today, and his Shadow Clone beat them up too?

Wouldn't he end up graduating early alongside Itachi? How could he keep a low profile then?

Wasn't being a student at the Ninja Academy good enough? Wasn't it better to let a Shadow Clone attend class while he went out for barbecue? Wasn't it comfortable to bask in the sun on the Hokage Rock and practice ninjutsu at his leisure?

Why bother being a Genin, catching cats or cleaning sewers every day, and occasionally having to pick up trash downstream? It was speechless.

After glancing into the classroom, Yun walked over to Itachi and shot him a look. "Still a Shadow Clone?"

Itachi nodded. "My real body is off training; there's really nothing worth learning here."

Yun smiled and patted his shoulder. "Then I reckon you're going to get beaten up again today."

Leaving Itachi bewildered by that remark, Yun headed toward Tokuma and Hana. He never sat at the same desk as Itachi at school; it attracted too much unwanted attention.

As soon as he sat down, Kiba Inuzuka's sister, Hana, tilted her head and asked, "Is it your real body or a Shadow Clone today? That technique of yours is really useful. I want to stay home and play with my dogs too, but my mom won't teach me."

"It's the real body today," Yun replied, then asked, "Does your family have a younger brother named Kiba Inuzuka?"

The question made Hana freeze, and she asked with a blushing face, "Why is Yun investigating my family? My brother is only a year old... he couldn't possibly affect—"

"Don't misunderstand, I have no interest in you. Uh... and no interest in your brother either."

That remark nearly sent Hana into a rage; if Tokuma hadn't held her back, Yun probably would have had to bolt.

He had just asked because it occurred to him randomly. After all, if he blew away a few of the Konoha 12 with his butterfly effect, wouldn't that be quite interesting?

Once she calmed down, Hana had already decided to ignore Yun for three days.

Tokuma, sitting on the other side, nudged Yun and rolled his Byakugan, which were already white by nature. "Hana is actually quite pretty. But speaking of which, why did you suddenly come to class in your real body today?"

Yun sighed. "Didn't I beat up all the upperclassmen yesterday? There's bound to be trouble today. If I didn't come in person, I was afraid my Shadow Clone might tear the school down."

Tokuma blinked, then laughed. "If you can tear the school down, I'll give you my entire month's allowance. At least we'd get two months off."

Heh... you're overthinking it.

Because the Fourth was still alive, Kinoe had already joined Kakashi's Anbu squad by this time.

The Three-Room-One-Hall Technique—letting you understand what true construction speed is.

A peaceful day passed slowly, with Yun spending the entire time cutting leaves under his desk.

When school finally let out, four Genin were indeed blocking the school gate.

"Big brother, that's him!"

Holy crap!

Yun quickly dodged to the side, watching as Itachi's Shadow Clone, who had just been preparing to head home, was surrounded.

After a flurry of punches and kicks, Itachi's Shadow Clone quickly turned into smoke with a poof. One of them looked vaguely familiar—was that Tenma's brother?

In his memories, the graduates of this class would graduate alongside Itachi. That meant this Tenma, along with someone named Shinko, would be Itachi's teammates after graduation—the very people whose deaths would trigger his Two Tomoe Sharingan.

No wonder the Tenma in his memories was so unhappy with Itachi...

"Clone Technique?"

"There's another Uchiha, don't let him get away!"

"These new students are too arrogant. Daring to hit my brother? From today on, I'm coming here to corner him every day after missions."

"Big brother is so cool..."

Looking at the seven or eight people surrounding him, they truly were fearless because of their ignorance.

Commoner ninjas cornering a Konoha noble clan member was just like those idiots in his memories who bullied the future princess Hinata. Children didn't understand pros and cons; they just fought.

"Kid! You're the one who hit my brother?"

Before the words even faded, a chill appeared against his neck, and Yun, who had been standing right in front of him, had already vanished.

"Clang, clang..."

Four headbands were tossed aside by Yun, and a kunai pressed against the leader's throat.

"The Shadow Clone Technique that Itachi Uchiha used just now creates a physical body; it is fundamentally different from the basic Clone Technique."

"What I just used was pure speed. I removed your headbands while moving at high velocity, and now I've captured you. Do you really think... you can come here to corner me every day?"

Yun said this as he lowered the kunai and tossed the headbands back: "The ones beaten yesterday were just students who hadn't become ninjas yet, but you lot are different. Once you become a ninja, you need to be prepared to die at any moment."

Watching Yun disappear before their eyes, the four genin who had been too terrified to speak finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Shadow Clone, how is that possible?"

"And that kind of speed... for a newly enrolled student, he's practically a monster."

"Whew..."

Not far away, Yun exhaled. He had almost used a Shadow Clone just now; if he had beaten them all up, it would have been troublesome to deal with the aftermath.

After all, he still wanted to coast through a few more years!

Fire Release ninjutsu, genjutsu, Nintaijutsu, Shadow Clone... he had Shisui to vouch for all of these. Once he got his hands on the Mangekyou, he could finally make his move.