Shisui's Here!

"Hey, is everything going to be okay?"

The crowd that had gathered to watch gradually dispersed from the stairwell. Hyuga Isamu, who had witnessed the whole thing, spotted the flecks of blood on the ground at once. He grabbed Uchiha Shisui beside him, frowned at the restroom door, and murmured, "That was brutal... Is he one of your Uchiha?"

"He's Lord Fugaku's eldest son, Uchiha Akatsuki." Shisui was keeping an ear out for what was happening inside the restroom, but then he heard something unexpected. A smile slowly spread across his face.

"That young lord's an interesting one." He turned and waved at Isamu. "Go eat without me. I have to leave."

"You're skipping class again?" Isamu sighed helplessly. "We're about to graduate. Have you even thought about where you're going?"

During wartime, the Ninja Academy served as a reserve force for the army. They were all going to war.

"I've already been assigned to a border squad. What about you?" Shisui stopped walking.

"No surprise there, Shisui..." Isamu muttered, dejected. "My brother wants me to be some kind of supply clerk. It sounds so boring."

"That's a great job. It's safe." Shisui smiled and waved. "Say hello to your brother for me. I'm off!"

The furrow between Isamu's brows deepened. "Do you need me to cover for your shadow clone again?"

"No, I have enough chakra." Shisui went down a few steps, then stopped and looked back at Isamu. "And Uchiha Akatsuki wasn't brutal."

"He was just protecting himself."

After my shadow clone appeared, he met my eyes, nodded, and pushed open the restroom door.

I leaped from the windowsill and landed on a branch in the trees behind the school.

A while later, I saw my shadow clone sitting with the sobbing Uchiha Aoi at a food stall downstairs, eating lunch. He was teasing the hiccuping little girl with a skewer of red bean dumplings, but it only made things worse. Aoi was crying so loudly that I could hear her all the way up on the third floor.

Damn it!

I rubbed my forehead and decided that, starting tomorrow, I'd read books about interacting with children and work on my people skills!

After watching for a while and making sure everything was fine, I jumped down from the tree, climbed over the school fence, and slipped into the woods behind it.

I'd learned the trick of using a shadow clone to attend class from Itachi. A shadow clone had my form and consciousness, and half my chakra. That was more than enough to get through school life.

As for me, I couldn't waste my time sitting through lessons, eating lunch, or beating up Kusama Shigeo. I had to find something else to do—preferably something that would help me get stronger through actual combat.

There was a war going on out there!

I wandered through the woods, rapidly running through every possible training ground in my mind, when I suddenly heard the sound of water.

I pushed aside the bushes in front of me, and a lake came into view.

The mirrorlike surface glimmered white in the sunlight, bright but not dazzling. The water stretched as far as the sky, and dark green bushes lined the shore, reaching all the way to my feet.

A breeze stirred. The breathtaking beauty of nature gradually eased my restlessness, and my thoughts slowly came to a stop.

I walked to the shore, picked up a stone, and tried to skip it across the lake.

The first stone bounced twice, then sank.

The second bounced once, then sank.

The third went plunk and sank straight to the bottom. I was so dumbfounded by my own ineptitude that my face stiffened for a moment before I couldn't help laughing.

Suddenly, a pebble flew out from behind me. It skipped across the water more than ten times before finally sinking. I turned around and saw a boy stepping out from behind a tree. He rolled another stone in his hand, a smile on his lips, and said confidently, "Want to compete?"

In the sunlight, I got a good look at him and was instantly shocked.

Short black hair, a black crew-neck sweatshirt, a sword on his back, and those clear, smiling eyes—I recognized him almost at once.

A true genius of the Uchiha Clan—Uchiha Shisui!

"It's actually Uchiha Shisui..." I stared at him with wide, round eyes, feeling a rush of excitement and a little fear.

Uchiha Shisui didn't look much older than me. Was he a student at the Ninja Academy too, sneaking out while he was there?

So even sunny, cheerful boys liked skipping class!

That was Uchiha Shisui's first impression of Uchiha Akatsuki.

A breeze ruffled the child's hair by the lake. His wide, round eyes were set in a pale, gaunt face, bruised and streaked with blood. He looked like a wounded little beast, stubbornly refusing to back down.

He was just a child.

As if drawn in, Shisui moved closer.

"Want to compete? I can teach you how to skip stones." Shisui walked over, looking very friendly.

Compete with you at skipping stones? I'd lose the shorts off my ass. I frowned and said no.

But Uchiha Shisui smiled. The stone danced up and down in his hand, then skimmed across the lake like a shooting star. It leaped across the surface in a long series of bounces and nearly reached the opposite shore before sinking. I couldn't help feeling a little choked up.

Was he showing off?

Looking at this genius shinobi who, like me, had nothing better to do, I suddenly had an idea.

"Uchiha Shisui, want to spar?" I rubbed my fingers together. With a gentle pull of chakra, four shuriken slid from my sleeve into my palm, then emerged between my fingers.

I'd just been looking for someone to spar with, and here he was!

He was a genuine genius! One of the Uchiha Clan's all-time top-tier talents! I'd definitely learn a lot by fighting him!

"You know who I am?" Shisui's smile grew a little wider, his eyes curving in a friendly expression.

"I do. My father told me about you." That was true. Fugaku had praised Uchiha Shisui's talent more than once. That was why I'd wondered at the time why he hadn't chosen Shisui.

Uchiha Shisui was without question the Uchiha Clan's strongest fighter. His talent even surpassed Itachi's. His Body Flicker Shisui reputation was legendary; his Susanoo had taken on Danzo and the Anbu, and one Kotoamatsukami had changed the outcome of the Shinobi World War...

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him. In the sunlight, Uchiha Shisui tilted his head slightly toward me. His eyes reflected the lake, and he looked innocent and guileless.

This character, who ran through the entire series and was later deified, seemed like nothing more than a boy skipping class now.

"Let's not spar, but we can play around." He came over and stopped beside me, then gestured with his hand and asked in confusion, "Young Lord Akatsuki, we're in the same year. How come you're so much shorter?"

Damn it! I'd never heard that Body Flicker Shisui was such a sharp-tongued guy!

His words hit me right where it hurt. I furrowed my brow, my anger flaring, and flicked both hands. Eight shuriken flew at once!

There was no chance they'd hit, but I'd made sure to look intimidating.

"Hm? What's that noise over there?" Minato Team had just returned to the village after completing a mission. As they passed the woods behind the Ninja Academy, they suddenly heard a commotion in the trees, along with occasional bursts of intense Fire Release chakra.

"Let's go check it out!" Obito Uchiha loved a good spectacle and immediately broke away from the group.

"Hey, Obito!" Rin was afraid he'd cause trouble, so she hurried after him, glancing back as she ran to call for Kakashi, who was trailing at the rear.

Kakashi looked at the two of them, then turned and walked away.

He had to go home and rest, fish by the river, cook, eat, tidy his room, go for a walk, refine his chakra that evening, and finally go to sleep.

He had no time for unnecessary things, and he didn't want to do them either.

"Clang!"

Suddenly, a sharp metallic clang rang in his ears. Kakashi paused.

"Clink! Clang!"

Two more strikes.

Then came a rapid succession of clashing metal, accompanied by Obito and Rin's deliberately muffled exclamations. Kakashi raised his head slightly, his lowered eyes shifting to the left. He couldn't help feeling curious.

Could the ones fighting in the woods behind the school be students?

"Hey, Kakashi, I heard there's a genius who enrolled at four this year. And he's from our Uchiha Clan!" Obito's words flashed through Kakashi's mind. He closed his eyes, hesitated for a moment, then turned around and headed toward Obito and Rin, pushing his bedtime back by an hour.

Fine, I'll go take a look.