A Stable Life

"Uzumaki Kushina, Nagi's doing this on purpose. Please don't say anything."

Namikaze Minato was startled by Kushina's expression. If she really told everyone what had happened, wouldn't all of Nagi's efforts have been for nothing?

"I know. I just don't understand why he wants to hide it." Kushina looked a little troubled.

Hearing that, Namikaze Minato wasn't sure either. He could only guess, "Maybe because he's an Uchiha?"

Kushina froze. She thought of all the rumors about the Uchiha, and of her own experiences with Uchiha Nagi.

She truly hadn't sensed any of the traits described in those rumors from him.

But she didn't think the rumors were false, either. Uchiha Enichi's behavior was constantly proving them right.

"Nagi must be pretty tired too, right?" Kushina said suddenly.

Namikaze Minato paused and looked at Uchiha Nagi, who was still putting on a show in the middle of the field. If he were in a family like that and wanted to be a normal person, it wouldn't be easy.

"Probably."

"What about you?"

Kushina suddenly looked at Namikaze Minato. "Nagi said you've been hiding your strength, too."

Minato didn't deny it. "Nagi's probably doing it because of his family. I'm different. I just don't like drawing attention to myself."

After that, the two fell silent.

By then, the exchange in the field had reached its final stage.

Uchiha Nagi used the Clone Technique—though it looked a little rough—and launched a final assault on Uchiha Enichi.

Just as his attack was about to land, Uchiha Enichi turned into a log.

Seeing Uchiha Nagi's stunned expression, Kushina stuck out her tongue.

"He's such a good actor. I could tell that was the Substitution Technique..."

In the end, Uchiha Nagi surrendered "out of breath," despite being completely unharmed.

Uchiha Enichi wore a smug look.

"Hmph. You're not bad if you managed to make me use the Substitution Technique, but that's as far as you'll go!"

With that, Uchiha Enichi strode toward the classroom like a proud rooster.

Just then, the younger brother of the Genin clearly wanted to say something. Though he hadn't noticed Uchiha Enichi's Substitution Technique, he knew Uchiha Nagi had mastered it too.

So Uchiha Nagi had definitely been holding back!

But at that moment, he met Uchiha Nagi's gaze.

They were only a pair of dark eyes, yet for an instant he thought he saw a pair of blood-red eyes.

The next moment, he stood there, dazed.

Soon, he shuddered and came back to his senses, scratching his head.

"I was wrong. Why did I think that Uchiha Nagi was stronger? Boss Enichi is definitely the stronger one!"

Uchiha Nagi rubbed his forehead. After putting on an act for so long, using the Sharingan hadn't taken much out of him. That last genjutsu, on the other hand, had consumed a fair amount of chakra.

But at least now he could keep a low profile.

Life was a little too busy these days, but after confirming that there was nothing actually wrong with his body, it had turned out to be surprisingly stable.

He didn't want this to bring some new, uncontrollable change to his life.

"Ugh! I'm so mad. That guy's definitely going to be even more obnoxious now." Kushina came over to Uchiha Nagi, cheeks puffed out.

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Let him be the 'king.' It's not a bad thing," Uchiha Nagi said indifferently. "Besides, he's just a little showy. He doesn't usually go looking for trouble."

"True, I guess." Kushina thought it over and seemed to agree.

Namikaze Minato nodded too as he watched Uchiha Enichi's retreating figure.

He was already completely bound by the Uchiha Clan's pride, with no choice but to keep following that path.

He couldn't bear to fail, and he couldn't admit that someone else was better than him.

It was a rather sad way to live.

From that day on, no one in the class ever claimed that anyone was stronger than Uchiha Enichi.

Uchiha Enichi secured his place as the class leader, and later even became the leader of the first-year students.

Uchiha Nagi, however, didn't care about any of that. He cared only about himself.

After learning about his mental "problem," he made some adjustments to his training plan.

Taijutsu, which he had originally planned to train at a normal pace, was moved up in priority.

Since his sleepiness was caused by his body's inability to keep up with his rapidly growing mental strength, the most direct and simplest solution was to improve his physical condition.

At the same time, he stopped resisting his sleepiness. For now, his mental strength grew fastest while he was asleep.

So, as long as his body didn't develop any serious problems, he had to seize the opportunity to increase his mental strength as much as possible. It was closely tied to the Yin Release he would wield in the future.

Unfortunately, even after moving taijutsu higher on his priority list, Uchiha Nagi couldn't train endlessly.

After all, he was still a child, and his body had to follow the natural laws of growth.

Excessive exercise would divert energy meant for his development toward building physical strength. That could very well affect his height and cause other problems.

As for Might Guy and Rock Lee, they had excellent physical gifts. And who knew? Maybe they would have developed even better if they'd trained a little less.

Hadn't Hatake Kakashi strongly criticized Might Guy when he saw Rock Lee's weights?

That showed Rock Lee's training load had already far exceeded what a boy his age should be doing.

Uchiha Nagi didn't think his natural physical gifts could compare to those two freaks, so he went to Tsunade.

After all, if Tsunade wanted to observe his talents and have him come in once a month for measurements, he could use those visits to figure out the maximum amount he could train without affecting his development.

And he already had the perfect reason: he was worried that further growth in his mental strength would worsen his symptoms, so he needed to improve his physical condition as much as possible.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Nagi's ninjutsu training was proceeding methodically.

Train, copy, train some more...

While Uchiha Nagi lived and trained in peace in Konoha, the rest of the Shinobi World was far from calm.

Uneven economic development between nations widened the gap in their economies.

Hardline factions in the various hidden villages gained influence. Under the pretext of expanding privileges in the name of greater fairness, they advocated using military force to expand their influence and plunder resources.

The stable situation began to falter, and tensions between nations steadily escalated.

As time passed, the unrest spread from the smaller neighboring countries until it finally drew in the Five Great Nations.

Everyone could vaguely sense that a major war was coming!