The Uchiha are still the Uchiha

The noise in the classroom was several times louder than in the hallway.

As soon as Sasuke Uchiha sat down, two figures slammed into his sides.

"Big Forehead! Get out of the way! It's my turn to sit next to Sasuke today!" Ino tossed her long golden hair and put her hands on her hips.

"In your dreams! I got here first! Stop getting in the way, Ino-pig!" Sakura didn't back down an inch, pushing hard against Ino's shoulders.

The two of them shoved each other beside Sasuke's desk, causing it to rock back and forth.

"Sasuke-kun, have you had breakfast? I brought a special sandwich."

Sakura turned her head, pitching her voice into a high, sweet tone as she held out a pink bento box with both hands.

"Don't listen to her, Sasuke-kun. Why would you want that dry bread? I have some freshly baked—"

"Hey, hey! Sakura!" Naruto squeezed in from the back row, clutching the Black Dog he had been hiding under the desk and thrusting it toward Sakura.

"Look, look! This is the ninja dog that slept in my room last night! Super cool, right?" Naruto held the Black Dog up, showing it off.

The Black Dog let out a yawn and turned its head away.

Sakura recoiled in disgust. "Naruto? Who wants to see your stupid dog? Don't let him get Sasuke-kun's desk dirty."

"This isn't my dog!" Naruto shoved the Black Dog half an inch closer to Sakura's face. "This is Sasuke's ninja dog! It just happened to sleep in my room last night!"

The look of disgust on Sakura's face vanished instantly.

"Oh my, so it's Sasuke-kun's ninja dog!" Sakura tightened her voice, clutched her hands to her chest, and stared at the Black Dog with sparkling eyes.

"Now that I look closely, its fur is so shiny and black, and its eyes are so deep—it's just as cool as Sasuke-kun!"

She reached out her right hand, wanting to pet the Black Dog's head. "Come here, let big sister hold you..."

The Black Dog tilted its head, dodging Sakura's hand.

Sakura's hand froze in mid-air.

Ino covered her mouth and let out a snort of laughter. "Big Forehead, even the dog thinks you're annoying."

Sakura's face turned bright red in an instant, and a vein pulsed on her forehead.

"What are you laughing at! Ino-pig!" Sakura whipped her head around to glare at Ino.

"You two are too loud." The White Dog raised its right front paw and pointed it in Sakura's direction. "Big Forehead."

Then, it swept its paw horizontally to point at Ino. "Hair like a lioness."

The two girls went silent instantly, staring blankly at the White Dog.

"Wiping desks? Making rice balls?" The White Dog licked its own paw. "What Sasuke needs right now are people who can help him become stronger, not two pieces of dead weight."

Sakura's entire face turned red, from the roots of her neck all the way to her forehead.

"You dog! Who are you calling Big Forehead!" Sakura clenched her fists so hard her knuckles cracked.

Ino slammed her hands onto the desk and leaned over. "What did you just call me?"

"Are you hard of hearing?" The White Dog tilted its head. "Lioness, Big Forehead—do I need to say it a third time to two people who don't understand Sasuke's state of mind?"

Sasuke pressed his hand onto the White Dog's head, pushing it down until it sat on the desk.

"Don't be so harsh on my classmates. They're still just children."

Even though these were words of defense, Sakura and Ino didn't feel happy at all.

Are we just children to Sasuke?

With nowhere to vent their frustration, they could only glare at each other before returning to their seats, pouting as they waited for class to begin.

A row of targets had already been set up, and several students stood before them while Iruka stood to the side, holding a clipboard.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Miss! Miss! Still a miss!" Iruka's voice echoed from the first row of targets.

Naruto gripped the kunai in his hand, sweat streaming down his cheeks.

He kept his head down, frowning as he stared at the shuriken stuck crookedly in the sand at his feet.

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka called his name.

Sasuke walked to the throwing line and pulled three shuriken from his ninja tool pouch.

The White Dog stood to his left, while the Black Dog walked over from Naruto's feet to stand behind his right side.

On a tree branch in the distance, a silver-haired figure leaned lazily against the trunk.

Kakashi Hatake held a copy of Make-Out Paradise open in his hands, his gaze fixed on the pages. His right eye was half-closed, while his left was covered by his forehead protector.

He had received orders from the Third Hokage early that morning to secretly observe Sasuke Uchiha's recovery at the academy.

Since the clan massacre, aside from the time spent in the hospital, the boy had shown almost no emotional fluctuation.

It was too calm.

Kakashi turned a page and glanced toward the training ground.

Sasuke was already standing at the throwing line.

"Let's go, Black, White."

He flicked his right arm, sending two shuriken flying forward. At the same time, he stomped his left heel into the ground, and the shadow beneath him instantly stretched forward, slithering across the sandy soil toward the target like a living creature.

Chakra mixed with cursed energy was poured into this thin, elongated shadow, causing it to ripple across the ground with an unnatural, dark texture.

White Dog lunged out the moment the shadow extended, stepping directly onto the black silhouette.

Sasuke held the final shuriken with his left thumb, twisting his wrist inward to aim at the tip of the shadow.

The first two shuriken had already reached the front of the target; even if they hit the edge, they could never strike the bullseye.

But at this moment, they were within the projection range of the shadow.

The instant White Dog landed, he stomped his front paws hard onto the black shadow, causing the cursed energy-infused silhouette to shift its form.

A ripple spread across the shadow, moving precisely along the flight path of the two shuriken.

The shuriken struck the ripple, and their trajectories suddenly veered.

One veered left, the other right.

The one on the left struck the target stand, bounced up about three finger-widths, and flew toward the blind spot directly above the bullseye.

The one on the right was deflected toward the lower section of the adjacent target, grazing the edge of the bullseye along a diagonal blind-spot trajectory.

Meanwhile, Black Dog was already standing directly above the bullseye.

The moment the shadow ripple was triggered, he happened to be stepping on the very tip of the extended shadow.

Sasuke finally released his last shuriken.

The shadow beneath Black Dog's feet suddenly bulged upward, and the final shuriken was launched from within the shadow, flying straight into the center of the bullseye.

"Thwack!"

The sound of the three shuriken embedding into the target rang out almost simultaneously.

Blind spots, all three hit.

Iruka stared at the target, his voice sounding a bit airy: "He hit all the blind-spot targets?"

Naruto stood with his mouth agape, still clutching a shuriken he hadn't thrown.

He looked at Sasuke's target, then looked down at the few shuriken stuck crookedly in the sand by his own feet.

Shikamaru stood in the waiting area, hands shoved into his pockets, his usually drooping eyelids now wide open.

Sasuke pulled his hand back, glanced at the shuriken on the target, and turned around.

Shikamaru was already staring at him.

"You..." Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, his expression like he'd eaten something unpleasant that he was forced to swallow.

"I only said two things to you, right? Shadows are both physical entities and conduits. That's it."

Shikamaru pulled his right hand from his pocket and rubbed his temple hard: "Everything else was just me spouting nonsense..."

"It was a bit too useful for nonsense." Sasuke walked over to him and brushed the sand off his pant legs, "Physical interference, isn't that what you said?"

Shikamaru pointed toward the target: "I'm saying, your technique is even more terrifying than my clan's Shadow Possession."

"The standard Shadow Possession is what you mentioned, but you didn't say a shadow couldn't be synchronized with other techniques to achieve this." Sasuke glanced at him.

"A normal Shadow Possession is used to extend and bind an opponent, but what if you turn the shadow into a medium that can alter the flow of chakra?"

Shikamaru's fingers hung in the air, frozen.

He stared at Sasuke for about three seconds, then pulled his hand back and shoved it into his pocket.

"Sasuke, you're a bit too smart."

"You're not bad yourself, Nara."

Naruto looked down at Black Dog.

His fingers were still gripping the shuriken, his knuckles turned white.

"Black." Naruto's voice was much quieter than usual, forcing the words out, "Tell me, am I really that weak?"

Sakura stood at the edge of the training ground, arms crossed over her chest, watching Sasuke's back.

Her nails dug into her palms, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Ino stood beside her, the muscles in her shoulders pulled tight.

The things White Dog had said in the classroom were still fresh, and now, seeing Sasuke standing in the center of the training ground, it felt like they were from two different worlds.

Sakura loosened her grip, leaving nail marks in her palms.

Up on a tree branch, Kakashi tucked his book into his ninja pouch and stood up.

"It seems the situation is more complicated than expected."

He formed a Body Flicker seal with one hand and vanished from the branch.

Hokage Office.

There was a faint sizzling sound as the tobacco was lit. Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, pipe in his mouth, watching Kakashi standing before his desk.

"You saw Sasuke at the academy this morning, didn't you? How is the situation?"

"Everything is normal, calm, and rational—not at all like someone who just had his entire clan wiped out." Kakashi kept his hands relaxed at his sides.

"Though, during the shuriken test, he did use a ninja hound I've never seen before."

"Using shadows as a medium in coordination with the hound to execute a blind-spot throw... I can only say he truly lives up to the name of the Uchiha."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe, then set it down in the ashtray.

"That's good, but I still wish the child could be a little more childlike."

"I'm sorry to trouble you, Kakashi, but please keep observing him for a while longer."

"I understand." Kakashi nodded, and his figure vanished directly from the office.

In the hallway outside the Hokage's office.

Danzo stood at the intersection of shadow and wall.

Bandages covered half his face, leaving only one eye exposed.

That eye was fixed on the tightly shut wooden door of the Hokage's office, narrowed into a slit.

Sasuke Uchiha. Shadow Tactics. Ninja hound.

The corners of Danzo's mouth twitched slightly beneath the bandages.

The last survivor of the Uchiha, has he finally begun to display things that exceed expectations?

"The Uchiha, in the end, are still the Uchiha."