"Yugao... weren't you defeated by Chiba last time, and unable to hold a sword for ages afterward? Why are you sticking up for him?"
Kurenai Yuhi was surprised.
"I'm just telling the truth!"
"Besides, I'm grateful for the blow Chiba dealt me that day!"
"Because of that fight that hardly counted as a fight, he helped me take another step forward."
"And that's exactly why I believe he won't lose when it comes to swordsmanship!"
"You wouldn't understand unless you faced him as a swordswoman!"
"That aura of someone reigning supreme at the pinnacle of the sword's world doesn't lie."
Kurenai Yuhi was even more astonished to hear that.
Could Uzuki Yugao have some kind of masochistic fetish?
He'd beaten her, and she was still so devoted to him—had she become his loyal fan?
"Are you under his spell?"
"Didn't you tell Gekko Hayate you weren't interested in him?"
"He's only five!"
"Five years old!"
Faced with Kurenai Yuhi's questions, Uzuki Yugao looked utterly speechless.
"Kurenai, what are you even talking about?"
"N-nothing... let's keep watching!"
By now, Chiba's Observation Haki had picked up on Kurenai Yuhi and Uzuki Yugao, but he didn't have the time to pay them any mind.
Right now, all he wanted was to focus completely on facing the opponent in front of him.
There was no doubt about it.
Uchiha Shisui would be the first formidable opponent Chiba had faced since arriving in this world.
Before this, the people Chiba had fought could basically be considered from the same generation as him.
But Uchiha Shisui was beyond the bounds of his generation.
After all, being recognized by the entire Shinobi World and earning the title of Body Flicker Shisui said a lot.
He wanted to know how far he could go in a fight against a formidable opponent like Uchiha Shisui.
Chiba didn't know whether Shisui had awakened his Mangekyou at this point.
Most likely, he hadn't.
Otherwise,
given Shisui's loyalty to Konoha, he would have told the Konoha High Command about the Mangekyou's abilities long ago.
And the Konoha High Command certainly wouldn't have let a godlike technique like Kotoamatsukami stay with Shisui for so long.
"Come on!"
Chiba's fighting spirit surged.
The instant he drew his blade, he moved.
This was the first time Chiba had decided to attack first.
In the past, he'd known that his opponents were no match for him.
No matter what moves they used against him, he could handle them with ease.
But Uchiha Shisui was different.
Getting the first strike was an eternal truth.
Taking the initiative would give him the upper hand in the fight to come.
Especially when there was already a gap in strength between them.
There were no anguished shouts.
Only the fighting spirit he poured into his sword-cane.
Then—
Chiba struck Uchiha Shisui with his first slash.
Faced with Chiba's fierce assault,
Uchiha Shisui was shocked as well.
The fighting spirit unleashed in that instant was fiercer than anything he'd encountered among the enemies he'd fought in the Land of Mist.
The boy's speed didn't seem impressive, and his strength probably wasn't great either.
That was Shisui's rough assessment of Chiba's first strike.
But—
he was wrong.
The instant Shisui caught Chiba's slash,
the pressure transmitted through the blade into his palm was astonishingly heavy.
Swordsmanship at the peak of perfection.
Shisui made his judgment almost at once.
It came from his combat experience and exceptional analytical ability.
No matter how extraordinary Chiba was,
his five-year-old body still limited his abilities.
Speed and strength would be Chiba's greatest weaknesses.
There was no way around that.
A five-year-old child couldn't have delivered a slash this powerful.
The only thing that could make up for that was swordsmanship.
Swordsmanship that stood at the summit.
Wasting not a single movement and focusing the strike on one point could maximize its power.
So this was Uchiha Chiba, the genius recognized by the Hokage?
The instant Uchiha Shisui looked up,
his eyes turned blood red.
Sharingan. Three-Tomoe.
He wanted to see the path of Chiba's slash. He wanted to see this exquisite sword technique. He wanted to know Uchiha Chiba's true... strength!
Itachi was stunned by the sight, too.
Neither Chiba's opening attack nor that exquisite slash was something Itachi had seen before.
In that instant, he understood the gap between himself and Chiba.
Setting aside speed, strength, and chakra, the difference in their swordsmanship alone was like a chasm!
And merely watching made Itachi's hands tremble.
Not from fear, but excitement.
"I... actually can't wait to see Chiba's true strength?"
Shisui and Itachi weren't the only ones excited by Chiba's swordsmanship.
The girl secretly watching, whose mind was full of nothing but swords, felt the same way.
Once a swordsman had mastered all the moves,
improving their swordsmanship became incredibly slow.
That was true of every swordsman.
Only by mastering the moves and adding their own understanding and variations could they make progress.
That was called a level of mastery. It was called a bottleneck.
Uzuki Yugao had already been shocked when Chiba's presence alone helped her break through her bottleneck.
But—
the instant Chiba began to swing his sword, she felt she'd gained a new understanding.
It was only a simple spar.
And yet—
Uzuki Yugao watched, utterly entranced!
Under the cherry blossoms.
Two graceful figures strolled amid the sea of flowers.
The gently falling cherry blossoms made this the most beautiful time of year for the Uchiha Clan.
On this day, everyone in the village envied the Uchiha Clan's cherry trees.
"Your Uchiha Clan is still as beautiful as ever..."
A slender wrist lifted to catch a cherry blossom.
The blossom was red, the same color as her hair.
Perhaps because of her own hair color,
Kushina Uzumaki had always been fond of cherry blossoms.
Though she was a little unhappy that her husband couldn't be with her to admire the flowers on this most beautiful day,
she understood Namikaze Minato, considering that things at the front weren't going well.
Even she, known as the Bloody Habanero, had no choice but to understand.
With no man around,
a close friend was the best company.
Uchiha Mikoto had even set her husband aside and made time to spend the most beautiful day of the cherry blossoms with her.
A guest was always welcome, especially a close friend.
"If you like them, you can come by anytime!"
Mikoto smiled gently.
"I wish I could. Because of who I am, I'm restricted from going out. I can't even go to the battlefield... If they sent me to the front, I could drive back both Iwagakure and Kumogakure."
Kushina Uzumaki was, after all, special.
In this ninja world, Tailed Beasts were like nuclear weapons.
Their value didn't lie in using them.
Deterrence was what let a Tailed Beast realize its true value.
It was precisely because Kushina Uzumaki was there
that Iwagakure and Kumogakure didn't deploy Tailed Beasts on the front lines to launch a brutal assault.