A Beautiful Girl's Concern

Uchiha Kurohane licked the blood from his wound while silently counting in his head.

On the fourth second, he slashed his arm again with a shuriken.

Still no position swap. Another small wound appeared on his arm.

He licked the wound and continued counting.

On the fifth second, he slashed again.

With a poof.

Uchiha Kurohane switched places with the crow from earlier and returned to the ground.

"The cooldown for automatic substitution is five seconds."

It was exactly the same as Shinra Tensei's cooldown.

Five seconds was a very short time, gone in the blink of an eye, but in a ninja battle, it was extremely deadly.

At first, the Deva Path's Shinra Tensei had seemed utterly unbeatable, leaving people with no way to deal with it.

But once Kakashi learned about the five-second cooldown, he immediately thought of a way to counter it.

If no one else interfered, Kakashi could actually solo the Deva Path.

But the Yatagarasu Substitute was different. During its five-second cooldown, he could actively use it through hand seals, and when he used it himself, he could ignore distance and choose either a crow or a clone to switch with.

And forming the hand seals only took one second.

In other words, his opening lasted only one second.

Once he improved his hand seal speed in the future, he could make it even faster.

After becoming proficient, he could truly achieve an effect similar to the Flying Thunder God.

However, Uchiha Kurohane had encountered another problem in yesterday's battle.

Although he could communicate with crows and have them fly behind the enemy,

crows were animals after all. Their intelligence could not compare to that of humans. They could only fly to an approximate area, and Uchiha Kurohane could not precisely control their exact flight path.

And communicating with crows also took time.

In this regard, the Flying Thunder God had a major advantage.

With the Flying Thunder God, he could throw ninja tools himself and precisely control the teleportation landing point. He could also place Flying Thunder God marks on his comrades and coordinate with them.

"I hope Yatagarasu's abilities can improve in this area after evolving further."

Having figured out Yatagarasu's abilities, Uchiha Kurohane formed hand seals again, returned home, and quickly finished his bread.

He took a carton of milk that was close to expiring from the refrigerator, formed hand seals again, and appeared on the stairs of the Ninja Academy.

He hurried down the corridor and entered the classroom.

All the students had already arrived, but the atmosphere was unusually heavy. There was none of the usual noisy horseplay.

Everyone wore troubled expressions as they quietly discussed something.

Bad news had probably come from the battlefield, or perhaps word had spread that Genin would be sent to war.

But none of that had anything to do with Uchiha Kurohane. He was in a hurry to copy homework and did not care what they were discussing.

He quickly headed for the second-to-last row by the window.

Kushina Uzumaki was already seated beside him. Since she had no friends, she had no one to talk to.

She merely watched the other students chatting with distant eyes, sitting alone in a daze and looking terribly lonely.

When she saw Uchiha Kurohane approaching, the corners of her lips curled up into a bright smile.

"Kurohane, good morning."

The moment Uchiha Kurohane sat down, he said,

"This is an emergency. Get your homework out, quick."

Kushina Uzumaki puffed out her cherry-colored lips.

"Why didn't you do your homework again?"

Uchiha Kurohane directly grabbed her schoolbag, opened it, and pulled out her homework notebook.

"I attended a Uchiha Clan meeting last night. I didn't have time to do homework."

Kushina Uzumaki looked curious.

"Eh~ You have clan meetings too? What did you talk about?"

Uchiha Kurohane needed to concentrate on copying homework and had no time to chat with Kushina Uzumaki.

"This is adult business. Kids shouldn't meddle."

Kushina Uzumaki puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.

"You're younger than me!"

"My appearance may be that of a child, but my mind is that of an adult. You can't compare."

"What are you talking about? Aren't your grades the worst in class? And you call that an adult mind?"

"I say it is, so it is. You're my underling, so stop arguing with me all the time."

After saying that, Uchiha Kurohane ignored her, picked up his pencil, and began copying at a frantic pace.

Kushina Uzumaki rested her chin in her hands and stared blankly from beside him.

After watching for a while, she suddenly cried out.

"Ah!"

Uchiha Kurohane jumped in fright.

"Is the teacher here?"

"No, your arm is injured!"

Kushina Uzumaki concernedly grasped Uchiha Kurohane's arm, brought her face close, and carefully examined it.

"Did you get cut by a shuriken in yesterday's battle?"

Because Kushina Uzumaki's face was so close, her gentle breath brushed against Uchiha Kurohane's arm, making it feel itchy.

"It's just a tiny scratch. Instead of worrying about something so minor, help me copy my homework."

Uchiha Kurohane shoved his history homework notebook into Kushina Uzumaki's face.

History required writing a lot and was the most troublesome subject. Uchiha Kurohane had learned his lesson this time: he had Kushina Uzumaki copy the history work while he copied the math.

Since Kushina Uzumaki had nothing better to do anyway, she took the notebook and began copying for him.

At that moment, a graceful figure walked up to Uchiha Kurohane's desk, her black ponytail swaying with her elegant steps.

"Kurohane, why haven't you done your homework again? How are you going to explain yourself this time?"

Class representative Yoshino Nara stood with one hand on her hip and the other hidden behind her back, seemingly holding something.

Uchiha Kurohane looked up at her delicate, pretty face and answered seriously.

"The Uchiha Clan held a meeting last night. I didn't have time to do homework. If you have a problem with that, go talk to my clan leader."

"Lord Setsuna... Then forget it."

Yoshino Nara had heard about Uchiha Setsuna's exploits from her parents.

She knew he was an extremely radical and dangerous person.

He was radical enough to attempt a coup. She did not understand why someone like that had been allowed to walk free.

Not only her, even the teacher probably would not dare get involved with him.

If the teacher found out, the teacher would have to negotiate with Uchiha Setsuna, which would only harm the teacher.

She could only pretend not to know!

Considerately taking the teacher's feelings into account, Yoshino Nara changed the subject.

"By the way, I'm very sorry for misunderstanding you before. I sincerely apologize. I hope you can forgive me and not cut ties with me."

As she spoke, Yoshino Nara brought out the hand she had hidden behind her back and held a bento wrapped in white cloth before Uchiha Kurohane.

"I made this bento myself. After you eat it at noon, make up with me."

Uchiha Kurohane looked at Yoshino Nara's apologetic expression, feeling a little bewildered.

"What are you talking about? Did I ever say I wanted to cut ties with you?"

Although Yoshino Nara was serious and could be troublesome at times,

as the class representative, she had a certain amount of authority.

For example, when Uchiha Kurohane failed an exam and had to return to school during vacation for remedial lessons, Yoshino Nara was the one responsible for watching him.

As long as he gave Yoshino Nara a few lollipops, she would turn a blind eye and greatly shorten Uchiha Kurohane's remedial lesson time.

There were many ways Uchiha Kurohane needed her help, so why would he cut ties with her?

"Hm? Yesterday, I misunderstood you and thought you weren't someone who would help classmates. Weren't you angry and shouting that you wanted to cut ties with me? ...Ah! You were just saying it casually!"

Yoshino Nara realized that Uchiha Kurohane had merely been joking yesterday, while she had taken it seriously on her own. She immediately felt a wave of embarrassment.

"Fine, I misunderstood. Just pretend you never heard what I said."

Yoshino Nara withdrew the bento box she had held out before Uchiha Kurohane.

Uchiha Kurohane snatched it away.

"Since you made me a bento, I'll eat it anyway. It would be a waste not to."