The Beautiful Girl's Concern

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

At the fourth second, he used a shuriken to slice his arm again.

Still no position swap; another small wound appeared on his arm.

He licked the wound and continued counting.

At the fifth second, he sliced again.

Poof.

Uchiha Kurohane swapped positions with the crow from earlier and returned to the ground.

"The cooldown for the automatic substitution is five seconds."

It was exactly the same as the cooldown for the Deva Path's Almighty Push.

Five seconds is a very short time, passing in the blink of an eye, but in a ninja battle, it is fatal.

The ability displayed by the Deva Path's Almighty Push seemed unsolvable at first, leaving one completely unable to cope.

However, once Kakashi learned of the five-second cooldown, he immediately thought of a way to break it.

If there were no outside interference, Kakashi could actually solo the Deva Path.

But the Yatagarasu Substitute was different; during the five-second cooldown, it could be actively triggered through hand seals, and when used this way, he could choose to swap with a crow or a shadow clone regardless of distance.

And the time required for the hand seals was only one second.

In other words, his window of vulnerability was only one second long.

In the future, as his ability to perform hand seals improved, he could speed up the process even further.

Once mastered, it could truly achieve the effects of the Flying Thunder God.

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

Although he could communicate with the crows and have them fly behind the enemy, they were animals after all, and their intelligence could not compare to a human's. They could only fly to a general area; Uchiha Kurohane could not precisely control their exact landing spots.

Furthermore, communicating with the crows also consumed time.

In this regard, the Flying Thunder God held a significant advantage.

The Flying Thunder God allowed one to precisely control the landing point by throwing ninja tools, or by marking companions with the Flying Thunder God seal to coordinate with them.

"I hope that as the Yatagarasu's ability further evolves, this point can be improved."

Having grasped the capabilities of the Yatagarasu, Uchiha Kurohane performed the hand seals again to return home, where he quickly finished his bread.

He took a carton of milk nearing its expiration date from the fridge, performed the hand seals once more, and appeared on the stairs of the Ninja Academy.

He walked quickly through the hallway and entered the classroom.

His classmates had already arrived, but the atmosphere was unusually heavy, lacking the usual noise of rowdy play.

Everyone was whispering about something with worried expressions on their faces.

It was likely that bad news had arrived from the battlefield, or perhaps word had spread that Genin were to be sent to the front lines.

None of this concerned Uchiha Kurohane; he was in a rush to copy his homework and didn't care what they were discussing.

He walked briskly to his seat in the second-to-last row by the window.

Kushina Uzumaki was already sitting in the adjacent seat. Lacking a partner, she had no one to talk to.

She simply watched the other students talking with a melancholy gaze, sitting alone in a daze, looking very lonely.

Seeing Uchiha Kurohane walk over, she pursed her lips and broke into a bright smile.

"Good morning, Kurohane-kun."

Uchiha Kurohane sat down and spoke immediately.

"It's an emergency, hurry up and take out your homework."

Kushina Uzumaki pouted her cherry lips.

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

Uchiha Kurohane reached directly for her schoolbag, opened it, and pulled out her notebook.

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

Kushina Uzumaki looked curious.

"Eh~ you guys actually hold clan meetings? What exactly did you talk about?"

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

"These are adult matters; children shouldn't worry about them."

Kushina Uzumaki puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

"You're even younger than I am!"

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

"What is this? Isn't your grade the worst in the class? And you still claim to have the mind of an adult with scores like that?"

"I said it is, so it is. You're my underling, so stop contradicting me all the time."

After Uchiha Kurohane finished speaking, he ignored her and picked up his pencil, scribbling away furiously.

Kushina Uzumaki rested her chin in her hands, watching him blankly from the side.

After a moment, she suddenly let out a startled cry.

"Ah!"

Uchiha Kurohane was startled by her outburst.

"Is the teacher coming?"

"No, your arm is hurt!"

Kushina Uzumaki grabbed Uchiha Kurohane's arm with concern, leaning her face in to inspect it closely.

"Was it scratched by a shuriken in yesterday's battle?"

Because Kushina Uzumaki had brought her face so close, the gentle breath she exhaled brushed against Uchiha Kurohane's arm, making him feel ticklish.

"It's just a small scratch. Instead of worrying about such trifles, why don't you help me copy my homework?"

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

History homework required writing a lot of characters and was the most troublesome; Uchiha Kurohane had gotten smart this time, letting Kushina Uzumaki copy the history for him while he copied the math.

Thinking that she was idle anyway, Kushina Uzumaki took the workbook and began copying it for him.

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

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

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

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

"The Uchiha clan held a meeting last night, so I didn't have time to do my homework. If you have any objections, go talk to my clan leader."

"Lord Setsuna? ...Well, never mind then."

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

She knew he was an extremely radical and dangerous individual.

He was so radical that he wanted to stage a coup; she couldn't understand why such a person was still allowed to walk free.

It wasn't just her; even the teachers wouldn't dare to get involved with him.

If she let the teachers know about this, they would be forced to negotiate with Uchiha Setsuna, which would only end up harming them.

She had no choice but to pretend she didn't know!

Yoshino Nara considerately thought of the teachers' feelings and changed the subject.

"By the way, I am very sorry for misunderstanding you in the past. I sincerely apologize and hope you can forgive me and not cut ties with me."

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

"This is a bento I made myself. Eat it at noon, and let's make up."

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

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

Although Yoshino Nara had a serious personality and could be troublesome at times, she held a certain amount of authority as the class representative.

For instance, when Uchiha Kurohane failed an exam and had to return to school for remedial classes during the holidays, it was Yoshino Nara who supervised him.

As long as he gave her a few lollipops, she would turn a blind eye and significantly shorten his remedial time.

Uchiha Kurohane needed her help for many things, so why would he ever cut ties with her?

"Huh? Yesterday, I misunderstood you and thought you weren't the type to help classmates. You were very angry and shouted that you wanted to cut ties with me... Ah! You were just saying that off the cuff!"

Yoshino Nara realized that Uchiha Kurohane had only been joking yesterday, and she felt a wave of shame for having taken it seriously.

"Fine, it was my misunderstanding. Just pretend you never heard what I just said."

Yoshino Nara began to pull back the bento box she had extended toward Uchiha Kurohane.

Uchiha Kurohane snatched it away.

"Since you've already made the bento for me, I might as well eat it. It would be a waste not to."