Did You Put Your Hand in the Wrong Place?

Mirai took two steps back, pretending to be flustered by the four-pronged assault from Izumi. He dodged left and right, waving his wooden kunai wildly to parry attacks coming from every direction.

The watching students looked on nervously, and some even covered their eyes.

Izumi felt a surge of joy. She controlled three Shadow Clones to attack Mirai from different angles simultaneously, while she circled behind him, gripping her kunai to stab at his back—

The moment her kunai was about to touch the corner of Mirai's clothes, he suddenly moved.

He didn't look back; he simply dropped his body low and executed a clean, sharp sweep kick, precisely catching the feet of the "ambusher" behind him.

"Bang!"

The three Shadow Clones dissipated instantly. Izumi lost her balance, pitched forward, and fell heavily to the ground, her wooden kunai flying from her hand.

The next second, Mirai flipped over and pinned her down. One leg pressed against her struggling legs, his left hand held her chest to keep her from rising, and his right hand held the wooden kunai, resting it gently against the side of her neck.

"You lost," he said, looking down.

The entire field went silent.

Izumi Uchiha lay on her back, her face turning bright red—the heat spreading from the base of her neck to the tips of her ears.

She was pinned by Mirai in an almost intimate manner. Her chest was pressed by his hand, and she could clearly feel the warmth of his palm and his breathing. He was so close that she could count the number of his eyelashes.

"You... you!" Izumi's voice changed pitch, trembling with extreme shame and anger. "Get up! Get up right now!"

Only then did Mirai realize, a beat too late, that his hand might have been in the wrong place. He quickly withdrew his hand, stood up, and took a step back, even pulling Izumi up from the ground as he did so.

But Izumi shook off his hand, her eyes already rimmed with red.

Before Toriyama Kazunari could announce the result, she turned and ran, the ends of her long, straight black hair tracing an arc in the wind as she disappeared into the bushes by the playground.

"...The winner is Mirai Uzumaki," Toriyama Kazunari announced awkwardly, then looked at Mirai, shaking his head with a look of hesitation.

Mirai stood where he was, scratching his head. "...Did I do something wrong again just now?"

Kushina Uzumaki rushed over in a flash, poked his chest with her index finger, and tightened her small face. "Mirai, you, you, you—where were you pressing your hand just now?! How could you touch a girl there!"

"Huh?" Mirai blinked. "Isn't it...? She's only seven. Is there any difference between touching her chest or her back?"

The students: "..."

Kushina's face turned red too, and in her anger, she raised her hand and tapped him on the forehead. "Baka~! It doesn't matter how old she is, you can't just touch people! Go apologize to her!"

"Alright, alright, I'll go, I'll go..."

Back in the classroom, Izumi Uchiha sat at her desk, head bowed and motionless.

Her deskmate tried to talk to her several times, but she avoided him every time.

Mirai walked to her desk and tapped on it lightly.

"Izumi?"

No response.

"Izumi Uchiha?"

Still no response.

Mirai sighed, leaned over to get closer, and lowered his voice. "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to; I'll be more careful next time."

Izumi's shoulders twitched slightly, and then she slowly raised her head.

Her eyes were indeed a bit red and damp, but she wasn't actually crying.

It was just that her perpetually cold little face was now filled with complex emotions—shame, resentment, and something else that was hard to define.

She bit her lip and remained silent for a long time before speaking in a muffled voice. "...Just go away. I'm not crying."

"Then why are your eyes red?"

"Sand got in my eyes!"

"...Alright, sand." Mirai didn't call her bluff and stood up straight, preparing to return to his seat.

"Wait," Izumi called out to him.

Mirai turned back.

Izumi clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and looked up, meeting his eyes directly. Her voice was quiet but firm.

"Next month, I will challenge you again. By then... I absolutely will not lose again."

Mirai looked at her black eyes, which were burning with fire once more, and suddenly felt that this stubborn little girl was actually quite interesting.

"Sure," he smiled. "I'll be waiting."

After returning to his seat, Kushina leaned over and whispered, "Did she forgive you?"

"I don't know. She said she's going to beat me up next month."

"...Then are you going to fight her next month?"

"I guess so," Mirai leaned back in his chair. "She can't beat me anyway."

Kushina looked at him, suddenly leaned in closer, and muttered in a low voice, "Don't tell me you've taken a liking to that girl from the Uchiha clan?"

"What?"

"I don't care, you promised me that we'd go to Grandma Mito's place after school to learn Sealing Jutsu!"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Of course it has something to do with it!"

Mirai looked at her, completely bewildered, failing to grasp the logic connecting the two things.

Kushina huffed, turning her head away to avoid looking at him.

The setting sun outside the window painted half the sky red, and the classroom was filled with the noisy chatter of children.

Mirai Uzumaki leaned back in his chair, watching the fiery clouds on the horizon, thinking—this life might be tiring, but it isn't bad.

Kushina had been acting a bit strange lately.

To be specific, her eyes kept drifting toward a certain direction without her realizing it.

She glanced during class, she glanced while eating, and she even glanced while Grandma Mito was watching them learn Sealing Jutsu.

She was looking at Mirai Uzumaki.

To be precise, she was looking at the dynamic between Mirai Uzumaki and Izumi Uchiha.

Ever since that "accident" during the last practical combat class, although Izumi still kept a cold face, she would occasionally pause for a moment when passing Mirai in the hallway, then lower her head and walk past quickly.

As for Mirai, whether it was because he had promised Mikoto to "go easy on her," his attitude toward Izumi was clearly gentler than before.

Kushina saw all of this, and for some reason, her heart felt sour.

"Hmph, what's so great about her anyway..."

Seeing Izumi's ears turn slightly red as she passed Mirai in the hallway one time, she couldn't help but mutter, "So what if she has long, straight black hair? Red hair is the rare one..."

But she couldn't explain why she cared about any of this.

She and Mirai had come from the Land of Whirlpools together, lived under the same roof, walked to and from school together every day, ate the meals Grandma Mito cooked together, and got their heads knocked by Tsunade together...

Clearly, she was the person closest to Mirai.

Yet, whenever she saw Mirai smile at Izumi, her chest felt inexplicably tight.

I'm not jealous, she told herself, I just... I just don't like the look of it.

She couldn't figure this problem out for the time being, so she just had to bottle it up.

Fortunately, the school had a short break coming up, so she wouldn't have to face that long-haired girl who annoyed her so much.

On the first day of the break, Mito called the two children to the Sealing Room as usual.