Will of Domination

"Heh, bring it on! I'll show you what the great Obito can do!"

Obito formed the Seal of Confrontation too, then charged at Homura.

[Battle started! Opponent: Obito Uchiha (Ninja Academy)]

Just as I thought. If Obito can use his Sharingan properly, he's as strong as I am in my normal state. I can farm Gold Coins off him!

With that thought, Homura sidestepped Obito's charging punch, twisted at the waist, and used the momentum to land a spinning kick.

Bang!

The clean strike sent Obito flying. He crashed hard to the ground.

[Battle decided! Defeated Obito Uchiha (Ninja Academy). Obtained 100 Gold Coins.]

"Too many unnecessary movements."

Homura walked over, recalled Obito's attack, and told him how to improve:

"If I were you, I'd test my opponent with a Kunai or Shuriken first instead of charging straight at him."

"And all those extra movements gave away exactly what you were trying to do."

Homura helped Obito up and handed him a Taijutsu Scroll he had taken from the Book Collection. "Anyway, practice what's in here. I'll spar with you, of course."

He silently added:

You'd better cough up a whole lot of Gold Coins.

"Homura." Obito looked at him, moved. When they had first met, Homura had beaten him up for no reason. He had never expected Homura to care so much about him.

Remembering the dream he had just had, Obito silently swore:

I won't be stuck running away like I was in that dream!

Homura watched Obito head off to practice Taijutsu with renewed determination, then quietly pulled out a Water Balloon.

He poured Chakra into it, trying to make it spin.

A few days later.

[Completed today's training. Obtained 10 Gold Coins.]

Gold Coins: 300

"The sun's shining overhead, and I want to blow up the school..."

After eating the breakfast Mikoto had made, Homura walked down a Konoha street, humming a tune he couldn't name.

Today, his confinement had finally ended!

"That's him, right? That Uchiha brat."

"Yeah, that's him. I heard he burned down the hill behind the village."

"What a dangerous kid. Why does the Third Hokage still let him stay in the village?"

"Hmph. Coming from that clan, it's no surprise he'd do something like that. I say they should all..."

Homura nearly lost his composure when he heard them. So this is Konoha's Will of Domination?

You think I'm dangerous, yet you still dare to bully me to my face.

When it comes to bullying, I, Homura Uchiha, acknowledge you as the strongest.

Homura had no intention of making an issue of it. After all, even if it had been an accident, he really had started that fire.

But then...

"I heard his parents died a long time ago. His older cousin and her husband raised him."

"Right, right. Her husband's the captain of the Police Force. He's always got that stern look. I get scared every time I see him!"

The villagers had unwittingly turned the conversation to Homura's family. A man selling watermelons chimed in:

"I bet his cousin and her husband are no good either. In fact, the whole Uchiha Clan is—"

"Huh? Where'd that kid go?"

The man turned and found Homura standing in front of his stall.

Did he hear me? Damn it.

Though the boy came from a shinobi clan, a strange burst of courage rose in the man. He was about to confront him first.

"Boss, how much are your watermelons per pound?"

So he's here to buy a watermelon.

The man sighed in relief and enthusiastically pitched his wares to Homura.

Homura picked up a watermelon and inspected it carefully. Then he shook his head. "Boss, can you guarantee this one's ripe?"

The man's smile stiffened. "I sell watermelons. You think I'd sell you an unripe one?"

"If it isn't ripe, I'll eat it myself. How's that?"

"Great. I'll take this one. Cut it open here so I can eat it on the way."

"You got it." The man flashed a broad, toothy grin.

He placed the watermelon on a rigged scale.

"Fifteen pounds. Three hundred ryo."

Homura handed over three hundred ryo. Smiling, the man picked up his knife to cut the watermelon.

Another easy profit. These Uchiha really are...

When the watermelon split open, Homura raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? Boss, why is the inside of this watermelon all mashed up? Are you trying to cheat me?"

The man stared in panic at the watermelon he had cut open. All the flesh inside was shredded, as if something had spun through it at high speed.

"H-how is that possible?"

The man looked at Homura, whose eyes were blazing with anger.

"It was you! You must have tampered with it!"

"What! You dare slander the Uchiha Clan, which has stood for a thousand years, possesses the Sharingan—one of the Shinobi World's most powerful Kekkei Genkai—and founded Konoha alongside the Senju Clan?"

"Do you have a problem with the First Hokage's policy for founding the village?"

Homura pushed off the ground, appeared behind the man, and kicked the back of his knee, forcing him down onto his knees.

After taking back his money, Homura grabbed the man by the collar and glared at him in feigned anger.

"You're saying that I, a five-year-old kid, crushed the flesh inside a watermelon without breaking its rind, right here in front of everyone? Is that it? Hm?"

"I... I..."

The man wanted to cry. He had rigged his scale to cheat people, but he wasn't bold enough to sell rotten watermelons.

The surrounding villagers gradually gathered around.

"Isn't that the watermelon seller?"

"He's selling rotten fruit too? No wonder I got diarrhea last time."

Listening to the villagers, the man's breathing grew ragged. Rage overcame his fear.

He turned and threw a punch at Homura, who had seen it coming.

The instant the man swung, Homura released his collar. The man lurched forward from his own momentum—straight into Homura's waiting knee.

"Ah!"

Homura's knee left a bruise around the man's right eye. To everyone watching, it looked as though he had run into it himself.

"Help! He's trying to kill me!"

Homura shouted and flailed his arms, catching the man across the face with a slap.

Clang!

The slap whipped the man's head aside. He knocked over the scale pan, exposing the magnet attached underneath.

"Well, look at that. You're shortchanging people too."

Homura's eyes widened. He stepped forward and punched the man's other eye.

Now the two sides matched.

"What's going on here?"

The commotion drew the Police Force's attention.

Lianping arrived and immediately spotted Homura—the boy he had seen undressing Obito at Obito's house a few days earlier.

"Officer, this old bastard sold me a rotten watermelon and rigged his scale."

Lianping suppressed his unease and surveyed the scene.

The watermelon had been cut open, and its flesh was shredded.

The scale pan lay on the ground with a magnet attached underneath.

The physical evidence was all there.

As for witnesses...

Homura Uchiha might have a slightly unusual hobby, but one of them was Konoha Rabble, and the other was an Uchiha.

As an Uchiha serving in the Police Force, Lianping knew what to do. He reached out and hauled the man up.

"We have witnesses and physical evidence. Come with me to the Military Police Station."

Seeing Lianping take the stall owner away, Homura casually picked up an intact watermelon and headed toward the Ninja Academy.

In the nearby alley, Orochimaru examined the watermelon's shredded flesh and narrowed his eyes.

Chakra spinning at high speed. You interest me more and more, Homura.