A Ninja Crow ensnared by bonds, the names of cannon fodder called

Shisui felt utterly helpless.

Looking at Jin Uchiha's lackadaisical attitude, he honestly had no idea what to say to persuade him.

He thought someone like Jin would have been much happier as a civilian.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

Since he could extract Chakra, the course of his life was no longer his to choose.

After thinking it over a little more, he found he couldn't really fault Jin's reasoning.

Jin wasn't a genius. Even if he crammed at the last minute with Shisui personally supervising every step, he probably wouldn't accomplish much.

In the end, he might as well conserve his energy.

"All right, we'll do it your way."

"Get some proper rest today. Once you're on the battlefield, keep your eyes open."

"Oh, and I'll teach you one more technique."

After turning it over and over in his mind, Shisui ultimately stopped pushing.

Still uneasy, he taught Jin Uchiha the Summoning Technique and summoned a crow. Only then did a hint of a smile appear on his face.

"This is a Ninja Crow I trained."

"Sign a contract with it. Its abilities are no worse than those of the Ninja Cat Clan."

"Once the war's over, I'll pester Clan Head Fugaku a little more and get you connected with the ninja cats, too."

"If you really find yourself at death's door, don't do anything stupid. Have the Ninja Crow bring me a message right away."

"I'll fight my way over and get you out!"

Jin Uchiha's mouth twitched.

Faced with Shisui like this, he was equally at a loss for words.

He could tell that Shisui genuinely cared about him, without a trace of self-interest.

That was precisely why he felt even more stifled.

I don't need it!

As long as he didn't run into a Kage-level monster or one of those people carrying their village's tailed beast, he would have a hard time getting himself killed even if he tried.

But then he thought again. If he refused, Shisui would never let it go.

Whatever.

With an inward sigh, he accepted the Summoning Technique and signed a contract with the Ninja Crow.

At the sight, a faint smile finally rose to Shisui's lips.

The two chatted a little longer before Shisui said goodbye.

There was no helping it.

An idler like Jin couldn't compare to him. A genius like Shisui had all kinds of things to take care of every day.

Even on leave, Fugaku needed him to deal with the Radical Faction, Hiruzen Sarutobi sought him out every few days, and occasionally he even had to babysit little Itachi Uchiha.

Ugh!

What a miserable life.

My hands-off lifestyle is much more comfortable. With only myself to feed, I don't even need to set out another pair of chopsticks.

He couldn't be bothered to waste his energy on all that petty nonsense.

But bonds really could tie a person down until there was nothing he could do about it.

Back when he had been all alone, whether he defected or lay low, he had felt no inner conflict.

Then Teuchi and his daughter had come along.

Now there was Shisui, too.

Honestly... ugh!

He hardly dared dwell on it. If things kept going like this, would the ropes around him keep tightening?

At that thought, he suddenly understood Orochimaru.

No wonder that fellow hadn't offered a word in his defense when the village caught him conducting human experiments. He hadn't even bothered to shift the blame back onto Danzo.

A large part of it was probably disappointment that Hiruzen Sarutobi hadn't passed the position of Fourth Hokage to him.

But on a deeper level, he had probably figured out what being alive meant to him. Single-mindedly pursuing immortality, he had simply chosen to sever all his bonds to the Hidden Leaf himself.

He sat on the steps in front of the main house.

Watching Shisui's figure recede into the distance, then glancing sideways at the ninja crow beside him, Jin Uchiha felt his head ache worse by the moment.

"Mm, it's fine."

"It's only Shisui. Keeping him safe isn't some impossible task."

"The Third Shinobi World War has only just begun. The Nine-Tails incident is still a long way off, and the Uchiha Clan Massacre is even further away."

"No rush. I'll take it one step at a time."

Jin Uchiha pinched the bridge of his nose, reassuring himself over and over.

That was right.

He wasn't heartless by nature. His memories of his previous life, and a disposition steeped in five thousand years of civilization, kept bringing the same saying to mind: repay a drop of kindness with a gushing spring.

Teuchi and his daughter counted, and so did Shisui.

Whether anyone else lived or died didn't stir much feeling in him. He would only strike at people who struck at him.

The lives of strangers had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

He would clear the snow from his own doorstep, not worry about the frost on someone else's roof.

If Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to deal with the Uchiha, he wouldn't even bother to frown.

But Shisui's life—that was off-limits!

Once he had sorted that out, a cold gleam suddenly flashed in his eyes.

Early the next morning.

The fifth-year classroom at the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy was in an uproar.

Almost everyone in the room was excitedly speculating, itching to charge straight onto the battlefield and make a name for themselves.

Only the students from shinobi clans sat with drooping eyelids and listless expressions, like chicks that hadn't quite woken up.

Jin Uchiha: "..."

After glancing around the room, he couldn't hold back a yawn.

He slumped into his chair as though he had no bones, leaned sideways against the backrest, and stared blankly out the window.

No matter how noisy the classroom got, he had no interest in joining in.

There was no one in this class he could really talk to.

He came and went alone, kept quiet, and had a handsome face.

With the Uchiha name attached to him as well, even fewer people approached him to make friends.

After all, the Uchiha's reputation had long since gone rotten throughout the Hidden Leaf.

Of course, no one went out of their way to trouble him, either.

The reason was simple.

The genuine clan standouts and the talented civilians had all been gathered into Class A. His Class B held nothing but ordinary prospective shinobi.

The clan children kept their distance when they saw him.

The civilian children disliked the Uchiha, but they didn't have the nerve to roll up their sleeves and provoke him.

However foul its reputation, the Uchiha was still the Hidden Leaf's foremost clan. No one could dispute that.

They weren't talented, had no backing, and Jin Uchiha had never provoked them. Unless they were complete idiots, they wouldn't come looking for his attention.

Thanks to that, he had coasted peacefully through five years at school.

Another factor was that, with Uchiha blood in his veins, he had a natural advantage in looks.

Over the years, a few girls in his class had tried to get close to him, openly or otherwise.

Unfortunately for them, Jin Uchiha was merely lying low, not actually useless.

Even when one of those girls had a pretty face and a good figure, he paid her no attention at all.

The reason was simple, too.

From the moment they entered the academy, they had already been marked down as shinobi. They no longer counted as civilians.

After today, they would all be sent to fill the battlefield.

For these ordinary shinobi, the odds of surviving to the end were probably less than one percent.

He didn't want to find himself a girlfriend only for her to turn into a corpse on the front lines right afterward.

So he would pass.

He was still young, anyway. Once he had kept his head down for a few more years and become someone who could truly bend things to his will, would he really have trouble finding a woman?

Time crawled slowly onward.

About half an hour later, Sarutobi Daio entered the classroom.

Everyone seated before him was merely cannon fodder about to be fed into the battlefield, so naturally he had no interest in making friends or getting close to them.

Without so much as a preamble, he spoke.

"All right, get back to your seats."

"I'm going to read out your squad assignments now. Listen carefully, all of you."

"I'll only say this once."

"Squad One: Furusawa Mai, Ishizuka Yuta, Miyata Shiho."

"Squad Two: Abe Kairei, Sugawara Mana, Kawahara Sara."

"Squad Three: ..."

"..."