Shinku's Isolation

Hoshi and Sakumo followed behind Torifu Akimichi to Konoha Hospital.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Hoshi naturally went to greet his mother. With the war already over, the hospital had not been very busy these past two days, so Hoshi easily found his mom.

He went over to say hello and briefly told his mother about Torifu Akimichi. Since Hoshi had given her a heads-up beforehand, Rie was somewhat shocked when they met, but she did not lose her composure.

She knew Torifu Akimichi's reputation well. Rie could hardly have been happier that her son had become Torifu's disciple.

After some pleasantries, Rie warmly led them to Yūhi Shinkō's hospital room. The moment they entered, Sakumo and Hoshi saw Yūhi Shinkō lying on the bed.

Yūhi Shinkō was very thin—the kind of gauntness that had hollowed out his cheeks. It was hard not to worry whether his body could truly support him becoming a ninja.

Yūhi Shinkō clearly had not recovered from the shock of seeing his teammates killed. Though he looked as if he had largely recovered physically, his eyes were still somewhat vacant.

His two teammates and his teacher had all died right before his eyes. Only he had escaped disaster through Genjutsu. Such a horrific experience was simply too cruel for a child who had only recently graduated from the Ninja Academy.

Torifu Akimichi stepped forward and lightly patted the dazed Shinkō. "All right, stop spacing out. Come meet your new teammates. This is Hoshi, and this is Sakumo. They'll be your good companions from now on."

Shinkō jumped at Torifu's touch. Seeing Torifu's fierce face, he instinctively cried out. Only after recognizing Torifu Akimichi did he lower his voice and apologize, "Sorry, Teacher Torifu. I still..."

Torifu casually patted his shoulder. "It's fine. You'll get used to it with time. For now, get to know your new teammates. You'll be fighting side by side from now on."

At the word "fighting," Shinkō's brow furrowed instinctively. He was somewhat resistant to that word now.

Following Torifu's gesture, he looked over at Hoshi and Sakumo, and his eyes suddenly widened. Pointing at them, he cried out in a sharp, hurried voice, "Them? My teammates? They don't even look like they're in their second year at the Ninja Academy. Are you insane? If I go on missions with them, will I even survive? I barely escaped with my life, and now you want me to team up with these two brats? How is that any different from going to my death?"

Clearly, Shinkō had yet to emerge from the shadow of his previous mission's failure. On his very first mission, all of his teammates had died. The blow was like stepping out of a greenhouse only to be hit by a Category 8 typhoon.

That mission had shattered his worldview. He still wanted to become a ninja, but he was now deeply terrified of missions.

He did not mean any ill will toward Hoshi and Sakumo by saying that. He simply thought that teammates his own age had been slaughtered like chickens without any ability to resist. Now they were assigning him two teammates this young—wasn't that just sending him to die for nothing? Sakumo grew a little angry at Shinkō's expression. Leaning close to Hoshi's ear, he said, "That guy actually looks down on us. What does he mean by that? We could finish missions without him anyway."

Hoshi patted Sakumo, signaling him to stay calm. In truth, Hoshi understood Shinkō's feelings quite well. Back in his previous life, after losing five or six games in a row, he would get like this too.

He would feel like there was something wrong with his own abilities, that his teammates were useless, that the whole world was out to get him. This state was commonly known as being tilted into silence.

Shinkō was clearly in that kind of "silent" state right now. In fact, if they gave him some confidence from outside and let him successfully complete a few missions to rebuild his confidence, he should be able to pull himself out of it.

With that in mind, Hoshi spoke. "Don't worry. Teaming up with us isn't a death sentence, because we'll protect you."

Shinkō was amused by Hoshi's "outrageously arrogant" words. "You two? What makes you think you can protect me? The way you two look, you'd probably collapse within five seconds of a real mission."

Hoshi did not answer Shinkō's mockery. Instead, he slowly walked to the side, took an apple from the fruit basket, and tossed it lightly in his hand.

Just as Shinkō was wondering what trick Hoshi intended to pull, Hoshi suddenly threw the apple high into the air. At the same time, he drew the Dagger strapped to his thigh and slashed with lightning speed.

Shinkō only saw a blur before Hoshi had already withdrawn his Dagger. He spun it twice in his hand, then leisurely slid it back into the sheath strapped to his thigh.

Torifu, standing nearby, cooperated perfectly with Hoshi's display. He stretched out both hands and steadily caught the apple as it fell from the air.

After sheathing his Dagger, Hoshi raised his head and flashed a confident smile. "This."

After watching Hoshi's ridiculously flashy performance, Shinkō thought it was unbelievably cool, though he still stubbornly kept up his tough talk. "It's just cutting a piece of fruit while it's in the air. What kind of skill is that? If it were me, I could also—"

His words came to an abrupt stop as Torifu casually held out his hand and displayed the apple before him. "Eat it. Don't waste it."

Torifu's gesture gave Shinkō a full view of the apple. It had been divided into eight nearly identical pieces.

In other words, in the brief instant between the apple rising and falling, Hoshi had accurately struck four times.

Swinging four times in such a short span was already terrifying enough. What was even more terrifying was that every cut was straight and smooth, as precise as if they had been measured with a ruler.

All right, he really could not do that.

Shinkō thought to himself, Even if I held the apple in my hand, I probably couldn't cut it into such perfect pieces. Is this guy a monster? Has he been practicing Swordsmanship since he was in the womb?

"If you're not eating it, then I will."

While marveling inwardly at Hoshi's superb Swordsmanship, Torifu secretly found Shinkō's stunned expression amusing. He felt like teasing him a little, so he picked up a slice of apple and stuffed it into his mouth.

Not bad. It was actually pretty sweet! Shinkō hurriedly snatched the remaining apple away. After stuffing two pieces into his mouth, he finally made up his mind. He turned around and stared brightly at Hoshi and Sakumo, his gaze clearly saying:

Bosses, please let me cling to your legs. Please carry me.

Yūhi Shinkō officially joined the team. At the hospital entrance, Torifu looked over his three disciples with great satisfaction and smiled. "Now that our team is complete, let's—"

Before he could finish, Hoshi took over. "I know. Next comes the Survival Exercise, right?"

"Huh? Survival Exercise? What I was going to say was, since everyone's here, let's go have some barbecue to celebrate."

Hoshi: (—_—)!! Sorry to interrupt.

If you cut an apple once vertically, horizontally, and sideways, that makes eight pieces, right? I'm not wrong, right? Ye Zhi is bad at math, so if I got it wrong, the math experts are welcome to correct me.

P.S. I suddenly remembered that thing from the previous book, where someone trained in a five-square-meter dungeon until they could hit with shuriken every time within five meters????????