The Uchiha's hardworking genius

Life at school was very boring.

Fortunately, Uchiha Gua could AFK.

He spent the day AFKing at school, then went home when classes ended.

To Uchiha Gua, these lessons were elementary school material, unbearably dull to listen to.

As for actual ninjutsu, their class had only learned Chakra Extraction so far. They probably wouldn't get to anything else for at least another month.

Besides, judging by how previous classes had been taught...

The first proper ninja lesson for new students would probably be shuriken throwing.

That was also why Shisui had started their training with shuriken.

Shuriken and kunai were the most common ninja weapons, and every ninja had to master their use.

A ninja could have poor chakra reserves, poor ninjutsu, or poor natural talent, but the one thing they couldn't afford was to be bad with shuriken and kunai.

If you were bad at the former things, you could still blame your talent.

If you were bad at the latter, that could only mean you were slacking off.

People like that weren't suited to being ninjas.

On his way home, Uchiha Gua ran into Izumi again.

She seemed to have deliberately appeared in front of him, yet she also seemed to be deliberately pretending not to know him, then deliberately talking to Itachi...

Even Itachi had no idea what to make of it.

"Izumi, aren't you pretty close with Gua?"

Izumi snorted, folded her arms, and lifted her chin haughtily. "I don't know any Gua."

As she spoke, Izumi sneaked a glance at Gua's expression.

Unfortunately, she didn't get to see it.

Because Gua was heading home.

All she saw was the back of his head.

"Aaaaah!!"

Izumi couldn't take it anymore. She was about to lose her mind.

Seeing Izumi suddenly fly into a rage, Itachi hurriedly waved goodbye.

"Izumi, I'll be going now. You should head home soon too."

Watching Gua and Itachi walk away, Izumi gritted her teeth.

"I'm never talking to Gua again!"

"Achoo-"

Gua let out a sudden sneeze as he reached his front door.

"Gua! Did you not dress warmly enough today? Have you caught a cold?"

His mother, Uchiha Nai, quickly crouched down and asked with concern.

Gua shook his head.

"No."

"Maybe someone's bad-mouthing me."

Gua rubbed his nose, his tone as flat as ever.

His mother, Uchiha Nai, felt his little hands. They were warm, so he didn't seem to have caught a chill.

Nai relaxed.

"What goes on in that head of yours all day, hmm?"

Nai poked Gua's forehead. He covered his head with both hands, but his face remained expressionless, his reaction positively robotic.

The corner of Nai's mouth twitched.

That silly son of hers.

His mother stood up.

"Gua, you'll have to wait a little. Daddy might get home late today, so we'll be having dinner a bit later too."

Gua nodded.

"Okay."

"Father seems to be busy a lot lately. Is it because of those missing ninjas?"

"Yes. Even though Konoha ostracizes the Uchiha Clan, we still have to handle some police duties." Nai didn't hide anything. She had always spoken frankly with Gua.

"Mm."

Gua nodded again.

He sat cross-legged beside the low table.

He AFKed while waiting for his father to return.

People liked staying in their comfort zones. Once you discovered how good AFKing felt, you wanted to do it every moment of the day. That was probably the state Gua was in now.

If he could lie down, he wouldn't sit. If he could sit, he wouldn't stand. If he could AFK, he wouldn't mess around.

In the Shinobi World, some relied on tattoos, some on their eyes, some on their bloodlines, and some on their fathers. Only Uchiha Gua relied on AFKing!

Looking at the flickering tenfold AFK slot on his panel, he felt fulfilled.

This must be what they mean by looking within~

Gua nodded, endorsing his own conclusion.

The shrine in the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Many members of the Uchiha Clan had gathered there for a meeting.

They were discussing the recent string of ninja disappearances.

"This is already the fifth case this month! If we don't intervene, who knows how many more people will fall victim!"

An Uchiha clenched his fists as he spoke angrily.

"What the hell does it have to do with you? It's not Uchiha who are dying!" someone retorted.

"How can you say that? We're all part of Konoha!"

"You treat them like family, but they treat you like a sucker!"

The man on the receiving end of that retort found himself speechless.

No one around him continued the conversation either.

Silence fell.

Lies didn't hurt people. The truth was the sharpest knife.

It seemed the Uchiha really had become Konoha's biggest suckers.

Ever since the Nine-Tails' Attack, the Uchiha's reputation had plummeted. Konoha had begun its customary round of discrimination, bullying the Uchiha.

Of course, this bullying wasn't overt.

Instead, they pulled little tricks behind the scenes to ostracize the Uchiha Clan.

First, they relocated the clan compound. Then they gradually stripped the police force of its last vestiges of authority. Even when Uchiha went outside, Konoha's villagers looked at them strangely.

If Konoha hadn't still been recovering from the losses caused by the Nine-Tails' Attack, they probably would have moved against the Uchiha Clan long ago.

Every Uchiha present knew this without needing to say it.

"If you ask me, we should still get involved in the investigation. After all, we're still Konoha's police force."

Uchiha Oyama spoke up.

But clearly, he didn't hold much standing among these Uchiha.

The moment he spoke, someone objected.

"Do you think we don't want to? That bastard Danzo watches us like a hawk but won't give us any authority. We can't investigate anything, so how are we supposed to intervene? If we step even slightly out of line, that scumbag Danzo will bring Root over the very next day to give us trouble!"

"Under these circumstances, how do you expect us to intervene?"

"We'd be better off not making trouble for ourselves."

"Besides, our Uchiha police force exists in name only now! We have no authority whatsoever! How are we supposed to handle anything?"

Most of the Uchiha shared the same opinion.

Uchiha Oyama could only fall silent.

Uchiha Fugaku stood at the front of the crowd, the Uchiha clan crest behind him. The flickering light cast his shadow onto the wall bearing the crest.

Fugaku's expression remained grim, and he said nothing.

Everyone's eyes settled on their clan leader, waiting for him to speak.

"Increase patrols as much as we can within our authority. As for anything else, we..."

Fugaku shook his head helplessly. "There's nothing we can do either."

Some clan members felt their leader, Fugaku, was too mild, while others thought his response was only natural. He still commanded respect within the clan.

"If there are no objections, we'll end today's meeting here. Go home and get some rest. The night patrol teams are to step up their patrols."

Fugaku gave his instructions.

The Uchiha clan members began to disperse.

"Dashan."

Fugaku called out to Uchiha Oyama, who was about to leave.

Uchiha Oyama stopped in confusion and turned to look at his clan leader.

Fugaku walked toward him.

"Dashan, you have a fine son."

Uchiha Oyama froze. His son, Uchiha Gua, was famous within the clan for being good at AFKing.

For Clan Leader Fugaku to bring that up now...

Was he mocking him?

But that couldn't be right. The clan leader wasn't that sort of person.

Then was it genuine praise?

Uchiha Oyama was a little doubtful.

Seeming to notice Uchiha Oyama's confusion, Fugaku said, "I've heard all about your son. Itachi told me everything. He learned to extract chakra on his second day of school. A very promising child."

Uchiha Oyama was stunned.

After all, he had taught his son Chakra Extraction himself on the first day of school.

He had seen Gua's condition with his own eyes back then. How could he suddenly have managed to extract chakra the very next day?

Before Uchiha Oyama could speak...

Fugaku continued,

"Itachi also told me about Shisui taking him and Gua to the Back Mountain to train a couple of days ago. I never expected Gua's talent for taijutsu to be enough to overpower Itachi. Truly impressive."

Fugaku was genuinely proud that the Uchiha had produced another "genius."

Deep down, however, Fugaku didn't consider Uchiha Gua a genius. Still, he didn't deny the effort Uchiha Gua had put in!

Hard work deserved recognition too. That was how children this young found the motivation to keep going.

That was why Fugaku had said these things today.

He knew Dashan would pass his praise on to Gua.