Victory!

Time rolled back.

Shikaku Nara yawned.

He had been leaning in the shade of a tree beside the training ground, eyes half closed, mentally calculating how much longer this test would take.

Then a dark-brown-haired civilian ninja suddenly pointed at his nose and accused him of being half asleep.

He spent about two seconds confirming that this person actually existed, then another second deciding whether he was an undercover agent sent by Mr. Ito to drag the three of them over for the test.

No, just an ordinary Konoha villager.

Shikaku took another look at Jiro Matsumoto's face, flushed red with anger.

The source of that anger was probably the throwing test earlier.

Although he, Inoichi, and Choza hadn't taken their turns, they had pieced together the gist from the chatter around them.

Minato and Amamiya Maki had thoroughly outclassed this guy in the throwing test, and now he desperately needed a weaker opponent to prove he wasn't the worst.

And he had picked Ino-Shika-Cho.

With him in this state, what was there left to say?

They went along with it.

When the three of them continued to ignore him, Jiro Matsumoto assumed they were afraid of him.

He was about to add a few more threats when he noticed that the fat boy's gaze hadn't changed at all.

The half-asleep one yawned again.

The tall, skinny one's gaze swept past him and settled on the distant target positions, as though calculating wind speed and trajectories.

No anger, no fear, not even disdain.

It was complete, pure indifference.

As though his impassioned provocation had been nothing more than a gust of wind that blew past without shaking loose so much as a leaf.

Something seemed to lodge in his throat.

In the end, under their calm gazes, Jiro Matsumoto lowered his proudly raised head inch by inch.

But even after admitting defeat, he hadn't entirely admitted defeat-he turned, walked a few steps away, then loudly told his friends, "Hmph, what are you acting so high and mighty for? Don't think having a clan behind you makes you special!" He kept his voice just loud enough for the Ino-Shika-Cho trio to hear, but not loud enough for the teacher to intervene.

Then he left with a group of civilian ninjas, putting on a perfect display of "We're excluding you."

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio watched them leave, then exchanged looks.

"Let's go." Shikaku Nara yawned again, preparing to leave with Inoichi and Choza.

This farce had wasted about three minutes of his resting time, and he was already mourning those three minutes.

Then a voice drifted lazily over from the side.

"As expected of the Nara Clan's genius. Even the way you slack off is special."

Shikaku stopped in his tracks.

This voice was different from Jiro Matsumoto's.

Jiro Matsumoto had simply been venting his anger. There was no finesse to it.

This voice sounded casual, almost complimentary, but every word pressed somewhere uncomfortable.

He turned and saw Amamiya Maki standing a few steps away, wearing an expression as sincere as someone asking for help with homework.

"Unlike ordinary civilians like us. If we skipped the test, the teacher would chew us out, wouldn't he?"

[Detected: host has inflicted mental pressure on "Shikaku Nara"]

[Pressure +42]

[Obtained: Shadow Imitation Technique (shape control) fragments ×6, Yin Release Chakra Nature Transformation fragments ×4, tactical analysis ability fragments ×3]

Shikaku's expression shifted almost imperceptibly.

Only for an instant, before he resumed his lazy look.

"What do you mean by that? I don't quite understand."

"In Konoha, clan or no clan makes no difference. We're all Konoha ninjas, all inheritors of the Will of Fire."

His instincts told him there was a trap in those words. He couldn't respond carelessly.

The Third's ideal of "the village is the family" had only just been promoted throughout the village.

At a time like this, a claim that "clans stand above civilians" would spell trouble if it reached the wrong ears.

Shikaku Nara silently raised Amamiya Maki's threat level a notch.

An ordinary troublemaker would just insult you, and that would be the end of it.

This troublemaker pinned labels on people-and the kind that were hard to peel off once they stuck.

This was no ordinary troublemaker anymore. It was time to hit back hard!

Seeing that Shikaku wanted to change the subject, Amamiya Maki immediately pressed his attack.

He smiled, his tone growing even more casual. "Nothing much. I was just reflecting on how an orphan like me, who doesn't even have parents, really can't compare to a clan ninja."

The moment Shikaku Nara heard that, he was wide awake.

Even if those words weren't worlds apart from the Third's ideal of "the village is the family," they were at least heading in the exact opposite direction.

This guy's way of pinning labels on people wasn't something he'd improvised.

He had a whole system!

First, he threw out a vague accusation. When you dodged it, he followed with a more specific stab, each strike aimed straight at a vital spot.

And yet his expression remained so sincere throughout that you couldn't find fault with it.

"Sir." Shikaku Nara made a snap decision and raised his hand.

"The three of us haven't taken the test yet. We'd like to take it."

Junji Ito was organizing the scorebook. At those words, he looked up and gave Shikaku a somewhat surprised glance.

A Nara child volunteering to take a test wasn't something you saw every day.

"Come over, then. In order."

Shikaku Nara strode toward the throwing line, never slowing as he passed Amamiya Maki.

Inoichi Yamanaka and Choza Akimichi exchanged a glance, then followed.

As Choza passed, he took another curious look at Amamiya Maki.

Inoichi frowned slightly, seemingly trying to work out what had happened in that conversation.

Amamiya Maki watched the three of them head toward the throwing line, his smile unchanged.

Then he saw their scores.

Shikaku Nara picked up the shuriken and flicked them out casually.

Nine hits on the stationary targets, three on the moving targets.

His movements were lazy, and he even yawned afterward, as though landing one more hit would have been too much effort.

Inoichi Yamanaka stepped forward next, wearing the same "let's get this over with and leave" attitude: six hits on the stationary targets, eight on the moving targets.

A good enough score was all he needed. He wasn't fussing over accuracy at all.

Choza Akimichi was even more straightforward: eight hits on the stationary targets, three on the moving targets.

He had the strength, but he clearly hadn't put much thought into aiming.

Two shuriken lodged right at the edges of the targets. A little farther off, and they would have missed entirely.

Three people, three different styles of going through the motions.

But Amamiya Maki noticed one detail.

None of their gazes had truly focused on the targets while they threw.

It felt like university students doing elementary-school arithmetic. They didn't need to calculate carefully; they could scribble down whatever and still pass.

Shikaku Nara returned from the throwing line, passing right beside Amamiya Maki.

Their eyes met for a second.

Shikaku suddenly spoke, his voice just loud enough for Amamiya Maki alone to hear.

"Next time, you can just talk like a normal person. I may not be especially gifted, but I should still be able to understand the Konoha language."

With that, he yawned and returned to the line.

[Detected: host has inflicted mental pressure on "Shikaku Nara"

Pressure +8

Obtained: tactical analysis ability fragment ×1]

Amamiya Maki watched him walk away, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

He even delivered pressure points on his way out. As expected of the Nara Clan's genius-even his counterattack after being pressured was so efficient.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, Jiro Matsumoto watched the scores the Ino-Shika-Cho trio had achieved by "just tossing a few," and a subtle expression suddenly appeared on his face.

That fat boy had only landed three hits on the moving targets, and he had landed three too.

Round it off, and he had tied with the Akimichi Clan's genius.

The corners of his mouth rose again.

Victory.

[Detected: host has inflicted mental pressure on "Jiro Matsumoto," pressure +5]

Amamiya Maki glanced at the system notification, then at Akiyama's newly radiant face in the distance, filled with emotion.

Konoha's troublemakers really did have a complete system of psychological defenses.

Interpreting "three hits on moving targets" as "a tie with the Akimichi Clan" was a method of claiming mental victory that took at least ten years of immersion in Konoha to master.

Matsumoto might not have been a genius.

But when it came to Ah Q-style mental victories, he had truly reached heights ordinary people could scarcely attain.

A worthy, legitimate heir to the Konoha chivalry code.

"All right, Amamiya Maki. Stop talking." Nonō's voice came from beside him.

She tugged at Amamiya Maki's sleeve, a trace of displeasure in her voice and a slight furrow between her brows, then finished by giving him a mildly indignant eye roll.

The meaning of that look was clear-There you go again.

Amamiya Maki immediately closed the mouth he had just been about to open.

He had already gotten the pressure points anyway. Shape-control fragments for the Shadow Imitation Technique, nature transformation for Yin Release Chakra, tactical analysis ability fragments-this haul was even richer than expected.

As for that look from Nonō, he accepted it.

She didn't understand why Amamiya Maki, who was clearly a gentle person, always had to say such hurtful things.

Amamiya Maki himself didn't really understand either.

Maybe it was just in a Konoha villager's nature.

Besides, Konoha had plenty of geniuses.

Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, Ino-Shika-Cho, Sarutobi-the geniuses of every major clan were lining up to be pressured.

For an ordinary Konoha villager like him, who kept drinking when everyone else was already drunk and stood out among chickens as just another chicken, what was wrong with putting a little pressure on others?