By the time the information had passed through three stops and reached Kotaro, it resembled an inscription weathered by wind and sand: many crucial details had vanished, and some accounts contradicted one another. Sweat covered Kotaro's forehead, and his cheeks flushed bright red. He desperately tried to memorize the tangled directions and terrain names, which made as little sense to him as an undecipherable script. The more nervous he grew, the more his mind tangled like a knotted rope, causing him to misremember and confuse several key details.
Finally, the information reached its last stop-Shinji Uchiha. Standing before Shinji, Kotaro stammered out an incoherent account of his already fragmented memories. His eyes darted away, filled with unease and profound apology, as though he had already shouldered the blame for their failure.
Shinji stood calmly in place, his black eyes as still as an ancient well. He showed not the slightest impatience, nor did he interrupt. His powerful mental faculties-the gift granted by his [Mental Abnormality] talent-quietly went to work. To his ears, Kotaro's jumbled, disordered account was not worthless noise, but a signal carrying specific fragments of information. Like an expert decoder, he rapidly picked out those fragments. At the same time, his mind automatically recalled his brief observations of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio's thinking patterns and personalities: Shikaku's precision and strategic thinking, Choza's straightforwardness and tendency to go off on tangents, and Inoichi's attention to detail and urge to consolidate. He turned those observations into "error-correction parameters," working backward to infer where the information might have become distorted along the chain.
Rather than approach the sand table immediately, he first closed his eyes. In his mind, Kotaro's scattered words gave way to a vague, virtual terrain model waiting to be constructed. He treated the fragmented information as "incomplete data packets" and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio's mental traits as unique "filtering algorithms"... Some instinct from his previous life as a top programmer awakened. It was like debugging a piece of bug-riddled code with tangled logic. Through rigorous reasoning and intuitive gap-filling, he attempted to reverse-engineer it, restoring the clear structure and complete functionality the code should have possessed.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, a glimmer of understanding flashing deep within them. He walked over to the sand table and began working. His movements were not fast, but they carried an extraordinary precision and steadiness. Damp sand took shape beneath his fingertips. The river's curves were reproduced precisely, the mountains' slopes formed distinct layers, and the forest's boundaries were traced just right. He even selected several small stones of suitable sizes and varying shapes, placing them at different points on the sand table with seemingly casual but exact movements. Their coordinates matched the few inconspicuous landmarks on the original map that were tiny yet crucial to establishing the overall spatial layout.
When the finished sand model was displayed beside the original terrain map, the group members gathered around it involuntarily held their breath, astonishment written across their faces. Its accuracy exceeded eighty percent! Although some minor details differed, the overall terrain features and the relative positions of the major landmarks had been reproduced with astonishing fidelity.
"This... How is this possible?" Choza Akimichi's eyes widened. He looked at the sand model, which was practically a replica, then at Kotaro beside it, whose still-pale face had begun to regain some color. Disbelief filled his expression. He felt that the information he had passed on had already become as muddled as hot soup left overnight.
Inoichi Yamanaka said nothing. He merely studied Shinji thoughtfully, his gaze full of curiosity. He clearly realized that what Shinji had done went far beyond simply "understanding." He had performed a creative feat bordering on "information repair," or even "information regeneration." Just how formidable did his information-processing and logical reasoning abilities have to be?
With his arms folded across his chest, Shikaku Nara gazed intently at Shinji's calm profile. For the first time, he looked beyond the label of "Uchiha genius" and truly sensed the "abnormal" quality within this boy his own age. This ability to distill order from chaos and extract signals from noise could not be explained by exceptional memory or powerful chakra alone. It reflected a deeper difference in the very way he processed the world.
Kotaro let out a long, silent breath, as though an immense weight had lifted from his shoulders. Then a warm surge of gratitude and admiration welled up in his heart, making his eyes shine as he looked at Shinji.
Their teacher, Umino Kakumatsu, carefully compared the map with the sand model, unable to conceal the surprise in her eyes. She earnestly praised the entire group's efforts, singling out "the final member, Shinji Uchiha, who demonstrated outstanding information integration and logical reasoning abilities well beyond his age."
Shinji merely gave a quiet "Mm" in acknowledgment, with no intention of claiming the credit. To him, this had been more like an interesting logic puzzle that challenged his intellect. Yet he keenly sensed that their almost "miraculous" collaboration had pried a crack into the invisible, icy barrier within the group, noticeably easing the atmosphere. At least, in the discussions that followed, Choza no longer fixated solely on the species in the "orchard," Inoichi took more initiative in organizing and standardizing the information relay process, and Kotaro seemed to have quietly found a little courage to become part of the group.
Sometimes, when dealing with distracted teammates, being too rigid really did not help.
The next team activity was a "joint survival simulation under limited-resource conditions." Using limited "resources"-a set of cards representing food, clean water, basic tools, and special supplies-the group had to "survive" for a period in a simulated wilderness environment, a border zone between rocky terrain and woodland arranged simply with classroom desks, chairs, and curtains. Together, they also had to achieve the ultimate objective: "build a basic shelter."
This time, the hidden conflicts became unmistakable as soon as resource allocation began.
While they discussed how to allocate their starting resource cards, Choza Akimichi instinctively and emphatically insisted that food cards deserved absolute priority and the largest share. "Of course we need to eat our fill before we have the strength to work! You can't get anything done on an empty stomach!"
Shikaku Nara frowned, favoring the use of most of their resources to obtain tool cards instead. "Idiot. Without the right tools, you might not be able to prepare the food no matter how much you find. You might even struggle to protect yourself if you run into danger. In the long run, improving efficiency is what matters."
Inoichi Yamanaka tried to act as mediator, gently suggesting, "Shikaku has a point, but Choza's concerns are practical too. Besides, should we set aside some resources for possible emergencies? A drop in temperature at night, for instance, or sudden rain?"
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