"Uchiha Itachi"

In the darkness, a small flock of crows flew southwest over Adachi Ward.

After barely a dozen minutes, they reached a detached house in Nakano Ward.

The crow leading them was a size larger than its companions, its feathers glossier. It circled overhead as if keeping watch, while the other crows flew in an orderly procession through the attic window that had deliberately been left half-open.

Flapping their wings, the crows gathered together and gradually took on a human shape.

A handsome young man wearing an Akatsuki cloak appeared in the attic.

It was none other than "Uchiha Itachi"!

The attic light came on, and Uchiha Naruto walked in. He stared at Uchiha Itachi, who stared back, finding the sight utterly wondrous.

Unlike the ordinary Clone Technique, which could only serve as a visual deception, the Bird Clone Technique created a physical clone, much like the Shadow Clone Technique, and could also use ninjutsu. Using a flock of crows as its medium, it consumed less chakra than a shadow clone.

With the Bird Clone Technique, Uchiha Naruto could muddy the waters in Tokyo even further without ever leaving home.

Just as he had this time.

"Thanks for your hard work."

"I am you. Why be so polite?" Uchiha Itachi said coolly.

"Still, keeping the Bird Clone Technique active over such a long distance for so long, and using several other ninjutsu on top of that, would have nearly drained my chakra if I hadn't already advanced to Chunin."

Uchiha Naruto smiled faintly, formed a hand seal, and released the technique.

With a puff, Uchiha Itachi split into more than a dozen crows.

Uchiha Naruto took out a bag of breadcrumbs and gave the crows a quick feeding before letting them fly out of the house. Following his instructions, a few stayed on the power lines near his home, while the rest scattered in different directions across Tokyo.

These crows were the eyes Uchiha Naruto had stationed in the skies over Tokyo.

If anything major happened anywhere in Tokyo, or someone kept watch near his house, Uchiha Naruto would know immediately.

The Bird Clone Technique really was useful, especially for getting around.

Back at the abandoned mall, Uchiha Naruto could actually have dispelled the bird clone and left directly, leaving the people from the Metropolitan Police Department helpless to do anything. He simply hadn't wanted to reveal to them that a flock of crows could transform into a person.

That was why, at the end, he had used the Body Flicker Technique to slip from the archway into the shadows before turning into a flock of crows and flying home.

There were many varieties of the Body Flicker Technique in Naruto. Some achieved instantaneous movement through ninjutsu, while others involved gathering chakra in the soles of the feet and releasing it in a sudden burst, moving a short distance at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow.

At first glance, it looked as though the user had vanished on the spot.

The latter version of the Body Flicker Technique was a skill Uchiha Naruto had only barely mastered after practicing for a long time in the Training Ground.

After going downstairs from the attic to his room, Uchiha Naruto logged onto the video site again. As expected, the apprentice shrine maiden Katori-chan's livestream was still blocked, her profile picture had gone black, and none of her videos could be viewed.

Uchiha Naruto browsed a few more forums. The incident during the livestream was still causing a stir, and people were still debating whether Katori-chan's stream had been real or fake, whether it was CGI from a new movie, and who the young man wearing the Akatsuki cloak was. The threads kept growing, but none survived long before being deleted one after another.

"Deleting posts on this scale has to be the authorities' doing."

Uchiha Naruto sighed, put down his phone, and began recalling everything that had happened at the abandoned mall.

Although something unexpected had happened outside his plans, he had still achieved his original objective. A new Superhuman, Uchiha Itachi, had appeared in Adachi Ward and directly clashed with the Metropolitan Police Department. With that, their attention should shift away from Nakano Ward.

He really had gained a lot this time!

With these fifty Ninja Jewels, he had taken another major step toward unlocking the three-tomoe Sharingan. If everything went smoothly, he might acquire his first LV3 skill this month.

His greatest gain was that Uchiha Naruto had finally lifted a corner of the veil over this world's supernatural landscape.

There were only nonhuman supernatural beings such as monsters and evil spirits, but no supernatural humans. Even these supernatural beings had only appeared in the last ten or twenty years; such demons and monsters hadn't existed in ancient times.

It was truly fascinating, and it also resolved one of Uchiha Naruto's doubts.

No wonder the Metropolitan Police Department had pursued his Chiriku disguise so relentlessly. He had originally assumed the Japanese authorities strictly regulated supernatural humans and were deeply wary of unaffiliated ones outside their jurisdiction.

Now it seemed the reason wasn't so simple. It was because Chiriku was the first supernatural human whose existence had been confirmed.

After the Japanese authorities had accepted that supernatural beings such as monsters and evil spirits existed, but that humanity had no supernatural individuals, a human capable of vanquishing monsters and exorcising evil spirits had suddenly appeared. Beyond their shock, they would certainly want to bring him under their control.

Where had this supernatural human, "Chiriku," come from?

How had he obtained his supernatural powers?

More importantly, could they obtain supernatural powers too?

Human greed and the Japanese authorities' desire for control couldn't be underestimated. The state apparatus was inherently domineering. It instinctively viewed anything outside its control with suspicion, because such things might undermine its rule, while naturally wanting to bring them under that rule.

Judging by the hard-line attitude of the Metropolitan Police Department officer he had encountered earlier, Uchiha Naruto's suspicions were hardly baseless.

Anyone who had grown to adulthood in modern society understood how frightening the state apparatus was. Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity's military might had expanded to an unprecedented level.

If Uchiha Naruto's identity were exposed now and the Japanese authorities wanted to arrest him, all they needed was the willingness to deploy heavy firepower and bombard the area at any cost. He would have no choice but to transform and flee; he had absolutely no chance of winning a head-on confrontation.

Uchiha Naruto hadn't originally intended to clash directly with the Metropolitan Police Department, but John Odagiri had been far too aggressive, leaving him no choice but to teach him a small lesson.

"To think that in just a few short days, I'd be able to cut bullets in half with a blade. Without the Sharingan tracking their trajectories, it really wouldn't have been that easy."

Scholars undermined the law with their writings, and warriors broke prohibitions through force. With a sharp blade in hand, the urge to kill arose naturally, all the more so for Uchiha Naruto, who possessed supernatural powers. He had restrained his murderous impulse and held back from killing; otherwise, his Great Fireball could have brought down the helicopter right then and there.

But since no one had died, it hardly counted as a major incident.

Even if someone had died, what of it? They were only ordinary police officers. As long as Uchiha Naruto willingly surrendered his allegiance, his value as the sole supernatural human would be immeasurable. The Japanese authorities would certainly overlook such a minor disagreement.

As long as Uchiha Naruto didn't do something as earth-shattering as the Top Gunner on the Japanese Server had, relations wouldn't be irreparably broken.

But Uchiha Naruto had absolutely no interest in putting a leash around his own neck, so carefully concealing his identity remained extremely important.

The absence of supernatural humans was good news for Uchiha Naruto. In a sense, he alone possessed such powers, which meant he could act more freely when stirring up trouble. He only needed to worry about humanity's technological might, rather than the possibility of encountering supernatural humans.

The monsters who possessed supernatural powers, however, posed a major threat to Uchiha Naruto.

Especially since they had formed an organization and were lurking in the great city of Tokyo under the command of the so-called Tokyo King of Monsters.

To level up quickly and obtain Ninja Jewels, he would inevitably have to attack monsters. He and the monsters were natural enemies, and Uchiha Naruto had a strong premonition that this Tokyo King of Monsters would be his greatest enemy at his current stage.

Teacher...

He just didn't know how powerful this monster called Teacher was, or what kinds of abilities they possessed.

Opening the system list and looking at the skills dropped by evil spirits and monsters-[Shadow Imitation Technique], [Water Release], and [Puppet Technique]-Uchiha Naruto felt a strange unease.

These were all ninjutsu that had appeared in Naruto.

When he thought of the Toad Monster he had encountered and the chakra energy that had appeared inside the Six-Armed Monster, Uchiha Naruto's expression grew even more conflicted.

"Why do these newly appeared supernatural beings in this world, these monsters, have chakra? Why are the supernatural techniques they use almost identical to ninjutsu from Naruto? What exactly is going on?"

Although he had a vague suspicion, he simply knew too little at present to deduce the truth.