The Clan Meeting ended, and they had permission to leave.
After Senju Uka and Mito Uzumaki had agreed on a time,
he headed toward the two women who had been waiting by the edge of the field.
He came down from the platform step by step, then walked up to them.
As he looked at the two girls, each with her own distinct qualities, Senju Uka silently gave the clan elders a ton of credit.
At the same time, he felt a little nervous as he greeted someone he was meeting for the first time. "Miss Maki, hello!"
Looking at the boy before her, with white hair, dark eyes, and striking features,
Senju Maki thought of their earlier misunderstanding. Her cheeks, already a little red from the sun, flushed even more.
She gave a slightly awkward curtsy in return. "Uka, it's a pleasure to meet you. Please take good care of me!"
After the greeting, the two fell silent, neither knowing what to do next.
Watching them, Chiharu couldn't help finding it a little funny.
Earlier, while she and Maki had been chatting, Maki had kept bringing up questions that were hard to answer.
She'd nearly been left at a loss for words!
She'd thought Maki was an old hand, but now that she was facing Uka in person, she was so shy that her face had turned red!
Noticing a faint change beneath Chiharu's smiling expression, Senju Uka looked at the girl standing awkwardly opposite him.
He thought for a moment, then suggested, "If you haven't had lunch and you're free, why don't we go get something to eat together?"
"Mm-hm!" Senju Maki quickly nodded.
Thinking about how she'd just acted, she felt a little embarrassed and moved to Chiharu's side.
Seeing her move away, Senju Uka couldn't help feeling relieved.
If this were someone with a different status, he wouldn't be acting like this.
But she was one of his future wives. He needed time to get used to this stranger who was destined to become part of his life.
"Let's go!" Senju Chiharu said with a smile.
Under ordinary circumstances, seeing another wife of her future husband
shouldn't have made her act this way!
But she could tell that Maki was a kind girl!
Besides, Maki had also been assigned this marriage by her family, and today was her first time meeting Senju Uka.
The three of them had no way to resist being brought together!
So, if they wanted to live happily together for the next few decades,
there was no point in making things too unpleasant now.
As the eldest, she could make room for the other two!
But they had to be kind.
The three followed the path toward Senju Toka's home.
Seeing the two begin chatting quietly again, Senju Uka deliberately lagged a couple of steps behind to give them some space.
As he watched the people ahead and the scenery passing by along the roadside,
he thought about what he should do next.
Ever since he'd first arrived in this world, he'd treated the reason for the Senju Clan's disappearance as his top priority.
He'd never expected that the thing he'd searched for in vain would be blown out into the open by one of his fish-bombing sessions!
The Senju Clan had now finished cleaning house internally. Although the consequence was a complete falling-out with the village,
it had all been worth it.
After all, open opposition was better than dying without a sound!
Both sides would probably need quite a while to prepare for what came next, so there shouldn't be any other problems in the short term!
The clan had also chosen the southern front, as he'd suggested.
With allies and subordinates in the Land of Whirlpools when things changed in the future, the Senju Clan would be much less likely to suffer heavy losses!
The matter of securing a powerful backer was more or less settled. Now it was time to consider himself.
First, he had to make use of this period of "peace" and speed up his growth.
He had one year and five months left before graduation. Tomorrow, after reviewing Hashirama Senju's insights,
no matter how much he gained from them, he'd have to raise the intensity of his training.
If he didn't train hard now, he wouldn't have this much free time after leaving the village.
The Third and the others wouldn't target him for a while, but the people from other villages were another matter.
He was sure they wouldn't want to see another Wood Release ninja grow up!
They didn't know how his Wood Release compared to Hashirama's, but they probably wouldn't like it as long as he had Wood Release!
Besides training and developing Ninjutsu, he also had to speed up his energy collection.
For now, he could only keep fish-bombing at the frequency the Second Elder had recommended, once every year.
So if he wanted any extra, he'd have to go to the forest.
The clan probably wouldn't let him go alone, so he'd do his best to bring Chiharu along.
Being protected by his wife didn't sound good.
But it was precisely because of that relationship that he could feel safe collecting energy with her by his side.
With a thought, Senju Uka opened the panel that no one else could inspect.
[Name: Senju Uka] [Age: 9] [Identity: Konoha · Senju Clan] [Strength: Genin] [Attributes: Wood, Earth, Water] [Skills] Chakra Extraction Technique: Proficient (89/100) Seals: Proficient (69/100) Senju Style Nintaijutsu: Proficient (86/100) Senju Style Kenjutsu: Proficient (79/100) Three Basic Techniques: Proficient (52/100) Temporary Paralysis Technique: Proficient (25/100) Hiding Technique: Proficient (31/100) Rope Escape Technique: Proficient (23/100) Wood Release: Beginner (14/100) Water Release: Beginner (35/100) Earth Release: Beginner (40/100) [Energy: 308]
Looking at the skills panel before him, Senju Uka planned his training priorities.
Besides training in Ninjutsu, he also needed to get used to Genjutsu in advance.
He didn't need to be good at it, but he needed to build up his resistance to Genjutsu.
Getting caught by this stuff in a fight meant repeatedly jumping between life and death!
His aunt and Chiharu were well suited to help him train his resistance to Genjutsu: one was currently the Senju Clan's strongest in Genjutsu, and the other would be its strongest in the future.
Nowadays, aside from the insanely powerful Infinite Tsukuyomi,
Genjutsu all worked by using Chakra to interfere with an opponent's five senses and manipulate their brain nerves, making them fall into an illusion.
So training his resistance to Genjutsu meant having them cast Genjutsu on him again and again.
He would get used to the situations brought about by different Genjutsu, while his body learned how to disrupt the flow of Chakra.
Up ahead, Senju Maki, who had been sharing secrets between girls with Chiharu,
accidentally caught sight of the person behind them out of the corner of her eye as she turned to speak.
Following his gaze, she felt the sway of her hips stiffen as she walked.
She began to suspect that the misunderstanding Sister Chiharu had mentioned earlier might have been made up!
Was this actually just a boy's hobby?
Should she avoid it, or pretend she hadn't noticed?
Remembering how Senju Chiharu had acted so naturally and seemed not to care who was watching that morning,
she gave up her somewhat awkward way of walking and returned to normal.
About five minutes later,
the three arrived at the residence the clan had assigned to Senju Toka.
Senju Chiharu opened the door first, brought Maki a new pair of shoes, then took out Uka's slippers.
"Thank you!" Senju Maki politely thanked her as she accepted them. Then, as she sat to change, she watched what else Chiharu did.
"What do you two want to eat?"
"Ramen? Rice?" Senju Uka asked their guest as he changed his shoes.
Senju Maki smiled and nodded. "Mm, anything's fine!"
"Then noodles. It's already past lunchtime, so we'll have rice tonight," Senju Chiharu declared.
"Okay! ×2"