Even from across the classroom, Araki could feel that murderous gaze.
Only...
It was not the sharp blade he had imagined.
It was more like a tender knife.
It seemed to stab at him, yet not quite. There were no wounds or pain on his body; each cut sliced into his conscience instead.
"Kushina!"
The students' eyes lit up the moment they saw Kushina, and they all turned to look at her.
The way the students here behaved now was completely different from the original course of history.
He had to admit, this was the price of being flashy.
After spending time with her yesterday, almost every student had gained a rough understanding of Kushina's personality. She was easygoing and easy to get along with, and with her goddess-like looks, she had instantly captured everyone's attention.
Of course, among them was Minato Namikaze, who looked rather shy. He had not stepped forward to greet Kushina as eagerly as everyone else, but he kept sneaking glances at her.
In just one day, Kushina had become the class's little princess, surrounded by admirers, as well as the goddess of many boys just beginning to discover romance.
Children in the ninja world matured earlier to begin with and learned about these things at a young age. With no particularly cute, likable girls in the class, Kushina's arrival had perfectly filled that gap.
"Huh?"
The students all noticed that something was off with Kushina's mood. Her reddened eyes looked as though she had been crying.
They followed her gaze, their attention immediately focusing on Araki.
Then they recalled that Araki had only just entered the classroom, with Kushina following breathlessly behind him, her eyes full of resentment as she looked at him...
They understood!
After some intense imagining, these students had practically pieced together a story over eight hundred words long.
Kushina must have wanted to be friends with Araki, only to receive no response at all. That was why she looked like this.
When it came to things like that...
The students in the class had long since grown used to them.
"Kushina, don't worry about that weirdo. He's always like that!"
"I can vouch for that. He's not singling you out. He treats everyone that way. He's a total freak!"
"You're better off without a friend like that!"
"Does Araki even have any friends?"
"Does he even deserve friends?"
"Kushina, don't stoop to his level. Something happened to him before, and he's not right in the head!"
"..."
One student after another eagerly explained things to Kushina. Each of them made their meaning clear: they hoped she would not let a strange person like Araki ruin her mood.
As they said more and more, Kushina's expression grew darker and darker. Her fists clenched tightly, veins faintly rising on the backs of her hands, and her slightly trembling body looked as though she was struggling to restrain something.
Don't get into conflicts with people!
Araki's instructions kept echoing through Kushina's mind. Even she could not explain why, but his words kept calming her down.
"Okay!"
Kushina abruptly drew a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Looking as though she had released an enormous amount of mental pressure, she forced an extremely halfhearted smile.
She had decided to let these students off!
After all, they were her classmates.
They would have to spend some time together.
Most importantly...
Araki had specifically reminded her about this.
She did not want to do anything that would disappoint Araki, either!
The students witnessed every change in Kushina's mood. They had all realized that she seemed to have suffered a tremendous grievance over this matter.
Only...
They had no idea that they were precisely the ones Kushina had just been tolerating.
They thought it was Araki.
Whoosh!
In an instant, gazes turned toward Araki, and these truly were sharp, murderous knives.
For a moment...
The students in the class all believed that Araki had offended their goddess.
They were already thinking of standing up for their goddess and wanted to teach Araki a lesson to win her favor.
"Sigh..."
Feeling the gazes directed at him from all around, Araki was utterly helpless. He had tried hard to keep a low profile, yet he had still become everyone's target at this moment.
Beauty really does bring disaster!
Araki sighed helplessly to himself. Nothing had even happened between him and Kushina, yet so many people already had their eyes on him.
If these people found out they lived together...
That picture is too beautiful. I don't dare imagine it!
Chapter 15: Mock battles
Even after entering the classroom and taking her seat, Kushina still had not realized that her resentful gaze just now had stirred the students' emotions.
Only Araki could truly feel what it was like to be regarded as an enemy by his classmates.
This was definitely no illusion!
In the past, Araki had had no presence in class at all, and nobody ever paid him any attention. Yet in this brief span of time, many gazes had already swept over him.
This had never happened before.
"Sigh..."
Araki felt that getting by was becoming harder and harder. Even if he wanted to live in peace and did not seek trouble with others, that was no defense against others wanting to make trouble for him.
Feeling the gazes constantly directed his way, he had a faint sense of foreboding, an unshakable feeling that someone might step forward.
Judging by the original course of history, this class had plenty of troublemakers who had fought Kushina countless times. Only now, their hostility was not directed at Kushina; it was very likely to be directed at him instead.
At that thought...
Araki felt utterly helpless.
He could only silently hope these students would be generous enough not to hold anything against him.
Tap, tap, tap...
Brisk footsteps sounded outside the Ninja Academy classroom.
At the sound of those footsteps, the students immediately quieted down. After years of getting used to it, they all knew this meant Ibuki-sensei was coming.
In an instant, all the gazes on Araki vanished, and every student sat in the classroom like a well-behaved child.
Ibuki-sensei might usually seem easy to talk to, but if they angered him, not a single student could withstand it.
The footsteps drew closer and closer until they reached the doorway, where their pace immediately slowed, as though he had stopped.
Then a figure appeared before the students. It was none other than Ibuki-sensei.
Ibuki-sensei swept an impassive gaze across the class, quickly looking over each student's face.
As their teacher, he had long since committed everyone to memory. He did not need to call roll to know whether everyone was present.
"Today, we'll be holding mock battles. Everyone, gather on the training field in five minutes."
Ibuki-sensei turned and left immediately after speaking, leaving the bewildered students behind. None of them had expected today's lesson to be so exciting.
Every so often, the Ninja Academy held mock battles, pairing the ninjas off to fight one-on-one.
These simulations could develop the prospective ninjas' combat awareness from a young age while testing what they had learned at each stage.
Not only could they stir the students' competitive spirit, but they also gave the teacher a clearer understanding of the level of strength the students in the class had reached.
Only...
These mock battles were usually held at random.
Nobody knew which day they would happen.
That meant there was no way to prepare in advance.
Through this approach, the Ninja Academy wanted to teach the students that there was never a moment when they would be fully prepared. Just as when ninjas carried out missions, anything could happen.
This also kept the students in their best condition at all times; otherwise, they might embarrass themselves in front of the entire class.
In mock battles, the winner might not receive much praise, but the loser would certainly receive plenty of ridicule.
Whoosh!
Just then, however, several more gazes swept toward Araki.
Each of those gazes lingered for only a glance before turning away.
Araki did not meet their eyes, but he could clearly sense what those looks meant.
It seemed...
These people were very eager to be paired with him.
Perhaps they wanted to use this chance to beat him down and win Kushina's favor!
Araki shook his head helplessly. This sort of thing posed no difficulty for him. He had always taken a laid-back approach to mock battles, winning and losing in roughly equal measure to barely maintain a fifty-percent win rate and stay in the middle of the class.