The teacher stared expressionlessly at Uchiha Obito.
If Hatake Shibu could still be saved, then Uchiha Obito had already been sentenced to death in his heart.
Although Shibu loved sleeping in and was often late, and although he was rather petty and loved holding grudges, his grades had always been the best in the class.
Even Kakashi couldn’t match him.
Uchiha Obito was different.
His grades were merely average, barely scraping past the passing line.
The only reason he hadn’t been expelled was because he somehow managed to get incredibly lucky every single time and just barely pass.
“If you two keep shouting and fooling around outside, I’ll have no choice but to call your parents over!”
After saying that, the teacher put Uchiha Obito down and returned to the classroom.
Watching the teacher walk away, Obito made a face behind his back.
The teacher suddenly turned around and flicked another piece of chalk straight into his mouth.
“Ugh!”
Watching Uchiha Obito crouching on the ground and retching, the teacher nodded in satisfaction.
Nice try.
These were all tricks he’d already played himself back in the day.
Did they really think he wouldn’t recognize them?
With a satisfied smile, the teacher turned around and went back inside.
Hatake Shibu quietly formed a hand seal and aimed it toward the teacher.
“Fire Release: Hot Air Technique!”
The teacher, who was preparing to begin his lesson, suddenly felt something strange in his throat.
He paid it no attention.
He assumed it was because he’d been talking for too long.
But the moment he opened his mouth, he felt a sharp pain in his throat.
His voice had also changed into the rough, nasal voice of a drake.
“Hahahahaha!”
The ridiculous sound immediately sent the students below into fits of laughter.
Their previous sleepy expressions vanished instantly, and everyone became wide awake.
As expected, listening to a lesson made them sleepy, but the moment the teacher went off-topic, everyone suddenly became full of energy!
Shibu gave them all a thumbs-up.
As expected of his classmates.
People who weren’t alike wouldn’t end up in the same group.
The teacher’s face immediately flushed red.
“Sorry, everyone. My throat isn’t feeling well today. Just study on your own for now.”
With that, he immediately fled the classroom.
Some time later, the school day finally ended.
Shibu stroked his chin.
There were two reasons he had chosen to develop this particular ninjutsu first.
The first was simple.
He had no money.
Although he was the son of the Konoha White Fang, even his pocket money was pitifully small.
After all, they were shinobi.
They had to learn how to endure from a young age.
To endure things ordinary people couldn’t.
And the second reason was, of course, to make money!
How could he develop new ninjutsu without money?
And without ninjutsu, how could he make money?
Ahem.
More importantly, without ninjutsu, how could he become stronger?
The Third Shinobi World War was only a few years away.
By then, the five great nations would be tearing each other apart.
These young shinobi would all have to go to the battlefield.
If he didn’t want to die, he had to work hard and become stronger.
While Shibu was thinking, he spotted the lovesick fool who was currently clinging to Nohara Rin.
“Obito! Obito!”
Shibu immediately called out to him.
Uchiha Obito reluctantly walked over.
If Shibu weren’t his best friend, he would never have abandoned his adorable Rin.
At that moment, Hatake Kakashi came over with his usual dead-fish eyes.
“What do you want this time?”
Shibu immediately smacked him on the head.
“Call me big brother!”
Ever since Kakashi had learned how to walk, he had never called Shibu “big brother” again.
It was simply unacceptable.
Kakashi covered his forehead and crouched on the ground, muttering,
“That doesn’t make sense. Why does it hurt so much when you didn’t even use much strength?”
He completely ignored the tears welling up in his eyes.
“This is a fist filled with love! The more it hurts, the more it proves how much I love you!”
Might Guy happened to be passing by.
The moment he heard those words, tears welled up in his eyes.
“Is this the love of youth? How touching! To celebrate, I’ll run three laps around Konoha today!”
With that, he kicked up a cloud of dust and sprinted away.
Shibu was already used to this.
This happened every single day.
He then turned toward Obito.
“Obito, are you free tomorrow and the day after?”
“I am, but tell me what it’s about first!”
Obito immediately remembered the time Shibu had convinced him to carve his own face into the Hokage Rock.
Back then, he’d gotten carried away and actually went there.
He couldn’t carve a large statue, so he had carved a small version of his face beside the Third Hokage’s.
Perhaps because he was afraid of being discovered, he’d deliberately made it only about the size of his own head.
Unfortunately, Hiruzen Sarutobi frequently admired the Hokage Rock.
Naturally, he discovered it.
After returning to the Uchiha compound, Obito had received a thorough beating.
Even now, whenever he saw a feather duster, he experienced a strange physical reaction.
His butt still seemed to hurt.
“Nothing much. You look so poor, so I was thinking of taking you out tomorrow to make some extra money.”
Shibu said it without hesitation.
Obito looked at him suspiciously.
You actually thought of me for something like this?
Still, he really was short on money lately.
He had recently been relying on financial support from the clan just to eat.
After all, his parents had died on a mission.
The prospect of Shibu’s side job clearly tempted him.
After carefully considering it, Obito finally nodded.
“Fine. It’s a deal.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll come to your house tomorrow to find you. Also, we’ll split the profits seventy-thirty. I get seventy, you get thirty!”
With that, Shibu grabbed Kakashi, who was still crouching on the ground, and called out to Rin,
“Then we’re off! See you Monday!”
He dragged Kakashi away.
Kakashi was completely bewildered and didn’t react for a while.
By the time he realized what was happening, Shibu had already dragged him quite a distance.
“Shibu! I’m going to kill you!”
Those were the new clothes his father had bought for him just two days ago!
And now they were officially ruined.
The next day, Shibu arrived at the Uchiha clan compound.
The place was somewhat similar to the kind of gated residential community where outsiders weren’t normally allowed to enter.
Of course, with the Uchiha clan’s perpetually unpleasant expressions, most people wouldn’t want to come here anyway.
Their security was ridiculously tight.
Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought this was the Hokage Building.
Even the Hokage Building was relatively relaxed on the outside and strict on the inside.
This place was on another level.
Shibu had barely approached the entrance when, before he could even do anything, an Uchiha clan member who apparently didn’t recognize him immediately activated a two-tomoe Sharingan and glared at him.
“F**K you! What are you staring at? Keep staring and I’ll have Fugaku beat you up!”
An Uchiha who knew Shibu hurriedly stopped the young clan member before he could teach Shibu a lesson.
“Go on, go on. You brat really don’t learn anything useful all day.”
Shibu smiled and pulled a lollipop from inside his clothes, tossing it to the man.
“Your reward.”
The Uchiha looked at the lollipop in his hand with an awkward smile.
Then he turned toward the younger Uchiha and said,
“He’s the White Fang’s son. It’s best not to cause trouble with him. Besides, this kid is actually pretty decent. He doesn’t have any prejudice against us Uchiha. If you see him in the future, just pretend you didn’t.”