Mirai took two steps back, pretending to be a bit flustered by the four Naori clones surrounding him.
He parried left and dodged right, his wooden Kunai waving somewhat haphazardly to block attacks coming from all directions.
The spectating classmates watched nervously, some even covering their eyes.
Naori felt a secret joy.
She controlled three clones to attack Mirai simultaneously from different angles, while she herself circled behind him, gripping her Kunai tightly and stabbing toward his back—
At the very moment her Kunai was about to touch the edge of Mirai’s clothes, he suddenly moved.
Without looking back, he simply dropped his body low and performed a clean, sharp Sweep kick, precisely striking the feet of the “attacker” behind him.
“Poof!”
The three clones vanished simultaneously.
Naori’s real body lost its balance and she lunged forward, falling heavily to the ground as the wooden Kunai flew out of her hand.
In the next second, Mirai flipped over and pinned her down.
One leg suppressed her struggling legs, his left hand pressed against her chest to prevent her from rising, and his right hand held the wooden Kunai lightly against the side of her neck.
“You lose,” he said, looking down.
The entire field fell silent.
Uchiha Naori lay on her back, her face suddenly turning bright red—the flush spreading from the base of her neck all the way to the tips of her ears.
She was pinned down by Mirai in an almost intimate manner.
With his hand pressing against her chest, she could clearly feel the warmth of his palm and his breath; they were so close she could count every one of Mirai’s eyelashes.
“You…
you!” Naori’s voice cracked, trembling with extreme shame and indignation.
“Get up!
Get up now!”
Only then did Mirai belatedly realize that his hand seemed to be in the wrong place.
He quickly withdrew his hand, stood up, and took a step back, even helping Naori up from the ground in the process.
But Naori shook off his hand, her eyes already rimmed with red.
Without waiting for Toriyama Kazunari to announce the result, she turned and ran, her long straight black hair tracing an arc in the wind as she disappeared into the bushes by the Training ground.
“…The winner, Uzumaki Mirai.” Toriyama Kazunari announced the result awkwardly, then looked at Mirai and shook his head, hesitating to speak.
Uzumaki Mirai stood in place and scratched his head.
“…Did I do something wrong again just now?”
Uzumaki Kushina rushed up in a single stride, poking her index finger against his chest, her little face tense.
“Mirai, you-you-you, where were you pressing your hand just now?!
How can you touch a girl there!”
“Huh?” Mirai blinked.
“I mean…
she’s only seven.
Is there even a difference between touching her front or back?”
All the classmates: “…”
Kushina’s face also turned red.
She angrily raised her hand and knocked him on the forehead.
“Baka!
No matter the age, you can’t just touch people like that!
Go apologize to her!”
“Fine, fine, I’m going, I’m going…”
After returning to the classroom, Uchiha Naori sat in her seat, her head lowered and motionless.
Her seatmate tried to talk to her several times, but she avoided them.
Uzumaki Mirai walked to her desk and lightly tapped the surface.
“Naori?”
No response.
“Uchiha Naori?”
She still didn’t react.
Mirai sighed, leaned down a bit closer, and whispered, “I’m sorry about earlier.
I didn’t mean it.
I’ll be more careful next time.”
Naori’s shoulders trembled slightly, and then she slowly raised her head.
The corners of her eyes were indeed a bit red, and her eyes were moist, but she hadn’t actually cried.
However, on that perpetually cold little face, there was now a mix of complex emotions—shame, frustration, and something indefinable.
She bit her lip and remained silent for a good while before speaking sullenly, “…Go away, I’m not crying.”
“Then why are your eyes red?”
“Sand got in them!”
“…Alright, sand.” Mirai didn’t expose her and stood up straight, preparing to return to his seat.
“Wait.” Naori called out to him.
Mirai looked back.
Naori clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and looked directly into his eyes.
Her voice wasn’t loud but was very firm:
“Next month, I’ll challenge you again.
When that time comes…
I definitely won’t lose again.”
Mirai looked at those black eyes that had reignited with fire and suddenly felt that this stubborn little girl was actually quite interesting.
“Sure,” he smiled, “I’ll be waiting.”
After returning to his seat, Kushina leaned over and whispered, “Did she forgive you?”
“I don’t know.
She said she wants to fight me again next month.”
“…Are you going to fight her then?”
“Sure,” Mirai leaned back against his chair.
“She can’t beat me anyway.”
Kushina looked at him, suddenly leaned closer, and muttered in a low voice, “You don’t have a crush on that Uchiha girl, do you?”
“What?”
“I don’t care!
Anyway, you promised me we’d go to Grandma Mito’s together after school to learn Sealing Jutsu!”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“Of course it has something to do with it!”
Mirai looked at her with a face full of confusion, completely failing to understand the logic between those two things.
Kushina had already huffed and turned her head away, refusing to look at him.
Outside the window, the setting sun dyed half the sky red, and the classroom was filled with the chirping chatter of children.
Uzumaki Mirai leaned against the back of his chair, looking at the burning clouds on the horizon, thinking—this life might be tiring, but it’s not bad.
…
Kushina had been a bit off lately.
Specifically, her eyes would unconsciously drift in a certain direction.
She glanced during class, she glanced during meals, and she even glanced while being watched by Grandma Mito to learn Sealing Jutsu.
She was looking at Uzumaki Mirai.
To be precise, she was looking at the situation between Uzumaki Mirai and Uchiha Naori.
Ever since that “accident” in the last practical class, although Naori still kept a cold face, she would occasionally pause when she encountered Mirai in the hallway and then quickly lower her head and walk past.
And Mirai, perhaps because he had promised Mikoto-neesan to “take it easy,” was clearly more gentle toward Naori than before.
Kushina saw all of this, and her heart felt strangely sour.
“Hmph, what’s so good about that…”
Once, she saw Naori’s ears turn slightly red as she passed by Mirai in the hallway and couldn’t help but mutter softly, “What’s so great about long straight black hair?
Red hair is the rare one…”
But she couldn’t explain why she cared so much.
She and Mirai had come from the Land of Whirlpools together, lived under the same roof, went to school together every day, ate the food Grandma Mito cooked together, and got their heads knocked by Sister Tsunade together…
Clearly, she was the person closest to Mirai.
Yet when she saw Mirai smile at Naori, her chest would still feel strangely tight.
“I’m not jealous,” she told herself in her heart, “it’s just…
I just can’t stand it a little.”
She couldn’t figure out this problem for the time being, so she could only keep it bottled up.
Fortunately, the school soon had a short break, so she didn’t have to face that annoying black-haired girl anymore.
On the first day of the break, Mito called the two children to the Sealing room as usual.