“Classmate Mirai!
Can you teach me that Kunai throwing technique from yesterday again?”
“Mirai, Mirai, can you be my sparring partner during Taijutsu class?
My parents said learning more from you will be beneficial!”
“Me too, me too!
Mirai-chan!”
Early the next morning, Uzumaki Mirai and Uzumaki Kushina walked into the classroom side by side and were immediately surrounded by a group of girls.
The red-haired boy was surrounded in the middle by a group of young girls, a faint smile on his face.
Feeling that prying gazes still lingered, Mirai did not let down his guard in the slightest.
“Sure, the essentials of Shuriken throwing are…”
Minato Namikaze sat in the front row, turning his head to watch this scene, a hint of envy revealing itself in his azure-blue eyes.
He muttered softly, “So amazing…
Classmate Mirai has only been here for two days, and he is already this popular.”
A boy wearing glasses nearby leaned over, “Minato, you are not bad either.
You got a perfect score in yesterday’s throwing class, too.”
“It is different,” Minato smiled, his gaze falling upon Uzumaki Mirai, who was thronged by girls,
“Classmate Mirai is not just amazing; he has that…
how should I put it, a feeling that makes people really want to get close to him.
I think if you want to become Hokage, you first have to make everyone acknowledge you.”
“You want to be Hokage?”
“Yeah.” Minato nodded earnestly, his golden hair sparkling in the morning light, “I want to become a Hokage who can protect everyone.”
When he said those words, there was a light in his eyes.
On the other side, Uzumaki Kushina sat in her own seat, her cheeks puffed out like a pufferfish.
Her red hair fluttered slightly behind her, which was a sign of her fluctuating emotions.
She watched a group of girls chatter around Uzumaki Mirai, her fingers subconsciously scratching at the desk.
“So what…
Clearly I was the one who helped him yesterday…” She muttered softly,
“And Mirai came to school without even combing his hair properly.
What on earth do these people see in him…”
At this moment, Uzumaki Mirai broke free from the crowd, walked over to sit beside her, and said, “Yo, Kushina, what are you daydreaming about?”
“Nothing!” Kushina snorted, turning her head to the side.
“…Your face is puffed up like a steamed bun.”
“None of your business!”
Uzumaki Mirai thought for a moment, pulled a piece of candy from his schoolbag, and placed on her desk:
“Here, Grandma Mito stuffed this into my hand before I went out this morning, saying it is sweet tangerine flavored.”
Kushina glanced at the candy, then glanced at him again, the corners of her mouth twitching upward before she quickly suppressed it: “…I am not a child.”
“Then if you are not going to eat it, I will.”
“Give it to me!” Kushina snatched the candy, unwrapped it, popped it into her mouth, and muttered vaguely, “Consider yourself somewhat thoughtful…”
Uzumaki Mirai smiled and said nothing.
Kushina was a little tsundere; he had known that from the very beginning, but she was also very easy to coax.
When this girl grew up, she would turn into a great beauty!
Finding a girlfriend meant starting from childhood; I, Uzumaki Mirai, am doing this to ensure the purity of the Uzumaki bloodline, alright!
Unconsciously, Uzumaki Mirai’s peripheral vision glanced toward the corner of the classroom.
There sat a quiet girl with long, straight black hair, sitting upright and reading a book, as if everything around her had nothing to do with her.
Uchiha Naori.
That cold girl who accurately hit the bullseye with all three Kunai in yesterday’s throwing class still maintained a poker face today.
“Mirai!
Stop looking, class is about to start.” Kushina tugged at his sleeve.
“Oh oh, okay.”
In the afternoon, combat class.
Teacher Toriyama Kazunari stood on the playground, holding a roster in his hand.
“Today’s combat class content—one-on-one battles!
The rules are very simple: no lethal Ninjutsu allowed, and stop as soon as it touches upon victory!
Those who lose are not allowed to cry!”
A burst of laughter broke out among the audience.
As for lethal Ninjutsu, this rule was clearly meant for Uzumaki Mirai.
Most of the other second-year kids had not even touched Ninjutsu yet.
“Alright, those whose names I call, step out—first group, Uzumaki Kushina versus Midori Yamanaka!”
Kushina perked up and hopped onto the field.
Her opponent was a girl with a golden ponytail who looked a bit nervous.
“Start!”
Kushina took a deep breath, recalling the Taijutsu essentials that Tsunade occasionally taught her—
Although Tsunade spent most of her time at the gambling table, occasionally giving pointers on a whim, it was already a dimensional reduction strike to ordinary students.
She rushed forward in a single bound, sidestepped Midori Yamanaka’s punch, and took advantage of the momentum to deliver a sweeping kick—
“Smack!”
Midori Yamanaka collapsed straight onto the ground.
“Winner, Uzumaki Kushina!” Teacher Toriyama Kazunari’s whistle sounded.
Kushina turned around, waved at Uzumaki Mirai off the stage, and smiled brilliantly.
Uzumaki Mirai gave a thumbs up.
Students continuously sparred in between, but to be honest, the battles between the little kids lacked any technique whatsoever, making Uzumaki Mirai feel drowsy.
Only when Minato Namikaze went up did he perk up a bit, wanting to observe the strength of the future Fourth Hokage during his childhood.
Minato Namikaze came from a commoner background and had not learned any Ninjutsu yet, but in terms of Taijutsu alone, it was enough to crush ordinary students.
Minato Namikaze won very handsomely, like a blazing sun melting snow, and his opponent did not look too disheveled after losing.
He even reached out to help the other person up: “As an opponent, you are not bad either!”
With a warm smile, he was always like a little sun.
“Next group—Uzumaki Mirai versus Uchiha Naori!”
The audience fell silent for a second, and then erupted into excited discussions.
“Whoa!
The strongest versus the strongest?”
“Did you guys see those Adamantine Sealing Chains Classmate Mirai used yesterday?
He tied up over a dozen people in one move!”
“Classmate Naori is also amazing, hitting all three bullseyes in throwing class!”
“Mirai will definitely win!”
“That’s a given; Classmate Mirai knows Ninjutsu!”
Uzumaki Mirai walked onto the field.
In just two days, he had already gained quite a few little fan girls.
Opposite him, Uchiha Naori also slowly walked over.
Her long, straight black hair gently swayed in the wind, and no emotions could be seen on her expressionless face.
But her clenched fists betrayed her.
Yesterday in the throwing class, this red-haired boy got the exact same perfect score as her, and he threw all three simultaneously, precisely arranged in a vertical line.
To be honest, she felt a bit unconvinced in her heart.
How could a genius of the Uchiha Clan be outdone by someone else?
“Start!”
As soon as Toriyama Kazunari’s voice fell, Uchiha Naori moved.
Her Taijutsu was extremely proficient, her movements clean and neat without a trace of redundancy.
Her footwork was nimble, and her offensive and defensive transitions were almost seamlessly connected.
It was obvious that she must have received strict training at home.
Uzumaki Mirai sidestepped to dodge a punch, then lowered his head to evade a sweeping kick, retreating several steps in a row.
“Whoa!
Classmate Mirai is retreating!” Someone in the audience exclaimed.
“Uchiha Naori is so strong!”
But Uzumaki Mirai was not flustered in his heart.
Uchiha Naori at this period had not yet awakened the Sharingan,
and although her Taijutsu was solid, she lacked a true finishing move, relying more on routine-based attacks.
Sure enough, after a few rounds of Taijutsu clashes, seeing that she couldn’t break through for a long time, Uchiha Naori jumped backward to create distance and rapidly formed hand seals with both hands.
“Katon: Great Fireball Technique!”
She took a deep breath and forcefully exhaled!
A huge fireball nearly two meters in diameter spewed out from her mouth, carrying a wave of heat as it blasted toward Uzumaki Mirai!
The audience broke into an uproar!
“That is…
Great Fireball?!
How old is she even!”
“The Uchiha Clan is just too exaggerated!”
“I didn’t expect Naori to have learned Ninjutsu as well!
Is Mirai going to lose?”
The little kids didn’t understand what Ninjutsu was strong or weak at all.
The momentum of this Great Fireball looked no less impressive than Uzumaki Mirai’s Adamantine Sealing Chains!
The fireball roared over, the heat wave causing the hair of the students in the front row to curl up.
Uzumaki Mirai’s gaze narrowed slightly.
A C-rank Ninjutsu was indeed impressive for a seven-year-old child, but for him—
His figure turned sideways, his feet kicked off lightly, and his whole body flashed past the edge of the fireball in a fluid motion, even having the leisure to pat non-existent dust off his shoulder.
“Not bad, able to unleash a Great Fireball at this age.”
He complimented her with a sincere tone.
However, Uchiha Naori’s expression grew a fraction colder.
She felt that the other party was perfunctorily dismissing her.
“You were the first one to use Ninjutsu!”
Uzumaki Mirai’s mouth curved upward, his sleeve moved slightly, and a golden chain silently shot out.
“Adamantine Sealing Chains!”
The chain was extremely fast with a tricky angle, circling from the side toward Uchiha Naori’s ankles.
By the time Naori noticed something was wrong, it was already too late.
The chain wrapped around her ankles, causing her to lose her center of gravity and lurch forward—
At the same time, a second chain shot out from Mirai’s other sleeve, precisely wrapping around her waist, arms, and shoulders…
By the time Uchiha Naori reacted, she had already been hung in midair by the chains in a rather awkward posture—
Her legs were apart, her arms were bound behind her back, and her entire body was suspended in a “big” (big) shape half a meter off the ground.
The whole audience fell silent.
Uchiha Naori’s face turned red in a flash.
Blushing from the roots of her ears all the way down to her neck, that trace of scarlet was exceptionally obvious against her black hair.
She gritted her teeth and struggled desperately, but the suppression power of the peak Adamantine Sealing Chains could not even be broken free by a Tailed Beast.
Although Uzumaki Mirai was far from that level, Uchiha Naori was, after all, only a seven-year-old little girl.
“Let…
Let me go!” Her voice carried a tremble, furious and humiliated to the extreme.
Uzumaki Mirai was stunned for a moment, only then realizing that his binding posture seemed a little bit wrong.
“Uh—Teacher, I won, hurry up and announce the result!”
Toriyama Kazunari finally came back to his senses and hurriedly blew his whistle: “Winner, Uzumaki Mirai.
Mirai, quickly put her down!”
Uzumaki Mirai quickly retracted the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Uchiha Naori dropped from midair, staggered a step to steady herself, keeping her head down as her black hair hung down to conceal her expression.
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails almost embedding into her palms.
“Naori…” Uzumaki Mirai walked up in front of her, wanting to say something.
Naori abruptly raised her head, her eye sockets slightly red, but there were no tears in her eyes, only a burning flame.
“I will defeat you,” she said word by word, “Definitely.”
After finishing, she turned around and walked back to the end of the line.
Along the way, no one dared to speak to her.
Uzumaki Mirai looked at her stubborn back and scratched his head.
“…Looks like I made an enemy.”
Kushina leaned over, staring at him suspiciously: “That chain of yours just now…
why did you tie it like that?”
“Th-That was an accident!
My control just isn’t precise enough yet!”
“Really?”
“Really!
Truer than pearls!”
Kushina snorted, but a trace of a smile was hidden at the corners of her mouth—
Mirai was still that Mirai who walked to and from school with her and brought her candy; that point hadn’t changed.
And on the edge of the crowd, Minato Namikaze quietly watched all this, his eyes holding a hint of contemplation in addition to envy.
To become Hokage, just being popular wasn’t enough.
You also had to be strong enough, strong enough to make everyone acknowledge you.
He looked at Uzumaki Mirai’s back and secretly clenched his fists.
“I need to work hard too.”