In the 41st year of Konoha, it was opening day at the Ninja Academy.
Class 1-A’s classroom was bustling as groups of kids chattered noisily together.
A spiky-haired kid wearing goggles…
…was huddled in a corner seat, his eyes darting toward the front diagonally every now and then.
This was none other than Obito, who would shake the entire Ninja World in the future.
He was staring directly at Rin.
“What are you looking at, Obito?”
A voice suddenly sounded beside him.
Obito was startled.
Turning his head, he saw three guys from his clan surrounding him at some point.
The leader was named Uchiha Aoki, who had bullied him quite a bit in the clan.
“N-Nothing…” Obito shrank back slightly.
“Nothing?”
Aoki sneered and reached out to poke Obito’s shoulder.
“Hey, how did you end up in the same class as us? A dead last should be in a dead-last class, shouldn’t they?”
The two lackeys beside him immediately chimed in:
“Exactly, I heard you can’t even throw a basic shuriken properly?”
“Don’t embarrass us Uchihas!”
The classroom gradually quieted down.
Quite a few classmates were looking over.
Their classmate Might Guy craned his neck, Kurenai frowned, while Asuma rested his chin on his hand with interest.
Obito’s face flushed deep red, and his fists clenched tightly.
He had originally intended to hold back.
Really.
But out of the corner of his eye, he caught Rin turning her head, looking over at him with worry.
At that moment, the string named ‘patience’ snapped in Obito’s mind with a loud ‘pop’.
“You guys—”
“Hey.”
Just as Obito was about to speak, a voice cut in—neither loud nor quiet, just enough for the whole class to hear.
Everyone turned their heads at once.
Leaning against the wall near the back door was a black-haired boy, around six years old, wearing standard Uchiha clan clothes with his hands in his pockets.
Most eye-catching was his expression, which didn’t belong to a child at all; rather, he looked like an adult who had grown bored of watching the spectacle.
Uchiha Makoto.
“Aoki,” Makoto strolled over lazily, “this is the academy, not the clan grounds.”
Aoki froze for a moment, then snapped back angrily, “What’s it to you? We’re just teaching this dead last a lesson!”
“That’s why I said it’s embarrassing.” Makoto interrupted him, sweeping a glance across the surrounding classmates.
“Is it something to be proud of, letting outsiders watch the Uchiha fight among themselves?”
Hearing this, Aoki’s face shifted.
Makoto stepped between them, standing right between Aoki and Obito.
He lowered his voice, but in the quiet classroom, everyone could still hear:
“If you want to fight, go fight at the training grounds after school all you want. For now, get back to your seats.”
Aoki opened his mouth to say something, but met Makoto’s excessively calm eyes.
He also noticed the kids from the Hyuga, Sarutobi, and Yuhi families staring at them.
In the end, he grunted coldly and slunk off with his cronies.
Makoto rolled his eyes internally.
The Naruto World truly was full of professional bullies; you ran into them everywhere.
In-clan bullying, in-village bullying, cross-nation bullying…
Is this some damn traditional skill of the Ninja World?
He turned around to look at Obito.
The spiky-haired kid was still frozen in place, his eyes wide behind his goggles.
“T-Thanks…” Obito stammered.
“It’s fine.”
Makoto waved his hand and turned to leave.
“Wait!”
Obito called out suddenly, leaping up from his seat and rushing over to Makoto in a few steps.
“Um, I remember you’re Uchiha Makoto, right? Let’s be friends!”
Makoto paused.
Obito scratched his head, grinning somewhat foolishly.
“I feel like you’re different from other Uchihas!”
Makoto turned around and stared at Obito for two seconds.
“How am I different?” he asked suddenly.
“Huh?”
“You said I’m different from other Uchihas,”
Makoto leaned closer.
“In what way specifically? Am I rich? Or strong? Or exceptionally handsome?”
Obito was completely stunned by this rapid succession of questions, his goggles slipping sideways:
“No… I mean, you… you have the will of fire! You care about your comrades!”
Silence.
Three seconds later, Makoto gave him a massive eye-roll and turned to walk away.
“Hey! Makoto! Don’t go!”
Obito quickly chased after him, clinging behind Makoto like a tail.
“I’m serious! Look, we’re both Uchihas, and we’re both orphans.”
“Stop right there.” Makoto turned sharply, almost making Obito crash into his back.
“We’ll talk about being friends later.” Makoto crossed his arms.
“Let me ask you, do you want to train together tonight?”
Obito’s eyes lit up instantaneously.
“Train? With you?”
“Who else? Aoki?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Obito nodded like a woodpecker, becoming entirely excited.
“I’ve wanted to get stronger for a long time! Really! Look at Rin, she… Ahem, I mean, as a Ninja, of course I have to train hard!”
Looking at his single-celled reaction, Makoto felt like laughing.
Sure enough, he had that exact hot-blooded idiot vibe from the original work.
“Then after school, at the Third Training Ground.” Having said that, Makoto prepared to leave again.
“Wait!”
Obito stopped him once again, this time rubbing his hands together sheepishly.
“Um… Makoto, how strong are you? I’m not doubting you! Just curious! After all, you dared to talk to Aoki like that…”
Makoto stopped.
Here it comes.
This was the exact line he had been waiting for.
The classroom had returned to its clamor by now, but those at nearby desks were actually pricking up their ears.
Guy, Asuma, Kurenai, and Rin, who had turned back around but was clearly eavesdropping.
Makoto took a deep breath, and then!
In a voice clear enough for the whole class to hear, he stated clearly:
“To defeat those three just now, one hand is enough for me.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, half of the classroom instantly went silent.
Obito’s mouth fell wide open.
Not far away, Aoki stood up abruptly, his face green with rage: “Uchiha Makoto! You—”
[Ding! Target ‘Obito’ trust assessment for the lie ‘I can beat those three with one hand’: 50%]
[Materializing lie ‘To defeat those three just now, one hand is enough for me.’: 25%]
[Materialization commencing… Materialization degree is influenced by both character weight and trust level…]
[Materialization complete. Host has received a power boost.]
[Notice: Today’s usage limit for the ‘Lie Becomes Reality’ ability has been reached (1/1).]