Kudo Shin knelt on one knee.
Both hands raised two scrolls high, his head bowed respectfully.
Miyamoto Yukie's brows furrowed as he took the scrolls. He skimd through them—and before long, slamd the desk in fury.
"Hmph! Outrageous!"
"That brat Ishikawa Itsuki—what did he even learn in the Academy?"
"Does he not even understand the most basic conduct of a shinobi?"
"Disobeying orders, charging blindly, and with no skill to back it up!"
"Gravely injured? Hah—why didn't he just die instead?"
Miyamoto Yukie's rage boiled over.
Yes—
As a Jounin, he had seen his share of arrogant types, cowardly types, all kinds of shinobi.
But at the very least, a ninja's duty was to follow orders.
Even the most prideful, when on mission, would obey command.
Yet soone like Ishikawa Itsuki… this was the first ti Yukie had ever seen such recklessness.
Worse still—
This was his very first posting as frontline commander, and the fool had delivered him such a "surprise."
Even if he distinguished himself in this war, Ishikawa would forever be a stain on his record.
How could he possibly be in a good mood toward such scum?
If Itsuki had been of a great clan, then as a civilian-born himself, Yukie might have reluctantly given him so face.
But—ha.
Just a re commoner? Then there was nothing to hesitate about.
Drawing in a breath, he ordered coldly,
"Call for ANBU."
"Chuunin Kudo Shin, later you will hand Ishikawa Itsuki over to them."
"As for this mission—no rewards, but no punishnt either."
"From here on, you'll atone with rit."
"After handing Ishikawa to ANBU, your squad may rest and await the next mission."
…Relief.
Hearing this, Kudo Shin finally exhaled.
At least they had managed to muddle through.
Privately, he cursed Ishikawa half to death, but also felt fortunate to have such reliable teammates.
Not only had they secured one cart of supplies, they had even found a scapegoat.
As expected of clan heirs—their minds truly worked differently.
Roughly ten minutes later, an ANBU operative wearing a fox mask appeared. Kudo followed him all the way to the dical camp, where the unconscious Ishikawa Itsuki was formally handed over.
Only after that did he return wearily to the squad's tent.
Collapsing onto the cot, he rubbed his temples, still shaken.
Looking at the two before him, he forced a smile.
"You can rest easy. Ishikawa has been turned over to ANBU. Our mission won't count toward rit, but there'll be no punishnt either."
"From here, just rest well and wait for the next task."
Nara Kazama's face showed a just as expected look.
Uchiha Kai also let out a faint sigh.
But this only deepened his conviction—his earlier precautions had been right.
The Uchiha Clan's destruction truly ca down to ideology.
In the end, it was all about interests.
If the clan couldn't learn to soften its edge and blend into the village, then their future would proceed just as in the original tiline.
Ti passed slowly.
For several days, no new missions were assigned.
Every morning, Kai would rise and then head outside the front camp to a scenic patch of grass.
And there—he simply lay down to bask in the sun.
As for training? Ever since obtaining his "system cheat," he had long since abandoned it.
Why bother, when strength cos regardless? Wasn't it far more pleasant to lie back and relax?
By evening, Nara Kazama would return from practice and find Kai sprawled lazily on the grass.
The look in his eyes was… hard to describe.
Sitting down beside him, he muttered,
"Kai-kun, you're really strange."
"We've been at the front for days. Whenever there are no missions, everyone spends all their ti training."
"Everyone wants to squeeze out every bit of strength before facing the enemy."
"And you? You lounge around every day like you're on a spring outing."
His eyes were full of puzzlent.
The more he observed Uchiha Kai, the less he understood.
Each ti he thought he had figured him out, the next mont Kai would prove him wrong.
The only certainty was—this Uchiha was nothing like an Uchiha at all.
Neither in character nor in behavior did he resemble the typical clan mold.
And that gave Nara Kazama quite the headache.
Yes—he was a typical Nara.
Lazy, on the surface. But that laziness ca only from boredom.
Whatever the matter, he usually saw through it at a glance.
Over ti, things lost their challenge—so he seed lazy.
But ever since eting Uchiha Kai, no matter how much effort he spent, he could never pin down exactly what sort of person he was.
That troubled him greatly.
He told himself not to dwell on it. After all, they were only squadmates forced together.
Not even friends.
And cannon-fodder squads like theirs? They weren't built to forge "bonds."
Still—
He was a Nara. At heart, he couldn't accept losing.
So in recent days, he had been trying to get closer to Kai, hoping to see through him.
Yet the closer he got, the more baffled he beca.
The man was lazier than him!
At least Kazama trained a little every day. Since leaving Konoha, he hadn't seen Kai train once.
That only made him more curious.
After all, during their fight days earlier, Kai's performance was anything but weak.
At the very least—
He was already up to Class A standards.
Kazama could guess Kai wanted to conceal his strength. The reasons he could also roughly infer.
But what he couldn't fathom was—how had soone so lazy reached this level of power in the first place?
Now, with a rare idle mont, he probed cautiously.
Kai, lying on the grass, regarded Kazama warily, hiding the unease deep in his eyes.
Instead of answering directly, he deflected with a faint tone.
"I'm curious about you too."
"With the level you've shown, entering Class A wouldn't have been a problem."
"So why hide your strength, pretending to be weak, and end up in a cannon-fodder Class B squad?"
"And then there's the Ino–Shika–Cho formation."
"That's the iron rule of your three clans. Our class wasn't short on Yamanaka or Akimichi heirs."
"So why are you tead up with an Uchiha like ?"
"Well?"
"Nara-kun, aren't you curious about ? In the sa way—I'm curious about you."
"Would you care to explain?"
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