"La la la~ la la la~ I'm back!"
Hearing the cheerful tune from the entranceway, Tsunade lazily lifted half her head from where she was slumped into the couch.
"Shizune, when's dinner?"
"Coming right up."
Shizune replied helplessly. Even though it was Tsunade-sama who had promised her uncle to take care of her, sometimes it felt like their roles were reversed.
However, Shizune didn't mind this change at all—it felt more like a proper home this way.
Tsunade melted into the sofa like a blob, but then suddenly caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye that made her sit up straight with excitement.
"Shizune, did you get into a fight at school?"
In Tsunade's opinion, Shizune was a good kid, just too soft-hearted—she would definitely be taken advantage of later.
Back in her days at the Ninja Academy, Tsunade had fought her way through every challenge. How could her own disciple not know how to fight?
Shizune patted the dust off her clothes and nodded enthusiastically, "Mm-hmm!"
For such a well-behaved girl, today's brawl had felt like opening the door to an entirely new world.
"I told you hitting people feels great, right?" Tsunade eagerly shared her old bully experience with Shizune, "Of course, randomly hitting people is bad. The best situation is when there's one or two real jerks like Jiraiya in your class!"
Shizune waved her small fist slightly in protest, "That's not true! Ours was a fight back against bullies!"
Tsunade looked puzzled. Where had she picked up such fancy phrases?
Seeing Tsunade confused, Shizune explained actively, "It was those third-year bullies who harassed one of our classmates, so then Seiki led us to go confront them directly!"
"We all went together, scaring them so much they didn't dare to utter a word. And then, after beating them up, Seiki had me heal them before we hit them again!" Shizune grew increasingly excited while recounting, until finally her cheeks turned rosy red.
That kid actually pulled something like this... A flicker of surprise passed through Tsunade's eyes. When she first heard about healing them, she thought Seiki might be trying to make peace.
But unexpectedly—he only wanted to beat them up again!
"Still, it really felt satisfying!" Tsunade secretly nodded in agreement.
If last time she saw Jiraiya's kind of "universal love" in him, this time what she saw in Seiki was the same kind of firmness she herself possessed!
Suddenly thinking of something else, Tsunade asked, "Wait, you said the whole class went?"
Shizune tilted her head, "Is there any problem?"
Curious, Tsunade asked, "You guys aren't worried about getting involved in group fighting? Also, according to what you said earlier, these weren't exactly nice guys you dealt with. Aren't you afraid they'll seek revenge afterward?"
"Oh yeah!"
"Shizune first nodded dumbly, as if suddenly realizing something. 'We just followed Seiki-kun's words without thinking at all.'"
"But soon, she waved her hand confidently and said, 'But don't worry! This time we helped that classmate stand his ground. Next time someone bullies us, the other classmates will definitely support us too! Besides, those third-year thugs are terrified of the class president now. With Seiki-kun around, they wouldn't dare come near us!'"
"'To inspire such loyalty with just one sentence...this kind of trust is truly enviable,' Tsunade sighed inwardly. 'If it weren't for my fear of blood...I probably would have been more than happy to take such a disciple!'"
...
In a grand mansion within the Uchiha clan's territory—designed in the style of the Warring States period:
A middle-aged ninja sitting quietly in the courtyard suddenly opened his eyes and asked evenly, "Where do you think you're going?"
Shuunen, who had been trying to sneak across the courtyard, stiffened, drooped his head, and turned around. "Father."
"Are you going to explain those injuries on your body?"
Shuunen shrugged. "Someone must've already told you about them."
The middle-aged ninja's tone hardened as he demanded, "I want to hear it from your own mouth!"
With no choice, Shuunen knelt and sat down, immediately letting out a pained exclamation. "Ouch!"
"What's wrong now?"
"I got my butt whipped so badly I can't sit down anymore."
Seeing Shuunen twist his body into an awkward posture, his rear end lifted high, the middle-aged ninja nearly lost his breath in disbelief.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself, the middle-aged ninja said, "Now can you tell me what happened?"
Still sticking his backside up, Shuunen said, "Simply put, I got beaten up while defending the Uchiha clan's honor!"
The middle-aged ninja snorted bitterly, "So should I be thanking you instead?"
Shuunen muttered quietly, "I think that could work."
"Nonsense!" The middle-aged ninja slammed the table. "I leave you on your own for just a short while and you start hanging out with the wrong crowd? Don't you realize they're only using your Uchiha name? They've never considered you one of their own!"
"I know."
"You know and yet... Wait, did you say you know?"
"I'm not stupid. I can tell whether people like me or not."
Suppressing his anger, the middle-aged ninja asked, "Then why do you keep associating with them?"
Instead of answering directly, Shuunen changed the subject. "Ever since I was little, none of the kids outside the clan ever wanted to play with me—not like those inside did."
"Such things happened? Why didn't I know?"
"You wouldn't know because all day long you were always with the clan head. You never had time for me!" *(Author's note: This time his father found out so fast because he made way too much noise.)*
The middle-aged ninja frowned but remained silent.
"I tried hard—I attempted to make friends with outsiders, but failed... Actually, that wasn't a big deal. But what I absolutely couldn't tolerate was them slandering the Uchiha clan behind my back—the Uchiha clan's honor (the most sacred thing to us) that you regard as dearer than life itself!"
"From that moment on, I understood one thing: instead of begging for others' approval, we should make them fear us!"
The middle-aged ninja's eyes flickered briefly with emotion, but he quickly hardened his face and snapped, "Foolish! No one can stand entirely alone—not even the great Madara Uchiha could achieve that. What gives you the right to speak with such presumption?"
"At least it's better than you doing absolutely nothing! This cowardice isn't even worthy of the Uchiha name!"
"Get out!"
"Hmph! I'll leave on my own!" Shuunen stood up, limping away while clutching the pain in his lower back.
After Shuunen left, the courtyard returned to silence, finally broken by an almost inaudible murmur from somewhere, "Have we really made the wrong decisions? We've actively restrained our clan members. We've clearly shown goodwill toward the Hokage's faction. Why has the situation not improved at all? Is it because our clan is cursed—or… is someone pulling strings from the shadows?"
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