Chapter 14: Furukawa
"Hello, I'm Ryoji!"
"Uchiha Seimei."
Seimei responded briefly, looking at the boy who had approached his desk.
Then, he turned his gaze to the other.
Mizutani Shizuko, slightly embarrassed by his attention, shrank her neck and softly whispered, "My name is Mizutani Shizuko."
After exchanging names, the three of them, under Ryoji's eager coordination, sat down together.
From then on, Ryojidid most of the talking. Mizutani Shizuko replied now and then, while Seimei remained largely silent.
Through their conversation, Seimei learned that Ryoji's parents were both chūnin, and both were skilled specialists—one worked in codebreaking, the other was a member of the Barrier Corps.
And yet...
Seimei couldn't understand how two such technical-minded individuals had produced a chatterbox like Ryoji.
Maybe he was just bottled up at home?
As Seimei silently ridiculed the thought, Ryoji's voice suddenly cut in.
"Seimei, what about your parents?"
"They died in action."
Seimei answered calmly.
Ryojipaused, awkwardly scratching his head. "Ah... sorry, Seimei. I didn't know…"
"It's fine. It's in the past."
Seimei answered again, equally calm.
Even so, Ryojifell silent, clearly feeling awkward.
Mizutani Shizuko looked like she wanted to say something, but after gathering her courage several times, she ultimately couldn't bring herself to speak.
Seeing this, Seimei didn't ask.
It would just be words of comfort—perhaps meaningful to his predecessor, but not to him.
······
Time passed by the minute.
About half an hour later—
More than a dozen jōnin arrived at the classroom.
Well...
Not all were true jōnin. Most of them were tokubetsu jōnin.
Tokubetsu jōnin were ninja who hadn't reached full jōnin level in overall strength, but possessed outstanding talent in a particular area.
In name they were jōnin, but in reality, they were somewhere between chūnin and jōnin.
Which made sense—most of the students in this class had limited potential, clear at a glance. They weren't worth too much of a jōnin's time.
And now, during wartime, full-fledged jōnin were in high demand as the backbone of the village. While cultivating future talent was important, it couldn't take priority over the needs at the front lines.
"Team 11, stand up."
A tokubetsu jōnin spoke from the podium.
At once, Nakajima Sōta, Hanako, and Feilong stood up.
Once confirmed, the tokubetsu jōnin led them away.
Then came Team 12, Team 13...
Soon, it was Team 17's turn—Seimei's team.
"Uchiha Seimei? Mizutani Shizuko? Ryoji?"
From the podium, a scar-faced middle-aged ninja looked directly at the three.
"That's us, sensei!"
The man flipped through the documents in his hands, gave a nod, and said, "Alright. Follow me."
With that, he left the classroom.
Seimei and the others immediately followed.
About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Training Ground 10.
It was a remote area. Under normal conditions, it would take thirty minutes to reach from the village center—but they had made it in half the time.
Because of that, both Ryojiand Mizutani Shizuko were utterly exhausted.
Especially Mizutani Shizuko—being a girl and weaker in stamina, making it here so quickly had clearly taken a toll.
Even so, Seimei didn't offer any help. He didn't know whether this was part of a test by their new jōnin instructor.
And from his observation, Mizutani Shizuko would probably manage to endure, so he let it be.
"Alright, this is the place."
In the center of the training ground, the scar-faced jōnin finally came to a stop.
Seeing this, Seimei and the others halted as well.
The middle-aged jōnin swept his gaze across the three of them, pausing briefly on Seimei before speaking. "The fact that you were able to keep up with me means you've passed the preliminary test."
"Test?"
Mizutani Shizuko, panting for breath, asked in confusion.
"That's right. A test," the jōnin nodded. "On the battlefield, no matter what type of shinobi you are—if your physical strength is lacking, your chance of dying is the highest."
Hearing that, Mizutani Shizuko froze, her face gradually turning pale.
She hadn't expected that the very first thing she'd hear as a new ninja would be something so serious—about death.
Thinking about the word "sacrifice," she secretly glanced at Seimei and thought to herself, I wonder how Seimei-kun felt when he learned of his parents' deaths... It must have been painful.
Seimei, as sharp as ever, noticed her little glance but didn't respond.
The middle-aged jōnin didn't linger on the topic. "Alright. Take a moment to rest."
Upon hearing this, Ryojiand Mizutani Shizuko both sat down to catch their breath. Only Seimei remained standing, perfectly still.
That bit of exercise was nothing to him.
Furukawa cast a brief glance at Seimei but said nothing. Instead, he continued, "Let's take this chance to get to know each other."
"Sounds good, sensei! We don't even know your name yet," Ryojichimed in immediately, seizing the chance to speak.
Furukawa nodded and introduced himself. "I'm Furukawa, as you can see, a jōnin. I'm thirty-seven this year. I enjoy playing shōgi and dislike people who break rules."
Then he turned to Ryoji. "You first. Name, age, likes, dislikes, and your dream."
"Yes, Furukawa-sensei."
Ryoji straightened and introduced himself. "I'm Ryoji, ten years old. I like making friends, I hate anything with cilantro in it, and my dream is to become Hokage."
Hokage, huh? Another one brainwashed by the Will of Fire.
Seimei sighed inwardly.
Furukawa gave a neutral nod, then looked to Mizutani Shizuko. "You?"
After resting a bit, Shizuko could finally speak without gasping.
"My name is Mizutani Shizuko. I'll be ten after the new year. I like flower arranging. As for things I hate... um…"
She paused, thinking, then shook her head. "I don't think I particularly dislike anything. As for my dream—"
She glanced around at the other three, then gathered her courage and said, "My dream is to become a medical ninja like Lady Tsunade."
Tsunade?
Seimei glanced at her and thought, Her reputation really is something. No wonder she could still become the Fifth Hokage after being gone from the village so long.
While Seimei was musing, Furukawa turned his gaze to him. "Your turn, Seimei."
"Alright."
Seimei nodded and said, "I'm Uchiha Seimei, ten years old. I like training. I hate trouble. As for my dream…"
He suddenly fell silent.
Because he realized—he had never truly considered the distant future, much less anything like a "dream."
When he first arrived in this world, he had been too worried about his outsider identity being exposed and had focused entirely on training.
After fully integrating his predecessor's memories and experiences, he became focused on surviving the upcoming Shinobi World War—so he trained even harder.
The farthest he had ever thought ahead was how to survive the Uchiha massacre. The future... had never really been on his mind.
"Seimei-kun?"
Seeing him fall silent, Mizutani Shizuko gently poked his arm and asked softly, "What's wrong?"
[End of Chapter]
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