September 11 — morning.
In Fourth Year, Class 1, while the lesson was in progress, two figures suddenly appeared at the doorway—one tall, one short.
Yūya, who was teaching, walked over. After a brief exchange, he brought the shorter figure up to the podium.
In an instant, the entire class's attention focused on that small figure.
One boy's eyes brightened slightly—Namikaze Minato.
As for everyone else, most of their attention was on Uzumaki Kushina's hair, full of curiosity.
After all, in the shinobi world, red hair was extremely rare. And ever since Uzumaki Mito's hair had turned gray, you could hardly find a single redhead in Konoha.
Under the whole class's stare, Kushina looked timid, eyes darting around, not daring to meet anyone's gaze.
Sensing her fear, Yūya patted her shoulder and began introducing her to the class. "This is the student who, starting today, will officially transfer into our school—"
Before he could finish, Kushina—who had been timid a moment ago—seemed to force up her courage. She suddenly lifted her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and shouted, "I'm Uzumaki Kushina!"
Maybe because she'd been keeping her head down the whole time, or maybe because of her accent, her self-introduction came out a bit shrill.
The moment she yelled her name, Kushina herself blushed and clapped a hand over her mouth.
And her voice set the whole class off into loud laughter.
"Look at that hair color—no way!"
"How do you even get it that red? That's so weird!"
"That chubby round face with red hair… she looks like a tomato."
"First time I've ever seen hair like that. With that accent… she's not from another village, is she?"
"Huh? No way. I don't want to be in the same class as an outsider—other classes will laugh at us!"
"…"
The pointing, the snickering, the mockery—pouring into Kushina's ears—hit her pride like a hammer.
Kushina had wanted to get along with her classmates. But the moment she was provoked, her reflex kicked in. She was about to fire back with some bold declaration—refusing to let anyone look down on her—
When a single voice made the whole classroom fall silent.
"So noisy…"
The words were light, almost lazy—but they felt like icy air sinking into the bones. The students who had been speaking loudly all shuddered, instinctively clamped their mouths shut, dropped their heads, and tried to shrink their presence.
That scene also snuffed out the anger in Kushina's chest. She turned toward the source of the voice without thinking.
At the very back row, taking an entire desk for himself, Gojo Yoru rested one hand against his cheek, pencil in the other—like someone who'd been interrupted mid-problem. He lifted his head, swept his gaze across the room, and his beautiful ice-blue eyes met Kushina's deep navy eyes.
A few seconds later, Yoru looked away and said flatly, "Sit here."
Yūya's eyes immediately lit up. He smiled at Kushina. "Kushina, you'll sit next to Gojo Yoru. He's the top student of fourth year. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask him directly."
Then Yūya added to Yoru, "Gojo Yoru, look after your desk mate."
Knowing full well that Yoru was just awkward and bad at expressing himself, Yūya felt perfectly safe pairing them together.
But the classmates who didn't know Yoru's true personality looked at Kushina with pity.
Having the demon king as your desk mate… poor girl.
"I… I understand," Kushina said.
At that moment, Kushina was intensely curious about the boy who had just spoken up for her.
Hearing Yūya-sensei's arrangement, she answered quickly and jogged over to sit beside Yoru.
During that, she didn't notice a certain gaze following her the whole way—warm, gentle… and unusually mixed with a trace of regret.
Once seated beside Yoru, Kushina immediately offered a polite introduction again. "Y-you… hello. I'm Uzumaki Kushina."
The response she imagined never came.
Yoru only flicked his eyes at her, then lifted his pencil and pointed at the neatly stacked books beside him. "Those are last term's notes. If you want to read them, flip through them yourself."
With that, he ignored her completely.
So cold.
Up close, locking eyes with Yoru, Kushina finally understood everyone's reaction.
The white hair and eyebrows were cold enough.
But that gaze and voice—those were even more oppressive.
If Yūya-sensei hadn't said he was the top student, Kushina would've thought Yoru was the class delinquent.
And yet, at the same time, her curiosity about him only deepened.
Because the way he acted and the way he'd just helped her—those two didn't match at all.
A cold personality, a warm-hearted action… someone like that clearly had a story.
And after being mocked by everyone, Kushina felt goodwill only toward Yoru. She wanted even more to understand this desk mate.
But right now, she couldn't find any topic to start with, so she could only sit quietly.
Since they were in the back row and everyone had their backs to her, Kushina finally had the nerve to observe the class.
In the next second, she immediately met someone's eyes.
While everyone else faced forward, that one sneaky glance—someone turning around to peek at her—stood out far too much.
Not knowing whether he'd been laughing at her earlier, Kushina simply shot him a fierce glare.
Minato jerked and hurriedly looked away.
Gojo Yoru, who appeared to be doing reading-comprehension on his paper but was actually paying attention to Kushina the entire time, nearly broke character and laughed out loud at the scene.
A plot-knowing "NTR bull" is unbeatable.
With their "destined resonance" interrupted, Minato's hope of catching Kushina's attention again was basically gone.
After all, during academy days in canon, his interactions with Kushina were almost zero. He only dared to watch her quietly from the shadows—like a male version of Hyuga Hinata.
And after Kushina noticed him, she even assumed he was taking pleasure in her embarrassment.
Without the Cloud-nin kidnapping incident and the classic "hero saves the beauty," Minato might've needed a long time before Kushina changed her view of him.
Now, with Gojo Yoru—someone who understood Kushina's personality—standing in the way, by the time Minato worked up the courage to approach her, what might greet him… would be an Anbu warning.
As he wrote answers on his page, Yoru's mind was already working: how should he interact with Kushina next, and what approach would let her affection rise quickly without arousing suspicion from the higher-ups?
What Yoru didn't know was that his serious note-taking was also being watched by someone else.
In the Hokage's Office, Sarutobi Hiruzen—still in his "Prime of the Ninja Hero" days—had already developed the habit of smoking a pipe, and he was now blowing thick clouds of smoke.
Through the Crystal Ball Telescope Technique, he had watched the entire process of Kushina entering Fourth Year, Class 1. Hiruzen stared at Gojo Yoru inside the crystal sphere, and beneath the haze of smoke, his eyes narrowed slightly as he murmured:
"Sa and Mio's child, huh…"