Ring-ring-ring…
The morning dismissal bell rang. Gojo Yoru stood up and left the classroom through the back door.
Uzumaki Kushina—who had already gotten her textbooks and was copying Yoru's notes—immediately got up and followed.
Along the way, Kushina's mouth never stopped moving.
What did she see?
Everywhere Yoru passed, whether the students ahead were boys or girls, they all stopped and moved aside.
Some boys who were closer even turned to face the wall, terrified that their eyes might meet Yoru's.
Even so, a few boys who happened to run into him in the hallway still couldn't escape.
Just because Yoru walked past a section of stairs, a boy who was facing the wall got grabbed by the hair and shoved into the wall for a rough "scrape," yet he didn't dare make a single muffled sound.
The moment the others saw that, they hurriedly crouched down and huddled up, shrinking their presence even more.
Only the girls didn't get "special treatment" from Yoru.
Watching Yoru actively pick fights like it was nothing, Kushina stood there, dumbfounded.
Now she finally understood why everyone in class was afraid of him.
So this guy really was a delinquent!
"Why are you following me?"
After leaving the teaching building, Yoru suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at Kushina who was sneaking behind him. He frowned slightly.
Kushina flinched under his gaze and instinctively looked away.
Then, as if she remembered something, she gathered her courage, looked straight at him, and said righteously, "Yūya-sensei told you to look after me, so I want to follow you and get familiar with the school."
Yoru stared at her for a few seconds—until she started feeling guilty again, her eyes darting away.
Only then did he speak slowly. "If you're afraid of getting bullied, just do what I did. Beat them until they submit—beat them until they're afraid of you."
"I'm going to train. I don't have time to babysit you."
With that, Yoru walked toward the school gate.
Kushina stared blankly at his back, and the confusion in her heart dispersed like clouds.
So that's how it was!
No wonder it felt so contradictory.
It wasn't that Gojo Yoru was picking fights for fun—if he didn't do that, someone as different and solitary as him would be bullied.
Better to bully others first—make everyone fear you—than be bullied yourself!
And the reason he helped her… was it because he saw his past self in her?
In that moment, goosebumps rose all over Kushina's body, and a surge of excitement hit her—like she'd found someone of her own kind.
So Kushina chased after Yoru again, staying right behind him.
Yoru acted as if he hadn't noticed her at all. After leaving school, he headed into the forest to an abandoned training ground and began practicing Body Flicker.
As the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of air being torn reached her ears, Kushina went slack-jawed again.
In her field of view, a black afterimage darted around like a pencil scribbling over a blueprint—one stroke here, one slash there, crisscrossing lines of black everywhere.
It was enough to show just how fast Yoru was.
And this… was still only a small fraction of what he could do.
Five minutes later, finished warming up, Yoru appeared beside a wooden training post in the clearing. He rolled up his pant legs and unfastened the weighted iron plates tied to his calves.
He tossed them aside—and whether it was deliberate or a coincidence, they slammed into a training post not far away.
The next second, the post shattered as if it had been rammed by a wild boar.
Yoru bounced in place a couple times—then vanished into an afterimage again.
This time, the training ground no longer filled with crisscrossing black "lines."
Without sensing techniques, only someone with exceptional eyesight could barely catch a vague blur.
Even more unbelievable: earlier, his flashing movement had still kicked up fallen leaves and produced a harsh tearing sound.
But now, this afterimage moved without making a single sound—like a ghost blinking through the air.
"This kind of Body Flicker… it's unbelievable. Is he really just a fourth-year?"
That line didn't come from Kushina.
The girl was already standing there in a daze, so shocked she couldn't even speak.
The one who spoke was an Anbu member hidden in the trees, using a concealment technique—tasked with secretly monitoring and protecting Uzumaki Kushina.
As a special unit directly under the Hokage, Anbu's greatest strengths were never flashy ninjutsu, but assassination and reconnaissance.
And Body Flicker was one of their specialties.
Every Anbu member had refined ordinary Body Flicker to the point of mastery, then fused it with elemental attributes to develop elemental movement techniques—or high-speed taijutsu movement.
They believed that ordinary Body Flicker, trained to their level, had already reached its ceiling.
But now, in a child far younger than himself, he was seeing a more advanced Leaf Body Flicker—something even Anbu couldn't do.
That ghostlike speed, those silent steps—everything screamed exceptional chakra control and reaction speed.
"A Body Flicker prodigy…?"
The Anbu member murmured it—and so did Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was also watching Gojo Yoru at that very moment.
Yoru didn't notice the Anbu hidden in the shadows.
But he could guess that he had probably already entered Hiruzen's field of view.
Today was Kushina's first day at school. Hiruzen would definitely be paying close attention.
Especially to Gojo Yoru, the desk mate assigned to her—he had to be on the watch list, and Hiruzen might have already pulled up all of Yoru's background.
That was why Yoru deliberately brought Kushina here during lunch break to train—his goal was to display talent that was impressive, but not yet world-shattering.
In an era before "Shisui of the Body Flicker" was born, Gojo Yoru—by pushing ordinary Body Flicker beyond its limits—successfully drew Hiruzen's attention and earned the label of a "Body Flicker genius."
And this was only the beginning.
If he wanted Hiruzen's tacit approval—and investment—Yoru would need to prepare even more "surprises" for the Third Hokage.
After training Body Flicker for another ten-plus minutes, Yoru finally stopped.
As he picked up the weighted plates and strapped them back on, he looked at Kushina in the distance and frowned slightly. "Why did you follow me again?"
"I… I…"
Kushina's mind was still blank, and she stammered without being able to form words.
"Forget it…"
Yoru gave her an out in time, then asked, "Can you fight? Want to be my sparring partner?"
"R-really?" Kushina's eyes lit up instantly. She nodded like a pecking chick. "I can fight! I'm really good at fighting!"
As if to prove it, Kushina rolled up her sleeves and struck a "showing muscles" pose—adorable.
"Then don't cry later."
A curve formed at the corner of Yoru's mouth, and he charged at Kushina.
A boy and a girl—two kids—started brawling without the slightest concern for gender.
"So that's how it is…"
Watching the scene through the crystal ball, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but smile, his eyes full of appreciation.
He'd thought Gojo Yoru was a troubled child—an orphan with personality defects after losing both parents.
Now it seemed…
He was simply a good kid who knew how to protect himself—cold on the outside, warm on the inside.
~~~
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