Itachi, I heard from your mother that you came home rather late last night.
"Give me a reasonable explanation."
Breakfast had just ended.
Right as Itachi was about to go to school on time, his father stopped him.
In the living room...
His father sat upright, while his son knelt below him. The atmosphere was tense.
Itachi lowered his head, remaining silent.
He did want to explain, but… he had no idea where to begin.
Should he just say he planned to do some extra training before heading home, but ended up meeting a girl who delayed him?
Or…
In the end, Itachi chose silence.
It was his intuition.
Telling his father about yesterday's discovery somehow felt like a bad idea—whether for his father's sake, his own, or… for that girl.
"Forget it."
"If you don't want to explain, I won't force you."
"But I hope you understand what you're doing."
A long pause.
The anger in his father's eyes subsided, replaced briefly by a doting look that quickly vanished. Ultimately, Uchiha Fugaku didn't push him further.
As head of the clan, he didn't have much time to spend with his son.
But Itachi had indeed proved himself: he was admitted to the Academy early, consistently among the top students, and even served as the class representative.
From a father's perspective, Fugaku was quite pleased.
"Go to school."
"Remember, you're the eldest son of the Uchiha clan leader.
You represent the Uchiha."
With that, Uchiha Fugaku vanished in a blur.
It was a while before Itachi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
His father's words still echoed in the air.
Itachi truly didn't know if it was meant to be advice, or an order.
"Represent… the Uchiha, huh."
He murmured. He understood what his father meant, yet it only deepened his own confusion.
Shaking his head, Itachi stood up, put on his backpack, and headed off to school.
At a crossroads, he used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to send a clone to class in his place.
Meanwhile, Itachi himself hurried straight back to the same little forest where he usually trained.
He'd never felt so eager to train before—craving to lose himself in practice and forget about everything.
Of course, if he could run into the girl from yesterday again, that wouldn't be bad either.
…
Elsewhere—
Qingchuan, who had set out early in the morning, had already finished his first set of sword-training swings.
Now that Senbonzakura was sheathed, it was time to work on Kido.
His arms felt unbelievably heavy, but Qingchuan discovered this actually sharpened his focus.
Spiritual power—something not of this world—gathered within him, surging wildly.
Finally, following the training guide imprinted in his mind, his spiritual power reached a critical mass, collecting on his two fingertips.
"Way of Destruction #1: Thrust!"
Boom!
After a brief chant, a white blast of energy shot from his fingertips, slamming into the tree in front of him!
A loud explosion rang out.
That thick tree, nearly as wide as an adult's waist, shook violently.
Where the blast struck, the wood had fractured from the intense force.
"Oh-ho?!"
Even though a wave of exhaustion flooded him, Qingchuan felt a rush of excitement.
He quickly ran over to inspect the damage and nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad at all, huh?"
Although it was just the most basic Destructive Spell, the effect was about as strong as all the sword strikes he had done since early morning.
Of course, Qingchuan knew the main reason for this outcome was how weak his current body still was.
After all, in the later stages of the Soul Reaper world, such low-level Kido spells barely made a difference in real fights…
But for now, he was just happy!
Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
At that moment, rustling noises arose behind him, and Qingchuan's face hardened in alarm.
As someone who held the Reaper's power, Qingchuan had always been sensitive to spiritual energy.
Someone's here.
No hesitation!
Qingchuan whirled around, drawing his sword!
His Soul Reaper training was his biggest secret—if someone witnessed his Kido and he couldn't be sure they'd keep it under wraps (or couldn't brush it off as some bloodline trait), Qingchuan was prepared to silence them!
Sure, he might be wearing women's clothing…
But he could still be a total brawler if needed!
"Um… you don't have to worry—it's me, Uchiha Itachi," came a voice.
"We saw each other yesterday, remember?"
The speaker was indeed Uchiha Itachi.
Seeing it was him, Qingchuan blinked, but his eyes then turned cold again.
"You again?"
Why couldn't he escape this kid?
Qingchuan's heart gave a slight jolt of panic.
He had no idea how much Itachi had seen.
Naturally, he also doubted he could fool a five-year-old "genius-level" child capable of thinking on a Kage's level.
But…
Looking at Itachi's apologetic expression, Qingchuan felt a strange sensation rising within him…
"I was just training around here, too," Itachi said quickly with a nervous shrug.
"Then I heard a loud noise from this direction and got curious, so I came by… Sorry to bother you again."
With that, Itachi bowed at a full ninety degrees, despite the blade still pointed at him—earnestly expressing his remorse.
Qingchuan raised an eyebrow.
Watching Itachi's tense and uneasy stance, a sinister yet audacious thought began forming in Qingchuan's mind…