Chapter 14: Establishing Public Persona, War Ends
The next day, Uchiha Tonan arrived at the Ninja Academy, wearing a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses. Although someone attempted to assassinate him yesterday, he also received a very useful piece of information.
Hatake Sakumo was back.
In other words, his next target had appeared. Sakumo committed suicide in Konoha when he was 44 years old. There was over a year left for this. As long as he gained Sakumo’s acknowledgment, Tonan was confident of surviving the dangerous Third Great Shinobi War after Sakumo’s death.
How many chunin parents would have to be sacrificed to attain a kage-leveled powerhouse’s abilities? As soon as he stepped foot in the classroom, Tonan attracted the female students’ gaze.
The classroom was filled with love-struck exclamations. It had to be said that Uchihas had good genes. In terms of appearance, they were rarely inferior to others.
Obito was perhaps the only exception.
The reason why Tonan did not attract such amorous reactions in the past was that his simple clothes failed to highlight his best qualities.
In fact, according to his true character, he didn’t want to be so high-profile. However, there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. He must establish a public persona.
When an average person suddenly obtains formidable power, some changes would come about. For instance, among the Uchihas many were innocent and polite in their childhood, but once they became stronger, they would consider themselves very important. Inadvertently, they would become arrogant and haughty.
Tonan couldn’t use these characteristics as his public persona though. A deeply brainwashed person who stood on Sandaime Hokage’s side must be different from other clan members to some extent. It would be best if he ran in the opposite direction. Gentle, refined, elegant, cultured, and easygoing personas were the most suitable.
Any character was manifested through appearance, words, and actions. The appearance was the most important among these. The first impression tends to set the label.
“Everyone, good morning.”
Tonan greeted the female classmates, whose eyes had turned into hearts, with a modest smile. He walked to his seat with a calm look and casually unbuttoned his collar.
Gudong
The classroom was filled with gulping sounds.
“Do all children mature so early in this world?”
Tonan thought this but his expression didn’t change. Treating everyone around as air, he browsed through the textbook, preparing for class. His eyes were focused and serious.
This pose increased Tonan’s charm by several levels.
‘Ding! Gained Hyuga Chiryo’s acknowledgment.’
Suddenly, the prompt woke Tonan up, and a small arc appeared on the corners of his mouth.
“Sure enough, this works. Gaining emotional acknowledgment by relying on my charm is also a good way.”
Tonan turned his head and looked behind him. He saw a little girl wearing a white dress secretly observing him, using her textbook as cover.
Seeing Tonan turn in her direction, she quickly covered her face with the textbook, much like a frightened rabbit.
“He’s looking… he seems to be smiling at me…”
Tonan sized up the nervous Chiryo, and then retracted his gaze.
“Hyuga Chiryo… There is no such name in my memory. She’s either a short-lived person or she got married after growing up and stopped working as a ninja. But then again, most of the people here should have died in the Third Great Shinobi War.”
Tonan remembered the war’s cruelty in the original work. Konoha was beaten to the doorstep, and as long as one was a ninja, they would be dragged to the battlefield to be cannon fodder.
“There are still a few years left. I hope you all will learn more ninjutsu and cultivate chakra before you die.”
Tonan had such thoughts. At this time, a white pigeon flew over from the horizon and landed on his desk. Tonan gently caressed its head, and the pigeon rubbed its head against Tonan’s hand as if it was enjoying it.
Under the sunlight, the scene looked very warm.
“Small animals like to get close to Tonan.”
“He’s so gentle~”
“I used to think that he was also stupid like Obito, but I didn’t expect him to be so virtuous.”
……
The girls huddled and chatted in whispers.
‘Ding! Gained Matsushima Mai’s acknowledgment.’
‘Ding! Gained Uchiha Mina’s acknowledgment.’
‘Ding! Gained Inuzuka Gabi’s acknowledgment.’
‘Ding! Gained Aburame Kaede’s acknowledgment.’
Tonan heard the system’s prompts and glanced at them.
“Maybe I can become a scumbag. If I create my harem and give birth to a bunch of Uchiha cubs, my children would naturally acknowledge me. Then I can train them well and pinch them to death…”
“Cough, cough, even a tiger doesn’t eat its cubs. That’s too inhumane. Besides, time is pressing. Even the Fourth Great Shinobi War is just twenty or so years away. And I’m six years old right now. Even if I got married and had kids at ten, my children will still be too young to be useful by then.”
Tonan discarded these unrealistic thoughts. He gently patted the pigeon’s head, which then flapped its wings and flew away.
“Did the Anbu come to take my diary again? Hiruzen, a person like you who peeks into others’ personal lives will not meet a good end.”
At this moment, Umino Naoto walked into the classroom. All students hastily returned to their seats and sat properly. Looking excited, Naoto said, “I have a piece of good news for everyone. The war between Konoha and Kiri is over. And to celebrate the peace, the academy has decided to give everyone three days off.”
“That’s great!”
“It’s a vacation.”
“We can go to play.”
“Also, the remains of the deceased heroes have been brought back from the frontlines. They will be buried in the morning, the day after tomorrow.”
While speaking, Naoto’s gaze moved towards Tonan. At this moment, the latter had put on a perfect taciturn look, as if he was inwardly sad.
“Their names will be etched on the memorial stone to be revered by later generations. Konoha will never forget them.”
Naoto’s tone was solemn. He took a deep breath, trying to smile at the extremely excited students below, and said, “Therefore, there are no classes today.”
“Dash, let’s go to play.”
“Yuuta, wait for me…”
“Kakashi, do you want to burn your youth with me?”
“No thanks.”
Kakashi simply declined Maito Gai’s invitation, got up, and walked towards the classroom door. As he passed by Tonan, his steps slowed down and he said lightly, “Do you want to practice with me?”
Tonan raised his head and gave Kakashi a lonely look. He took a deep breath, smiled, and said, “Of course, I would want to. Father and mother wanted me to become an outstanding ninja. I’ll try my best to catch up to you.”
The corners of Kakashi’s mouth that were hidden behind the mask slightly rose, but he pretended to be his lazy, careless self. Walking away, he said, “I hope you have gotten stronger to some extent.”
In Kakashi’s view, although Tonan had awakened three tomoe Sharingan, he was still not his opponent. This was because Tonan kept losing intentionally during several training matches. Only if he kept losing to Kakashi, he would have reason to visit his house every day.
After all, if he could beat Kakashi every time and still wanted to go over to his house daily, that wouldn’t be exchanging pointers for training. That would be showing off strength and bullying others.
