Although Uchiha Tatsumi knew that the students in this class were more or less problematic, he didn't expect it to be this abnormal.
Mizumon motioned to Uchiha Tatsumi with his eyes.
"What should we do? Won't it be too conspicuous with so many people?"
"It's fine. The more people there are, the lower the chance any of us individually get caught. Besides, even if there's punishment, there's a saying—'the law doesn't punish the masses.'"
"At worst, we just push the blame onto Uchiha Ryo and the others. We'll say they instigated it. For us, that's the best outcome." Tatsumi lowered his voice as he spoke.
"As expected of Chen... no one can match such underhanded tactics," Mizumon muttered.
"Please call it 'foresight,'" Tatsumi corrected with a smirk.
Next, they just needed to find the right moment to sneak away.
Tatsumi already had smoke bombs and mini-detonators prepared—
"—That is to say, the intensity of a Fire Release jutsu is linearly related to the amount of chakra used. However, we also need to account for the affected area. The formula is..."
Uncle Nishimura, entirely focused on his lecture, turned around and started writing on the blackboard.
The moment his back faced the students, Tatsuno and the others wouldn't let the opportunity slip!
Everyone quietly shifted their butts off their chairs. Tatsumi had already taken out a smoke bomb—
"No one is allowed to move!"
"—!!"
Just as they were about to act, Uncle Nishimura noticed. His sharp voice froze the classroom.
How was this possible? Had he noticed everything?
"You brats... to think you tried to sneak away under my watch. You've got guts! Is my class really that boring to you? I'm so disappointed. You're the worst batch of students I've ever had."
Uncle Nishimura slowly turned around, his gaze sharp and heavy.
He flexed his muscles intimidatingly.
Damn! As expected of a chunin with monster-like perception. Just by sensing the air currents and vibrations, he detected the students' attempts to escape.
Who would be the first unlucky soul to be punished?
As everyone braced for disaster—
"These," Nishimura said as he pulled out a stack of thick papers, "are the real questions from past Chunin Exams I've collected over the years."
"The Five Years of Ninja, Three Years of Simulations that's sold at the bookstore, and even the Eighteen Lectures of Ninjutsu written by renowned chunin in the village, can't compare to what I have here. Yet you still think of skipping class? You might as well give up becoming shinobi."
Nishimura sighed heavily.
"The relations between the Five Great Nations are growing more tense. Martial law could be declared at any time. When you graduate, war might already have broken out..."
He kept talking, trying to shake their resolve and guilt-trip them into staying.
But it had little effect.
"...It seems you've all grown too idle. You're so bored that you're practically growing grass out of your heads. This boredom... that's my fault as a teacher."
What?! Nobody expected Nishimura to say something like that.
Was he... letting them go?
"But to apologize like this would hurt my dignity as a teacher. Instead, I'll tell you an interesting story to pass the time... to help you understand the cruelty of war."
A story?
Uncle Nishimura telling a story was not good news.
"Yes... this happened one summer, about ten years ago..."
Uncle Nishimura began telling what he called an "interesting" story.
"—Back then, I was just a little older than you. I had just graduated from the Ninja Academy. My good friend Might Duy and I were assigned a mission."
"—Ahh! No!"
Some students with weaker mental resilience immediately clutched their heads in despair.
In this sweltering heat, listening to Nishimura's long-winded, oppressive memories was pure torture!
"It was during the First Great Ninja War. Duy and I, both freshly graduated genin, were assigned a C-rank mission—escort duty, protecting a girl."
"Who would've thought that a chunin from the Land of Lightning would appear to sabotage the mission? The attacker was a two-meter-tall man named Yeyue Ryuta, said to be the younger brother of the Third Raikage."
"His wrists were as thick as the waist of some girls. But Duy and I didn't back down!"
"Relying on the taijutsu we'd polished through years of effort, we engaged him head-on, man to man, blow for blow..."
"The air was filled with the scent of youth. We collided, grappled, sweated, broke apart, and charged again and again."
"Three big men, in the Land of Fire, fighting over a woman, endlessly."
"Please stop talking! I beg you!"
"My head! My head is going to split!"
The oppressive atmosphere was so heavy, it was like S-rank Genjutsu. Some students' spirits visibly cracked under the pressure.
"But the enemy was no ordinary chunin. His taijutsu was superb. He charged at me and seized my wrist, attempting a secret technique—'Reverse Arm Cross Lock.'"
"But how could he overpower my biceps, honed alongside Duy through years of training? Even though we were drenched in sweat and breathless, we refused to yield."
"Realizing brute force wouldn't work, the enemy unleashed his trump card: the 'Mount Tai Press.' He used his massive body to pin me down, his thick chest hair sticking to my face as he applied the 'Skull Crush' technique. I was only one millimeter away from death..."
"Nooo! Stop it!"
"If I close my eyes, I'll see it again!"
Ugly images that could never be erased filled their minds. This was mental torture that even elite genjutsu users would be proud of.
"Cool! So cool that it hurts!" cried Ryo's follower, Uchiha Rei.
"You step aside, I'll perform mouth-to-mouth!" someone else yelled in panic.
"Air! Fresh air! I need it!" someone else gasped.
In this hellish scene, the students endured Uncle Nishimura's mental attack.
Rope Tree foamed at the mouth, plugged his ears, and rolled his eyes back in despair.
Tatsumi himself almost couldn't endure it. But just as he was about to crack, he locked eyes with Uncle Nishimura.
The look in Nishimura's eyes clearly said—
"I know you're the ringleader."
Tatsumi shivered down to his bones. In this kind of oppressive atmosphere, the shiver almost counted as saving his life.
Finally, "boom," the sound of Kushina waking up.
Kushina, still groggy, wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.
Looking around at the ruined scene in the classroom, she asked sleepily:
"...What happened?"