After finishing all the instructions, Mirai Uchiha was about to leave the lab complex.
Orochimaru suddenly spoke up, "Mirai Uchiha, please wait a moment."
Mirai turned around curiously. "Orochimaru, did you need something else?"
"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Snake Soup."
Orochimaru chuckled and shook his head. "No, no. I've prepared another gift for you, Mirai Uchiha."
"A gift?"
Mirai immediately became interested.
He recalled the previous "gifts" Orochimaru had given him—Anko Mitarashi, Guren...
Each one had delighted him greatly.
Who would it be this time?
Seeing Mirai Uchiha's expression, Orochimaru said, "Please wait just a moment, Mirai Uchiha."
With that, he turned and disappeared deeper into the lab.
Mirai couldn't help but feel an odd sense of excitement, like opening a mystery box—he actually started feeling slightly thrilled.
Soon enough, footsteps echoed again.
A red-haired little girl holding a flute followed Orochimaru as he returned.
As soon as Mirai saw the cute girl's appearance, he instantly recognized who she was.
Tayuya!
"Mirai Uchiha, her name is Tayuya. She's quite promising—I'm giving her to you."
Orochimaru finished speaking and stepped aside. Slightly excited, Tayuya stepped forward and knelt on one knee. "Lord Mirai, please take care of me from now on."
Mirai gave a brief nod in response before turning his gaze back toward Orochimaru. "You didn't implant a Cursed Seal on her, did you?"
In the original story, Tayuya's beauty had left a deep impression on Mirai Uchiha.
However, the appearance she gained after transforming via the Cursed Seal wasn't exactly... pleasing.
Orochimaru smiled. "To be honest, I did plan to at first, but then I changed my mind."
"You can rest assured. I wouldn't give you anything less than perfect."
Although Orochimaru's tone of voice left Mirai momentarily speechless, he had to admit—Orochimaru's success was definitely not accidental.
When it came to giving gifts, no one in the ninja world could rival Orochimaru in knowing how to win him over.
Still...
"Orochimaru, don't act on your own initiative like this anymore. Use that time to focus more on your research."
"No next time!"
Orochimaru smiled and nodded. "Understood."
Only then did Mirai turn to Tayuya and speak. "Stand up. From now on, you'll follow me."
Tayuya immediately responded, "Yes, Lord Mirai!"
For someone like her, born and raised in the dark depths of the lower ranks, being granted the chance to serve Lord Mirai was nothing short of a miracle.
No matter what, she would definitely strive with all her might to show her worth to Mirai Uchiha!
————
Winter arrived in full force, and Konoha saw its first snowfall of the year.
The snow was heavy, covering the entire village in a silver coat.
Inside Mirai Uchiha's mansion.
Tsunade, Kurenai Yuhi, Rin Nohara, Mikoto Uchiha, Konan, Shizune, Yugao Uzuki, Guren, Anko Mitarashi, and several others had gathered in the courtyard, seated together.
In the center stood a stove, on top of it sat fruit and tea snacks.
Everyone came together quietly admiring the beautiful snowy scenery before them.
Fu, Hotaru, Tayuya, and a few others were playing in the snow, having a snowball fight.
Laughter and cheerful voices never ceased.
Looking at the group of beautiful women before him, Mirai Uchiha felt less like he was in the depths of winter and more like he was strolling through a garden bursting with spring blossoms.
However, after staying just a while longer, Mirai started feeling overwhelmed.
Any charming man knows one truth—when a bunch of women get together, it gets seriously noisy!
Especially since he was the center of attention for all these women.
He hadn't been there long before Mirai started feeling his head buzz from all the noise.
After making up an excuse randomly, Mirai got up and left.
If he stayed any longer, he feared he'd develop some kind of mental fatigue.
As Mirai wandered aimlessly through Konoha's streets, his mind slowly began to calm.
But as he passed by a corner of a narrow alleyway, Mirai suddenly heard the sounds of an intense argument coming from within.
Driven by curiosity, Mirai quietly walked closer.
Inside a shogi (Japanese chess) parlour, two men looked flushed with anger; it seemed they were arguing fiercely about something.
"Bastard! You're calling me a loser just because I forgot to place the captured pieces in the box?"
"What kind of logic is that!"
The middle-aged man with a beard shouted angrily, "The outcome of a game of shogi should be decided purely through battling on the board. What you're doing here is an insult to shogi itself!"
The other man, who had a refined demeanor and delicate features, sneered coldly, "That's just how our rules are."
"You're lying!" retorted the bearded man, "There wasn't such a rule the last time I came here to play."
The effeminate man replied calmly, "This rule was only introduced recently. You simply don't know about it; no one else can be blamed for that."
Upon hearing this, the bearded man took a deep breath, trying hard to calm himself down before continuing reasonably, "Putting that aside for now, why does every pause always happen right when it's your turn? Isn't that giving you extra time to think?"
"That's not fair!"
The effeminate man scoffed, "You can quit anytime if you don't want to play."
"You despicable bastard!!"
As the two kept arguing, Mirai finally understood the whole situation.
In the Shinobi World, shogi is a very popular game.
Two players take turns using red and black pieces. The first side to lose their king piece loses the game.
To prevent matches from lasting too long, both players set up a timer next to themselves during gameplay.
Once the game starts, the countdown begins on the timer of the player whose turn it is.
If one player's timer runs out before the game finishes, that player automatically loses.
During match interruptions, the timers stop counting.
Clearly, that soft-spoken man used the interruption as an excuse to extend his thinking time, which caused the bearded man's anger.
Though clearly furious, the bearded man didn't know how to respond to such shameless behavior at the moment.
Just when he was at a loss, Mirai Uchiha slowly stepped in front of him.
"When you're not satisfied with the result of the board game, I do have a solution."
Upon hearing this, the bearded man immediately asked, "What solution?"
Mirai Uchiha smiled, grabbed the chessboard with one hand, and smashed it straight onto the effeminate man's head.
Crunch!
With a dull sound, the effeminate man fell to the ground twitching violently.
Blood streamed from his nose, and he peed and pooped himself.
"For someone like this—this shameless guy—we should speak the most primitive language humans understand."
"Using arbitrary rules to decide victory or defeat on the chessboard was absurd to begin with."
"This kind of opponent isn't worth respecting, and this kind of game isn't worth playing."
After saying this, Mirai Uchiha turned around and walked outside: "Of course, I'm referring to shogi."
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