At noon the next day, inside the Uchiha clan head's residence, Shen had just woken up and was washing his face.
The night before, their family of four had held the very first "Uchiha BBQ Party." It was a warm and joyful occasion filled with laughter and affection.
"Grill master" Kazushi diligently lit ten "little candles," much to Aiko's request.
Shen expressed great satisfaction with the event. Before leaving, he even declared loudly that they should hold a second edition next year. This enraged Kazushi so much he flew off the handle and threatened to beat Shen up if he dared show his face again. In response, Shen nervously grilled another pair of chicken wings to steady his nerves.
"What a wonderful night that was."
Although planning to return the favor tonight, Shen now feared even his mother wouldn't be able to protect him this time. So he decided to postpone his revenge for now and think about what else he could do today.
"Sigh, I'll play shuriken with Fugaku-niisan today," said Shen after finishing up his morning hygiene routine, then headed toward the clan training ground.
At the Uchiha training grounds, Fugaku was practicing his shuriken techniques.
"Swish swish swish"—several shuriken curved around trees before embedding themselves precisely into the bullseye at the back.
Looking at his results, Fugaku felt extremely satisfied. He pulled out the shuriken from the target and returned to his original position, planning to keep training until dinner.
Ever since witnessing Shen develop such a powerful Chakra Mode, he'd resolved to seriously study shuriken techniques. At this point, he was already capable of making them curve purely through skill.
As Shen arrived at the training field and saw Fugaku standing with his back turned, focused intently on swinging his shuriken, he got an idea. Activating his Lightning Nature Chakra Mode, he caught each shuriken midair as it flew toward the target.
"???"
Fugaku looked completely baffled—just a moment ago, his shuriken vanished mysteriously into thin air after a streak of white lightning appeared nearby.
"Wait, white lightning? That must've been you, Shen!" Suddenly realizing, Fugaku shouted out in all directions.
"Tch, Fugaku-niisan figured it out too fast. That's no fun at all."
After a flash of white lightning, Shen zipped into view directly in front of Fugaku.
Fugaku immediately felt his head start throbbing. Did this "adorable" younger brother plan on picking on him right after tormenting their father the night before?
Observing Fugaku's hesitant expression, Shen couldn't figure out why: "Am I really that scary? C'mon, Fugaku-niisan, let's practice some shuriken together today."
With that, Shen tossed the shuriken back toward Fugaku, signaling he could go ahead and throw freely.
Helplessly resigned, Fugaku grabbed the weapon and threw it toward the target.
"Swish swish swish"—the sound of flying shuriken slicing through the air continued nonstop.
Using the speed boost from his Lightning Chakra Mode, Shen effortlessly snatched each shuriken one by one before handing them all back again—this time to Fugaku, whose face had begun visibly darkening.
Half an hour later, Fugaku left the training ground looking clearly annoyed.
"So grumpy! Just because I caught every one of your shuriken, did you really have to leave with that expression?"
Standing alone at the training field mumbling complaints, Shen noticed something interesting today—he consumed significantly less energy using his Elemental Chakra Mode than yesterday. Additionally, there was a slight increase in cellular chakra capacity. If not for his so-called "Human Supercomputer" ability, he might not have even noticed this subtle change.
"Fugaku-niisan has definitely been avoiding me these days. Maybe I should go talk to Lord Father tomorrow about the commercial street project?"
Shen noticed that although this world had various electrical products, technological development hadn't progressed much. This made him wonder if everyone's brain got fried from practicing too much ninjutsu? After all, even in Boruto's era Ao had pulled out a machine gun!
Shen decided he'd better persuade (butter up) Kazushi tomorrow to vigorously develop technology. After reclaiming the last bit of Chakra left in his body, he headed home.
Meanwhile, at the training ground of the Senju clan compound, Nawaki was sweating buckets as he punched a massive wooden post three meters thick.
Right in the center of the post were four roughly carved kanji: Uchiha Shen.
"Peng! Peng! Peng!"
The sound of fists echoed throughout the training ground. The carved words on the post gradually became blurred with each punch from Nawaki, until finally with a thunderous boom, the post was smashed into the air and flew rapidly backward.
Nawaki walked toward another similarly sized wooden post nearby and took out a kunai knife, carving something roughly onto it.
"Nawaki, what are you doing?" A young girl with light yellow hair stood behind Nawaki and asked brazenly.
When Nawaki turned around, his face immediately showed constipation-like discomfort. "Onee-san, I'm training."
After glancing at the fallen post destroyed by repeated attacks and the rough four-character inscription on the other post, the girl suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! What is this? This is the mysterious top student from the Uchiha clan?" She laughed so hard she squatted down holding her stomach.
An embarrassed Nawaki wished he could just disappear as his sister laughed. "What the heck is going on with this world anyway? When will my moment of glory as Nawaki finally come?"
"Onee-san, haven't you already laughed the whole day yesterday? I'll definitely wash away this humiliation personally!" Nawaki clenched both fists firmly, setting his current life goal.
Indeed, the incident involving the Senju young master had dominated the headlines of the Konoha Daily for several days now, causing so much finger-pointing whenever he went out that he had no choice but to 'hide' in the training grounds working himself to death.
Well, actually, it was just emotional release, though Nawaki firmly believed it was pure physical training.
Tsunade laughed even harder upon hearing Nawaki's words, clutching her stomach like she might cry from laughing too much.
"I can't do it anymore, Nawaki... Are you trying to laugh me to death to inherit my fortune?" Wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, Tsunade asked rhetorically in a halting manner.
Nawaki's face turned pitch black—he knew right away that his sister had come solely to mock him. He'd been under this mockery since childhood, so he indignantly retorted, "Onee-san, stop laughing! You don't know how evil that kid is! He used genjutsu to ambush me when I wasn't looking! Even you wouldn't necessarily be able to dodge it!"
"Oh? But didn't the newspaper say you attacked first?" Though Tsunade tried to compose herself slightly, the twitching muscles on her face clearly indicated poor results.
Like a cat whose tail had been grabbed, Nawaki's face flushed red with rage as he shouted, "It must have been the Uchiha clan's plot!"
"It's a fair duel."
"Hahahaha!" Tsunade couldn't help but laugh when she saw how red his face had gotten.
Nawaki, cut off mid-sentence, looked as if he'd been caught off guard, and his face turned an even deeper shade of red.
"Alright, alright, I won't laugh anymore," Tsunade quickly promised so her younger brother wouldn't get worked up.
Nawaki's expression softened slightly. He decided to try sweet-talking his big sis for help. "Sis, you gotta help me out. That brat's illusion technique [genjutsu] is super strong. Without your help, there's no way I can beat him."
"Exactly! I'm the Third's favorite disciple!"
(The Third: I never said that!)
"Then let's get started now!" Nawaki said, looking at Tsunade with eager eyes.
After today's 'training' [read: du — meaning beat up] from Tsunade, Nawaki swore he would never ask for her help again.
Ever seen training that almost kills you? At least Nawaki felt like the whole world had it out for him, as if everyone was against him.
Nawaki vowed that once he became Hokage, his first order of business would be to put Shen Uchiha on display at Konoha's entrance, so everyone could see exactly what happens to anyone who ticks off Lord Nawaki.
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~ Every 50 Powerstones = **4 Bonus Chapters** on the weekend!