Another month passes in the blink of an eye,

At the entrance of the academy,

"Damn it! I failed the exam. I have to take extra classes to make up."

"Hurray! I passed all my exams. Mom will be happy to hear this!"

"Argh… I failed the arithmetic class."

A bunch of kids gather around the bulletin board. They frantically look for their names on the list.

"Move aside! Move aside!"

Nawaki pushes everyone aside to check his result. Minato, Yuji, and the rest of the group wait for him. A few seconds later, Nawaki walks out of the crowd with a dejected face.

"Did you fail the exam?" Kushina asks him.

"No, I barely passed the arithmetic exam." Nawaki shakes his head.

"Then why are you making such a face?" Minato questions.

"Well… umm… I have the lowest score of you all. Even Choza has a higher score than me in the exam." Nawaki expresses his pain.

"What? How?" Inoichi's eyes widen.

"What is his score?"

"Choza got 73 marks."

"Wow!" Everyone exclaims in surprise and turns to Choza.

"Hey, that's even higher than me. How did you do it?" Kushina and Inoichi ask him.

"Hehe… it's a secret." Choza smugly strokes his chin.

"Hey, don't be like that. Just tell us already?" Everyone pesters him.

"Not telling!" Choza shakes his head.

"He just got lucky," Yuji reveals Choza's secret.

"Lucky? How?"

"Well…" Yuji turns towards Choza. A peculiar expression on his face as he answers.

"… he left the subjective questions blank. As for the objective ones, he marked their options on his pencil and rolled the pencil. After which, he circled the option on top of the pencil. Coincidentally, all of them were correct answers."

"That's absurd!" Shikaku exclaims.

"I also think so!" Inoichi agrees with him.

"That's one hell of luck!" Minato is lost for words.

"Master… teach me your ways!" Nawaki performs a dogeza to Choza.

"Go away! It's a trade secret." Choza turns his head away. He takes out a plastic bag from his pocket and eats rice crackers from it.

Haha…

The rest of the group burst out in laughter.

"By the way, my dad is celebrating my result in Yakiniku-Q. All of you join us, too." Choza extends an invitation to everyone.

"Will it be alright?" Minato asks him with slight hesitation.

These past few days, he is rarely making the ends meet with his stipend from the academy. Yuji is better off than him, but he is also taking care of Hana.

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"Of course, dad asked me to invite you all." He turns to Yuji.

"Also, don't forget to bring Hana."

"Ok!" Yuji nods at him.

"So, what are your plans for the day?"

"I have some errands to run for my shop." Inoichi walks away.

"Yuji and I have to purchase some groceries for the orphanage. We will also aid Miina with gardening. Recently, she grew some vegetables in the orphanage's backyard.

"What about you, Nawaki and Kushina?"

"Nee-san is out on a mission. So, I have to go shopping to buy some essentials." Nawaki tags along with Minato and Yuji.

"I have to complete the work grandma gave me." Kushina also shakes her head.

Only Shikaku and Choza are left behind.

"Guess we are the only people with no task," Shikaku mutters.

"Then let's go to the park." Choza drags him away.

---------------------

Later at night.

Minato, Yuji, and Hana walk along the streets of Konoha.

Yawn…

Minato yawns.

"I ate a lot today. I am feeling very sleepy now."

"I will drop Hana at the orphanage and will return to the dorm. You can go without me." Yuji picks up a sleepy Hana and places her on his back.

"Alright, take care!" Minato waves and separates at the crossroad.

Yuji walks towards the deserted end of the residential district.

"This place is so desolate and far away from the main district." He sighs and stares at the dilapidated road."

The orphanage is located at the far end of the civilian district and is almost at the border of the village.

Rustle… rustle…

While walking along the road, he hears some rustling sound from a bush alongside the road.

Swish…

Yuji swiftly hurls a shuriken toward the bush.

Mmmeeeoowww!!

The scream of a cat startles him.

"It was just a cat!" He shakes his head.

"You can't be more careful in the village."

Recently, the disappearance of people has become common knowledge in the village. Many kids, civilians, and even some shinobis arbitrarily disappeared from the village. The Uchiha police force is investigating the case with futile efforts.

"YUJI!!"

Soon, the outline of the orphanage appears in his sight. Miina, in her nun outfit, waves her hands at him.

"I am back." Yuji also waves his hand. He passes a sleeping Hana to her.

"This little squirrel ate a lot today." He gently pats Hana's head.

"Take care on your way. Beware of any strange incidents. If you feel that something is not right, quickly return to the orphanage. I will protect you." Miina warns him with a worried face.

"I will keep that in mind." He bade farewell to Miina and walks alongside the desolate path.

He turns around and glances at the dilapidated orphanage. Miina is still standing at the entrance of the orphanage with Hana in her arms. He can spot the worry on her face as she keeps a watch on him until his figure disappears from her sight.

This gesture of Miina slightly warms his heart. As a person who has killed his emotions, he didn't have particular emotions, much less affection for someone else. However, after his reincarnation and the jumble of memories of his previous life and this body; he somehow retained some affection for this little girl.

These new emotions are still foreign to him, as he has yet to adjust to them. However, he doesn't dislike these feelings. He recalls the words of the director of the organization.

'Feelings are for the weak. They are the shackle that bind you and limit your growth.'

He also used to think that way. However, spending a few months in this world and unintentionally making a few friends; he came to know of a few other things.

'These feelings are what makes him a human. Without these feelings, he is nothing but a sentient machine devoid of any meaning.'

However, being able to awaken his feeling didn't mean he is able to freely embrace them. Currently, only his feelings of love and care for Hana are real, since those affectionate feelings were deeply etched in his psyche. As for the rest, he is putting up a façade to express his feelings.

'Perhaps after spending more time with them, I will be able to express more emotions.'

Yuji thinks to himself as the kind gestures of others slowly thaw the heap of ice in his heart.

He carefully walks along the road with one of his hands in his pocket. Inside his pocket, his hand is tightly clutching a shuriken.

'I don't have anyone to rely on in this village. So, I will rely on myself.'

Yuji carefully inspects his surrounding while walking towards the center of the village with hurried steps. The safety of the people is easily compromised in this civilian district. Once he graduates from the academy, he plans to buy a small apartment in the shinobi district.

With such thoughts, he reaches the halfway distance between the orphanage and the village square.

Rustle… rustle…

Yuji hears slight rustling sounds in the nearby bushes. He tightly clutches the kunai as an uneasy feeling overwhelms his heart.

RUSTLE… RUSTLE…

The rustling gets louder.

Swish…

He hurriedly turns around and throws a shuriken toward the bush with his other hand.

Mmmeeeoowww!!

A black cat jumps out of the bush.

"It's just a cat!" He heaves a sigh of relief and walks forward.

The cat leaps on a nearby tree and licks its paw while gazing at Yuji's back with a piercing glare.

Yuji increases his pace as the uneasy feeling in his heart grows after meeting with the cat.

'What's with this trepidation in my heart? Why do I feel like I am in extreme danger?'

His danger sense honed from his countless years of life-death experience blares in his mind like a siren. A premonition of death grasps his heart like a reaper.

LUBDUB…

His heart increases and sweat appears on his face.

Huh!