Chapter Seventeen: The Essence of the Sword

When Naruto brought Sasuke over, the other two fish were nearly done as well. Yu Higashino took one for himself, handed another to Naruto, and then extinguished the fire—it was midday, after all, and the heat from the flames was a bit much.

The three of them each took a fish and sat down on the ground.

“Brother Yu, how is it? Is it tasty?” Naruto asked eagerly after Yu Higashino took his first bite. After all, he was the one who had grilled it.

“Not bad,” Yu Higashino replied with that assessment.

Naruto took a bite himself, savoring it, then praised his own work, “Delicious!”

Lastly, it was Sasuke’s turn. Under Naruto’s watchful gaze, he took a small bite of the fish.

“Well? It’s good, isn’t it? I grilled it myself!” Naruto said proudly to Sasuke.

“Hmph!” Sasuke only responded with a cold snort, but then immediately took a second bite. It seemed Naruto’s grilling skills were indeed impressive.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach—but, well, that saying might not be quite appropriate here.

The three of them ate as they chatted about all sorts of things.

“Arrogant Sasuke, I’m about to start at the ninja academy. What about you?” Naruto brought up a new topic.

“Just look at my age and you’ll know. I’ll be entering the academy soon too, idiot.”

“Hmph, I’m not an idiot. I’m going to be Hokage one day,” Naruto retorted. Then, he couldn’t help but recall what Yu Higashino had said earlier—about being tsundere...

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Sasuke noticed Naruto was giving him a strange look.

“It’s nothing,” Naruto replied, averting his gaze a little guiltily. “By the way, when’s your birthday?”

“July twenty-third.”

Naruto did the math—he was younger than Sasuke. So much for his dream of making Sasuke call him ‘big brother.’

“What about you?” Sasuke seemed to think of something and asked in turn.

“…October tenth,” Naruto said, rather reluctantly.

“October tenth, huh?” Sasuke replied slowly, but Yu Higashino noticed a slight upward curve at the corner of his mouth. “Looks like I’m older than you. You’ll have to call me ‘big brother.’”

“I’m not calling you ‘big brother,’ you arrogant jerk!” Even though Yu Higashino had taught Naruto the meaning of ‘tsundere,’ looking at Sasuke’s smug face still rubbed him the wrong way.

“If you want me to call you ‘big brother,’ you’d at least have to be as strong as Brother Yu.”

“I have an older brother too, and he’s a jōnin,” Sasuke couldn’t help but bring up his own brother at the mention of siblings.

“So what if he’s a jōnin? Brother Yu may not be a ninja, but his sword skills are incredible!”

“My brother’s shuriken skills are better than anyone’s.”

“Brother Yu…”

Yu Higashino, watching from the side, couldn’t help but find the situation odd. How had they suddenly started competing over whose older brother was more impressive? Would they end up arguing about whose brother could eat stranger things next?

“Naruto, I’m not all that. Let’s not compare,” Yu Higashino interjected, hoping to stop the conversation from escalating.

“…Alright.” Naruto replied, then glanced at Sasuke.

“Hmph!”

“Hmph!”

The two of them snorted at each other, turning away at the same time. After a brief moment, they both glanced back at each other.

“Hmph!”

“Hmph!”

Another pair of snorts, and they both looked away again.

Yu Higashino watched their antics while eating his grilled fish, finding it all rather amusing.

Children’s tempers flare and fade quickly. Before long, Sasuke and Naruto were back to eating their grilled fish.

When they finished eating and had rested for a while, Yu Higashino sent Naruto and Sasuke off to play nearby while he himself found a branch of suitable length to practice his swordsmanship.

As before, he practiced basic swings, repeatedly slashing forward. But this time, he controlled his “sword aura” to envelop the branch, which helped him increase his proficiency a bit faster.

That morning, he had managed to clash with Uchiha Shisui’s finely crafted short blade using only a wooden sword, thanks to the sword aura he had wrapped around it.

[Swordsmanship lv3: 6666/10000]

...

[Swordsmanship lv3: 8888/10000]

...

[Swordsmanship lv4: 0/100000]

When he reached level 4, Yu Higashino stopped.

He quietly felt the changes in his body—every aspect seemed strengthened. At the same time, beyond the sword aura he’d already mastered, it seemed he had gained some new insight.

Off in the distance, where Naruto and Sasuke were playing ninja, both of them stopped at the same time and looked toward Yu Higashino.

Just then, a strong wind swept through, causing the wild grass around Yu Higashino to ripple and his clothes to flutter. A powerful sense of pressure radiated from him.

The wind seemed to grow even stronger, howling as if in celebration, as if exulting!

Just as Naruto and Sasuke wondered if something momentous was about to happen, the wind suddenly stilled. The grass stood back up, Yu Higashino’s clothes settled, and everything felt as if nothing had happened—as if it had all been an illusion.

“Brother Yu!” Naruto called out from nearby. “What just happened?”

“Nothing. Just a gust of wind,” Yu Higashino replied.

“…Oh.” Naruto answered, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t as simple as Yu Higashino made them out to be. Something must have happened just now.

Sasuke seemed to feel the same but, like Naruto, didn’t press further.

As they suspected, Yu Higashino had indeed done something. To be precise, he had just used his new ability—Sword Intent!

This ability allowed him to channel various elemental attacks through his sword—a blaze of fire, a flash of lightning, a gust of wind.

Just now, Yu Higashino had used Gale Sword Intent; everything that happened was a result of that. Since he had only just reached level four, with low proficiency, the intensity wasn’t great. The Gale Sword Intent could only stir up a few gusts of wind; the Blaze Sword Intent, at this point, would barely be enough to light a fire.

But with practice, the power would certainly grow.

However, Yu Higashino had no intention of practicing further today. Reaching level four in [Swordsmanship] was enough to meet his goal for the day.

In the past, he might have considered himself diligent to practice once in the morning—let alone continue into the afternoon.

But today, he did so because he planned to sneak back and reclaim the fake money he’d used earlier, so that the shopkeeper would have no chance to discover the bills were actually transformed leaves.

In the Hidden Leaf Village, stealing something at the level of a jōnin still felt too risky to Yu Higashino. So he decided to raise his [Swordsmanship] to level four, the equivalent of Kage-level, and that should be enough to ensure he wouldn’t be discovered or tracked.

Now that his goal was accomplished, Yu Higashino felt no urge to continue training.

He tossed aside the branch, looked over at Naruto and Sasuke, still quarreling noisily, then gazed at the distant sky. The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky with its descent—around four or five in the afternoon.