Konoha: The thirty-year-old Uchiha lacks motivation.

Chapter 534 The Girl is Surrounded by Enemies

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Stop pulling on me! I'm going to split open!"

The Nine-Tails, distorted by two immense forces, grimaced in pain within the Tailed Beast Card Space. Its once-proud chakra was now utterly useless.

Like duckweed adrift in the rain, the Nine-Tails finally realized the cruel truth: even without Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, it, hailed as the strongest tailed beast, was nothing more than a piece of meat on a chopping board.

"Let go first."

Uchiha Hikaru sneered at Uzumaki Mito, but secretly exerted force under her hand. Unfortunately, the Nine-Tails Card seemed to be welded to her hand, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not shake it and could only barely hold on.

"I only used 30% of my strength and you're already done for? Just admit defeat. I've never been afraid of anyone when it comes to strength."

In response to Uchiha Hikaru's suggestion, Uzumaki Mito shook her head dismissively. As she spoke, she added a few more points of force, instantly shattering the balance of the Nine-Tails Card, which was locked in mid-air.

"Ahhh! Really, I'm serious, my butt's split open! You won't believe me, just look!"

The Nine-Tails' painful screams grew louder, but they did nothing to arouse the two women's compassion. The two women, caught up in the struggle, didn't care about the Nine-Tails' life or death at all; they were only focused on determining who was superior.

"Boom!"

On the other side of the arena, deafening explosions echoed one after another, leaving craters in the hard ground and billowing smoke and dust that filled most of the space.

A flash of blue light, and Senju Hishima, covered in dust, landed in a disheveled state, her silver-white hair hanging messily over her forehead, clumped together by sweat.

"Whoosh. That's some really ruthless physical skill."

Her ruby-like eyes were filled with shock. Before she could catch her breath, Senju Hisana's sensory radar lit up again, and she immediately forced herself to turn around.

"Whoosh!"

Almost the instant she turned, Senju Itama, with an aura as powerful as thunder, struck. Her seemingly delicate yet incredibly destructive fists swept past, and the sonic boom generated by the friction between her fists and the air caused Senju Hisa to temporarily lose her hearing.

"Buzzing"

Covering her ears, Senju Hisa quickly retreated to create distance. The delayed dizziness instantly surged into her brain, her legs buckled, and she knelt on one knee.

"Ah! Grandma, it's my aunt!"

Upon seeing this scene, Tsunade, who had been anxiously waiting in the audience, suddenly stood up, her large, watery eyes slightly misty.

"Don't worry, Hisana will be alright."

Senju Momoka reached out and patted Tsunade's head, remaining as steady as a mountain.

We're all family, we won't kill each other.

"Give up, Hisana."

Senju Itama slowly released the strange force binding his fists and earnestly advised his adopted niece.

"You're still young, you'll have other opportunities in the future."

Looking at Senju Hishima kneeling silently on the ground, she felt that she might have gone too far. She was afraid that she might shatter the child's Dao heart with a few punches.

"Auntie, it's me."

Senju Hishima slowly raised her head, a blush of unhealthy red flashing across her fair face. Senju Itama's heart tightened at the sight; could it be that he hadn't held back and had injured her internally?

"Don't move, I'll treat you."

In a flash, he appeared in front of Senju Hisa, whose face was deathly pale. The relaxed Senju Itama quickly crouched down, reaching out to check his niece's injuries.

"Da~"

To her surprise, the seemingly weak Senju Hisana also reached out and placed her hand squarely on her shoulder.

"Finally caught you."

"Forehead?"

Senju Itama, slightly bewildered, was startled for a moment. The next second, she only saw a flash of blue light.

"here it is?"

In the blink of an eye, she found herself outside the examination hall, while the culprit who had brought her out wore a smug smile.

"Aunt, I'm sorry."

"Wait! You?"

bang~

Before Senju Itama could ask a question, Senju Hisa raised one hand and vanished in a puff of white smoke.

It turns out that the one who was pretending to be weak was actually a shadow clone of Senju Hisama.

"hateful!"

Unable to accept that he had been tricked by his young niece, Senju Itama rushed to the passageway to re-enter the examination hall, only to be stopped by the waiting Shimura clan members.

"The gate is closed. Entry is strictly prohibited."

Senju Itama was dumbfounded. He had lost face big time. When he got back, he would definitely be ridiculed by that old woman, Uchiha Hikaru, and laughed at by his sister-in-law.

"Then can I be a spectator?"

Please show your ticket.

Feeling her empty pockets, Senju Itama's face fell. She had spent all the change she had on her when buying snacks, and now she had no coins left.

Does this mean I have no choice but to go home and get the money?

Just as Senju Itama turned away in disappointment, an Uchiha clansman, clutching a ticket, came running over excitedly.

"Uchiha Itaru, what are you doing here?"

Upon seeing Senju Itama, the clansmen instinctively stopped and retreated, their eyes darting around, searching for that wretched curly-haired figure.

"What are you holding?"

"Tickets! I finally managed to queue up to buy them. Ah! What are you doing?"

Upon seeing the tickets in his clansman's hands, Senju Itama's eyes lit up. With lightning speed, he snatched the tickets from the other person's hand.

"Lend it to me for a bit. Don't worry, I won't take it for free. Put it on Curly-haired Baboon's tab."

"A tonic!~"

Watching Senju Itama's dashing departing figure, the clansmen, mercilessly ravaged by their cruel fate, helplessly reached out their hands, tears streaming down their cheeks.

Under the intense emotional impact, his black pupils involuntarily turned scarlet, and a third black tomoe gradually formed in his pupils, which originally had only two tomoe.

"Huh? That's already three tomoe?"

The clansman, who was weeping, felt the profound aura emanating from his own eyes, and his tears instantly stopped. He took out a mirror he always carried and glanced at himself. His face immediately lit up with a strange radiance.

"It's just queuing, I love queuing!"

"All you do all day is eat, eat, eat. Now look what's happened, even the Flying Thunder God Technique can't keep up."

Turning his head to look at Senju Itama slowly approaching from not far away, Uchiha Gin said with a sarcastic tone,

"Who knew she was a clone?"

Senju Itama, looking resentful after being lectured, unceremoniously plopped down next to Uchiha Gin and reached for the popcorn bucket between the latter's legs.

"Still eating? But you've come at the perfect time; don't miss the show."

"Crunch crunch~"

Where did you buy your popcorn?

Chewing on the fragrant and delicious popcorn, Senju Itama blinked in confusion. More than Uchiha Gin's supposed "good show," she was curious about where this limited-edition flavored popcorn came from.

"You mean this? It belongs to them."

Uchiha Gin was already used to Senju Itama's reckless behavior. He rolled his eyes and pointed to the side.

"Waaaaah, Grandpa Silver, don't finish it all! Leave some for me!"

"Are you even human? You're stealing kids' snacks?"

Senju Itama looked at the white-haired kid next to him, who was crying his eyes out, with a look of disgust.

"I didn't take this for nothing, did I, Orochimaru~"

Gin Uchiha gently shook his finger and gestured towards the calmest-looking black-haired boy among the children. He had traded top-secret information for this bucket of popcorn.

"That's right, Jiraiya, you idiot, stop crying."

Under Gin Uchiha's mocking gaze, Orochimaru's expression tightened slightly, and he stiffly turned his head away, speaking to the snotty-nosed Jiraiya.

"That's easy for you to say, but it's not like you paid for it."

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya suddenly jumped up and grabbed Orochimaru by the collar, his little face full of anger.

It's quite a coincidence,

Just now, the silver-haired Uchiha realized that his seat was right next to several familiar kids. Aside from Tsunade, who was sitting with her grandmother, the other five kids were all there, plus a silver-haired boy and girl he hadn't seen much of before.

After a brief greeting, Uchiha Gin was somewhat curious as to why the boy with the melon-shaped haircut from among the kids had also come.

Although the ticket price of 100,000 taels wasn't expensive, it was still a huge sum for Matt Dae, whose family wasn't well-off.

"Haha, Sakumo-kun is treating!"

Might Guy laughed and gave a thumbs-up, answering Gin Uchiha's question.

"Hey, hey, hey, I remember I said I borrowed it, right?"

Sakumo Hatake, wearing a scarf, rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Don't worry about such a small matter, Sakumo-kun. I'll definitely pay you back~"

"You guys have a really good relationship."

Seeing the group getting along so well, Uchiha Gin nodded thoughtfully. Just then, Senju Hisama and Senju Itama started fighting, so he shifted his attention away from the children.

"Little Jiraiya, where did you buy your popcorn?"

However, seeing the exciting competition on the field, Gin Uchiha felt he needed some snacks as a side dish, so he set his sights on Jiraiya, who was carrying a full bucket of popcorn.

"I queued for ages to get this limited-edition flavor."

Upon hearing Uchiha Gin's question, Jiraiya remained completely oblivious to the impending disaster, proudly displaying the popcorn in his hand.

"I see, here you go~"

You said it's a limited-edition flavor, isn't that obviously trying to entice me?

Uchiha Gin unceremoniously snatched the unopened popcorn from Jiraiya, tucked it between his legs, tore open the wrapper, and began to devour it.

"Huh? You robber!"

The sudden turn of events left Jiraiya bewildered. It wasn't until Uchiha Gin swallowed a large mouthful of his own popcorn that he belatedly realized what was happening and began to scold him.

"Respecting the elderly and caring for the young is a traditional virtue of Konoha. I am old and have low blood sugar, so I easily get dizzy if I don't eat something sweet."

Uchiha Gin was showing off his popcorn while spouting nonsense.

"I need to call the police! Police! Police!"

Jiraiya doesn't care about this or that; faced with a shameless robber, he chooses to take up the weapon of law.

"Little cousin, he's looking for you."

Gin nudged Izuna Uchiha beside him and reminded him with a smile,

"."

With a helpless glance at his older cousin, Uchiha Izuna decided to play dumb and completely ignore Jiraiya's request to call the police.

"Waaaaah, my popcorn~"

"Waaaaah"

"Alright, alright, it's just a bucket of popcorn, right? I can trade it for something, okay?"

Listening to Jiraiya's wailing and sobbing, which sounded like he was wailing at a grave, Uchiha Gin, thoroughly annoyed, scratched his head.

"Trade? Do you know how important popcorn is to me? Unless you trade it for a magazine!"

"Little cousin, he's looking for you again."

This time, Uchiha Izuna, who had been struck by Uchiha Silver Elbow, stormed off his seat in anger.

Play around, joke around, but don't make fun of **magazines.

"Seriously, I'm not Jiro, where would I get such a thing? How about this, I'll exchange a very important piece of information with you."

Uchiha Gin thought for a moment and decided to exchange it for something else.

"intelligence?"

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya stopped sobbing, his cat-like face filled with confusion.

"That's right, this is my exclusive information, and it's closely related to your future."

Gin nodded knowingly, then beckoned the younger ones closer.

"What exactly is this intelligence?"

"Are you guys about to graduate from the ninja academy?"

Instead of directly answering the children's questions, Uchiha Gin asked in return,

"It's not that it's coming soon, it's that we've already graduated."

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. The group had already passed the Ninja Academy exams and received their genin headbands; now they were just waiting for the village to assign them jonin instructors.

"So soon? Then how about you guide the Jonin selection?"

Time flies! In the blink of an eye, these little kids have become my colleagues.

"We have no right to choose."

When it came to such professional matters, Orochimaru stepped forward. For genin of their humble origins, having any guidance was already a blessing.

"Don't underestimate yourselves. I've heard from reliable sources that a few of you will be lucky enough to become the Hokage's disciples."

"ah!!!"

The news of Uchiha Gin was like a bombshell, stirring up a storm in the young minds of the children.

"Shh~ Keep your voice down, this is S-level intelligence, trading it for a bucket of popcorn is too good for you."

"Does that mean I'll have to become the Hokage's disciple?"

Jiraiya stood up excitedly, his eyes sparkling.

"Idiot, there are only three students when you are training a Jonin, but we have six."

Orochimaru timely poured cold water on Jiraiya's composure, and Jiraiya instantly calmed down. Looking at his classmates, a sense of powerlessness welled up within him.

Yeah, everyone is so outstanding, how could someone like me, the bottom of the class, possibly be the Hokage's student?

"Jiraiya, I believe you can definitely become the Hokage's student."

The young boy, Hiruko, keenly sensed Jiraiya's dejection and quickly offered words of encouragement and cheered him on.

"Let's do it!"

"Thank you, Hiruko, you're my brother for life."

Jiraiya was greatly relieved. After patting the little boy's shoulder, he turned to look at Uchiha Gin and happened to catch a whiff of a sweet fragrance. Instantly, his taste buds and tear ducts secreted a continuous stream of liquid.

"Waaaaah, Grandpa Gin, at least leave me a bite!"

"Oh my! He fell for such a simple trap. Does that kid only have food and drink on his head?"

Ignoring Jiraiya's desperate pleas, Gin Uchiha watched as Itama Senju was sent away by the Flying Thunder God Technique, shaking his head in disappointment. But the next second, his gaze was drawn to another familiar figure.

"Huh? What does Little Manager want to do?"

Inside the arena, Senju Hisama slowly emerged from the lingering dust, a fleeting smug look crossing her face.

What good is brute force if you can't win? You still lost to her brilliant mind.

It's time to get down to business.

Senju Hisama turned around as she thought about it, only to find a purple-clad girl standing behind her.

"Are you Gin Uchiha's student?"

"Are you an enemy too?"

(End of this chapter)