Chapter 17: How to Raise a Rabbit
When it came to evaluating the girl named Karura, Hiiro Rinko's judgment seemed to be slightly off.
Although she herself was unaware of it, she was actually the type of person who was extremely perceptive, able to instinctively grasp the essence of others.
This unconscious 'talent,' combined with her pure, friendly personality that focused more on the good in people, was the real reason for her attitude of habitually praising others.
It would probably be a while before Rinko realized his own mistake.
"Ah!"
Snapping back from that strange, heart-pounding moment, Karura realized she had been paying a bit too much attention to her new deskmate. She hadn't heard a single word of the last lesson.
Staring down at her textbook, which didn't have a single note written on it, the girl let out a short, blank sigh.
"Don't worry. If there's anything you don't understand, I'll tutor you later."
Physical training, shuriken throwing, and combat drills aside, the first-year theory classes were laughably simple. Rinko stretched his body, sat back down, and flopped lazily onto the desk, comforting the lost Karura.
"You can read this for now, if you want. They're notes from an older relative's school days."
Thinking that he should ask Chiyo for some trivial research projects to pass the time before school tomorrow, he conveniently pulled Yūsa's old textbooks from his bag. While they were useless to him, they were more than sufficient for tutoring a first-year student.
Thank you, Nii-san.
This thanks in Rinko's heart was completely sincere, without a trace of falsehood.
"Eh? Th-thank you."
Karura subconsciously accepted the old textbooks from Rinko, pausing for a moment. "This is something Hiiro-kun's family prepared for you, right? Is it really okay for me to look at it?"
"Don't worry about it, Rabbit Girl. I don't need them anyway."
Rinko, still playing dead on the desk, explained his philosophy in a muffled voice, "Useful things should be used to their maximum potential. If you read them, then they won't be wasted."
"Oh..."
Recalling Rinko's performance in class, Karura couldn't really deny that. Figuring he had probably just studied the lessons in advance, she stopped refusing the kind offer.
But still, what does 'Rabbit Girl' mean?
Pouting and blinking, her cheeks flushing, the girl couldn't bring herself to ask the question in the end.
Bored, Rinko yawned, then raised his right hand slightly. A tiny, hexagonal screen of light condensed at his fingertips and began to spin slowly.
It was a barrier (kekkai) formed from pure Chakra, with no other effects attached. It existed only to block the inside from the outside. In other words, it was the foundation of all Barrier Jutsu.
By copying and stitching together a large number of these tiny barriers, one could create a flexible barrier with various traps set within it. By enlarging a single barrier, one could create an integrated barrier specializing in sturdiness and stability.
In general, no matter how complex the barrier, its essence was just an extension and interpretation of these two theoretical paths. Of course, the more advanced the Barrier Jutsu, the blurrier the line between these two concepts became.
Achieving more, and more complex, functions through simpler means has always been the essence of Barrier Jutsu.
No matter how complex the final effect, if you unraveled it thread by thread, the starting point was just this tiny screen. From Rinko's perspective, Barrier Jutsu was actually quite easy to understand.
"Speaking of, what's the next class?"
Clenching his fist, he crushed the barrier he had casually constructed. Rinko suddenly remembered he hadn't actually looked at the class schedule.
"It's P.E."
Karura, who was busy copying the notes from the textbook, hoping to return the book to Rinko as soon as possible, answered without lifting her head.
"Good. Moving my body a bit is better than sitting in a classroom spacing out."
"Ehh? So Hiiro-kun really was just spacing out? I thought you were thinking about something really profound."
Hearing his slip of the tongue, Karura looked up and giggled cheerfully.
During class, even though they had been whispering, Rinko's "all-knowing" demeanor had still made Karura feel very distant, as if they were from two completely different worlds.
But now, Karura felt that there wasn't really any distance between them at all.
As a famous philosopher once said, "Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding." Thinking about it, that really did make sense.
"I was. I was thinking about what will happen a thousand years from now."
Although Rinko didn't really get the girl's sense of humor, he didn't want to be a killjoy.
"That's way too far in the future."
"It's because it's so far that I can imagine it without any constraints."
"Hiiro-kun, you're saying things I don't understand again."
Tapping the pen cap against her chin, Karura tilted her head and 'complained.'
"If you're too slow, an eagle will snatch you away, Rabbit Girl."
"Seriously, what does 'Rabbit Girl' even mean?!"
"Because you look like one."
"Where do I look like one?"
"Just... like you do now."
"Ehhh~"
In another corner of the classroom, a certain boy was glaring, grinding his teeth, as he watched Rinko and Karura's interaction.
Damn transfer student! On his very first day, he's already flirting with the cutest girl in class! I can't even imagine what he'll do next!
Even though he didn't say a word, that meaning was clear in his eyes.
With Karura's cute appearance and gentle demeanor, her popularity in class had been high since the first day of school. This boy was one of her many admirers.
Normally, boys this age are still in the 'attract attention by throwing caterpillars in the girl's desk' phase. But shinobi children mature faster, and Karura hadn't encountered anything like that, at least not yet.
Of course, it was also possible that another, literally 'strong and powerful' girl in the class served as a deterrent.
Pakura—the girl Rinko had pointed out as having "very distinct Chakra"—was one of only two students in the entire class who had mastered an elemental jutsu.
Earlier in the term, a boy who had been bullying one of the girls was hit by her Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique), which burned off everything down to his underwear.
With that precedent, no matter how mischievous the other kids were, none of them would risk that level of public humiliation.
"It's fine... Next class, in P.E., I'll beat you to a pulp right in front of Karura! Then Karura will definitely fall for me, mutter mutter mutter…"
He couldn't use pranks to get her attention, but that didn't mean he couldn't use other methods, right?
Fantasizing about his wonderful future, the boy unconsciously broke into a rather pathetic-looking smile.