Sasuke, who had been beaten up, could no longer maintain his cool demeanor. Under Ethan's pressure, he finally revealed many things that Ethan himself didn't know.
Because Ethan never went to the bathroom and was very good-looking, many students had initially speculated about his 'true' gender.
Although Ethan was very masculine in his personal information, speaking style, and other aspects, there were still many people who suspected he was actually a girl.
Moreover, Ethan's popularity at school was far lower than in the neighborhood. Since he always stayed quietly by himself and always went home alone after school, never chatting or playing with classmates, he was considered a complete weirdo in the eyes of his Ninja Academy classmates.
Compared to Uzumaki Naruto, who was constantly ostracized by the villagers, Naruto at least had a few mischievous friends he often played with. But no one had ever seen Ethan regularly interact with anyone.
"Anything else?"
Ethan's face darkened. He hadn't expected that his low-profile attitude had gone so far that it made him look like a weirdo.
On second thought, it made sense. How could an "old guy" who didn't even know how many years he had lived hang around playing with a bunch of kids? Although he wanted to stay low-key, there was no need to go to such lengths just to conceal his identity.
Sasuke rubbed his swollen, bun-like cheek. He suddenly realized that this quiet classmate, who didn't seem to stand out at all except for his looks, was actually terrifying.
Unlike the taijutsu sparring match at school, where he had thought the other party just got lucky and he had lost due to carelessness, this time he had gone all out, using nearly his full strength, but was still defeated in just a few moves. Not a single one of his attacks landed. This guy's strength... was really high.
"Your taijutsu... why is it so strong?"
No matter how he thought about it, it didn't make sense. He came from a prestigious clan like the Uchiha, had received specialized training since childhood, and had already studied most of the material taught at the academy. He had even practiced things the academy didn't teach.
He was confident that even if he graduated now and became a ninja, it would not make much of a difference. That was the advantage of an excellent background.
But why did a classmate from a civilian background have such powerful strength?
"Read more books, exercise more, eat fewer snacks, and sleep more... Don't change the subject. Keep telling me what else there is."
Ethan now looked exactly like a delinquent blocking grade schoolers outside the school gate to shake them down. If someone else had spoken to Sasuke in this tone, they would've been beaten up.
But not this time. He couldn't beat Ethan.
"The rest are just some boring stuff…"
"Well, I'm very bored right now, so tell me."
"…"
Helpless, Sasuke could only continue to talk about the other classmates' 'evaluations' of Ethan, such as some nosy people calling Ethan the "Number One Beauty of the Ninja Academy." That title had even caused some secret disturbances, with the girls in the school becoming very hostile toward Ethan.
"…"
Ethan had previously worried that he might accidentally charm some little girl and cause a lot of trouble, so he avoided talking to girls whenever possible.
Unexpectedly, not only did almost no girls approach him, but he now realized it wasn't because his civilian status and average performance protected him... It was because he had already been ostracized by the girls?
But Sasuke, how do you know all this?
"Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura even tried to get the Hyuga girl to use her Byakugan to check whether you're a boy or a girl…"
"???"
Ethan was startled. He had completely forgotten about that. Thinking back carefully, it did seem like Hyuga Hinata had secretly glanced at him often. She probably thought she was being discreet, but she couldn't escape Ethan's perception.
"So, what did she find?"
"Nothing!" Sasuke paused when he said this, as if remembering something, then looked at Ethan with a strange expression. "I should've realized it earlier. When Hinata said she couldn't see through you, I thought she was just making excuses or her Byakugan wasn't strong enough... But the real reason is something you did, isn't it? Do you have a way to resist the Byakugan?"
Ethan didn't respond. He had fallen into deep thought.
His current state was not something the Byakugan could see through. It was completely normal that Hinata couldn't detect anything.
But he had to think ahead.
When he became a full-fledged ninja, he would eventually come into contact with higher-level Hyuga clan members. If those people still couldn't see anything, then it would definitely raise suspicion.
Ethan was very glad he had chosen a civilian identity. In all these years, he had never interacted with the high and mighty Hyuga clan. Otherwise, someone would have already noticed something was wrong with him.
"Looks like I need to create another layer of disguise…"
In the past, no matter what world he went to, he had never thought of disguising or hiding anything. As a result, he lacked experience in this area. He had always acted openly, and that habit led him to overlook how different things were in this world.
"I really should've crammed for this with Ada before coming…"
Shaking his head helplessly, Ethan looked down at Sasuke, who was still staring intently at him.
"What? Still want to spar?"
Sasuke did want to fight again, but he already knew he wasn't a match for Ethan in taijutsu alone. And this wasn't the right place to use ninjutsu.
"Next time... I won't hold back."
After speaking, he turned and left with a cold face. But with his swollen, bun-like cheek, he completely lost any intimidating aura. He was still just a kid, and there was no way to appear threatening in this state.
Watching Sasuke leave, Ethan looked up at the time. It was already getting late. He didn't wander around, didn't even buy vegetables, and went straight back to where he lived.
This was the house the old man had left him, located in a relatively remote corner of the village. It wasn't very large, and the house was quite old. Its only advantage was the small yard.
As someone who had settled in Konoha early on, the old man's only benefit was being able to occupy a bit more space.
However, with Konoha's development, these kinds of houses would eventually be demolished. But by that time, Ethan would have already moved somewhere else, so how Konoha planned its urban layout had nothing to do with him.
Besides, no matter how Konoha developed its city planning, it would be turned into a giant crater by Pain a few years later anyway.
Entering the house and turning on the lights, Ethan sat in the small, sparsely furnished room and began thinking about how to create a disguise.
It wasn't difficult. If his current 'core body' was essentially a large mass of energy and rules that ordinary people couldn't comprehend, then all he needed to do was create a superficial image, like crafting an object. This would allow Byakugan users to see a normal human body structure.
Doing this had another benefit. Anyone trying to observe his chakra level with the Byakugan or detection-type ninjutsu would be completely misled...
Also, the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist, which targeted acupoints, would become completely useless against him.
"How miserable... Both the Hyuga and Uchiha clans are totally restrained by me."
But then he thought, who in this world wasn't completely restrained by him? His current state was like playing with cheat codes and steamrolling everyone. Thinking back to before he transmigrated, even online novels didn't dare to write this way. If you're this overpowered, what's the point of reading? Writing like that deserves to flop.
Who would've thought he would one day become the protagonist of a failed novel?
After working for a while and setting up his disguise, he no longer had to worry about any Hyuga jounin noticing anything strange if they encountered him.
The disguise he created fit perfectly with his current status: a soon-to-graduate Ninja Academy student with average strength.
After completing everything, Ethan continued with his usual "sleep." His so-called sleep was actually focusing on the fusion between the rules and himself. This allowed him to pass the long night. He couldn't just go out wandering around when everyone else was asleep. Not in Konoha, where ninja were everywhere. You could run into three Anbu under any random tree, and an organization like Root was hiding underground.
So Ethan had stayed in the village for twelve years and never once went out at night. At most, he would get up a bit earlier and go out to exercise.
As a ninja from a civilian background, he could only learn the basic Three Body Technique and how to dispel genjutsu at school. There was no other way to learn anything else. If he didn't want his grades to look too bad, the best focus was taijutsu.
Daily exercise also gave him a solid excuse for occasionally showing decent taijutsu performance.
So ever since entering the academy, Ethan had maintained his morning training routine.
If Sasuke didn't believe the nonsense he had casually said and wanted to verify it secretly, he would find that Ethan hadn't actually lied to him (?). Whether Sasuke would be misled as a result was beyond Ethan's control.
The next day at school, Sasuke's injuries had nearly healed. Unless one looked closely, it was hard to notice such faint marks.
They were all kids and students of the Ninja Academy. Minor injuries weren't surprising. Plus, after the incident with his family, Sasuke had always worn a cold and distant expression, so no one really paid attention to him...
"Ah, Sasuke, what happened to your face?"
Right, he forgot about Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura.
Sasuke clearly didn't want to deal with these two fangirls. What he was thinking about now was how to find the right opportunity to challenge Ethan in a proper fight. He didn't believe that, even going all out, he would still lose to a civilian classmate from the Ninja Academy.
If he couldn't even beat Ethan, what kind of genius was he? And how was he supposed to take revenge on that man?
Ethan had no idea what Sasuke was thinking. If he did, he'd probably just smile, pat him on the shoulder, and say, "Kid, you're overthinking it."
(To be continued.)