Miwa Masayo paddled desperately toward the surface.
As a Sage, she had already awakened the ability to breathe underwater, but her instincts still rejected swimming.
Now that the task was done, all she wanted was to get back to shore as quickly as possible.
But—
Miwa Masayo truly had no sense for water.
She didn't even realize she had been pulled into a whirlpool.
And that whirlpool…
Was formed by the released water.
Only when she broke the surface and realized she was drifting farther away from the shore did she finally notice it.
The calico cat instantly panicked.
Completely forgetting she could stand on the surface of the water, she began frantically paddling, charging toward the shore with all her strength.
Her reaction was wrong.
Completely wrong.
And disastrously wrong.
It was like someone who couldn't swim falling into a shallow pool—pressing their hands against the ground but unable to lift their face above the water, getting "sealed" by a mere meter of depth. No matter how desperately they struggled, they simply couldn't stand up, slowly sinking toward death.
If Miwa Masayo had known how to swim, she would have followed the current outward, letting the whirlpool carry her in a circle before easily escaping.
In truth—
She was still on the outer edge of the whirlpool, far from the deadly self-rotation zone.
Even if she had just stayed calm, she could have broken free from the current's pull, leapt onto the water's surface, and reached the shore in less than three seconds.
But—
She was already completely muddled.
All her attention was focused on paddling.
Little by little, she was drawn toward the center.
Then—
Into the deadly spin.
And finally—
She was sucked straight into the three-meter-wide drainage tunnel.
…
Uchiha Yoru had originally been lying on a large rock beside the river, resting.
After Miwa Masayo ran off, he suddenly recalled the scenes of dam discharge from his previous life.
The water bursting out of such tunnels moved at incredible speed. After striking the riverbed and rebounding, it could shoot up nearly fifteen meters into the air.
He measured the drop with his eyes.
Six meters.
Only six.
That was the death line.
Yoru scanned the surroundings, then suddenly grinned.
He had found the safest spot.
To prevent falling debris from blocking the outlet, the tunnel extended an additional forty meters beyond the dam. The massive pipe lay exposed above the riverbed, reflecting a pale cement color under the midday sun.
Water might rebound upward more than ten meters—
But it couldn't possibly reverse direction and strike thirty meters behind the outlet.
At most, only a few stray droplets would reach there.
A few seconds later—
Yoru was lying comfortably atop the cement pipe.
The inner diameter of the tunnel was three meters.
The outer diameter, however, reached five.
Its design philosophy was simple—
Trade thickness for strength.
The wide, rounded pipe had been warmed by the sun. Lying on it, feeling the heat seep into his back, drowsiness quickly set in.
Soon, he felt the pipe vibrate.
The water had been released.
A smile tugged at Yoru's lips.
Miwa Masayo had moved the rock.
Everything was going smoothly.
[…Wait.]
[Moved it?]
[With that tiny body of hers, how could she possibly move that rock?]
[But the water is flowing. The rock is definitely gone.]
[Miwa Masayo really is impressive. Worthy of being my partner. Her mind must be sharp… I should ask her how she did it later…]
Just as Yoru began to think he was overthinking things—
His heart suddenly began pounding violently.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His passive instinct—
A sudden premonition—
Was warning him.
He shot to his feet, eyes narrowing as he scanned the surroundings, searching for any sign of danger.
[What did I overlook?]
[Wait… the sound inside the tunnel feels off. That sound… that's…]
[Impact? Something hard colliding?]
As unease spread through him, the dull, heavy sounds of repeated impacts grew denser.
Then—
Water burst from the outlet.
Just like the scene he remembered—
The torrent struck the riverbed and erupted upward in a white column, sweeping across the boulder he had been lying on moments ago.
The rock shattered instantly, disappearing into the raging current.
A surge of emotions flooded Yoru.
Awe at witnessing the force up close.
Relief at having avoided harm.
Satisfaction at his own foresight.
Those intense emotions disrupted his intuition.
The warning from his premonition faded—
And he mistakenly believed the danger had already passed.
So he remained standing on the pipe.
And failed to retreat in time.
The roar of splashing water drowned out the impact sounds inside the tunnel.
By the time a sharp cracking noise reached his ears—
He still hadn't realized what was happening.
Then—
Without warning—
The cement pipe beneath his feet exploded.
His three-tomoe Sharingan activated instantly.
He saw—
Water.
Fragments of shattered cement.
And—
A sharp, greenish rock.
[That rock…]
[That's the one I used to block the entrance…]
[So Miwa Masayo… didn't move it. She blew it apart…]
[My mistake. I shouldn't have gotten lazy and let that little cat handle something that big.]
[Hopefully the entire tunnel won't collapse when I get back…]
[Hm? What's that—?]
The water surging out carried the pressure of a fifty-meter drop.
It had enough force to split stone and crack mountains.
But Yoru's body wouldn't be injured by it.
Because he was a shinobi—
Not a massive rock.
Small.
Flexible.
With even slight adjustments, he could move with the current rather than take the full force head-on.
But—
At just over seventy kilograms—
Once he lost stable footing and began moving, he had no way to resist the current.
He could only be swept away.
Just like falling through the air.
No matter how strong a shinobi was—
If they couldn't fly, there was little they could do mid-fall.
Yoru was carried downstream, waiting for the flow to merge into a wider river or open water, where the current would slow and give him a chance to escape.
Just as he was about to curl into a defensive posture—
His Sharingan caught something in the murky water.
A familiar figure.
Though color was lost in the turbulence—
Those small triangular ears.
That soft tail.
Those plum-blossom-shaped paws.
That tiny silhouette.
Every detail was unmistakable.
[Miwa Masayo??]
[That idiot cat… she actually got pulled in too?]
[She's really hopelessly dumb…]
[…adorably so.]
Yoru truly was a qualified cat owner.
Not a trace of resentment arose in him.
No matter what—
This was his fault.
He had assigned the wrong task.
Dragged his own cat into the water she hated most.
Made her suffer all this.
He abandoned his defensive stance.
Spread his limbs—
And swam toward her.
At 183 centimeters tall, with the superior physique of the Uchiha—
Long limbs, broad shoulders, narrow waist—
Every powerful stroke of his arms propelled him forward an entire body length.
He moved like a swordfish.
Swift.
Precise.
Avoiding debris with ease.
Closing the distance in an instant.
With a flick of his arm—
He pulled the dizzy, dazed cat into his embrace.
A quick check.
No signs of oxygen deprivation.
Just spun senseless.
Yoru relaxed.
He curled his body, protecting Miwa Masayo within his arms, forming his strongest defensive posture.
Around the sphere of his body—
Earth-aspected natural energy circulated continuously, neutralizing every impact.
And just like that—
Uchiha Yoru drifted with the current—
Rapidly heading back toward Jiusen Village.
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