I stand before my homemade training dummy.
A few deep breaths, and my mind clears completely.
Familiar, flowing steps forward, and the previously calm Qi suddenly erupts.
Six strikes, two of which I deliver to the splintering remnants of the wooden dummy.
I grimace slightly—miscalculated again.
I grimace a second time—the technique was too powerful, and one of the strikes damaged my own hand.
I need to work more with Qi and distribute it evenly.
I sense my mother approaching.
Yes, the sun is already rising; I got too carried away with training.
It’s time to head to the fields.
I don’t need much food; it’s better if my father and mother eat their fill while I start tilling our plot.
Qi is like the blood, strength, and soul of our world—it is everywhere and in everything.
As long as I am in harmony with the world, I have no need for base sustenance.
With a touch of melancholy, I look down at my worn and faded qipao and the matching pants.
All of this was passed down to me from my father, but the sizes don’t match; his build was much broader at my age.
I need to earn some money…
maybe travel to the neighboring province?
I heard something was happening over there.
It doesn’t concern me much, but my parents gave me so much.
Can I not improve their lives in return?
I can, and I will.
That being said, I am content with what I have.
I would never trade these clothes—soaked in the love and care of a father who saved them for his son, and a mother who mended them after my clumsy training sessions—for anything else.
Even all the treasures of the world pale in comparison to this oversized qipao.
But enough thinking.
I must help my mother, and then straight to the fields.
I woke up with a violently sudden jerk, completely ignoring the System notifications about resting in a bed and recovering all stats.
What a bizarre dream.
What the hell was that?
Those definitely weren’t my memories.
The old house with the thatched roof was a dead giveaway—you couldn’t find a place like that even in the most remote Russian village.
And I could feel that those memories didn’t belong to this world, either.
So what kind of nonsense was that?
Whatever.
I’d think about it later.
Right now, I needed to train.
I got up and started going through my forms, effortlessly and naturally slipping into the specific perception of the world that this martial art demanded.
It was almost too easy, and my movements were incredibly fluid…
exactly like the dream, when the unknown man had closed the distance to his wooden training dummy.
Suddenly, I felt someone disrupt the harmony and look at me.
I instantly tangled my own feet and collapsed, completely falling out of the trance.
Looking up, I was shocked to see three consecutive notifications confirming a +1 increase to my AGI, while simultaneously feeling my muscles begin to seize up in agonizing protest.
That hurt.
It seemed my current body simply wasn’t ready for such a pure execution of the style, but damn, did it raise my AGI quickly.
If I danced like that for half an hour, I could easily bag ten points…
and spend the rest of the day unable to move.
Alright, time to act out a quick scene: “Oh, I only just now noticed I’m being watched.” “Ow-ow-ow,” I groaned, standing up and looking around, finally “noticing” Uzuki.
“Yugao-san, did you need something?” I asked politely.
“I was going to call you for training, but I see that’s unnecessary.
Where did you learn those movements?” she asked, leaning forward just a fraction of an inch.
I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions about why she was so interested.
It could just be professional curiosity, rather than a specific directive from one of the ruling old men.
“You won’t believe me, Yugao-san, but I dream about them.” And I wasn’t even lying.
Today, specifically, I had dreamed of something vastly more perfect than what I was trying to replicate here.
Besides, stumbling backward into a weird fighting style created by some eccentric made for a great cover story.
Let them guess whether I’m just being modest and building everything from scratch, or if I actually am having dreams…
considering who my roommate in my gut is.
I had nothing to fear.
If things got really bad, I could always find a rope.
“Hmm.
Is that so?” she drawled thoughtfully.
“Alright, run along and wash up.
I will prepare breakfast,” she added.
I could practically taste the hesitation in the second half of her sentence.
I had a feeling I needed to wash up at lightspeed and sprint to the kitchen.
It sounded like she genuinely hadn’t cooked anything more complicated than instant ramen in a very long time.
And this was an ANBU operative!
God help us.
And exactly as I suspected, when I walked into the kitchen, the smell of burning hung in the air.
Yugao was standing in front of the open refrigerator, trying to figure out what to salvage.
Judging by the fact that the contents hadn’t decreased much, she hadn’t managed to ruin too much yet.
Gently nudging the embarrassed girl aside—yeah, it’s gotta sting when a child cooks better than you—I took over.
I chatted with the food-murderer as I worked.
Honestly, if I wasted food like that, I would have starved to death in my first week alone.
Somehow, without me even realizing it, she managed to interrogate me about my entire martial arts methodology.
When it should be applied, why certain movements were structured that way, what it was designed for, etc.
Damn it.
Given everything I just explained to her, I could no longer pass this off as just a “dream.” The foundational understanding had trickled into my brain when I acquired the reward status, and it had deepened drastically today, so it genuinely looked like I was actively developing the style myself.
Any questions I hesitated on could easily be chalked up to flaws in an incomplete style.
Yeah, absolutely no one is going to believe the “dream” excuse if Yugao puts all this in a report.
And damn, she really is a specialist—to effortlessly pull all that information out of me like that!
“Wait.” I had just sat down and was about to take a bite when Hitomi appeared in the doorway.
What do you all want from me now?
“You must eat four to five times a day for proper physical development,” she stated softly, taking a portion of food off my plate and putting it into the bento box I had packed for lunch.
Then, she pulled a second bento box out of the cupboard and split the remaining food into two portions.
“A light breakfast.
Two meals at the Academy, and another portion at home afterward,” she explained.
“What about Yugao-san?
And good morning, Hitomi-san!” I flashed her canon Naruto’s trademark grin.
“She can take care of herself,” Hitomi replied coldly and calmly, having apparently fully accepted the nickname.
Wait!
“The Academy?” I blinked in surprise.
No one had delivered my exam results yet; I didn’t even know if I was accepted!
“We brought that information with us yesterday.
Think back, Naruto.
I told you that you were enrolled in Class A,” Yugao sighed from her seat.
Damn it, with everything else going on, I had completely glossed over that part.
Well, at least it fit my “idiot” persona perfectly.
“Right!
That’s why you’re both here!
But don’t classes start later?” I vaguely recalled something like that.
“The actual lessons, yes.
But today is the Hokage’s welcoming speech, introductions to your teacher and classmates, and a few orientation lectures.
Everyone is expected to attend the Hokage’s speech with their parents or guardians, so if you do not object, I will accompany you—” Uzuki began, but was abruptly cut off by Hitomi.
“So I will accompany you,” Hitomi said.
It was spoken softly, but something about it made my skin crawl.
“I think—” Yugao started again.
Hitomi didn’t even bother interrupting this time.
She just stopped looking at me for a split second and shot Uzuki a look.
It was enough to make Yugao visibly choke on her words.
Terrifying!
“I don’t mind!
So we’re leaving right now, Hitomi-san?” I asked, playing dumb.
I’m sorry, Yugao, but I’m going to follow the example of rats and abandon this sinking ship.
My self-preservation instincts are screaming at me to do so.
Wait!
Stop!
Let me change my answer!
Why the hell did this Tsuru/Hitomi girl’s affection points just jump to 85%?!
That was practically the endgame zone for a visual novel event—meaning all that was left was her reciprocation!
Just kill me now!
“No, a little later.
First, we have a calligraphy lesson,” Yugao said, sounding almost vindictive.
Did she already know I was completely hopeless at it?
Or was that vengeance aimed at someone else?
[Quest Alert!] [Master the entire calligraphy curriculum within a year, demonstrating your diligence and perseverance to Uzuki-sensei, and earn her affection!
Reward: The affection of an ANBU operative and generally lovely girl.
Is that not enough for you?
Failure/Rejection Penalty: High chance of failing to secure the target before Academy graduation.
Yugao’s affection drops by 10%.
Tsuru/Hitomi’s affection increases by 15%.
Accept?
Yes / No] That last penalty clause terrifies me!
Yes, obviously!
If I don’t, I’m terrified one maniac will tear me to pieces while Yugao just watches!
Yeah, let her suffer through teaching me instead!