"Not really. She left around two or three in the afternoon. The rest of the time I was practicing on my own. Besides, the Hokage talked about rewards today, and I do care about that—I want to try competing for it."
Mikami Yuu told the truth.
"Oh… I see."
Rin nodded lightly. The smile on her face seemed to relax and become more natural. "Yuu-kun really works hard. No wonder you improved so fast. When I have time, I want to ask you for advice too… But it's late today. Hurry back and eat dinner. See you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow."
Mikami Yuu waved as well, watching Rin jog back into her house with light steps. Then he pushed open his own gate, and the aroma of his mother Mikami Aoi's cooking immediately drifted through the air.
Mikami Yuu touched the 1,000-ryō bill in his pocket, felt the faint soreness from training, and the fullness of strength in his body. He couldn't help thinking that the start of this winter break…
seemed pretty good.
…
Over the next two weeks,
Mikami Yuu's days became extremely full.
Every night he went to bed at 11, and woke up at 7 the next morning. First he ran a few laps around Konoha as warm-up, then began practicing ninjutsu.
During this, he often ran into the Might father and son, but Mikami Yuu didn't rush to complete the "ten days, ten laps" goal he'd agreed on with Might Duy.
Sharpening the blade doesn't delay chopping wood.
With his current Constitution, if he forced it, he could barely finish ten laps—but he'd end up completely drained and unable to fully recover for half the day afterward. So it was better to spend a few days raising his Constitution a bit more first, then run ten laps. That way his time efficiency would be higher.
So,
every day at the training ground, Mikami Yuu did [Talk] and [Practice], following the order of the Three Basic Jutsu, Great Fireball, and Wild Water Wave—about half an hour each. Between sessions he took breaks under a tree, refining chakra.
He also kept attending the medical training classes.
Since it was winter break, the class frequency increased to two half-days per week.
After class, he, Rin, and Obito would run to the area near the Naka River, use a simple fishing net to scoop up unlucky river fish as "patients," and take turns practicing Healing Technique on them.
Aside from Obito being clumsy and unable to learn it, Mikami Yuu and Rin could both control Yang chakra and gather a faint emerald glow at their fingertips—basically entering the beginner stage of Healing Technique.
—Strictly speaking, Obito didn't even learn it. He joined the training class purely to stare at Rin.
Even so, Obito argued confidently: "Th-this is normal! Didn't Matsumoto-sensei say that's how medical ninja train? The more fish you heal to death, the better your medical skill!"
Rin pinched the bridge of her nose. "First, that person's name was Matsushita, not Matsumoto. Second, he wasn't a teacher—he was an apprentice like us. Third, after he said that, he got scolded horribly by Sensei for wasting materials. And you only remembered that one line…?"
Obito: "Huh?"
Beside them,
Mikami Yuu almost lost it.
To be fair, Konoha Hospital really was full of talent—everyone there spoke so nicely.
And Obito really was a "slow." Following Mikami Yuu and Rin to classes was pure wasted time.
But since Obito helped split the cost of the fishing net and did put in effort catching fish, Mikami Yuu didn't say anything. He just practiced Healing Technique silently beside them, faint emerald light flickering at his fingertips as the fish's wounds slowly closed.
[Healing Technique: Mm. You're learning a bit slowly, but your attitude is fairly serious. Now you finally look somewhat decent.]
[Healing Technique Affection +2]
Besides auditing the medical training classes,
there was another thing worth mentioning—
Mikami Yuu's "private lessons" for Yūhi Kurenai.
He spent four sessions teaching Kurenai the key taijutsu points Hyūga Hizashi had told him, and with help from the Three Basic Jutsu sisters, he guided her practice of the Three Basic Jutsu too. Successfully, he earned 10,000 ryō in "lesson fees" from her.
"Um… thank you for everything these past few days, Mikami-kun."
After the fourth session, Kurenai clasped her hands in front of her a bit awkwardly. "Are you free this afternoon? How about I treat you to yakiniku Q? Otherwise I feel like I've taken advantage of you."
"Next time."
Mikami Yuu smiled. "We're classmates. And you paid money—you didn't freeload anything. What's there to 'take advantage' of? If you really want to thank me, do it once your grades actually improve."
"…Then if I run into things I don't understand later, can I come ask you again?"
Kurenai bit her lip lightly, then added, "Of course I'll pay too."
"Sure."
If he weren't worried about trouble, Mikami Yuu would honestly love to recruit a few more "students" like Kurenai. He could teach several at once and make multiple streams of money. But teaching just Kurenai was already nice—she was straightforward, paid well, didn't cause trouble or cling. Working together was genuinely pleasant.
After Kurenai left,
Mikami Yuu spent another half day clearing his daily galgame "routine."
[Current romanceable targets]
Transformation Technique (Affection: 100/100 — Hearts Aligned)
(Stage rewards obtained 4 times: Constitution +4; Trait: Lifelike Perfection — Your Transformation has reached mastery. You can completely rewrite your form. During transformation, you can perfectly reproduce all physiological traits of the target, including physical attributes, ordinary senses, chakra aura, etc., and by doing so imitate and use the target's non-kekkei abilities.)
(Note: To use this trait, you must have a certain level of familiarity with the target; the higher the familiarity, the better the transformation.)
Water Clone Jutsu (Clone Technique) (Affection: 83/100 — Infatuated)
(Stage rewards obtained 3 times: Constitution +3; Trait: Audiovisual Sharing — Your clones gain vision and hearing. When you concentrate, you can link the main body's senses with 2 → 3 clones and share sight and sound.)
Substitution Technique (Affection: 85/100 — Infatuated)
(Stage rewards obtained 3 times: Constitution +3; Trait: Seal-less Instant Cast — No special preparation needed. Within 15 → 45 meters, with a single thought, you can complete a swap with a substitution medium in 0.2 seconds.)
[…]
That's right.
After more than half a month of nonstop effort, Mikami Yuu finally maxed out his first affection bar!
At max affection, Transformation Technique's "Perfect Form and Spirit" upgraded into "Lifelike Perfection." Not only did the disguise effect become even stronger, it also added an absolutely terrifying trait:
Using the transformed target's abilities!
Even if it didn't include kekkei genkai, that was already incredible.
In theory, he could rely on this transformation to imitate and use the secret techniques of clans like Ino–Shika–Chō, Inuzuka, and others—because those didn't fall under kekkei genkai.
~~~
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