Around noon that day,
after finishing another medical training session, Mikami Yuu walked out of the classroom with Rin, Uchiha Obito, and Hyakusō—the senpai from a few years above. Right in the hallway, they saw several stretchers being rushed past. On them lay ninjas wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, faces twisted in pain.
The air reeked of strong disinfectant.
"Lately… it feels like more and more wounded are being sent to the hospital. And the injuries are usually really serious…"
Rin gripped the strap of her medical bag and spoke softly.
"I heard it's because the friction with the Land of Lightning has escalated. And down south, in the Land of Wind, there are also some unknown people stirring—border outposts have been attacked more and more often… It might get even worse."
Hyakusō looked worried too.
Unlike Mikami Yuu and Rin, Hyakusō was already an official ninja. While taking training, he also assisted the full medical-ninjas.
With the wounded increasing and manpower short, this newly promoted medical ninja had become busy as well—sometimes he didn't even have time to sit in on the training classes.
At that moment,
Obito puffed out his chest stubbornly and swung his fist.
"Hmph! It's just war—what's there to be afraid of! Once I awaken the Sharingan, I'll beat all those bad guys back! I'll show them how strong Konoha—and the Uchiha—are!"
"Rin, don't worry. I'll protect you!"
"…"
Rin opened her mouth but didn't say anything.
In her eyes, Obito's words were pretty childish, but he meant well, so she couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh.
Beside them, Mikami Yuu rolled his eyes, thinking: by the time you awaken the Sharingan, the Third Great Ninja War will be practically over.
And even if you ignore the "grandpa behind him," the prerequisite for awakening the Sharingan was basically "a teammate must be sacrificed," which inherently conflicted with protecting Rin. So Obito's promise was doomed to be empty words.
But still…
Obito only needed to think about when he'd awaken his Sharingan.
Mikami Yuu had a lot more to think about.
Everyone knows that to survive in the ninja world, you need power, backing, and bloodline.
Mikami Yuu didn't have bloodline—but he had a system, so he could patch that part up.
The other two, though, needed real planning.
Becoming stronger through the galgame system took time, but a stormy ninja world wouldn't give him enough peaceful time to grow. So before he reached the point where he could stand "above the sky," he'd better grab a strong thigh to shelter him from wind and rain.
In this era, the thickest thighs were obviously the Sannin.
Back when Mikami Yuu first agreed to attend medical training with Rin, part of his thinking was to use the chance to "accidentally" meet Tsunade and build a connection. Unfortunately, after coming for so long, he hadn't even seen her shadow.
Second best: Jiraiya or Orochimaru would do.
Jiraiya didn't need explanation.
Orochimaru was twisted, sure, but strictly speaking he treated his students pretty well. Whether it was Mitarashi "sweet potato"—cough, sorry, Anko—or Kabuto and Sasuke, he taught them seriously and genuinely shared good stuff. He liked giving people curse marks, but if you didn't use them casually it was fine—and they could even help you lose weight.
But those two were also hard to meet: one wandered the world, the other was buried in biology research.
So,
Mikami Yuu could only set his sights on Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He planned to show enough "talent" in the graduation exam—combined with his little "Will of Fire" essays—to make Hiruzen develop an eye-for-talent affection, and personally arrange him a path, like assigning him a reliable jōnin mentor.
However, doing that carried a potential risk: it might attract the attention of a certain unnamed "5.5th Hokage." Kakashi had already been an example.
So he needed to think ahead and prepare contingencies.
"I'm full."
At Ichiraku Ramen,
Mikami Yuu set down his bowl.
Rin and Obito wiped their mouths at the same time.
After that, Rin went to the Konoha library to look things up, Obito returned to the Uchiha district to train, and Mikami Yuu headed to the training grounds on the west side of the village to clear his daily galgame routine.
Ever since Transformation Technique hit max affection, Mikami Yuu had reduced the time he spent training it. Now he just said hello, did a symbolic ten-odd minutes, and put most of his focus on his other techniques.
His highest priorities were Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, and Healing Technique.
Next was Wild Water Wave.
—In the graduation exam, Asuma was the most likely rival for first place. Asuma's chakra nature was Fire and Wind, so Mikami Yuu decided to focus on Water Release to counter Asuma's Fire Style.
Of course,
an even more important reason was that Wild Water Wave only needed 16 more affection to tier up, while Great Fireball needed 21. Both were C-rank, so their difficulty should be similar. In terms of cost-effectiveness, it was smarter to prioritize the one that could level up sooner.
As for Eight Gates…
Mikami Yuu was honestly scared of it.
Every time they met, it started with "run 100 laps around Konoha," then after three to five minutes' rest it launched into a 20-kilometer cross-country run. Who could handle that?
Only a training maniac like Might Guy—someone who trained "as long as you don't die, keep training harder"—could hold it.
Mikami Yuu had considered transforming into Guy with Transformation Technique and then practicing Eight Gates. But maintaining Transformation already consumed chakra. Starting insane training on top of that would be like adding extra weight to himself—totally not worth it.
So,
for now he could only hide from Eight Gates and try not to seek her out. He planned to raise his Constitution a bit more first, then try again.
As a side note,
different jutsu had different romance difficulties in the system. The earliest one—Transformation Technique—went from 10 to 100 affection in just over a month. But Great Fireball, which entered the romance list on the same day, was only in the low 50s even now.
Sure, Mikami Yuu spent different amounts of time on them, but it was obvious: Transformation's affection rose faster.
Eight Gates was even more extreme.
As an A-rank forbidden technique and a system-recognized "over-spec target," its affection was brutal to raise. Often it took several rounds of [Talk] and [Practice] just to get +1.
But it made sense.
From Transformation's case, max affection probably meant "eight gates fully open." A technique that took the Might father and son—training maniacs—ten to twenty years to truly master, being fully "romanced" by Mikami Yuu in one or two months… would be pretty unreasonable.
Luckily, affection didn't go negative.
So even if it was slow, it wasn't a big problem.
~~~
Thank you for reading!