Tendo's smile didn't fade until he reached his apartment door.
The boost from his Konoha-Style Taijutsu far exceeded his expectations.
He even felt that with his current level of taijutsu, qualifying as a Special Jonin specializing in hand-to-hand combat wouldn't be much of a problem.
As for Mizuki—
Tendo's favorability toward him had already moved from "indifferent" to "average."
If Mizuki challenged him a few more times, it would soon rise to "friendly."
"It looks like you're in a good mood today, smiling so happily."
A slightly raspy, mature female voice rang in his ears.
Tendo turned his head, his smile widening slightly.
At the apartment entrance, a purple-haired beauty in casual clothes leaned against the door.
She had just showered.
Her long purple hair was still damp, and her loose robes couldn't hide her soft curves.
Just standing there quietly, she looked as beautiful as a painting.
"Sister Yugao, you're back."
Yugao Uzuki's voice was low and gentle, like softly clinking wind chimes.
Tendo had always loved listening to her speak.
She smiled gently.
"Mhm."
"I have a mission outside the village tomorrow, so the captain gave us the night off."
"Don't worry, it's just a routine patrol, nothing dangerous."
"Don't go back to your place."
"I just finished making dinner and was worried I wouldn't be able to finish it all by myself."
"Sure, sure."
Tendo agreed almost instantly.
The two entered her house together and brought the food out from the kitchen.
There were four dishes and a soup.
It wasn't extravagant, but they were all Tendo's favorites.
This, of course, couldn't be a coincidence.
Tendo and Yugao Uzuki had known each other since childhood.
Their parents had been very close, making them classic childhood friends.
Yugao was three years older than him and had always considered herself his older sister.
During the Nine-Tails Attack, both sets of parents had died in the battle against the beast.
The two orphaned children had depended on each other ever since.
That was until they graduated from the Ninja Academy and truly entered the ninja world.
Yugao entered the Anbu thanks to her outstanding talent in kenjutsu, and the frequency of their meetings decreased.
[Latest Mission: The Uchiha bloodline must not end!]
[Quickly expand the bloodline, let the Sharingan bloom everywhere, and include Yugao Uzuki in the Uchiha clan registry.]
[Mission rewards will be distributed in stages.]
[Unlock Intimate Contact CG Reward: Konoha-Style Kenjutsu.]
[Unlock Defeat CG Reward: Yang Release Chakra Enhancement.]
A translucent system panel abruptly popped up in front of him.
Tendo, who was busy eating, paused.
That's it?
This level of mission is looking down on me too much.
He sneered inwardly but put on a slightly troubled expression.
"What's wrong?"
"Is it not to your taste?"
The purple-haired beauty, who had been watching his expression, immediately put down her chopsticks and asked with concern.
"The soup seems a bit salty."
Tendo casually made up an excuse.
"Is it?"
Yugao Uzuki walked over to him, picked up a spoon, and took a sip.
"I clearly paid attention this time."
"Did I still put too much?"
The beauty drew close, her body heat transmitting through the fabric of her clothes.
The steam from the food in the kitchen mingled with the faint citrus scent of her bath soap in the small space.
Tendo's gaze fell on her slightly moist lips.
Without hesitation, he pulled her onto his lap and leaned down to kiss her.
Yugao froze for a moment.
Then, she slowly closed her eyes, her hands unconsciously clutching his collar.
The kiss seemed to stop time until both were somewhat out of breath and reluctantly separated.
[First stage mission completed.]
[Reward "Konoha-Style Kenjutsu" has been distributed; please claim it promptly.]
Tendo was delighted but remained outwardly calm.
"Sister Yugao, the soup tastes just right now," he said softly.
"You... you just love finding ways to tease me."
Yugao Uzuki leaned into his arms and gently chided him.
In fact, she had long since grown accustomed to his sudden frivolity, though she would still get shy about it.
It wasn't until midnight that Tendo finally emerged from Yugao's room.
[Claim mission reward.]
As he confirmed the prompt in his mind, a vast amount of knowledge and experience regarding Konoha-Style Kenjutsu flooded his brain like a tidal wave.
Muscle memory, neural reactions, power generation techniques.
Almost instantly, he went from a kenjutsu novice to a master capable of skillfully performing the Konoha Style.
However, this time, he ultimately failed to complete both stages of the mission at once.
It wasn't that the two of them weren't ready.
But rather that Yugao Uzuki was not only a kenjutsu expert but also a Water Release master.
Just their intimate contact had already drained her stamina completely.
Considering she had a mission tomorrow, Tendo had to reluctantly stop and return to his empty apartment to sleep alone.
The next day.
Tendo woke up at eight as usual.
Yugao Uzuki next door had already left early in the morning, leaving breakfast warming in his kitchen.
Eating his breakfast of love, Tendo sauntered to the Hokage Building to clock in for work.
The Agricultural Machinery Research Class.
This was his current workplace.
The Wind Release Harvester.
This was the project he was working on.
Building Harvesters in the Naruto World.
It sounded like the title of an outrageous fanfiction novel, but it was indeed his current reality.
As seen in the original series, the technology tree in the ninja world was quite absurd.
There were monitors, radios, surveillance cameras, refrigerators, and trains.
The overall technological level was close to Earth in the late twentieth century.
However, years of constant warfare kept these technologies firmly in the hands of the major ninja villages and nobles, completely isolating them from the commoners.
Commoners unlucky enough not to be born in the Five Great Nations might never see these things in their entire lives.
This was the harsh reality of the ninja world.
However, under such strict control, a few minor innovations beneficial to the upper class were tacitly allowed.
For example, the Wind Release Harvester, which significantly increased the speed of grain harvesting.
This was also how Tendo managed to gain the favor of his female superior, Inuzuka Akita.
He had done a lot of research on turning ninjutsu into agricultural tools.
These research directions happened to overlap significantly with what Inuzuka Akita had always wanted to pursue.
Of course, this was no coincidence.
Precisely because he knew she would become the head of the Scientific Ninja Weapons Team in the infamous sequel, Boruto, Tendo had deliberately let her unintentionally see his research manuscripts.
As for why he didn't directly start working on Scientific Ninja Weapons.
The reason was simple.
The pushback would be too great.
Even in Boruto, Scientific Ninja Weapons were highly controversial.
Right now, Shippuden hadn't even started yet.
Trying to develop Scientific Ninja Weapons in this era would be pure suicide.
The establishment of the Agricultural Machinery Research Class was a compromise born from the concessions of various parties.
Naturally, it was mainly the Inuzuka clan exerting their influence behind the scenes.
Otherwise, as a civilian ninja, he would have had no qualifications to push for the establishment of an entirely new department.
Tendo sat at his desk.
The third version of the Wind Release Harvester had been finalized and was in the machine verification stage, so his current workload was actually quite light.
Thinking of the Konoha-Style Kenjutsu reward he had received the day before, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
In next month's funding application report, he needed to find a way to exaggerate the Chakra Metal loss.
After all, Edison had tried thousands of materials to invent the light bulb.
It was perfectly reasonable for him to conduct a few extra experiments for his agricultural tools.
Experiments always involved material loss, after all.
Melting down some scraps to forge a sword on the side was perfectly logical.
The only thing he had to be careful about was ensuring the experimental report was well-polished so no one could catch any discrepancies.
Mentally calculating these plans for rational resource utilization, Tendo picked up his teacup, preparing to brew some red date and goji berry health tea.
Just then—
Two massive waves of pressure quietly descended from behind him.
Tendo's hand holding the teacup paused slightly as he slowly turned around.
What met his eyes was the darkened face of his superior, Inuzuka Akita, looking as furious as the King of Hell.
"Tendo, your secret is out."
"Come with me."
Tendo was speechless.
Wait, he hadn't even submitted the funding application yet!