Chapter 34: Are There Mushrooms in Your Food?
Chapter 34: Are There Mushrooms in Your Food?
"Minato, do you smell that?" Kushina, who was about to cook, suddenly caught a whiff of an extremely enticing aroma.
"Yes, it's a mouth-watering fried scent," Minato nodded.
"Indeed, it's so tempting. I wonder how it's made," Kushina sniffed the air, unable to contain her curiosity.
She cooked too, and had made tempura and other fried dishes before, but she had never encountered such an alluring fragrance. Merely inhaling the scent, she could imagine the food's perfect, golden crispness.
"I have to go and see," Kushina said as she stepped out.
She sniffed the air carefully and realized that the source of the scent was indeed from the house to the right of Minato's.
"Hey, isn't this Uchiha's place? Minato, come out here," Kushina waved at Minato inside the house.
If she remembered correctly, this house belonged to Uchiha Mu Yue, the ninja academy teacher.
Although they had only met a few days ago, Mu Yue had left a deep impression on Kushina.
With golden hair and blue eyes similar to Minato's, Mu Yue was eloquent and an excellent teacher.
Minato walked out and looked at the house Kushina was pointing at, nodding, "Yes, that's Uchiha's house."
"Let's pay our neighbor a visit," Kushina pulled Minato and knocked on Mu Yue's door.
Mu Yue placed the shrimp she had picked up into a bowl and then put down her chopsticks. She walked to the door and opened it.
As soon as the door opened, Kushina eagerly asked, "Mu Yue, are you cooking dinner?"
"Sorry, did we disturb you?" Minato apologized, seeing the apron Mu Yue was still wearing.
"No problem, I've just finished cooking and was about to eat. You're just in time," Mu Yue replied with a gentle smile, inviting them into the house.
Following the aroma, Kushina walked straight to the dining table and saw the tempura in the dish, slightly golden and crispy. That was the scent!
However, upon entering Mu Yue's house, Kushina realized there was also the aroma of fried rice.
"Mu Yue, you're quite the hidden chef! I could smell the tempura all the way from my house," Kushina praised.
"I'm not much of a chef, but since I often eat alone, I've gotten used to cooking," Mu Yue said as she took out two cups from the cabinet and poured water for Minato and Kushina.
"You can taste it if you like. I just made it," Mu Yue offered, taking out two sets of cutlery.
"Are you sure? It looks like you haven't eaten yet," Kushina said, eyeing the tempura.
She really wanted to try how the tempura, which smelled so wonderful, tasted.
"Let's eat," Mu Yue smiled and picked up a piece of tempura with her chopsticks, popping it into her mouth.
"Thank you for the meal, Mu Yue," Minato said.
"I'm starting," Kushina said, pressing her hands together in a ceremonial manner before picking up her chopsticks and taking a piece of the still-steaming tempura and putting it in her mouth.
"Mmm!" As she bit into the crispy outer layer, the juicy and tender shrimp within caused Kushina's eyes to widen in surprise.
Something even more magical happened. Kushina felt as though she had entered the ocean and was surrounded by a mysterious and gorgeous blue world. She became a carefree fish, swimming happily in the sea all day.
"Hmm?" Kushina soon snapped out of her reverie, feeling as though she had almost fallen under an illusion.
But upon further thought, there was no one present who could have cast such an illusion on her.
"Mu Yue, how did you make this tempura? Did you add some strangely colored mushrooms or something?" Kushina asked, puzzled.
She had heard of ninjas who went into the forest during summer to pick mushrooms. They ended up in the Konoha Hospital, still talking about how they had too many leaves and branches, and asking if someone could trim them.
"Minato, what's wrong?" Kushina asked.
Minato replied subconsciously, "I'm eating wild vegetables."
"Where are the wild vegetables here?" Kushina looked at the fried rice and saw only egg and scallions, no mushrooms, and asked in confusion.
"I just finished eating the fried rice, and I felt like I had turned into a wild chicken living in the mountains..." Minato explained.
Kushina looked at the rice in the plate, each grain plump and golden, as if emitting a golden glow.
Because she had been paying attention to the tempura, Kushina only now noticed that the fried rice seemed to be glowing!
"This is the most delicious fried rice I've ever tasted," Minato said as he scooped up two more spoonfuls and popped them into his mouth.
"Is it that good? Why don't you try the tempura instead?" Kushina suggested, puzzled.
Then, Kushina ate the egg-fried rice, and Minato ate the tempura.
Once again, expressions of shock and happiness appeared on their faces.
"Mu Yue, have you developed a ninja technique to make your cooking taste so good? This is amazing!" Kushina exclaimed.
"If you ever feel like opening a restaurant, please let me know," Minato said seriously.
He wasn't someone who focused on material pleasures, but Mu Yue's fried rice and tempura had given him an unprecedented experience.
"You're welcome to come over anytime if you like. It's been quite lonely here," Mu Yue smiled and invited them.
"As long as you don't mind, we can also treat you to our cooking sometime, although it won't be as good as yours." Kushina was excited about Mu Yue's invitation.
"Then I look forward to it," Mu Yue replied with a smile.
After seeing them out, Mu Yue thought to herself, 'This new skill is indeed powerful. We've quickly progressed to sharing meals together.'
Mu Yue brought some books downstairs from the bedroom on the second floor. She could now gradually reveal her interests.
...
Encouraged by Mu Yue and motivated by Asuma's example as a friend, Obito trained diligently and was close to completing his control training by Saturday, ready to begin nature transformation.
When the weekend arrived, it was time for Mu Yue, the home tutor, to work again.
"You liar!" Asuma scolded Mu Yue.
Last week, he had trained tirelessly to make the most of the expensive tutoring fees, and he had returned home exhausted every day.
The harder he had trained, the more pain he had endured, and now that he knew the truth, he resented Mu Yue all the more.
"Oh, what did I lie to you about?" Mu Yue asked with a smile.
"Your tutoring fee is clearly two thousand ryo per hour, and you lied to me, saying it was twenty-five thousand ryo!" Asuma was even more angry when Mu Yue didn't admit it.
"So, what did you lose? Did you really give me twenty-five thousand ryo?" Mu Yue continued to ask.
"Of course, I..." Asuma wanted to say something, but then he realized he hadn't lost anything.
"See, you didn't lose anything, and you even gained. You thought you spent two hundred thousand ryo, but you only spent sixteen thousand ryo, a profit of one hundred and eighty-four thousand ryo. You should thank me," Mu Yue said quickly.
"I made a profit?" Asuma thought along the lines of Mu Yue's argument and felt that he had indeed profited.
"So, there's no problem, let's start the training," Mu Yue said casually.
"No, it's very, very wrong," Asuma felt something was amiss.
...
Transition Chapter
(End of Chapter)
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