Chapter 49: How Did You Know I Came in First?
Chapter 49: How Did You Know I Came in First?
Yuichi Ikegami stood behind Saman Kimura with a smile on his face as he kneaded and pounded his shoulders, his voice sickeningly sweet. "Saman, lend me another 80,000 ryo, and I'll pay you back when I get my salary."
Saman thought to himself that this overly enthusiastic display of friendliness was suspicious, and these massage services were certainly expensive.
"Why do you need to borrow again? Didn't you borrow last month?" Saman sighed in exasperation.
"But I paid you back last month when I got my salary," Yuichi chuckled.
"So you're borrowing again this month, and then you'll have to pay it back, which will leave you with no money next month, and then you'll want to borrow again, right?" Saman asked.
With this line of thinking, he had essentially become Yuichi's personal 80,000 ryo ATM.
"Umm..." Yuichi was at a loss for words.
"It's not what you think, Saman. It's just that we haven't known each other for very long, so I have to put in some effort to show my sincerity. I definitely won't borrow next month," Yuichi tried to explain.
"That's what you said this time, don't forget," Saman finally gave in and took out his wallet, extracting 80,000 ryo, which he handed to Yuichi.
It wasn't that he begrudged the money; Yuichi might be socially awkward when it came to romance, but he was reliable in other aspects and always paid back his debts.
Saman just felt that lending Yuichi money was doing him a disservice, pushing him further into a hole.
"You think he won't borrow next month? You're too optimistic, Kimura. I can already predict his excuse for next month," Ayaka Ueda interjected pessimistically.
She then imitated Yuichi's tone: "Saman, just lend me money one last time. I feel like I'll succeed in confessing my feelings this month, so I definitely won't need to borrow next month."
Yuichi: ...
"It's understandable to want to make a good impression on your first date by going to a nice restaurant, but you've been together for two months now. If she truly cared about you, she wouldn't refuse if you asked her to eat ramen with you instead," Ayaka attempted to jolt Yuichi's dormant intelligence.
"And can't you pick a time yourself? You always make Mu Yue cover your classes," Ayaka added, looking at Mu Yue who had just entered the room.
"She said she's busy at other times. It's either this day or we reschedule for when she's free," Yuichi said, feeling a headache coming on.
He always felt bad about troubling Mu Yue, and had even offered to cover her classes in return, but she always refused.
"It's no problem. I'm just idling around anyway. Teaching more students will help improve my own abilities," Mu Yue said with a smile as she walked to her desk.
"Mu Yue is truly kind-hearted, but her personality makes it so easy for others to take advantage of her," Yuichi sighed inwardly.
Feeling a sense of indebtedness, Yuichi rushed to Mu Yue's side, helping her with tea and water and saying flattering words.
When the time came, Yuichi left the office to go home and change for his date.
"I wish Yuichi was the physical education teacher for Class 1-A," Mu Yue thought to herself.
That way, they wouldn't need to swap teachers, and if Yuichi asked her to cover his classes more frequently, it would be as if she were the permanent physical education teacher for that class.
It wouldn't make sense for a normal person to actively seek to fill their schedule so fully by directly asking the Third Hokage to assign them as the PE teacher for Class 1-A.
It would also create character inconsistencies; it's one thing to help out when someone asks you to cover their class, but it's another to actively seek out additional teaching duties.
"I still need to focus on addressing the students' dissatisfaction and improving my own teaching abilities," Mu Yue thought to herself.
As she entered the classroom for the fourth-grade, Class 2, the students had already become accustomed to her presence. With Mu Yue consistently teaching them once a week, they now considered her their regular instructor.
"Teacher, I..."
Obito, as usual, was late, but Mu Yue said nothing and allowed him to take his seat.
"Damn that Yuuki Sensei!" Obito muttered under his breath, feeling that Yuuki's timing for asking Mu Yue to substitute was always inconvenient.
"Did you come across an elderly person in need of help again?" Rin Nohara asked.
"Not today. I was just at the bookstore choosing a brush and lost track of time," Obito replied honestly.
"Why didn't you go back after school? Lunch breaks are so short. Did you even eat?" Rin wondered.
"Skipping one meal is fine. I'll just eat more tonight," Obito said. "I've been to quite a few stores lately, and I think the one I went to today during lunch was the best."
"You really value your hobbies over eating, don't you? Here, have some of my snacks," Rin said helplessly as she handed over a snack to Obito.
Obito nodded and stopped chatting with Rin, as he wanted to pay attention to Mu Yue's class.
The 40-minute class flew by, and as soon as the bell rang, Mu Yue announced the end of the lesson. Rin passed the snacks to Obito.
"Obito, how many people did you help today..." A familiar classmate came over to tease Obito.
"How did you know I came in first place in the Youth Ninja Competition this weekend?" Obito asked, taking the initiative.
With Obito's question, the classmate couldn't continue his teasing and felt like he had bitten into a lemon—8,000 ryo in prize money!
Not far away, Itachi Uchiha also fell silent. He still remembered the Great Fireball Technique that Obito had used in their match. After their previous encounter, Itachi had thought that being more cautious of the Great Dragon Fire Technique would give him a chance to defeat Obito.
But now, after the Youth Ninja Competition, his confidence had taken a hit.
Noticing the reactions around him, a brilliant smile spread across Obito's face.
From then on, Obito made it a point to stroll around during every break and casually mention to anyone he met, "You know I came in first, right?" maximizing the benefits of his victory.
[Teaching Complete]
[Evaluation: A]
[Reward: Water Style: Misty Hide Technique]
Seeing the reward for her teaching session, Mu Yue nodded to herself. This was a low-level technique, but it was very practical.
The mist created by this technique wasn't ordinary fog; it could obscure the vision of the Sharingan and, when used by Mei Terumi, could even interfere with Madara's Rinnegan to a certain extent.
It would be quite useful in the early stages before encountering overpowered ninjas.
After school, Mu Yue headed straight to the Southern Border Forest.
When she arrived, Itachi was still training there.
Following Mu Yue's advice, Itachi had been attending school using his shadow clone, while his main body trained with Mu Yue's shadow clone.
Mu Yue didn't have to wait long before Might Guy arrived. However, she was a little surprised that Obito hadn't shown up even 15 minutes later.
Although Obito and Guy were in the same class, they rarely came together since Obito often walked with Rin. Still, it was unusual for him to be this late.
Mu Yue felt that some discipline was in order—she didn't want Obito to develop a habit of being late for training.
"Sorry, Teacher Mu Yue, I'm late," Obito said as he ran up to Mu Yue, carrying a long box.
(End of Chapter)
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