Watching the Third Hokage stroll away, his originally short stature seemed to grow much taller.
Tendo-kun and Inuzuka Akita then bid farewell to the dazed Mizuki and their enthusiastic classmates.
'Mizuki is a good man; every time I see him, I reap a harvest,' Tendo-kun lamented in his heart.
He would have to deal with him often in the future.
After leaving the Ninja Academy, it was still early. Neither Tendo-kun nor Inuzuka Akita mentioned going back to work; instead, they casually chose a direction and began to stroll.
Neither of them spoke along the way, but their relationship had long since passed the stage where silence felt awkward. They walked until they reached the Nakano River, where they casually found a patch of grass and sat down.
"I've always heard people say that a man grows up overnight. It seems Tendo-kun has grown quite a bit." Resting her hands on her knees, Inuzuka Akita leaned her body against Tendo-kun's shoulder. She turned her head to look at Tendo-kun's familiar face; it had only been one night, and his features were the same as always, yet she felt that something momentous had happened to this man.
Although this change was a good thing, not being a part of it left her feeling a bit melancholy.
Tendo-kun also tilted his head to snuggle with Inuzuka Akita. The two had known each other for many years. At first, Tendo-kun might have had some ulterior motives of using her, but after getting to know her, he realized that Inuzuka Akita was a good woman.
A good woman, naturally, should not be let down.
Tendo-kun picked some small flowers blooming by the river, wove them into a wreath, and placed it on Inuzuka Akita's head. He carefully tucked away her stray hairs and whispered in her ear, "No matter how much I grow, I will always be Class Leader Akita's loyal subordinate."
[Latest Mission: Bring Inuzuka Akita into the Uchiha Clan.]
[Unlock Intimate Contact CG Reward: Water Attribute Chakra Increase.]
[Unlock Defeat CG Reward: Selectable Summoning Beast.]
'Skip.'
Having no mind to pay attention to what the System was muttering about, Tendo-kun lowered his head and unlocked Inuzuka Akita's intimate CG.
——————————
March 26th.
The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Stepping on cherry blossom petals, Tendo-kun walked out of Inuzuka Akita's house and headed to the Ninja Academy with a light step to take up his post.
Under the personal order of the Third Hokage, the appointment procedures were delivered to his hands in a single afternoon.
[Multiple missions completed, please claim mission rewards in time.]
At the System's reminder, Tendo-kun began to check yesterday's mission rewards. First was the Byakugan.
[Claim Byakugan.]
As expected of things originating from the Ōtsutsuki family, the feeling of receiving the Byakugan was similar to receiving the Sharingan. Two streams of heat flowed into his eyes and various parts of his body respectively.
When the heat dissipated, Tendo-kun went to the water's edge to take a look. The 'cataract' eyes he worried about did not appear; his eyes were still the same as before. If there was a difference, it was that his eyes now had a sense of purity when looked at closely, like agate stones.
In addition, the Hyuga Clan Bloodline brought by the Byakugan actively merged into his Uchiha Bloodline in Tendo-kun's perception. Intuition told Tendo-kun that activating the Sharingan now would simultaneously grant the effects of both the Sharingan and the Byakugan.
Furthermore, his basic physical fitness had improved again. Both his strength and speed were much stronger than before. If his previous Chakra amount was 0.5 Kakashis, it was now 0.8 Kakashis.
Don't think one Kakashi's worth of Chakra is little just because of the original series. The reason Kakashi appeared to have low stamina was fundamentally because he had a Sharingan that couldn't be deactivated, constantly draining his physical strength.
But for Tendo-kun, his Sharingan was original equipment.
[Claim Water Attribute Chakra Increase.]
Tendo-kun had tested his Chakra attributes before; his innate Chakra attribute was only Lightning.
As he confirmed it in his mind, a stream of warm energy slowly spread through his body. Tendo-kun refined a bit of Chakra to feel it, and sensed a feeling of endless vitality added to the originally sharp Lightning attribute.
And since the reward mentioned a Chakra increase, Tendo-kun felt his physical fitness improve once more. His current Chakra should be close to one Kakashi now.
After eighteen years of anxiety, Tendo-kun finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. One Kakashi's power meant that Tendo-kun finally had a bit of capital to settle down and survive in the Ninja World.
Tendo-kun's strength could now firmly stand as a Special Jonin, though his skill tree was relatively simple, being a Taijutsu specialist.
It couldn't be helped. Although Tendo-kun was born with the Lightning attribute, which had a bonus in terms of coolness, his original Chakra amount was too low. He had put in a lot of effort just to learn one Lightning Release: Lightning Ball.
So before the System awakened, Tendo-kun had planned to follow the path of a low-profile survivor.
Staying hidden in the research department to focus on technology, he would wait for the Ninja World version update in Boruto: Naruto Next Generations to unlock the cyborg technology tree. Then, he would use his first-mover advantage to overtake the others.
Now that the System had awakened, Tendo-kun naturally didn't need to consider so much.
Just complete missions and stack stats. Mechanics? What mechanics? I thought those were just speed bumps.
Go talk to my System about it.
[Claim Selectable Summoning Beast Reward.]
With another confirmation of Tendo-kun's intent, the reward from Inuzuka Akita's defeat CG was also claimed.
However, unlike the direct increase in strength, the selectable summoning beast was issued to Tendo-kun in the form of a mental contract.
The selection range for the summoning beast was limited to the Naruto world, so some clever tricks Tendo-kun had thought of were immediately blocked.
But Tendo-kun still wanted to try something. He first tried to contract the Gedo Statue, but the prompt said it was out of range. He then tried the nine Tailed Beasts, but that didn't work either.
"Retarded System, so stupid in other ways, but the range limit this time is actually quite precise," Tendo-kun cursed in his heart.
Since clever tricks wouldn't work, he could only choose honestly.
Speaking of the most famous summoning beasts in the Ninja World, they were definitely the hallmarks of the Sannin: Toads, Slugs, and Snakes.
Hanzou's Salamander was decent in strength, but Tendo-kun didn't plan on wearing a gas mask all the time; the coolness factor was too low.
As for minor characters like Enma, they were just common occurrences; Tendo-kun skipped them directly.
Besides their own outstanding strength and immense potential, the Sannin's summoning beasts had Immortals behind them. Once familiar, one could even go to learn Sage Mode.
So, what lay before Tendo-kun was actually a three-way choice.
Without making an immediate choice, Tendo-kun needed to consider it carefully.
Arriving at the Ninja Academy, he went to the principal's office to report to the principal's assistant and handle the onboarding procedures.
The principal's assistant was an older sister from the Sarutobi Clan. Although the Third Hokage concurrently served as the principal of the Ninja Academy, as the Hokage, he was busy with official duties and couldn't personally handle the daily chores of the school.
Therefore, the affairs of the Ninja Academy were usually handled by this older sister from the Sarutobi Clan. Her attitude was very friendly, and she even thought about having some 'deep' exchanges with Tendo-kun after school.
Unfortunately, the System didn't trigger a mission, and this older sister wasn't Tendo-kun's type, so he could only politely decline.
As a combat teacher with two classes per week, Tendo-kun didn't actually need to stay in the office; he only needed to come for guidance according to the schedule. However, on his first day of work, he diligently stayed in the teachers' office.
Mainly because Mizuki was in the same office. Tendo-kun found it very amusing to see this guy's trembling appearance upon seeing him. He didn't seem at all like he was avoiding the research department's work to slack off at the Ninja Academy.
"Hee hee hee."
Giving Mizuki a mysterious smile and watching him shrink back in fear, Tendo-kun felt his mood brighten considerably.
Soon it was time for class, and Tendo-kun got up and went to the training ground.
Yesterday was the last day Neji's class came to the academy, so today's combat class was Iruka's class.
When Tendo-kun arrived at the training ground, Iruka was already waiting there with his students.
"Tendo-kun, I'll leave these students to you."