Shizune had been feeling a little puzzled lately.
Although a somewhat handsome boy sat beside her, he always had thick, dark circles under his eyes and arrived at school every day looking utterly listless. Once at school, without a word, he would lay his head down without fail.
Following this trend, in just a few days, he increasingly resembled the adorable panda.
...
Finally, little Shizune couldn't hold back any longer.
Sneaking over stealthily, she lightly poked Ryoma, who was diligently training beside her, with her finger.
"Um, Ryoma, are you okay? You don't look very well."
Our Ryoma was currently immersed in the feeling of being drained yet again by the mask. Combined with Shizune's truly soft voice, Ryoma perfectly failed to hear her.
However, this utterly terrified little Shizune.
"He couldn't be dead, could he!"
Horrified face .jpg
Trembling, Shizune raised her hand, her face full of fear as she slowly moved it towards Ryoma's nose to check for breath. Shizune could hear her own heartbeat growing faster and faster, as if it was about to jump right out of her throat.
Just as Shizune was about to reach him, a pair of hands landed on her shoulders.
Shizune, frightened like a startled rabbit, let out a shriek and jumped up from her seat.
Anko, who was passing by on some unrelated errand and holding her newly bought favorite dango, looked at the jumping Shizune with complete bewilderment. She was even more baffled inwardly.
'So my power has already reached such a level? A mere touch can elicit such a reaction!'
Shizune turned around and saw the bewildered-looking Anko behind her.
Flushed with embarrassment and annoyance, she said, "What are you doing, Anko? You scared me."
Anko helplessly spread her hands. "I just wanted to say hello. But what were you doing, all sneaky and suspicious?"
Hearing this, Shizune quietly leaned close to Anko's ear and shared her rather immature conjecture.
"Uh... um... Ryoma, he seems to be dead!"
Hearing this, Anko was first stunned, then burst into wild laughter.
"Hahahaha, stop joking, Shizune. You really are cute. Speaking of which, isn't this guy's dream 'to never die'? Hahahaha, how could he just die randomly like that?"
Anko laughed so hard that the dango in her hand trembled wildly, almost falling to the ground.
Ryoma, at this moment, raised his head with his panda-like dark circles and looked at the two little girls before him.
With a face full of resignation, he said, "Little ladies, do you know that disturbing someone's training is very impolite?"
Anko, still laughing, vigorously patted Ryoma's back. "See, Shizune, this guy is perfectly alive, hahahaha. Ryoma, you don't know, our little Shizune thought you'd slept yourself to death in your seat, hahahaha."
Shizune's face at this moment was as red as the red bean dango in a three-color dango set.
Ryoma felt even more helpless. How did he almost train himself into 'account deletion' while practicing?
Dodging Anko's enthusiastic pats, he casually took a skewer of dango from Anko's hand.
Waving it at Anko, he said, "Here, consider this as compensation for my mental distress."
The truth was mainly that Ryoma trained until very late every night. In the morning, forget eating breakfast; not being late was already a cause for burning incense in thanks. Of course, it was Teacher Itō who was burning the incense.
Anko shrugged indifferently. "I've already eaten plenty of dango this morning anyway. I'll generously give you one skewer. Looking at you, you definitely didn't have breakfast. But seriously, why do you look completely drained of energy every day?"
This question truly struck a chord with Shizune's curiosity, so she also slowly leaned over, ready to get a proper answer for herself.
Ryoma, eating the dango with relish, looked at the two pairs of inquisitive eyes before him.
Casually, he said, "What else? Just tired from training."
After hearing this, Anko practically wrote 'disbelief' on her face.
Smiling teasingly at Ryoma, she said, "Could it be that sleeping is also a training method of your clan's secret technique?"
Looking at the two girls, Ryoma wore an expression of pride. "You just don't get it. Real geniuses use the time others spend sleeping to train diligently. That's how they progress so rapidly!"
Anko, looking at the extremely self-satisfied Ryoma, felt even more helpless. "Yes, yes, you're a genius. You're already the great genius on par with the famous 'genius' of the Uchiha clan—Uchiha Obito!"
"Hahaha, that's right, that's right... Huh, wait, what did you say?" Ryoma was stunned. "You mean, I've become the dead-last?!!!"
Seeing Ryoma's look of disbelief, Shizune hurriedly tried to comfort him. "That's not what it means, Ryoma. Anko didn't mean any harm..."
But Ryoma just waved his hands excitedly. "No, no, no. You simply don't understand the true value of being the Konoha dead-last!"
The bewildered Shizune was even more bewildered. So, being the dead-last also holds great value? Sugoi!!!
If Ryoma could hear Shizune's inner thoughts at this moment, he would tell her without hesitation:
Of course! Of course, kid! As the saying goes, the three great Konoha dead-lasts: Obito, the Mightiest Guy, and Naruto. One turned to darkness and became a sage, one nearly kicked a sage to death, and one directly defeated a sage! That value is more valuable than real gold, okay!
"This also indirectly proves that my path is not wrong. Hmm~ not bad, not bad." Ryoma happily rubbed his hands together.
Anko and Shizune were directly left with two faces full of bewilderment. They looked at each other.
In each other's eyes, they saw the same sentence: Could this guy be an idiot? People from the Nara clan are all supposed to have high IQs. Is this guy really surnamed 'Nara'? He doesn't seem like it at all. Could it be a genetic mutation?!
Shizune was the first to regain control of her facial expressions. Out of kindness, she reminded him, "By the way, Ryoma, you'd better not do any, um... training tonight. There's a practical combat assessment tomorrow. This condition might affect your performance."
"Hmm, is that so? Thank you for the reminder, Shizune."
Ryoma smiled sheepishly and scratched his head. He really hadn't known about the practical combat assessment tomorrow.
After all, during regular classes, Ryoma was either training or on his way to training. He genuinely didn't hear announcements about assessments.
"That's right, our great genius. Please don't be late for the assessment tomorrow. Otherwise, Teacher Itō will really kill you."
Anko chimed in at just the right moment with a killing remark.
"Teacher Itō has already caught you being late 18 times this month and has given you 21 kind and friendly educational sessions. If you're late again tomorrow, you definitely won't get any good fruit to drink."
Listening to Anko's statistics, Ryoma felt a tiny, tiny bit of guilt in his heart. "Well, there were still a few days I wasn't educated by Teacher Itō~"
Hearing Ryoma's lame excuse, Anko rolled her eyes and said helplessly, "But, genius big brother, I mean, is there any possibility that this month still has another week to go?"
Ouch. Rude Anko, you are really being rude.
But, a practical combat assessment? It really is a bit troublesome.
Ryoma rubbed his chin, a glint of 'wisdom' shining in his eyes...