Dusk.
The sun was already kissing the horizon. A biting cold wind still slashed across people's faces like a knife, one gust after another, stinging the skin.
After last night's heavy snowfall that looked like goose feathers, the entire village was now wrapped in thick silver.
Snowflakes danced in the air once more—it was the season of the white album again.
Under the setting sun,
"Aoba… I, I like you!"
Atop the Hokage Rock, nearly a hundred meters high, two tiny figures stood side by side, overlooking the snow-covered Konoha.
No building in the village had yet surpassed the height of the Hokage Rock, so from this spot you could take in the whole snowy panorama of Konoha.
Such a view couldn't help but lift anyone's spirits.
And it was in this exact setting that the girl's clear, pleasant voice reached the boy's ears.
Even though Shirakumo Aoba had been through this confession many times already, he still felt a moment of daze.
Seriously? We're only six years old and she's already thinking about this stuff?
Once again, he was reminded how insane the Naruto world truly is.
Aoba turned his gaze away from the snowy village and looked at the girl beside him.
She was actually half a year older than him, yet a little shorter. Her black hair was tied into two cute buns. With her lingering baby fat and the thick red padded jacket she wore, she looked adorably round all over.
Her cheeks were flushed—whether from the embarrassment of her confession or from the glow of the sunset, he couldn't tell.
Tenten.
Aoba thought to himself: If one day I ever find out my own daughter confessed to a boy at age six, I will personally treat that boy to a generous serving of "bamboo-shoot fried pork"—extra spicy, with chili powder on the bamboo shoots.
But since the one being confessed to right now is me… just pretend I didn't say anything.
Faced with the girl's shy yet surprisingly practiced confession, Aoba was about to reflexively give his usual answer,
when Tenten suddenly covered his mouth with her hand. Her face turned even redder as she stammered,
"T-this time… it's not playing house…"
Looking into the boy's clear, innocent eyes, Tenten slowly let go. Then she looked away, fidgeting with her hands in front of her chest, clearly extremely nervous.
"Um…"
Now it was Aoba's turn to not know what to say. Why did a perfectly good transaction have to get contaminated by feelings?
It's not that he disliked Tenten. He was mostly just afraid that if he said yes, one day he'd come home to the sound of a boiling kettle… right before getting chopped up.
Better to dodge for now.
"How about we just keep playing house?"
"I'll even count today's lesson as free, okay…?"
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Tenten was already glaring at him with big round eyes, breathing heavily. A vein (#) popped on her forehead, her cheeks puffed out, making her face even rounder.
"You won't accept because you like Ino more?"
"Or is it Sakura?"
Aoba felt a headache coming on. He was only five (almost six), and he thought he was playing the long nurturing game. Instead, he had walked straight into his very first Shura Field.
Weren't we all having fun when the three of us played together?
"So who do you like more?!"
Seeing that Aoba stayed silent, Tenten couldn't hold back anymore.
Gulp—
Aoba swallowed hard. Between the three little girls, he decisively chose—
"I like money more!"
…
The air went dead silent.
"You jerk!"
Tenten gnashed her teeth and stomped hard on Aoba's foot.
"HSSSS!"
Aoba immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
"Hmph!"
"You're so greedy, then spend the rest of your life with money!"
Tenten pulled an explosive tag from her pocket and slapped it straight onto Aoba's face, then stormed off in a huff.
Watching her disappearing back, Aoba could only sigh inwardly again.
Kids in the ninja world really do mature too fast…
Even though she looked furious right now, Aoba didn't chase after her. Until he could give a proper answer, this was fine for the time being.
Tomorrow he'd go find her, and she'd probably have cooled off already. They were still kids after all—no grudges lasted overnight.
Aoba picked up the explosive tag that had fallen to the ground. His heart had actually been racing earlier; if Tenten had really snapped, that thing could have killed him.
But explosive tags aren't cheap—2,000 ryō each.
Consider it partial payment for lessons. After all, their relationship started as a mutually beneficial deal.
For the past year, Aoba had been coaching her on shuriken throwing. Part of the money she paid was tuition.
And right now, Aoba was desperately, desperately, desperately needed money.
It wasn't because his family was poor. He was an orphan, but he had an elite jōnin uncle, so food and clothes were never an issue.
The real culprit was that cursed system he suddenly awakened.
Once Tenten's figure had completely vanished, Aoba opened his system panel.
[Ninja Gacha System Lv1]
(Upgrade cost: 35,000,000 ryō) → Yep, just one Asuma would do it.
[Host may recharge items of corresponding value to draw cards and obtain desired abilities.]
[Current draws available: 89]
[Cost per draw: 1,000 ryō]
[Guaranteed SR at 100 draws, SSR at 300 draws, UR at 1000 draws]
[Remaining until next guaranteed SR: 21 draws]
[Remaining until next guaranteed SSR: 211 draws]
[Remaining until next guaranteed UR: 911 draws]
[Recent draw history: SR: Advanced Shuriken Throwing Technique R: Small Amount of Chakra ×6; Shuriken ×48; Kunai ×30; Explosive Tag ×4]
Explosive tags and small chakra boosts were the every-10-draw pity.
But those small chakra boosts were honestly amazing. At just five years old, his chakra reserves were already close to a regular chūnin's.
If he ever got to do a few hundred thousand draws, he'd basically be a walking tailed beast.
It's just… the rates are absolute garbage.
Other than the free 10-pull at system awakening that gave him the SR, he'd never seen another one—just eating pity.
Still, Advanced Shuriken Throwing was pretty cost-effective and super useful early-game.
It also gave him a steady income stream: he became Tenten's personal shuriken coach.
Private tutor and his female student, huh…
Very Japanese. Guess he was just fitting in with the local culture.