After returning to Class Nine's training field, Kanda Rokuro rested briefly. Soon, it was exactly six o'clock.
Class Nine's evening run began, and he stood up and ran along with the others.
With his stamina, five kilometers was nothing.
As for the other children in Class Nine—by the time Rokuro finished his five kilometers, they were barely halfway done.
To show off his ability and earn Okamoto's favor, Rokuro didn't stop. Instead, he kept running until every child in Class Nine had finished.
Only then did he slow to a halt.
By that point, he had completed five full laps.
Each lap was 2.5 kilometers.
In other words, over the two and a half hours that evening, Kanda Rokuro had run an additional 12.5 kilometers.
That level of endurance and perseverance greatly pleased Okamoto. At dinner, Okamoto personally added a large piece of meat to Rokuro's bento.
A chicken leg at noon.
A big slab of meat in the evening.
When Rokuro looked at the other children's meals, there was nothing like that at all.
This made it very clear—
Okamoto was truly paying attention to him.
Since that was the case, Rokuro knew he had to keep performing well.
He had plenty of experience points saved up anyway, so stamina wasn't a concern.
After dinner, he returned to the dormitory. Seeing that the other children had already fallen asleep, he quietly did push-ups in the room until the early hours of the morning before finally resting.
---
Six o'clock the next morning.
Class Nine's training began once more.
Today's two missions were:
Training Mission: 1,000 pull-ups
Random Mission: Tease Asayama Masaru
The pull-ups weren't part of the regular training program, so he'd have to find time to do them himself.
As for teasing Asayama Masaru…
That made him feel a bit strange.
The very first random mission he'd failed to complete had also involved teasing this same person.
Rokuro did have some history with Asayama Masaru.
When Rokuro had first arrived, Asayama Masaru from Class Three had come to their room and glared at all the children in Class Nine with fierce eyes, making it very clear that he was the "boss" of the orphanage.
With experience points available to restore stamina, Rokuro finished his assigned training early once again.
But he didn't stop there.
Instead, he doubled his workload—meaning he trained at the same intensity as the older classes.
The other children in Class Nine, meanwhile, were still only doing half the normal amount.
By the time Rokuro completed double training, the rest of Class Nine had just barely finished their own.
And the time—
Was exactly noon.
The children headed to the cafeteria for lunch.
All except Rokuro collapsed onto the ground to rest.
Rokuro, still full of energy, found a tree and began his daily training mission.
1,000 pull-ups.
With experience points continuously replenishing his stamina, he finished all of them within an hour and received another 500 experience points.
He set those 500 points aside as backup and poured all remaining experience points from the previous day into taijutsu.
After finishing the training mission, there was still an hour and a half before afternoon training.
He scanned the training field but didn't see Class Three—or Asayama Masaru.
Yesterday was the same.
He only ever saw Class Three briefly during morning assembly.
Meanwhile, Class One, Class Two, and Class Four—children aged seven to nine—didn't seem to train here at all.
They were probably assigned to different locations for other types of training.
Perhaps actual combat drills or weapons practice.
The orphanage had nine classes in total.
Class One to Class Four: Ages seven to ten
Class Five to Class Eight: Ages five to seven
Class Nine: Ages three to five
As for children over ten years old—there didn't seem to be any here.
He had no idea whether they were sent away… or sold.
After spacing out under the tree for a while and seeing that afternoon training was about to begin, Rokuro gave up on the random mission.
Based on yesterday's reward, random missions didn't give much experience anyway. Causing trouble for such a small reward simply wasn't worth it right now.
Once his strength increased—
Okamoto wouldn't care about minor issues anymore.
At that point, he could complete random missions openly and without worry.
---
Afternoon training began.
Rokuro once again did double the workload.
After dinner, he returned to the dormitory and continued training until deep into the night before resting.
---
After midnight, new missions refreshed.
Training Mission: 1,000 squats
Random Mission: Tease Asayama Masaru
Seeing the same random mission again gave Rokuro a headache.
He seriously wondered if Asayama Masaru had some kind of grudge against the system itself.
Training mission—do it.
Random mission—ignore it.
This was the phase where he needed to show his strength and gain trust. Causing trouble would only work against him.
For the next five full days, Rokuro trained relentlessly.
He completed every daily training mission without fail.
The only annoyance was that the random mission stubbornly kept telling him to tease Asayama Masaru.
Even if he wanted to do it—
He couldn't even find the guy.
He only caught a glimpse of Asayama Masaru briefly during morning assembly each day. After that, the guy vanished until the next morning.
There was no way Rokuro could sneak off to look for him.
Doing that would just get him killed.
This was the ninja world—people died all the time.
So the random mission had to be ignored completely.
---
Late at night on the seventh day, just before dawn.
Rokuro had just finished training and was about to lie down when the door suddenly opened.
Okamoto walked in and beckoned to him.
"Rokuro, come out for a moment."
Rokuro immediately ran to the door and saluted. "Instructor, do you need something?"
Okamoto glanced at him and smiled faintly. "Come with me first."
Rokuro nodded and followed him.
They walked far from the training field, eventually arriving at a row of small wooden houses.
Okamoto opened one of them and said, "Come in. Let's talk inside."
Rokuro followed obediently.
Inside, the room was brightly lit.
It was a training room.
Various pieces of training equipment were neatly arranged, and in one corner was a small, separate room.
Seeing this, Rokuro's heart leapt with joy.
It seemed—
Okamoto had acknowledged his taijutsu talent and was preparing to train him properly.
Noticing Rokuro's expression, Okamoto patted his shoulder and said, "I've been watching your training all this time. There's no point in you staying in Class Nine anymore. This will be your room from now on. Train properly here. In the small room over there, you'll find a taijutsu training manual. You can follow it—but you still have to participate in daily basic training."
Rokuro was ecstatic. He bowed deeply.
"Thank you, Okamoto-sama!"
Okamoto smiled. "You've earned it. Every hardworking genius receives this treatment. There are two others like you staying in the rooms next door."
Two other geniuses… like me?
Who were they?
Could they be famous ninja in the future?
Rokuro couldn't help but feel a surge of anticipation.