Recruiting Yūhi Kurenai

[Ding, you have completed one walking activity. Walking Experience +1, General Experience +1. Current Level: LV1 (2/100)]

[Ding, you have completed 40 breathing activities. Breathing Experience +120, General Experience +40. Current Level: LV3 (120/500)]

From leaving the academy, putting on a performance, eating ramen, and then returning to the academy, it took one hour in total.

I couldn't keep it up while eating and dancing, so I only managed to maintain a serious breathing state for 40 minutes. The Breathing Technique jumped 40 times in a row, and the experience reached 120.

Now each breathing activity gives 3 experience points, 180 per hour. I only need a little over two more hours to get the remaining 380 points.

Back in the classroom, quite a few kids had already lain down to sleep, but plenty of others were still buzzing with energy and playing outside. The teacher didn't bother to stop them.

Yūhi Kurenai sat in her seat, seemingly flipping through a book, but from the way she kept glancing left and right, it was obvious she wasn't really reading.

When she spotted Hyuga Ningyuan, the little girl's red eyes lit up, and she immediately stood.

"Did you go eat? If not, I still have some left here!"

How could such a good wife ever be handed over to Asuma?

"I ate!" Ningyuan quickly replied. "Look at my teeth—there's even a piece of vegetable leaf stuck on them!"

"Ew, that's disgusting!" Yūhi Kurenai turned her head in mock annoyance, but she felt a bit more at ease.

Ningyuan pulled Kurenai to sit down and whispered, "You have no idea what I found outside!"

"What did you find?" Kurenai asked curiously.

"I found a way to make money!" Ningyuan said seriously.

"Huh?" Kurenai was taken aback. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't have guessed it was about making money. After all, for a five-year-old kid, money was something far off and distant!

"I noticed that new shops occasionally open on Konoha Commercial Street, but because the villagers don't trust them yet, they have no customers!" Ningyuan explained earnestly. "That's when I step in!"

"What can you do?" Kurenai asked. Even though she felt that academy students shouldn't be trying to make money, her curiosity got the better of her.

"I can go to the shop entrance and sing and dance. That'll draw a crowd of onlookers. Once they're gathered at the shop, it's only natural for them to wander in and spend a little, right?" Ningyuan said. "I can't sing and dance for free, so the shop owner should pay me. That way, I get money, the shop owner gets foot traffic—it's a win-win!"

"This..." Kurenai thought it over. It actually seemed pretty reasonable.

Of course it was reasonable—it was a proven money-making method from the modern world. From small family performance troupes to big stars, everyone could use this approach to earn.

"Do you want to try it with me?" Ningyuan asked. "We can split the money fifty-fifty!"

He wasn't expecting to make a fortune from this kind of mall gig. His main goal was to have a legitimate excuse to practice dancing, and to get Kurenai to practice too.

This girl would eventually only have her genjutsu as a standout skill—her strength was really lacking.

Sure, she didn't have a system, but at worst, her training speed would just be slower. Practicing for five or six years would still yield results.

And while she did survive until after the war, by then she'd be the daughter-in-law of the Sarutobi clan. Hiruzen Sarutobi naturally wouldn't let her go to her death.

But if her lover turned out to be Hyuga Ningyuan, the outcome might not be the same.

"Huh?" Kurenai blinked. "Making money? Aren't we students? We should be focusing on our studies. Making money is something adults do!"

Now that it involved her directly, Kurenai finally voiced her concern.

"Is your family rich?" Ningyuan asked.

"Uh..." Kurenai thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Not really rich!"

Yūhi Shinku was a jonin. In theory, a jonin shouldn't be short on money, but this was peacetime. There weren't that many high-level missions for him to take.

And he was a genjutsu-type jonin.

In peacetime, a genjutsu-type jonin's earning power wasn't necessarily higher than a Byakugan-wielding chunin.

Where Yūhi Shinku had it better than the Hyuga Clan was that he had no one above him to answer to. Every ryo he earned was his own. Plus, the Yūhi family only had three people, so expenses weren't high.

All in all, not as well-off as some, but better off than others.

"See? Your family isn't wealthy. Why not try to lighten their burden a little?" Ningyuan said. "As for studying, we can take gigs only on Saturdays and Sundays. On school days, we'll attend class as usual!"

"This..." Kurenai scratched her head.

"Don't you want to have your own money and buy the things you like?" Ningyuan pressed.

Who wouldn't want that?

So many pretty clothes, delicious food—walking down the street, there were countless things she wanted.

But Kurenai was a sensible girl. She knew her father worked hard, so she never asked him for those things.

But if she could earn money herself...

"Once you can earn your own money, you won't just buy things for yourself. You can buy gifts for your father too. He works so hard taking care of us—don't you want to make things a little easier for him?"

Kurenai blinked. She pictured herself using her own money to buy a gift for her father, imagining how happy he'd be. A clear look of interest spread across her face.

Thinking of her father's daily worried expression over their livelihood...

Yeah. If she could earn money herself, she could buy whatever she wanted and get things for her father too.

"I understand!" Kurenai nodded firmly. "What should we do?"

A five-year-old was way too easy to convince. Of course, it only worked because Kurenai was a filial daughter.

Hyuga Ningyuan smiled. "In that case, first we need to form a group. Otherwise, we won't even know how to promote ourselves out there!"

Yūhi Kurenai nodded firmly. She knew absolutely nothing about this line of work, so naturally whatever Hyuga Ningyuan said went.

"We'll call it Star Brilliance Art Troupe—meaning brilliant like the stars!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "I'll be the director, and you'll be the deputy director!"

"Mm-hmm!" Kurenai nodded. Deputy director—it sounded pretty impressive.

"Next, I'll make some flyers, and we'll hand them out at the Hokage Building!" People from all over the Land of Fire came to the Hokage Building to post missions. Distributing flyers there would spread the Star Brilliance Art Troupe's reputation in the shortest time possible.

"Once the flyers are out, our name will naturally spread. Then we just wait for jobs and start making money!"

Kurenai looked astonished. "Is it really that simple?"

"Of course not!" Hyuga Ningyuan shook his head. "Since it's an art troupe, we need to have actual skills. Let me ask you—can you sing?"

Kurenai shook her head awkwardly. It seemed she couldn't!

"Can you dance?" Hyuga Ningyuan asked again.

"Well..." Kurenai kept shaking her head. It seemed she couldn't do that either!

"So before we take any jobs, we need to improve our professional skills first!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "School lets out at four-thirty. Since we've got nothing to do at home anyway, why not stay at school and practice dancing for three hours before heading back?"

Kurenai nodded, but then thought of something. "But my dad told me to come home right after school!"

"Just tell him you stayed for training!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "As trainee ninjas, we should seize every chance to learn and get stronger. That way, we can carry out missions better and serve the people of the Land of Fire!"

"Lie?" Kurenai frowned. For a good girl like her, lying was...

"If he'd agree to you learning dance and making money, then of course you wouldn't need to lie!" Hyuga Ningyuan said. "So, does he support it?"

"Well..." Kurenai thought it over. Her father was open-minded enough, but he probably wouldn't support a good student dropping everything to dance.

"Besides, it's not really a lie—just keeping it from him for now. Once you've earned money and bought him a gift, then you can tell him the truth. Would he still oppose you then?" Hyuga Ningyuan smiled.

Kurenai nodded. That did make some sense, didn't it?

What she didn't know was that being a star was addictive. Once you got used to the attention and cheers, once you got used to life on stage, could you ever go back to that simple, ordinary life?

Very hard!

By then, it wouldn't be Hyuga Ningyuan dragging Kurenai to dance—it would be Kurenai herself who couldn't bear to leave!