Goddamn Swimsuit Episode

On the screen, Sparkle was twisting rope, preparing a "ninja-tool version" of ODM Gear for herself.

Then Sparkle raised her head and looked out the window.

Only then did the camera follow Sparkle over to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Damn it!"

Naruto and Sasuke fell from the tree, both panting heavily.

[Naruko is the best!]

[Is there a possibility that Naruto isn't just the male lead, but also the female lead? Sparkle and Sasuke are actually supporting characters, 2333.]

[Holy shit, that makes sense.]

[Huh, could he really be a genius?]

The two kept running up the tree trunk, only to fall again and again. They were panting, but neither gave up.

With the stirring BGM setting the mood, the scene somehow felt rather hot-blooded.

"Aaaahhh!"

As the sky gradually darkened, Naruto and Sasuke finally roared their way up to the crown of the tree. They looked at each other and smiled.

Then the scene switched to the two lying down.

Amid the tinkling of silver bells, a round of applause rang out.

Sparkle made her entrance.

[???]

[Did something get added?]

[Bells and ropes.]

[Wait, what's that inside her collar?]

The viewers noticed Sparkle's changed state even faster than Naruto and Sasuke did.

It was actually quite obvious. When she clapped, Sparkle's wrists were exposed, and the red ropes and bells wrapped around her arms had a striking presence.

[The ropes from earlier... weren't actually worn on her body, were they?]

[Holy shit, a hot-blooded shonen anime is going this far?]

[Hot-blooded anime really has it tough these days.]

[She's probably preparing some kind of ninja tool. I think the next episode will be a big story arc. These past two episodes were clearly daily training and preparation time, so something huge is coming afterward.]

Some viewers analyzed things rationally.

But even more people were crying prpr and calling her their wife, blurting out incomprehensible terms like diamond binding and tortoise shell.

Still, Sparkle's popularity really was rising. Her Popularity Points, which had dropped to zero, suddenly climbed by several thousand, nearly catching up to her first appearance.

"Is it really okay to wear so many bells? You won't be able to hide your movements at all, right?" Sasuke gave her an assist at that moment.

"This?"

Sparkle shook her wrist again.

Yet the bells that should have rung somehow made no sound this time.

"They're actually all ninja tools," Sparkle explained. "Did you two think they were decorations this whole time?"

—They were decorations.

It was just that Sparkle was now patching up the earlier plot, making the viewers believe they had been "foreshadowing."

The effect was excellent, and it didn't cause any OOC either.

Perfect.

Then Sparkle drew out a steel wire, raised her hand, and flicked it onto a tree branch. The wire promptly pulled her upward.

"Seeing the two of you working so hard, I made quite a few preparations myself," Sparkle said.

"Yeah, Sparkle feels a little different from earlier in the day... Oh, right, she has a lot more decorations!" Naruto noticed.

"They're all ninja tools," Sparkle said. "I strengthened the ninja tools I used before."

Seeing her Popularity Points fall back a little, Sparkle decided to turn things up a notch.

"So I strengthened the rope armor undergarment I was wearing before."

[Wait, undergarment means under...]

[I heard there's nothing under a kimono. I thought Sparkle was the same.]

[Wait, rope armor?]

[What's so surprising? The chainmail these ninjas wear looks like fishnet clothing. If they have chainmail, what's so strange about rope armor?]

[Bro, but it's easy to get the wrong idea.]

[I'm the impure one. I confess my sins.]

[Am I the only one who noticed Sparkle's mobility just now? That rope armor is probably like an exoskeleton, enhancing her mobility.]

A flood of Danmaku drifted by.

There were plenty of Danmaku getting the wrong idea.

But that was also Sparkle's deliberate misdirection. Or rather, it hardly even counted as deliberate misdirection.

The real fanservice was visible only to Sparkle herself and her sister Hinata. As for the viewers... they could keep imagining things.

This wave nearly pushed Sparkle's popularity to its peak. It soon broke five digits again, and she became rich once more.

There would be double monthly tickets on December 25th, so she would talk about the monthly-ticket bounty then.

But she could open a bounty for clicks and blades first.

She would open it at midnight, and add an extra chapter in advance as a gesture of goodwill~

Chapter 40: Goddamn Swimsuit Episode

"Um, um." Naruto's focus was not on the ninja tools. "Wouldn't using ropes as clothes be really uncomfortable?"

"My constitution is rather special. It's an obstacle most of the time, but it's just right at a time like this." Sparkle smiled.

"But wouldn't it feel uncomfortable, like being tied up by ropes?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"I quite like the feeling of being tied up by ropes. It gives me a tangible sense of security."

[It's here, it's here—Lady Sparkle's wild words.]

[Wild words +1.]

[Three times! This is already the third time! A full three times!]

"You used Chakra just now to make that steel wire stick to the tree trunk, right?"

Uchiha Sasuke cared more about Sparkle's strength.

Sparkle had directly attached the steel wire to the branch just now, then rapidly flown upward.

At that moment, there was nothing else in Sasuke's eyes.

"Yep. It works on the same principle as your tree-climbing," Sparkle said.

"The gap... is really this big..."

Sasuke was deeply unwilling to accept it.

He had just been feeling pleased with himself over successfully climbing a tree, but Sparkle was already using such thin steel wire to attach herself to branches.

Naruto had not paid attention to that at first, but after Sasuke pointed it out, she fell silent too.

"So, from now on, it's phase two of training. I already told you about it—it's water walking. We'll do it after resting for a day."

The screen went dark again.

Naruto and Sasuke had also lost their earlier excitement. Instead, they continued holding themselves back and preparing for what came next.

"Get some good rest tonight, you two~ Oh my~"

Sparkle looked at them. Perhaps because of their earlier exhaustion, the two had actually fallen asleep.

"I was going to say that my sister came today too, so we could have some fun."

But everyone had actually fallen asleep.

Well, Hinata had fainted directly from nervousness...

Early the next morning, leaving the three still asleep in Natsu Hyuga's care, Sparkle got up and went on patrol with Kakashi.

Though it was early morning, Kakashi was not late today.

The Live Broadcast unexpectedly started up again at this time.

"Good morning, Teacher Kakashi."

"Good morning, Sparkle. Thank you for the gravestone." The moment Kakashi saw Sparkle, he thanked her.

"Sakumo Hatake was a hero. This is the treatment he should have received." Sparkle did not say much else.

[White Fang? A gravestone?]

[Was that Kakashi's dad from before?]

[The guy whose old teammate became his dad after Kakashi lifted his forehead protector?]

[We weren't sure before, but thinking about it now, it's probably his dad.]

[Feels like there's some hidden story here.]

[Kakashi wasn't late? I'm shocked.]

Another wave of astonished Danmaku swept past. The lore enthusiasts and detail obsessives were practically celebrating.

Sparkle did not care much about such matters.

Hatake Sakumo had contributed to Konoha, so what was wrong with repairing his gravestone? Since she had previously turned into Rin and taken on his appearance, what was wrong with using this method to express a little apology now?

She did it because she wanted to.

"Your method of movement?"

Kakashi had wanted to ask about Naruto and Sasuke, but he noticed that as they traveled through the forest, Sparkle had changed her method.

She was actually using steel wires to pull her body along, and she could even maintain her balance.

"I made a rope armor undergarment to maintain my center of gravity and balance," Sparkle said. "The effect is pretty good. If I can find a suitable device that can store Chakra, it could even save more effort."

"Mm, that's good." Kakashi nodded.

He had wanted to teach Sparkle something in return, but it seemed she did not really need his guidance.

Could he perhaps give her pointers on the Rasengan?

But that was his teacher's ninjutsu.

Yet Sparkle seemed capable of figuring it out on her own.

"Ah, how are Naruto and Sasuke doing?" Kakashi asked again.

"They have tree climbing down already. Next comes water walking~"

A smile appeared on Sparkle's face.

She had already picked out Naruto's new swimsuit.

[Fuck, it really is a swimsuit episode.]

[Goddamn school swimsuit.]

[They have those in the ninja world too?]

[The buzz never stops.]

[They call it a swimsuit episode, but the only girl there is wearing a kimono.]