I Play Ninjutsu in Jujutsu Kaisen!

Half a month of gains was plenty, but... the highlight had to be this card-pulling session.

Heh heh heh!

Ninjutsu was so expensive—only a fool would buy it. Why not just settle in as a gambling addict?

Twelve pulls.

To be honest, aside from ninjutsu and ninjutsu shards, nothing else had popped up yet.

Uh... "Thanks for playing" could just skip itself.

After a quick wash, Natsu Hiraku grabbed the towel off the wall and stepped out of the bathroom. Drying off the water on his body, he plopped down on the bed and kicked off today's gambling session.

He tapped the Great Roulette, and a system prompt immediately popped up.

[Entering the Ninja World Great Roulette. Points -4.]

"..."

The corner of Natsu Hiraku's mouth twitched as he slowly started to realize something was off with this roulette. He'd originally thought each entry cost one point, but this -4 told him he'd been too naive.

This thing straight-up doubled...

Next time in would be -8, then -16, -32, -64. At this rate, the entry cost would be worse than just buying a ninjutsu outright.

This gambling roulette was only meant to help him scrape through the early tough period without any ninjutsu. At most, he could enter six times before it became a loss so bad he'd be stripped to his underwear.

Staring at the eleven pulls left, Natsu Hiraku couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. If he'd realized sooner, he might not have come in at all and just saved it all for the next mission to pull together.

"Ah, forget it, forget it. Better late than never. Let's just go all in on these eleven."

With a pained expression, he did a single pull. After getting a "Thanks for playing," he went straight for the ten-pull.

The roulette spun at high speed, ten needles whirling in the opposite direction until they blurred into streaks. To keep up, Natsu Hiraku angrily activated his Sharingan, foolishly trying to use the system's own tools to fight the system.

The result was that the One-Tomoe Sharingan was too weak—it couldn't keep pace with the needles' speed at all. Even slowed down, it was still just afterimages...

"..."

Natsu Hiraku was speechless. Another day of getting screwed by the damn system. His mentality shattered, and he blurted out loudly, "Ah, I can't go on like this! Missions are already rare enough, and ninjutsu is ridiculously overpriced. Can't you just let me have some fun for once!?"

"Other people transmigrate and start wrecking heaven and earth. Me? I'm calculating heaven and earth, even calculating the damn air. If any other transmigrator ended up as pathetic as me, they'd have offed themselves already."

No sooner had he spoken than the system roulette stopped, and pop-ups began to appear.

[Thanks for playing.]

[Thanks for playing.]

[Congratulations! Obtained S-rank Ninjutsu: Raikiri Shard. Requires 40 shards to synthesize the ninjutsu.]

[Thanks for playing.]

[Congratulations! Obtained A-rank Ninjutsu: Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique Shard. Requires 20 shards to synthesize the ninjutsu.]

[Congratulations! Obtained C-rank Ninjutsu: Summoning Technique.]

[Summoning Technique: Requires signing a Blood Pact with an animal. To sign, use your own blood to draw a circle on the animal's forehead and write your name inside it. During the process, the animal must not struggle or resist internally—otherwise, it counts as a failure. Upon success, you can communicate with each other, and cursed energy is shared. Only one animal can be contracted; if it dies, you can contract another. Costs 50 cursed energy, which increases with the distance between you and the animal.]

[Thanks for playing.]

[Thanks for playing.]

[Thanks for playing.]

[Congratulations! Obtained C-rank Ninjutsu: Substitution Technique.]

[Substitution Technique: Instantly replace your body with a wooden board at the moment of an attack, creating white smoke to confuse the opponent. Costs 30 cursed energy.]

"Holy crap! I hit the jackpot!?"

Hitting something was predictable, but getting two was unexpected.

"..."

What a load of crap...

The Substitution Technique was nothing special—a low-cost escape skill.

But the Summoning Technique was different, especially the cursed energy sharing part. If he could get a pet with cursed energy, wouldn't that be like having a backup cursed energy battery?

Looked like tomorrow he'd have to go out of his way to adopt a special pet—something with an imposing presence. Riding a dog down the street would be super cool, right?

Natsu Hiraku was already fantasizing about his future mount: two meters long, a coat of pure white fur, rippling muscles, and overwhelming strength.

Love it, love it.

When he sparred with Fushiguro the day after tomorrow, he'd show off and see whose dog was better—his or Fushiguro's.

For some reason, a weird competitive streak had flared up. After mulling it over for a while, Natsu Hiraku finally closed his eyes and started planning his dog-training regimen in his dreams.

The next day.

The alarm hadn't even gone off before Natsu Hiraku woke up. Even though he'd only slept less than five hours, it didn't stop him from heading out early in the morning to find his dream dog.

He'd already mapped out the training plan in his head. He had to find a dog as driven as himself—otherwise, how could it surpass its peers? And if it couldn't surpass its peers, what right did it have to sign a Blood Pact with him?

He didn't care about talent, but it had to have an upward-striving heart. After all, the dog didn't need to learn any techniques. Not to mention anything else—if it could go toe-to-toe with him in a brawl, that would be enough to qualify.

He grabbed the clothes that had been airing on the balcony for fifteen days and put them on, then took the laundry out of the washing machine and hung it up. After a quick wash and brush-up, he bolted out the door.

"Woo-hoo! Let's go!"

He probably wouldn't have been this happy even if he'd scored an S-rank jutsu—after all, those things guzzled cursed energy like crazy. But if he trained the dog well, he could keep siphoning cursed energy from it indefinitely. That was a huge relief.

One of his weak points had finally found a patch.

"Hahaha! My precious dog, just you wait—your dad's coming!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Maki Zenin, out for her morning workout, turned to look. She saw Natsu Hiraku sprinting toward the school gate and muttered, "What the hell? Did going out for half a month drive him crazy?"

Since it was too early for any rides, Natsu ran along the mountain road toward the city, taking over an hour to get there.

The Blood Pact required the animal not to struggle, but there was no way an adult dog wouldn't fight back—it wasn't like he'd raised it from a pup. Most people might choose to start with a puppy, but Natsu didn't want that. He wanted to pick the toughest dog.

As for struggling? One glance with his Sharingan and its brain would shut down on the spot. Forget resisting—it wouldn't even snap out of it for dozens of seconds.

"Tch, why do I feel like I'm getting a little dark in here? Whatever. Let's check out the dog market first. If there's no big dog worth my time, I'll raise one from a pup. Dogs grow up fast anyway."

Since the map didn't mark any so-called dog market, Natsu had to ask around, finally finding the place after half an hour of walking.

It was 6:40 in the morning. A bunch of dog sellers were already showing off their pretty pets, smoothly rattling off their dogs' selling points and pulling them out for passing customers to pet.

Natsu was a first-timer. Looking at the puppies in the market—just a few months old and freshly weaned—he felt a bit stumped. They all seemed kind of dumb, not exactly sharp.

Sure, you could train them later, but none of them looked like they had what it took for a fight!

But his puzzled expression instantly caught the eye of nearby sellers, who saw a business opportunity.

A plump older sister called out, "Hey, young man, come take a look at my dog! Purebred Siberian Husky."

The name alone hooked Natsu. He walked over and looked at the dog in the older sister's hands. For some reason, its eyes were full of curiosity—and a hint of goofiness.

Then, as if remembering something, he asked, "A Siberian Husky is just a Husky, right?"

"Well... yeah, you could say that. But this one's special—it doesn't wreck the house!"

"If it doesn't wreck the house, what's the point of getting a Husky? You kidding me?"

Natsu shot back and walked off. After all, who gets a Husky without wanting that derpy look? If it doesn't trash the place, is it even a Husky?

"Hahaha, that killed me! Hey, young man, come check out mine."

A bald guy nearby laughed. "Looks like you're after something special, kid?"

"Oh? Got anything good, old-timer?" Natsu asked with interest.

"Sure do. With that bookish look of yours, you're probably after a dog that matches your taste, right?"

The bald man pulled back the black cloth over a dog crate and introduced, "Take a look at this purebred Golden Retriever pup. Soft coat, razor-sharp smart, gentle temperament. With special training, you can even teach it to do chores—the overachiever of the dog world."

"Huh. Interesting."

Natsu looked at the Golden Retriever in the crate. Compared to that not-so-bright Husky, its eyes were strikingly clear. He asked, "Is this dog good at fighting? If it's tough, I'll take it."

"..."

The bald man felt insulted. So all that spiel he'd just given went in one ear and out the other? Asking a gentle Golden Retriever to brawl—why don't you just go die?

"Get the hell out of here! Don't you dare mess with my dog! I'm not selling to you today!"

The bald man reached for a stick in his car.

Natsu wisely backed off fast, muttering, "Hey, I've never owned a dog before, how was I supposed to know?"

"Golden Retrievers are gentle—they don't fight! You don't even know that and you dare come to the dog market?"

The man's face was red with anger.

"Hahaha, that's hilarious—a Golden Retriever fighting." A woman nearby chuckled.

Natsu wandered the entire dog market, but there wasn't a single big dog worth considering, let alone one that caught his eye. He was getting seriously frustrated. Looked like he'd have to ask Megumi Fushiguro.

After all, his dog was genuinely huge, genuinely fierce, and its speed and strength were undeniable.

He'd just pulled out his phone to call Megumi when a low, whimpering cry came from a nearby alley—sounded like a puppy. Natsu didn't pay it much mind. It was close to the dog market, so it was probably just some dog that hadn't sold. Dog noises were normal.

"Hey, Natsu. What's up?"

Compared to the awkwardness of calling him "Natsu" at first, Megumi was clearly used to it now. Natsu didn't beat around the bush.

"I want to get a dog or a wolf—something fierce and battle-ready. Preferably an adult. But if I really can't find one, a pup's fine too."

"A fierce dog or wolf? What do you need that for, Natsu? Planning to use it as a Shikigami?" Megumi asked, puzzled.

"Uh, just for fun. Got any?"

There was no way Natsu was spilling the real reason. He had to keep his cards close. Otherwise, this kid Megumi might pick him some ridiculous dog—like one that looked tough but was actually lazy as hell.

After all, he'd beaten Megumi fair and square. The guy might be plotting revenge somewhere down the line.

"Hmm, I'll ask around. Might not have any."

"No worries. If not, I'll look elsewhere. Thanks."

"Got it."

The call ended, and Natsu Hiraku let out a sigh of relief. As he looked toward the alley beside him, a dog pup lay on the ground, starving for so long that it was nothing but skin and bones.

It opened its tired eyes and stared at him, letting out a low whimper before closing them again.

Seeing this, Natsu Hiraku quickly scooped up the dog from the ground. Due to malnutrition, most of its fur had fallen off.

Having studied medicine, Natsu Hiraku didn't panic. He placed his right hand on its chest, felt its heart still beating, and immediately got up to head to the nearest pet hospital.

"It's nothing serious—just severe malnutrition and fainting from hunger. It's already got teeth, but for the next few days, it can only drink goat's milk. Also, if you want to keep this breed, you'll need to register it with the security bureau."

Hearing the vet's advice, Natsu Hiraku asked in confusion, "Why? Isn't it just a dog?"

"It is a dog, but it's a Tibetan Mastiff pup. They're known for being extremely fierce. I'm just giving you a heads-up—don't take it in out of kindness, or it might end up costing lives later. If you do keep it, chain it up with iron links and just leave it at home."

Damn, this little guy's going to be that tough?

Natsu Hiraku watched with interest as the Tibetan Mastiff pup frantically lapped up goat's milk in its cage. He didn't usually keep dogs and knew nothing about them. The only dog he knew was Liu Yang's husky, which was a master at wrecking the place.

That thing was always bouncing around, radiating pure stupidity—hilarious to watch.

"How big can a Tibetan Mastiff get?"

The vet explained, "For a giant Tibetan Mastiff, shoulder height is about 75 centimeters. It could bite you to death in one go. Do you still want this little one? If not, I'll have to hand it over to the police."

"Yes, yes, of course I want it. How much for the treatment just now? I'll pay right now."

Natsu Hiraku quickly followed the vet, pulling out his wallet from his pocket.

"No charge. I just gave it some goat's milk. If you're going to keep it, take responsibility like a father. Dogs are loyal—don't let it down. That's all."