"Bin, is this the secret to getting stronger?"
"Yeah." Hyuga Bin nodded as if it were only natural. "Eating is the most important part of getting stronger. After all, how can you have the strength to train if you don't eat your fill?"
Hatake Kakashi: "..."
He wanted to complain about Hyuga Bin, but what Hyuga Bin said... actually seemed to make quite a bit of sense.
"Oh, right, Kakashi, you know about this Saturday's class reunion, right?" Without waiting for Hatake Kakashi to say anything, Hyuga Bin changed the subject to something Kurenai Yuhi had mentioned to him not long ago.
"Yeah, I know. Asuma told me a couple of days ago." Hatake Kakashi nodded.
In this life, Hatake Kakashi's father, Hatake Sakumo, had not committed suicide. So while Kakashi was somewhat aloof, he had not become a mission machine. He was at least the sort to greet his classmates when he saw them.
"You and Asuma are pretty close." Hyuga Bin was quite supportive of Hatake Kakashi being willing to make friends.
"I just happened to run into Asuma." Hatake Kakashi explained.
Of course, he was not making an excuse because he was afraid Hyuga Bin would misunderstand and think he was close to Sarutobi Asuma.
He was merely stating the facts.
"Then you're going, right?"
"Yeah, I promised Asuma." Hatake Kakashi nodded.
"What are you planning to perform at the reunion?" Seeing that, Hyuga Bin continued with a smile.
"We have to perform something at the reunion?" Hatake Kakashi's gaze froze. Hyuga Bin had led him right into the trap with a single suggestive question.
Having never attended a class reunion before, he genuinely had no idea there was a performance segment.
If he had known, he definitely would not have agreed to go with Asuma.
"Of course. Reciting, singing, fencing, lewd poetry—anything goes." Hyuga Bin explained it to Hatake Kakashi with an air of expertise.
"I don't do any of that." Hatake Kakashi hurriedly shook his head.
The only thing he was good at was fighting.
Reciting, singing, fencing, lewd poetry—he could not do a single one of them.
"But you have to pick something. You can't just sit there the whole time after you get there." Hyuga Bin patted Hatake Kakashi's shoulder and said earnestly, "Kakashi, your life is too boring. That's also why you're not strong enough. Training blindly can actually backfire. Balancing work and rest is the way to improve your strength."
"Bin, I remember you used to work harder than me every day. You got up two hours early to run and practice taijutsu, then trained for another two hours after dinner when school was over." Hatake Kakashi did not agree with Hyuga Bin's view and even used Hyuga Bin himself as an example.
Hyuga Bin: "..."
There was no way he could explain that to Hatake Kakashi.
He could not exactly say something as crazy as, "My cheat is already insanely powerful now. I only need to make a few multiple-choice selections every day, so I don't need to work this hard anymore," could he?
"Bin, you don't need to comfort me like this. I'll work even harder until the day I surpass you." Hatake Kakashi turned his head and met Hyuga Bin's eyes, even as Hyuga Bin had an arm around his shoulder. His gaze was firm.
This was his conviction and his Nindo.
He refused to believe that, with the same two eyes and one **, he was truly inferior to Hyuga Bin!
"Fine, Kakashi. I support you training even harder too. But since you've agreed to attend Saturday's class reunion, you have to prepare a performance."
Hyuga Bin offered Hatake Kakashi an idea. "Why don't you recite a lewd poem?"
Before transmigrating, Hyuga Bin had read a novel called Rampage Hokage. The male lead had won over the female lead with several love poems.
He believed that with Hatake Kakashi's looks, a single love poem would surely make all the girls in class lose their composure and clap for Hatake Kakashi, shouting, "Good poem! Good poem!"
"No." Hatake Kakashi rejected it immediately. Reciting poetry was completely outside his realm of knowledge.
"Compared with singing or fencing, reciting poetry is the quickest performance." Hyuga Bin looked like he was determined to see this favor through. "How about this? I'll pick one for you. When the time comes, all you have to do is go onstage."
"I need to think about it more." Even with Hyuga Bin voluntarily "helping," Hatake Kakashi still found it hard to accept.
Reciting poetry in front of so many classmates was far too embarrassing.
"No need to think anymore. The day after tomorrow is Saturday. Where do you have time to keep thinking? I'll write the poem out for you right now, and you can memorize it tonight."
Hyuga Bin gave Hatake Kakashi no time to hesitate. He directly pulled out paper and a pen from his ninja tool pouch and began writing down several excellent lewd poems from his memory.
The next day, afternoon.
Hatake Kakashi headed toward the training ground Hyuga Bin had often used before.
"A male pheasant cries once, swallowing the entire spring field."
"May's pouring rain covers everything except that long Seta Bridge."
"Stealing another man's wife is thrilling and delicious, like eating pufferfish."
As he walked, Hatake Kakashi quietly recited the lewd poems Hyuga Bin had written for him yesterday beneath his mask.
Upon entering the training ground, Hatake Kakashi stopped reciting because someone was already there.
"Kurenai." Hatake Kakashi walked up to Kurenai Yuhi and took the initiative to greet her.
"Kakashi, why are you here?" Kurenai Yuhi looked somewhat surprised, as though Hatake Kakashi's appearance had caught her off guard.
"I'm here to train." Hatake Kakashi found Kurenai Yuhi a little strange. Her tone made it sound as if he could not train here.
"Oh, didn't Bin come with you?" Kurenai Yuhi directly asked Hatake Kakashi.
"No." Hatake Kakashi shook his head. "I asked him yesterday. He said he wanted to relax recently and wasn't planning to train. This used to be his training ground, so I've decided to train here from now on until I surpass him."
The mention of Hyuga Bin filled Hatake Kakashi with fighting spirit.
"Kakashi, are you saying you're not Bin's opponent?" Kurenai Yuhi was somewhat shocked by Hatake Kakashi's words.
In her eyes, Hatake Kakashi was the most outstanding genius of their generation.
A Genin at five, a Chunin at six, a Jonin at twelve—he had set the fastest promotion record in Konoha's history.
Although Hyuga Bin had been promoted to Jonin at the same time as Hatake Kakashi, Hyuga Bin was a "medical Special Jonin," not a full Jonin. His combat strength should have been far below Hatake Kakashi's.
"I've challenged him ten times over the past few years, and I haven't beaten him even once." At this, Hatake Kakashi could not help clenching his tiny twelve-year-old fist.
He was unwilling to accept it, but he respected Hyuga Bin's strength.
"Huh?"
Hearing Hatake Kakashi's words, Kurenai Yuhi sighed.
"So Bin is even more formidable than I imagined..."
(Another new week is about to begin. Please bookmark, vote, send monthly tickets, keep reading, and donate!)
(For donations, every 10,000-point donation means +1 chapter, 20,000 means +2 chapters, a leader rank means +10 chapters, and so on~ PS: Haha, let me fantasize for a bit.)
Before you continue