Who Was Raising Whom?

Inside the Hot Pot Restaurant.

At Tenten's request, Might Guy took Team 3, all of whom had passed, out to celebrate.

And since Neji owned a Hot Pot Restaurant, it naturally became their first choice over a barbecue place.

Might Guy did not refuse Tenten's request. After all, unlike his eternal rival, he did not enjoy buying interesting books, so he still had some savings.

Besides, the Hot Pot Restaurant was not particularly expensive, so he happily agreed.

Tenten raised her cup and stood up, looking at the others who had already started eating. "Hehe, everyone passed Teacher Might Guy's assessment this time, so it's worth celebrating. But we should really toast Teacher Might Guy for bringing us here for hot pot!"

Neji and Rock Lee also raised their cups in a toast to Might Guy.

This made Guy beam with delight. He kept nodding before raising his own cup. "Your excellence has proven itself, so do not belittle yourselves. This is the result of your hard work."

"I hope all of you will work even harder in the future, burn with even greater youth, and let that hot-blooded spirit blaze!"

Might Guy truly was Might Guy. His opening sounded fairly serious, but the more he spoke, the more off-track he became.

"Teacher Might Guy, I'll definitely work even harder!" Flames burned fiercely in Rock Lee's eyes.

He declared that he would work diligently and never disappoint him.

"Ah! Rock Lee, this is wonderful! This is youth!"

Neji's lips twitched slightly. Watching the two of them inexplicably catch fire, he silently ate the slice of meat he had just swished through the broth.

It seemed his future daily life would be full of entertainment. After all, there were two living treasures around.

Tenten looked at the two of them, sat down speechlessly, and picked out some meat for Neji.

"Neji, do you want me to help you? It's been so long since I helped you. Don't thank me!"

"Mm!"

Having received his consent, Tenten smiled and happily got busy.

Ignoring the two hot-blooded idiots competing over food beside them, she picked up a piece of food and blew on it.

"Here... ah~"

Tenten held out the food with her chopsticks, and it was about to reach his mouth.

Neji: "..."

Who did you learn that from? Hurry up and tell me, was it Sakura or Ino?

"Ahem! I'd better do it myself."

Seeing Neji refuse, Tenten grumbled inwardly. She had finally found such a good opportunity.

Why was I rejected? Back when we first enrolled and the teacher told me to take care of you, hadn't I fed you for ages too?

You ate so happily back then, but now you're rejecting me?

"Hmph, wasn't I the one taking care of you when we first enrolled? What could that idiot Rock Lee do? Yet now you're rejecting me."

Neji was slightly at a loss for words. That truly was a distant memory. He had been young and ignorant back then, and using Observation Haki to distinguish food had been quite troublesome.

It had only taken a year. After one year, he had gotten used to it. He could not exactly say he had done it on purpose back then, could he?

"Well, Tenten! We aren't children anymore."

"That's right. We graduated, and today we became genin. It's a day worth celebrating."

Faced with Tenten's sudden pressure, Neji could not hold out any longer.

He opened his mouth slightly and swallowed the food Tenten offered him in one bite.

He ate expressionlessly.

As long as he was not embarrassed, the embarrassing one would be someone else.

A rich girl in the making—no! A rich loli in the making. This was utterly mortifying.

When Tenten saw that Neji had not refused and accepted her feeding, she clenched her little fist in delight.

Great! Neji didn't refuse. All these years of staying by his side and raising him have finally paid off.

The first fruits of raising a tall, rich, handsome guy are here. From now on, I'll press forward step by step and definitely take him down in one go!

The thought that she had gained the approval of the boy she liked before Sakura and Ino made Tenten so happy that she forgot everything else.

They could fight over that Uchiha Sasuke all they wanted. He always had such a sour face. How was he anywhere near as good as Neji?

The more she thought about it, the sweeter she felt. From time to time, she picked food for Neji and fed him, completely ignoring the fact that this was supposed to be a celebration.

But the two hot-blooded idiots beside them only glanced over once, then acted as though it were perfectly natural, without feeling like they were being force-fed dog food at all.

Rock Lee's response was: What? You said they were feeding us dog food?

Were they?

How did I not know? Isn't this perfectly normal?

And Might Guy could only say that this was youth!

It really was overflowing with sweetness!

He was very gratified. After all, ninjas generally had extremely high mortality rates, so it was perfectly normal for Neji and the others to be thinking about romance at this age.

It was not surprising in the slightest!

As long as it did not affect their strength, it was fine.

And regarding that, through Rock Lee and this test, he knew there would be no problem.

Neji endured this incredibly embarrassing meal, though in reality, it was not as bad as he had imagined.

To ordinary people, a little girl helping a blind boy eat was perfectly normal, wasn't it?

The little girl was very considerate, occasionally asking the young man what he wanted to eat and whether he wanted more.

As for them being ninjas?

Oh!

That was fine too!

After the meal ended, Might Guy announced that starting tomorrow, they would officially begin their lives as ninjas.

Therefore, they were to gather at eight tomorrow morning. He would accept some missions and let them begin adapting.

After making the announcement, they dispersed and were free to do as they pleased.

Rock Lee continued striving and began training, hoping that one day he would be able to defeat Neji at least once.

This was the first small goal on his path to achieving his dream. He had to accomplish it.

Shouting slogans, he went off to run.

Facing the direction Rock Lee had left in, Neji sighed. "Rock Lee really works hard. Even I can't compare to that kind of dedication."

Tenten strongly agreed with that. After all, she had witnessed it herself.

"Neji, what are you planning to do next? I still don't think I've fully mastered some of the ninja tools you told me about. Could you teach me?"

"Mm, sorry! I've been researching something recently, and I'm about to succeed, so I'm sorry, Tenten."

Neji looked apologetic. Tenten was somewhat disappointed, but there was nothing to be done.

"Then all right. I'll go back and study them properly. You have to teach me next time you have time."

"Mm! Next time, definitely."

Watching Tenten leave, Neji quietly let out a breath of relief. Fortunately, Tenten was not clingy.

It was time to go back and handle some matters. Now that he had become a genin—

The time he could freely spend would probably no longer be so stable. Those things only lacked time now.

Fortunately, he still had time!

Leaving the Hot Pot Restaurant, he arrived at his personal Laboratory.

Passing through the ordinary first floor, he went down to the second basement level. What had originally served as the first floor of the Laboratory was now merely a disguise.

The real things had all been moved farther underground, to what was now the third level.

As Neji descended, a neat corridor and sci-fi metal walls came into view. These were the fruits of his work over the years.

When it came to advanced technology, during his time in the navy, he had always stayed by Vegapunk's side.

As the intelligence that stood five hundred years ahead of the world, Vegapunk's terrifying advanced technology had left him in awe.

Honestly, he felt the technological disparity in the Pirate World was absurd.

Laser-wielding humanoid robots were incredibly advanced!

Yet solid-shell cannons and flintlock guns were unbelievably backward.

It truly was hard to understand, but those things no longer had anything to do with him. He was in the Naruto world now.

Please point out typos and awkward sentences. Typing on a phone makes it easy to make mistakes. Thank you!