Calamity Out of Nowhere

Chapter 23: Calamity Out of Nowhere

Night fell. After finally clearing away all the remaining rocks and clods of dirt, Aoba walked home with the little bit of money he had earned, grinning foolishly.

A transmigrator—or rather, a transmigrator with a cheat ability—reduced to his current state was truly one of a kind.

If he ever ran into a transmigrator senior, he would probably have to bow ninety degrees and say, "Sorry, I've brought shame upon the transmigrator army!"

In truth, Aoba didn't want things to be this way either. But what could he do when he had ended up with a dog of a system that thought about exploding on the spot every day? If he didn't want to keep risking his life by frantically testing the limits of death, he could only rely on himself.

All he asked was that the damn system cause fewer problems before he fully mastered his life-saving abilities. That would be enough to make him burn incense in gratitude!

After returning home, he first checked the "little mechanism" he had learned from some old TV show or movie. Once he confirmed that no one had entered his room while he was gone, he breathed a sigh of relief, took a bath, and prepared for bed.

Actually, he wasn't sure whether putting a strand of hair on the floor or something similar was truly useful. After all, in this world, those lofty ninja lords had plenty of ways to sneak inside.

But the people he wanted to guard against weren't those ninja lords. They were the civilians who liked petty theft.

After all, the civilian district was far from the bustling central streets, and all sorts of people lived there. Who knew whether someone had been watching him lately?

If they only wanted his money, so be it. But if they also wanted his life, he wouldn't even know where to go to plead his case.

So, in the end, he was simply being cautious.

After bathing, he hid the money he had earned that day in a special place. Then he looked at his scarred hands and his right shoulder, which had been struck by falling rocks earlier, and sighed.

Making money wasn't easy!

Fortunately, his [Inferior Self-Healing Body] could come in handy now. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't be able to work tomorrow.

"Sleep, sleep!"

After glugging down an entire carton of milk, Aoba let out a satisfying belch and immediately drifted off into dreamland.

After he fell asleep, a figure stood before the window, gazing inside by the light of the moon, his expression somewhat complicated.

If Aoba had opened his eyes then, he would have seen that Jonin Mikawa, who had been out of touch for several days, was standing there, seemingly lost in thought.

What Aoba knew even less was that Jonin Mikawa hadn't gone on any missions over the past few days. Instead, he had been hiding in the shadows and watching him, including the jeers and teasing from the people around him, as well as his repeated failures while looking for work.

In fact, if Mikawa hadn't hesitated again and again before mentioning the situation to the Fourth Hokage, this job clearing away rubble still wouldn't have fallen to a five-year-old brat.

For Lord Hokage, it had only taken a single sentence.

That wasn't all Jonin Mikawa had done for him. Every day, before Aoba arrived, he would go to the foot of Hokage Rock first and smash all the larger fallen rocks into pieces, making it easier for Aoba to clear them away later.

With Aoba's current strength, how could he possibly handle such grueling work otherwise?

Aoba knew nothing about any of this. He thought he had simply been lucky—not only had he met a kindhearted person, but he had also never encountered anything too heavy to move or any major danger.

Jonin Mikawa, meanwhile, didn't know why he had become so concerned about a little brat who had nothing to do with him.

When Third Hokage had originally assigned him this task, he had been so opposed to it that he had even openly defied the Third Hokage, wanting to give it up.

Yet now, he clearly didn't need to do any of this. As long as Aoba didn't cause trouble like last time, the two of them could each go on living their own lives.

"So... I guess I must be crazy."

Mikawa's figure vanished in an instant, and his sigh scattered into the wind.

The next day, Aoba got up early but didn't begin training right away. Instead, he stuffed a considerable amount of money into his pocket and prepared to go on a major shopping trip.

After all, he was eating more and more every day. On top of that, he had to expend energy daily to speed up the healing of his wounds, so the food stored at home had already nearly run out.

Fortunately, his former self had at least known how to cook a few simple home dishes. Otherwise, his expenses in this area would have doubled, which made him feel quite lucky.

However, just as he took his money and opened the door to leave, someone who greatly surprised him was standing outside.

"Itachi? What brings you here? No, I mean, what took you so long? I've been waiting for you for days."

The person standing outside and looking around was none other than Uchiha Itachi, one of the future people Aoba had classified as someone whose coattails he could cling to.

To be honest, Itachi's failure to show up for so many days had nearly made Aoba think that his offer back then had only been empty politeness.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. I knew the famous Itachi God wouldn't stand me up!

Seeing how happy Aoba was as he approached and greeted him, Itachi's normally aloof, expressionless face could no longer hold up. He smiled as he returned the greeting. "Good morning, Aoba. I originally planned to come find you the very next day, but my father assigned me a lot of training tasks. I didn't finish them all until yesterday, which is why I was delayed for so long. I'm really sor—"

"Hey! I knew it! I almost thought you didn't come because you didn't want to treat me to food. You came at just the right time. I'm planning to go on a major shopping trip today. Help me carry some of it later, okay?"

Aoba cut Itachi off before he could finish, then familiarly draped an arm around his shoulders and led him outside.

Itachi seemed somewhat unaccustomed to such excessive intimacy. He struggled a little, but he was afraid of hurting Aoba and even more afraid of making Aoba misunderstand him, so in the end, he half-resisted and half-submitted as he followed Aoba along.

It had to be said that Itachi was far too mature for his age. He was also sensitive and considerate, caring too much about other people's feelings while neglecting his own. He kept everything bottled up inside, and as a result, he was already being crushed beneath overwhelming responsibility and pressure at such a young age.

It could be said that Aoba's appearance had given him an outlet where he could relax and stop suppressing himself.

Even Itachi himself hadn't realized this yet.

Just after Aoba and Itachi left with their arms around each other's shoulders, two Uchiha clan members appeared.

"The clan head said Itachi seemed strange after returning home last time. It looks like the source of the problem lies with this civilian boy."

"Mm. You keep following them. I'll go back and report to the clan head."

"Hmph! How can someone from the dignified Uchiha family get so close to a dirt-poor commoner like that? If you ask me, we should just kill him and be done with it. He's only a civilian, after all."

"That may be true, but the new Hokage has just taken office, and the clan head and the others are planning a major operation. If you ruin things, ten of you wouldn't be enough to kill. So don't act rashly. We'll wait until I've asked the clan head."

The two exchanged a glance, then immediately split up and took action.

P.S. I checked the books released around the same time as mine, and almost all of them update once a day. While waiting for the editor to get back to work, I foolishly updated twice a day and still got mocked for being too short. I can't tolerate that! I don't know whether my contract status can be changed today, but if it can, remember to reward me with enough money for some pickled vegetables and let me know.