Qiushui spoke at an unhurried pace, as naturally as if he were chatting, yet he explained every point of knowledge clearly. Whenever the lesson grew dull, he would suddenly throw in a joke. When a student lost focus, he would call on them without embarrassing them. And when he wrote on the blackboard, he left them plenty of time to copy down their notes.
His classes were both relaxing and enjoyable.
Time slipped by before anyone knew it.
When the bell rang, the students only then realized with surprise that class had ended so quickly again.
Even more strangely, though they hadn't done much rote memorization, somehow their minds had filled with a lot of new knowledge.
"Teacher Qiushui, do you still have a class this afternoon?" one student asked eagerly, standing up after class.
"I don't have a class this afternoon." Qiushui packed up his lesson plans and replied with a smile.
The student who'd asked looked disappointed, and the others reacted the same way when they heard his answer.
Qiushui walked out of the classroom. At that moment, a notification appeared before his eyes.
[Training completed. Evaluating the content of the training.]
[Overall rating: A]
[Training reward received—Innate Lightning Release Chakra]
The moment Qiushui received the reward, the hairs on his skin stood on end. He felt a slight numbness and prickling, like the static that built up before touching a metal doorknob on an extremely dry winter day—only magnified countless times.
"Thank goodness it isn't actual lightning." He noticed that his body had only trembled slightly, and breathed a sigh of relief.
If it had really been lightning powerful enough to use Lightning Release Ninjutsu, he might already have been lying on the ground, twitching.
When Qiushui returned to the office that afternoon, Murata Koji said he had an urgent matter and asked him to cover his class. Qiushui would never pass up a chance to help someone out.
The class he covered was Third Grade, Class Three. During the lesson, Qiushui gave all the students a quality assessment and found that not a single one had an A-grade rating. The highest was only a B+.
After the afternoon class, the system rewarded him with Innate Water Release Chakra.
Over the next half month, Qiushui kept to his usual routine. When no one asked him to cover a class, he focused on teaching his own class. After school and on his days off, he devoted himself to training Naruto and Hinata. Whenever another teacher asked him to cover a class, he never refused. And every evening when he got home, Yuhi Kurenai would drop by for dinner every few days. It had become a habit.
Perhaps because Qiushui really was an excellent substitute teacher, the students responded enthusiastically. They kept asking their regular teachers if Qiushui could come teach them again. On top of that, he was always willing to help out, and the other teachers remembered him for covering their classes. Before long, he had become a popular topic around the school.
In the students' eyes, taking Qiushui's class was a pleasure. To his colleagues, he was a kind and dependable friend who was always willing to help.
Before anyone knew it, Qiushui had become everyone's ideal teacher, renowned for both his looks and his talent.
As for Qiushui, the center of all the talk, he didn't give it much thought. At that moment, he was looking at Yuhi Kurenai, who had come by for dinner, and wondering what to cook that evening.
"Qiushui, I'll have to trouble you to make an extra serving again tonight."
Yuhi Kurenai stood in the doorway, looking a little embarrassed.
At first, she had only come over once every three days.
Then it became once every two days.
This week, she had started coming every day.
She knew it wasn't very nice to keep imposing on Qiushui. After all, he had to teach classes, train his students, and cook for her. Anyone would get annoyed, wouldn't they?
But Qiushui's cooking was just too delicious.
After eating his food, everything else tasted so much worse by comparison.
"It's no trouble." Qiushui smiled, not a hint of impatience in his voice. "Having a beautiful woman like you keep me company at dinner makes all the fatigue from work disappear."
Yuhi Kurenai froze for a moment.
Then the corners of her mouth lifted of their own accord.
People often told her she was beautiful. On missions, while walking around the village, even when shopping, she could always feel people's eyes lingering on her, and someone would inevitably come over with a few words they thought would charm her.
But they all said the same things. She'd heard them so often that she'd grown numb to them.
Hearing those words from Qiushui was completely different. And though she was the one coming over for dinner, the way he put it made it sound as if she were keeping him company.
A sweet, unfamiliar feeling stirred in Yuhi Kurenai's heart. Most of the embarrassment faded from her face, replaced by a cheerful smile.
"But there's nothing left in the fridge," Qiushui said, glancing back toward the kitchen. "We'll have to go out and buy some groceries first."
"Then I'll go with you," Yuhi Kurenai replied at once.
At dusk, Konoha was bathed in orange-red light. Vendors were packing up their stalls and villagers were heading home along the streets, while children occasionally ran past, chasing and playing. The village looked peaceful.
Qiushui and Yuhi Kurenai walked side by side.
Qiushui stood a tall, lean six-foot-one, with white hair that fell between short and long. Beneath it was a handsome face, refined yet masculine. His icy blue eyes drew people's attention, and his black short-sleeved shirt revealed forearms with smooth, defined muscles. Everything about him radiated a captivating warmth, like the winter sun.
Yuhi Kurenai walked beside him in a dark red turtleneck and a long, cream-colored skirt. The hem swayed lightly with her steps. Her delicate face glowed faintly in the evening light, and her long, fair legs appeared and disappeared beneath the skirt, drawing people's eyes with every step.
The handsome man and beautiful woman walking together instantly became the center of attention.
"Hey, isn't that Jonin Kurenai?" A woman selling vegetables by the roadside set down her scales and watched them walk away. "Who's the man with her? What a handsome fellow!"
"He must be her boyfriend," the vendor beside her chimed in. "Why else would they be out buying groceries together?"
"That young man's so sturdy. Look at those broad shoulders and that frame..." A middle-aged beauty gazed at him longingly.
"And he's so good-looking, too. He's much better than those male hosts. No, he's better-looking than movie stars. Their faces are all made up, but he's the real deal," said the woman beside her.
Their comments drifted into the pair's ears.
Qiushui remained calm.
He'd heard comments like that ever since he was little, so he was used to them. Back in school, girls had always snuck glances at him. Now that he was a teacher, students often whispered behind his back about how handsome Teacher Qiushui was.
Being stared at and talked about had long since become part of his everyday life.
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