The Time to Step Up

But just as the thought of turning in the diary crossed Uzuki Yugao's mind, an intense sense of danger washed over her.

Fear flickered in her eyes.

It was as if she would die on the spot if she revealed even a single word about the diary.

Uzuki Yugao suppressed the thought.

After reading Takasaki's first entry and feeling the ten percent increase in her chakra, she had no doubt that the diary could kill her instantly.

"What are you afraid of?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, noticing the fear in Uzuki Yugao's eyes.

His deeply wrinkled face turned solemn.

Naruto, the village's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, was being secretly watched by Uzuki Yugao on his orders.

Uzuki Yugao had always been conscientious, and she was no weakling.

What could make her lose focus during a meeting, even frighten her? Could it have something to do with Naruto?

He seemed to realize how serious the matter might be. Furrowing his brow, he pressed her, "Don't tell me the Nine-Tails inside Naruto is close to breaking through the seal?"

"No."

Uzuki Yugao shook her head, then came up with a good excuse. "I was just thinking that if I ever ran into Orochimaru, I'd make him pay for the Anbu members who died. But when I thought about how strong he is, I couldn't help feeling afraid."

At that,

Hiruzen Sarutobi felt relieved.

As long as the Nine-Tails hadn't broken through the seal inside Naruto, that was what mattered. "Orochimaru was, after all, my own student, and he's mastered some forbidden techniques through human experimentation. It's only natural to be afraid of him. If you ever gather any information on Orochimaru, report it to the organization immediately."

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't dwell on Uzuki Yugao's distraction.

After the moment of silence, he emphasized the Anbu's discipline.

He praised the Anbu members who had performed exceptionally well lately.

Then he encouraged those who hadn't done as well.

Finally, he ended the meeting with the Will of Fire.

Uzuki Yugao paid no attention to the meeting's tired old platitudes. Until it ended, she kept turning the diary over in her mind.

She had thought the diary was hers alone.

But Takasaki's second entry clearly stated that Hinata had received an extra reward.

In other words, the diary wasn't hers alone. At the very least, Hinata had one too.

At that moment, Uzuki Yugao felt an intense sense of crisis.

She read Takasaki's second entry over and over, then became convinced that Hinata had deliberately tried to seduce him. She'd used teaching him the Three Body Technique as an excuse so he would write her name in the diary more often.

Clearly, Hinata had succeeded.

She had received an extra reward: a ten percent increase in stamina.

Uzuki Yugao's Konoha-Style Kenjutsu depended heavily on stamina.

If that ten percent increase had gone to her, it would have greatly boosted her strength.

It would take her at least five years of training to increase her stamina by ten percent.

With a diary reward, she could get it in an instant.

Who could resist that kind of temptation?

"If I keep earning rewards from the diary, one day I'll be strong enough to become the strongest ninja in the Anbu."

"Then, even against a powerful rogue ninja like Orochimaru, I'll be able to put up a fight."

That was the most honest thought in Uzuki Yugao's mind at the time.

Since Hinata had approached Takasaki once, she would surely do it again.

She couldn't let things continue like this.

She had to create opportunities to get close to Takasaki, too, so he would write her name in his future entries and she could earn rewards as well.

Takasaki was taking the written portion of the graduation test right now. She felt she needed to keep an eye on him and look for a chance to get close.

The meeting broke up.

As Uzuki Yugao stepped out of the Hokage Building, Gekko Hayate caught up with her. "Yugao, you lied to Lord Hokage during the meeting just now, didn't you?"

"What do you mean?" Uzuki Yugao asked, turning her head.

Gekko Hayate's expression was serious. "I know you. You weren't thinking about Orochimaru when you got distracted. You were definitely thinking about something else."

"I was." Uzuki Yugao didn't want to hide things from her boyfriend. She was about to tell him about the diary, but the words had barely reached her lips when that feeling of death closing in spread through her.

She had no choice but to swallow what she'd meant to say and change her answer. "I was thinking about another man."

"Thinking about a man?"

At that,

Gekko Hayate coughed hard a few times and stopped in his tracks.

His congenital lung disease made him cough involuntarily whenever his emotions were stirred.

Ever since he and Uzuki Yugao had gotten together, whenever he coughed, she would put aside whatever she was doing and gently pat his back to help him feel better.

But now,

Uzuki Yugao had already put on her Cat Mask, yet she showed no sign of stopping to check on him.

"Yugao is thinking about another man?"

A terrible premonition rose in Gekko Hayate's heart.

Uzuki Yugao was his girlfriend. They had been together for several years, but because they were often sent on Anbu missions, they rarely saw each other.

Besides, Anbu members were strictly forbidden from dating.

So, to keep their secret relationship from being exposed, he hadn't even held Uzuki Yugao's hand once.

He had planned to wait until his lung disease was cured and they had both left the Anbu before being together openly, holding a wedding, starting a family, having a child, and living a peaceful, happy life.

But his lung disease still hadn't been cured, and neither of them had left the Anbu. And now Uzuki Yugao was thinking about another man?

The thought made Gekko Hayate feel deeply uneasy.

He didn't believe his girlfriend would be unfaithful.

"Yugao! Cough, cough, cough..." Gekko Hayate hurried after her.

"Hmm?"

Uzuki Yugao was busy thinking about how to get close to Takasaki and about the diary's rules. She hadn't noticed that her casual remark had made Gekko Hayate cough violently with agitation.

"Which man are you thinking about? What's your relationship with him?" Gekko Hayate asked with a straight face.

"To be precise, I'm thinking about a boy named Takasaki."

"Takasaki? The dead-last kid in this year's graduating class at the Ninja Academy—the one who's just like Naruto?"

Gekko Hayate's eyebrows lifted slightly.

Uzuki Yugao could tell that her boyfriend had misunderstood her.

She explained, "Hayate, don't overthink it. I haven't fallen for someone else. I still love you. I'm just keeping an eye on Naruto on Lord Hokage's orders, and Takasaki is a dead-last at the Ninja Academy just like Naruto. The two of them get along well, so I keep tabs on Takasaki, too."

"I see."

After Uzuki Yugao explained, Gekko Hayate felt a little more at ease.

Sure enough,

his girlfriend wouldn't betray him so easily.

He didn't really care why Uzuki Yugao was thinking about Takasaki, as long as she hadn't fallen for someone else.

" Naruto is taking the written portion of the final exam at the Ninja Academy right now. I need to keep watching him. Want to come with me?"

"Sure. I don't have a mission right now."

Gekko Hayate put on his Tiger Mask.

They formed Hand Seals with one hand, used the Body Flicker Technique, and vanished from the spot.

Soon,

on the rooftop of the Ninja Academy's teaching building,

Uzuki Yugao and Gekko Hayate watched from above, keeping an eye on the written exam in the graduating class's classroom across the way.

At that moment,

Takasaki had already handed in his paper early and left the exam room.

Gekko Hayate said nothing.

He had only meant to quietly accompany his girlfriend on her mission, but gradually, he began to feel that something was off.

Uzuki Yugao's gaze didn't seem to be fixed on Naruto, who was taking the exam behind the classroom windows.

His girlfriend was slowly turning her head to watch Takasaki as he left the exam room.

He hadn't paid much attention to Takasaki, the dead-last in the graduating class. He only knew that the boy existed in the village.

The last time he'd seen Takasaki was at his parents' funeral.

Back then, Takasaki had only come up to his chest.

Now, he seemed to be half a head taller than Gekko Hayate.

He was quite handsome, too.

"Is Yugao really just keeping an eye on Takasaki while she watches Naruto?" Gekko Hayate wondered.

He coughed softly and tightened the green headband that had loosened around his head. Something felt strange.

He couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.

Takasaki had no idea that Uzuki Yugao and Gekko Hayate were watching him.

He also didn't know that he had distracted Uzuki Yugao during an Anbu meeting and even made her boyfriend suspicious of her.

At that moment, he could think of only one thing: getting to Teacher Kurenai Yuhi's office as soon as possible and accepting his fate of being taken advantage of by her.

"Takasaki, the exam's still going. Where are you going?"

Asuma had finished smoking in the hallway and was heading back to the exam room when he ran into Takasaki coming out alone.

"I've handed in my paper, Teacher Asuma," Takasaki said breezily.

"That's outrageous!" Asuma scolded with a frown.

"Sorry, Teacher Asuma. I'm leaving."

Maybe because Kurenai Yuhi was about to take advantage of him, Takasaki still felt a little guilty when he saw Asuma. He left after saying that.

The main reason was that he only knew the Three Body Technique and hadn't mastered any other ninjutsu. He couldn't beat Asuma.

So,

when facing Asuma, he had to back down when the time was right.

When facing Asuma's girlfriend, Teacher Kurenai, he had to step up when the time was right.

Kurenai Yuhi heard Asuma scolding Takasaki in the hallway and hurried out to see what was going on.

It was hard to come by a good chance to be alone with Takasaki. She couldn't let Asuma ruin it.

"What's wrong, Asuma?"

"Nothing. I just saw Takasaki hand in a blank paper. I feel sorry for his parents, who died on the battlefield."

It was no wonder Asuma had assumed Takasaki had handed in a blank paper.

In all his years as an invigilator, he'd never seen a good student hand in their final exam early.

Asuma took a drag on his cigarette and blew out a long stream of smoke. "Naruto's a dead-last, too, but even he's sitting there and taking the exam properly. How could Takasaki not even endure this little bit of loneliness? His attitude toward studying is a real problem."

"Asuma, as a teacher, speaking ill of your students behind their backs isn't something to be proud of."

Kurenai Yuhi saw that Takasaki had gone in the direction of her private office, which put her somewhat at ease. "I don't think there's anything wrong with what Takasaki did. After all, he completed most of the test, and his answers were mostly correct."

As she spoke, Kurenai Yuhi held out a test paper in her palm. It was the one Takasaki had just handed in.

"He could answer the questions on this paper?"

Asuma looked at Kurenai Yuhi suspiciously. He put the cigarette between his lips, took the paper, and glanced at it in surprise. "He really did fill in almost all of it. He answered all the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, and left only two written-response questions blank."

The questions on the test might have been difficult for most students in the graduating class,

but as a jōnin of Konoha and one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, Asuma could think of the answer to each question in two seconds. Anything less would be disrespectful to his title as a jōnin.

He started checking Takasaki's paper from the first question.

Every multiple-choice answer was correct.

Every fill-in-the-blank answer was correct.

Asuma looked up at Kurenai Yuhi, stunned. "Is this really Takasaki's paper?"

"Who else's? You can recognize his handwriting, can't you?" Kurenai Yuhi covered her nose.

She hated the smell of smoke and had told Asuma not to smoke in front of her, but he never listened.

Asuma kept checking.

It really was Takasaki's handwriting. There was no mistake.

The important thing was that both of Takasaki's written-response answers were correct, too. That made no sense.

Takasaki was clearly the dead-last in his class. How could he pass so easily?

He quickly thought of one explanation. "Did Takasaki cheat?"

"I didn't see him cheating."

"That's impossible. With Takasaki's usual grades, he couldn't have passed. He must have cheated."

That was Asuma's instinctive reaction.

In fact, Asuma was right.

The thing was, Kurenai Yuhi had covered for Takasaki while he cheated, so of course she had to keep covering for him. "I was the one invigilating in there the whole time. Do you think I wouldn't have noticed if Takasaki had cheated?"

"Maybe..."

"Maybe I'm covering for Takasaki?" Kurenai Yuhi's tone turned cold.

"No, that's not what I meant."

Asuma grinned. "I didn't mean it like that."

When he realized Kurenai Yuhi was angry, Asuma understood how serious the situation was.

He'd had a hard time winning Kurenai Yuhi over. There was no need to upset his girlfriend over a dead-last like Takasaki.

His father, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was already getting on in years and kept urging him to hurry up and have a child.

"Kurenai Yuhi, don't be mad." Asuma grinned and reached for her hand.

Kurenai turned aside and dodged him.

By rights, she was Asuma's girlfriend now, so holding hands with him was perfectly normal.

But the smoke clinging to Asuma was far too strong. She didn't want to smell it.

Even though she'd held hands with Takasaki several times in the exam room just now, she didn't want to hold Asuma's hand.

"Even the dead-last student might have a day when he turns things around. Asuma, don't judge your students through the lens of your own prejudice."

Kurenai covered her nose. "Finish that cigarette and don't smoke any more. Go inside and proctor the exam. I've been watching everyone by myself for so long, and I'm a little tired. I'll go back to the office and rest for a while."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Takasaki enter her private office.

"Get some good rest. When the exam's over and I've collected the papers, I'll come find you in your office," Asuma said eagerly.