Chapter 4

Ten minutes later.

The door to Sakura Haruno's room was pushed open by her mother: "Sakura, time for dinner."

Seeing Sakura sitting on her bed in a daze, her mother asked in passing, "What are you daydreaming about?"

"N-nothing," Sakura replied vaguely, hiding her thoughts.

She confirmed it once more: the chakra within her had increased by 10%!

Young girls are always fond of wild, imaginative fantasies.

In these past ten minutes, Sakura had let her mind wander through a multitude of thoughts.

She liked Sasuke, the cool, top-performing boy in her class, yet he remained indifferent to her.

Sakura had always felt inferior, believing it was perhaps because her grades weren't good enough.

After all, Sasuke's desire to grow stronger was written all over his face.

If she were to become as strong as Sasuke, would he be willing to like her back?

As the gap in strength between her and Sasuke continued to widen, she had thought her hopes were slim.

But the situation was different now.

She had obtained a magical diary, as if she had found a shortcut to power.

Even if this Takasaki, a dead-last loser just like Naruto, writes about me in such an unfriendly way in his diary, at least he's making me stronger, so I can tolerate it for now.

Sakura mused to herself, Takasaki might be able to help me grow stronger indirectly. If that's the case, I shouldn't be too obvious about my disdain for him in the future, though that loser Naruto is still as annoying as ever.

With this 10% increase in chakra, she would surely pass the school's final exams in three days.

As a civilian ninja of the Leaf Village, she had no bloodline inheritance, and her parents couldn't teach her any secret techniques; her path as a ninja relied solely on herself.

Now that she finally had a shortcut to strength, she had to seize the opportunity!

Even if the diary hadn't warned her not to leak this information, she wouldn't have let anyone else know.

This was her own secret.

Sakura tucked the diary under her quilt, snapped back to reality, jumped off the bed, and planted a kiss on her mother's cheek: "Mom, I think I've found a way to get stronger! I'll definitely graduate from the ninja academy and become a qualified ninja of the Leaf Village!"

The person cursing Takasaki the most viciously was a woman far away in the Land of Hot Water.

To be precise, it was a mature woman with a sexy and alluring figure: Tsunade.

With her light blonde hair usually styled in twin tails and the blue-purple diamond mark of the Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead, Tsunade stormed out of the casino, having lost a whole case of money in a fit of frustration.

In her enraged state, Shizune, who was following her back to the inn, didn't even dare to speak above a whisper.

When she discovered Takasaki's diary in her room and read its contents, she was so furious she nearly tore it to shreds: "Who on earth is this bastard named Takasaki? To intentionally leave his diary in my room and write my name on the cover—he must have done this on purpose! The shamelessness of this content is on par with Jiraiya."

"Granary? Having his children? How could I ever have children with such a shameless scoundrel? Preposterous! He must be some pathetic, greasy, single middle-aged man!"

"If I ever find out who this guy is, I'll beat him to a pulp! I'll make sure he never writes another diary entry in his life!"

It wasn't until the very end of the diary entry that two lines appeared: [Takasaki has written your name in the diary for the first time. Reward: Chakra volume increased by 10%.]

[Friendly reminder: The more times Takasaki mentions your name in the diary, the more rewards you will receive.]

The room fell abruptly silent.

Tsunade's furious roaring ceased as she felt the surge of chakra within her body.

Her expression shifted from shock to gradual composure.

She closed the window and examined the diary on her bedside table with meticulous care: "Could I have misunderstood something? This isn't just an ordinary diary; is it some kind of special ninjutsu?"

What surprised her even more was that the diary not only granted her chakra but could also appear or disappear at her will.

What kind of bizarre ninjutsu was this?

Meanwhile, in the room next door.

Shizune, with her black-grey hair and dressed in traditional, modest female attire, watched as the diary appeared in her hands out of thin air, summoned by her own thoughts.

She seemed to understand why the room next door had suddenly gone quiet.

Presumably, Lady Tsunade had discovered, just as she had, that this diary could truly reward her with chakra.

"What a miraculous diary. Whoever created it, it actually increased my chakra by 10%."

"To be precise, the person who decides whether I get a reward is this guy named Takasaki who writes the diary."

"It seems that the more times Takasaki writes my name, the more rewards I'll receive."

When Shizune first read the contents of Takasaki's diary, she had felt equally offended.

She might appear timid and obedient around Tsunade, mostly because Tsunade was her teacher, but that didn't mean she had a gentle temperament.

In private, when faced with frustrating matters, her temper was every bit as explosive as Tsunade's.

That was why, when she first saw the contents of the diary, she had been incensed by Takasaki's offensive remarks.

After receiving the reward and calming down, she weighed the pros and cons and felt that being offended like this once wasn't such a bad deal.

In fact, she had even come out a little ahead.

After all, that shameless guy Takasaki wasn't hovering around her, so she didn't have to look at him and feel annoyed.

Besides, Takasaki was only writing things about her in his diary; he hadn't actually made any physical contact with her, yet her chakra reserves had increased by a solid 10%.

That was a result she couldn't achieve even after a full year of grueling training.

As a ninja, who wouldn't want to become stronger?

If she could have this every day, she would probably pass the Leaf Village's jonin assessment in no time.

Of course, she wouldn't tell anyone about this secret.

Not even Tsunade.

She would grow stronger in silence, and then stun everyone.

Leaf Village.

Ninja Academy.

Teachers' office.

Kurenai Yuhi, with her curly black hair, crimson eyes, fiery red lips, and fair skin, was staring at the diary in her hands.

When war broke out, she served as a jonin team leader for the village.

Now, during the peaceful era of the Five Great Nations, she worked as a part-time teacher at the Ninja Academy.

Most teachers at the academy were at the chunin level, so a jonin like her was a rarity.

Usually, at this time, she would be at her desk grading assignments.

But after feeling the 10% increase in her chakra, all her attention was focused on the diary.

"This student Takasaki is truly precocious. Instead of focusing on his studies, he's actually set his sights on me, dreaming of marrying me along with other young girls in the future... I am his teacher, for heaven's sake."

If this were just an ordinary diary, she would definitely have a talk with Takasaki and give him a lecture on morality when he came to school on Monday.

The problem was that this diary was anything but ordinary; it could actually make her stronger!

The 10% increase in her chakra was undeniably real.

Kurenai Yuhi was truly in a bind.

This diary was simply too miraculous, and she wasn't sure what other functions it might have, so she didn't dare to act rashly.

Since the diary could give her rewards, could it also inflict punishments?

If she accidentally left a bad impression on Takasaki and he criticized her in the diary, would the diary punish her?

Kurenai Yuhi didn't dare to test that theory.

"Damn it, my thoughts are actually being manipulated by a student like Takasaki."

"This diary is my secret; I must never let anyone else know about it."

After a moment of contemplation, she made her decision.

"Forget it, I'll just wait and see. As long as I don't do anything, I can't go wrong."

Kurenai Yuhi's gaze fell on the line in the diary where her name appeared.

She stared at it for a long time, then lowered her head, her eyes resting on her own fair, rounded thighs, and she wondered in confusion, "My legs... can be played with for a year? How exactly are they played with?"