Mei Terumi: I Need Information on Takasaki

Takasaki didn't snap out of his daze until he walked out of the Ninja Academy, still savoring his hug from Teacher Kurenai Yuhi.

A hug from a mature, intelligent woman was simply wonderful—words couldn't do it justice.

Of course, he wanted to take things further and get to know Teacher Kurenai on a deeper level. The problem was, he knew he couldn't rush into something like that.

No need to hurry. I can take my time. Besides, Teacher Kurenai told me I could ask her for help whenever I needed it.

There'll be plenty of chances to spend time together.

Instead of heading home, Takasaki made his way toward Ichiraku Ramen.

Naruto had promised to treat him to Ichiraku Ramen after the exam.

Takasaki wasn't about to pass up a chance to get a free meal.

When he arrived at Ichiraku Ramen, he exchanged a few words with Teuchi, who was wearing a white work uniform and kneading dough.

For some reason, a thread in Takasaki's mind seemed to twitch. As he recalled the memories of his body's previous owner, he suddenly sensed something was off.

"According to what Teacher Kurenai said earlier, she and my parents were very close. But in my memories of spending time with them, whenever my parents came home for dinner, they'd tell me about everything they'd been through, just like they were chatting about everyday things. The problem is, they never mentioned Teacher Kurenai."

"If Teacher Kurenai was that close to my parents, they should have mentioned her at least once."

A thought surfaced in Takasaki's mind.

Could Teacher Kurenai... have been lying to me?

The moment the thought occurred to him, Takasaki dismissed it as absurd.

He was probably just being paranoid.

After all, Teacher Kurenai had helped him cheat several times. When he turned in his exam early, she had even taken him to her private office to comfort him—and given him a few seconds of loving hugs.

If Teacher Kurenai was lying to him, what would she stand to gain?

There was nothing she could get from him.

So there was no reason for her to lie.

I'm awful. Teacher Kurenai's been so good to me, and I actually doubted her. To make it up to her, I'll marry her someday and treat her even better, while still respecting her as my teacher.

Not just showing respect on the surface, either. He'd respect her from the bottom of his heart.

He'd respect her from the outside in—from the couch to the balcony, then to the bed, where he'd show her respect seven times in one night.

At the same time, Takasaki felt a little puzzled. "Why hasn't Naruto come yet?"

After all, Naruto had already copied everything he needed to cheat on the exam. The questions that remained were all ones he couldn't answer.

Logically, after watching Takasaki turn in his paper early, Naruto should have finished early and left soon after.

At that moment.

Ninja Academy.

Naruto had been green with envy at the dashing way Takasaki had turned in his exam early.

Just a few minutes after Takasaki left, Naruto had stood up to turn in his paper too, only to be sternly scolded by Teacher Asuma.

"Naruto, Naruto. Your grades are poor, and your exam scores are already low. You should be spending more time on your paper. Even classmates like Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Sasuke, whose grades are who knows how much better than yours, are still carefully checking their answers. You really shouldn't be turning in your paper early."

"But Takasaki turned his in early too," Naruto replied without thinking.

"Takasaki is different."

As soon as Asuma mentioned Takasaki, he felt annoyed.

He instinctively wanted to light a cigarette, but remembering that he was in an exam room, he suppressed the urge and glared at Naruto. "Go back to your seat. Don't make me tell you again."

Naruto didn't dare say a word. He obediently returned to his seat, muttering to himself, Why can Takasaki turn his paper in early, but I can't?

They were in the same class. They were both dead-last students, both orphans, and they'd even copied the same answers. What was so different about him and Takasaki?

Naruto couldn't figure it out.

He couldn't be bothered to overthink it, either.

Forget it.

I'll turn in my paper after the exam's over.

He and Takasaki had agreed to go eat Ichiraku Ramen together after the exam. Takasaki should be waiting for him there now.

Whatever happened, with Takasaki's help, he was sure to pass this exam.

At the same time, Naruto felt lucky.

It was a good thing his seat had been assigned next to Takasaki. If he'd been seated somewhere else, he wouldn't have been able to copy Takasaki's answers.

And if he'd been seated next to Sakura, that would have been even worse. Even if he'd managed to cheat, Sakura would have reported him like crazy.

Naruto glanced toward Sakura Haruno. She had her head lowered, apparently lost in thought.

To be honest, he still liked Sakura.

After all, he'd spent years fawning over her. It would take time to change that ingrained habit.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. What would happen if I gave Takasaki all the attention I've been giving Sakura?

Sakura didn't care about his affection, but Takasaki was genuinely willing to help him.

Meanwhile.

At the lectern.

Asuma, wearing a green jonin uniform, noticed Naruto's movements and snapped, "Naruto, focus on your paper!"

Naruto hurriedly lowered his head and pretended to concentrate.

Asuma picked up the only exam paper on the lectern. It was Takasaki's.

He checked Takasaki's paper again. All the answers were still correct, far more than enough to pass.

And yet, the better Takasaki did, the more displeased Asuma felt.

His instincts told him that Takasaki had definitely copied the answers. The problem was, Asuma had been smoking in the hallway the whole time and hadn't caught him cheating.

More importantly, his girlfriend Kurenai Yuhi had been supervising the exam. If he accused Takasaki of cheating, he'd be questioning Kurenai's ability to invigilate.

What bothered him most was that he'd questioned Takasaki in front of Kurenai earlier, only for her to shoot him down.

His own girlfriend hadn't just refused to back him up—she'd sided with a dead-last student whose grades were abysmal.

That really got under Asuma's skin.

Of course, he couldn't take out his frustration on Kurenai. He hadn't even held her hand yet.

So naturally, he took it out on Takasaki instead.

"Takasaki might have cheated on the written exam, but he won't be able to cheat on the ninjutsu test in ten days. I'll be supervising it myself."

"I know how good Takasaki is at the Three Body Technique. He hasn't mastered a single one. Let's see how he talks his way out of it then."

If Asuma didn't announce that Takasaki had failed the ninjutsu test in front of Kurenai ten days from now, the frustration pent up inside him would be hard to swallow.

Asuma was a jonin who had taken part in the war. He was also one of Konoha's Guardian Shinobi Twelve.

He wasn't going to waste a great deal of energy picking a fight with Takasaki, a dead-last student.

Especially once the bell rang to mark the end of the written exam. After collecting the papers, he pushed open Kurenai's office door and saw his girlfriend sitting elegantly at her desk, grading papers. All his attention went straight to her.

"Hey, Kurenai. I'm here." He closed the office door.

Kurenai looked up at Asuma, her brows drawing together slightly. "No smoking."

"I won't," Asuma said with a grin.

He walked over and placed the stack of collected papers on the corner of her desk. "I've collected all the papers."

As he spoke, he pulled the open curtains shut.

He was about to get intimate with his girlfriend and didn't want anyone outside to see.

But the moment he closed the curtains, Kurenai stood up and swept them open with a swish. "Don't close the curtains. It's too dark."

"It's fine if they're open." Asuma smiled, though his hopes quietly faded.

He knew Kurenai was a conservative woman. Getting intimate with her wouldn't be easy.

He hadn't even held her hand, let alone hugged her.

Asuma wasn't in a hurry.

Kurenai's conservative nature actually made him feel secure.

He was a Konoha jonin and the Hokage's son. If even someone of his standing couldn't win Kurenai over easily, then surely no one else could.

There were benefits to being conservative.

At least no one else could get close to her easily, and his girlfriend wouldn't sneak around behind his back.

Asuma somehow produced a rose and set it beside Kurenai's hand. "Kurenai, today's our hundredth day together."

"Time really flies. We've been together for a hundred days already." Kurenai smiled.

She looked at the rose beside her hand and suddenly felt strange.

Before, Asuma's unexpected romantic gestures had always managed to surprise and delight her, at least a little.

But ever since she'd gotten the diary, what she wanted more than anything was for Takasaki to write her name in it more often.

No matter how romantic a rose was, it couldn't compare to having Takasaki record her name in his diary several times. That would be much more useful.

That was what Kurenai thought, but of course she didn't let it show.

First, she couldn't let anyone find out about the diary.

Second, as Asuma's girlfriend, she didn't want to spoil his mood.

She had to at least pretend to be happy.

She pinched the stem between her slender, fair fingers and held it near her nose. "It smells so nice. Thank you for the rose, Asuma. I love it. You're such a good man."

"Let's go out for a nice dinner to celebrate."

Asuma came up behind Kurenai and bent down, tentatively reaching for her hand.

But before he could touch it, Kurenai pushed his hand away. "Maybe later."

She covered her nose too. "You smell too strongly of smoke. It's making me uncomfortable."

Then she added, "You should go. I need to focus on grading these papers and do right by my students."

"All right. Take care of yourself, and don't work too hard."

Asuma's hopes were dashed.

He left the office and closed the door behind him. Then he lifted his hand to his nose and sniffed carefully. There really was a bit of a smoky smell.

He resisted the urge to smoke. "Looks like if I want to get physical with Kurenai, I'll have to quit smoking."

Inside the office, Kurenai stood up, closed the curtains, and locked the door. Then she took the diary out of her mental space and flipped through it.

Has Takasaki still not written in it?

Even a mature, intelligent woman was eager to receive the diary's rewards.

Especially when she knew that what had happened between her and Takasaki today might be recorded in his diary. That made her anticipation even stronger.

The sun climbed higher.

The written exam ended soon after.

The examinees handed in their papers and left the exam room. As they compared answers and anxiously waited for the results to be announced in ten days, the Ninja Academy grew quiet.

Kurenai continued grading papers in her office.

About every half hour, she opened the diary to check whether anything new had appeared. But even by lunchtime, there was still nothing new in it.

"Why hasn't Takasaki written anything new?"

Kurenai muttered to herself, but she wasn't impatient. "He'll definitely write something later."

She was confident.

Takasaki's next diary entry should mention her name several times.

Kirigakure.

The Mizukage Building, Intelligence Department.

Mei Terumi slammed her hand against the desk. "Information! I need information on Takasaki! You haven't found anything at all?"

"We're already doing our best to find him. There's no one named Takasaki in Kirigakure. The shinobi we sent out are searching the surrounding villages."

"Hurry! You need to hurry," Mei urged.

The head of the Intelligence Department was in a difficult position.

Over the past few days, Mei had come to the Intelligence Department every day to ask about Takasaki.

The key problem was, they had combed through Kirigakure's household registration records and found no one by that name.

They could be sure that Takasaki wasn't a resident of Kirigakure. That made finding him more difficult.

Even so, given the Land of Water's diplomatic relations with the other four great nations, finding someone wasn't all that hard, generally speaking.

That was, as long as Takasaki actually existed.

They were sure to get information on him within a month at most.

But early that morning, Mei had acted as if she were going crazy. The Intelligence Department wasn't even open yet, and she was already waiting outside.

"Lady Mei Terumi, I know you're in a hurry, but please try to stay calm."

"Stay calm? How could I possibly stay calm?"

Mei had originally planned to wait patiently.

After all, the diary was hers alone. Sooner or later, she'd find Takasaki, and sooner or later, he'd write her name in a future entry, letting her receive rewards with ease.

But the second diary entry that had appeared last night had left her in a panic, filling her with a sense of crisis.

The diary wasn't hers alone!

A girl named Hinata had a diary too!

And Hinata had found a way to get close to Takasaki and make him write her name in his diary many times, earning herself an extra reward!

An increase of ten percent to her stamina.

Mei couldn't help envying that reward.

She'd recently been assigned to capture Kirigakure's missing-nin, Zabuza. For one thing, she still didn't have any information on Zabuza and didn't know where he was.

Even if she got information on Zabuza, would she be certain to beat him if she faced him?

No.

Because when Zabuza graduated from the Kirigakure Ninja Academy, he'd killed every other student.

Later, he'd even dared to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage—and escaped successfully.

That was more than enough to prove just how formidable Zabuza was.

Mei Terumi didn't think she could guarantee a win against an elite rogue ninja like him.

But if she could increase her stamina by 10%, she felt her chances of winning would improve significantly.

So all night, Mei Terumi lay in bed, tossing and turning as she thought about it.

If only that 10% increase in Hinata's stamina had been awarded to her instead.

And yet, she didn't even know where Takasaki was right now.

"If you get any information on Takasaki, tell me immediately!" Mei Terumi repeated, pounding the table for emphasis.

Everyone in Kirigakure knew how beautiful Mei Terumi was.

Whether back when she was at the Ninja Academy or after she became an elite jonin of Kirigakure, she'd always had plenty of men pursuing her.

Yet Mei Terumi thought little of men, and she'd never been known to have a relationship.

As a result, the ninjas of Kirigakure privately speculated that Mei Terumi had surely never even had her first kiss, and wondered which man would be lucky enough to receive it someday.

And these past few days...

Mei Terumi had been frantically asking about a person named Takasaki.

Going by the name, he was a man.

According to Mei Terumi, Takasaki had no grudge against her and wasn't a relative of hers, yet she was so preoccupied with him.

What could make a woman act this way?

It was probably love.

"Lady Mei Terumi, may I ask what your relationship is with this person named Takasaki? You seem so preoccupied with him. Is he someone you like?" asked one of the intelligence department's team leaders, curiosity getting the better of him.

The words had barely left his mouth.

The entire intelligence department fell silent.

Every eye turned toward Mei Terumi.