I Want to Idle at Home

Meanwhile...

After school that evening, Itachi hurried home early.

Sasuke had been especially fussy lately.

Perhaps he had reached his clingy phase. Every day, he woke up crying for his big brother, leaving Itachi rather helpless.

When he got home, he saw his mother, Mikoto, holding Sasuke and murmuring softly to him.

"Don't cry, don't cry. Sasuke is such a good boy. Our little Sasuke is such a good boy."

But it did not seem to help much.

Sasuke's cries could be heard from far away.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

"Waaah! Waaah!"

Who knew what he was so upset about? Perhaps he wanted his big brother.

"Mother, let me."

Itachi changed his clothes and walked over.

"Ah, thanks for the help." Mikoto handed the swaddled Sasuke to Itachi.

As soon as Itachi took him, the crying stopped.

Sasuke stared at his big brother with his delicate little face, then began to giggle.

"Aww..."

A smile appeared on Itachi's lips as well.

"You really are a handful."

Evening came.

His father, Fugaku, returned home.

At dinnertime, Itachi left Sasuke in a room by himself. While eating, he casually told his father about what had happened at school that day.

"Gua is a really impressive kid my age."

Fugaku glanced at Itachi.

Of course he knew Uchiha Gua. As clan head, he needed to know every member of the clan.

But as far as he knew, Uchiha Gua was nothing like Itachi described.

That child was a bot.

"In class today, he could actually extract chakra. Even Mr. Yofune was surprised."

"Oh, is that so?"

Fugaku did not take it to heart.

Extracting chakra was the first step in a ninja's training, and also the simplest. An ordinary person who worked diligently would generally see some results in eight or nine days.

So it was nothing remarkable.

And just like that, another day passed.

The next day.

Gua headed to school as usual.

Before he even reached the school gates, he heard someone calling his name.

"Gua!"

"Gua!"

"Over here!"

Gua turned to look. Izumi was waving excitedly at him as she ran over with a cheerful smile.

She held two skewers of dango.

Three dumplings, three colors.

This must be the Three-Color Dango Izumi said she loved so much.

So Gua thought.

It was not that he was craving Izumi's Three-Color Dango. The Three-Color Dango in the original story had simply left a deep impression on him, so he recognized it the moment he saw it.

"Gua! I made these myself. Try one."

Izumi handed Gua one skewer and kept the other.

Gua did not refuse.

He had no intention of keeping everyone at arm's length. Aside from Itachi, he could get along perfectly well with other people.

After all, she was only being kind.

Gua took a bite.

The outside seemed to have been brushed with caramel and sweet soy sauce. The bite was sticky and soft, the aroma of mochi filling his nose as sweetness lingered in his mouth.

"The Three-Color Dango from that shop in town is the best, but I haven't managed to buy any lately. Let's go get some together next time, Gua."

Izumi ate her Three-Color Dango while looking at Gua expectantly.

Gua froze mid-bite.

For some inexplicable reason, he suddenly thought of Ximen Qing's story.

After killing Wu Dalang and taking Pan Jinlian for himself, the victim's younger brother, "Wu Song," would come storming to his door, roar, "Pay for my brother's life!" and chop him into pieces...

Gua did not know why his mind had gone there. Perhaps idling for too long had made his imagination run wild, or perhaps the sticky Three-Color Dango had gummed up his brain.

"Your Three-Color Dango is delicious, but there's no need to go into town together. Thank you."

After finishing the Three-Color Dango, Gua casually waved the bamboo skewer, thanked her, and tossed the stick onto the ground.

It was not that he lacked manners.

It was that nobody in Konoha had any.

He arrived at the classroom.

Gua discovered that Itachi was not there yet.

Sasuke must have held him up again.

Sure enough, as the bell rang, Itachi appeared in the classroom doorway, rushed inside in a fluster, and sat down beside Gua.

"Phew..."

"I almost missed the bell."

"Sasuke held me up again today. I can't keep letting him act up like that."

Gua said, "You really are a good big brother."

Itachi turned to look at Gua in surprise. "You're in a good mood today, Gua?"

Gua smiled faintly.

"I'm in a good mood every day."

"Another day of idling."

He opened the panel.

[Taijutsu (10x boost active)]

[Eyesight (10x boost active)]

[Chakra extraction (10x boost active)]

There was nothing to change.

Gua planned to wait a little longer and see when chakra extraction would reach its maximum level through idling.

Idling his Taijutsu and eyesight would probably be a very long process. He just wondered whether idling his eyesight would eventually unlock his Sharingan.

That would be ideal. If it did not work, he had no intention of killing anyone to awaken his eyes.

He would let things take their course.

Level up by idling!

He should be able to surpass Itachi even without the Sharingan.

Time flew, and the days slipped by.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

There was nothing particularly special about school life. Aside from teaching theory, the teacher rambled about vague historical stories. It felt rather like introductory lessons in elementary school.

During that time, however, some students gradually began to extract chakra.

Everything proceeded step by step.

And Gua had been idling for a week.

He looked at his panel.

[Chakra extraction (10x boost active)]

Looks like it still hasn't hit the maximum level.

Gua murmured inwardly.

One day of idling meant twenty-four hours, equivalent to two hundred and forty hours for anyone else. Assuming a normal person trained for eight hours a day, that was thirty days.

One day of idling equaled a month of someone else's training. A week of idling equaled seven months.

More than half a year.

Gua checked the amount of chakra in his body.

There was more than before, and his chakra extraction speed had improved as well.

Previously, he had needed to stand there for at least half a minute. Now, he needed only a few seconds to connect with the chakra in his body and gather it in his lower abdomen.

His dynamic vision had improved too.

Many things seemed to move in slow motion in his world, much slower than before.

Combined with the considerable improvement in his Taijutsu, his fighting ability had skyrocketed.

Yes, of his three idle-training options, Taijutsu had shown the greatest improvement.

After all, even an ordinary person with terrible talent could develop a few abs after half a year of physical training.

And he was an Uchiha.

His talent might be poor, but he was no ordinary person.

Could I beat Itachi to death now?

With that thought, Gua headed home as usual.

"Gua!"

Someone called to him.

Gua did not need to turn around to know it had to be Izumi.

After spending a week together, he could easily recognize her voice.

Besides, most people would not call his name so excitedly.

"Gua!"

"Tomorrow's a day off. Do you have any plans?"

Izumi ran in front of Gua and walked backward with her hands behind her back, an innocent smile never leaving her face.

"I'm planning to idle at home," Gua replied.

"So you don't have any plans? Can I invite you to go into town with me? I heard that Three-Color Dango shop has another new flavor."

"Oh... but I want to idle at home."

Izumi pouted and huffed. "Gua!"

"What?"

"Then let's never talk to each other again!"

Gua said, "Are you going to idle too?"

"Aaaah!!!"

Izumi was furious.

Gua was heading home.

Izumi grew even more furious.

"Hey, Izumi, what are you doing here? Did you need Gua for something?"

Itachi walked up from behind and asked Izumi curiously.

"No!!"

Izumi gritted her teeth, stamped her foot, and snapped viciously.

Itachi said, "That's good. I was just going to invite Gua to train on the Back Mountain. Shisui will be waiting for us there over the next two days. He said he wanted to give Gua and me some special training."

Like a powder keg ready to explode, Izumi stared straight at Itachi.

Bewildered, Itachi could only hurry away. "See you when school starts again."

Leaving those words behind, Itachi hurried to catch up with Gua.

"Gua, do you have any plans for the days off?"

"I want to idle at home."

"Shisui wants to take us to the Back Mountain to train. He asked me to invite you."

"Can I skip it? I want to idle at home."

"Shisui said that if I couldn't get you to come, he'd visit your house himself."

"Fine-"

So he had been coerced by force.