It worked.
Kakashi was taken care of.
It might have been a bit of an abuse of the system, but... whatever. As long as the results were good.
Uchiha Makoto stole glances at Kakashi as he ate.
But then he suddenly felt that something was off.
The guy was still staring into space. Kakashi... didn't seem any different?
He still had those dead-fish eyes, that expressionless face, and that same "I'm aloof, so leave me alone" look.
What happened to "best friends"?
What happened to "growing closer"?
Why wasn't he reacting at all?
Uchiha Makoto thought it over carefully, then suddenly understood.
It wasn't that the system hadn't worked. Kakashi had already considered him a friend.
Over the past month, they had trained together, eaten together, chatted together, and faced life and death together.
Kakashi never said it aloud, but his actions had long since shown that he considered Makoto a comrade.
So the lie about being "best friends"... wasn't actually a lie?
Uchiha Makoto suddenly felt a little uneasy.
He had used the system and exploited Kakashi's trust to slowly "grind" his affection, originally just wanting another ATM and another useful pawn.
But Kakashi was serious. The guy really did see him as a friend.
"Tsk." Uchiha Makoto bit into his steamed bun, chewing a little harder than necessary. "Why does this... feel a bit like being a scumbag?"
Forget it.
A scumbag it was, then.
He wasn't a good person anyway.
Uchiha Makoto shook his head, shaking off those tangled thoughts.
The most important thing now was to return to the village, then... face those old foxes.
At the same time, in Konoha, in the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, pipe in hand, his brow furrowed deeply enough to crush a fly.
An Anbu operative