As soon as my mother heard my voice, she instantly turned towards it and sprang up from her cushion, saying, "Ryu, you woke up?"
The next moment, she appeared in front of me and immediately hugged me. "You're finally awake, my son! Do you know just how worried your father and I were when you fell unconscious for no reason?"
Hearing the worry in her voice and seeing the tears at the corners of her eyes, I immediately felt guilty. I lowered my gaze slightly before saying, "I am sorry, Mother. I really didn't mean to scare you and Father, but I just needed to train hard. And at that time, I definitely knew the consequences of such training. That's why I wrote the letter and informed you and Father about it. I didn't want you both to be worried about me."
After hearing my words, my mother looked at me and said, "Well, we both read your letter, and at first, we really wanted a doctor to examine you. But believing your words in the letter, we did not call for any doctor or take you to the hospital. And according to what you said in the letter, that you would wake up by tomorrow morning—that is, this morning—we decided to wait. But even in the morning, when you didn't wake up, despite breathing fine and showing no visible issues on the surface, we hesitated to call a doctor against your wishes. We had no choice but to call Kakashi, who fortunately was in the village."
After hearing that Kakashi came, I raised an eyebrow. I really wasn't expecting my parents to call Kakashi, but it was quite reasonable, so I understood why they had done so.
My mother continued speaking, "Kakashi came after we called him, and after examining you, he said that your spirit was affected in some way, slightly damaged, and that this only happens when someone is hit with genjutsu. But later on, when he said that you would recover on your own after some rest, we both felt relieved. We don't know what exactly this genjutsu is or how it affects the spirit. Hearing that you would just wake up fine after resting, we were relieved."
After hearing my mother's words, I gave a wry smile and said, "Well, I miscalculated, Mother. I thought that I should be able to recover by the morning, but that clearly did not happen, and I woke up only now, in the afternoon and close to evening. So, sorry. This won't happen again. I promise you that."
After hearing my last sentence, my mother finally calmed down. It seemed that only after hearing my promise did she truly let go of some of the worry she had been carrying. Then, as if remembering what I had said in the first place, she said, "Oh, I talked to you so much. Just sit here. You must be very hungry. You haven't eaten anything since last night."
I gave her a smile, nodded, and sat down at the dining table. Within a quarter of an hour, for starters, my mother gave me a bowl of noodles, which would keep me full for at least an hour or so. Immediately after that, she went on to prepare more food for me, clearly making large portions of meat, which I definitely required for my recovery.
This had already become my habit. I ate a lot of meat since I started training. Because of that, the expenses of the household had definitely increased by quite a lot.
I waited for my mother to finish making the food.
After around an hour, my father also returned from the fields. Although he didn't show it openly, as soon as he saw me, I could definitely feel the relief he felt after seeing me awake. He didn't say any emotional words like my mother. He only asked me one question, "Are you fine now?"
As soon as I heard the question, I replied with a nod, "Yes, Father, I am absolutely fine."
Although his words were not very emotional like my mother's, they were more than enough. After all, fathers generally don't get too emotional. This has been kind of a rule in the world.
By this time, the food was also fully prepared. As my mother served the food, Father also decided to eat right now. At dinner, he would eat some light food if he needed to. If not, then he would simply skip it. It was already evening now, so it wasn't a big issue to have an early dinner. The sun had not set yet, but it was already resting near the horizon, casting the last warm light of the day across the village.
Finally, after I finished eating most of the food, I started feeling better. Father and Mother also ate by my side, but their portions were clearly small, like a normal person's. My portion was quite large, about four to five times larger than theirs, and mostly filled with meat and eggs. After eating so much meat, I definitely felt better. Although my head was still heavy, I had certainly recovered, even if only slightly.
After my mother was done with the dishes, the three of us were seated around the low table in the hall when, after taking a deep breath, I finally decided to bring up the matter that had been on my mind for quite a while now.
"Father, Mother, I think that my strength has increased quite a lot. I think I can work as a ninja now. And even if I don't become a ninja, I can definitely become a bounty hunter to earn money."
As soon as I said this much, Father and Mother simultaneously said, ""No!""
Their immediate response stopped me from speaking any further. Listening to that firm "no," I had already expected this reaction.
Shaking my head slightly, I said, "Well, Father, Mother, I know that you are worried about me, but around 80% of our house income are being spent these days, and the main reasons are my food, and me buying different equipment for my training. Because of that, our expenditure has increased by so much. If this continues, then we won't even have a good amount of money saved for medical emergencies. So, if a medical emergency comes, it might be really bad for us. I have strength now. I can definitely earn money. Staying like this is like I am freeloading on you guys. I don't feel good about it."
My father definitely didn't listen to any of the reasoning I gave him. He immediately shook his head and said, "No, I don't want to hear anything on this matter. You won't become a ninja or any bounty hunter, and that is final."
As soon as Father said this, my mother also chimed in from the side and said, "Well, I agree with your father on this matter. We definitely won't allow you to become a bounty hunter or a ninja."
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