Aokawa responded to every greeting with a gentle, natural smile.
"Ah! Aokawa-kun smiled at us!"
A ripple of squeals erupted from the girls. Even as they walked away, their giggles floated back on the wind.
Ryosuke watched Aokawa with eyes green with envy.
How does he do it?
They walked further.
"Hello, Aokawa-kun."
Two more girls, blossoming into teenagers, stood by the road. They beamed at him, ignoring the round boy beside him completely.
"Kyoko. Yui. Nanako."
Ryosuke's envy turned into jealousy, then into a twisted, existential crisis.
Once they were out of earshot, he snapped.
"How? You can't even remember the hand seals for the Transformation Jutsu, but you remember every girl's name?"
"Maybe beautiful things leave a deeper impression..." Aokawa mused.
Truthfully, he was confused too. The memories his predecessor left behind were fuzzy on ninjutsu but 4K ultra-HD when it came to girls.
"Didn't you say if you couldn't pay me back, you'd introduce me to a wife?"
Ryosuke suddenly pivoted topics.
"Yes." Aokawa blinked. "Why bring that up now?"
Ryosuke took a deep breath.
"I want to get married..."
"You animal!"
Aokawa looked at him in shock. "You're twelve! Why are you thinking about marriage?"
"I... I'm mature for my age, okay?!" Ryosuke defended himself, neck stiff.
Seeing Aokawa stare at him silently, he broke.
"Okay, fine. I liked that Nanako girl just now. Introduce me."
He winked, giving a "you know what to do" look.
Aokawa relaxed. "Is that all..."
He waved his hand, about to promise, but his eyes involuntarily drifted over Ryosuke's rotund physique. He swallowed the second half of his sentence.
"I will definitely pay back the 30,000 Ryo," Aokawa said suddenly, his tone firm.
"NO!" The fatty wailed in despair.
Aokawa shook his head. Even for a setup, the compatibility gap was too wide. He couldn't do that to Nanako.
Seeing Aokawa unmoved, Ryosuke changed tactics.
He leaned in, whispering conspiratorially. "You're popular. What's your secret technique?"
His face was a mask of thirst for knowledge.
"Technique?"
"To get girls!"
"Want to learn? I'll teach you!" Aokawa raised an eyebrow.
"Yes! Tell me quickly!"
"Do me a favor in a few days!"
"Done!" The fatty thumped his chest.
"That easy?"
"Stop stalling! Speak!"
Aokawa rubbed his chin, scrolling through his predecessor's memories of female interaction.
Ryosuke waited, eyes shining, already fantasizing about a harem.
"First," Aokawa began his lecture. "When you see a girl look at you, you must smile at her."
"Look at me? What if they don't look?"
"They will. The key is the smile." Aokawa emphasized.
"The smile?"
"Yes. It must be sunny. Warm."
Aokawa demonstrated, flashing the smile that had just melted hearts.
Ryosuke watched. It didn't look special. He smiled like that all the time.
Still, he muttered the keywords. "Sunny... warm... smile."
He remembered the girls cheering earlier. He felt like he was grasping a profound truth.
"And then?" Ryosuke asked.
"And then? Then they flock to you enthusiastically."
Aokawa gave a "isn't it obvious?" look.
"That's it?" Ryosuke's face fell.
"That's it. I've always done that, and it's never failed."
Aokawa spoke with the confidence of someone who had never known struggle.
Ryosuke's face collapsed. He glared at Aokawa with pure hatred.
I waited for this?
He was naive. He expected a strategy from a guy playing on Easy Mode.
Of course it works for you. You could stand there and breathe, and they'd flock.
Jealousy, envy, and hate swirled in his heart.
Thank god heaven is fair. It gave him a face, but welded the door to ninja talent shut.
Ryosuke consoled himself. I graduated two years ago. He's still repeating. Balance is restored.
They walked in silence, Ryosuke nursing his wounded ego.
Until a girl with rare, ruby-red eyes walked past them. She nodded politely, then kept walking.
Kurenai Yuhi.
Ryosuke came back to life instantly.
"Hey. Did you and Kurenai... break up?"
"Huh?" Aokawa looked confused.
"I was going to give you space, but you just greeted her like a neighbor."
"I greeted everyone else, didn't I?"
"It's not the same!"
Ryosuke's numb face lit up with the thrill of gossip.
"You two used to be close. What? The confession failed, so now you're strangers?"
He nudged Aokawa, grinning.
"Even our handsome lord gets rejected..."
Confession failed?
Aokawa searched the memory archives. He found a dusty file in the corner.
Ah.
His predecessor had indeed confessed to Kurenai. And she had politely rejected him with the classic line: "I don't want to think about romance right now."
He shook his head.
He didn't care about these playground romance games.
The Third Great Ninja War was coming.
When the shortage hit, the higher-ups wouldn't care who was the dead-last. They would pass everyone, slap a headband on them, and feed them into the grinder.
Konoha fighting four nations at once was a meat processing plant. Genin and Chunin lives were cheaper than kunai.
He needed to reach Jonin level—or at least high Special Jonin—before he was deployed. Otherwise, he was just a statistic.
"Usually people confess after graduating. You haven't even graduated; of course you failed!" The fatty was still analyzing beside him.
"Shut up!"