Chapter 48 : Ninja Life

When he arrived at the first floor of the mission hall, Watanabe saw Maito Dai again.

He stood at the edge of the corner, looking at the people passing by in confusion. He was like an alien who had entered another world and was out of tune with everything around him.

Uchiha Chiri also noticed Maito Dai, and an idea suddenly occurred to her. She wanted to take the opportunity to continue teach a lesson to Watanabe that :-

'You see, even if you bring him into the mission hall, it will be useless. No client will entrust the mission to an ordinary person'

"You go first, and I have something to do."

Watanabe hurriedly said to his team and walked towards Maito Dai.

Uchiha Chiri stood still, wanting to see what Watanabe was going to do next, while Hyuga Zero and Higurashi looked curious.

"Didn't you receive the mission?"

A familiar voice came to Maito Dai ears.

Maito Dai turned his head. He saw who was coming and scratched the back of his head and laughed dryly: "Without the identity of a ninja, it is really difficult to get a mission."

Watanabe pondered for a moment.

In fact, on the way he had just walked, he had seen several low-level tasks such as finding cats and dogs and guarding the house, which even ordinary people could do.

But the clients have their own selfish motives. Since they have to pay anyway, they would rather find a ninja with a status, so that the money will be well spent.

"You can borrow my ninja forehead protector."

Watanabe took off the ninja forehead protector and handed it to Maito Dai.

"How can I take this!"

Maito Dai quickly waved his hand to refuse.

"It's okay, you can use this to deceive people first, and then return it to me after you complete the mission." Watanabe said without hesitation. Without some special means, the possibility of Maito Dai receiving the mission was almost zero.

He then told Night Dai his home address and turned to join Chiri and the others who were waiting for him at the door.

Maito Dai stared blankly at the ninja forehead protector in his hand, his eyes gradually filled with tears, and a long-lost warmth surged in his heart.

"Is Watanabe-kun familiar with that person?"

On the way to the barbecue restaurant, Hyuga Zero asked curiously.

Chiri and Higurashi pricked up their ears quietly.

Watanabe shook his head: "Today is just the first time we meet."

Hyuga Zero didn't understand: "why did you lend him your ninja forehead protector the first time you met him?"

"He has no teammates, so it will be easier for him to get missions if he has a forehead protector."

Hyuga Zero seemed to be thinking about something, and after a while she said, "It seems that Watanabe-kun is a very kind person."

Watanabe did not comment on her evaluation, thinking that he was just giving the best possible help to the people he wanted to help. No matter what others said, stupid, kind, hypocritical, or saintly, he had a clear conscience anyway.

"Watanabe-kun is so kind, why didn't you give in to me in the ring yesterday?" Hyuga Zero's expression suddenly became very resentful, like a pure girl who had been hurt by a scumbag.

Watanabe's scalp tightened and he sighed: "It's not that I can't let you, but I also have things I want to do."

"There is actually no deep hatred between us, and the graduation exam has already passed. If you still hold a grudge against me, I can apologise to you. I just hope you will stop being hostile to me."

Watanabe planned to resolve the conflict with her. He couldn't afford to offend this fickle girl, and he might be stabbed in the back by her at any time when doing missions.

Hyuga Zero looked innocent: "Watanabe-kun misunderstood me, I have no hostility towards Watanabe-kun."

Watanabe raised his eyebrows slightly.

'You don't have hostility towards me? Then you just said that your dream is to defeat me. Did you really think that I am as easy to fool as Jiraiya?'

He calmed down and ignored Hyuga Zero. No matter what she did, she could stab him in the back if she wanted to. 

Higurashi was thinking beside him. He felt that what Watanabe did just now was wrong.

The forehead protector is a symbol of a ninja's identity, how can you lend it to others casually?

However, when he saw that even Uchiha Chiri did not speak up, he had no right to teach Watanabe what to do.

After a while, the four of them arrived at one of the most popular barbecue restaurants in Konoha.

Uchiha Chiri was not only an elite  of Konoha, but also a core senior member of the Uchiha clan. Her wallet had never been empty, so she was very generous in treating guests. She ordered a luxurious meal for the three of them right away.

The meal was quite good. Watanabe was afraid of starving himself, so he didn't dare eat too much and he only tried the ingredients that tasted good.

Higurashi was trying to get closer to Hyuga Zero and Uchiha Chiri and he was trying to create topics of conversation at the dinner table. Sometimes he would thank Chiri for his hospitality and sometimes he would ask Hyuga Zero for her guidance in the future.

Hyuga Zero was not bad. She was very gentle and polite to Higurashi and she always had a sweet smile on her face.

Uchiha Chiri, however, was very aloof. She had a 'Cold Ceo' attitude from beginning to end, and she didn't smile even once until the end of the dinner. This made Higurashi very nervous, wondering if she regretted accepting him into the team.

"Starting tomorrow, I will lead you to undertake missions. This is different from your previous life in school. You may encounter all kinds of dangers during the missions, so you must be mentally prepared."

Chiri gave the three people a symbolic warning, and after confirming the time and place for tomorrow's assembly, She let them go back their home.

'My life of a ninja is finally about to begin.'

On the way home, Watanabe had a lot of thoughts going inside his head.

A ninja's duty is to carry out missions. The more missions they complete, the higher their prestige among the villagers will be. If they want to enter the upper echelons of Konoha, they must make some achievements and complete as many missions as possible.

"I haven't seen Tsunade in a while. I missed her."

Watanabe said to himself that even now, he still felt regretful for not being able to become a disciple of the third Hokage.

In fact, he really just treated Tsunade as a friend at the beginning, but since Tsunade took the initiative to clarify their relationship and he kissed her that day, Watanabe realised the importance of Tsunade in his heart.

It was like a ray of light shining into his life.

Watanabe once imagined what his life would be like if he had not met Tsunade. He might enter Danzo's Root to help him clean up the shady things, or he might leave Konoha and wander around. In short, it would not be better than it is now.

That night, Watanabe practised Taijutsu while waiting for Maito Dai to return the forehead protector.

He has already mastered enough ninjutsu and does not need to learn new ninjutsu in the short term. Instead, he should shift his focus to physical skills.

It would be impossible not to make up for the shortcoming in physical skills. If his physical skills had been a little better yesterday, he would have definitely defeated Hyuga Zero, instead of having the Third Hokage come forward to judge the two of them as a draw.

"It would be great if there was a ninjutsu that was both powerful and could damage the body!"

Watanabe was sweating profusely, once again yearning for the kind of physical skill that only existed in his imagination.

The training of physical skills is really difficult, and there is no shortcut. Watanabe estimated that if he took the ordinary path, it would take him about ten to twenty years of practice before he could become famous in physical skills.

But the reality is that he doesn't have that much time left. The Second Ninja World War is about to break out, and he must become strong as soon as possible.

          (Continued…)