Sakura looked worriedly at Sasuke.
"Sasuke… I can lend you some money."
A faint blush crept onto Sasuke's face before he forced out a cold reply, arms crossed under his chin.
"Idiot. This time it was Ayato-sensei who told us to train for five days and defeat the enemy. He'll teach us even if we don't pay."
"Really?" Sakura blinked. If Ayato didn't take payment this time, she could save a lot of money—and maybe buy some new clothes once they returned to the village.
"Tch, acting all cool… we'll see about that!" Naruto snorted.
"Hmph." Sasuke exhaled sharply.
Naruto copied him with exaggerated attitude. "Hmph!"
A flash of blue lightning cracked through the air—Ayato appeared before the three instantly.
"Having a meeting, are we? Discussing how heartless I am for making you genin fight an enemy?"
Ayato casually summoned a soft couch, set it down on the grass, crossed his legs, and looked at them with faint amusement.
"N-No, we weren't!" Sakura's face turned pink as she hurriedly looked away. She had been complaining earlier.
After all, Ayato could easily defeat the enemy himself. Why make three rookie genin confront someone that strong?
Naruto rushed forward and hugged Ayato's leg.
"Ayato-sensei! Please train me! Teach me that super-powerful Black Coffin thing!"
"You little brat, you couldn't learn that even if you died trying." Ayato kicked Naruto aside without hesitation.
A ninja learning kido?
Dream on.
Naruto scrambled up again, covered in dust.
"Then how am I supposed to get stronger?!"
"I can train you, no problem. But have you heard the saying—'teach a student too well and the master starves'?" Ayato stroked his chin, feigning deep distress.
"What should I do…? I'm a little short on cash lately."
"..."
The whole of Team 7 stared silently.
There it is.
The hint.
Their teacher was blatantly asking children for money.
What kind of adult does this?
What kind of teacher does this?
Probably only Ayato-sensei, in the entire ninja world.
"Don't look at me like that," Ayato said calmly. "Even someone like me gets shy sometimes. Adults are dirty creatures."
He leaned forward mysteriously.
"And what I'm about to teach you is super strong."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Really strong?"
"Super—strong." Ayato stretched the word out dramatically.
"Strong enough to beat that Turtle-man?" Naruto gulped.
Sakura slapped him on the shoulder. "It's Demon—not turtle!"
Ayato shrugged. "Hard to say. But with effort, maybe. Zabuza is a jōnin."
"Ayato-sensei… he really is a tur— cough, cough…"
Sakura caught herself mid-sentence and flushed.
"Please teach me that super strong move!"
Naruto placed his frog wallet beside Ayato and began massaging his shoulders with a servile grin.
"Once I learn it, I'll beat that… whatever-he-is!"
"Well well, you actually saved up a lot." Ayato opened the wallet and inspected the worn bills.
Clearly money Naruto had hoarded over years.
"Ayato-sensei… me too."
Sakura shyly held out her pink wallet.
"You want me to teach you how to grow—?" Ayato glanced pointedly at her chest.
"I'll grow just fine on my own!!"
Sakura turned scarlet and covered her chest with both arms before retreating several steps, glaring at him.
Ayato ignored her outburst and turned to Sasuke.
"And you?"
Sasuke looked away with a proud "Hmph. I'm broke."
"No problem," Ayato said with a benevolent smile. "Since I'm technically an adult, I should give children a chance. From now on, I'll just take your future mission payments as tuition."
"Y–You—!" Sasuke's face went dark. He nearly snapped back, but Ayato's cold gaze made the words die in his throat.
This wasn't tuition.
This was protection money.
Naruto snickered behind his hands.
Good thing he had saved up.
"Sit. Class is starting."
Ayato grabbed Naruto by the collar and tossed him onto the ground.
Naruto landed with a thud. "You jerk!"
Sasuke and Sakura also sat down obediently.
Ayato crossed his legs again.
"Now then… where to begin? First I'll teach you: shape transformation, nature transformation, and chakra emission."
Team 7 stared blankly.
Shape what?
Nature what?
The only thing they vaguely understood was "chakra emission."
"Ayato-sensei, I didn't get a word of that," Naruto complained.
"With your brain, that's normal. I'll just show you."
Ayato raised his hand.
A swirl of pale blue chakra gathered in his palm—then began spinning violently, forming a condensed, spiraling sphere.
"Rasengan."
He let the glowing sphere hover above his hand.
"After emitting chakra, you compress it, shape it, and rotate it. Rasengan is the peak of pure shape transformation."
Sakura froze for a moment—then quickly pulled out a notebook and began writing frantically.
"So chakra can be used like this… amazing."
Naruto pressed a finger to his forehead thoughtfully.
"Chakra… spin… compress… right… I get it! If I learn shape transformation, I can learn Rasengan!"
"...…"
Everyone stared.
Ayato sighed.
"Great explanation. Don't ever say it again."
"Emitting chakra is hard. Controlling emitted chakra is even harder. This must be a difficult move," Sasuke muttered, Sharingan spinning.
Even with his two-tomoe Sharingan, he couldn't fully follow Ayato's chakra control.
Ayato thought seriously.
"Difficult? Hmm… I learned it in about three minutes, so not really."
He wasn't bragging—he genuinely had no idea the technique was supposed to be difficult.
After all, he really did master it in three minutes.
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