“Minato, do you smell something?” Kushina, who was about to start cooking, suddenly caught a whiff of an incredibly enticing aroma.
“Yeah, it smells like something delicious frying,” Minato nodded.
“Right? It smells so good. How did they make it?” Kushina sniffed the air, her curiosity piqued.
She cooked too and had made tempura before, but her food never produced such an enticing aroma. Just the scent made her imagine the perfect golden crispiness of the food.
“I have to go check it out,” Kushina said as she walked out.
She followed the scent, realising it came from the house to the right of Minato’s.
“Hey, isn’t that Mokutsuki’s house? Minato, come out here!” Kushina called to Minato from the doorway.
If she remembered correctly, this was the home of Mokutsuki, the academy teacher they had recently met.
Though they had only known him for a few days, Mokutsuki had left a strong impression on Kushina.
Blonde hair and blue eyes similar to Minato’s, well-spoken, and a talented teacher.
Minato came out and looked where Kushina was pointing, nodding. “Yes, that’s Mokutsuki’s house.”
“Let’s go visit our neighbour,” Kushina said, pulling Minato along to knock on Mokutsuki’s door.
Mokutsuki placed the shrimp tempura on a plate, set down his chopsticks, and walked to the door.
As soon as he opened it, Kushina eagerly asked, “Mokutsuki, are you cooking dinner?”
“Sorry to bother you,” Minato said apologetically, noticing Mokutsuki was still wearing an apron.
“No problem, I just finished cooking. You’re just in time,” Mokutsuki said with a warm smile, inviting them in.
Following the aroma, Kushina found her way to the dining table, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the golden tempura. It was indeed the source of the wonderful smell.
Only then did she notice another delicious scent, this time of fried rice.
“Mokutsuki, you’re quite the hidden chef. I could smell the tempura from next door,” Kushina praised.
“I wouldn’t call myself a chef. I just cook often since I live alone,” Mokutsuki said, pouring water into two cups for Minato and Kushina.
“You should try it. I just made it,” Mokutsuki said, setting out two sets of utensils.
“Really? I noticed you haven’t eaten yet,” Kushina said, eyeing the tempura.
“I’m about to start,” Mokutsuki said, picking up a piece of tempura and taking a bite.
“Thank you for having us,” Minato said.
“I’m starting,” Kushina said with her hands together in a quick prayer before picking up a piece of steaming tempura with her chopsticks.
“Wow!” As she bit into the crispy exterior, the juicy, tender shrimp inside made her eyes widen in surprise.
And then, something incredible happened. For a moment, Kushina felt like she was underwater, in a beautiful blue ocean, swimming freely and happily as a fish.
“Huh?” She quickly snapped back to reality, almost thinking she had fallen under a genjutsu.
But then she realized there was no one around capable of casting a genjutsu on her.
“Mokutsuki, how did you make this tempura? Did you use some strange mushrooms?” Kushina asked, half-jokingly.
She had heard of ninjas picking mushrooms in the summer, only to end up in the Konoha hospital, claiming they needed help trimming the branches growing from them.
“Uh, no. It’s just prepared like this…” Mokutsuki briefly explained his cooking process.
Just then, Kushina noticed that Minato had gone silent after taking a bite of the fried rice. She looked at him and saw he was staring off into space, so she nudged him.
“Minato, what’s wrong?” Kushina asked.
Minato replied absentmindedly, “Eating wild greens.”
“What wild greens? There’s nothing but egg and scallions in the fried rice,” Kushina said, confused.
“After eating the fried rice, I felt like I had become a wild chicken living in the mountains…” Minato explained.
Kushina looked at the fried rice, each grain of rice plump and golden, almost glowing.
She realized that while she had been focused on the tempura, the fried rice seemed to be glowing!
“This is the best fried rice I’ve ever had,” Minato said, unable to resist taking another two bites.
“Is it really that good? You should try the tempura,” Kushina said, puzzled.
Then, Kushina tried the fried rice, and Minato tried the tempura.
Both of their faces reflected shock and delight once again.
“Mokutsuki, did you develop some sort of Jutsu to make your cooking taste this good? This is amazing!” Kushina joked.
“If you ever think of opening a restaurant, please let me know,” Minato said earnestly.
He wasn’t usually one to indulge in such luxuries, but Mokutsuki’s fried rice and tempura had given him an unparalleled experience.
“If you like, you can come over anytime. It gets quite lonely here,” Mokutsuki invited with a smile.
“As long as you don’t mind, I’d love to. Maybe you can try our cooking too, though it’s not as good as yours,” Kushina said, excited by the invitation.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Mokutsuki replied with a smile.
After seeing them off, Mokutsuki thought, “This new skill is indeed powerful. I’ve already gotten to the point of exchanging meals.”
He brought down some books from the upstairs bedroom, preparing to gradually show his interest.
…
Encouraged by Mokutsuki and with Asuma’s perseverance as an example, Obito trained with renewed determination. By Saturday, he was almost done with chakra control training and ready to start nature transformation.
On the weekend, Mokutsuki resumed his duties as a tutor.
“You liar!” Asuma shouted at Mokutsuki.
Last week, he had pushed himself to the limit to avoid wasting the expensive tutoring fee, returning home exhausted.
The more effort and pain he put into training, the more he resented Mokutsuki upon learning the truth.
“Oh, what did I lie about?” Mokutsuki asked with a smile.
“Your tutoring fee is 2,000 ryo per hour, but you told me it was 25,000 ryo!” Asuma fumed.
“And what did you lose? Did you really give me 25,000 ryo?” Mokutsuki asked.
“Of course, I…” Asuma began, but then realized he hadn’t lost anything.
“See, you didn’t lose anything. In fact, you gained. You thought you spent 200,000 ryo but only spent 16,000 ryo, saving 184,000 ryo. You should thank me,” Mokutsuki quickly said.
“I gained?” Asuma thought it over and realized he did save money.
“Then it’s settled. Let’s start training,” Mokutsuki said calmly.
“No, wait, this doesn’t feel right,” Asuma protested.
(This chapter ends)
Become a Patron read up to 30 chapter ahead public release ^_^
Please join Discord Server so we can talk ^_^
