Chapter 44: Acting

How could he not compare to that cockroach, Obito?

Even when it came to running a stall, Asuma would never admit that such ridiculous things could happen!

—Just like he refused to admit that Obito had defeated him in Pocket Puppetmon.

In Asuma's view, Obito only got lucky because the teacher chose him to control Charmander during the demonstration, which barely qualified him to compete on the same stage.

Even in the later rounds of their battle, Asuma felt that if he hadn't treated Obito as a teacher's pet and ignored several flaws he considered cheats, he would never have lost to him.

However, the undeniable fact that he lost to Obito still made Asuma feel as uncomfortable as swallowing a fly. Recently, he had become a bit sensitive to anything related to Obito.

So when Asuma heard Hideki-sensei say that he couldn't compare to Obito, he immediately became enraged, and his mind started spinning.

But he quickly took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and started wondering if the teacher was just messing with him.

"Just because Obito's an idiot, it's good that the stall wasn't a scam. How could he get such high praise from the teacher? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

It was clear that the teacher was still smiling, and after all, Asuma couldn't just sit still.

"Teacher, stay here, don't move, I'll go to the bathroom."

After saying this, Asuma quickly dashed off.

Then, not long after, Asuma returned with a strained expression on his face.

If he really went to the bathroom, the process probably wouldn't have been easy.

Luckily, Asuma had actually gone over to Obito's side.

The reason for his strained expression was that he realized what the teacher had said was true, and that Obito's business was actually quite good.

Especially when he saw how easily Obito got along with both adults and children, Asuma realized he felt a little envious…

But the critical blow to Asuma had not yet ended.

Because when he returned to his stall, he discovered that there were also many customers gathered around here.

Hideki had skillfully taken on the role of a street vendor, selling various toys to nearby customers while observing their reactions.

Asuma felt like his teacher didn't need him at all, and his heart suddenly felt empty and a little lost.

Fortunately, when Hideki saw him return, he didn't say much. He simply greeted him with a wave, handed him the box, and took care of collecting the money and making the change.

Asuma was still a little distracted at first, but fortunately, under the pressure of the customers, he gradually got into a better mood and started working seriously.

As the group of customers slowly dispersed, Asuma felt an inexplicable sense of achievement as he looked at the cash box filling up.

But of course, this was just running a stall...

However, the teacher's words quickly brought him back to reality:

"Then, I didn't lie about Obito's situation, did I?"

Asuma knew he couldn't hide it from the teacher, but he still didn't want to admit that he lost to Obito. So, he pursed his lips and said:

"Tch, it's really nothing special."

"It's just that running a stall is too childish. I didn't take it seriously, otherwise, I would definitely be better than Obito."

"Running a stall is no child's play."

Hideki smiled, shook his head, and said:

"Unless you have Obito's natural affinity for quickly making connections…"

"Otherwise, learning how to advertise and sell products, how to market them, and how to negotiate are all skills that will last a lifetime."

"And Asuma, you should have learned in class that ninjas often need to disguise themselves to gather information during missions."

"So, various forms of pretending are also skills that a good ninja should master."

"Street vendors who aren't too flashy and can easily gather diverse information are a very good option."

Yes, it turns out there's a trick to disguising oneself...

Hearing this, Asuma began to think thoughtfully.

He finally realized that the reason Obito was better than him was simply because his personality was more suited to running a stall than his own.

But if you hide your true nature and pretend to be a street vendor like a ninja, the outcome would be different.

Having found the winning formula, Asuma was no longer as superficial as before and was eager to try his hand at running a stall:

"Teacher, let me do it."

"It's just acting, right? I did really well in the espionage class at school."

At that moment, a passerby approached.

Under Hideki's watchful gaze, Asuma smiled and stepped forward to greet them.

"Hello, sister. These are the latest toys released by Konoha. Do you like any of them?"

Not to mention, Asuma didn't seem to brag. While his acting skills were still a little exaggerated, he no longer showed his usual rebelliousness.

In other words, his usual rebellious nature wasn't truly Asuma's nature but just a protective layer for him.

When he was busy pretending to be other identities, it was naturally hard to keep them up at the same time.

Seeing Asuma warmly presenting various toys to the guests, Hideki nodded in relief.

People have a double standard.

Although Asuma seemed to hate being the Hokage's son, it was only in the bad aspects.

He didn't hate the praise and training resources he received because of his status, and he even took them for granted.

That's why he unconsciously rejected low-level jobs like running stalls and didn't consider the feelings of others when dealing with them.

Therefore, the key to correcting Asuma's character was to free him completely from the limitations of being the Hokage's son.

If this were a television series about Hideki's past life, the scriptwriter would probably have to resort to things like exile to a foreign land, accidental amnesia, family ruin, or the death of his entire family, etc., to make the protagonist accept the reality checks...

Unfortunately, these methods were obviously difficult to use on Asuma.

So, Hideki had to find another way to help Asuma temporarily get rid of the Hokage's son role by assuming other identities.

Fortunately, ninjas themselves require the ability to disguise.

With Obito as a competitor, Asuma willingly began to play the role of a street vendor.

Although it was just a disguised identity, it was enough to give Asuma a window to gain a new perspective.

As for Asuma, he gradually freed himself from the shackles of the Hokage's son disguise and quickly became the calm and reliable Asuma in his original work.

Whether his acting skills would become more sophisticated in disguises, and whether he could even play the ideal Hokage's son in everyone's mind, depended on Asuma's own choice.

As a teacher, Hideki always adhered to this principle:

"At most, I'll take the student to a fork in the road and let them see the scenarios at the different paths."

As for which path to take, after all, they had to make their own decision...

Asuma's performance continued.

Having successfully greeted several customers, his expression gradually became more confident and his personality more cheerful, making it hard for Hideki to tell if he was still acting or not.

It's just that while the situation changes easily, temperament is hard to change.

As the number of customers grew, Asuma gradually became complacent again, and his usual personality started to resurface…

For example, a child saw the colorful and beautiful Rubik's Cube and begged his parents to buy it.

Asuma unconsciously remembered:

"If you don't understand the Rubik's Cube, play with a doll."

The child got so mad he screamed.

Or perhaps someone was curious about how to play with the yo-yo and asked Asuma to show them.

As a result, Asuma wanted to show off his skills again, so he immediately performed a dazzling series of difficult double-ball tricks.

Then, he directly persuaded the guests to leave...

Asuma also gradually started feeling frustrated and confused.

He hadn't expected that saying the right thing to make the customers happy would be so difficult.

Did the guys around him who flattered him face such challenges every day?

However, Hideki knew that this boy still wasn't fully immersed in the task, so he rolled his eyes and came up with another sexy idea.

He walked up to Asuma, patted him on the shoulder, and consoled him:

"It's okay. It's very difficult to welcome guests at first. It's good to start practicing with advertising slogans."

After saying that, Hideki pulled out a prepared note from his sleeve and handed it to Asuma.

Originally, it was just a powerful weapon he kept in case, but he didn't expect it to be useful.

Asuma took the note and looked at it doubtfully, and then his expression gradually became more and more strange...

Because the note said:

[The largest toy factory in the Land of Fire, Yile Toy Factory, has closed! The bastard boss, Naruto, ate, drank, prostituted, and played around. He owed 350 million and ran away with his sister-in-law! We have no choice but to use the toys as wages. The original price was 1000 taels. The 2000-tael toys are now only 200 taels!]

------------

My patreon Is officialy up

You can get advance chapters

Patreon(.)com/izan24

•If you join as a FREE MEMBER you'll get +3 ADVANCE CHAPTERS

•TIER 1 you'll get +15 ADVANCE CHAPTERS

•TIER 2 you'll get +40 ADVANCE CHAPTERS

•TIER 3 you'll get ALL ADVANCE CHAPTERS

THE PAID TIER DOES'NT INCLUDE THE FREE CHAPTERS FOR EACH TIER