Early Saturday morning, Obito Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Might Guy began training according to Makoto's instructions.
Obito first followed Makoto in practicing the basic movements of taijutsu. After an hour of training, Makoto told him to rest. He handed Obito a bottle of water and even wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Obito immediately felt that something was wrong.
Although Makoto was a good teacher, he normally wasn't this attentive. Handing him water was possible, but wiping his sweat? At most, Makoto would usually just give them a towel.
"Obito," Makoto said with a warm smile as he capped the unfinished bottle of water and set it down on the ground, "I think you still have a lot of untapped potential."
"No, no, no. I think all my potential has already been completely unlocked by you, Sensei," Obito replied nervously.
He had just wiped the sweat from his forehead, but now cold sweat was beginning to appear again.
"You're still underestimating yourself," Makoto said, shaking his head.
"How about this—during your sparring match with Guy, every time you get hit once, you'll solve one extra theory question during your break."
"That should completely stimulate your potential. And even if it doesn't, at least solving many questions will improve your theory exam scores."
"Sensei, that won't work," Obito said with a concerned expression. "What if I get hit a hundred times? I don't mind doing the questions, but I'm worried you'll get tired writing all of them."
Driven into a corner, Obito's survival instinct had kicked in, and his eloquence suddenly improved.
For Obito, being forced to grind through test papers was worse than passionately brawling with Might Guy . It was pure torture.
"Obito, I'm happy that you're concerned about your teacher's health," Makoto said with a gratified expression.
Just when Obito thought he had escaped disaster, Makoto continued:
"I anticipated that you'd be such a considerate student, so I already prepared a large stack of questions for you."
Makoto smiled as he pulled out a thick stack of test papers.
"There's plenty here. And if it's not enough, I can have a Shadow Clone prepare even more."
"That's enough! That's definitely enough!" Obito frantically waved his hands.
Just looking at that thick stack already made him feel like collapsing.
Even though the sun was shining brightly and Makoto's smile looked warm, Obito felt a chill rising from his feet straight to the top of his head.
Since he couldn't negotiate with Makoto, Obito decided to take another approach.
If he couldn't avoid doing questions, he could at least do fewer of them.
Thinking of this, Obito quickly began winking at Guy, signaling him to go easy during the fight.
Guy saw Obito's signals and flashed his bright white teeth, giving Obito a confident thumbs-up.
"If Guy fails to land even one hit," Makoto continued calmly, "he will solve fifty questions."
"Each successful hit will reduce the number by one."
"The minimum is ten questions."
Guy's expression immediately changed.
He straightened up and gave Obito another serious thumbs-up.
"You mean I should fight with everything I've got?! No way!" Obito cried while clutching his head.
He could already see countless test papers flooding toward him.
"For the sake of youth, I must reduce the number of questions to the minimum!" Guy declared passionately.
Obito didn't want to do questions.
But Guy didn't want to either.
So when the sparring began, Might Guy attacked with full force, unleashing more than 120% of his usual speed as he chased Obito around the training ground.
Not wanting to be buried in test papers, Obito also triggered a burst of potential.
After being hit more than a dozen times, his footwork suddenly became much more agile.
Watching the two of them make such rapid progress, Makoto nodded with satisfaction.
See?
They clearly still had plenty of untapped potential.
Once both boys were completely exhausted, the match finally ended.
Obito had been hit over thirty times, meaning he needed to solve more than thirty questions.
Guy, on the other hand, only had to solve around a dozen.
Makoto felt the results were excellent.
If they kept training like this, perhaps it wouldn't even take two months before Hyūga Homon was no longer their opponent.
What a pity that Nohara Rin doesn't have strong talent, Makoto thought.
If he could accept Rin as a disciple, motivating Obito would become much easier.
However, for the sake of maintaining a low profile, Makoto preferred not to include non-disciples in his training sessions.
There was actually an even better candidate.
Kakashi Hatake.
Rin could only stimulate Obito.
But if Kakashi were present, then both Obito and Guy would be pushed to compete.
Kakashi certainly had the talent.
Unfortunately, it was almost impossible for Kakashi to become Makoto's student.
After all, Kakashi had already been promoted to Chūnin two years ago.
Makoto trained with the three students until noon. After eating lunch together, he left two Shadow Clones behind and headed toward the Third Hokage's residence to begin his tutoring job.
Since it was still working hours, Makoto didn't see Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Instead, he saw a middle-aged woman with a single ponytail.
It was Biwa Lake Sarutobi, Hiruzen's wife.
"Lady Biwako," Makoto greeted politely.
"You must be the teacher Hosokawa that Hiruzen mentioned," she said after recalling the appearance Hiruzen had described.
Makoto nodded.
"Asuma is waiting for you in the backyard," she said, pointing the way.
Then she added a reminder:
"Asuma can be a bit rebellious. Please be patient with him, Teacher Hosokawa . If he becomes too difficult to manage, just tell me."
"I understand," Makoto replied with a smile. "But I have some special techniques for dealing with rebellious students."
Following the direction she pointed, Makoto walked toward the backyard.
Sure enough, he saw a boy around nine years old, lying lazily against a tree with a blade of grass in his mouth.
Makoto first activated Appraisal.
Name: Asuma Sarutobi
Chakra: 1100
Potential: A+
Noticing Makoto's arrival, Asuma spat out the grass from his mouth.
He didn't bother standing up.
"So you're Hosokawa Makoto, the tutor they hired for me?"
Before Makoto could answer, Asuma continued:
"Let me make this clear. If you can't help me surpass that old man—"
He paused deliberately.
"—the Third Hokage, then you might as well leave. There's no point."
Asuma felt he needed to give this tutor a show of dominance right away so he could take control of the situation.
Just as he wondered how Makoto would respond, Makoto shook his head.
"Of course I can't."
"Then you can leave," Asuma said dismissively, waving his hand before lying back down.
He didn't believe Makoto would actually leave.
"Alright. I'll leave now and inform Lady Biwako that you don't need a tutor," Makoto replied calmly as he turned to go.
Seeing Makoto genuinely about to leave, Asuma was instantly confused.
Wait, what?
Why isn't he following the usual script?
Wasn't he supposed to persuade him not to act childish or something?
"Hey—wait! Don't go!" Asuma quickly performed a kip-up, jumping to his feet and stopping Makoto.
If the tutor got driven away before the lesson even began, his mother would definitely give him a severe scolding.
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