Recess always seemed to pass by quickly.
Teacher Ibuki brought the children out to the playground. "Today, we're going to learn one of the most basic physical exercises: push-ups."
The smile on Shin-chan's face immediately froze. "P-Push-ups?"
"That's right." Teacher Ibuki nodded. "Push-ups strengthen your arms, chest, and core. They're a very important part of a ninja's basic training."
Shin-chan let out a sigh and instantly wilted.
Teacher Ibuki picked a spot and began demonstrating.
"Watch carefully. Keep your body straight, place your hands directly beneath your shoulders, inhale as you lower yourself, and exhale as you push back up. Alright, watch me do a few standard ones."
He did ten clean, sharp push-ups, each one textbook-perfect.
"Alright, now you try. Pair up and keep an eye on each other."
The children scattered and found places to get down on the ground.
Shin-chan lay down too.
But the way he lay down was… a little different from everyone else.
Everyone else kept their bodies straight, hands on the ground, ready to begin.
Shin-chan had his whole body sprawled flat on the grass, face pressed against it, both hands by his sides, like a sloth sunbathing.
"Shin-chan." Teacher Ibuki's voice came from the distance. "What are you doing?"
"I'm getting ready," Shin-chan said in a muffled voice.
"Getting ready for what? Get up and do push-ups."
Shin-chan slowly pushed himself up, but the pose he ended up in was strange. His butt stuck way up in the air, his whole body forming an upside-down V, head down, backside up.
Teacher Ibuki froze.
The other children froze too.
Uchiha Toru, who had been warming up nearby, stiffened all over when he saw the pose. "Shin-chan, what are you doing?"
"Push-ups," Shin-chan replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, that's not a push-up at all!"
"Really?" Shin-chan tilted his head and raised his butt a little higher. "But I think this position feels more comfortable."
"Comfortable?"
"Yeah. This way the sun can shine on my butt."
Uchiha Toru's mouth twitched, and he chose not to say anything more.
Teacher Ibuki walked over, looked at Shin-chan's bizarre posture, and felt his temple start throbbing again. "Nohara Shinnosuke, is this supposed to be a push-up?"
"Yes." Shin-chan nodded. "The Butt-Sticking-Up Push-Up."
"What?"
"Yesterday, when I was training with that thick-eyebrowed mister, I discovered there are lots of kinds of push-ups. This one is specially for training your butt muscles," Shin-chan explained with a completely serious face.
Teacher Ibuki opened his mouth, but for a moment, he genuinely had no idea what to say.
Nearby, Guy was doing perfectly standard push-ups one after another, counting as he went.
"Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight…"
When he reached twenty-nine, he looked up and saw Shin-chan's pose.
He stopped moving.
His mouth fell open.
His eyes went wide.
"Shin-chan!" he cried out. "What kind of training method is that?"
Shin-chan turned his head to look at Guy, still keeping his butt in the air.
"The Butt-Sticking-Up Push-Up. It's a new style for training your butt muscles."
Guy froze.
Butt-sticking-up? Training butt muscles? A new style of push-up?
"Shin-chan!"
Tears welled up in Guy's eyes as he rushed in front of him, trembling with excitement.
"You created a new style—a youthful style!"
Shin-chan blinked, startled by the reaction. "Really?"
"Yes!" Guy nodded hard. "I never imagined push-ups could be done like this. You've shattered my understanding. You've shown me a new possibility for youth!"
Guy raised a thumbs-up, teeth flashing white. "A new form: the Butt-Sticking-Up Push-Up. This is proof of youth!"
Shin-chan blinked, then raised a thumbs-up too. "Right? I thought it felt pretty youthful too."
"Of course it's youthful!" Guy cried, tears streaming down his face. "We have to carry this style forward and make it flourish!"
"Okay."
One boy was lying there with his butt in the air, and the other was standing beside him crying with emotion. Both had their thumbs raised.
The scene was bizarre and passionate at the same time.
The other children nearby were all dumbfounded.
Obito stared with his jaw practically falling off. "Wh-What… what are they doing?"
Rin covered her mouth and laughed. "This is so funny."
Kakashi glanced over expressionlessly, then went back to doing his own push-ups, though the visible part of his eyes seemed to curve a little again.
Uchiha Toru stood there feeling totally numb. He wanted to say something, but had no idea what to say.
In the end, he just silently turned away and went back to doing proper standard push-ups, pretending he didn't know those two.
Teacher Ibuki stood in the playground and rubbed his temple as he watched the scene.
"Nohara Shinnosuke!"
"Here."
"Can you please do one normal push-up?"
"Normal?" Shin-chan tilted his head. "Teacher, what counts as normal?"
"Like everyone else is doing!"
"But if I do it like everyone else, I'm only training one kind of muscle. Mine trains different muscles." Shin-chan spoke seriously. "My mom says training has to be balanced. You can't just work one area."
Teacher Ibuki took a deep breath. "Your mother said that?"
"Yeah. She also said butts are important, and you should never get constipated."
Teacher Ibuki closed his eyes and seemed to shrink a little. "Then just keep training."
"Thank you, teacher!"
Shin-chan lifted his butt again and started moving up and down.
The motion looked extremely strange.
Guy watched for a while, then suddenly dropped down beside him and copied the exact same position.
"Guy, what are you doing?" Shin-chan turned his head and asked.
"I'm going to practice the Butt-Sticking-Up Push-Up too!" Guy cried tearfully. "I can't let you burn with youth all by yourself!"
Now there were two little boys lying side by side with their butts in the air, bobbing up and down together.
The scene had doubled in weirdness.
Obito watched for a while and suddenly felt tempted.
"That… actually kind of looks fun?"
But after glancing at the classmates around him who were trying not to laugh, he painfully gave up. Instead, he kept doing regular push-ups, though his eyes kept drifting over toward them.
Rin couldn't hold back a laugh and quickly covered her mouth again.
Uchiha Toru kept his head down the entire time, pretending not to see anything, though the corners of his mouth kept lifting slightly.
Teacher Ibuki stood at the edge of the playground, looking at the two small figures with their butts in the air. After a while, he let out a sigh—then smiled, a little helplessly.
This kid really was a troublemaker.
But because he was here, the class somehow never seemed like it would ever be boring.
In the distance, Kakashi finished a set of push-ups and stood up. He glanced at them without thinking and muttered softly, "Idiots."
But in that one exposed eye, there seemed to be the faintest trace of envy—though even he probably couldn't have said exactly what he envied.
Maybe it was that ability to be completely unconcerned with what other people thought, and just happily act like a fool.
And out on the playground, the youthful push-ups went on.