Omni-Anime: I Stand at the Forefront of Popularity

Chapter 168: Chapter 169: An Uchiha Named Mumei Is Still Mumei—Nothing Wrong With That

It’s safe to say that if the person standing before Naruto had been anyone other than Jiraiya—the Fourth Hokage’s own teacher—Kushina would have torn them to pieces by now.

Then again, no one but Jiraiya could keep Naruto in that golden twin-tails form for this long.

Jiraiya was here to teach Naruto, after all. If Jiraiya died, Naruto would end up without a teacher...

Well. Once he’s done teaching Naruto, I’ll find a way to kill him~

Kushina swallowed her killing intent and glanced toward Hanabi.

Hanabi was a very clever girl.

Her identity had probably been seen through a long time ago.

”These are clothes... were they prepared for me?”

Whenever Kushina manifested, Naruto’s body would begin to change—but that change didn’t extend to his clothing. So if Kushina didn’t want to ”burst” out of his outfit, her only option was to drape herself in the Nine-Tails’ chakra coat.

But that level of manifestation always required the Nine-Tails’ chakra.

If she manifested on her own, she could ”deploy” at minimum capacity, reducing the strain on Naruto.

Minimal deployment—Kushina had only ever used it before when sneaking out while Naruto slept, to cook for him.

But it worked in a fight too.

”But I’m sorry. I’ve already decided: I won’t interfere with Naruto anymore. Naruto needs to learn to be strong on his own...” Kushina thought.

”You’re saying Naruto isn’t strong enough yet? Heh heh heh heh.” The Nine-Tails’ voice slithered into her ear.

”I’ve seen through you, Nine-Tails! That kind of provocation has no effect on me!”

”Heh heh heh heh. You know better than I do how Naruto’s been doing—because seeing Naruto in pain is the only thing that gets me going! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

”Shut up—!”

Kushina fell silent.

Meanwhile, Naruto had transformed back into Naruko. She hadn’t meant to give Jiraiya any kind of show—it was just that Hanabi had once told her to do this, so she’d naturally folded it into her practice as a matter of course.

”Well. I’ve delivered what I came to deliver. I’ll be taking my leave.”

Go check on Sasuke, then attend the training session. Come back tomorrow to see how Naruto’s doing.

First, get Jiraiya used to seeing my face. Take the measure of his personality. And last—observe how the Performance Outfit’s buffs work on Naruto.

Jiraiya’s fate was something Hanabi intended to change. She liked being the Director, but what she liked most of all was a happy ending.

The problem was that a happy ending and her Popularity Points goal at the same time—that was no easy thing.

Dark, grim, tragic arcs were reliable crowd-pleasers, no question.

But winning another wave of Popularity Points on top of a story that had already resolved neatly? That was a different challenge entirely.

On Sasuke’s end, there wasn’t much to report. He was currently focused on pushing his Taijutsu further.

Sasuke also had weights, but his Taijutsu still lagged a bit behind Rock Lee.

Lee at full burst was roughly on par with Guy under normal conditions—and Sasuke was a notch below even that, which made comparing him to Hanabi even less useful. So Sasuke just kept training.

”Hikari!”

Visiting Sasuke also meant visiting one other person: Uchiha Hikari, who had been quietly watching over him from the shadows.

”Oh, Hanabi.”

Hikari lit up when she saw Hanabi coming over.

”I had someone custom-make a set of clothes. Hikari, try them on and see what you think.”

What Hanabi produced was the second Performance Outfit—the combat uniform worn by Mumei, the heroine of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

Unfortunately, this outfit only came as the one outfit itself. No accessories included.

Otherwise, having the actual weapons from Kabaneri along with it might have been interesting.

As for why she was giving it to Hikari...

Well. This uniform was the Mumei-model Performance Outfit.

Uchiha Hikari was Uchiha Nameless. Uchiha Nameless was also Mumei. And Mumei was indeed Mumei. Nothing wrong with that.

”Yay!” Hikari threw on the new clothes without a second thought—one fluid motion.

”How does it feel?” Hanabi asked.

”Mmm, it’s great!” Hikari moved her body experimentally. ”Nothing’s restricting me at all. It even feels comfortable while I’m moving.”

”That’s good.” Hanabi smiled.

It was a shame this three-star Performance Outfit was the ”stripped-down” version.

Otherwise she could have done so much more with it.

”Oh—and there’s special vertical maneuvering gear built into the sides here.” Hanabi pointed to both flanks of the outfit.

She hadn’t managed to include the original weapons, but this suit was designed to facilitate vertical maneuvering.

Hikari carried a sub-body of Zhuixia, so she could use the device to achieve something close to the same aerial mobility—just not with the same fingertip precision Hanabi had.

”That’s amazing.” After trying a few movements, Hikari felt light all over.

”Mmm mmm mmm~ This is wonderful~”

Watching Hikari’s smile, Hanabi thought: those Popularity Points had been very well spent.

Both Performance Outfits had been ”handled.”

Not that Hanabi herself had any use for them.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to change—it was that the outfit she already wore carried special stat bonuses, and finding a replacement for those was nearly impossible.

And Yukikaze’s costume... no matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t something she could put on someone close to her.

—It’ll sit in storage for now.

”I’ll find a way to repurpose it eventually.”

Hanabi said her goodbyes to Hikari and headed back to the guesthouse.

”Now, it should be time for the training session~”

Time for class.

”The mecha piloting course comes with a Performance Outfit—but the outfit itself binds to the character, so I won’t be needing that one just yet.”

Which meant the next thing on the agenda was the academic course.

[Actor Training (Biology): Three-star, 30 session-hours. Attend advanced biology coursework at the Training Base. Note: You will temporarily leave this world during instruction—please manage your time accordingly.]

Unlike other courses, this one actually consumed real time.

”Come to think of it, the mecha piloting course ran for a whole year—but it was able to pause time. Could that be because the twenty-thousand Popularity Points themselves came bundled with that kind of ’extra feature’?”

The piloting skill itself wasn’t worth that many Popularity Points—it was just a standard three-star course. But once you factored in the Performance Outfit and everything else, twenty thousand might actually be a bargain.

[You have used a session-hour]

[Training Institution preparing]

[Placement questionnaire drafted—sent]

[Please complete and submit the exam before proceeding]

Huh?

A placement exam? They made you take a placement exam?

Hanabi was taken aback.

”So... it’s this?”

A two-page exam.

The first section was simple enough—what is a cell, eukaryotes, prokaryotes, that sort of thing.

Middle school material.

But the further in she went, the more complex and dense it became.

And though it was only two pages on the surface, the exam kept going as she turned through it—the deeper in, the harder it got.

”Lucky I didn’t slack off on biology.”

In the Naruto world, other subjects could slide—but if she ever wanted to be a scientist there, biology was non-negotiable.

Don’t let the Naruto world fool you with its surface-level ”old-fashioned” look. The actual level of development there was genuinely impressive.

At minimum, the world Hanabi came from had no capability to clone human beings yet.

Of course, that was more an ethical question than a technical one.

—Or maybe precisely because this world had fewer ethical constraints, it could develop so fast?

”In any case, I’ll write down as much as I can...”(AI Hanabi generated by a group member)(AI-generated Hanabi)