Looking at the densely packed exchange interface before him, Rasa felt that nearly everything was valuable—except for a few items.
The others could be exchanged for only a few skill points.
After seeing the favorability items with extraordinary effects, Rasa immediately thought of an alternative "perpetual motion machine."
He let out a relieved sigh. Now, the future no longer worried him.
In another sense, this system was an incredible advantage—so long as he remained calm and maintained early development.
Still, to be safe and verify his guess, Rasa muttered to himself:
"Exchange for a high-quality Favorability Doubled Fruit and use it on Yasha Rei."
"Exchange successful. 40 skill points deducted. 370 skill points remaining!"
"Use successful. Yasha Rei's favorability increased from 9 points to 18 points!"
"The host successfully raised favorability by 9 points and gained 9 skill points!"
As expected, even when using items to raise favorability, Rasa still earned skill points!
His heartbeat involuntarily quickened.
It seemed the gain far exceeded the investment.
Only 40 skill points were needed to exchange for a high-quality fruit that doubled favorability.
After a few days, he would gain more than 100 skill points in return—a three to four times profit!
As long as he avoided spending early skill points on combat props and focused solely on favorability items, he could rapidly accumulate points.
Gathering thousands—or even tens of thousands—of skill points in a matter of days would be easy.
This was a massive profit for nearly zero cost. Well, technically he had paid:
It cost him one year of life to activate the system.
Compared to the gains, that was negligible.
After sorting through his thoughts on the system, Rasa turned his attention to the looming Third Ninja World War.
Although he had watched Naruto's anime and manga several times before, that had been seven or eight years ago.
Since college, Rasa had no longer followed Naruto.
Especially after starting work—every day was filled with repetitive, mundane tasks.
Many of the storylines had faded from memory.
Now that he was in this world, he had to carefully reconstruct these events.
Meanwhile, Yasha Rei, silently guarding the door, suddenly felt a chill in her heart.
She instinctively glanced toward the entrance, her eyes full of worry.
An hour later, the discussion of general rules concluded, and everyone left.
As Aoki Jōnin walked out, he glanced back at Rasa.
Rasa waited until everyone—especially Chiyo and her brother—had departed before rising.
For the past hour, he had been mostly a spectator.
On one hand, he needed to recall the plot.
On the other, he could infer the general direction of events from the original story.
But matters like troop deployment and border defenses were beyond the understanding of a modern person accustomed to a stable life.
Although Rasa had read historical texts, the ninja world was entirely different. He dared not speak carelessly.
Rasa had only taken a few steps when a faint fragrance reached him.
While not entirely familiar, it was pleasantly recognizable.
He looked at Pakura, who had begun following him closely.
"Pakura, what's wrong?"
Pakura tucked a strand of hair behind her forehead. A faint blush touched her pale, cold face.
Her gaze briefly lingered on Rasa's face—handsome enough, though not striking—before quickly turning away.
"Nothing… it's just that we haven't seen each other for half a month. Why don't we have a meal together?"
Only then did Rasa remember that his favorability with Pakura had reached 29 points.
In her mind, they were already good friends.
Rasa hesitated. Before reincarnation, he had never had a girlfriend or even female friend.
In his old life, he returned home at 9:30 p.m., spent half an hour reading news or watching videos, an hour gaming, then showered, did laundry, and slept around 11:30. A typical otaku office worker.
He had no experience with women, so he hesitated.
Although Pakura appeared to turn away, she secretly observed him from the corner of her eye.
When she saw his hesitation, her brows furrowed, and she crossed her arms.
A layer of cold frost covered her beautiful face. Her usually emotionless voice carried unmistakable resentment:
"What's wrong? Is the future Fourth Kazekage-sama beginning to dislike his old friend?"
Rasa's face reddened. He quickly shook his head.
"How could that be? I was just thinking about where to eat."
Seeing his anxious expression, Pakura felt inexplicably happy.
Her expression softened immediately, though her tone returned to its usual cool demeanor:
"Where should we eat? Those village restaurants are too much trouble. If two jōnin go together, it will draw a crowd—and their food isn't good anyway."
After dismissing eating out, her cheeks flushed slightly, though she didn't notice. She turned her head and added:
"I recall you haven't visited my house yet. We're supposed to be good friends, and you've never come over. Isn't that unreasonable?"
"Just come to my place and try my cooking."
This left plenty of room for interpretation.
Although Rasa knew nothing would happen with Pakura's favorability at only 29 points, and that she considered him just a friend…
He was still a man, single for twenty-three years.
His eyes instinctively glanced at her chest, accentuated by her crossed arms.
Then his gaze naturally slid to her pale, smooth underarms, exposed by her sleeveless outfit.
Her skin was flawless—white as snow, without hair.
His eyes continued downward, past her narrow waist to her long legs, then to her pale toes visible through her ninja sandals.
Rasa couldn't help but imagine how beautiful her feet must look without shoes.
Despite Sand Village's constant storms and blazing sun, Pakura's skin remained fair.
How could kunoichi here maintain such beauty in such a harsh environment?
After a few more seconds, Rasa reluctantly looked away, nodded, and stepped outside.
In his old world, he would never have dared stare at a woman's body this blatantly.
But now, reincarnated in the Naruto world with a cheat system, his personality was subtly changing.
His hidden side was slowly emerging—though he didn't realize it.
Pakura followed gracefully, faintly blushing.
She had noticed his gaze lingering for more than ten seconds.
Had anyone else done it, the fiery Pakura would have reacted instantly.
But this was Rasa—her closest male friend.
She couldn't even scold him for fear of harming their friendship.
Instead, an unfamiliar joy and warmth filled her chest.
When Yasha Rei saw Rasa leaving, her eyes brightened.
She was about to speak when she noticed Pakura following closely.
Her smile faded, and her eyes dimmed slightly.
Her gaze lingered briefly on Pakura, but she quickly looked away, eyelids growing heavy.
She laughed bitterly to herself, abandoning the idea of inviting Rasa to her home.
Rasa had no idea what Yasha Rei was thinking.
After greeting her, he went downstairs.
Pakura followed closely.
As she passed Yasha Rei, she cast a meaningful glance.