I sat in my office, going over the supply reports for the stasis tags. We still had enough in the village, but the border forts were getting low. I had given away the rights to the seal to others so that I wouldn’t have a monopoly on it, but the tags never sold well enough to attract people to make them. The seal would help keep yourself and your teammates alive, but the paper bombs were more well-known and popular.
The problem was that no one would buy the tags, so no one would sell them. New, young, and inexperienced ninjas preferred to use paper bombs because they were flashy, more well-known, and lethal. They didn't want what they saw as an overly expensive band-aid. Older ninjas, however, saw the benefit of keeping wounded teammates alive and would get a couple to keep on their person in case of emergencies. It all boiled down to the fact that the ninjas who would need a stasis seal didn’t want to buy them, and the ninjas who were smart enough to buy them didn’t need them as often.
Some of the leaders of the border forts had taken to stocking them in mass to hand out on missions, but now it had turned into a social taboo to accept them. If a fort was buying them, it meant that their ninjas were too weak or were getting into too many skirmishes. Even team leaders were starting to purposely "accidentally" leave the seals behind to demonstrate that they wouldn’t let their teammates get hurt, so they didn't need them.
This left me as one of the few seal masters in the Land of Fire still making the things. It was good for my pocketbook, seeing as no one was giving me any grief about monopolizing the market, but if something happened to me, then the Land of Fire would have one more problem to deal with. This whole situation was not as bad as the gourmet MREs back in the war, but it was still annoying.
I checked my clock and saw it was about time to call back the kids and check on their progress. I had them working as orderlies at the hospital as a low-level mission. I needed them to have some "mission" experience and to put some money in their pockets. Plus, I could keep an eye on them while I was working at the hospital myself.
While they ran around the hospital doing odd chores, I had them fitted with resistance seals and oxygen masks. The masks looked like normal medical masks, but in reality, I was training them with an oxygen surplus. It helped with higher muscle growth. Later, I will give them oxygen deficiency training, but that helps ninjas fight longer, while right now I need them to fight harder. My students aren’t going to be Rock Lee anytime soon, but they aren’t going to be accused of being dweebs either.
Lemitsu was closest, so I called him in first. He took a seat on a pillow in the corner of my office and began to cool down from his mission slash training. While he meditated to clear his mind, I sent a signal to my Shadow Clone, who was monitoring my students' Shadow Clones back on the estate. After a minute, I could sense the surge of chakra in Lemitsu’s body.
Immediately after the spike of chakra, Lemitsu grabbed the chakra control toy box I made for him and the others to practice with and got to work, using the practice his clone had just been doing to make his own skill grow faster. The toy was a box with a maze inside of it, with a piece of chocolate candy locked inside. The user would use their chakra control to push a marble around until it fell into place and unlocked the box.
With an audible click, Lemitsu solved the maze, unlocked the box, and popped the candy in his mouth. By the time he was done, Moko and Rei had entered and taken their seats. After a few minutes, they were also eating their candies.
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“Can we pick what candies we eat?” Moko whined.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have been accused of being soft with you guys enough; I don’t need you picking your own candy too,” I answered while not looking up from my work. “You guys have done good work today. The nurses haven’t complained about you guys too much, and you have managed to avoid getting in their way. That last part is a skill set in and of itself.”
“Thank you, sensei. Um, about today's mission, I saw one of my friends from the academy in one of the hospital beds. Can you help him?” Lemitsu hesitantly asked.
“I don’t know the ninja in question you are asking about, but I will help him. What kind of injury did he receive? A missing limb or eye? Any obvious sign of pain?”
“Oh, I didn’t notice anything like that.”
“Then he is probably more or less fine, but I will double-check. However, it's good that you brought this up.” I stood up to talk to my students, and I could see them roll their eyes as they knew a lecture was coming their way. “Don’t worry, this won’t be long, and then you are free to go.” The eager looks of freedom hurt to see, as I feared I might come off as boring.
“Do you three remember the first test I did with you guys?” I got three scared looks and quick nods. “Good to know I left a memorable first impression. But that is also another reason I am having you guys work in the hospital. Lemitsu just saw an injured ninja that he recognized, and I am sure you have seen more unsavory sights while performing your duties here.”
The three nodded along with my lecture, so I continued. “On a mission or on a battlefield, you are going to see more unsavory things. You will see people you know and people you recognize, but never learned the name of. You will see dark fates befall those who don’t deserve them. But there is one thing you need to do, one thing that all shinobi of the leaf need to do. Endure, no matter what, you must Endure.”
The three looked at me, and I could tell my words were falling on deaf ears. “All right, that was all I needed to say. One day, you will understand my words, and I will do what I can to delay that day the best I can. Enjoy your freedom; be back here by 11 tomorrow.”
The kids cheered at being done for the day, and I went back to my work. Unlike the kids, my day was still going. I was working on remaking my flying carpet that the Inuzuka clan matriarch destroyed. I haven’t seen the woman since I got back from the Land of Tea, but half of the Inuzuka members that were enrolled in ANBU have decided to transfer to basic ninja work and are taking more public-facing transport missions.
I suspect that they are using the excuse of their members' deaths to switch to missions that pay better. Ninja hounds eat a lot. But in reality, because of Root and Danzo’s actions, the Inuzuka want to distance themselves from ANBU.
Hiruzen hasn’t told me anything yet, but I believe Nami Nara has been sent back to her clan, as a few Yamanaka clan members have been visiting the Nara clan forest more and more recently. I hope they will be able to undo the brainwashing she has undergone, but it will not be a fast process. If they can help her, though, it would be great for the village. I just hope she doesn’t try to get revenge against me.
Pakura has been called back to the Sand village. There was an attempt on the life of one of the village's elders while they were traveling, and the Sand is claiming that they believe that the Mist village was behind it and that next time they will use one or more of their seven swordsmen to carry out the attack. In reality, the elder in question is an ally of Rasa, and it looks like he just wants her off the battlefield.
I hope she can survive the politics of the Sand village, but I have done all I can for her. She will need to figure things out from here. I have more immediate concerns.
Kakashi has returned to the Land of Fire and is currently in the capital. He brought a young girl with him, and I suspect she is the princess of the Land of Snow. The Land of Snow’s current ruler hasn’t reached out to us yet, but is claiming to his people and allies that he had to arrest his brother because he discovered evidence that the man was a traitor and was misusing government funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle. The story going around is that in his dying act, the former ruler took his own life and set his palace ablaze with his daughter inside rather than face justice.
If what Orochimaru said was true, I would be sent to the Land of Snow to negotiate a deal to return the princess to her uncle.
As of now, I don’t know what I will be trying to get out of the deal, but no matter what, I know two things. One, I am going to have to do something impressive to earn enough fame to justify my nomination for the position of Hokage. And two, I will almost certainly have to deal with enemy ninjas trying to get in my way. Best I prepare accordingly.
