I Love Work, and Work Loves Me

Two days later.

As usual, Torikaze was woken by the system.

Ding—Congratulations, Host, on living peacefully in Konoha for one day. Reward: 100 Tranquility Points.

Torikaze had long since learned to automatically ignore the first half of that bullshit opening line the system said every morning and listen only for the reward.

After all, the system congratulated Torikaze every day for living peacefully for a day, yet he did not feel even the slightest bit of peace. He was either earning Tranquility Points or on the way to earn Tranquility Points!

Besides, Madara Uchiha would attack Konoha today. How the hell was that peaceful?

Torikaze remembered that when he watched the anime, Madara Uchiha had launched his attack at night.

So, he probably still had the whole day to prepare.

After all, this world had already changed quite a bit from the anime, so no one could predict exactly what would happen today.

"I wonder if anyone will die tonight," Torikaze said worriedly.

Reality was not an anime. Even if Konoha reacted quickly enough to Madara Uchiha's attack, there would definitely be casualties.

If Konoha suffered too many losses in this attack, there was no need to say it—the damn system's Chaos Points would definitely shoot up like crazy.

Of the 5 Chaos Points that had risen when he completed the first Chaos Event, 4 still remained! In total, only one point had dropped over an entire year!

If it became seventy or eighty Chaos Points, he would probably still be paying off his debt when he died of old age!

"I have to find a way to keep Konoha's casualties to a minimum."

But the best way was to discover Madara Uchiha immediately and hold him back.

Yet Konoha's sensory ninjas could not stay on standby twenty-four hours a day. They definitely had to rest at night.

After all, aside from Torikaze, the entire village still believed this was just an ordinary day. What sensory ninja would suddenly feel like standing guard in the middle of the night?

And even if someone discovered him, they would need to stay alive long enough to report it.

Thinking of this gave Torikaze a headache. "How about I just have Shishou sleep at the gate for the night!"

Of course, he was only joking. Torikaze did not need to train today, which gave him more time to make arrangements.

Relying on others was worse than relying on himself. He had no choice.

If he wanted to get through this Chaos Event successfully, he still had to handle it personally.

After tidying himself up a little, Torikaze headed out.

Dawn had only just broken, and there were not many people on the streets.

Only a few middle-aged women stood before the breakfast stalls, buying food. They likely wanted their husbands and children to have a hot meal when they woke up.

Torikaze wore a gentle smile as he headed toward the Konoha Gate.

"Morning, Torikaze. Heading out this early—are you on a mission?"

The ninja guarding the Konoha Gate was already quite familiar with Torikaze. After all, Torikaze was busy every day, carrying out all sorts of missions.

"No, Big Brother Kotetsu. I'm just taking a walk outside the village," Torikaze said with a smile, striking up a conversation with Kotetsu.

"Big Brother Kotetsu, are you on day duty today?"

Kotetsu grinned, his dazzlingly white teeth nearly blinding. "Yep, I just took over, and then you showed up."

Torikaze nodded, his expression turning slightly serious. "Big Brother Kotetsu, when the shift changes tonight, remember to tell the ninjas on duty to be more alert. Things might not be peaceful."

Kotetsu stiffened at that. Seeing that Torikaze did not seem to be joking, he cautiously asked, "Is someone coming to cause trouble in Konoha?"

Torikaze shook his head. "Shishou told me. Just tell them to be careful and stay alert. Don't tell a fourth person, or it might cause panic."

It was true that tonight would not be peaceful, but Hashirama had not told him anything. Torikaze simply did not want to waste too much time on pointless explanations.

Who in Konoha would doubt something Lord Hokage had said?

Sure enough, upon hearing that the news came from Lord Hokage, Kotetsu's expression immediately turned solemn. "Don't worry. Other than the ninja taking over my shift, I won't tell anyone."

"Mm-hm." Torikaze nodded and left Konoha with satisfaction.

As for why he had warned the guards—no matter how skilled they were, even ninjas could not avoid getting sleepy at night. If Madara Uchiha attacked through the front gate, they would probably be the first cannon fodder.

Torikaze arrived in the forest outside Konoha, the place where his dream had begun.

Here, Torikaze had encountered the Busy Worker System that might accompany him for the rest of his life, and from then on, it had fooled him into beginning his life of labor.

This forest encircled all of Konoha and could be considered a natural barrier. It was said that Lord Hokage had created it with Wood Release, though whether that was true remained to be seen.

Torikaze took a diamond-shaped crystal block from his Space Ring, then crouched down and pressed it into the soil.

"Crystal Release—Crystal Linkage Technique."

The diamond-shaped crystal he had just buried rapidly began to grow. In barely half a minute, it had grown into a Crystal Flower.

The Crystal Flower looked no different from an ordinary flower, except that its entire body was made of crystal.

But upon closer inspection, there was a hollow tube at the center of its stamen, so tiny that it was hard to notice.

"Cloud Release—Cloud Mist Sensing Technique."

He finished forming the hand seals, but Torikaze did not release any cloud mist from his mouth or sleeves.

Instead, the newly formed Crystal Flower continuously sprayed cloud mist from its stamen.

Though the flower was fragile and tiny, the cloud mist it released was not weak at all. It was no different from Torikaze's normal use of ninjutsu!

And this was one of Torikaze's gains over the past year!

Through the Crystal Linkage Technique he had developed, Torikaze could remotely control enhanced Crystal Creations to release ninjutsu.

Not just Cloud Release—aside from Taijutsu, nearly every kind of ninjutsu could be released through this technique.

As long as he planted Crystal Seeds beforehand, he could catch his enemies off guard! Before they even realized what was happening, Torikaze would already be bombarding them with ninjutsu!

Whenever this happened, Torikaze thanked the Genius buff for helping him tremendously.

But while the technique was useful, planting the seeds was not so convenient. Konoha was not like the previous Valley, which was not very large, where he could scatter seeds everywhere with Crystal Burst.

Konoha was enormous, and Torikaze did not know where Madara Uchiha would launch his attack from, so he could only plant them all around Konoha.

"Is this damn system really treating me like a laborer? I was out doing business a few months ago, and now I'm a farmer?"

Torikaze let out an indignant roar at the vast forest. "With such a huge forest, when the hell am I supposed to finish planting all this!"

"Damn it, give me a raise!"

Planting them himself was completely impossible. If he really planted every single one by hand, Madara Uchiha would be right in his face before he finished.

Just then, Torikaze saw birds freely flying through the forest, and an idea suddenly came to him.

"Why not use birds to plant the seeds? I'm such an idiot."

"Cloud Release—Flowing Cloud Flying Bird Technique."