Barrier Team

As a Jonin skilled in Sealing Jutsu, Youjin held a high position in Iwagakure.

During wartime, with the front lines under pressure, the Barrier Team captain had been sent to the front. As a result, Youjin had become the main person responsible for maintaining the village's barriers.

Youjin had been under immense pressure lately. The Barrier Team was an important line of defense for the village, and wartime was when all sorts of troublemakers emerged most frequently.

Yet this was also when manpower was in shortest supply.

Half a month ago, he had received notice that a Ninja Academy student would be coming to intern soon, and he was told to make the arrangements.

Although there had been no precedent for this, Youjin did not think much of it. He assumed the student was about to graduate and would be assigned to the Barrier Team in the future, so they were simply being brought in early to adapt to the work.

He had guided plenty of newcomers before.

But the moment he saw Yichen, his mind went completely blank.

After repeatedly confirming that the mission letter was genuine, Youjin stood there with his mouth open for a long while before finally asking Yichen, "How old are you?"

Yichen answered, "Seven."

It was not that Yichen did not want to explain. For one thing, the Tsuchikage's mission letter was right in front of him, and Youjin could not possibly refuse to acknowledge it. For another, his age was an undeniable fact, and explanations would be useless. He could not exactly say that he was very mature and tell them not to treat him like a child.

Most importantly, his Chakra was nearly depleted right now. He could not even use the Transformation Jutsu to prove himself.

Fortunately, Youjin was a mature Jonin. After his initial shock, he accepted reality. After all, geniuses emerged endlessly in the ninja world. Since this was the Tsuchikage's intention, Yichen clearly could not be treated as an ordinary child.

As he got up and led Yichen toward the Barrier Team's workplace, Youjin reminded himself that he absolutely had to treat Yichen like a normal ninja.

Before long, the two arrived beneath the Barrier Team headquarters. To Yichen's surprise, although the building above ground did not look large, the underground area was enormous. Just the parts Yichen could see were no smaller than the Ninja Academy.

Yichen looked over the divisions of the various underground areas. Some were archives, some were practice areas, and there were workrooms as well as restricted areas whose purpose Yichen did not know.

Youjin handed Yichen over to another middle-aged ninja and instructed him to first familiarize Yichen with the Barrier Team's work. Then, ignoring the man's stunned expression, he turned around and fled as though escaping, not even taking the time to introduce Yichen.

Seeing that the man had yet to accept reality, Yichen could only take the initiative. "Senior, my name is Yichen. I'm currently still a Ninja Academy student. Please take care of me in the future."

Hearing Yichen's words, the man finally snapped out of it. After thinking for a moment, he stopped dwelling on Yichen's age. Since Yichen could communicate like an adult, he might as well simply ignore his age.

The man smiled at Yichen. "My name is Bunji. I'm the Squad Leader in charge of Sealing Jutsu within the Barrier Team."

Yichen hurriedly said, "Hello, Captain Bunji!"

Finding this amusing, Bunji decided to test Yichen's level so he could arrange suitable work for him. He asked several questions related to the fundamentals of Sealing Jutsu.

Yichen promptly answered them one by one based on the knowledge he had gained from reading over the years.

The more Bunji listened, the more surprised he became. His questions grew increasingly difficult, and he began mixing in some professional and experience-based questions. Yichen could not answer those.

After thinking for a moment, Bunji said, "It seems you've read quite a few books on Sealing Jutsu. Your foundation is pretty good, so you can save a lot of time on studying."

"Next, you'll need to learn some professional knowledge and do some practice. Then you can be considered a beginner."

"You're still attending classes, right? Starting tomorrow, come to the archives after school to stand duty. Your work will be to help people find materials when they need them, and read some professional books during your free time."

As he spoke, he made Yichen a reading list, then led him around the archives and introduced him to the ninja who was originally on duty there.

After finishing, Bunji suddenly remembered something. He examined Yichen carefully and, seeing that his physique was not particularly outstanding, asked, "Yichen, what is your Chakra Amount?"

Yichen hurriedly replied, "It's just enough to use one of the Three Basic Jutsu. But I used one earlier today, so my Chakra is already nearly exhausted."

When Bunji first heard that Yichen's Chakra Amount was only enough for one of the Three Basic Jutsu, he frowned slightly. But when he heard that Yichen could use the Transformation Jutsu, he became somewhat surprised again.

Chakra Amount was an important measure of a ninja's aptitude, while ninjas with excellent Chakra Control could save a great deal of Chakra when using Ninjutsu and other techniques.

The fact that Yichen could use the Transformation Jutsu with such a limited Chakra Amount showed that his control was extremely good. He could use one portion as though it were two, making up for his shortcomings.

With that in mind, Bunji stopped worrying about anything else. He told Yichen to come directly after school tomorrow to take over the shift, then sent him home.

On the way home, Yichen was somewhat excited. He was very satisfied with this job. Not only could it solve his financial difficulties, but it would also allow him to learn practical skills.

What did novel protagonists rely on to reach the pinnacle of life? First, talent. Second, teachers.

Naruto's teachers included Kakashi, Jiraiya, the two Toad Sages, Killer B, Nine-Tails, and the Sage of Six Paths. Every one of them had provided Naruto with tremendous help.

Although Bunji was not his teacher and his abilities were nowhere near those great figures, he had considerable accomplishments in Sealing Jutsu. The help he could provide Yichen would certainly not be small.

The next day, Yichen went directly to the Barrier Team after school. After handing over with the previous attendant, he began familiarizing himself with the working environment of his new job.

The archives were huge, containing dozens of bookshelves. Each shelf held hundreds of scrolls. The largest category consisted of the various insights on Sealing Jutsu left behind by predecessors, accounting for a full eighty percent.

Books on various foundational knowledge accounted for another ten percent. A considerable portion of them were books Yichen had encountered at the Ninja Academy, but even more were books not included in the academy's collection.

The remaining ten percent consisted either of complete Sealing Jutsu or research and speculation regarding the various Sealing Jutsu of other countries.

However, all of those scrolls had been placed under advanced seals and required special hand signs to open.

Without the method to open them, touching them recklessly would trigger an alarm.

The first ninety percent of the books could be copied and taken out of the archives, but doing so required a certain amount of Contribution Points. Of course, the required amount was not high.

Reading them directly in the archives was free.

One of Yichen's important duties was copying materials for people who spent Contribution Points to exchange for them. During this process, Yichen could also earn a very small amount of Contribution Points.

For copying one ordinary document, Yichen could receive 2 Contribution Points, while the person exchanging it had to pay 10 Contribution Points. Of those, 5 would be recorded under the author's name, while the remaining 3 were Contribution Points recovered by the village.

The village used this method to encourage everyone to share their insights, which was why Yichen could see so many personal notes that they occupied eighty percent of the entire collection.

However, after calculating according to the exchange rates, Yichen found that exchanging for an ordinary C-rank Ninjutsu required 1,000 points, while a B-rank one required more than 50,000 points, along with other merit requirements. So if Yichen wanted to learn Ninjutsu, he would have to copy at least 500 books.

Contribution Points could also be exchanged for currency, and the currency of the ninja world was unified across all countries.

In Iwagakure, 1 point could be exchanged for 10 ryo, while exchanging currency for Contribution Points required 100 ryo for 1 point.

This was also an important method the village used to encourage ninjas to actively take missions.

Without considering training, Yichen's three daily meals cost around 500 ryo. Including other expenses, he needed roughly 25,000 ryo per month.

The village now covered those expenses. In addition, it gave Yichen a monthly pension of 100,000 ryo for six years, which happened to be the length of study at the Ninja Academy.

If Yichen failed to become a ninja, that money would be enough for him to reach adulthood in comfort, and the village could be considered to have done right by the ninja who had died in battle.

But Yichen spent all of that money on training, and he basically used every last bit of it each month.

Most awkwardly, as his body grew stronger and the intensity of his training increased, the pension had begun to fall short.

If he wanted to maintain his training intensity and steadily improve his strength, Yichen could only work to subsidize his training expenses.

Bunji had previously explained that newcomers to the Barrier Team generally began by managing the archives, which also counted as knowledge training for newcomers.

This position had the lowest salary, only 50,000 ryo per month, and it also counted as one C-rank mission per month.

Each C-rank mission paid 50,000 ryo and provided 10 Contribution Points.

Unfortunately, Yichen was not a ninja. When Ōnoki arranged this job for him, he had mentioned that Yichen could only receive the salary and could not have missions recorded. In other words, Yichen had a fixed monthly income of 50,000 ryo.

Yichen had no complaints. Being able to obtain this job was already the result of Ōnoki's extra consideration, an investment in Yichen's talent.

From then on, Yichen spent six hours working at the Barrier Team every day after school.

For this, Yichen canceled his evening physical training and switched to practicing the Three Basic Jutsu. He also increased the intensity of his morning training and combat class training.

Fortunately, combat classes now lasted much longer than before, so his various physical exercises did not fall behind. With his salary supplement, Yichen also increased his supply of food and medicinal herbs.

Although his routine had changed, his busy and fulfilling life had not.

Instead, the increased training intensity sparked plenty of speculation among his classmates. They did not know what had stimulated Yichen into training so desperately all of a sudden.

Shinohara deliberately tested Yichen through sarcastic remarks, but Yichen mercilessly shot down this concern so directly that Shinohara was furious.

When no one else was around, Tana also subtly indicated that if Yichen needed money, she could lend him some. Yichen expressed his gratitude but did not accept her kindness, nor did he deliberately explain himself.

What surprised Yichen was that even several classmates he was not usually close with came to persuade him one after another.

For example, Taniya used the excuse of sparring to guide Yichen in taijutsu. This surprised Yichen, but he also treasured the opportunity. The training insights of a taijutsu clan were difficult to come by.

Ikura and Meikou also came one after another to exchange their experiences with Ninjutsu with Yichen.

With his classmates suddenly doing all this, Yichen felt a little dazed and a little moved.

His personality had always been relatively quiet, and his relationships with his classmates had actually been quite ordinary. He had also been focused on training, and was only relatively close to Shinohara and Tana.

He had never expected that, without realizing it, he had already formed so many bonds with everyone.

This left Yichen somewhat at a loss. He was a little afraid. The ninja world was cruel, and its death rate was high. He was not sure whether he could bear the deaths of his classmates.

He had originally thought that reducing contact would reduce pain as well. Yet without him noticing, these bonds had already formed.