Graduation Preparations

Yichen, too ashamed to face anyone, stopped going to the Ninja Academy except for necessary ninja tool practice.

There was still one final year before graduation, and the newbie protection period was about to end. Yichen was filled with worry about the world outside the newbie village. The outside world might be exciting, but it was also far too dangerous.

The Ninja World never lacked rogue ninja. Some of these rogue ninja were Missing-nin from nations large and small, while others had never belonged to any country at all. They were ninja who had learned to extract Chakra through unofficial channels.

Rogue ninjas had no fixed base. They wandered everywhere and took jobs at the underground Bounty Office to make a living.

Under normal circumstances, the major nations would not go too far in hunting down these rogue ninjas, because the cost was disproportionate to the return.

Not to mention that some rogue ninja were extremely powerful, making the major ninja villages wary—even ordinary rogue ninja, if driven into a corner, could target Genin from the ninja villages with Sneak Attacks and cause devastating losses.

Moreover, the existence of rogue ninja could help ninja villages handle matters they could not conveniently deal with themselves, such as highly dangerous missions. The cost of training ninja was too great, and the villages could not afford frequent casualties.

So they would post missions at the underground Bounty Office. As long as the price was right, there would always be rogue ninjas unafraid of death willing to take them.

The underground Bounty Office charged less for missions than ninja villages, so it was fairly popular. The problem was that the quality of the ninja was not guaranteed, which was why most people still trusted the more reputable ninja villages when posting missions.

In his memories, Ōnoki had hired the Akatsuki Organization in the later years, and the mission he issued had even been a war mission.

Thus, the lives of rogue ninja bounty hunters were actually part of a balance reached with the major ninja villages.

Of course, most rogue ninja also feared ninja villages. In an era when Hashirama and Madara were no longer around and Nagato had yet to emerge, an individual was still terribly powerless before a ninja village.

Ninja villages might be wary of the countless rogue ninja throughout the Ninja World, but they would not fear any particular rogue ninja among them.

If one actively provoked a ninja village, its intelligence analysis department would thoroughly investigate that rogue ninja's background before carrying out a targeted purge.

Ordinary rogue ninja generally could not withstand such an offensive. So under normal circumstances, they were unwilling to provoke ninja villages.

But there was one exception: Missing-nin.

Missing-nin made up a large proportion of rogue ninja, and they were generally stronger as well, but they were mortal enemies of the ninja villages.

Because these ninja usually harbored resentment toward their villages when they defected, they often sought revenge against them.

And since these people carried a great deal of intelligence with them, the villages would also assign specialists to hunt them down.

Thus, for rookie Genin who had just left a ninja village, the most dangerous thing in this Ninja World was not the mission target.

It was the Missing-nin who could appear at any time.

Although Yichen had not yet graduated, his years of work experience had long taught him the cruelty of the Ninja World through his colleagues.

It could be said that aside from war, the greatest number of ninja died at the hands of Missing-nin from their own countries.

Although Iwagakure in his memories had not produced as many Missing-nin as Konoha, apart from Deidara, that did not mean it had none.

They simply had not been specifically depicted.

Ninja could be considered a high-risk profession, one that lacked a trial of the heart like those found in fantasy novels when people first entered it.

Under the influence of the broader environment, most ninja could hold firm to their convictions and willingly sacrifice themselves for the village.

But a small number of ninja, when forced to choose between the village and themselves, chose their own safety.

Such ninja were not accepted by the mainstream and might choose to retreat when carrying out dangerous missions.

For ninja, retreat was not impossible. But if one retreated merely out of fear of sacrifice, then his ninja career would be over. In most cases, he would be executed by the village; if the circumstances were less severe, he would still be sent to Prison.

Many ninja who chose to retreat at critical moments were unwilling to accept the village's punishment and often chose to defect.

Yichen did not expect to grow particularly strong in the coming year. He only hoped to gain enough ability to protect himself when facing attacks from Missing-nin.

Originally, Yichen had wanted to learn many things: Medical Ninjutsu, Sensory Ninjutsu, Defensive Ninjutsu, Offensive Ninjutsu, Nintaijutsu, Genjutsu...

Unfortunately, this body's talent was truly too poor.

With his exceptional mental power, Yichen had already greatly narrowed the gap between himself and a genius.

He might have been completely crushed when facing Ikura.

But compared with the others in his class and the students in other classes of the same year, Yichen was already an astonishing genius.

What was more, his greatest advantage now was not combat, but his proficiency in Sealing Jutsu.

Compared horizontally, Yichen had already thoroughly analyzed several B-rank Sealing Jutsu and led the development of an A-rank Sealing Jutsu.

At this point, although Ikura could skillfully use C-rank Ninjutsu, he had not fully mastered B-rank Ninjutsu, much less A-rank techniques.

So although Yichen's combat power was far inferior to Ikura's, in the eyes of the higher-ups, Yichen was no less important than Ikura.

That was also why Ōnoki had repeatedly made things convenient for Yichen.

When he could not attend to every ability at once, Yichen had no choice but to make a decision. In truth, he had begun making that decision the moment he realized his Chakra Amount was insufficient.

Medical Ninjutsu was the first thing Yichen gave up. He did not have extra Chakra to heal himself or his companions.

Nintaijutsu was the second thing he put aside, because Yichen had realized early on that his Taijutsu lagged far behind everyone else in his class. Even if he learned Nintaijutsu, it would only narrow the gap between himself and other geniuses; it would not allow him to capitalize on his strengths.

As for Genjutsu, Yichen had actually wanted to learn it. He had read every Genjutsu theory book in the Ninja Academy.

But Iwagakure did not excel in Genjutsu, and in this era, the monstrous Uchiha clan was still active in the Ninja World.

Genjutsu was not mainstream in any nation. Everyone focused on breaking Genjutsu instead.

So Iwagakure had too few Genjutsu techniques, and their power was not particularly high.

On top of that, Yichen lacked Chakra and did not have the spare energy to study Genjutsu.

One of the most important reasons Yichen chose Sealing Jutsu was that, in the early stages, Sealing Jutsu was excellent support, while in the later stages, it could greatly improve his combat power.

Yichen was now using Sealing Jutsu to increase his combat power.

This combat power mainly came from two aspects: sealing Ninjutsu into scrolls, and sealing weapons onto his body with rune patterns.

Sealing Ninjutsu into scrolls already existed in the Ninja World. Shikamaru had used it in his memories, but the requirements were far too stringent.

The Chakra used in the scroll, the Chakra used to make the scroll, and the Chakra of the sealed Ninjutsu all had to share the same origin. Otherwise, the Ninjutsu would lose control.

In other words, the ninja had to make the scroll himself, cast the Ninjutsu himself, seal it himself, and use it himself.

That was already absurd enough, but the most frustrating part was that using this kind of scroll still required hand seals. It was not instantaneous.

Although the Chakra needed to undo the seal with hand seals was far less than the Chakra required to release the Ninjutsu, the higher the rank of the sealed Ninjutsu, the stronger the seal had to be, and the more Chakra was needed to undo it.

Most importantly, Chakra scrolls that sealed Ninjutsu were extremely troublesome to make and had a very low success rate.

With so many restrictions, few ninja could make Ninjutsu Scrolls, much less be willing to make them.

Yichen had considered this when he chose Sealing Jutsu. Since his raw strength was lacking, he could only resort to tricks like Shikamaru.

Yichen's Sealing Jutsu was already among the best in Iwagakure. Making a C-rank Ninjutsu Sealing Scroll was not much of a problem.

As a member of the Barrier Team, he still had to pay for materials when making scrolls for himself, but the material costs were far lower than market prices.

Thanks to his outstanding Chakra Control, Yichen had only failed a few times when he first learned to make such scrolls. After that, he had never failed again.

Because of several high-ranking missions, Yichen had been quite flush with cash recently. So he spent lavishly, purchasing one hundred sets of materials for one million ryo in one go.

He then spent an entire month turning all those materials into scrolls.

It was not because he was slow, but because his Chakra limited him to making only three or four scrolls a day. After all, Yichen still had work to do.

Even that was only possible because Yichen's Chakra Control far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing him to use far less than 1C of Chakra to make a C-rank scroll. Otherwise, he could only have made two scrolls a day.

A month later, Yichen began trying every day to seal Ninjutsu into the scrolls. But the success rate of that process was outrageously low.

After Yichen persisted for two months, all one hundred scrolls were finally used up. Only five succeeded: three Earth Style: Earth Flow Walls and two Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

It was not that Yichen wanted to seal so many Earth Style: Earth Flow Walls. It was simply because he had mastered Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall better, so the success rate was much higher. He succeeded three times after only a dozen or so attempts.

As for Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, he tried dozens of times and succeeded only twice.

Yichen had also tried the Three Basic Jutsu and discovered that Ninjutsu of that type could not be sealed.

Perhaps only Ninjutsu with a tangible form could be sealed.

Still, it had not been a waste of time. At the very least, his proficiency with Water Style: Water Line Jutsu had improved noticeably.

Not to mention anything else, his success rate was now already quite high.

His hand seal speed had also improved significantly, reaching 2.2 seals per second.

However, the number of hand seals had not decreased, which also showed that Yichen had not fully mastered this Ninjutsu.

Because Yichen had lived very peacefully during this period, with nothing major happening and little work to do, he had lost the opportunity to become rich overnight. His Contribution Points increased very slowly.

Fortunately, the Barrier Office took Yichen's abilities into consideration and voluntarily improved his compensation and benefits.

When Yichen had first joined the Barrier Team and worked in the archives, he could only earn 50,000 ryo per month.

Later, because of the Mist ninja incident, he became a full member. He also happened to leave the archives and transfer to a new position, where he received the additional rewards of three C-rank missions per month—150,000 ryo and 30 Contribution Points monthly.

In addition, every time Yichen successfully made a Storage Scroll, he could receive another 10 Contribution Points.

During the war, the village had needed large numbers of Storage Scrolls, so Yichen's income had been substantial. These consumable items, which did not require much Chakra to make, allowed Yichen to accumulate many Contribution Points and laid the foundation for him later exchanging for B-rank Sealing Jutsu.

But after the war ended, that extra income dried up.

Fortunately, the Barrier Team had now improved Yichen's compensation and benefits. His current benefits matched Meishe's: besides 200,000 ryo per month, his pay was calculated according to two B-rank Missions.

That meant a monthly income of 600,000 ryo and 200 Contribution Points.

As Yichen's body grew, the amount of Contribution Points he needed for supplements continued to increase. It was nowhere near enough. He had originally planned to save up and exchange for Sensory Ninjutsu, but the reality was that he now had fewer Contribution Points than when he had exchanged for Water Style: Water Line Jutsu.

As for ryo, he could save quite a bit every month. Combined with the reward from the S-rank mission, Yichen was not lacking money at all now.

Yichen was beginning to regret exchanging Contribution Points for ninja tools at the Exchange Office back then.

During peacetime, many merchants in the village sold bladed tools, all settled in ryo.

Why had he spent his precious Contribution Points then?