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 worries about the world outside the beginner's village. The outside world might be exciting, but it was far too dangerous.

The ninja world never lacked Rogue Ninjas. Some of these Rogue Ninjas were defectors from nations large and small, while others had never belonged to any country. They were ninjas who had learned to extract Chakra through unofficial channels.

Rogue Ninjas had no fixed bases. They wandered everywhere, taking missions from the underground Bounty Office to make a living.

Under normal circumstances, the great nations would not go overboard in hunting down these Rogue Ninjas, because the cost simply did not justify the returns.

Not to mention that some Rogue Ninjas were extremely powerful, making the Great Ninja Villages wary of them—even ordinary Rogue Ninjas, if driven into a corner, could target village Genin with Sneak Attacks and inflict heavy losses.

Moreover, the existence of Rogue Ninjas allowed Ninja Villages to handle matters they could not conveniently address themselves. For example, for highly dangerous missions, the cost of training ninjas was too great for a village to endure 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 accept them.

The underground Bounty Office charged lower mission commissions than Ninja Villages, so it was fairly popular. However, the quality of its ninjas was not guaranteed, so 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, even assigning them war missions.

Thus, the lives of Rogue Ninja bounty hunters were actually part of a balance reached with the various Great Ninja Villages.

Of course, most Rogue Ninjas also feared Ninja Villages. In an era when Hashirama and Madara no longer walked the world and Nagato had yet to emerge and wreak havoc, an individual was still powerless before a Ninja Village.

Ninja Villages might be wary of the countless Rogue Ninjas throughout the ninja world, but they would not fear any one particular Rogue Ninja.

If a Rogue Ninja took the initiative to provoke a Ninja Village, its intelligence analysis department would thoroughly investigate that Rogue Ninja's background before launching a targeted hunt.

Ordinary Rogue Ninjas generally could not withstand such an offensive. Thus, under normal circumstances, they were unwilling to provoke Ninja Villages as well.

But there was one exception: defectors.

Defectors made up a high proportion of Rogue Ninjas and were often quite powerful, but they were also the mortal enemies of Ninja Village ninjas.

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

And because they carried extensive intelligence with them, the villages would send specialists to hunt them down.

So for rookie Genin who had just left a Ninja Village, the most dangerous thing in the ninja world was not the mission target. It was the defectors who might appear at any moment.

Although Yichen had not yet graduated, after several years of work, he had long learned of the ninja world's brutality from his colleagues.

It could be said that, aside from war, more ninjas died at the hands of defectors from their own countries than from anything else.

Though Iwagakure in his memories had not produced as many defectors as Konoha aside from Deidara, that did not mean it had none.

They simply had not been specifically described.

Ninjas could be seen as working in a high-risk profession, one that lacked the sort of trial of the heart found in fantasy novels when newcomers entered it.

Under the influence of their environment, most ninjas could remain firm in their resolve and willingly sacrifice themselves for their villages.

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

Such ninjas were not accepted by the mainstream. When carrying out dangerous missions, they might choose to retreat.

Retreating was not impossible for a ninja, but if someone retreated purely out of fear of sacrifice, then their ninja career was over. In most cases, they would be executed by the village. Those whose circumstances were less severe would still be sent to prison.

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

Yichen did not expect to grow tremendously over the next year. He only hoped to gain enough ability to protect himself when facing attacks from defectors.

Originally, there were many things Yichen wanted to learn: Medical Ninjutsu, Sensory Ninjutsu, defensive ninjutsu, Offensive Ninjutsu, Nintaijutsu, genjutsu...

Unfortunately, this body's talent was truly terrible.

With his exceptional Mental Power, Yichen had already greatly narrowed the gap between himself and a Genius.

Though he had been completely crushed when facing Ikura,

among the others in his class and the other classes in his grade, Yichen was already an incredible Genius.

What was more, his greatest advantage now was not combat, but his mastery of Sealing Jutsu.

By comparison, Yichen had already fully analyzed several B-rank Sealing Jutsu and had 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 Ninjutsu.

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 opened so many doors for Yichen.

When he could not develop every ability at once, Yichen had no choice but to make decisions. In truth, he had begun making those choices as soon as he realized his Chakra Amount was insufficient.

Medical Ninjutsu was the first thing Yichen abandoned. He did not have enough spare Chakra to heal himself or his companions.

Nintaijutsu was the second thing he set aside. Yichen had discovered early on that his taijutsu lagged far behind the others in his class. Even if he learned Nintaijutsu, it would only narrow the gap between himself and other geniuses; it would not let him make use of his strengths.

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

But Iwagakure did not excel at genjutsu, and in this era, the monstrous Uchiha clan was still active in the ninja world.

Genjutsu was not mainstream in any country. Everyone focused on countering it instead.

Thus, Iwagakure had too few genjutsu techniques, and their strength was low as well.

Furthermore, Yichen did not have enough Chakra or spare energy to study genjutsu.

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

Yichen was currently using Sealing Jutsu to increase his Combat Power.

This Combat Power mainly came from two areas: sealing ninjutsu into scrolls and sealing weapons onto his body with seal markings.

Sealing ninjutsu into scrolls already existed in the ninja world. Shikamaru had used it in his memories, but its conditions were overly strict.

The Chakra used in the scroll, the Chakra used to create the scroll, and the Chakra of the sealed ninjutsu had to originate from the same source. Otherwise, the ninjutsu would lose control.

In other words, the ninja had to create the scroll personally, cast the ninjutsu personally, seal it personally, and use it personally.

That was already absurd enough, but the most troublesome part was that using such scrolls still required hand seals. They were not instant-cast.

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

Most importantly, Chakra scrolls for sealing ninjutsu were extremely troublesome to make and had a very low success rate.

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

Yichen had considered this as early as when he chose Sealing Jutsu. His direct combat strength was lacking, so 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 spend money on materials to make scrolls for himself, but the cost was far lower than market prices.

Thanks to his outstanding Chakra Control, aside from failing a few times when he had first learned to make this kind of scroll, Yichen had never failed again afterward.

Because of several high-level missions, Yichen had been quite flush with money recently. He had spent one million ryo in one go to buy one hundred sets of materials.

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

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

That was only possible because Yichen's Chakra Control far surpassed that of ordinary people, reducing the Chakra required to make a C-rank scroll to far below one C. 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 this process was outrageously low.

After Yichen persisted for two months, all one hundred scrolls had finally been 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 made dozens of attempts and succeeded only twice.

Yichen had also tried the Three Basic Jutsu, only to discover that this type of ninjutsu could not be sealed.

Perhaps only ninjutsu with physical 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.

For one thing, its success rate was already quite high now.

His Hand Seal Speed had also improved significantly, reaching 2.2 seals per second.

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

Because Yichen had been living peacefully during this period, with no major events and little work, he had also lost the opportunity to become rich overnight. His Contribution Points increased very slowly.

Fortunately, the Barrier Office took Yichen's abilities into consideration and took the initiative to improve his compensation.

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

Later, because of the Kirigakure incident, he became a full member. He also happened to leave the archives for a new position, gaining the additional rewards of three C-rank missions each month: one hundred and fifty thousand ryo and thirty Contribution Points.

Additionally, every time Yichen successfully made a Storage Scroll, he could receive another ten Contribution Points.

During wartime, the village needed large numbers of Storage Scrolls, so Yichen earned quite a bit. These disposable items did not consume much Chakra to make, allowing Yichen to accumulate many Contribution Points and laying the foundation for his later exchange for B-rank Sealing Jutsu.

But after the war ended, that extra income disappeared.

Fortunately, the Barrier Team had now improved Yichen's compensation. His current treatment was equivalent to Meishe's. In addition to two hundred thousand ryo per month, his salary was calculated as the reward for two B-rank Missions.

That meant a monthly income of six hundred thousand ryo and two hundred Contribution Points.

As Yichen's body grew, the amount of Contribution Points he needed for supplements increased more and more. It was simply not enough. He had originally planned to save up 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 lot every month. Combined with the reward from the S-rank mission, he was no longer lacking money at all.

Yichen now somewhat regretted exchanging for ninja tools at the Exchange Office back then.

During peacetime, plenty of merchants in the village sold bladed tools, all paid for in ryo.

Why had he spent such precious Contribution Points back then?