Harvest

When Yichen returned to Iwagakure, many people were already waiting inside the Tsuchikage's Office Building.

Several senior advisors and key figures involved in the operation waited nervously at the Tsuchikage's Office Building. Yichen counted them briefly; there were at least a hundred people.

Upon seeing Yichen return, Ming was the first to step forward and ask, "Yichen, how did it go? Did you find the Monkey Clan's settlement?"

Yichen smiled and nodded, saying, "Found it. Now, the only monkey left in the Monkey Clan is Hiruzen Sarutobi Summoning Beast, Enma."

Oh~~~

"That's great!"

"Finally, we succeeded!"

Everyone cheered loudly.

Yichen understood their intentions. Whether or not the Monkey Clan had been completely eradicated was not important; what mattered was whether everyone's efforts during this period had been effective.

Yichen and his gang's actions lately have been anything but honorable; describing them as clowns wouldn't be an exaggeration.

If they fail, it means they've spent more than ten days and wasted a lot of manpower and resources, which would be a joke.

But if successful, it would be a classic battle example that could be included in the Ninja Academy textbooks.

It was precisely because of the huge difference between the two that everyone was so nervous before, and so excited after the confirmation.

After Yichen and the others finished cheering, they immediately said, "All the ninjas who participated in this operation will have their B-rank Mission, all key members will have their A-rank mission, Atsumi Akino have her S-rank mission."

"Oh, the Fourth Lord is mighty!"

"The Fourth Lord is wise!"

"Haha, I can have an A-rank mission record now too."

"I want to exchange for Ninjutsu. I'll go exchange it as soon as the reward comes out."

After a while, Yichen said, "Alright, everyone has worked hard these past ten days or so, go back and rest. The higher-ups will stay for a meeting, Akino, you should join too."

"By the way, this raid was carried out by an ally of Konoha, so it's considered a secret. If Konoha doesn't announce it publicly, we should keep it a secret as well."

"Yes," everyone responded in unison, and then dispersed.

The remaining people came to the conference room, Yichen said to Atsumi Akino, "Akino, you've worked hard this time, going more than ten days without sleep. Take a good rest for a few days when you get back. Don't rush to study the Space-Time Ninjutsu."

"The Ninja World won't be at war anytime soon, we still have time. You're still young, don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Atsumi Akino nodded and said, "Teacher Yichen, I'm almost ready to set up the Heavenly Transfer Technique. I need some materials."

Yichen and the others' eyes lit up. This was precisely why Yichen had kept Atsumi Akino behind; these secrets were not suitable to be discussed in front of so many people.

"I understand. You should rest well first, and try again after you've rested. I will also arrange for a ninja who specializes in weapon forging to assist you. The village will also give you priority in providing whatever materials you need. Don't worry," Yichen promised.

"Yes," Atsumi Akino replied and left the meeting room.

After Atsumi Akino left, the High-Level Meeting officially began. Mei eagerly asked, "Yichen, did you obtain anything good from the Monkey Clan?"

The Iwagakure has paid a heavy price for this mission. Just the fact that they transferred many ninjas who could have been on missions to sabotage the Konoha delegation has caused significant losses to the village.

Afterwards, Yichen publicly promised so many high-level mission records, all of which required the village to pay real rewards.

If the Monkey Clan don't offer any profit, then Ming says: I won't agree to this kind of deal again.

Yichen smiled and said, "There are some things, but I haven't examined them carefully yet to see what their value is."

Then Yichen took out everything he had obtained from the Monkey Clan's Underground Shelter.

Seeing that most of the items were scrolls, and there weren't many actual objects or valuables, Ming was somewhat disappointed.

Actually, there's quite a lot of stuff; you could say this pile of items represents almost half of the Sarutobi Clan's wealth (excluding money and real estate).

After all, the Sarutobi Clan ninjas kept many combat-related items with the Monkey Clan.

However, from Ming's perspective, this amount was indeed not much, especially after calculating the entire Land of Snow's fiscal revenue. This small sum of money could not stir any emotion in her heart.

"Hehe!" Yichen chuckled, unconcerned by Ming's disappointed expression. "Da Tou isn't here. Take a look at those scrolls."

"What good stuff could these scrolls possibly contain? Would Hiruzen Sarutobi really put an S-rank Ninjutsu in the Monkey Clan?" Mei said.

That's true; Hiruzen Sarutobi would never do that. If he did, and something went wrong, he, as Hokage, would be drowned in the spittle of the entire Konoha.

"Although there are some Ninjutsu Scroll among these scrolls, there aren't many; most are Sealing Scroll," Yichen said, taking one and handing it to Ming.

Ming and the others came closer to take a closer look and recognized it as well.

As if struck by a thought, Ming said, "Could these scrolls contain strategic materials?"

Yichen said, "It's highly likely. When I found these things, the other items were scattered around, probably personal belongings. But this pile of Sealing Scroll was all neatly stacked together. I estimate these are military supplies that Hiruzen Sarutobi prepared for the war."

"Let's go to the warehouse and open the scroll to take a look," Xiangming said without even thinking.

The others had no objections and all said they wanted to go together.

Soon, the group arrived at the Logistics Department and transferred the other ninjas on duty, leaving only the head of the Logistics Department Yumi. Yumi was a middle-aged female ninja with the strength of Jonin, and had been the head of the Logistics Department for several years.

This was the first time she had ever seen such a large entourage, including the Tsuchikage and the entire Advisor Group. Moreover, Yichen's arrival immediately sent all the other on-duty ninjas away—this was highly unusual. She was a little nervous; she hadn't embezzled anything.

Yichen ignored her and only unlocked the first Sealing Scroll.

Bang!

A huge pile of items suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes.

"These are all Kunai, Yumi, you estimate how much this is." Mei was startled and quickly said to Yumi.

"Yes." Yumi was also taken aback, but upon hearing Mei's words, she forced herself to come to her senses, then circled the pile of Kunai, and confidently gave a number, indicating that the Kunai neatly stacked and easy to count.

Yichen examined the pile of Kunai carefully, not understanding why it was so neat.

"Very good, very good." Based on the data given Yumi Yushi, Ming kept calculating silently in his mind, and then his eyes became brighter and brighter.

Putting everything else aside, the value of this pile of Kunai alone is almost enough to justify the cost of this operation.

Then Yichen opened one scroll after another.

Consumables such as Kunai and Exploding Tag were the most numerous. Other military supplies, such as medical supplies, Ration Pills, and tents, were also plentiful.

Yichen estimated that this pile of supplies was enough for a 5,000-strong ninja army to hold off the enemy on the front lines for three months. Of course, this was assuming no large-scale decisive battle occurred.

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't Hokage as Hokage for nothing over the decades; these supplies can, in certain special circumstances, save a war from certain defeats.

Yichen didn't know if Hiruzen Sarutobi had any other plans. He had to be careful in the future and not fall into that old man's trap.

Previously, influenced by the original work, Yichen didn't think much of Hiruzen Sarutobi, but now he realizes that the old man has some lessons to offer. Now that I'm also the Tsuchikage, it's time to make some preparations for the possible war.

Looking at the unusable Sealing Scroll, Ikura said, "What a pity, these scrolls can't be used anymore..."

Yichen nodded and said, "That's right, it's a pity. The production cost of such large-capacity Sealing Scroll is extremely high, and the success rate is frighteningly low. The value of these scrolls themselves is probably not much less than that of these supplies."

Saka said, "Hiruzen Sarutobi really going all out. Our village doesn't even have a single Sealing Scroll this big. In fact, we don't even have the technology for it."

Yichen comforted him, "Don't be disappointed, Senior Saka. You'll get more in the future. We can exchange the good things Konoha has with them later."

"Don't forget, our dealings with Danzo haven't ended yet! As long as Danzo hasn't given up on becoming Hokage, we still have a chance to get the information we need from him."

Saka wholeheartedly agreed with Yichen's words. With Yichen around, he felt that anything, no matter how unbelievable, could be accomplished. As for Danzo, that was a consensus throughout the entire Ninja World.

Watching Misaki and Yumi excitedly calculating the value of the items, Saka said, "It seems this High-Level Meeting won't be able to continue anytime soon. Let's go back and leave this place to them."

Yichen nodded, then said to Tomoko, who was eager to join the discussion, "Go if you want to."

"Okay, Teacher Yichen." After saying that Tomoko immediately joined the discussion between Ming and the other two.

Yichen and the others then left the Logistics Department together.

"Ikura, how have the matches with the Sunagakure been going these past few days? What level have you reached?" Yichen suddenly asked about the matches with the Sunagakure.

Rasa had previously agreed to all of Yichen's requests.

Chiyo's Body Reincarnation Technique, some not-so-sophisticated Puppet Technique, and Yichen's so-called compensation—all these things had already gone to Iwagakure with the Sunagakure Village delegation.

Since the Sunagakure delegation arrived at the Iwagakure, friendly sparring between the ninjas of the two villages has never stopped, although the sparring had been at the Chunin level until now.

Yichen just hadn't gone to check, and only now that he had some free time did he remember these things.

"The sparring between Jonin is already underway, and I personally oversee each match. Both sides are benefiting, especially at the Jonin level. Neither side has encountered other villages' ninjas for life-or-death battles lately, so the matches are going very well."

"This model can be promoted. We can deepen our cooperation with the Sunagakure in this regard. This time they only sent a dozen or so Chunin and a few Jonin, which is too few."

"Furthermore, could we also have some friendly sparring sessions with the Cloud ninja, the Mist ninja, and even the Konoha?"

Yichen thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say about the Mist ninja, but the Cloud ninja have a good chance. I remember when I was at the border, I proposed a contest to the Cloud ninja, and they readily agreed. The Cloud ninja are all warmongers; they might be even more excited about this than we are."

"As for Konoha, isn't Kakashi Hatake currently in the village? We can take the initiative to go and invite them."

"I understand. Oh, right, there's one more thing. Your disciple Suda Himezuki, has become Quasi-Jonin. She completed her transformation during the battle against the Sunagakure." Ikura suddenly remembered something else.

Before Yichen could express his surprise, Ikura continued, "Not only has she grown, but her Ninja Cat, Fenghuo, has also grown just like her. Although she's still at the Chunin level, she can already use Ninjutsu."

"What? How is that possible? How big is Fenghuo? How can he use Ninjutsu with that?" Yichen was shocked.

Ikura a wry smile and said, "I was much more surprised back then than you are now."

Yoshimura Kazumasa, Katsuya, Suda Himezuki, Kawazoe Yura, Uchiyama Takuhiro, Kanako —these six students were taken in by Yichen at the same time, and it seems that only Katsuya hasn't become Quasi-Jonin yet.

They've all made pretty quick progress.