Cloud Village: Hey, I'm back again

"That last move was really fast."

Tsunade suddenly recalled the flash of light that had appeared like lightning in the dust. She thought she had glimpsed electricity bursting from Uchiha Chonhua.

Was it a Lightning Release Body Flicker Technique? It was fast, and completely new.

Tsunade smacked Uchiha Chonhua on the head and vigorously ruffled his hair.

She had never seen Uchiha Chonhua use that move before. He had caught her off guard, and with her defenses down, she had made one misstep and lost both bells.

Sigh. The dignity of a sensei has been challenged.

Still... Tsunade smiled. "Your growth is astonishing, kid. Compared to you, your teacher's turned into a complete mediocrity."

Uchiha Chonhua took a step back and ruefully fixed his mussed-up hair.

"Don't sell yourself short, Tsunade-sensei. There's a lot I still need to learn from you."

Uchiha Chonhua looked at Tsunade's hands. They didn't have a single scratch on them. It was impossible to imagine that those delicate hands could trigger an earthquake and scar the land.

He looked at Tsunade with a mixture of anticipation and nervousness, then ventured, "Tsunade-sensei, could you teach me the move you just used?"

Tsunade agreed without hesitation.

"Of course. You're my student. Who else would I teach it to?"

Huh?

That answer left Uchiha Chonhua a little bewildered. He was happy to have learned the Strength of a Hundred Seal Fist so easily, but... getting it with so little effort felt strange.

He'd gotten Tsunade's secret technique just like that? He wasn't her disciple... Wait. Uchiha Chonhua suddenly realized something.

Had he been making assumptions and putting up boundaries for himself?

Uchiha Chonhua took a deep breath and asked, "Tsunade-sensei, am I your disciple?"

Being a student and being a disciple weren't quite the same. In the Ninja World, many secret techniques were passed down within families and between masters and disciples, though not always. Uchiha Chonhua figured he might have encountered one of those exceptions.

Tsunade's amber eyes shifted as she understood what Uchiha Chonhua was thinking. Her expression suddenly turned odd. "So that's how much the title of disciple matters to you, Chonhua..."

Tsunade lightly tapped Uchiha Chonhua on the head and said with exasperation, "What do you take me for, some stubborn old fossil? To me, there's no difference between a student and a disciple. It just comes down to whether I'm willing to teach someone!"

"That won't do. Don't turn into a stubborn little stickler for titles. You've got to be broad-minded!"

Uchiha Chonhua slapped a hand over his face, speechless.

So that was really all there was to it. He'd overthought things and turned into a stubborn little stickler.

[Host, you're so lame.]

Shut up, system.

Uchiha Chonhua knew all too well how embarrassing this was. He'd made himself look downright petty.

Though he'd lived two lives, he was less open-minded than Tsunade, who'd lived only one.

So why had he been worrying over nothing this whole time?

Uchiha Chonhua watched Uchiha Mikoto and Hizashi Hyuga's tests with a gloomy expression.

Under Tsunade's extreme act of going easy on them, they'd barely managed to snatch one bell right before the fifteen-minute limit.

Pretty average.

The two of them were panting. They glanced at the gloomy Uchiha Chonhua and felt a little ashamed.

Compared to Uchiha Chonhua, they were nowhere near his level.

They'd watched Chonhua and Minato fight before and realized that the two were far beyond them, on a completely different level. But they hadn't had a clear idea just how great the gap was.

Now they did, after fighting Tsunade-sensei.

Their top-performing classmate, who was the same age as them, was already strong enough to take on an elite jonin.

"This is a true child of destiny."

Hizashi Hyuga, who had a somewhat fatalistic faith in destiny, looked at Uchiha Chonhua differently now. His reverence came from the heart.

To fight a jonin at this age—what was that? Talent? No. It was destiny!

Hizashi Hyuga looked exhilarated.

Uchiha Chonhua's shining destiny blazed before him like the sun, scorching him.

Beside someone born to greatness, his own tragic fate only made him seem more wretched and insignificant.

So, could staying by the side of someone destined for greatness change his fate?

Uchiha Chonhua looked at Hizashi Hyuga strangely. That look... was like a starving beast eyeing a delicious piece of meat.

He shuddered, feeling a chill of disgust.

He'd happily welcome a beautiful woman staring at him like that, but he could do without a man.

Chapter 26: Cloud Village: Hey, I'm back again

Genin took on D-rank and C-rank missions.

As recent graduates, they weren't yet qualified to accept C-rank missions.

The D-rank missions they could take were all mundane little chores: finding lost cats and dogs, pulling weeds, looking after children or the elderly, watering plants, and so on.

There were D-rank missions every day, and they were highly repetitive.

Uchiha Chonhua had wondered before: how could there be so many people in and around Konoha asking for these trivial D-rank missions? Did watering flowers really require a ninja?

After looking into it, Uchiha Chonhua understood. It was really just a roundabout way of collecting taxes.

Konoha had plenty of Genin, but they weren't strong enough to take on high-ranked missions, so D-rank missions were specifically prepared for these rookies.

Once the Genin completed a D-rank mission, half the fee went to Konoha's administration. Of the other half, half went to the supervising sensei, and the remaining half was split between the students—three people in all.

It might look like a lot, but it really wasn't. After all those deductions, Uchiha Chonhua figured he'd get barely enough to cover a day's meals from one D-rank mission.

But the Genin of Konoha made a living through D-rank missions. Each mission paid little, but there was no shortage of them.

With enough missions adding up, a hardworking Genin could earn about as much in a month as an office worker.

And what if villagers didn't want to request D-rank missions? Heh. "Open up, it's the Konoha Military Police Force! You've broken Konoha's laws."

Yes, it was written into the law and made compulsory.

In short, Team Tsunade was never short on missions. If they wanted work, there was always a mission waiting for them.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

Naturally, there was no need for him to go out and handle those tedious, monotonous D-rank missions himself. His Shadow Clones could take care of them.

"Damn it!"

The Shadow Clones were, of course, unhappy, but they couldn't disobey their original. All they could do was flash an internationally recognized friendly gesture.

Uchiha Mikoto and Hizashi Hyuga followed suit, making Shadow Clones of their own to handle the D-rank missions.

Meanwhile, they trained as ninjas under Tsunade-sensei.

Uchiha Chonhua calmed his mind and focused on guiding the chakra gathering in his palm. When it reached the right amount, he gave a low shout and punched.

Thud!

With a muffled bang, Uchiha Chonhua's punch left a round crater in the trunk of a tree that would have taken three people to encircle. The towering tree swayed as if it might topple over.

Tsunade glanced at it and nodded. "With a burst of chakra, you can produce that kind of power. You've got the basics down, Chonhua."

"Next, gradually increase the amount of chakra you put in. Remember to control it carefully. The more chakra you use, the greater the risk if you fail..."

Uchiha Chonhua listened attentively to Tsunade's instruction.

When Tsunade finished, she glanced at the Shadow Clones toiling miserably in the distance.

She considered how many D-rank missions they completed each day...

"Probably two more months. That should be enough time to build up the required number of missions for the Chunin Ninja Exams."

Uchiha Chonhua looked up in surprise. "Tsunade-sensei, are you willing to write us recommendation letters?"

Having enough missions wasn't sufficient on its own. They needed a recommendation letter from their supervising sensei to take the Chunin Ninja Exams.

He was eager to become a Chunin, after all. The chance to draw from the gacha was waiting for him, so of course he was impatient.

But he hadn't expected Tsunade to be even more eager than he was.

"Your strength goes without saying. Mikoto and Hizashi are a little weaker, but they still have time to train and improve. They'll be ready for this year's Chunin Ninja Exams. Naturally, I'm willing to write recommendation letters for all of you."

After all, these kids were students from the elite class. Their grades and abilities were already good. They were all Genin, but Chonhua aside, Mikoto and Hizashi were no weaker than an ordinary Chunin.

At their current pace, two months would be enough to complete the required number of missions, and the Chunin Ninja Exams were held on July first every year. They still had five months.

Five months was more than enough time to multiply Mikoto and Hizashi's strength several times over.

"Didn't you say you wanted to become a Chunin as soon as possible?"

Tsunade blinked. Uchiha Chonhua had said that on the day he graduated, and she'd made sure to remember it.

As a teacher, it was only natural to make plans and preparations for her students.

And her students' strength gave Tsunade the confidence to do so.

Uchiha Chonhua in the Chunin Ninja Exams? It'd be like a wolf wandering into a flock of sheep.

Tsunade suddenly grinned. This year's Chunin Ninja Exams would be interesting. She really wanted to see the expressions on the faces of the other participants and their supervising sensei.

"Tsunade-sensei, I won't let you down. I'm going to win the Chunin Ninja Exams!"

Uchiha Chonhua raised his fist and shouted, his eyes full of anticipation and apprehension.

I hope I don't get another dud in the gacha. Give me a character with a real name this time.

The bitter memory of that Mist Village extra was still fresh. It was heartbreaking.

Events didn't always go as planned.

Just as Uchiha Chonhua was completing missions and counting down the days until the Chunin Ninja Exams, war broke out once more.

With two months to go before the Chunin Ninja Exams, Cloud Village, a great power to the north, invaded the Land of Fire again.

"The village was left in ruins by the Eight-Tails. Isn't Cloud Village going to rebuild it? Why have they started another war?"

The Sannin had gathered at the Senju Compound, and their students had tagged along with the adults to eat and drink.

Uchiha Chonhua was happily catching up with Namikaze Minato and Nawaki, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, when the sudden arrival of an Anbu Ninja wearing an animal mask shattered the cheerful atmosphere.

The news the Anbu Ninja brought added a note of menace to the quiet gathering.

The Anbu Ninja delivered the message and left. Jiraiya was full of questions. He couldn't understand why Cloud Village had invaded the Land of Fire at this time.

The effects of the Eight-Tails' rampage couldn't possibly have faded so quickly.

The Third Raikage had also been injured in his fight with the Eight-Tails, and the village needed to be rebuilt. Cloud Village shouldn't have started a war now.

"By any reasonable logic, Cloud Village shouldn't launch a war at this time. But war has never been logical."

Orochimaru sneered. "I heard the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki is the Third Raikage's brother. I imagine many people in Cloud Village hate the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. Perhaps they're trying to divert the conflict."

"Get ready, Jiraiya, Tsunade. We're going to the battlefield."

Jiraiya and Tsunade nodded. No matter what the Third Raikage had in mind, the war had begun, and as Konoha Ninja, they had a duty to respond.

"What about us? Shouldn't we get ready to go to the battlefield too?"

Nawaki raised his hand and looked at the three of them with shining eyes. He wanted to go to the battlefield too.

He waved his fists and threw a few punches. "How dare they invade the Land of Fire! Hmph! Nawaki-sama will teach them a lesson!"

Tsunade arched her brows, planted her hands on her hips, and grabbed Nawaki by the ear.

"War isn't a game, Nawaki. You're staying in the village."

"Ow, ow! That hurts! How can you do this, Sis? I'm a Konoha Ninja too. I want to go to the battlefield and kill the enemy to protect the Land of Fire!"

"You!"