It was worth mentioning that, under Mito and the three elders' supervision and with the Senju Clan's business talent handling management, the Konoha Consortium and the Finance Department had achieved remarkable results.
All the clans, large and small, had earned a great deal of money. Those that invested heavily, like the three major clans, had made the most: the Senju Clan brought in as much as a hundred million ryo a month, while the Hyuga and Uchiha each earned thirty million. Even the smaller clans that had invested less made at least several million ryo per month. Before, they would have needed to pool the strength of their entire clan to complete an extremely dangerous, time-consuming S-rank mission or several A-rank missions to earn that kind of reward. Now that they could bring in money with ease every month, they were more than satisfied. After all, smaller clans had fewer people and therefore fewer expenses. On average, their members were actually wealthier than ordinary members of the larger clans.
In just one year, the Konoha Consortium had provided the Finance Department with 300 million ryo in taxes. Added to the commercial taxes paid by the merchants who owned Konoha's shops, hot springs, restaurants, gambling houses, and other businesses, the Finance Department had collected a total of 500 million ryo in taxes this year. The Ninja Academy's student loan program had officially begun, and enrollment this year had doubled compared to last year. That number would continue to rise as the program was put into practice.
Now the Shinobi World was at peace, the village had an independent source of revenue, and the number of ninja was steadily increasing. All of Konoha was thriving, with everything developing in a positive direction—and it was all thanks to Nawaki!
The Konoha High Command believed that even if they disregarded Nawaki's abilities as a ninja, his strategic mind alone was enough to make him an advisor to the Hokage and an elder of Konoha, capable of ensuring the village's prosperity for generations. That made him incredibly important to Konoha, and he couldn't be allowed to come to any harm. How could the Third Hokage possibly feel comfortable sending him out on missions? If he could, he would keep Nawaki under his watchful eye twenty-four hours a day. Shinnosuke and Hikari had been dragged down by Nawaki, but they had no idea what was going on and simply assumed all Genin were treated this way.
With more than five hundred completed D-rank missions between them, they could actually apply for promotion to Chunin. Yes, in this era, becoming a Chunin was quite simple. There was no need to take the Chunin Ninja Exams; all they needed was enough mission experience and to either defeat any Chunin or obtain a recommendation from a Jonin instructor. Chunin was just an ordinary position among ninja, and anyone who had come of age could be promoted. Exceptions like Might Dai, who could only train in Taijutsu because he had no chakra affinity, were very rare.
Incidentally, Might Dai was already seventeen, but just as in the original story, he still hadn't been promoted to Chunin. The gap in their ranks had been too great, and his teammates had long since left him behind, so he could only take D-rank missions alone to make a living—and endure ridicule from other ninja.
Over the past year, Nawaki's team had taken missions alongside him many times, and they had grown somewhat friendly. From what Nawaki could tell, Dai had probably already started developing the Eight Inner Gates, his own Taijutsu technique.
The reputation Nawaki gained from D-rank missions had nearly reached its limit, and the Wish Power he received from them had dwindled to almost nothing. After all, when someone helped you over and over, it was hard to keep feeling the same gratitude as you had at first. Over time, the clients had taken his help for granted, making it difficult to stir up strong emotions.
So Nawaki decided to use his own method to break free of the High Command's restrictions.
That day, Torifu Akimichi brought Nawaki and the other two to the Hokage Building as usual to receive missions from the Third Hokage.
The solitary Might Dai and more than twenty other newly graduated ninja teams were there as well.
When Nawaki and the others arrived, the Third Hokage nodded and said, "This is your mission for today: clean up the dump behind the Inoue family's house. Their dump is rather large, so hurry. You'll have trouble finishing before dark otherwise."
Then he took out a mission slip he had prepared in advance and handed it to Torifu Akimichi, indicating that they should get to work at once. He was afraid Shinnosuke would start arguing with him again. Being called an old man by his own son in front of so many people was truly embarrassing!
"Wait!"
Hearing those words, the Third Hokage thought, Here he goes again. What a headache.
But when he looked up to see who had spoken, he found that it wasn't Shinnosuke, but Senju Nawaki, whom he had always admired. He immediately put on a kind expression and asked, "Nawaki, do you have a question?"
Shinnosuke grumbled from the side, "That's a huge difference in treatment. Why does everyone like Nawaki so much wherever he goes?"
Uchiha Hikari had shed last year's gloomy air and was now smiling brightly. "That's Nawaki's charm. His kindness warms everyone around him."
Shinnosuke shivered at the softness in her eyes. "There's something strange about the way you look at him. You haven't developed some kind of weird fetish, have you?"
"Shut up! Stop making a fool of yourself! And don't go staying with Jiraiya anymore! Just look at what you've learned from him!" The Third Hokage had heard enough and scolded Shinnosuke.
"Tch! I think Nawaki said something like, 'A son's failure to learn is his father's fault; a teacher's laxity is the student's misfortune.' Sounds pretty reasonable to me. If your son and your student have both turned out badly, you should reflect on yourself..." Shinnosuke muttered casually.
But everyone around them heard him and nodded along without even realizing it.
The Third Hokage was left speechless. His face flushed red, and then he pretended he hadn't heard a thing, forcing a smile that looked worse than crying as he changed the subject. "Nawaki, what did you want to say?"
The Third Hokage really was pitiful to have a son like that. No wonder he would have another one later. Come to think of it, could Shinnosuke have been the one who killed him? Nawaki gave the Third Hokage a sympathetic glance, then asked, "There seem to be too few people in the village lately. You must have a lot of D-rank missions piled up here, Third Hokage-sensei, right?"
"That's right. Ever since the Konoha Consortium was established, a lot of merchant caravans have appeared in the village, which has led to a sharp increase in C-rank escort missions. Those missions pay well, so most experienced Genin and Chunin teams choose to take them. That's left the village short-handed. Only Dai and new teams like yours are available, so a lot of D-rank missions have piled up and can't be completed quickly." The Third Hokage looked at Nawaki meaningfully.
"How many missions are there?"
"Let me see. The immediate jobs, like finding lost items, have all been completed. The rest are time-consuming and labor-intensive, like cleaning up dumps, clearing land and pulling weeds, driving away wild animals, and moving heavy loads... Altogether, there are probably more than forty. Some of them have already been waiting for two days! With the village's current manpower, it'll take at least two days to finish them. Then more missions will pile up, and the delays will just keep growing. What a headache..." The Third Hokage took a puff from his pipe.
"Leave them all to me!"
"What did you say?"
"That's right. I'll take all these missions! From now on, I'll come every day and take several missions!" Nawaki answered confidently.
Shinnosuke asked in confusion, "But there's no way the few of us can finish that many missions?"
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