"Hokage-sama."
"Oh, Mitsuki. What brings you here? Is there a problem at the Ninja Academy?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Yamada Mitsuki snapped to attention, thrilled beyond measure. He had never expected Hokage-sama to remember his name. As he spoke, he handed over the documents he had already organized.
"I discovered a genius commoner ninja among this year's students, so I came to report it as soon as I compiled the information."
"His name is Taichi Matsushita. His parents died in the Second Shinobi World War, and he had been living at the Orphanage. Today was his first time practicing chakra, yet he refined chakra in less than twenty minutes."
"Oh!" Hiruzen Sarutobi accepted the documents, listening to Yamada Mitsuki's report while reading through them.
When he saw Taiichi's dream, his brows rose slightly. "Guardian, huh!"
Clearly, compared to refining chakra so quickly, the Hokage valued Taiichi's ideals more. That was the difference in their positions. To the Hokage, Konoha had many geniuses, but geniuses who could uphold the Will of Fire were far more worthy of his attention.
"Very good, Mitsuki. Keep watching this Taichi Matsushita. He has a good chance of becoming a pillar of the village in the future." Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Yamada. "And the other children as well. This Might Guy and this girl named Rin Nohara are both promising. Focus on nurturing them."
"Yes!"
While Yamada reported on this year's students to the Hokage, Taiichi, who had just returned home after a full day of classes, was thinking about something else—how to make money in the shortest possible time.
This was not only related to buying various medicinal herbs and ninja tools for his future training. It also concerned the future of the Orphanage and whether Yakushi Nonō could safely leave Root. In the original timeline, Nonō could have left Root later on, but Danzo, that old scheming bastard, had seized control of the Orphanage's source of funding and used it to threaten Nonō into continuously carrying out Root missions.
If the Orphanage had its own endless source of funding, would Nonō still be coerced by Danzo? Even if there were other factors involved, having one less weakness was still a good thing.
However, Taiichi was currently just a little over six years old, so most jobs were out of the question. As for ninja-related industries, such as ninja tool manufacturing and Explosive Tag production, he lacked the necessary knowledge to handle them.
After thinking it over, Taiichi felt he should still draw on the knowledge from his previous life and see if he could come up with some invention to make a small fortune.
With that in mind, Taiichi continued racking his brain, trying to figure out what would be suitable. Food, clothing, housing, transportation—those industries either had too high a barrier to entry or required too much manpower. He and the Orphanage were too small-scale, and he did not have the time for them either.
After thinking for a long time, Taiichi still could not come up with anything. Mainly because he was too young and there were too few things he could do. Seeing that it was already past six, Taiichi felt hungry as well. He went to the kitchen to make some ramen to fill his stomach. But as he cooked, he suddenly froze. Staring at the garlic in his hand, Taiichi fell into thought.
Because the Orphanage was short on funds, Taiichi had often gone fishing in the river or climbed trees to catch birds in the past, trying to add something to the Orphanage's meals. But this was the Ninja World. The fish and birds here were no pushovers either. If you angered them, they would not mind taking a bite out of you or giving you a swipe with their claws. And since you were trying to catch them and eat them, their resistance was even fiercer.
After doing that often enough, bumps and bruises were inevitable. Minor injuries could slowly heal on their own, and Nonō was also a Medical Ninja. But once, Taiichi had taken his Companions to raid a bird's nest for eggs and was discovered by the mother bird. To cover their escape, Taiichi was viciously pecked by the large bird, whose wingspan was over two meters. His arm was pierced straight through on the spot.
That injury had been far too serious. When Nonō learned about it, she immediately took Taiichi to Konoha Hospital. It was during that treatment that Taiichi realized that, at least in Year 42 of Konoha, Konoha's medical standards were still terribly poor. Even the sterilizing and anti-inflammatory medicine was only slightly better than having none at all. If not for Medical Ninjutsu, the casualties in every Shinobi World War would probably have doubled.
And when it came to sterilizing and anti-inflammatory medicine, Penicillin was naturally the first choice. But Penicillin was difficult to produce, and the Ninja World might not even have it. However, there was one thing the Ninja World definitely had: garlic. And with garlic came allicin.
Allicin was also a cheap, easy-to-produce antibacterial and anti-inflammatory medicine. And in a world where a war broke out every so often, it was exactly the kind of medicine that could sell like wildfire.
Thinking of this, Taiichi happily clenched his fist. Now, the problem of making money could be solved. He hurriedly ate some ramen, then gathered all the garlic he could find in the kitchen.
As for preparing allicin, it was actually quite simple. Taiichi used the Organic Solvent Extraction Method, which had a relatively high extraction rate. He first found a jar of baijiu and distilled it several times to raise its alcohol content. Then he crushed all the garlic into a paste and soaked the garlic paste in the high-proof liquor.
Of course, pure alcohol would have been best for soaking and extraction, but he did not have the conditions for that right now, so he could only make do.
Finally, he distilled and purified the extracted solution again. The oily liquid he obtained was Garlic Oil rich in allicin. Looking at the mere two or three grams of Garlic Oil extracted from one kilogram of garlic, Taiichi felt extremely nervous. Whether it would work depended on the next test.
Taiichi saw that it was getting late. He had spent all this time tinkering around and had not yet done today's training. That could not be delayed. He tidied everything up, placed the hard-won allicin in a glass container, and put it in the refrigerator for storage.
All that remained was today's training.
[You train Basic Taijutsu. Related comprehension improves.] [Your skill Basic Taijutsu improves. Experience +1.] [You focus on Basic Taijutsu training. Genin profession experience +1.]
[You train Basic Meditation. Related comprehension improves.] [Your skill Basic Meditation improves. Experience +1.] [You focus on Basic Meditation training. Genin profession experience +1.]
Since he now had an additional Chakra Refinement Technique, Taiichi reduced the time he spent training Basic Taijutsu and Basic Meditation, setting aside an extra hour specifically for Chakra Refinement Technique practice.
Taiichi discovered that as long as he did not refine more chakra at once than his body could endure, chakra had a very good strengthening and restorative effect on the body. But once chakra was refined, it continuously leaked out of the body. How to maintain a certain amount of chakra within his body at all times was something Taiichi had been pondering ever since he discovered chakra's strengthening effect.
For now, he could only refine chakra from time to time to keep the amount of chakra in his body at a certain level. As for how to solve it later—whether to make chakra refinement an instinct that operated silently, or find a way to reduce chakra leakage—that would have to wait until he had accumulated enough knowledge.
[You train Chakra Refinement Technique. Related comprehension improves.] [Your skill Chakra Refinement Technique improves. Experience +1.] [You focus on Chakra Refinement Technique training. Genin profession experience +1.]
[Congratulations. Your Genin profession level has increased.] [Attribute Points +1, Skill Points +1.]
At the final moment of his training, his profession level, which had already been close to leveling up, finally increased.
Name: Taichi Matsushita Profession: Genin Lv2 (0/200) Talents: Diligence Makes Up for Mediocrity, Academic Overachiever Age: 6 Constitution: 9 Strength: 10 Agility: 9 Spirit: 18 Chakra: 800 (4200) The number in parentheses is the maximum amount of chakra a person can extract in a day. Exceeding it will cause bodily depletion. Attribute Points: 6 Skill Points: 6 Skills: Basic Taijutsu Lv6 (124/1000), Basic Meditation Lv6 (765/1000), Chakra Refinement Technique Lv1 (42/100) Evaluation: You are a nobody in the Ninja World. Other than hard work, you have no choice.
Looking at the Attribute Panel and the clearly visible progress he made every day, Taiichi felt true happiness. It also let him clearly know that he was growing stronger every single day.
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