I Have a Bunch of Relatives Who Want to Be Hokage Chapter 7

Therefore, whether a ninja could become a jonin was not determined by their strength, but by the leader of their village.

The first implication of this status was not strength, but that the village leader remembered this person. Whether that was in a good way or a bad way depended on the individual.

But one thing was certain: they definitely possessed valuable intelligence.

"Being promoted by the Raikage proves that you have ambition. If I'm not mistaken, what you seek is power, right?" Uchiha Shingen decided to add fuel to the fire. If he stoked the wrong flame, he could always kill her. "Konoha is far more generous than Kumogakure in that regard. There's no Hokage family there. As long as you've earned enough merit, even the Book of Seals, personally guarded by the Hokage, is open to you."

"They're just 'suitable techniques' picked out for you. Do you think I've never seen the world?" Pantaia suddenly said.

But clearly, her tone had changed.

"If you're qualified to read that book, the Hokage would dare let you pick whatever you wanted. He'd only be worried you couldn't learn it. The current Fourth Hokage came from a commoner background, and the Flying Raijin he cultivated is one of the most powerful ninjutsu in the Book of Seals." Uchiha Shingen replied calmly. "So, you've made up your mind?"

"If you're lying to me, believe me—I have ways to deal with whatever the village put in my head, and ways to make sure you get nothing."

"If I were going to deceive you, I'd deceive you into bed. Why would I deceive you for intelligence?" Uchiha Shingen was very satisfied.

He truly was an outstanding ninja with the village in his heart.

Bringing this person back would be enough to keep the people in the Hokage Building busy for a while.

At the very least, it would keep Root, which handled foreign intelligence, occupied for quite some time.

After all, that hot-tempered old man and the clan were completely incompatible. If they did not give him something to fuss over, he would go looking for trouble himself. One day, it might end up landing on Shingen's head.

This was perfect. The village obtained intelligence and could prepare for Kumogakure in advance. The overly energetic old man had something to do. The clan would suffer a little less aggravation. And Shingen's personal income would get another boost. He had taken care of both public and private interests.

He had even rescued a lost dairy cow from Kumogakure along the way.

Everyone was happy.

He really was amazing.

"Alright, wait here for me." Uchiha Shingen happily prepared to dive down, but the movement immediately made Pantaia tense.

"What are you going to do?"

Could things in this world not be any better? The lost dairy cow actually did not trust him.

For the sake of the money, Uchiha Shingen decided to endure this grievance.

"Relax. I'm going down to bring up the enemy's heads. Otherwise, there's no way to raise the price," he said.

"I'm right here, and you're still thinking about raising the price?" Pantaia felt that she needed to revise her understanding of this man.

"What do you think ninja work is for? If you don't pay more, are you going to support me?"

"No. You come up. I'll go down." Pantaia released the chakra beneath her feet and dove into the water first.

With half his body still submerged, Uchiha Shingen felt that there was something rather improper about that sentence.

He cautiously sensed the movements underwater.

But according to his senses, Pantaia was indeed behaving herself.

Before long, she surfaced again.

But Uchiha Shingen did not see what he wanted.

"Where are their heads?"

"No need for heads. These will do." Pantaia raised both arms, with a forehead protector in each hand. "As for the intelligence, I was the one in charge. Having me is enough."

"Now you're showing some human compassion." Uchiha Shingen thought it over and accepted the explanation.

Uchiha Shingen woke Takadai Landlord and his group early the next morning, while they were still sleeping quite comfortably.

Of course, the four shadow clones left in the camp also dispelled the barrier they had maintained all night.

The caravan members had long grown used to waking up surrounded by a crimson barrier. Only on the first night, when they had first seen the thing, had they clicked their tongues in amazement.

Because ninja appeared so frequently in this world, ordinary people were actually quite desensitized to ninjutsu. They saw it far too often, and unless they wanted to become ninja themselves, they had no curiosity about learning more. Thus, "ninjutsu is cool" was the fixed impression among ordinary people.

The veteran salesmen of every village understood this. In daily dealings with clients, the best ninjutsu had nothing to do with practicality. What mattered was whether it looked cool.

Performing an A-rank Shadow Clone Technique with nature transformation effects was far less effective than simply blasting out a C-rank Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.

After all, the client's post-mission evaluation was very important. It directly affected the percentage of the mission payment taken by the village.

Uchiha Shingen now liked using the Four Red Yang Formation most to farm good reviews. After all, he was a cautious person, and he was extremely fond of this A-rank ninjutsu, which was powerful in both visual effects and practical effect.

With the forehead protectors of the dead men and the recruited lost dairy cow in tow, Uchiha Shingen first went to visit Takadai Landlord and explain what had happened the previous night.

You had to communicate with the client promptly when something came up.

Honestly, clients in this world were much easier to deal with than clients on Blue Star. When doing business on Blue Star, sometimes you thought you were the client, but you were actually the contractor. And sometimes you thought you were the contractor, but you were actually the client.

After being driven numb by this a few times, the still-young Uchiha Shingen came to understand a principle.

Anyone who spoke in the friendliest tone while saying the toughest things was most likely the real client.

Anyone who spoke in the toughest tone while saying the most cowardly things was, without question, the real contractor.

In the ninja world, the former were mostly jonin, while the latter were all genin.

That was why a genin could earn at most fifty thousand ryo on a job, while even the lowest-paying jonin job started at one hundred and fifty thousand ryo, with no upper limit depending on the mission's contents.

Leaving Pantaia outside Takadai Landlord's tent, Uchiha Shingen entered. The older man was supervising his son as he ate an egg and drank a huge bowl of milk, on the grounds that "otherwise, you won't grow taller."

"Little brother, you worked hard last night." Takadai Landlord was smiling as cheerfully as ever, while his son stared at the large bowl of milk in his hands with the same bitter resentment as always.

"Not at all. Disturbing your rest would have been the real problem." Uchiha Shingen smiled. "There's just something I need to report to you."

"Oh, come on, what report? Everything about you is good, little brother, except that you're too polite." Takadai Landlord kept waving his hand. "Have you eaten? Join us. We can talk slowly—there's no rush."

"If you'd said so earlier, I wouldn't have made myself a separate meal. But it really is important—about last night." Uchiha Shingen thought to himself that this guy said the same thing every morning, despite clearly knowing he would not eat.

"Oh? Do we need to change the route? It's fine, just go make the arrangements. I already told them." Takadai Landlord did not seem to care, though he grumbled inwardly.

This young man said every morning that he had eaten, but in reality he just popped ration pills for all three meals every day. A ninja's life looked pretty rough too. Later, he had to write Lord Namikaze about this and ask him to give his little brother more money. How was he supposed to grow if he did not eat properly?

This little brother was truly a fine young man—young and capable, and pleasant to be around. No wonder Lord Namikaze had recommended him for the job as soon as he became Hokage. They definitely had to keep in close contact from now on.

"As for the route, that's settled. There's one more thing: the ones who attacked last night were Cloud ninja. Do you have any idea why?" Uchiha Shingen handed a Cloud ninja forehead protector to Takadai Landlord.

Whether he had any leads did not matter. You know what that meant—extra pay.

"Cloud ninja?" Looking at the forehead protector in his hand, Takadai Landlord's expression changed. "That's... unexpected. Don't worry, I won't make things difficult for you, little brother. I'll write a letter to Lord Hokage and trouble you to take it back."

"No trouble. It's only what I should do." Uchiha Shingen was quite pleased. The old brother was a good man—he did not hesitate at all when it came to paying extra. Uchiha Shingen liked that very much. He would give him a discount next time. "Also, I captured one of them. She agreed to defect, and I plan to take her with us."

"Huh?" Takadai Landlord was genuinely startled this time. "There are Cloud ninja like that?"

In his impression, the ninja of Kumogakure were all exceptionally stubborn—hardheaded to the extreme.

But that very image had earned Kumogakure a good reputation. Everyone knew that once a Kumogakure ninja accepted a mission, they would never abandon it halfway through.

"Her intelligence may be useful to the village. I was thinking you might want to meet her too. Perhaps there are things you need to know as well."

"Oh, right. That makes sense." Takadai Landlord's opinion of Uchiha Shingen rose another notch. This young man was so thoughtful. Unlike many ninja, whose attitude became perfunctory once a mission was nearing its end. "Let her come in. I'd like to know who hired Cloud ninja to deal with me too."

"Pantaia, come in," Uchiha Shingen called toward the outside.

Pantaia lifted the tent flap and entered.

The instant Takadai Landlord saw her, his pupils widened.

"Little brother," he asked Uchiha Shingen in a distinctly envious tone, "did you search her?"

Pantaia frowned at that.

They really should all be cut off. Every last one of them kept looking at her there.

One day, she would make sure that the first thing people looked for was whether she had weapons on her.

Uchiha Shingen motioned for her to stop, activated his Sharingan, and personally searched her thoroughly from head to toe once more. Releasing her, he said, "You know what you should and shouldn't say. Don't waste this opportunity."

"I understand that better than you do." Pantaia's tone was poor. "And I don't hide things in there, so you didn't need to search for so long. What a waste of time."

"As long as you know." Uchiha Shingen withdrew the chakra from his hands, nodded to Takadai Landlord, and left the tent. Outside, he remained with the captain of the guards.

"Lord Shingen, is this really all right?" The guard captain still seemed uneasy. "That woman came here to assassinate Lord Landlord, after all."

"It's fine. At this distance, even if she wanted to, she couldn't do anything." Uchiha Shingen reassured him. He had a good impression of this guard captain—he was very dedicated.

Uchiha Shingen respected people who took their work seriously.

"But..." The guard captain still felt it was unreliable, but since his employer had not called for him, he could not exactly barge in.

"Do you know of the Transcription Seal?" Uchiha Shingen decided to put him at ease. "It's a secret ninjutsu unique to our clan. It can seal a prepared technique in your own eyes or someone else's, and it will activate once the conditions are met."

"Ninjutsu can do that?" The guard captain was both awed and envious. "The Uchiha really are amazing."

"Of course. I am a jonin, after all."

Before he could chat with the guard captain for much longer, Pantaia came out.

Seeing this, Uchiha Shingen took her and left.

A little while later, after Takadai Landlord and his family had finished packing up, everyone set out once again.

"What is that...?" someone suddenly cried out.

Beneath the serene azure sky, a lake on land, surrounded by crystal-clear ice peaks, stood before them.

The once-broad riverbed had become a great wall of ice and snow.

Takadai Landlord and his son were also staring at it, occasionally glancing at Uchiha Shingen.

Uchiha Shingen slapped his forehead.

He had forgotten.

Walking forward, he began unsealing the riverbed and guiding the lake water back into the channel.

Once he was done, he erected another ice bridge. After all, he had destroyed the original wooden bridge with Ice Release.

As the convoy crossed the bridge, some people still could not resist touching it. Yet even through gloves, the cold made them shudder.

Uchiha Shingen had no choice but to stop their pointless behavior and urge them to cross quickly.

This mission was finally nearing its end.

By his count, it had already been more than half a month. Fortunately, Uchiha Shingen had often used ninjutsu to clear the way directly. Otherwise, they would still be on the road now.

He had basically built a temporary "highway."

Several days later, the group finally arrived in the Takadai region, the destination of their mission.

After entering the estate, Takadai Landlord efficiently finished the personally handwritten letter for Namikaze Minato and handed it to Uchiha Shingen. He also stated that once Konohagakure informed him of the additional final payment required, he would make up the amount immediately.

As an ally of the Land of Fire, the Land of Hot Water used the Land of Fire's currency system, making settlement very convenient.

After graciously expressing his thanks, Uchiha Shingen took Pantaia and began the return journey.

The trip back to Konoha was much quicker. In just a few days, the two could already see Konoha's western gate in the distance.

As for Pantaia's identity, the news had already been sent back to the village through Konoha shinobi at supply points along the way. Otherwise, once they entered the forest surrounding Konoha, they would have been intercepted by the ANBU.

Konoha's business was as good as ever, with people constantly coming and going. A line had already formed outside the western gate.

As a ninja with morals, Uchiha Shingen naturally lined up obediently... Yeah, right!

He wasn't here to commission a mission.

Calling Pantaia over, the two of them bounced from tree to tree all the way to the gate, then landed in front of a chunin handling registrations.

The chunin looked up without much surprise. When he saw the slashed Cloud shinobi forehead protector on Pantaia's head, his expression turned rather odd.

It wasn't strange because a Cloud deserter had appeared here. Pantaia's identity had long since been reported to the gate guards, and they even had a photo of her. What he found strange was—why was this girl being so unnecessarily thorough?

She was going to switch to a different one before long anyway.

As for Pantaia changing allegiances, the chunin didn't find it surprising in the slightest.

Even a ninja like him, whose duties were entirely within the village, knew that among all shinobi, chunin were the most mobile group. Movement between the five great villages, however, was rarely seen.

"Lord Shingen, Lord Hokage asked you and this... ah, friend, to go directly to his office."

"Alright, thank you."