Third Raikage's Reward

The Ninja Academy had suffered heavy casualties this time. Those children with no combat experience hadn't thought to spread out when helping Chiba Shun, and a single explosive tag had taken out a large group of them.

However, their sacrifice greatly boosted the students' enthusiasm for training.

Previously, they had only heard about Konoha's evil deeds from others, and it had all felt very far removed from them.

But today, they had personally experienced Konoha's malice. That scene of the explosion would likely remain their nightmare for a long time to come.

Fortunately, Chiba Shun gave a speech in time, turning what could have been a morale-shattering disaster into something that fueled everyone's passion for training.

The next day, Aoki Shuyi, who had also gone the entire night without rest, summoned Chiba Shun to his office.

He gave Chiba Shun a somewhat strange look.

He couldn't understand how Chiba Shun's brain worked.

When he had returned to the Ninja Academy last night, his mind had been filled with anger.

Yet Chiba Shun had immediately used the assassination attempt to give everyone a round of brainwashing.

Without question, last night's speech had been his most effective one yet.

There were still many people on the school grounds training as though they didn't know fatigue.

He said to Chiba Shun, "You killed two intelligence ninjas last night. This is the village's reward, along with a B-rank ninjutsu reward!"

"Do you have any guesses about where those two came from?"

Chiba Shun nodded and said while checking the reward, "They should have been Konoha's Root. After all, we forced Matsuda Shan to her death not long ago."

After counting the reward, Chiba Shun's eyes lit up. "Senior Aoki, this much?"

"Wait, two? I only killed one."

This time, Chiba Shun received 130,000 ryo. That was already an extremely high reward for a B-rank mission, not to mention he could also learn one B-rank ninjutsu for free.

Kumogakure was poor, and the Land of Lightning was poor as well. B-rank missions with rewards this high were rare.

Aoki Shuyi said, "The one Lord Raikage killed was counted under your name as well. This is another B-rank mission."

"As for the B-rank ninjutsu, Lord Raikage said that a group of children daring to attack a special jonin showed that your earlier brainwashing had been very effective. This is your reward."

After a pause, Aoki Shuyi didn't say much more about the reward. Instead, he said, "Looks like you're already on Root's kill list. Be careful from now on."

Chiba Shun nodded. He was helpless about this too.

He really only wanted to quietly lie low at the Ninja Academy, replenish his nutrition and improve his body while practicing ninjutsu.

Who would have thought Root's people would keep coming after him again and again?

Looking at it that way, what he had told the Ninja Academy students wasn't really wrong. Konoha truly was the root of the unrest.

At that moment, Aoki Shuyi continued, "This intrusion has had a major impact on the school. Quite a few people are questioning whether it's safe to study here."

"This time, they tried to assassinate you. Next time, they may simply slaughter everyone."

"With so many children gathered in one place, the target is too large. Not just Konoha—other ninja villages may also take the risk of carrying out a massacre."

"Some ninjas have already contacted me, wanting their children to leave the Ninja Academy."

"Do you have any ideas?"

Chiba Shun had no solution either. No one would. They couldn't exactly have ninjas patrol around the clock.

Setting aside whether that would even work, the cost alone was more than the Ninja Academy could bear.

Kumogakure wasn't as wealthy as Konoha, and Kumogakure's Ninja Academy hadn't actually been fully accepted by every class of the village.

Many people still didn't believe in it and even rejected the Ninja Academy.

They believed the Ninja Academy was infringing on their interests, using funds that had originally been allocated elsewhere on the school instead.

It was only because the Third Raikage had clearly declared his support for the Ninja Academy that the others had temporarily held back and not acted out.

If there was any chance the Ninja Academy might be disbanded, they wouldn't mind giving it a push.

After thinking for quite a while, Chiba Shun finally said, "Could we have some jonin move near the Ninja Academy?"

If Aoki Shuyi was at the Ninja Academy, he could provide some deterrence, but he was only one person and couldn't stay there all the time.

But if many powerful people lived near the Ninja Academy, no one could be sure whether all of them were away from home.

That would make the Ninja Academy much safer.

But Aoki Shuyi didn't think he had enough influence to persuade enough jonin to move house for the sake of the Ninja Academy.

Seeing this, Chiba Shun added, "We can try inviting jonin who have children at home. You can offer them free guidance."

"We can also use some ninjutsu to win them over."

Aoki Shuyi's eyes lit up. Using ninjutsu to win them over was a good idea.

Even jonin weren't good at everything. There were always areas they lacked in. If they could be tempted with ninjutsu they weren't proficient in, they might truly be able to move some ninjas with children.

But this still required the Third Raikage's approval. Him teaching the Ninja Academy's ninjutsu to Chiba Shun wasn't a big issue.

But casually passing them on to people outside the Ninja Academy was taboo.

In any ninja village, ninja clans were fiercely possessive of their ninjutsu inheritances.

The village's ninja squad system was something everyone accepted. Allowing squad leaders to pass on the ninjutsu they knew to their subordinates was a village-established rule, a form of inheritance.

But casually spreading it outside was absolutely forbidden.

If you spread it around freely and everyone came to learn from you, how would they make money?

How would those who developed ninjutsu make money? How would the village make money?

Usually, only when a ninja clan's secret techniques were passed down within the clan would no one else object.

This wasn't Chiba Shun's concern. Aoki Shuyi would handle the communication with the others.

He took the village's reward and went to the hospital.

He couldn't keep this money for himself, at least not all of it.

Most of the fallen heroes had been orphans, but he had to show something to the children who were still alive and injured.

The village had given Chiba Shun a total of 130,000 ryo.

Chiba Shun planned to take out 70,000 ryo and distribute it among the injured children.

It wasn't that Chiba Shun was generous. Without those children, he would have died that night.

By the unspoken rules of the ninja world, this was equivalent to Chiba Shun leading those children on a mission, so they were entitled to a share of the reward.

There were seven injured children. Each received 10,000 ryo, which was a great deal for orphans like them.

After all, they didn't have to pay their own medical expenses. The village hospital was responsible for treating all ninjas free of charge.

Chiba Shun comforted the seven children one by one at the hospital and planned to tell the other Ninja Academy students about this afterward.

This was both publicity for himself and publicity for the village.

Likewise, it was meant for the other people in the village to see.

The Ninja Academy treated its students well enough, so hurry up and send your children to school!

The seven injured children were also mostly orphans. They began counting the money right in front of Chiba Shun.

They had never seen so much money. The moment they received it, they even felt as if the pain in their bodies had lessened.

After checking on the injured children, Chiba Shun felt somewhat emotional.

Medical ninjutsu was truly amazing!

Although Kumogakure's medical ninjutsu lagged far behind Konoha's, just one night had been enough to stabilize these children's injuries.

Other than two who had been disabled, the rest wouldn't have their future training affected by their injuries.

Chiba Shun promised that the two disabled children could find work at the Ninja Academy in the future. He also encouraged the others to train hard after recovering before finally finding time to have a good meal.

His energy had been greatly drained. Yesterday's battle and the speech afterward had left him so hungry his chest was practically sticking to his back.

After spending several hundred ryo on a good meal, Chiba Shun went to claim the B-rank ninjutsu the village had promised him.

Chiba Shun arrived at the Cloud Ninja Building and, after proving his identity, met with a consultant.

This was a brawny man over sixty named Yukio. He seemed dissatisfied with Chiba Shun, and his attitude was icy.

"What B-rank ninjutsu do you want to learn?" Consultant Yukio sensed Chiba Shun's chakra and found that he lacked a Lightning nature, making his tone even more impatient.

Earth nature? The village didn't have any B-rank Earth Release ninjutsu, so what was there for him to exchange?

Chiba Shun didn't dare show his dissatisfaction with Consultant Yukio and respectfully said, "Lord Consultant, I would like to exchange it for a sensory ninjutsu."

Consultant Yukio frowned. Sensory ninjutsu?

This Chiba Shun really was hard to like.

As a Cloud ninja, he wasn't even learning Lightning Release.

Not learning Lightning Release could be explained by his lack of a Lightning nature, but after finally getting the chance to learn a B-rank ninjutsu, he wasn't choosing a powerful offensive ninjutsu and was instead picking sensory ninjutsu!

That was far too un-Cloud Ninja!

With a snort, Consultant Yukio said nothing more. He personally fetched a sensory ninjutsu and tossed it to Chiba Shun. "Return the scroll tomorrow."

Chiba Shun caught the scroll and still bowed respectfully. "Thank you, Lord Consultant."

Only then did he leave the Raikage Building.

On the way back, Chiba Shun began considering Consultant Yukio's attitude toward him.

He probably disliked that I chose to learn sensory ninjutsu, or perhaps that I'm not a Lightning Release ninja, but those aren't the main reasons.

The main reason is probably that I helped Aoki Shuyi revitalize the Ninja Academy and harmed his interests.

I only want to quietly lie low at the Ninja Academy, train slowly, and grow stronger step by step. Why is that so difficult?

After returning to the Ninja Academy, Chiba Shun first memorized everything on the sensory ninjutsu scroll.

After carefully analyzing it, he began trying it out.

Sensory ninjutsu didn't belong to the five elemental transformations, nor did it completely belong to Yin and Yang Release.

The reason it wasn't entirely separate was because sensory ability was generally related to the strength of one's soul, so it could barely be said to have some connection to Yin Release.

But sensory ninjutsu wasn't entirely Yin Release either.

Chiba Shun didn't know what his Yin Release talent was like, nor did he know what his talent for sensory ninjutsu was like. He had never encountered similar ninjutsu before.

And this sensory ninjutsu was B-rank. Chiba Shun didn't know whether he could learn it.