Purchasing Jutsu

Not long after all sides withdrew their troops, intelligence shinobi from every faction sent back reports of Kumogakure's Eight-Tails going berserk.

Who knew whether Hiruzen Sarutobi regretted it.

The ninja world was in turmoil. The Second Shinobi World War had barely ended, and the Third Shinobi World War had nearly broken out.

Fortunately, the Third Raikage and Third Hokage both loved peace and chose to withdraw their troops. Otherwise, the Third Shinobi World War would have begun by now.

That was right—this was the unified public statement from Kumogakure and Konoha.

But Chiba Shun told the Ninja Academy students a different story: this time, Lord Raikage had led the army to victory after victory, including squad-level battles like Chiba Shun's own.

In the end, Lord Raikage had forced Konoha into signing an unequal treaty. That part was true.

This was the first unequal treaty since Kumogakure's founding that benefited Kumogakure and disadvantaged Konoha!

Kumogakure had acquired a great number of new jutsu!

Kumogakure was rising, while Konoha was declining!

The Will of Lightning was right, and Lord Raikage's leadership was right!

Then Chiba Shun went over his battle against the Konoha shinobi in detail.

"We encountered an elite squad led by a genius of Konoha's Hyuga Clan."

"But neither I nor Lord Raikage's son, Senior A, retreated. The four of us charged head-on into their formation of eight."

"In the end, only that Hyuga Clan member escaped our pursuit."

"The other seven all died by our hands!"

"Hehe, your teacher here killed another two Konoha shinobi!"

"Grow stronger quickly, inheritors of the Will of Lightning. The village needs you!"

"There are too few shinobi in the village. Konoha only has the advantage because of its numbers."

"If the village had more shinobi, Lord Raikage could lead us into the Land of Fire, occupy Konoha, and save all the civilians of the Land of Fire from Konoha's evil rule."

Inspired by the frontline army's victories, the Ninja Academy students were all eager to fight. They wished they could graduate immediately and take part in the magnificent war.

After promoting the Will of Lightning, Chiba Shun glanced toward Aoki Yuyi's office.

Normally, when he carried out such large-scale Will of Lightning education at the Ninja Academy, Aoki Yuyi would come over to take a look.

But this time, Aoki Yuyi never left his office from beginning to end.

Chiba Shun shook his head, sighed inwardly, and headed back to his residence.

The Third Raikage had mobilized him for a trip to the battlefield. Though he had not participated in a real war, many things had still happened to him, and he needed to sort them out.

First were his Earth Release techniques.

The A-Rank Earth Release Technique, Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique, had counted as an introduction, but Chiba Shun's Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique was still far from ready for actual combat. It required extensive practice, and he needed to reduce the number of hand seals.

What made Chiba Shun happiest was that successfully performing Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique had raised his chakra level, bringing a qualitative improvement to his chakra control.

Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!

Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!

Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!

Using Earth-Style Wall, the jutsu he knew best, as a reference, Chiba Shun found after casting it several times that his hand seal speed had improved significantly.

It had risen from four seals per second to four and a half seals per second. This progress thrilled Chiba Shun.

This was the improvement brought by his increased chakra level.

Aside from his hand seal speed, he also felt that his understanding of Earth Release had clearly improved. Chakra truly could help shinobi learn.

Next, he only needed to spend time steadily training jutsu such as Earth-Style Wall, Underground Movement, and the Heartless Decapitation Technique. The number of hand seals for these techniques would all be reduced to some extent.

But Chiba Shun was not satisfied with that. Before beginning his training, he went to the mission office and exchanged for every Earth Release technique the Third Raikage had swindled from Hiruzen Sarutobi this time.

As a transmigrator, Chiba Shun naturally knew that when simplifying hand seals, it was best to possess a vast amount of jutsu knowledge.

And where did jutsu knowledge come from?

Naturally, from learning as many different jutsu as possible!

C-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Earth Clone.

C-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Earth Substitute.

C-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Earth Spear.

B-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique.

B-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Stoneification.

B-rank Jutsu: Earth Release: Rock Fist Technique.

Exchanging jutsu at the mission office was not cheap either. C-rank jutsu cost an average of thirty thousand ryo each, while B-rank jutsu averaged one hundred thousand ryo each.

Chiba Shun gritted his teeth. While cursing the village for being money-crazed, he exchanged for three B-rank jutsu and eleven C-rank jutsu in one go, spending a total of six hundred and thirty thousand ryo.

The female Chunin at the mission office was startled by Chiba Shun's extravagant purchase.

She had never seen anyone exchange for so many jutsu at once.

Ordinary people exchanged for one jutsu at a time. After learning it and becoming proficient in it, they would exchange for the next.

The jutsu one exchanged for also needed to fit one's tactical style. Knowing more did not necessarily mean being stronger.

Who would exchange for every jutsu of a particular nature for no reason?

But Chiba Shun had money, so she did not interfere.

Furthermore, exchanging for jutsu required completing a certain number of missions of a certain rank.

Put more grandly, only those who had contributed enough to the village could learn jutsu.

Although Chiba Shun had not spent much time going from Chunin to Jonin, his mission record was astonishing.

He had three S-rank Mission Records alone, and he had completed every one of them by himself.

Therefore, there was not the slightest problem with him purchasing a few B-rank and C-rank jutsu from the village.

Six hundred and thirty thousand ryo—spending all three hundred thousand ryo Chiba Shun had previously saved up would not even have been enough.

He had no choice but to convert the S-rank Mission he had obtained from suppressing the Eight-Tails into cash.

The reward for that S-rank Mission was also at the lowest tier: one million ryo.

As for the S-rank Mission where he had tricked White Fang to death, he had already exchanged it for the right to redeem A-rank Jutsu. He was still holding onto that, planning to try genjutsu after finishing his Earth Release training.

With the Earth Release techniques exchanged from the mission office, combined with all the Earth Release techniques he had obtained from Danzo, Chiba Shun finally felt that his jutsu arsenal was no longer as limited as before.

Oh, right. Both A-rank Jutsu he had obtained from Danzo were Earth Release techniques. One of them was Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique, which Chiba Shun had already initially mastered.

The other was: Swamp of the Underworld.

However, Chiba Shun had not trained Swamp of the Underworld yet.

Every day, he practiced Earth Release techniques. Whenever he was tired or his head felt muddled, he would brainwash his students to relax.

Such orderly days always passed quickly.

Three months flew by.

Chiba Shun learned every Earth Release technique except Swamp of the Underworld.

However, aside from several techniques he considered more commonly useful, the others had only reached the introductory stage and still required a great many hand seals.

The techniques he used often, on the other hand, had all been simplified.

For example, Earth-Style Wall had finally been simplified from five seals to three.

This was mainly thanks to the dozens of Earth Release techniques he had now mastered.

Possessing a vast amount of jutsu knowledge was tremendously helpful for simplifying hand seals.

Underground Movement had been directly reduced from twenty-five seals to eleven.

Chiba Shun felt this technique had great utility, so he had devoted a great deal of effort to studying it.

The Heartless Decapitation Technique, however, had barely been simplified.

In Chiba Shun's view, he could slowly form its hand seals underground. There was no need to rush.

He did not have much time now, so there was no need to hurry to simplify the Heartless Decapitation Technique.

Then came the most important technique, Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique. As Chiba Shun's strongest offensive method at present, it had also been simplified somewhat, from the original thirty-nine seals to twenty-seven.

But Chiba Shun was still not satisfied with that. Twenty-seven seals still made it unusable in actual combat.

That number of seals still required forming them in advance or relying on a companion's cover to perform the technique.

Unfortunately, the jutsu Danzo had given him contained no record of how to simplify hand seals.

Just as Chiba Shun was pondering how to further simplify the seals for Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique, A came looking for him.

After seeing Chiba Shun, A said directly, "Shun, two months ago, that Hyuga Clan Jonin we let go really did go to the Land of Moon."

Chiba Shun froze, only then remembering that he had once, on a whim, tried to fool a member of the Hyuga Branch House.

He hurriedly asked, "He agreed? So quickly? Two months ago, Konoha's war had only just ended, hadn't it?"

"Has someone gotten pregnant after two months?"

That was right. Kumogakure had ended its standoff with Konoha first, but Konoha still had to negotiate with the Suna Shinobi and Kirigakure shinobi, so it took much longer to leave its wartime state.

Chiba Shun had thought that even if Akira Hyuga intended to come, he would wait at least half a year or a year.

He had not expected him to make his decision so quickly.

It seemed he had rushed to the Land of Moon as soon as the war ended.

A smiled. "That man named Akira Hyuga brought a squad made entirely of Genin to Sunshine Town in the Land of Moon. Pretending to be casual, he spent the night at that tavern."

"A total of three female shinobi spent the night with Akira Hyuga."

"Our medical shinobi carefully checked. One of them is pregnant!"

Kumogakure's medical ninjutsu was not much to speak of, but checking whether someone was pregnant was easy enough.

Chiba Shun drew a deep breath and said, "What efficiency. Will he come again?"

A nodded. "He will. When he left, he did not know whether any of the three had become pregnant."

After thinking for a moment, Chiba Shun said, "When he comes next time, tell him about it. Mm, let the pregnant female shinobi meet him."

"Then tell him that if he does not want this matter exposed, he should inform other members of the Hyuga Branch House who deeply hate the main house."

"Have those branch house members make a trip to the Land of Moon as well!"

"Mm, this cannot be rushed. Take them one at a time. Do not tell too many people at once, or it will not be worth it if we are exposed."

A's eyes lit up. Father was right. Shun really was better at this kind of scheming.

It was precisely because the Third Raikage thought so that he had A deliver the news to Chiba Shun at the first opportunity.

Chiba Shun caught A's expression and asked, "Senior A, what is it?"

A hurriedly shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. Oh, right, you do not need to call me Senior anymore. You are a Jonin now too, so just call me by my name."