But that was not important. A member of the Uzumaki was willing to join Kumogakure, and that was a good thing.
It did not matter what she did, as long as she was willing to marry and have children.
With Akira Hyuga as a precedent, the Third Raikage did not have high expectations for Maki Uzumaki.
He only found it a pity that Maki Uzumaki was a woman.
If she had been a man, she could have had more children. Before long, Kumogakure might have had an entire Uzumaki clan.
The Third Raikage had ANBU arrange Maki Uzumaki's residence and work.
None of that had anything to do with Chiba Shun anymore. Just as he was about to leave, the Third Raikage stopped him.
After finishing with Maki Uzumaki's affairs, the Third Raikage said to Chiba Shun, "Tell me the full details of this operation."
Chiba Shun coughed. He had been waiting for that question, so he gave a detailed account of his experiences outside the village, focusing on the several battles and Kakuzu.
Besides that, Chiba Shun casually mentioned that he had spent 300,000 ryo to have Maki Uzumaki restore her body.
That was right, 300,000 ryo. With a few words, Chiba Shun doubled the amount he had spent on Maki Uzumaki.
The Third Raikage did not suspect anything. He nodded, directly counted it as an A-Rank Mission for Chiba Shun, and set the reward at 600,000 ryo.
Chiba Shun was thrilled. He had originally expected an A-Rank Mission with a reward of 150,000 ryo, plus the additional expense of 300,000 ryo, for a maximum of 450,000 ryo.
If the corpses he had brought back were taken into account, perhaps there would have been a little more, but no more than 500,000 ryo.
He had not expected the Third Raikage to be so generous, directly doubling the original 300,000 ryo.
Afterward, the Third Raikage also asked about Kakuzu and the Seven-Tails. Both were matters worthy of a major village's Kage's attention.
As for Otogakure, the Third Raikage did not ask a single question.
After learning about Chiba Shun's mission, the Third Raikage suddenly said, "Konoha's higher-ups have learned about the Hyuga Branch House. What was happening in Sunshine Town in the Land of Moon can no longer continue."
"Do you have any other way to make the Hyuga Branch House leave behind their bloodline?"
Chiba Shun was startled. "It was exposed?"
After thinking for a moment, he asked, "What happened to Akira Hyuga and the others? How did Konoha react?"
The Third Raikage said, "Including Akira Hyuga, I estimate that every Hyuga Branch House member who visited the Land of Moon was executed by the Main House using the Caged Bird."
"This happened before you left the village, but the news reached us rather late."
"I only learned of it when I received Konoha's protest. Hiruzen Sarutobi demanded that we hand over everyone with the Hyuga Bloodline, but I refused."
Chiba Shun was not surprised by the Third Raikage's refusal. He sighed. "With Akira Hyuga and the others dead, this matter probably cannot continue."
"Konoha will not only guard against us from now on, but against the other major Shinobi Villages as well."
"It will not be easy for the Hyuga Branch House to leave the Land of Fire on missions as they did before."
"I suspect the Hyuga Clan may send more female members on missions that take them out of the Land of Fire."
"If they absolutely must send male members, they will certainly restrict how long those men can remain outside the Land of Fire."
Hearing this, the Third Raikage finally gave up on his unrealistic idea.
Chiba Shun asked, "Lord Raikage, how many people in the village have the Hyuga Bloodline now?"
The Third Raikage said, "Four have already been born, and another twenty-three are pregnant. One of them is carrying twins."
"If all goes well, the village will have twenty-eight people with the Hyuga Bloodline in another five or six months."
Chiba Shun nodded. That was no small number, more than he had imagined.
It was just that he did not know how Akira Hyuga and the others had been exposed.
But that no longer mattered. He asked, "Do the three newly born children also have impurities in their Byakugan?"
The Third Raikage nodded. "Yes. They all have Byakugan, but they all contain impurities."
"However, the amount of impurity differs. It is probably related to the purity of their Hyuga Bloodline."
Chiba Shun said, "Even if their bloodline is lacking, as long as they train properly, their next generation should have hope of producing pure Byakugan."
The Third Raikage thought the same. Since Chiba Shun had no way to increase the number of people with the Hyuga Bloodline, he was about to send him back.
At that moment, Chiba Shun asked, "Lord Raikage, how were the Hyuga Branch House members exposed?"
"It should not have been information leaked from our side, right?"
The Third Raikage said, "I had people gather intelligence. It had nothing to do with us."
"This caused quite a stir in Konoha, so it was easy to find out."
It turned out that after more and more Hyuga Branch House members went to the Land of Moon, an accident finally occurred.
One branch house member who had gone to the Land of Moon many times but had never managed to leave behind a bloodline became anxious. His mindset changed somewhat, and he let something slip while spending time with a Hyuga Main House guard.
Before, no one had suspected anything. But once someone did, investigating became simple.
No one knew until they investigated, but once they did, they were shocked.
In less than a year, so many male Hyuga Branch House members had gone on missions toward the Land of Moon or the Land of Hot Water!
Even some missions that originally did not require leaving the Land of Fire had changed course for various reasons and gone to the Land of Moon.
When the Hyuga Main House learned of this, they panicked completely. The Byakugan Kekkei Genkai might have leaked out!
That was fatal to the Hyuga Main House!
The reason the Main House held such great authority was because they could help Konoha safeguard the Byakugan Kekkei Genkai!
If they could not prevent the Byakugan Kekkei Genkai from leaking out, would Konoha's higher-ups still allow them to retain such power?
Therefore, Dehong Hyuga, the current head of the Hyuga Family, directly used the Caged Bird to force confessions.
Under the effects of the Caged Bird, not a single branch house member could endure.
Very soon, the truth came to light.
Konoha's higher-ups were also alarmed. The hardliners led by Danzo directly demanded that the Hyuga Main House execute all Hyuga Branch House members who had disregarded the village's interests.
Even their families were not to be spared!
Only after Danzo had made enough of a fuss did Hiruzen Sarutobi say, "The families of Akira Hyuga and the others were unaware. They may be granted appropriate leniency."
What Hiruzen Sarutobi left unsaid was already perfectly clear.
Thus, the Hyuga Main House activated the Caged Bird and directly executed every branch house member who had traveled toward the Land of Moon, the Land of Hot Water, or the Land of Fields within the past year!
Then Danzo stepped in and branded all of their family members with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, pulling them into Root!
The Hyuga Clan's women had basically awakened the Byakugan as well. Even if they were not strong in combat, they were qualified to serve as scouting ninja.
In all of Konoha, Danzo was the only one who benefited from this incident!
After hearing the Third Raikage's account, Chiba Shun felt somewhat moved. Then he said, "Lord Raikage, I will remember this. In the future, I will tell the Hyuga Clan children in the village about it."
Uh...
The Third Raikage had not expected this matter to be used that way. On second thought, it made sense. It would make those children feel an even stronger sense of belonging toward Kumogakure.
Sure enough, handing the task of indoctrinating the Hyuga Clan to Chiba Shun had been the right choice. Some of those children had not even been born yet, but the Third Raikage could already picture Chiba Shun successfully indoctrinating them.
Then Chiba Shun left the Raikage's office under the Third Raikage's strange gaze.
The next day, Chiba Shun brought the three little ones to the mission office and received the reward for this A-Rank Mission from the female Chunin.
The female Chunin thoughtfully reminded Chiba Shun, "Lord Shun, you still have an S-rank Mission that has not been redeemed."
"Since it was wartime at the time, you may also choose to redeem an A-rank Jutsu. Would you like to do so now?"
Chiba Shun smiled. "No rush. Help me check how many B-rank and C-rank Illusion Techniques the village has."
The female Chunin said, "All right, please wait a moment."
While the female Chunin counted the number of jutsu, Chiba Shun put 300,000 ryo of the 600,000 ryo he had just received into his ninja tool pouch and said to the three little ones, "This time, I told Lord Raikage that I spent 300,000 ryo on Maki Uzumaki. This is what he reimbursed me."
The three little ones' mouths fell open. All three knew, more or less, how much Maki Uzumaki had cost.
After all, every time he made a payment, Chiba Shun would grit his teeth and complain.
They had not expected Chiba Shun to be so bold as to inflate the amount by so much.
Chiba Shun ignored them. He put away half of the remaining 300,000 ryo, or 150,000 ryo, and said, "This is my reward as captain. By the rules, I take half."
Then he divided the remaining 150,000 ryo into three portions, handed them to the three of them, and said, "The three of you split the remaining 150,000 ryo evenly. That is 50,000 ryo each."
"But you are not ninja yet, so this mission will not be recorded under your names."
Only after receiving the reward did the three little ones understand why Chiba Shun had called them over. Holding the money, they were at a loss.
At that moment, the female Chunin said, "Lord Shun, I have finished counting."
When Chiba Shun looked over, she said, "The village has four B-rank Illusion Techniques and fifteen C-rank Illusion Techniques."
Chiba Shun asked, "The prices for Illusion Techniques are the same as ordinary jutsu, right?"
The female Chunin smiled. "Yes, they are the same. A C-rank Illusion Technique costs 30,000 ryo, and a B-rank Illusion Technique costs 100,000 ryo."
After hesitating, she asked again, "Lord Shun, are you going to buy them all again?"
Chiba Shun first did the math. Four B-rank Jutsu and fifteen C-rank Jutsu would cost a total of 850,000 ryo.
Before leaving the village this time, he had held 600,000 ryo. After several major battles outside the village, he had gained more than 200,000 ryo, but his expenses had been even greater, totaling 400,000 ryo. This A-Rank Mission had earned him another 450,000 ryo.
So he currently had 850,000 ryo on hand. Well, two months had passed, and although he had not worked at the Ninja Academy, he had still received 100,000 ryo in wages.
So the money he could currently use totaled 950,000 ryo.
It looked like he could buy all the jutsu, but if he really did that, he would have no money left for Illusion Technique training.
He clicked his tongue. "I can't afford it. Even if I buy them, I won't have enough training resources."
"I'll buy three C-rank Illusion Techniques first and see whether I have any talent for Illusion Techniques."
The female Chunin smiled. "All right."
Before you continue