Wallet

Most importantly, over the past few days, Aoki Yuyi, whom Chiba Shun had persuaded, had shown up every day to personally guide some of the better-performing students.

A Jonin was personally teaching them!!!

Oh my God, and it was free!

Moreover, in the eyes of these ninja, those supposedly talented children Aoki Yuyi had guided were far inferior to their own children!

Then if their children entered the Ninja Academy, wouldn't they definitely receive special attention?

Thus, the ninja were tempted.

Of course, these ninja were generally Genin and Chunin like Chiba Shun. Those Jonin, or ninja born into ninja clans, still looked down on the Ninja Academy.

But this was enough.

When these ninja, along with a large number of civilians, sent their children to the Ninja Academy and brought about another enrollment boom, Aoki Yuyi smiled.

He felt that the genius he had been waiting for was finally about to arrive.

He personally examined the more than three thousand people who had entered the Ninja Academy this time.

They varied in age. Some were still very young and needed to enter preschool classes for cultural studies, while others had already extracted chakra.

After being used to orphans with poor talent, Aoki Yuyi found himself more and more satisfied as he looked at these well-nourished children with far better physical conditions.

After enrollment ended, he directly gave Chiba Shun a B-rank Jutsu.

This jutsu did not belong to the Ninja Academy. It was his own.

Chiba Shun was overjoyed. After arranging matters for the new students, he memorized the jutsu.

Unfortunately, it was still a Lightning Release jutsu: B-rank Lightning Release—Lightning Explosion.

It was a jutsu that increased the damage of a lightning sphere.

After reading the jutsu's description, Chiba Shun felt somewhat moved.

Kumogakure had far too few jutsu of other elements in its collection, and their quality was not particularly impressive either.

But they had truly taken Lightning Release to incredible heights.

Take Lightning Explosion, for example. Its training difficulty had originally been quite high, but the scroll described the training method in great detail—more detailed even than the original method for learning the Rasengan.

He would give this jutsu to Sakai Yushi later. Aoki Yuyi had created it himself, so he probably would not say much if Chiba Shun secretly passed it on to Sakai Yushi.

That day, Chiba Shun sat in his office and calculated the accounts for the past month.

The little brats carried out all kinds of simple missions in the village. Eighty percent of the rewards they earned went to them, while the remaining twenty percent was handed in.

That portion naturally belonged to the Ninja Academy. Aoki Yuyi took the larger share, while Chiba Shun received the smaller one.

Of course, it was not as if the two were embezzling funds. Neither cared about such paltry rewards, but they could use the money to nurture children they favored.

There had never been fairness in the Shinobi World. Even among the Ninja Academy's cannon fodder, there were differences between one piece of cannon fodder and another.

Aoki Yuyi was selecting disciples with exceptional talent, and Chiba Shun was doing the same.

It was just that Chiba Shun valued special talents more.

For example, talent in medical ninjutsu, Illusion Technique, and elements other than lightning.

No matter what, Lightning Release geniuses would never be Chiba Shun's disciples. Only geniuses the village could not cultivate might end up in his hands.

By manipulating the occasional theory tests and practical sparring matches, Chiba Shun searched for geniuses who might have been overlooked.

However, such talent could not be confirmed in a day or two.

He cast a wide net. Whenever he felt someone might possess talent in a certain area, he would speak with them privately, give them extra instruction, and brainwash them a little along the way.

Over more than half a year, he had privately spoken with seventy or eighty children.

Chiba Shun was very satisfied with this kind of life. His strength steadily improved amid the calm, and watching the students he favored grow bit by bit made his days feel fulfilling.

Over the past six months, Chiba Shun had eaten far too many lavish meals, and his appetite had grown much faster than expected. He now ate about five nutritious meals at a time.

If he ate barbecue at restaurants for every meal, one meal would cost five hundred ryo, or fifteen hundred ryo a day.

Fortunately, he used his authority to have the Ninja Academy's logistics department prepare his meals. He only had to pay half the ingredient costs.

He only occasionally treated a few Chunin colleagues to one or two large meals.

But even so, during these six months at the Ninja Academy, he had spent nearly two hundred thousand ryo on food alone.

The one hundred thousand ryo he had earned from completing the B-rank Mission was certainly not enough.

Fortunately, he had an income of fifty thousand ryo each month, accumulating three hundred thousand ryo over six months.

In addition, after exposing Matsuda Shan, the Root intelligence ninja, Aoki Yuyi reported it to the village, and Chiba Shun received another B-rank Mission.

However, the reward this time was the minimum for a B-rank Mission: fifty thousand ryo.

Thus, Chiba Shun should originally have had two hundred and fifty thousand ryo in cash left.

But unfortunately, after becoming a Chunin, his expenses apart from food had also risen considerably.

Leaving aside everything else, weapon consumption alone had exceeded what Chiba Shun could bear.

He had thought that without carrying out missions, his expenses would decrease.

Who would have thought his training expenses would become so great?

To practice Four-Sword Style Swordsmanship, he had broken ten long swords in succession. The Chunin instructors who trained with him had also ruined roughly the same number of long swords, and Chiba Shun had to pay for all of them.

Thus, he had spent sixty thousand ryo on weapons alone.

When he trained with Sakai Yushi in the past, they used wooden swords, whose costs were negligible.

But wooden swords were not effective for training. Now that Chiba Shun had a little money on hand, he directly began practicing with long swords.

When he calculated the accounts now, the result gave him a fright.

Adding the costs of kunai, senbon, ninja tool pouches, Explosive Tags, uniforms, and other consumables, Chiba Shun now had only one hundred and fifty thousand ryo left.

In other words, over these six months, Chiba Shun had not carried out a single mission, yet the money in his hands had increased by fifty thousand ryo.

He thanked Aoki Yuyi for giving him such a high salary and never delaying payment.

If things continued like this, Chiba Shun felt that at least until he became a Jonin, he would not have to worry about lacking money.

However, the peaceful days did not last long before trouble came knocking.

That day, after a busy day of work, Chiba Shun returned to his residence at the Ninja Academy.

Not long after lying down, a sudden ringing of bells jolted Chiba Shun awake.

The sound came from one of the small devices he used for warning.

If someone came looking for him, they would definitely approach from the front gate and would not trigger the alarm. But if someone secretly approached from another direction, he would notice immediately.

The instant he woke, Chiba Shun threw off his blanket and sprang toward the ceiling like a released spring.

He had prepared for this long ago. The moment he moved into this small courtyard, he had devised ways to evade assassination and practiced them many times, so he moved with great proficiency.

At the same time, the person lurking outside realized something was wrong the moment he heard the bells.

The intruder stopped sneaking around, smashed through the wall with sword in hand, and slashed at the bed where Chiba Shun had been sleeping.

Without suspense, the bed was split in two, but the target had not been struck.

Realizing something was wrong, he quickly dodged to the side.

His reaction was swift. He was clearly well-trained and relied on his experience to avoid the counterattack from above.

Chiba Shun's slash also missed, but he was not disappointed. He retreated away from the enemy while rapidly forming hand seals, then fiercely slapped the ground.

The assassin sensed danger the moment he saw Chiba Shun form hand seals. He threw several shuriken at Chiba Shun, attempting to interrupt his jutsu.

At the same time, he coated his feet with chakra, ready to dodge at any moment.

Yet the expected jutsu attack never came.

After evading the shuriken, Chiba Shun successfully pressed both palms against the ground.

The next moment, accompanied by several explosions, the entire courtyard floor collapsed.

The assassin and Chiba Shun fell into the trap together.

That was right. Chiba Shun had hollowed out the entire area beneath the courtyard long ago. Strictly speaking, the hand seals he had formed were not actually a jutsu, but merely a mechanism trigger.

Chiba Shun had learned this kind of suddenly collapsing ground trap from the original story. Even Uchiha experts could not evade it and could only rely on Izanagi, let alone an assassin who clearly possessed only Chunin-level strength.

Furthermore, Chiba Shun had filled the underground with all kinds of traps. After the assassin fell, he merely let out a few muffled groans before falling silent.

Naturally, Chiba Shun was unharmed. Since he had set the traps himself, he naturally knew where it was safe.

However, he did not immediately climb out from underground. He was worried that there might be more than one assassin.

He restrained his chakra as much as possible and waited quietly underground.

He soon learned that his caution had been correct.

Two more people were lurking outside. This was a three-man assassination squad.

They did not react in any unusual way after losing one companion. Instead, they quietly waited for Chiba Shun to appear.

But contrary to their expectations, Chiba Shun remained just as cautious after killing their companion.

Seeing this, the two did not dare delay any longer. This was Kumogakure's headquarters, and they did not have much time.

They had taken the risk of coming to assassinate Chiba Shun today only because Aoki Yuyi was away from the Ninja Academy on business. If they delayed too long and Kumogakure reinforcements arrived, they would be finished.

Thus, one of them gave his companion a look.

He possessed some sensory ability, but Chiba Shun had now concealed his chakra, so he could not quickly determine Chiba Shun's location. He could only rely on his companion, who excelled at ninjutsu.

His companion did not disappoint him. After forming a string of hand seals, he slapped both palms against the ground.

He was unexpectedly an Earth Release ninja as well, and the jutsu he used was highly advanced—at least B-rank.

Chiba Shun sensed it and confirmed that the three were definitely not from Kumogakure. Kumogakure was not without Earth Release experts, but such individuals were rare. They could not possibly be intelligence ninja from an enemy village.

Konoha, perhaps? Could it be Root again? Is this because of Matsuda Shan?

With those thoughts in mind, Chiba Shun charged out from underground.

He had no choice but to emerge. The powerful Earth Release was about to bury him alive.

But the moment he appeared, a flash of sword light slashed toward him.

That sensory ninja was actually a master swordsman as well!

Judging by his skin color and build, he was an authentic Kumogakure shinobi!

An enemy village spy hidden among Kumogakure's ninja!