Senju Chen used strong willpower to suppress the corners of his mouth that almost reached his ears.
He lowered his head slightly, hiding his face in the dim light, and the slight shaking of his shoulders caused by trying to suppress laughter looked like a loyal subordinate sobbing silently in sympathy with his master's tragic experience.
"Gonbei ah..." Genji seemed to have finished venting, and his whole body seemed to have been drained of energy, and he slumped on the chair. His turbid eyes once again looked at the thick fog that could not be removed outside the window, and his voice became hoarse, "I... Isn't it useless?"
"No, sir!" Senju Chen immediately "raised his head", his eyes were "red", and his voice was full of "sorrow, anger" and "loyalty". His acting skills were so superb that even the two stone statues at the door of Konoha shed tears of emotion.
"You are the cornerstone of Kirigakure! It is those young people who used despicable means to deceive Master Mizukage. They are jealous of your reputation and fear your wisdom! As long as you are still there, Kirigakure still has hope!"
Senju Chen's words were half the words from the bottom of Gonbei's memory, and half his own incitement. He knew very well that for an old man like Genji, who once held a high position but now has fallen into poverty, what he needs most is this kind of spiritual affirmation and illusory expectations for the future.
Sure enough, a faint light rekindled in Genji's ashen eyes. He turned back and glanced at Senju Chen (Gonbei), with an expression of living up to his expectations.
"Good... good boy... with your words, I... can hold on..."
Senju Chen helped Genji to lie down on the bed to rest, covered him with a quilt, then quietly exited the room while carrying the empty medicine bowl.
The moment he closed the door, the "sadness" on his face disappeared without a trace, replaced by a sense of playfulness and profundity.
"It's an interesting development."
In the following days, Senju Chen completely integrated into the role of "Gonbei".
On the surface, his daily life is as regular as an old pendulum, drawing a monotonous trajectory between two points and one line between the Genji mansion and the civilian area on the edge of the village.
Every morning, he would face the first ray of wet and cold morning mist to buy the freshest ingredients and herbs for Genji, and then, like the most loyal guard, he would silently handle various chores in the mansion.
In the afternoon, he would hold the worn-out oil-paper umbrella and walk through several dark and damp lanes to a simple open space and teach seven or eight children from ordinary families the most basic Chakra extraction method and Three Basic Techniques.
But at night, Senju Chen will use his own Mayfly Technique to explore Kirigakure everywhere. However, because Kirigakure's prevention and control power is now very strong, so far, he has not found the two young men Obito and Black Zetsu.
But Senju Chen is not in a hurry. He came to Kirigakure this time just to see if there is any chance to enjoy the autumn wind. By the way, he dug into Kirigakure's corner and found Obito and Black Zetsu purely by the way.
For example, the children he taught could be regarded as one of the few "normal people" in this bloody village. Their parents did not have Kekkei Genkai and had no talent to become ninjas, so they luckily escaped the purge of Fourth Mizukage. They sent their children to Gonbei not to become powerful ninjas, but to learn some self-defense skills and have a better chance of surviving in this cannibalistic world.
Among these children, there was a little boy who caught Senju Chen's attention when he first took over Gonbei's "job".
Not only because this child practices Ninjutsu very hard and seriously, but also because this little boy is named Chōjūrō. Senju Chen remembers that in the original book, the boy named Chōjūrō later seemed to have achieved great success in Kirigakure, and not only became Fifth Mizukage Mei Terumi's bodyguard, and later even became Sixth Mizukage.
It can only be said that this boy's future is limitless. This can be regarded as an unexpected surprise for Senju Chen. Senju Chen has even begun to think about how to find a suitable opportunity to pack this boy away.
"Teacher Gonbei!" A little girl with braids and a few freckles on her face was awkwardly tying her seals, but she couldn't transform into a decent clone. She was so anxious that she was about to cry.
Senju Chen looked away from Chōjūrō and walked over quickly, with Gonbei's signature gentle smile with a hint of loneliness on his face. He knelt down and gently corrected the girl's gestures with his calloused hands.
"Don't worry, the flow of Xiaohua. Chakra is like a stream. The harder you try to grab it, the more it will slip away from your fingers. Calm down and feel it..."
His voice is very soft, with the unique calmness of a middle-aged man, making the children feel at ease...
In the evening, after sending away the last child, Senju Chen set foot on the road back to Genji's mansion.
On the way back, out of the corner of his eye, he walked through the sparse woods and glanced at a High Tower not far away.
There is Kirigakure's real cradle of ninjas and a bloody slaughterhouse. Senju Chen sneaked in at night to investigate.
This training ground is a bit like Ninja Academy of Konoha. It also only recruits children of appropriate age, but the difference from Konoha is that the training here is very cruel. These children do not have protective gear when sparring, and the Kunai and short knives in their hands are also edged.
During the investigation, Senju Chen even saw a boy falling down due to exhaustion, and immediately another boy jumped on him and stabbed him in the throat mercilessly with Kunai.
No one cheered or stopped this situation, it was just as if those children were used to it.
As for Kirigakure Jonin, who was standing aside, he just looked at all this indifferently, his eyes like looking at a group of wild dogs competing for food.
Senju Chen withdrew his gaze and continued walking to Genji's house as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly, two figures appeared silently in the alleyway in front of him, still wearing the same pale masks and gray cloaks.
It's Special Assassination and Tactical Squad again.
"Gonbei." The speaker's voice was hoarse and without any emotion, "The village has not been very peaceful recently. The remnants of the Kaguya Clan and Yuki Clan are still active. Master Mizukage has an order that no one is allowed to walk around outside after sunset. Don't you know?"
Senju Chen stopped and bowed his body slightly again.
"You two, I have just finished teaching the children and I am going back."
"Teach them?" The other one sneered, "Teach them how to cry? Gonbei, put away your outdated tricks. Genji is already a useless person. If you follow him, you will not end well. If you know the truth, just..."
Before he could finish his words, he was lifted up by the leader Teuchi.
"Okay, stop talking nonsense. Let him go."
The man seemed a little unwilling, but he still snorted and got out of the way.
Senju Chen kept his head down from beginning to end, as if he didn't hear their humiliation and just walked past them silently.
In the past few days, this kind of thing has happened more than once. When I go out during the day or go home at night, the other party seems to know what I am going to do. Intentionally or unintentionally, they will intercept or ridicule me.
I don't know if it was arranged by someone, or if the other party simply wanted to satisfy his perverted psychology.
Seeing that the once high-ranking big shot has now fallen into the mortal world, everyone wants to step on them. They don't dare to go directly to the Genji house, so they can only mock themselves as Genji's "confidant".
However, what does your mocking Gonbei have to do with me Konoha Senju Chen.
Senju Chen didn't care about them. He didn't straighten up slowly until he was far away.
However, the other party's unintentional words provided a lot of information for Senju Chen.
"The remnants of Kaguya and Yuki..." He chewed the word, and the corner of his mouth curved with an unnoticed arc, "It seems that Yukimura Shigure and Aying have done a good job, and they have caused some substantial trouble to Kirigakure during this period."
These "remnants" mentioned by Anbu were exactly what he had arranged before. Let Food Is Heaven's people create some chaos in Land of Water to cover up his lurking, and by the way, further weaken Kirigakure's power, which can be regarded as killing multiple birds with one stone.