Not to mention that their Hidden Waterfall Village had just experienced a rebellion, and the leader of it was a seasoned Waterfall ninja like Suien. Coupled with the fact that their leader's personality had always been on the softer, gentler side—even though he seemed to have changed recently—Jun still felt he had to be more vigilant than ever and treat everything with greater caution.
Of course, these thoughts could only be kept in his heart and absolutely must not be shown on the surface, as that would be detrimental to the village's stability. Moreover, Menma was a benefactor to their Hidden Waterfall Village and represented that Daimyo of the Land of Fire (this was still a misunderstanding on Jun's part; at this stage, only Shibuki and Fu knew Menma's true identity within the Hidden Waterfall).
"Heh, I've rested enough, and things at home are mostly settled. It's not appropriate to just sit around at home anymore; I should start fulfilling my duties."
Menma chuckled lightly and responded.
"Accelerator-san is too serious."
Jun laughed seemingly casually, but in that moment, a very faint look of suspicion flickered in his pupils.
He couldn't help but wonder if Menma being so proactive and enthusiastic harbored some ulterior motives.
But immediately, Jun shook his head inwardly, dismissing the thought. Vigilance was fine, but doubting others without limit or reason was inappropriate. After all, this was a comrade endorsed by Elder Satoru and personally permitted to join by Leader Shibuki. He needed to be more cautious in his attitude and not speculate or doubt recklessly.
"Since Accelerator-san is so dedicated, this is the scope of work Accelerator-san needs to be responsible for. Please familiarize yourself with it first."
While pulling a portion of documents from a stack on the left and handing them to Menma, Jun also pointed to a pile of scrolls on another table and spoke softly.
A ninja village's important administrative affairs were divided into many types.
But among these affairs, the village's defense absolutely ranked first. If a ninja village, a power group, couldn't even guarantee its own security, it would be impossible for this force to have any cohesion.
The reason why power structures like ninja villages appeared was for people to band together for mutual protection. This was true for the Five Great Ninja Villages, and equally true for the Hidden Waterfall.
However, unlike the Five Great Ninja Villages, which could extend their sphere of influence to the entire national border and the territories of surrounding small countries...
The defense of other small ninja villages was generally limited to the vicinity of the ninja village itself.
Slightly stronger ninja villages like the Hidden Waterfall, Hidden Grass, and Hidden Rain could extend a bit further, but there were many restrictions. The Five Great Nations did not allow the influence of other ninja villages to cover too many areas, as it didn't align with their interests.
Therefore, the areas the Hidden Waterfall could involve itself in were within the Land of Waterfalls. Important border locations near the major nations were garrisoned by ninja from the Leaf, Stone, and Cloud. In the past decades, whenever the three Great Ninja Wars erupted, these places became battlegrounds for the three major nations. Fortunately, the Hidden Waterfall's location was relatively recessed, unlike the Hidden Grass or Hidden Rain, which were practically at the core of the conflicts between the major nations.
The Hidden Waterfall still possessed a bit more autonomy and self-preservation ability.
But that was all.
The plight of small nations was just that difficult.
As the main person in charge of the Defense Squad, Jun broadly coordinated the defense work of the entire Hidden Waterfall Village, but basically, he was responsible for the safety around the ninja village. The deployment of Waterfall ninja at the borders was generally overseen and arranged by the leader personally.
And the defense administrative work Jun handed over to Menma now was the summarization and organization of different information sent by defense personnel every day.
This task could be said to be important, and indeed it was.
But for the overall defense work, it was a less critical part.
Almost immediately after sitting down and flipping through the content recorded in the scrolls, Menma roughly understood Jun's intention.
However, this was a very normal development. Any outsider entering a group had to go through such a process. Even an existence with maxed-out charisma couldn't just show up and instantly gain everyone's approval and trust.
Unleash a domineering aura, and everyone bows down?
That's not reality; that's a fairy tale.
Therefore, Menma was satisfied with the current progress. Rice must be eaten one bite at a time; the road must be walked one step at a time.
At least at this stage, Menma wasn't qualified, nor did he intend, to engage in any power-seizing behavior. How could he seize power without establishing basic prestige and trust?
Someone had to trust him before he could take the next step.
So.
For Menma, the most necessary thing to do now was to strengthen his presence in the village and gain as much recognition and trust from people like Jun in the Hidden Waterfall as possible.
And the most direct way was to bring benefits to the Hidden Waterfall Village, bringing visible development changes.
Coincidentally, Menma didn't have much else, but he had plenty of ideas in this regard. Although most were still theoretical or in the preparatory stage.
But there was one idea that could be put into practice directly.
That concerned the village's defense.
Of course, Menma still needed to see the actual situation to know how to implement it specifically, to avoid making mistakes.
"Jun-san, may I check our village's defense layout? And the personnel allocation?"
After spending over an hour browsing through the information stored on his desk and not seeing the intelligence he wanted, Menma looked up directly at Jun in the main seat and asked.
It wasn't a matter of being presumptuous or not.
As the Deputy Leader of the Defense Squad personally arranged by Shibuki, Menma had such authority. However, a normal person who had just joined the village wouldn't easily ask about such sensitive content right at the start.
Even within his authority.
He would wait for a period, becoming more familiar before doing so.
Bringing it up directly on the first day...
Could easily make others suspicious.
Clearly, upon hearing Menma's request, Jun's expression paused slightly. But only for an instant.
Shibuki's previous instructions surfaced in Jun's mind. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed the evasive words he initially wanted to blurt out, looked back at Menma, smiled, nodded, and said, "Mhm, no problem. I intended to let Accelerator-san familiarize yourself with it later anyway, since you'll need to lead teams for corresponding defense work in the future."
While speaking, he took out another scroll from the drawer below and tossed it toward Menma.
Catching the scroll backhanded...
A slight curve lifted the corner of Menma's mouth.
It seems it's much better than expected!
Menma had actually been mentally prepared for Jun to politely refuse.
A ninja village's defense layout and personnel allocation were basically top secret. Generally speaking, once an external enemy learned of them, the entire ninja village would fall into a very dangerous situation.
Especially for a special ninja village like the Hidden Waterfall.
In the entire ninja village, only Shibuki, Jun, the recently deceased Elder Mizuno Satoru, and the executed Suien were qualified to know.
It would be understandable if Jun withheld it from him for now.
Then Menma would have to find a way to obtain it from Shibuki. He didn't have any malicious intent, but wanted to improve the village's defense by understanding this aspect. But Menma didn't say it directly; firstly, he wanted to see if his intention could be realized without issues, and secondly, he wanted to test how much Jun actually trusted him.
Looking at it now, it was decent.
At least much stronger than expected.
His identity would eventually be exposed one day. Before that, he needed to reveal it bit by bit within a small circle. He couldn't keep wearing the false identity of "Accelerator" forever!
Jun was obviously the most suitable and qualified person in the Hidden Waterfall Village to be the third to learn his true identity.
Now that Jun's trust in him was higher than expected, the pace of the next steps could be accelerated.
Taking the defense intelligence scroll...
After reading through it carefully...
Combined with previous information, Menma gained a general understanding of the Hidden Waterfall's defense. It had to be said that the decline of the Hidden Waterfall Village was truly deserved; it was a comprehensive regression. This defense configuration and intensity truly didn't match an existence that nearly claimed the title of the Sixth Great Ninja Village decades ago.
Based on intelligence Menma had gathered in the past, especially from Orochimaru, during the Hidden Waterfall's peak period—although still quite a distance from the weakest Sand and Mist of that time—it absolutely held a crushing advantage when facing other ninja villages.
Otherwise, why was the Hidden Waterfall allocated a Tailed Beast quota, and not the Hidden Rain? Hidden Hot Water? Hidden Grass?
In that era, obtaining a Tailed Beast was in itself a manifestation of strength.
Don't forget the First Hokage's initial intention in distributing the Tailed Beasts.
Wasn't it to let the most powerful ninja villages in the ninja world each obtain enough power to check and balance each other, bringing peace to the entire ninja world?
If the Hidden Waterfall were truly weak, Hashirama Senju would never have allocated the Seven-Tails to them!
This wasn't a question of having money or not.
Not to mention, under the special ninja-village system, having money itself represented powerful strength!
A weak ninja, a weak ninja village, was unworthy and incapable of obtaining massive wealth.
To put it bluntly, if the Hidden Waterfall of that time had worked a step harder and advanced a step further, while it indeed couldn't compare to the Leaf, touching the Sand's rear was still feasible.
They just needed to produce a top-tier Kage-level powerhouse and improve the quality and quantity of Waterfall ninja a bit, and the Hidden Waterfall could have become the Sixth Great Nation, and its leader could have been called the Takikage!
Unfortunately, there were no "ifs."
Over the decades...
After the initial internal rebellion caused the tragic death of more than half of its core strength, the Hidden Waterfall had been sliding downhill. From a level where it could see the backs of the Five Great Ninja Villages and barely keep up, it weakened directly to a level just a notch above the Hidden Grass, Hidden Rain, and Hidden Hot Water. And this "notch" was purely due to the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.
Otherwise...
The Hidden Rain under Hanzo of the Salamander could have crushed the Hidden Waterfall.
Because of this, with the overall strength declining, the Hidden Waterfall's defense became more frustrating the more Menma looked at it.
Even the Hidden Sound Village under Orochimaru looked more decent than the Hidden Waterfall.
Still lacking a bit, huh.
Menma shook his head silently in his heart as he read.
"Hm? Finished reading? You should have an understanding of our village's defense model now. I plan to let you, Accelerator-san, in the upcoming work..."
Seeing Menma put down the scroll and look up again, Jun, who had been observing Menma from the main seat, spoke up in advance.
Although he felt slightly dissatisfied with Menma's somewhat overly proactive "presumption"...
Ultimately, Jun still regarded Menma as a comrade.
To better maintain this relationship, Jun intended to proactively share some authority with Menma. Of course, the main control would still be in his hands; Jun really didn't want another accident like Suien to happen.
He also hoped Menma could understand the meaning in his words.
Menma indeed understood, but clearly, Jun had misjudged Menma's intentions. Therefore, before Jun could finish his sentence...
"Oh, no rush for that, Jun-san. I'm still in the familiarization phase. It's better not to rashly participate in the village's overall defense. Besides, I'm not familiar with my other colleagues yet. Let's talk about it after a while."
Menma smiled and waved his hand.
This displayed attitude...
Made Jun slightly stunned.
He didn't quite understand Menma's intention anymore. Wasn't coming early today for the sake of fighting for power?
Jun didn't think it was hateful, just that Menma was a bit impatient. But looking at it now, was his judgment wrong?
A trace of confusion flickered deep within Jun's pupils.
Then what is he here for today?
"Mhm, that works too. It is indeed more appropriate to familiarize yourself more."
If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't think about it.
Jun cleared his throat lightly and spoke, still maintaining a smile.
"However, regarding our village's defense issues, I do have some immature suggestions."
Menma paused slightly, then continued speaking.
The next second.
Jun's brow furrowed accordingly.
And before Jun could say anything...
"For example, the most important outer perimeter sensory barrier—our Hidden Waterfall Village doesn't have one deployed. For the safety of a ninja village, this is a very important issue, isn't it? Jun-san."
Menma looked straight up at Jun, speaking with a very serious expression.