After deciding to invest in Ayana because their bond felt different, Chiba Shun took the time to ask after Asano Yuujin as well. Hearing that Yuujin had gradually adjusted to life with one arm missing put him at ease. He stayed a little longer to watch the lesson before finally leaving the office.
Ayana was changing fast. It was not just her will becoming firmer; her horizons had widened, and her way of thinking had matured with startling speed. Chiba Shun silently moved her name onto the list of people worth focusing on. If a good opportunity appeared in the future, he intended to push it toward her.
Other than the time he still devoted to the Ninja Academy, Chiba Shun poured every spare moment into training A-rank ninjutsu. But A-rank techniques devoured chakra at a ridiculous rate, and that meant his food expenses had to rise with them.
He had once thought the one million ryo from the S-rank mission would keep him comfortable for years. Reality had slapped him in the face. Sakai Hashi's training in the Lightning Release Body Flicker Technique alone burned through a terrifying amount of money.
Hashi's own savings had run dry almost immediately, so Chiba Shun ended up covering the rest. Even with Yotsuki Ai's personal guidance shortening the training period by a huge margin, Sakai Hashi still consumed close to four hundred thousand ryo. Before Hashi left to apply for the mission that would earn him Jonin recognition, Chiba Shun handed him another hundred thousand on top of that.
Then there were the rewards. Ayana and Shosuke had each received fifty thousand ryo, and Chiba Shun had paid that out without hesitation. By the time the dust settled, his fortune had already shrunk to a little over four hundred thousand.
He had thought that was still enough. Then Mountain Earth Technique entered his life.
The chakra demand of that A-rank earth technique was so brutal it sent his daily costs soaring. To keep up with the consumption, he had to maintain the same food intake he had enjoyed back in Konoha. Every meal now cost around a thousand ryo.
In a single month, nearly a hundred thousand ryo vanished into his stomach. His entire salary for that month went straight into replenishing ninja tools, leaving him with only around three hundred thousand in hand. Thankfully, earth techniques were not as vicious to the body as the Lightning Release stimulation method. If they were, he would have been even poorer.
At moments like this, he missed Namikaze Minato terribly. Back in Konoha, watching Minato calmly pay the bill after every meal had filled him with genuine happiness. Now that he was the one reaching into his own pocket, every coin felt like a knife twisting in his heart.
Still, the money was not wasted. After a month of relentless training and steady nourishment, his chakra level rose again. Ninjas in their growth period were like that. As long as the body's energy supply could keep pace, chakra would generally climb quickly.
And once his chakra rose, the number of times he could practice Mountain Earth Technique each day rose with it. Of course, his appetite rose too. It was a cycle as merciless as it was effective.
Then, right as his funds were beginning to make him anxious, good news arrived. Or rather, world-shaking news.
Over the past month, one explosive development after another had erupted around Konoha's White Fang. The first spark came when Kumogakure publicly followed Sunagakure's earlier declaration: if a mission team encountered Konoha's White Fang, they were permitted to abandon the mission immediately.
What Chiba Shun did not know was that the village leadership had used that very matter as a bargaining chip in their dealings with Konoha. When he had gone to Konoha as the Third Raikage's representative, he had promised concessions on certain missions. Hiruzen Sarutobi had never imagined that the so-called concession would amount to Kumo taking the money, abandoning the mission, and then using the result to disgust him.
The talks between the two villages stalled for a time because of that. Before they could recover, however, another bomb exploded: word spread through Konoha that a Cloud ninja had stolen dozens of Konoha's ninjutsu.
The truth was uglier. The intelligence ninja that Kumogakure had planted in Konoha met Danzo in secret, received a blank scroll from him, and then left the village and the Land of Fire along a route Danzo had already prepared. After that, on Danzo's recommendation, White Fang was sent on an S-rank mission to retrieve the stolen techniques.
At the same time, Kumogakure and Danzo moved in perfect sync. The Cloud side arranged for White Fang's comrades to fall into danger, forcing him into a brutal choice: complete the mission, or save his people.
But White Fang did not follow the script Chiba Shun had expected. He saved his comrades first, then still caught up to the fleeing Cloud intelligence ninja, killed him, and recovered the scroll. Only when he opened it did he realize the scroll was fake.
White Fang had not been careless. The moment he received the blank scroll from the Cloud spy, he suspected the information might already have been passed back to Kumogakure. He knew he might have been set up.
Danzo, however, lived up to his reputation. He gave White Fang no room to defend himself. He seized on the delay caused by White Fang rescuing his comrades and accused him of giving the enemy enough time to pass the information onward.
A few days later, Danzo even produced evidence: people in Kumogakure were already training with those stolen ninjutsu.
That part was pure coincidence. Kumogakure had recalled a large number of ninjas from outside missions to prepare for possible war, but in Danzo's eyes, that movement became proof that Kumo had received and circulated the techniques. Since some of that evidence had originally been provided by the Third Raikage's side, it could not easily be dismissed as fake.
The result was immediate. News of White Fang's failed mission, together with the enormous losses Konoha might suffer because the enemy had gained dozens of ninjutsu, swept through the village.
He had failed because he chose to save his comrades. But compared to the lives of countless Konoha shinobi who might die in the future, what was the weight of a handful of companions? In the eyes of the crowd, the answer came far too easily.
White Fang was cursed from every direction. Insults rained down on him day and night.
At first, the other ninja villages did not consider it especially important. So what if a mission failed? Everyone had failed before. Even after receiving prior hints from Kumogakure, most still did not really believe the Konoha leadership would go so far as to eliminate White Fang.
If anything, they were simply jealous. Kumogakure had apparently gained dozens of new ninjutsu for almost nothing.
But then events took a turn no one had fully anticipated. Neither Hiruzen Sarutobi nor Danzo had expected White Fang to be so extreme. When Danzo, in one last filthy push, even manipulated White Fang's supposed comrades into coming forward to condemn him, the famed hero finally took his own life.
The news stunned the ninja world. During the entire Second Shinobi World War, not a single Kage-level fighter had died. Yet in peacetime, Konoha had managed to drive one of its own Kage-class shinobi to suicide.
Word was that Sunagakure celebrated for three straight days after learning of White Fang's death.
For Chiba Shun, the death came with a direct reward. Just as he had hoped, another S-rank mission record landed in his hands. At the same time, the village formally recognized him and granted him the title of Special Jonin.
And somehow, that title made him less happy than he expected.
Special Jonin was usually a rank granted to shinobi who had displayed some very clear, very specific area of excellence. So what exactly did Kumogakure think his special talent was? Scheming? Conspiracy? Was the village really pinning that label on him now? How was he supposed to face people after that?
Still, whatever his complicated feelings, the promotion improved his standing within the village. If Kumogakure ever held a Jonin vote, he now possessed one of those precious ballots himself.
What annoyed him even more was the matter of the reward. He had gone to claim the cash for the newly earned S-rank mission, only for the female ninja in charge of distribution to calmly inform him that the village was already operating under wartime conditions. Because of that, no major mission rewards would be paid out in cash for the time being.
He had only two options. He could exchange the mission for the right to learn an A-rank ninjutsu now, or he could wait until the war ended and collect the money later.
There was no helping it. Kumogakure was not Konoha. Its finances had always been tight. Even though the war had not officially begun, preparation alone was already devouring money at an alarming rate.
Strictly speaking, exchanging the mission for access to an A-rank technique was not a scam. Under normal circumstances, no matter how much money a person had, they still would not qualify to trade directly for an A-rank ninjutsu through the mission office. Techniques of B-rank and below could be bought once a ninja had enough mission records and cash. A-rank techniques, on the other hand, were tightly controlled and could only be taught with approval from the village's upper echelon.
And there was more. Once someone learned one, a sealing technique had to be placed in the mind to prevent the ninjutsu from leaking.
After thinking it through, Chiba Shun realized he was not truly short on money yet. So he chose the second path. He kept the S-rank mission credit and converted it into the right to redeem an A-rank ninjutsu later.
The problem was that Kumogakure did not currently possess the kind of A-rank technique he wanted. In the end, he told the female chunin at the mission desk to let him save the opportunity until after the war.
She looked at him as if he were insane. The village did not have the technique he needed now, so why would it have it after the war? Was someone planning to invent new A-rank ninjutsu in the middle of a conflict?
But since he had already made up his mind, she did not argue further.
Meanwhile, the world was moving even faster than Chiba Shun had expected. Sunagakure reacted first. Even while it was still celebrating White Fang's death, its forces reached the border and crossed straight into the Land of Rivers. On the far side lay the Land of Fire, where the ashes of the Second Shinobi World War had not even gone cold before the smoke of a new one threatened to rise.
Konoha, unable to fully settle the internal chaos caused by White Fang's death, hurriedly mobilized a large army the moment it received word of Sunagakure's movement. And almost at the same time, Kumogakure moved as well.
Kumo's mobilization was the largest of them all. The village pulled together nearly every force it could spare, leaving only a thin line behind to guard against incursions from the other major villages.
When the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, saw Kumogakure moving with its full weight, even he could no longer sit still. Still, he was more cautious than the Third Kazekage. Iwagakure's forces advanced only to the border of the Land of Earth and stopped short of crossing through the small countries that separated it from the Land of Fire.
Kirigakure did not hesitate either after seeing the other three move. But the Mist's direction was strange. Instead of pressing into the Land of Hot Water, they set their sights on the old Land of Whirlpools, clearly intending to snatch territory amid the chaos.
Back in Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi was filled with regret. If he had known White Fang would be that sensitive, he would have stopped Danzo earlier. He would have stood up for White Fang openly as Hokage. In any case, White Fang's reputation had already been damaged. He would never have been able to compete with Hiruzen's own disciple for the position of Fourth Hokage.
But who could have imagined White Fang would take things that far? His wife had only just given birth to their son, and still he chose death.
And the timing of that death was the cruelest joke of all. He had chosen the exact moment when negotiations with Kumogakure were most delicate, plunging Konoha into trouble from every side.