Mito sighed exaggeratedly and explained to Hashirama herself.
"His ability as a ninja is categorised into these five traits."
"Traits? Five? Don't you just beat people up and become a ninja?" Hashirama asked with a face that looked completely clueless but having been at the receiving end of it so many times, Mito was immune to it and she continued as if nothing had happened.
"No. Physical Strength and Mental Strength are self explanatory, you should've figured that out."
"Of course! Physical strength is how long I can fight with Madara! And Mental strength is how long I can avoid fighting with Madara!"
Mito finally gave Hashirama a deadpan look and chose not to comment further for her own sanity.
"The boy, Haruto, has slightly less than genin level physical strength, about the strength of a normal boy his age, but jonin level mental strength, which is a little surprising."
"I see…" Hashirama nodded, understanding slightly but wondering inwardly how long a slightly below average genin would last against Madara.
"Next is Chakra Control."
"Oh! I know this one!" Hashirama exclaimed with joy.
"Oh? You do? What is it?" Mito asked softly, her smile beaming as if she were proud of the child she'd raised and watched them just grow into an adult.
"It's how fast I'm able to break out of Madara's Genjutsu!" Hashirama declared boldly.
"..." Mito didn't know what to say.
By this point, Tobirama and Izuna had stopped fighting, and they both looked at Mito with varying amounts of pity.
Mito just shook her head and nodded, "Exactly. That skill of ease of controlling chakra is quantified as Chakra control."
"Haruto's skill level is slightly below genin level again which is to say…it isn't very much."
"The fourth one is Combat Intelligence, which is simple. How good he is at combat."
"He's not very good, is he…" Hashirama commented, seeing the star point not even crossing into the first ring in the centre of the pentagon.
He wasn't even close to genin level or half way there.
Mito too frowned in thought.
But then her eyes moved to the only trait that was rather surprising since its value lay outside the pentagon of traits.
"The final trait is Creative Intelligence. And it is beyond Super Kage Level. The final rating has his own name, 'Hayashi Haruto'." (A/N : Current Ratings for MC)
"What is creative intelligence? Is that a lot?" Hashirama asked softly.
"Creative intelligence can mean many things…" Mito sighed, her thoughts pondering, but Tobirama picked up from there.
"One component of it likely has to do with the problem of creating new jutsus. He is likely a very capable Jutsu researcher."
"True." Mito nodded, but Hashirama immediately frowned.
"So he'll create more kinjutsu like you!!!!"
"Those were not kinjutsu!! Those jutsu were essential to push the understanding and knowledge of the shinobi world!!!"
"Any jutsu you make that is not water jutsu is kinjutsu!!!" Hashirama retorted, already ready to bonk his little brother's head in.
Minato smiled at the new argument while commenting to Kushina about how lively this new place was, as he continued speaking to Mito.
"It might also include strategic intelligence."
"That is also true." Mito said softly, but at the same time continued with another train of thought.
"It is also possible that our chance to present Haruto-kun with 'special life-changing ideas' will probably have more meaningful impacts since he seems to have a sharp mind in areas other than combat. But if these stats actually mean what we think they do, then we must pay attention to his daily life."
"True." Kushina nodded, "For example, his chakra might grow as he grows stronger physically and mentally. That alone would put him at a heavy advantage if he is very creative. And if his battle intelligence can be improved, then he will undoubtedly become a decent ninja that has good capabilities."
"Making him stronger should be our top priority for now…as long as he is weak, he wouldn't be able to do much about anything around him. If…we plan to try and change something." Tobirama immediately concluded, knowing how ruthless the ninja world truly was.
And his declaration brought up wry expressions on everyone's faces, including Hashirama's.
"But don't we need to make him stay in the academy for that?" Kushina voiced the obvious.
Everyone remained silent for a while before directly turning to look at Tobirama, even Izuna. The bizarre situation they were in asked for it and he hoped that his brother would understand.
'What if it's about something related to the Uchiha clan?'
'If the Uchiha clan needs my help in the future, this boy is the only one that might be able to help me out.'
Noticing everyone's gaze on him, Tobirama held back the willful sigh that was about to leave his lips after looking at Hashirama's persistent gaze.
"No." Tobirama declared. "Using up such a precious resource for such a simple thing would be a waste of time. Especially when we don't know its limits and if Haruto-kun will be able to stop himself from being affected by them in the future after we go through with it once."
Everyone's eyes widened while Hashirama smiled slightly.
'I knew it! Tobi always has my back! He always knows what I want!'
Tobirama on the other hand was cursing internally.
'Damn it…If only brother wasn't here, I would've made the boy bump into a Uchiha officer to judge their reactions and see if their 'evil' ways have changed.'
Whether Tobirama was serious or joking, only he knew.
That was when everyone spotted Haruto finally choosing his first pick for the place he wanted to work at.
***
"There are no better choices than this…" Haruto mumbled out loud as he stared at the final three positions that had won all the rounds he'd put them through with the other positions.
The left margin of the page was filled with a list of all the positions, which were then slowly crossed out one by one as he added more and more requirements and conditions he wanted the position to satisfy, pushing fewer and fewer positions to the final round, where there were only three left on the right margin.
-> Konoha I.T. Databook Keeper
-> Konoha Medical Department Medicine Staffer
-> Konoha Summoned Creature Caretaker
It wasn't long into the process of his selection process that he noticed that he'd never been provided with an estimated salary for each position.
But he quickly reasoned that he could ask the lady the next time he met her. So he moved on to sorting based on the rest of his requirements.
Firstly, he needed a lot of time on his hands. Time to be able to practice fire release and fuinjutsu so that he could create an explosion that satisfied Megumin to gain her talent in explosive fire release if using simple explosive tags didn't work.
As such, positions like 'Konoha Public Health And Safety Inspector' were quickly rejected regardless of what they might pay since they were demanding jobs that wouldn't give him rest or train him in any way other than making him learn how to keep his nose shut.
Secondly, he needed a way to come in or make meaningful contacts with shinobi in some way so that he could still maintain some direct connections to the shinobi world for two main tasks. Firstly and most importantly, to find ways to access sensitive information like various jutsus to learn them and secondly to keep track of the movements of various 'evils' working from within the village itself.
Thirdly, Haruto preferred if he could do something that was technological.
According to his memories, this world did have T.V's and other electrical appliances. But computers were a rare occurrence and strategic asset held by the village alone.
How did he know that the village had computers if they were so important? Because some of the positions on the pamphlet had I.T. in them, obviously a reference to Info & Tech according to Haruto.
And since he was already familiar with computers, at least more than the general populace, he decided that would be a great place to start.
So reasons for the final three contestants remaining were rather firm and obvious.
The third job on the list, Summoned Creature Caretaker, implied that he would be working with animals. It was probably not a high-demand job position, given that most people didn't like the stink of animals and cleaning their pee or poo.
Normally, he wouldn't have considered this job for the same reason as the Public Health Inspector Position, but Haruto was willing to suffer at least that much for this position since it meant that he would be able to form connections with chunin and even a few jonin.
How was that possible?
Well, simple, since summoned creatures were likely expensive to maintain, only a chunin or a jonin would be able to afford their care and upkeep. And getting to know one or two of them to mooch off of sounded like a nice plan to have.
'Who knows if my luck runs right, I might even be able to get a lesson or two from some pro in youth if I run into their turtle.'
But since that was unlikely, Haruto placed it as his third option.
Next up on the list, in second place was, Konoha Medical Department Medicine Staffer, a job where he would easily come in contact with medical ninjutsu and probably be able to easily move up the ladder since the village had no set pathway for shinobi to become a Medical Ninja.
Students could drop out of the academy and simply study a few set books for a few years and apply to join the hospital after passing.
The requirements for applying were so lax only because it was ridiculously hard to become one by passing the final test, leading to there always being a shortage of Medical shinobi.
And since this position was likely something students preparing for their exams would often stakeout, Haruto wasn't very convinced that he'd be able to beat the competition.
But since it was a position that would also allow him to easily come in contact with several ninja since most if not all often required checkups, either because they were injured during a mission, or simply because they overdid their training-
-Haruto made it a priority to ask about this position.
'Even if I can't get the position itself, if I can cement my identity as a kid that wants to become a medical shinobi, I'm sure I can ask various shinobi I meet to train me a little in this or that as a favour…'
The final job, in the first position that Haruto was really interested in however, was the Konoha I.T. Databook Keeper.
A simple job, and one that likely involved computers.
Which meant that given his familiarity, a few scripts to automate the process of whatever he was doing would leave him with plenty of free time to pursue his 'other identity' of becoming a Medical Ninja.
But there were two reasons that Haruto felt this job suited him apart from the ones mentioned above minus the ability to come in contact with various ninja directly.
'...datalogging might not contain sensitive data, but since it'll be data about the village regardless, I'll be able to keep an eye on the general affairs.'
'On top of that, as long as I can move a few things around…write a few additional scripts…I could peek into things I'm not allowed to 'peek' at and maybe even get a few 'reasons' to 'convince' a few people to give me things, like let's say a hundred explosion tags for a rather spectacular explosion.'
***
In the enigmatic room, the faces of most present was morphed with worry into a frown.
"Nee~ Nee~" Hashirama pulled on Mito's hand as he tried to get her attention to ask what everyone was so worried about.
Knowing Hashirama's intentions, Mito responded plainly, not just for him but also for Izuna who seemed just as confused.
"It's the jobs he is aiming for…"
"Huh? What's wrong with them?" Hashirama asked, puzzled, looking back at the shortlisted positions in Haruto's book.
"All of them are related to information gathering.", Tobirama stated plainly, his voice low.
"He might be a spy.", Mito said even softer.
""Spy!?"" Hashirama and Izuna asked at once.
Minato nodded.
"The I.T department is shorthand for Interrogation and Torture department. It's where all of Konoha's captured shinobi and spies are kept and wrung dry for information." Minato explained, his opinion of the department was very high since they had helped him several times, like when they helped ascertain the identities of the ninja who tried to capture Kushina and their motives.
"Although this position is very low and unlikely to allow him to come in contact with anything sensitive, it's this position in combination with the next position that has gotten Lord Second worried, I think."
Hashirama turned towards Tobirama while Izuna figured everything out on his own after learning what the I.T. department was for, so he interrupted and explained.
"He wants to use his identity as a Medical Shinobi as a cover to make sure he can come in contact with other shinobi and take advantage of them in some way."
Tobirama only snorted in agreement, not wanting to waste breath on an Uchiha's viewpoint, before continuing.
"It's not just that. Even his identity as an aspirant Medical Ninja is probably just a cover. He was very likely contacted by his handler inside the village right before we first saw him. He might've been asked to drop out of the academy and pursue an undercover position to help develop him into a strategic asset for information gathering and not a combat shinobi given his current general lack of combat talent."
"But why would that mean his aspiration to be a Medical Ninja is fake?" Kushina asked with furrowed brows to which Minato calmly explained.
"Because if he wanted, he could've simply stayed in the academy and focused purely on becoming a Medical Shinobi while keeping the monthly stipend from the village for orphans. Except, he's chosen to leave the academy and find positions to place himself in administrative locations where he can slowly gain trust from people over time to monitor the village."
"Hee~..." Kushina dragged out, not very convinced since Haruto seemed like an innocent, captivating, and moonbeam sort of calm child.
Mito too seemed unconvinced, but she hid her dissatisfaction well, unlike Kushina, while wondering if there was a way she could study the boy by using her Mind's Eye of Kagura technique.
"Let's keep watch on him for now…we will soon know what his intentions are once he gets another order, or if he makes a mistake somewhere.", Tobirama suggested, not wanting to aggravate Kushina for no reason, since they were all locked in the same room together.
"Can't we just tell him not to think bad things?" Hashirama asked with a soft confused look, not understanding all the complicated stuff. "He doesn't seem like a bad kid to be honest. He's even helping out summoned beasts! Katsuyu would love to have someone like him clean up the slime around the Shikkotsu forest."
Tobirama immediately face-palmed while sighing into his hands, "Promise me you won't send out random thoughts unnecessarily."
Hashirama looked at Tobirama before shrugging, "Fine. I'll do as you say. I don't get any of this stuff anyway."
***
Haruto quickly fell asleep after having worked on shortlisting the most appropriate positions for himself and only woke up late in the evening when it was already time for dinner.
*Grrr…*
His stomach growled as he crawled like a worm to the groceries he'd picked up in the morning.
Except just as Haruto pulled out the few vegetables his hands froze for a few seconds.
"No way…"
The original owner of the body hated vegetables with passion, preferring to eat ramen or grilled meat everyday as long as money permitted.
Of course, he never ate at home; he'd rather go to Yakiniku Q or Ichiraku.
As such, Haruto was left a little surprised.
'I'm not influenced by the preferences of the original body…but…I've never bought food for myself in either life!'
'How did I do it so effortlessly when I hated chores so much!?'
'How did I become an adult!?'
'Where is the era of my golden youth!?!?'
Haruto felt his blood chill.
Something was wrong with his mentality, he was a little too mature for some reason, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
In the end, Haruto only mumbled to himself, "Well, if I'm not getting paid, I don't need to think about it. Not like I'm going to get exposed for any of this unless they read my memories."
The line sent a wave of panic among the people in the enigmatic room, but it was of no concern to Haruto.
Haruto continued preparing dinner, making a simple dish, rice balls filled with pickled carrots.
After cleaning up his work station and setting all the groceries that he'd forgotten to put into the freezer, Haruto sat down to eat.
But then he stopped for a few seconds before quickly going to his room, pulling a book, and coming back to sit at the dining table.
Haruto looked at the rather empty table and the empty rooms, wondering if he should arrange it to his liking, to how it looked in his previous life, but then gave up, probably out of respect for the original owner of his body.
With the book he'd brought back in one hand and the chopsticks in another, Haruto started to finally read about the thing that intrigued him the most about this world.
'The book's so crisp…did that guy ever even open this book?'
Pushing aside distracting thoughts, Haruto focused.
'Chakra…'
'Hmm…so chakra is just spiritual energy plus physical energy…'
'I already know that from the memories of this body and the show…'
'Hmm…I see… so one can only form chakra inside tenkutsu points and once formed it can be stored in those points until used.'
'Chakra cannot interact with the physical body directly as it cannot be pulled out of the chakra pathways to merge with it…?'
'Huh?'
'But then, how does Tsunade's strength enhancement work?'
'And how does Medical ninjutsu work on the whole if chakra cannot interact with the physical body directly?'
Focused on a problem, Haruto kept reading silently as he absorbed the knowledge in front of him while quietly munching on his squishy rice balls that were definitely overcooked, while the pickle inside was so bitter it felt like eating bitter gourd.
'Hmm…so jutsus are formed when a person moulds chakra through the various tenketsus in their body.'
'So…tenketsus have individual properties which can be imbued into the chakra contained or passing through them, after which it is expelled from the body through that tenktsu after all the properties have been imbued to form a jutsu?'
'How…intriguing.'
In the show Haruto only ever saw people wielding hand signs and spitting out fireballs or water bullets, but reading about the intricate mechanics behind the jutsus got Haruto a little fired up.
'But while it all seems simple, things are a little more complicated than just finding the right tenketsu to fill up with chakra to copy a jutsu.'
'Tenketsu have different properties/reactions based on the tenketsu the chakra in them has previously visited…'
'So it isn't just about finding the tenketsu needed for a jutsu, but also the order in which they were visited.'
'Makes sense, otherwise people could just copy jutsu even without the sharingan…'
'But what are hand seals then?' Haruto wondered, flipping to the index to search out if there was a special chapter he could flip to to learn more about them and-
'Bingo…Section 17 Hand seals, page number forty-three?'
Haruto flipped the pages and finally arrived at the section he was looking for before spending some time reading everything in it while he quickly gulped down the rice ball in his hand to avoid being distracted by the 'distinct' taste.
'I see…'
'So handseals are an arbitrary set of symbols that indicate the set of muscles to constrict for beginners. They are there to develop control over the chakra pathways embedded within those muscles themselves. So that beginners can constrict the right muscle groups to control the chakra flow in the pathways and direct it to the right tenketsu.'
'So with absolute chakra control, one doesn't need any hand seals since you can immediately guide them to the right tenketsus.'
'Hashirama's clapping technique is possible because of this?'
'...interesting.'
'But that still doesn't answer the question…how does Tsunade's strength enhancement work?'
'...but that explains something at least…if it were truly easy, where everyone could just enhance their strength by coating their muscles in chakra, everyone would've been running around doing it. Kumogakure wouldn't have had to develop such strenuous and mind-breaking methods to train their bodies to be able to use the Lightning cloak.'
'I remember the Fourth Raikage had a weight lifting machine set up right inside his office, if I'm not wrong, or was that just another fanfic?'
'Whatever, I should quickly master these basi-'
Haruto suddenly froze before-
"OUCH!!!!!!!!"
"F**K!!!!!!!!"
"Hokage team's balls!!!"
"Hashirama's Cursed Pissing Knowledge!!!"
Curses flew out like from a sailor's tongue as Haruto held the finger that he'd accidentally bitten into after he'd forgotten that he'd finished the rice balls he'd made.
A thin prick of blood leaked out of his finger, causing Haruto to curse further.
'How do those guys keep biting their thumbs to draw blood to summon beats!?'
'Doesn't it take time to recover!?'
'Don't they need to be able to use their thumb at peak form to handle kunai, shuriken and swords and other jutsu!?'
'I bet this little pin prick will take a week to heal, and all that time I'll be crying when it burns while cooking or bathi-!!'
Except Haruto's thoughts froze in his mind.
'Huh?'
Licking away the blood on his finger, Haruto observed carefully.
'...there's no damage?'
Haruto frowned, his mind spinning with various possibilities, but he remained silent, his hand wandering around the table to pick up a short knife which he brought to the edge of his finger.
After a long battle with himself over his stupidity, Haruto gave himself another pin-prick.
Blood oozed out just like before.
Haruto even forced it to speed up by pressing down on his finger and increasing blood pressure.
The pain spiked for a few seconds before, then just like moments ago, the pain stopped all of a sudden.
Haruto licked away his blood immediately and was surprised.
'No way…'
'Seriously!?'
There was no cut on his finger.
It was pristine.
Like a certain one-punch bald man's head. Or maybe a wrinkled raisin if accounting the fingerprint ridges.
'Hmm…'
'Do I have a Sage Body or something?' Haruto thought to himself.
***
"What is he doing?" Kushina asked Minato, looking utterly confused, hoping he could explain something to her as they all looked at Haruto who was staring at his finger while giggling maniacally.
Except this time, Minato didn't have an answer, even he was confused.
'Isn't it normal for cuts and bruises of that size to heal quickly? Otherwise, how would shinobi fight with cuts from kunai and shuriken all the time? If they couldn't they'd be covered from head to toe in bandages after every mission.'
Not even Tobirama, who was being stared at by both Hashirama and Izuna, had one.
'Maybe he's gone crazy from all the pressure?' Tobirama tried reasoning with himself.
A few seconds of silence passed, filled only with Haruto's maniacal laughter, before everyone ignored it as if it were an invisible anomaly.
Mito's attention however slowly shifted as she turned towards Hashirama with a 'smiling' face.
"Hashi…what's this I hear about a… 'relieving' contest?'
"Haha Mito! I don't know how that young boy knows, but Madara and I used to see who could piss further in the river!!! Madara told me once that he couldn't piss if someone was standing behind him!! So I helped him overcome that fear by pissing together with him!!!! And then we competed to see who could piss further!!!!!"
The words sent the entire room into a stunned silence.
Everyone heard something audibly shatter as they turned towards Izuna, who seemed to have lost his heart and soul. Even though he was already dead and probably only a soul.
His body crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, babbling incoherently words that everyone could only barely make out, "Brother…Brother…Peeing…Contest…Brother…Peeing…-"
Tobirama, however, was sharper, "Did anyone else know that other than you?" he quickly asked Hashirama.
Hashirama thought for a second but then quickly shook his head, "No. Only me and Madar-" and froze at those words.
Even though he was stupid, his brain worked surprisingly well when Madara was involved, as such Hashirama started drawing circles in an unknown corner of the room.
"Madara…he told someone else about the peeing contest…"
A second blow seemed to have struck everyone in the room as they fell silent again.
Tobirama managed to handle it before bringing the attention back to the matter with a soft *cough*, not before giving Mito a look of pity though, "So it seems Madara is truly alive…and is plotting something…tsk. Typical Uchiha, inherently evil."
"Do you think the boy has something to do with Madara, Lord Second?" Minato asked softly, his eyes on Haruto, a little doubtful but also a little suspicious.
"I don't know how he did it, but I suspect it to be true…after all…the biggest proof is in front of us." Tobirama declared.
"Biggest proof?" Kushina asked with a frown, confused.
Tobirama nodded and explained softly, "Even though his brother is here…" he said looking at Izuna who was still a blubbering mess, "He himself isn't."
At that moment, it was as if a light bulb flickered in everyone's mind, their brains accepting the reasoning even if it appeared faulty since nothing about the situation they were in could be judged by normal standards in the first place.
Nobody, however, noticed Izuna's eyes widened slightly.
'No way! Did Big Brother use Izanagi to do this!?'
But without letting anyone notice, Izuna returned to the incoherent mess from before, almost no one.
…