Chapter 183: The 39th Enrollment
Inside the Konoha Hospital.
Masahiko looked at the three injured children with a smile and said, "Now you know how difficult it is to go out on missions, right? Accidents can happen anytime, anywhere."
"What accidents? It was all within your expectations." Kushina-kun said through gritted teeth. It was obvious that Masahiko had been pulling strings behind the scenes. If it were anyone else, she would have turned into the "Red Hot Habanero" long ago.
Nagato-kun and Konan hadn't noticed and were feeling a bit down.
"It's all my fault. I must not have hidden well enough earlier, allowing the Hidden Grass ninjas to discover us." The two spoke in unison.
Masahiko exchanged a glance with Kushina-kun and shrugged helplessly. Both children seemed a bit airheaded.
Actually, the injuries the three received weren't serious. With Masahiko present, he wouldn't let them suffer severe injuries. They were just scrapes. Konan had even treated most of them herself without needing Katsuyu. They only came to the hospital for insurance, to get simple bandages for faster recovery.
"Let's go." After the treatment, Masahiko led the three children out of the hospital.
"I'll count the mission as completed. I'll go to Hiruzen to ask for the commission. You guys go rest and continue training tomorrow."
The three split up in two directions. The two disciples returned to the Senju compound, while Kushina-kun went to find Minato. Minato had been very busy lately. Although he wasn't on missions, Masahiko heard he was undergoing important training.
Although it was possible he was learning the Flying Thunder God Technique, Masahiko wasn't in a hurry to watch. The training had started less than a month ago. No matter how genius Minato was, mastering the Flying Thunder God would take a year or so. Masahiko couldn't offer any guidance in this area, so going there would be useless.
"Elder Masahiko, can you sell all your explosive tags to Konoha in the future?" After handing in the mission, Hiruzen hesitated but still asked.
Masahiko smiled, looking like it was negotiable.
Hiruzen was delighted, only to hear Masahiko say again, "Keep dreaming."
Hiruzen felt that life was truly full of ups and downs.
Walking out, Masahiko shook his head helplessly. He knew Hiruzen and Danzo would have complaints about selling explosive tags to other countries, but he had no choice. He couldn't let the Land of Whirlpools lose an important economic source just for the sake of alliance friendship.
The explosive tags made with Konan were almost zero cost, except for being a bit troublesome.
On the streets of Konoha, Masahiko hesitated for a moment. Instead of returning to the Senju clan grounds, he used the Transformation Jutsu and went straight to Ichiraku Ramen.
"Teuchi, haven't seen you for a long time. You really found people to deliver takeout?"
Teuchi still wore that smiling expression. "Boss Hagoromo, you're back! Thanks to your suggestion, business is even better than before."
Masahiko nodded and looked into the shop. A female figure was bustling about inside, carrying a one-or-two-year-old girl on her back.
"The whole family is mobilized?"
"Yes, I couldn't handle it alone, so I asked my wife to help."
Masahiko nodded, then paused slightly as a small figure ran up from behind.
"Boss, the ramen for the Nara family has been delivered. Where to next?" It was Might Guy, who wasn't even six years old yet.
"The Nara family?" Masahiko was startled. "Is this takeout delivered by clan now? Why do I feel like Teuchi is going to get rich because of this takeout proposal? The Ichiraku Conglomerate?"
He smiled at Teuchi. "If you get rich, don't forget to support my business."
"Definitely, definitely."
"Looks like he really struck it rich." Masahiko muttered and walked to his Taobao Shop.
Since his identity was exposed, Masahiko simply asked Hiruzen to look after his shop for a year, but that was just to prevent theft. There was still quite a bit of dust, and... what was with all these notes on the floor?
Picking up a few to read, he realized they were messages left by others. Since the shop was closed, they had slipped notes inside.
"Sure enough, the Taobao Shop became popular because of the wood carvings of Nawaki and Mikoto. Each note represents one million ryo. There are three or four hundred notes here. There are quite a few rich people in Konoha Village, huh?"
But after reading a few more, Masahiko realized things weren't exactly as he imagined. Only a small portion wanted to buy wood carvings; the majority were urging him to fulfill orders, and some were even unwilling to wait anymore...
"So impatient. Just be secretly happy that the Old Ancestor is making wood carvings for you, even if you have to wait a year."
In the following days, Masahiko used the Transformation Jutsu to complete "orders" in the shop during the day, and returned to the Senju clan grounds in his original appearance at night to assign training tasks to the three children.
It took about a month for Masahiko to complete all the "orders" and commission the delivery boys from Ichiraku Ramen to deliver the wood carvings. In total, he earned over three hundred million ryo, which was a considerable sum even for Masahiko. Of course, he could "withdraw" that much from the casino, but it would likely cause a riot.
A year's worth of orders was completed by Masahiko in a month. The shop returned to a half-dead state and was expected to remain so, as basically everyone in Konoha who could afford Masahiko's wood carvings already had one. There probably wouldn't be any harvest for a short while. Just as Masahiko was pondering what new products to add to the shop, a piece of news interrupted his thoughts: the Konoha Ninja Academy was about to conduct its 39th Enrollment.
The importance of this school enrollment ranked second in his heart only to the one where Naruto and the others would enroll in the future. Because upon rough recollection, Masahiko remembered that the mentors of the Konoha 12, such as Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai, should all be enrolling in this batch.
Besides that, Masahiko also wanted to see the current Ninja Academy and what reforms Hiruzen had implemented. It was said that students now needed to pass tests in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu aptitude to enroll. Just having the ability to refine chakra wasn't enough; they also needed certain talent. This was necessary because Konoha's population was growing larger and larger.
Additionally, starting a few years ago, the original September enrollment had been changed to March. Masahiko felt a bit awkward at first, but later realized his preference for September enrollment was influenced by memories from his past life. In the Naruto world, people felt it was more auspicious to send children to ninja school shortly after the New Year... or maybe that was the reason.
Walking near the Ninja Academy, a somewhat incongruous red notice had been posted there, explaining the registration time and test time in detail. There were also children being brought by their parents to register one after another.
Masahiko stayed for a while and saw a few "familiar faces," though he couldn't quite recall their names.
"So many people. No wonder Hiruzen wants to conduct a screening." Masahiko remembered the first batch of students at the Ninja Academy was only thirty or so, but just watching for a while now, there were probably more than thirty people already.
"Assessment on February 20th?" Masahiko nodded. "I'll come and see then. Let's see how many acquaintances there will be."
Masahiko looked forward to it inwardly.
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