"I refuse. I'm not about to be babysitting. Do I look like a matron to you, Uncle Hiruzen? I don't run a daycare or anything." I complained, sitting in an armchair in the Hokage's office.
"I'm not asking you to babysit little kids. I'm asking you to take charge of a genin team; that's all," the monkey said with a sigh.
"Look, I understand there aren't any ninjas in your village as amazing as me, but did you notice you're giving me your youngest son's team? Don't you think that's suspicious? Of all the teams I could be a jōnin on, sensei, you're giving me the one your son is on." I made my other point clear.
I saw the old monkey have the decency to look embarrassed.
"Cough, cough. I know you don't have much time with being the clan leader and your business, but if you could do me this favor, it would give you an excuse to run your missions around with your students while you teach them."
I stared at him for a moment, only to sigh.
"Well thought out. I'll take your advice this time, just because of how much you've helped me lately." After all, all those stupid missions, the rules I made regarding my clan, accepting the Chinoiken, letting me conduct experiments, not interfering with the lawless areas, and letting me leave the village whenever I wanted to go to the Fire Capital were all things this old monkey here allowed, knowing full well what was going on.
"Thank you so much, Miyu; I really appreciate this," he said.
"Yeah, yeah, thank me when your son becomes an elite jōnin, and while you're at it, give me the best sake you have on your shelf." I exclaimed as I cleaned his ear with my finger.
Sarutobi just laughed at that, then became more serious.
"Now let's talk about serious matters," he said, prompting me to become more serious as well. "Regarding the experiments you've been conducting with Orochimaru?"
"The answer is that it works, but very slowly and with a high probability of failure," I said, showing my arm, which began to be covered in ice. "It does affect DNA a lot; if done incorrectly, you could end up a mutant. Thanks to my great vitality and control over my entire body, nothing happened to me."
"How dangerous is it?" he asked.
"It's very dangerous; of the 224 specimens we've tested to determine bloodline limits, only 5 have survived, including myself," I explained.
"Tell me the results," the Hokage ordered.
"One user of the Storm bloodline, two of the Embrace element, one of the Magnetic element, and myself, who am of the Boiling and Ice bloodlines," I informed him.
"What about Mokuton?" he asked curiously.
"It's more complicated; after several attempts, nothing worked. In the end, it was concluded that more than DNA is needed to replicate it. I looked within my own body, but since I had already been modified, it wasn't something natural, so it wasn't very effective," I explained, raising a finger. "There's a way to obtain Mokuton without those methods, but you'd have to turn a large percentage of your body into an ugly, white mass."
Sarutobi could only shake his head.
"Stop the experiments. The resources used don't justify the results, not to mention that we already have several elemental users; we don't need more. With them, we can form a clan or something similar." He said, looking at me. "We already have a strong Mokuton user; we don't need more for the moment." It smells like fear to me.
I just smiled at him with a mixture of confidence and a touch of mockery.
"Danzo is the leader of this project; you'll have to tell him. If he tells me to shut down the experiments, I'll do it." To be honest, I don't care about any of that anymore; I already have the bloodlines I was interested in, and I was able to complete my thesis, which was that almost any bloodline could be inherited by anyone; it's just not always effective.
"I'll talk to him later," the old monkey said. "You can go now and get ready for your new genin team."
"Whatever you say, man," I said, turning to leave. I wonder how the mummy and the pedophile will take the news.
...
I saw the lab completely empty, with nothing there; the scientists were all dead, the guinea pigs had disappeared, and the reports were gone. Thank goodness I used clones to keep the records for myself.
It's suspected that all this is the fault of a spy, that some ninjas from other villages came to steal everything—I don't know which ones—but it's suspected that the spy was one of the scientists.
This all smells like pure nonsense to me. Most likely it was one of the two, but there was no way to find out since one was like my boss, in a manner of speaking, and the other was the Hokage's disciple.
I didn't really care what happened; what bothers me is that this place was my territory, and for them to do this is a blatant disregard for my authority as the head of a clan. They'll pay for this someday.
...
After a good taijutsu practice with Kosuke, we sat side by side, each wearing a rubber boot.
"I heard you're going to be a jōnin-sensei; congratulations," he said mockingly.
"Mock me if you want; I don't care; the benefits and merits will be mine, sir; you'll have the position of sub-leader for the rest of your life," I replied.
Kosuke just clicked his tongue.
"Congratulations on becoming a jōnin-sensei," I heard a voice behind us, which sent chills down both our spines.
I summoned Etto while Kosuke drew a kunai. We both pointed our weapons at the intruder, only to see Minato with his hands up in surrender, his trademark smile on his face, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.
"It's me; don't hurt me," Minato said, as if he were the victim here.
"You know, ever since you learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, you've become unbearable," I retorted.
"He spends all day abusing the technique. Doesn't he have anything better to do?" I asked.
"Yeah, like scaring old ladies to get me information or intimidating the kids at the academy so they don't get so arrogant," I added to what Kosuke had just said.
"Your words really hurt, you know?" Minato commented with a pained expression.
We both sheathed our weapons so Minato could relax, since there was nothing sharp pointed at his face.
"So, what brings you here?" Kosuke asked.
"Jiraiya-sensei needs us to do a rather urgent mission; I got some information from the border of the Land of Earth," Minato reported.
"Is something wrong?" I asked.
"No idea," the blond replied. "He'll probably tell us what's going on on the way, but I do know I got this from a spy network."
I couldn't help but start trying to remember what was happening; if I already have a genin team soon, being Asuma's, then Minato will soon have his own. By default, the Third Shinobi World War is imminent, but that's still a few years away.
"Alright, let's see what Sensei has to say first; go," Kosuke added, to which Minato and I nodded.
...
"I see that old man Tsuchikage is already gathering his resources," I added, having heard what Jiraiya's spy network had discovered.
"It's been quite some time since the Second Shinobi World War ended, giving us ample time to prepare to continue what was left unfinished," Jiraiya said gravely.
"So what do we have to do then?" Kosuke asked.
"You need to investigate whether this is preparation for a future war or something else entirely," the Hokage exclaimed. "Since it could be a prelude to a potential war, this will be an S-rank mission."
I couldn't help but be astonished by this; despite my long career as a ninja and the immense individual power and other abilities I possess, I had never been on an S-rank mission.
"Don't worry, Hokage-sama, we'll take care of this mission and bring back the necessary information," Minato added.
"I hope so. I have a lot of faith in this team," the Hokage remarked with a smile, turning his gaze to me. "Your genin team is a little behind schedule, since the academy year ends in three days, but it can't be helped."
"Have Kushina temporarily replace me; she's been bored with not being able to do any more missions, and Minato can't be keeping her entertained all the time." My last comment made Minato blush slightly.
"I'll think about it," he said with a chuckle.
"Alright, team, let's meet at the village gates in an hour," Jiraiya ordered, and the three of us nodded before leaving the Hokage's office using a Body Flicker Technique.
...
As soon as I arrived at my office, I saw my new secretary, Junko, about twelve years old, throwing all the papers off the desk.
"Ah, Miyu-sama, it's here. I'm sorry for throwing the papers around; I'll pick them up right away. Sorry, sorry," she said, starting to gather the papers one by one.
I just watched with a smile.
This girl might have been timid, but she had something others didn't: she was very intelligent and knew how to think.
Among the clan members who weren't doing anything, the Senju and Chinoiken clans, I gave them an intelligence and aptitude test, and this girl got the highest possible score, double that of the second-place finisher.
It pained me to give Hitori early retirement since she was getting both white and green hair. Being here, taking care of her second child; making sure her first didn't get into trouble; dealing with her husband's porridge addiction; and, on top of everything, having to do half my work.
I had to release her so the stress wouldn't kill her and so she could fly high, even though she's not dead.
"Junko, I have bad news," I told her.
"Are you going to fire me and kick me out of the clan forever?" she asked, her eyes welling with tears.
"But I'm going on a trip, and my mother will be my replacement," I told her cheerfully.
Junko's eyes widened in panic because she knew what it meant: she would have to do all my work alone and make sure Tsunade didn't do anything wrong, like take all the clan's money and gamble it away in some casino in the Land of Fire.
"Miyu-sama, please have mercy on me. I've only been your secretary for six days. I don't know how to do this without you, and I don't know how to stop Tsunade-sama." She started whimpering as she hugged my leg.
"Calm down, little one; you're smart; you'll manage," I said affectionately, trying to soothe her, which worked, as she stopped crying so much. I took her face in my hands and made her look me in the eyes. "I trust you; that's why I chose you as my new secretary; you'll do well."
As soon as I let go, she began wiping away her tears and snot, giving me a determined look.
"Fine, if you say so, I'll do it," she said.
I just nodded, because even if I couldn't manage it, all the important money was stored in a safe place in the Fire Capital; what I have here are just a few things to keep on hand for emergencies.
If Tsunade uses them to gamble, it will affect our finances a little, but not enough to send us into a collapse, a critical situation, or bankruptcy.
"Good," I replied, taking out a scroll that contained everything I needed. "This will be a rather long mission; I left a note for my mother warning her about this; you can also ask the other elders for help."
With that said, I left the residence to head to the village gates for my first S-rank mission.
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Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that I'm taking a five-day break, as I'm feeling tired and unmotivated. I'll use these days to find more inspiration to continue with the chapters.
However, the five-day break will start tomorrow, not today, since I have to write the new chapter of my other fic to give you all a heads-up; I can't just stop writing like that.
Also, I'd like to speed up the story a bit, since, at least until the Third Shinobi World War is over, I'll probably slow down after that.
I hope you understand my situation, and if not, well, there's not much I can do.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you later.