After returning to routine missions to earn money, a month passed quietly.
Thick, dark clouds blotted out the sunlight. The air suddenly turned stuffy, making every breath feel faintly uncomfortable.
Before long, a torrential downpour began. Bean-sized raindrops smashed against pedestrians and umbrellas alike, bursting into countless streams of water the instant they struck.
On this day, news from the Fire–Rain front finally received a response.
"Extra, extra! Frontline victory! Konoha forces led by Orochimaru have launched an offensive into the Land of Rain and successfully killed the Rain Village's frontline commander!"
"I'll take one."
"Coming right up. Five hundred ryō per copy."
"That expensive?"
Holding his umbrella, Bai Xing twitched at the corner of his mouth. "Wasn't the Ninja World Daily only three hundred ryō not long ago?"
Rain rattled loudly against the two umbrellas.
The newsboy flipped out a paper and said with a grin, "It's raining today—making a living's not easy. Stuff like newspapers is something only ninja-sama can afford anyway."
—In other words, prices went up from above, so he had to raise them too.
"Here."
Bai Xing happened to have some spare change on him—enough to buy the Ninja World Daily, which only came out once every half month or so.
He handed over the money and watched the newsboy's cries fade into the rain, then lowered his gaze to the paper in his hands.
"The contents really are almost nothing at all."
"The daimyōs really are afraid of both ninja and civilians getting rich."
After skimming it briefly, Bai Xing noticed that this issue—marked with the Fire Country crest—was full of brainless praise whenever it mentioned the front lines, heavily promoting the beauty of the Land of Fire's environment, as if it were a divine gift from the heavens…
In reality, once technology advanced, chakra-using ninja could easily create environments no worse than the Land of Fire—even in deserts, rocky lands, wastelands, rain-soaked regions, or snowy fields.
Yet the people here seemed to have been brainwashed for so long that they'd grown dull. Perhaps it was something like the "setting effect" in the Conan world, where no one ever noticed the passage of time.
"Hm?"
Halfway through his walk, Bai Xing suddenly noticed a line of tiny text tucked into the corner of the paper:
[Fire Country leadership decides to abandon the cooperative alliance with the Land of Whirlpools…]
"So that's how it is."
"In the end, it still came to this."
Bai Xing folded the newspaper, casually rolling up the five-hundred-ryō paper and slipping it into his clothes. There was precious little real intelligence on it anyway.
—
Konoha Hospital.
Today was Nonōu's day off, and she was studying the Mystical Palm Technique and other professional medical knowledge.
It was Tsunade who had noticed Nonōu's talent in medical ninjutsu. In just over half a year, she had fully mastered the Hemostasis Technique and the Chakra Scalpel. Next, she was more than ready to learn higher-level medical ninjutsu.
"Yo, Nonōu. Even on your day off you're still working this hard?"
On the third floor of the medical department—a room dedicated to training medical ninja and storing professional texts—Bai Xing pushed open the door. He was holding several skewers of freshly packed takoyaki, eating as he leaned casually against the doorway.
"Sensei!"
The moment Nonōu saw Bai Xing, she dropped her book and ran over excitedly, hugging him tightly. Bai Xing lifted the plastic bag of piping-hot takoyaki in his hand, wearing a deadpan expression.
"Sensei, you haven't come to see me in so long."
"You're way too clingy, Nonōu."
"Hehe, that's only with Sensei~ I'm not like this with anyone else~"
"Then what about your teacher Tsunade?"
Bai Xing handed the bag over. After thanking him, Nonōu paused at his question, thought for a moment, and smiled.
"That's different~ Bai Xing-sensei is special."
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she took one skewer and bit into it. "So hot~ fufu."
Bai Xing walked into the spacious room and set the newspaper down on Nonōu's desk, glancing at her notes in passing—topics related to cytology.
Then he noticed an unrolled ninjutsu scroll laid out nearby, densely packed with text. In the top corner were three characters:
— Mystical Palm Technique.
"Oh? You've already reached this stage?" Bai Xing asked over his shoulder.
"Nani nani~"
Nonōu came over while chewing her takoyaki, her words slightly muffled. Seeing the scroll Bai Xing was pointing at, she nodded proudly.
"Oh~~ yeah. I'm a qualified medical ninja now. Once I master this A-rank-difficulty Mystical Palm Technique, I'll be able to become a chūnin medical officer at the hospital~"
"Speaking of which, Sensei~"
"What is it?"
Bai Xing finished his skewer and casually tossed it backward, landing it perfectly in a black trash bin in the corner of the room.
Nonōu's brows twitched mischievously. Bai Xing had a bad feeling—this kid's about to mock me.
"I'm about to be evaluated for chūnin~"
"And you, Sensei—you'd better hurry up, or your student's going to surpass you~"
"..."
"Impressive."
"Tch."
Nonōu knew Bai Xing would say exactly that. After finishing her skewer, she tossed it into the trash as well and pulled out another, sounding dissatisfied.
"Sensei. I haven't slacked off in my training."
"You shouldn't slack off either."
"Of course."
Bai Xing nodded slightly. Watching his disciple grow so outstanding was genuinely gratifying for a shameless, freeloading teacher like him.
"I'm looking forward to your future. Oh, by the way—you can take a look at the newspaper."
"I spent five hundred ryō on it. Don't waste it."
"Eh?! Since when were you this willing to buy newspapers, Sensei? I remember you saying a couple years ago that newspapers were a scam!"
"..."
Bai Xing scratched his cheek. "Did I really say that?"
"Stare—"
Nonōu fixed him with a hard stare at his awkward expression.
"You did!"
"I've never forgotten your teachings, Sensei…"
"By the way, Sensei."
"Hm?"
"What do you think the meaning of life is?"
Bai Xing: "..."
After many days, the same topic came up again—but this time, his role wasn't a disguised powerhouse, but a "pitiful, weak" genin.
Looking at Nonōu, who seemed distracted and lost in thought, Bai Xing coughed lightly to snap her out of it, then spoke seriously:
"If it were me…"
"Then it would probably be becoming stronger, and protecting the things I want to protect."
"No matter the cost, I have to protect them, because—"
At this point, the boy's black eyes met the girl's pale green ones.
"Because that heart-piercing pain of losing what's important… Sensei doesn't ever want to experience it again."
"Sensei…"
"Nonōu…"
Seeing the girl close her eyes slightly and lean closer, Bai Xing's expression twitched. He immediately stepped aside, putting distance between them.
"So you are lusting after your teacher's body! You perverted little monster!"
"???"
Hearing that, Nonōu snapped her eyes open—only to realize Bai Xing had already retreated several steps. Her face instantly turned into a boiling steam engine.
Shyness. Anger. And finally, blazing fury.
"Bai—Xing!"
"You jerk!"
—
After comforting his beloved disciple, Bai Xing said his goodbyes and left the room, quietly standing outside after closing the door.
Sorry, Nonōu.
This is the last billionth time your teacher lies to you.
Next, he had to try to change the fate of the Land of Whirlpools.
—Otherwise, turning a once 100% mission completion rate into 99.99% would be a grudge he'd never be able to settle. (That was his overall mission completion rate.)
Besides, Bai Xing didn't want Konoha to have to redeploy troops from other regions to guard against the Water Country.
That way, Mikoto's assignments on the Fire–Rain front should become a little easier too.
And also—
He was a bit vengeful.
Whether or not Danzo had been involved in what happened before, making Danzo uncomfortable was exactly when he felt good.
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