"Lord Hokage."
"Oh, Kōki. What is it? Coming to see me at this hour... is there a problem at the Academy?"
"Yes, Lord Hokage!" Kōki Yamada stood at attention, barely containing his excitement. He hadn't expected the Hokage to remember his name. As he spoke, he handed the file he had already prepared to the Hokage.
"I discovered a genius among the civilian students in this intake, so I compiled his file and came to report immediately."
"His name is Taiichi Matsushita. His parents died in the Second War, and he's been living in the orphanage until now. Today, during his first attempt at Chakra cultivation, he successfully refined Chakra in less than twenty minutes."
"Oh?" Hiruzen Sarutobi took the file, reading it while listening to Kōki Yamada's report.
When he saw Taiichi's listed dream, his eyebrows raised involuntarily. "To protect, huh?"
Clearly, compared to the fast Chakra refinement speed, the Hokage placed more value on Taiichi's ideology. This was the difference in perspective that came with his position. To the Hokage, the Leaf had plenty of geniuses, but geniuses who upheld the Will of Fire were the ones worthy of his attention.
"Very good, Kōki. Keep an eye on this Taiichi Matsushita. He has the potential to become a pillar of the village in the future." Hiruzen Sarutobi instructed Yamada. "And the other children too... this Might Gai and this Rin Nohara also seem promising. Make sure they are nurtured well."
"Yes, sir!"
While Yamada was reporting the new students' situation to the Hokage, Taiichi, having just returned home after his first day of classes, was pondering a different problem—how to make money in the shortest amount of time.
This wasn't just about buying various medicinal herbs and ninja tools for his own training. It also concerned the future of the orphanage and whether Nono Yakushi could safely leave Root. In the later stages of the original story, Nono could have left Root, but that old snake Danzo held the orphanage's funding hostage, forcing her to continue executing Root missions.
If the orphanage had its own steady stream of funding, would Nono still be coerced by Danzo? Even if there were other factors involved, removing one leverage point was always a good thing.
However, Taiichi considered that he was currently just a six-year-old kid. Most jobs were off-limits. And ninja-related industries, like crafting ninja tools or making explosive tags, were beyond his current knowledge and skill level.
After thinking it over, Taiichi decided he should leverage the knowledge from his past life to see if he could invent something to make a small fortune.
With that in mind, Taiichi racked his brain to find something suitable. Food, clothing, housing, transportation—these industries were either too high-end or required too much manpower. He and the orphanage simply didn't have the scale or the time to get involved.
After pondering for half the day, Taiichi still hadn't come up with a solution. The main issue was his age; there were just too few things he could do. Checking the time, he saw it was already past 6:00 PM, and his stomach was rumbling. So, Taiichi went to the kitchen to make himself some ramen to tide him over. While cooking, Taiichi froze. Staring at the garlic in his hand, he fell into deep thought.
Because the orphanage was always short on funds, Taiichi used to often go catch fish in the river or grab birds from trees to add some meat to their meals. But this was the ninja world. The fish and birds here were no pushovers. If you annoyed them, they wouldn't hesitate to take a bite out of you or give you a nasty scratch. And since you were trying to catch them to eat them, their resistance was naturally fierce.
After doing this many times, minor bumps and bruises were inevitable. Small injuries could heal on their own, and Nono was a medical ninja, which helped. But one time, Taiichi took some friends to raid a bird's nest for eggs. The mother bird caught them in the act. To cover his friends' escape, Taiichi was pecked fiercely by the giant bird, which had a wingspan of over six feet. Its beak punched straight through his arm.
That injury was serious. When Nono found out, she dragged Taiichi to the Konoha Hospital immediately. That treatment experience taught Taiichi that, at least in the year Konoha 42, the medical conditions in the village were still quite poor. specifically, the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs were barely better than nothing. If not for medical ninjutsu, the casualty numbers in every Great Ninja War would probably double.
Speaking of antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs, Penicillin naturally comes to mind first. However, the preparation conditions for Penicillin are complex, and the ninja world might not even have the necessary mold cultures readily available. But there was one thing the ninja world definitely had: garlic. And where there's garlic, there's Allicin.
Allicin is a cheap and simple-to-produce antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. And given the backdrop of the ninja world, where a world war breaks out every few years, this kind of medicine would be in high demand.
Thinking of this, Taiichi pumped his fist in excitement. The money problem was solved. He quickly slurped down his ramen, then gathered every clove of garlic he could find in the kitchen.
As for the preparation of Allicin, it was actually quite simple. Taiichi used the organic solvent extraction method, which had a relatively high extraction rate. First, he got a jar of liquor and distilled it a few times to increase the alcohol concentration. Then, he mashed all the garlic into a paste and soaked it in the high-proof alcohol.
Ideally, pure ethanol would be best for extraction, but since he didn't have access to that right now, he had to make do with what he had.
Finally, he distilled the extracted solution again to purify it. The resulting oily liquid was garlic oil, rich in Allicin. Looking at the two or three grams of garlic oil extracted from a whole kilogram of garlic, Taiichi felt a mix of nerves and anticipation. Whether this would work or not depended on the next steps of verification.
Taiichi checked the time; it was getting late. He had been tinkering for so long that he hadn't done his daily training yet, and that was something he couldn't skip. So, he cleaned up, put the hard-earned Allicin into a glass container, and stored it in the refrigerator.
Finally, it was time for today's training.
> [You practiced Basic Taijutsu. Your comprehension has improved.]
> [Your skill Basic Taijutsu has leveled up. Experience +1]
> [You focused on Basic Taijutsu practice. Apprentice Ninja Class Experience +1]
...
> [You practiced Basic Meditation. Your comprehension has improved.]
> [Your skill Basic Meditation has leveled up. Experience +1]
> [You focused on Basic Meditation practice. Apprentice Ninja Class Experience +1]
Since he now had the additional task of Chakra cultivation, Taiichi compressed the time for Basic Taijutsu and Basic Meditation, carving out a separate hour specifically for practicing the Chakra Refining Technique.
Taiichi discovered that as long as he didn't extract more Chakra than his body could handle in one go, the Chakra actually had a very beneficial strengthening and maintenance effect on his body. However, once Chakra was refined, it would constantly dissipate out of the body. How to maintain a certain amount of Chakra within the body at all times became a problem Taiichi had been pondering ever since he discovered its strengthening effects.
For now, he could only refine Chakra periodically to keep the amount in his body at a certain level. As for a concrete solution—whether making Chakra refinement a subconscious process that ran automatically or finding a way to reduce dissipation—that would have to wait until he had accumulated enough knowledge.
> [You practiced Chakra Refining Technique. Your comprehension has improved.]
> [Your skill Chakra Refining Technique has leveled up. Experience +1]
> [You focused on Chakra Refining Technique practice. Apprentice Ninja Class Experience +1]
...
> [Congratulations, your Apprentice Ninja Class level has increased.]
> [Attribute Points +1, Skill Points +1]
Finally, at the very last moment of his training, his Class Level, which had been close to leveling up, finally increased.
> Name: Taiichi Matsushita
> Class: Apprentice Ninja Lv2 (0/200)
> Talents: Diligence, Academic Genius
> Age: 6
> Constitution: 9
> Strength: 10
> Agility: 9
> Spirit: 18
> Chakra: 800 (4200) (The number in parentheses is the maximum daily Chakra extraction limit for a person. Exceeding this will cause bodily deficit.)
> Attribute Points: 6
> Skill Points: 6
> Skills: Basic Taijutsu Lv6 (124/1000), Basic Meditation Lv6 (765/1000), Chakra Refining Technique Lv1 (42/100)
> Evaluation: A ninja world small fry. You have no choice but to work hard.
Looking at the attribute panel and seeing the clear progress he made every day, Taiichi felt a surge of joy. This was his source of happiness—knowing with certainty that every single day, he was becoming stronger.