Then he realized that he hadn't taken his gaze from the superior genes of Usagi.
*Cough* *Cough*
"It is nothing." Hiruzen coughed awkwardly to disperse the atmosphere. But it was already too late. His former teammates were looking at him with disgusting eyes.
…
How to deal with the F4
'I swear, the day I become powerful enough, you will suffer a lot, old man !' Even though I was making an extreme promise to myself in my mind, I didn't drop my cheerful attitude. Having Sharingan and being a bastard of the Uchiha Clan was already putting me in a dangerous spot. So obviously I didn't want the F4 any reason to target me. At least he was just staring at me….
"So grandpa, why did you call me ?" I asked Hiruzen enthusiastically.
"Oh, I completely forgot. Here, I believe this is yours." The old man handed me over a scroll.
I tried not to narrow my eyes at the thing and took it from him.
Opening the scroll I quickly went through its content.
Exactly like I had expected, they were promoting me based on my military merits. It was different from getting promoted to a Chunin. Back then it was a special promotion. And I got it after showing mastery over a specific field of shinobi, that was sealing jutsus. There were no military merits involved. But this time it was different. This time my promotion is a reward for my contribution to the village and for killing 16 Iwa shinobi including 7 jounins and assisting my team to take care of the others. There was also the mention of a reward of three million ryos of reward and the merit of an S ranked mission. Anyone else would have been overjoyed. But inside my mind I grimaced. I understood the meaning behind the promotion. My peaceful days are over. Now they will send me actively to the frontlines. Considering my attitude they might not send me on some gruesome, inhuman mission like the Anbu. But I will be going to the front lines to fight the enemy shinobi for sure.
"Yatta ! Thank you grandpa ! Now I will work even harder to protect our village !" Of course my outer reaction didn't match what I was plotting inside. Thankfully, I was a born Oscar winning actor. At least that's what I think of myself.
"It's nothing Usagi chan. This is just your reward for your performance. By the way there is something more I want to discuss with you." Hiruzen told me after watching my reaction.
"..." I looked at him curiously.
"Usagi chan, would you like to share your barrier techniques with the village ?" The old man asked me directly.
My mind worked like a supercharged engine as I thought about the pros and cons of sharing my techniques. Of course among most of my barrier seals that I have shown so far only the multi dimensional barrier can be considered as something dangerous in the hands of the others. Of course learning it without proper mastery over fuinjutsu was impossible. But apart from that my other barriers can be countered since they have different types of weakness. None of my barriers can be learnt without having a proper level of knowledge in sealing techniques. So even if I share them, to learn the most basic of my barrier techniques, the person must have at least level 5 seal mastery and a decent amount of Chakra to use it practically in battle. So I definitely didn't mind sharing my techniques to the village. But the problem was that I wanted something in return. I already have something in my mind. But I didn't know exactly how to make my demands accepted by these F4.
"Of Course grandpa. But how much reward would I get by sharing my self-created techniques ?" Hiruzen furrowed her brows.
Did the old man take me for a fool ? Secrecy is one of the major important aspects of being a shinobi. That's why the village has a rule. If any shinobi or clan created a new technique they had the full right to keep it a secret and not share with anyone. Of course they could share their technique with others. But it will completely depend on the Ninja who created it. Even the hokage himself cannot demand the technique from the shinobi. So I was not just going to give him that for free.
"Umm, actually I was actually running out of money. And since Kushina senpai has identified my barrier seals as A ranked fuinjutsu, I was hoping that grandpa would give me some money in exchange for my techniques." I told Hiruzen, maintaining my innocent look.
In reality I actually needed a lot of money for my new experiment. I wanted to create a new chakra weapon. But the problem was that Chakra metal in general is very expensive. That's why I needed a lot of gold and silver for it. I have found a secret about silver. It is actually the metal that can be turned into Chakra metal.
Getting hands on good quality Chakra metals was not easy for even Elite jounins. Chakra metals are considered as rare treasures in the shinobi world. Obviously they were expensive. At least 10 times more expensive than normal silver. But that was not the only problem. Finding good quality Chakra metals is almost impossible by normal means. The only country that actually mines the Chakra metal, is the land of iron. And that too, was in a very small amount every year. On top of that, they don't sell it to random people either. Only major hidden villages with diplomatic ties with the land of iron are allowed to buy these metals. So if I wanted to buy chakra metals then my only hope is the perverted hokage and an astronomical amount of money. But I was in no mood to face that headache.
But the alloy created from 75% silver, 15% gold and 10% copper can be considered as a very good conductor of Chakra. I had spent a lot of money figuring it out. But in the end it was worth it. It was one of my personal experiments that helped me in creating my barrier bracelet, currently the most useful thing in my arsenal apart from Sharingan.
But there was another obstacle on my path.
Gold and silver are not easy to get hands on in this world. These two metals are strictly controlled by the daimyos. Even the shinobi villages cannot move gold and silver without notifying their Daimyos.
So even if I have money without presenting a proper reason, personally I can't keep gold and silver above a certain amount. So my only option is to buy these things from black market. But the Black Market price is usually two times higher than the normal market price. That's why I needed a lot of money
"Hmmmm, it is only fair for the village to award you for your work. So how much do you want ?" Hiruzen asked me.
"I think around 30 million ryos should be enough. I have 10 different types of barrier seals that I can share. Kushina senpai has inspected all of them. And all of them have different uses. So can I get the money, grandpa ?" I asked Hiruzen, maintaining my bright smile.
His eyes widened for a moment. I could understand his reaction. In this world 30 million ryos is not a small amount. It was equivalent to the average annual income of an Elite jounin and 15 S ranked mission payments.
"Thirty million ? I think I can arrange that. But I would like to see all of your barriers for myself." The old hokage replied. I was really surprised. But I managed to school my emotions. It was hard to believe that the old man agreed to my request just like that. The old man had seen most of my barrier techniques. He knew how powerful they were. And from an outsider's perspective, the amount I mentioned is a fair amount considering how tough they were. But I was expecting the old fart to negotiate with me to lower the amount.
"Thank you grandpa. If you want I can show all of them to you right now. I will give the written instructions and the details of the barrier techniques around afternoon." I told the pervert kage.
"Thank you Usagi chan. I will also prepare the reward amount by afternoon. Now you should take this scroll and go to the Jonin commander. He should be in the Jounin headquarters. He will give you your new vest and other things. Come back, once you have prepared all the written instructions around the afternoon. I will test the barriers and complete the transaction." The old man sent me off. I immediately left the room and sighed in relief. Fortunately the other three didn't say anything. I immediately agreed to Hiruzen's request and my demands were not outrageous. So it was natural for them to accept my request.
Even if it was a loss for me, I didn't provoke any of them and managed to stay on their good side. So, it was a plus point for me.
Although I didn't like the current situation, I am nowhere near strong enough to go against the current system. So for me, the best option was to bide my time.
…
"Usagi ! Come on, we were waiting for you !" Entering the barbeque shop, Usagi was greeted by a familiar group of people. She didn't know how the others learnt about her promotion so fast. It has only been a couple of days since she got promoted and got 30 million ryos from the hokage. But Kushina, the enthusiastic Jinjuriki, has arranged a barbeque treat for her, to celebrate her promotion. Unlike Naruto, who got scammed by the third hokage and lived a poor and miserable life, Kushina was completely loaded. Of course the social insecurity remained in her case too. But as the Jinjuriki and the last relative of the Senju clan, she had a turn of money to spare. So throwing a party like this wasn't a big feat for her.
Beside Kushina, there was a boy around 17 years old. Unlike Usagi's smooth straight short hair, his hair was spiky. Their eye colors were a little different as well. Usagi had bright greenish blue colour eyes while the blonde had pure Ocean blue colour eyes. He was none other than Minato Namikaze.
"Kushina chan, thank you." Usagi, maintaining her cover, first went to hug Kushina.
"Hello Minato senpai, Hello Yuji kun" Usagi greeted the other two and took the seat beside Yuji. Yuji Yamanaka was the official 'boy friend' of Usagi. They used to be in the same class in the Academy. And the guy had proposed to her in the first year of their Academy.
Back then, Usagi had no interest in developing a relationship. So she entertained his confessions, never accepting them completely. Once she took the advancement test and graduated early, she almost forgot about him. But after her team died, and she became a lone genin, Yuji came back to her life. The guy had really worked hard and earned his place in the barrier and sensory unit along with her. Next he was even promoted to chunin after a lot of hard work. More importantly, he became the first person to see through her facade. And despite that he kept it secret.
Seeing her dedication and sincerity. Usagi admitted her defeat and accepted his confession. Personally, she hadn't any interest in any type of relationship, just like before. But she thought of it as a perfect way to relieve her mental stress.
Three months have passed since the beginning of their relationship. And even if Usagi wouldn't admit it, she had developed her feelings for the boy.
…
Next chapter: A dangerous mission