“Fire Release: Hot Air Technique!”
Invisible chakra was released from Hatake Shibu’s body.
When he had submitted his request to the system, he had specifically asked it to make the technique as difficult to detect as possible.
Just as Shibu was gradually beginning to see the people in front of him as piles of money, a voice suddenly came from nearby and startled him.
“Shibu! What are you doing here?”
The deep male voice carried a hint of warmth.
Shibu immediately withdrew his hands.
He turned around expressionlessly, pretending as if nothing had happened.
“Nothing, Father. I was just trying to test a new ninjutsu. It failed.”
That’s right.
The person standing in front of Shibu was Hatake Sakumo—his adoptive father.
Sakumo scratched the back of his head.
Although Shibu wasn’t his biological son, he was extremely satisfied with him.
Whether it was his talent, chakra reserves, or personality, Sakumo was satisfied with everything.
The only problem was that Shibu wasn’t mature enough.
Every now and then, he would cause trouble at school and force his teacher to summon his father.
“You didn’t succeed?”
Sakumo suddenly frowned.
“Wait. Did you secretly learn another ninjutsu from the ones I keep in the cabinet? How many times have I told you? It’s dangerous to practice these techniques without proper guidance!”
Sakumo felt that he had figured out what Shibu had been doing.
If Shibu had secretly learned one of his ninjutsu, it made sense that he would come to a public training ground rather than experiment at home.
Although ninjutsu were ranked according to various factors, one of the most important criteria was their level of danger.
Even learning something as simple as the Fireball Technique could result in serious burns if you weren’t careful.
As for more advanced techniques…
One careless mistake and you could be attending your own funeral.
Just look at the Lightning Release: Kirin that Sasuke would develop in the future.
Was that really something an ordinary person could learn?
That wasn’t merely some so-called Lightning Release secret technique.
It was practically a technique for arranging your own funeral.
Seeing that his adoptive father was about to launch into another lecture, Shibu hurriedly ran away.
“I’ve got something else to do! I’ll see you tonight, Father!”
With that, he disappeared into the crowd.
Sakumo watched his son disappear with a complicated expression and sighed.
He only hoped that Shibu would know his limits and not hurt himself.
“Is that Sakumo-senpai’s other son? He’s quite the genius. I noticed the sequence of hand seals he used earlier. It didn’t correspond to any ninjutsu I know. Could he have created it himself?”
Sakumo nodded.
He had actually sensed it too.
He had simply pretended not to notice.
He didn’t want to expose the truth and damage his son’s confidence.
“He’s just an immature brat. Come on, Jiraiya. The Hokage is waiting for us.”
As the commander of the Anbu, Sakumo was extremely busy.
How could he possibly have time to casually appear at a public training ground?
He had come here specifically to find Jiraiya and take him to a meeting.
The end of the Second Shinobi World War did not mean peace had arrived.
The war had ended rather abruptly, and the various villages hadn’t suffered enough losses to truly weaken their military strength.
Apart from Konoha, which had lost the Second Hokage and consequently experienced some turmoil, the other villages were all eager to tear a piece of flesh from Konoha.
As a result, the borders remained far from peaceful.
There was no full-scale war, but small conflicts continued to erupt.
Jiraiya glanced in the direction Shibu had left.
For some reason, he had a feeling that Shibu’s ninjutsu hadn’t actually failed.
It had probably succeeded.
However, he had no evidence.
He hadn’t even seen any actual effects.
In the end, he could only shake his head and chase after Hatake Sakumo, who had already left using the Body Flicker Technique.
After traveling a considerable distance, Shibu cautiously glanced behind him.
When he saw that Sakumo hadn’t followed him, he patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
If his father found out that he was using this method to make money, he would definitely have his legs broken.
And don’t assume that was merely an exaggerated metaphor.
It could genuinely happen.
After all, Sakumo had a certain friendship with Konoha’s princess, Tsunade.
If Shibu’s legs were broken, he could simply ask her to fix them.
Who knew?
He might even have them broken again.
Shibu looked around.
It was already approaching noon, and he still had plenty of places left to visit.
He could only sprint toward the restaurants around Konoha as quickly as possible.
He had to make sure all his target customers suffered from excess internal heat during the lunch period.
He could only make this money once.
Otherwise, sooner or later, something would go wrong.
By then, having his legs broken would be the least of his problems.
He might even be locked up by that old man Hiruzen for disturbing public order.
Shibu had absolutely no desire to visit the cells of the Uchiha Military Police Force.
Some time later, Shibu returned to his stall, panting heavily.
He handed Uchiha Obito the Ichiraku Ramen he’d bought as takeaway.
Ichiraku had only recently opened, and Shibu wanted to try the food himself.
Obito looked at Shibu’s exhausted appearance and frowned suspiciously.
and asked suspiciously,
“What happened? Didn’t you go out to attract customers? Why do you look like you’re suffering from kidney failure?”
Shibu rolled his eyes.
Of course he looked like this after excessively consuming chakra.
As a young master from a bloodline-limit clan, Obito simply didn’t understand the suffering of ordinary shinobi.
Strictly speaking, Shibu couldn’t exactly be called an ordinary shinobi.
But ultimately, the Hatake clan had neither a bloodline limit nor a secret clan technique.
Their inheritance wasn’t particularly ancient either.
So classifying them as a civilian-level clan wasn’t unreasonable.
Obito eagerly opened the takeaway Shibu had brought him and began eating.
“Not a single bowl sold this morning. Does this stuff even work? Maybe we should just sell the orange peels instead.”
Obito still thought the dried tangerine peel tasted better.
Although the herbal tea was medicine, not everyone suffered from excess internal heat.
Besides, wouldn’t people simply go to the hospital if they had a problem like this?
Why would they buy medicine from their little stall?
A smile curled across Shibu’s lips.
His voice was filled with excitement as he gestured enthusiastically.
“Soon. The money will be coming to us very soon!”
Watching Shibu dancing around in excitement, Obito began wondering whether his friend had finally lost his mind.
If someone really came over to buy this so-called herbal tea later, Obito swore he would eat the takeaway container on the spot.
Time passed minute by minute.
Soon, it was one o’clock in the afternoon.
It was already time for everyone to rest after lunch.
Shibu stroked his chin, estimating the weather before muttering thoughtfully,
“It should be about time. They ought to be here soon, right?”