Despite Tekudo’s background being similar to Sasuke’s—both coming from immigrant families serving as vassals to ninja clans—there were differences.
The Tekudo clan were vassals to the Senju.
Their ancestors had been bladesmiths for the Senju ninja, and after moving to Konoha, they opened a weapon shop.
The Umino family, as vassals to the Sarutobi, could only manage to sell fish.
Ninjas were high-income earners, and the profit margins on the weaponry they required were naturally substantial.
Back then, the Senju were the premiere noble house of Konoha; unlike the Sarutobi, who treated their vassals with indifference and didn’t even provide settlement funds, the Senju were quite generous.
Consequently, the Tekudo clan flourished under the Senju’s patronage, growing both in numbers and wealth.
Unfortunately, as the Senju clan gradually declined and their support waned, the inherent vulnerabilities in the Tekudo clan business began to surface.
Thus, many scions of the Teku family abandoned their pampered lives as young masters and chose to become ninja.
While others became ninja to earn money with their lives, the people of the Tekudo clan became ninja to spend money to save their lives.
Take his most capable subordinate, Tekudo, for example.
Three sealing scrolls were strapped to his waist, packed with various blades.
Though he lacked chakra-conductive metal weapons, he made up for it with sheer quantity.
His tool pouch on the other side was stuffed with several dozen Explosive Tags.
Where others had to pinch pennies to save one or two Explosive Tags, Tekudo dealt in dozens.
He was the embodiment of extravagance.
In standard combat between low-to-mid-level ninja, there weren’t many flashy ninjutsu.
Battles usually began with a flurry of kunai and shuriken, followed by close-quarters hacking and slashing.
It mostly came down to who had better equipment, better physical condition, and a stronger foundation in taijutsu.
From there, one would seize the rhythm of the fight and gather intelligence, deploying a critical ninjutsu at the decisive moment to avoid a fatal blow or end the battle.
Of course, if they were losing and weren’t on a mission, a tactical retreat was standard procedure—flexibility was key.
If they were on a mission and couldn’t retreat, there was no choice but to swallow a few Ration Pills or hemostatic pills and gamble everything.
It became a brutal war of attrition: trading injuries for injuries, risking life for life, to see who survived until the end.
It was often said that the battlefield was the best place for tempering one’s skills and rapidly increasing strength.
Such cruel combat was bound to forge a person; those who couldn’t adapt were simply eliminated by physical force.
On the battlefield, genin were consumables—like chives, harvested wave after wave.
Even those who graduated early from the academy were cycled through several times.
This spoke volumes about the mortality rate of bottom-tier ninja.
The claim that the average lifespan of a ninja was less than ten years was no joke.
As an old subordinate, Tekudo had managed to survive until now.
While the protection of his captain played a part, it was mostly due to his own competence.
His Money Style Secret Technique was decent enough to be quite lethal against other bottom-tier ninja.
If he unleashed the sealing scrolls at his waist and performed his strongest Money Style Secret Technique: Tool Manipulation: Tenblade Ranman, even an elite chunin could be turned into a pincushion if they were careless for a second.
Perhaps some ancestral blood memory had been passed down; combined with the influence of Money Style, Tekudo’s talent for manipulating blades was exceptional.
He naturally reminded Sasuke of Tenten, one of the “Twelve Strong” from later years, and the character Tekuno from the Shippuden era.
Both were talented in tool manipulation and mastered an impressive Money Style.
Tenten was easy to recall, but Tekuno was a bit more obscure.
Sasuke only remembered him because they shared the same surname, and both had quite a bulky physique.
Crucially, Tekuno’s temporary teammates in Shippuden included the Konoha jonin Hayama Shirakumo, the eternal genin Kosuke Maruboshi, and the child of destiny, Naruto Uzumaki.
Once remembered, it was hard to forget.
Hayama Shirakumo’s Vacuum Sword, Kosuke Maruboshi’s inherited Second Hokage ninjutsu, and Tekuno’s tool control and Heaven-and-Earth Net traps were all incredibly flashy.
Influenced by this, Sasuke had guided Tekudo’s training in that direction.
Surprisingly, Tekudo showed a genuine knack for setting traps, proving to be something of a little genius.
The only problem was that Tekudo constantly complained that setting traps was too “hard on his wives.” Tekudo had a peculiar hobby: he cherished his blades excessively.
He gave every single weapon a sweet, affectionate name and cared for them as if they were girlfriends.
Because he had so many blade-girlfriends, a lovely and kind girl like Koshino could never find a way into Tekudo’s heart.
Koshino was a powerhouse who could easily win over the spoiled sons of the Inuzuka clan, yet she suffered repeated defeat in front of Tekudo.
In Tekudo’s words, how could Koshino be as cute as his girlfriends?
She wasn’t even as good as his “little concubines”—the paper figures of his Explosive Tags—let alone his “first wife,” the Windmill Shuriken.
Even his “unfaithful” cooking pot wife, Kobie, was cuter than Koshino.
However, whenever he thought of Kobie’s infidelity, Tekudo would fall into deep sorrow, mourning that the purity of their relationship had been lost.
If not for the captain’s overwhelming authority and the irresistible temptation of gourmet food, Tekudo would never have allowed his wife Kobie to be used for stewing soup.
Every time the team enjoyed a meal from the pot, it felt to him like they were sharing his wife, which caused him immense agony.
Kobie’s infidelity wasn’t an act of voluntary cheating; it was that he had failed to protect her, allowing her to be shared.
Thinking about this made him suffer, yet simultaneously sparked a strange, illicit thrill in the depths of his heart.
Therefore, after every meal, Tekudo would take the initiative to handle the washing.
He would hold his wife Kobie and scrub her over and over.
Each careful scrub felt as if he were washing away Kobie’s infidelity and the guilt in his own heart.
Only when Kobie was polished and shining like new did he feel relieved, believing once more that she had forgiven him and was still willing to protect him.
Only then would Tekudo strap Kobie to his back, fully confident that any attack from behind would be blocked by his devoted wife.
Surprisingly, Tekudo’s survivability actually increased.
The fact that Kobie had blocked several fatal sneak attacks from behind was living proof that she remained steadfast and loyal to him.
“Do…
do you want us girls to handle the housework, Do?” As the meal ended, Koshino once again volunteered to handle the cleanup.
When she said the word “housework,” the normally strong-willed Koshino actually sounded shy.
But Tekudo would never let anyone else touch his wife Kobie, not even a girl.
He became even more diligent in his scrubbing, leaving Koshino no chance to intervene.
Beside them, Inuzuka Ryo—the quintessential simp—saw Tekudo’s lack of appreciation.
The fact that Tekudo dared to reject his goddess yet again filled him with a mixture of relief and indignation.
He glared at Tekudo, looking as if he wanted to stare him to death.
Looking at this chaotic web of romantic tension, which wasn’t much better than Kakashi’s Team 7, Sasuke Umino felt a sudden urge to kick Inuzuka Ryo in the backside and force him to take Tekudo’s first kiss.
Before he could act, a flying shadow glided down from the high sky.
The shadow landed directly on his shoulder; it was his summoned beast, the Water Bat.
The Water Bat let out a soft, buzzing chirp, transmitting a series of ultrasonic notes.
“Something’s happening?” Sasuke’s heart tightened.
Shedding his usual relaxed demeanor, he straightened his posture, his eyes flashing with a cold, killing intent.
He leapt up, channeling chakra into the soles of his feet to rapidly scale a giant tree.
Reaching the top, he pulled out a handcrafted monocular telescope.
As he peered into the distance, he saw a flash of fire and heard an explosion coming from the perimeter of Aoba’s defense zone, less than three kilometers upstream.
Judging by the distance, the combatants had already started using Explosive Tags.