The thought stirred something restless in Chiba.
After a long moment, he let out a slow breath, settling himself back down.
Now wasn’t the time to get carried away.
The bodhi seed was genuinely useful, no question, but earning its benefits still came down to his own effort.
Growing complacent over a scrap of progress would be a mistake he couldn’t afford.
Thinking back on his exchange with Guy only sharpened that resolve—
He’d needed to plan carefully just to hold his own against Guy fighting well below his true strength.
Someone like Madara Uchiha would be an entirely different order of problem.
Still far too weak.
He turned and slipped out through the window, carrying his packet of medicine home with him.
Time to train.
Watching from a distance, Hiruzen let out a quiet breath of relief.
The current era wasn’t like the old days, thick with war and prodigies springing up on every side.
With a talent like Chiba’s, what worried him most was the risk of a boy that gifted growing arrogant too young.
As it stood, though, the boy had proven remarkably level-headed.
Even having produced two or three original techniques and formulas already, he showed no trace of pride, still pushing himself forward as hard as ever.
Genuinely rare, that.
Still, the boy was clever enough to be a problem in his own right.
Hiruzen had already granted him full access to his personal library as a reward once, and now the boy had gone and developed—and freely handed over—the vitality-enhancing soak on top of everything else.
What was there left to give him?
Hiruzen found the question thoroughly vexing.
Giving nothing at all would send the wrong message entirely—who would bother submitting their secret techniques to the village if that was how it worked?
But the boy wasn’t even a genin yet, which made any kind of promotion out of the question.
After turning it over for a while, he decided to send for Kakashi.
“Kakashi, I imagine you’ve heard about the medicinal soak formula by now.”
“I have.
Shame I couldn’t get my hands on any.”
Kakashi nodded.
He’d actually gone to look earlier that day, taken one glance at the endless line, and abandoned the idea of buying a dose himself in favor of a normal walk and some training instead.
Still.
What did any of that have to do with him?
Kakashi looked mildly puzzled.
“Ha, well, I happen to have two doses set aside for you.
But the real reason I called you here is the reward question—money clearly won’t move that boy, and I’m genuinely stuck on what to offer instead.”
Hiruzen said plainly.
With the formula in hand, and the medical division, the hospital, the Nara clan, and the Akimichi clan all tied into it besides, the whole operation was set to bring in steady, substantial profit for years to come.
Money, for a kid like Chiba, really did seem to hold no appeal whatsoever.
Kakashi thought it over.
“He’s been studying swordsmanship lately.
If you gave him the Second Hokage’s sword-technique notes, he’d probably be thrilled.”
“Oh?
He’s interested in swordsmanship too?”
Hiruzen hadn’t known that.
Even with the Crystal Ball Viewing Technique at his disposal, he wasn’t running constant surveillance—he couldn’t spend an entire day tracking nothing but Chiba’s daily habits.
Mostly he just checked in briefly now and then, alongside everything else he needed to keep an eye on.
Hearing this from Kakashi, he said at once, “If he’s genuinely interested, giving him the swordsmanship notes is no trouble at all—ah, I see what you mean now.”
Hiruzen considered it a moment, then let out a short, self-deprecating laugh and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m getting old.
My mind’s not as quick as it used to be.
You’re right, giving him the notes is the better move—handing him a fully finished swordsmanship style outright would only cramp whatever he’d come up with on his own.”
“Yes, that was my thinking as well.”
Kakashi nodded.
For most students, teaching them something like the Three-Day Moon Dance outright would be the obvious choice.
But Chiba had worked out the seed of the Rasengan through his own reasoning alone—proof enough of just how sharp his mind really was.
Give him a solid foundation and the underlying theory, and he’d naturally develop whatever swordsmanship suited him best.
“Team assignments are coming up in a couple of days.
Take these over to him yourself, and take a look through them while you’re at it—don’t let your own swordsmanship go to waste.”
Hiruzen thought it over, then had someone bring out the Second Hokage’s sword-technique notes and handed them off to Kakashi.
Kakashi accepted them with a nod.
“Oh, and take the two packets of medicine too.
Not much use to an old man like me, but they’ll do you some good.
If you don’t need them yourself, you can always pass them along to your students later.”
“Lord Hokage, I’ve agreed to give this a try, but I want to be clear—if they don’t pass my evaluation, I’ll send them straight back to repeat the year.”
Kakashi said it firmly.
That was a matter of principle for him.
Hiruzen had no objection.
He’d put Kakashi in charge precisely because the man was sharp and held firm to his principles—he genuinely hoped Kakashi could raise Chiba well.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone to this much trouble in the first place.
Two days wasn’t much time, in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn’t nothing either.
Word of the medicine’s effectiveness spread fast, and by the very next day Chiba’s home had turned into something close to a marketplace—since the hospital’s stock was impossible to get, people had started coming straight to Chiba himself, hoping to buy the formula outright.
Chiba had no interest in dealing with any of that and simply made himself scarce.
Fortunately, as a shinobi-in-training, concealing his presence was standard fare, and he’d gotten reasonably good at it—good enough, at least, that none of the people camped outside noticed him slip out through the window.
The moment his feet hit the ground—
“Chiba, you—mmph!”
“Don’t shout.
Come on, move.”
Chiba clapped a hand over Wasa’s mouth without a second thought.
Wasa pointed at herself repeatedly, signaling she wouldn’t make noise again, and only then did he let go—though she still couldn’t quite hold back a quiet laugh.
Chiba, at a loss, led her a good distance from the house.
Just yesterday she’d looked thoroughly timid and shy.
How had she gone from that to staking out his window overnight?
Her nerve was improving at an alarming rate.
He gave her an odd look.
“Chiba, I didn’t mean any harm—I just heard your place was surrounded and wanted to come check on you.”
“It’s fine.
By the way, what did you mean yesterday, saying you hoped we’d ‘keep in touch’?”
Chiba looked her over.
“Ah, I—I forgot to mention it yesterday.
I’d originally been assigned somewhere else, but the day before, my father mentioned I might end up on your team, and told me to get to know you a little first.
So, so I—”
Wasa fidgeted with the hem of her sleeve.
Ah.
There it was.
Chiba understood now—buying the medicine, asking about her uncle, all of that yesterday had really just been a pretext to get to know him.
Not the smoothest approach, admittedly.
Well.
No point calling her out on it.
He looked at her and said, “Team assignments are still a ways off, aren’t they?
And you already know who’s on the team?”
“Not exactly know, no.
My father didn’t say who the instructor would be, just that Lord Hokage thinks very highly of you, and since we’re likely to end up on the same team, he wanted me not to be a complete stranger to you beforehand.
So, so I—I’m sorry!”
Wasa bowed again, apologizing repeatedly.
“It’s fine.
I’m glad to know you.
Come on, this isn’t the best place to talk.”
Now that it was out in the open, Chiba found he didn’t much mind either way.
He waved it off, thought it over briefly, and decided not to dwell on it further—better to focus on training and building up his own strength first.
“I’m heading out to train.
Want to come along?”
He dropped down from the tree and headed toward his usual training grounds.
“Y-yes!”
Wasa followed close behind.
A little way into their run, they crossed paths with Tenten.
She hadn’t planned on joining Chiba today, but the moment she spotted Wasa tagging along—
One more addition to the group.
Rock Lee had thought about joining in too, but after watching the strained, quiet atmosphere between Tenten and Wasa for a while, he quietly peeled off onto a different path instead.