Naruto: I'm Really Not a Pokémon

"I didn't know at the time if doing this could really change the village policy. If it failed, my hands would be stained with the blood of my companions." Having said that, Mei Terumi looked at her hands as if she was a little dazed.

Without waiting for Jianchuan Ju to comfort her, she continued with a trembling voice: "Even so, my graduation exam was still stained with blood. I just wanted to steal her badge, but I ended up killing her by mistake."

"This..." As a person who avoided exams, Jianchuan Ju didn't know how to comfort him.

But at this time, Mei Terumi might just want someone to talk to.

"I thought this was the fate of the Blood Mist Ninja until I met you. You were promoted to Genin through medical ninja, and you were not stained with the blood of your fellow villagers."

Jianchuan Ju thought to himself that the ninjas from those big families were not stained with the blood of their companions, so they didn't need to go to ninja school at all.

But he was not Zabuza Momochi after all, so he did not explain anything at this time.

"Later, in this year's graduation exam, Zabuza accomplished what I didn't dare to do back then, and he succeeded in the end."

"So when you two became my teammates, I was actually very envious of you. I've always wondered, is someone like me who doesn't have the courage to take on all this and has been stained with the blood of my companions really qualified to be the Kage of the village?"

"Of course you can become the Mizukage. This is my judgment based on my reading of the original work." Seeing this ten-year-old girl with such a heavy heart, Jianchuan Ju silently cheered her up in his heart.

At the same time, he stretched out his hand and pressed it on Terumi Mei's reddish-brown hair. Lanzai, who was working hard to eat, saw his master like this and also put his little hand on Terumi Mei's hand.

"You just have to believe in the path you are on and move forward with big strides. Ming, I also believe that you will become the best Mizukage."

The Hidden Mist Village, which is usually shrouded in fog, was unusually sunny today. The midday sun shone through the awning of the ramen restaurant onto the two people in the store, as if to dispel the haze in people's hearts.

"Crack~"

With a crisp sound, Terumi Mei blushed and gently slapped away the hand that was pressing on her head.

"Your trotters are all greasy, don't touch my hair!"

The little girl pretended to be angry and scolded Jianchuan Ju, but the hand she used to slap away Jianchuan Ju was not the one that Lanzi was holding down.

Jianchuan Ju withdrew his hand somewhat awkwardly and rubbed Lanzai's head, signaling it to continue eating.

"Haha, eat, eat."

Perhaps because she had finally spoken out her deepest thoughts, Mei Terumi's mood quickly returned to normal and she quietly ate her bowl of ramen.

However, the atmosphere between the two seemed much more harmonious than before.

The two finished their lunches quietly, and Tachibana Kenkawa didn't mention training together that afternoon again.

After saying goodbye to Mei Terumi at the entrance of the ramen shop, they went their separate ways.

Jianchuan Ju did not go home, but went directly to the Kirigakure Village Hospital.

"Aunt Huizi, long time no see."

"It's only a few days. Things in the village have been quite busy lately." When Keiko Saigyouji saw Tachibana Jiangawa greeting her, the fatigue on her face faded a little.

Recently, Jianchuan Ju has often come to the hospital to improve his clinical experience, but the time is uncertain.

Keiko Saigyouji has been busy participating in the village's pre-war preparations, and the two have not met for some time.

"Tachibana, have you grown taller recently?" Saigyoji Keiko said as she placed her hand between Tachibana Jianchuan's head and herself.

"Haha, really? I didn't even notice it myself." Jianchuan Ju said that he didn't care, but the corners of his mouth curled up a little.

As an adult who traveled through time and space as a child, how could Jianchuan Ju not care about his height? Besides, Zabuza was 183cm tall when he grew up, and he didn't want to be overtaken by a kid.

When Keiko Saigyouji saw Jianchuan Tachibana like this, the smile on her face became a little gentler.

"It means that Ju has been eating well recently."

Perhaps it was due to the hormones in his body after traveling through time, Jianchuan Ju felt that his mentality was getting younger and younger, and he was not averse to this way of talking to coax children.

As they were talking, the two of them had already walked into the ward and restrained the smiles on their faces. After all, they had to appear professional when treating the injured.

The ninja lying on the hospital bed was from the Snow Clan. Generally, ninjas from such large families, especially bloodline families, would rarely be sent to the hospital.

However, this ordinary Chunin, who is not young, does not seem to have inherited the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, and should be the kind of person who is not valued in the clan.

Although this person is a branch of the Snow Clan, he is very arrogant.

The day before yesterday, Jianchuan Ju's excellent treatment saved his life, but the two of them didn't have much communication. Today, he just came over as a routine to check on each other's recovery.

After briefly asking about the other person's physical condition and doing some routine checks, Jianchuan Ju was ready to leave the ward.

Just as he was about to leave the ward, a young girl came in. Well, perhaps it was not appropriate to call her a girl considering Jianchuan Ju's age.

The girl who came in looked about 16 or 7 years old, which should be considered an adult in the Naruto world. She had long black hair and dignified and gentle facial features. She gave people a gentle and kind feeling.

However, judging from his body movements, he should be just an ordinary person, so Jianchuan Ju didn't care much about it.

"Sorry, little brother, I didn't notice you."

Jianchuan Ju was about to correct her address with a frown on his face, but the middle-aged man on the hospital bed scolded him first.

"Nanako! This medical ninja is my attending physician. You are trained as a member of the Snow Clan!"

"I'm sorry, father. Lord Ninja, I'm sorry!" After saying this, the girl named Nanako quickly bowed to Jianchuan Tachibana.

Jianchuan Ju was also caught off guard by this situation. He just said that he didn't mind and hurriedly left the ward.

It was only after I walked out of the ward that I realized that the girl's appearance seemed somewhat familiar.

But the other person is also very good-looking, and if he has seen me before, he should remember me.

Besides, this girl wasn't a ninja, and he didn't know many ordinary civilians. Since he couldn't figure it out, he simply gave up on investigating further.

"But Nanako? The Snow Clan? Her full name can't be Setsuna, right?"

Jianchuan Ju feels that he has once again refreshed his understanding of naming in the ninja world.

Chapter 38 New Mission

The next morning, the Hidden Mist Village was shrouded in fog as usual.

Jianchuan Ju arrived at the training ground early today, mainly because today's daily tasks were a bit strange and did not include the most common training tasks.

Instead, tasks like "say hello to ten people" and "walk ten kilometers" appeared. The system usually gives tasks that can be easily completed under the current circumstances.

This reminded Jianchuan Ju of the situations when he left the village twice before.

Considering that Qing did not come to the training ground yesterday, Jianchuan Ju guessed that there might be some new tasks today.

Sure enough, not long after, Ao and Zabuza arrived at the training ground one after another. Ao did not start to instruct the two in training as usual, but said to wait for Mei Terumi to arrive first.

Seeing Zabuza's expression of 'I knew it a long time ago' next to him, Jianchuan Ju was even more certain that today was definitely not a simple training or an ordinary mission.

Not long after, Mei Terumi also came to the training ground. She looked at Jianchuan Tachibana, who had listened to her confession yesterday, with some embarrassment. Then she found that the three of them were staring at her with wide eyes, and Mei Terumi was also a little puzzled.

"Why are you standing here instead of training? Are you waiting for me?"

Qing, who was about to speak, looked at his disrespectful disciple and immediately began to doubt himself.

Am I being too easygoing? Should I be more serious with them next time?

But after thinking about it, I realized that I had important things to do today, so I put aside my complicated emotions for the time being.

For safety reasons, Qing first formed hand seals and performed perception ninjutsu. After confirming that there was no one else around, he explained the whole story to the two disciples who did not understand the situation.

"That's basically the situation. Today, the Jounin Karuji will arrange for a ninja tool shop funded by civilians to assign us a task. We will escort a clerk to the Land of Craftsmen to order ninja tools."

"Of course, although this mission is to cover up a secret investigation, if you don't want to have another failure record in your mission resume, we must complete this open mission as well."

After listening to Qing's account of the series of events, Jianchuan Ju felt that his imagination was still not rich enough. Such a task was just thrown to his team?

Even though there is a senior ninja named Qing leading the team, there is too little known information right now. Where should we start the investigation?

"We only have information about a merchant who is suspected to be from the Kingdom of Craftsmen. Which direction should we start our investigation from?"

Before Jianchuan Tachibana could speak, Terumi Mei asked Qing the same question.

Qing did not answer Terumi Mei's question immediately, but instead asked the three disciples a question.

"How much do you know about the Kingdom of Craftsmen?"

Seeing that neither of her teammates had the intention to speak, Mei Terumi answered directly, "The Land of Craftsmen is a small country located between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water. The country is very short of armed forces, and the Craftsmen's Village is basically full of highly skilled craftsmen. Their combat power ranks last in the entire ninja world."

"However, thanks to the excellent ninja tool forging ability of the Artisan Ninja Village, the ninja tools they forged are highly respected in the five major countries. Not only do they have regular ninja tools, they even often forge some advanced weapons containing chakra metals. This allows them to get along with all the major countries."

Ao nodded. What Mei Terumi said was what they learned in class at the Ninja School.

"You are right, but what I want to say is that due to political pressure from all sides and the taxation of the Country of Craftsmen, in fact, all the sales of ninja tools and the import of materials in the Country of Craftsmen are strictly controlled by the chief of the ninja village. His status in the Country of Craftsmen is not inferior to that of the Daimyo of the Country of Craftsmen."

Jianchuan Ju asked thoughtfully after hearing this.

"That is to say, unless the smuggling was done by the leader of the Artisan Ninja Village, but that doesn't make sense. Privately reaching a deal with the internal forces of his country will not bring him much benefit. On the contrary, it may offend our Kirigakure. For a small ninja village with no strength, it is too costly."

"Or it was done by some greedy people in the Land of Craftsmen. If that's the case, then the Craftsman Village, which has strict control over domestic materials and finished products, should know more or less where these things went."

"However, all of this is based on the premise that the merchant is indeed a merchant from the Kingdom of Craftsmen, or that the goods do indeed come from the Kingdom of Craftsmen."

Qing gave him an approving look and added.

"Yes, so our main target for this investigation is the chief of the Artisan Ninja Village. The clerk of the Ninja Tool Shop who is to be escorted in the open mission will also trade with the chief of the Artisan Ninja Village under our accompaniment, which will facilitate our investigation."

Terumi thought about it and asked her own question.

"So how long do we stay here? After all, what if we can't find any results in a short period of time?"

"Don't worry, the person who issued the mission was arranged by Yagura Kuji. He will cooperate with us and stay longer. And it doesn't matter if we don't find any results in the end. After all, it's just a personal commission from Yagura Kuji."