Chapter Text
Kaorigoku Nara yawned as the late-night meeting at the Hyūga compound dragged on. He stared at the Lichtenberg scar decorating his right arm after he rubbed his face with it. He and his uncle, Shikaku Nara, were the only Nara clan members in this meeting. And he was the only other child on it. The other was none other than one Hinata Hyūga. The victim of the recent kidnapping attempt by Kumo shinobi. There was also the Hokage as the… well, if Kaori has any way to describe the position, it’d be the Generalissimo of the military dictatorship that is Konohagakure.
“Why are we still here?” The Nara child asked as he tucked his long bangs behind his right ear and rested his chin on his hand.
“Because you’re the one who killed the kidnapper with that reckless jutsu of yours.” Shikaku whispered.
“Not that. I know why we’re here. I’m wondering why this has dragged on for hours. And despite I did accidentally kill their head ninja from God knows how far away, they want a pair of byakugan as compensation. That doesn’t make sense to me. Not that I want to be the one on the receiving end.”
“Ah… It’s politics. You won’t understand it until you’re older.” Shikaku told Kaori, who just shrugged.
As the back and forth between the Kumo delegates and the Hyūga clan head continued, a thought appeared in Kaori’s mind.
“Though, I was wondering…” He said out loud as both main speakers paused briefly. His uncle was about to reprimand him, but Kaori continued his thought faster. “Is this entire operation approved by your kage, or is this your head ninja’s decision?”
The micro expressions in one of the Kumo delegates was noticed by the Hokage. And though Kaorigoku was fighting both the urge to sleep and the sting his relatively fresh scar gave him, he also noticed it.
“So, you all acted on your own, risking yet another war over one person.” Kaori remarked.
At the stares he got, he just offhandedly remarked that as a child, he has a lot of free time. And he uses that to read books in the Nara clan’s library.
The meeting was then ended with Kumo unable to demand anything significant. Not even the jutsu that the Nara child used to shoot a coin from the back of his house all the way to the village’s wall. What they got was just a vague statement… or at least vague for them.
“Electricity and magnetism are linked.” Was what Kaori just stated.
“So, what was that about?” Shikaku asked the toddler on his back.
“Hm?” Kaori hummed sleepily.
“What you said to the Kumo shinobi before they left.” The Nara clan head elaborated.
“Hm…” Kaori hummed in thought. “I’ll show you tomorrow. For now, sleep.”
Shikaku chuckled at his nephew’s antics. “Sure.” He spoke as he felt Kaori’s consciousness fading away into the dreamland.
“This is where I got the jutsu idea from. Don’t worry, I’m using a very low amount of power for this demonstration.” Kaori explained as he let lightning chakra flow through his fingers.
After the short circuit was complete, he put a compass near his charged hand, causing the needle to deviate from the north pole.
“That’s the basic idea, anyway.” Kaori added as he stopped the chakra manipulation. “Further explanation would probably need a live demo, but uncle Shikaku forbids me from doing it again, not that I will do it again until I have more control. So, if anyone have the control to not get hurt by a few million amps, feel free to try it.” He crossed his arms as he ended his short explanation in front of several clan members.
One of the clan members who was an active shinobi then asked him what’s the potential usage of the jutsu. He also mentioned the seemingly absurd amount of lightning power needed to perform it.
“I’m glad you asked.” The toddler smiled. “The short answer is long range shooting. I know, bows and crossbows can do similar things, but has it ever hit a target on the other side of the village? And for the energy amount question, A three-year-old boy like me has enough chakra to use it once. I’m sure Uchiha’s iconic jutsu is more chakra intensive.”
“And how did you do it?” another person asked.
“Simple… in theory.” Kaori explained. “I just toss a coin upward, gather the necessary amount of chakra to be turned into electric charge, and wait until the coin landed on my finger so it’ll launch itself without much trouble.” He then showed the audience his scarred right arm. “But as you can see, I lack control. So, a live demo must wait.”
Then, not so surprisingly, Shikaku asked him a question. Specifically, the question of how he gets all that information, and his mannerism that didn’t reflect his age.
Kaori sighed as he ran his palm up from his forehead before he answered.
“I’ll tell you before I enter academy or when I finish my first long term dream. Whichever comes first.”
Shikaku seemed to accept that and went back to observing the impromptu presentation.
While Kaori talked about some more theories on how his long-range jutsu worked, Shikaku has half a mind to predict what the mysterious child of the clan would do in 3 years.
There’s only so much a child(?) can do in three years… right?
In just one year, the now proven prodigy child(?) has proved Shikaku wrong.
After seeing that he can’t get his own personal computer, the child just built a makeshift one entirely made of hundreds of meters of seals written by hand in one giant scroll with only the help of several dozen fuinjutsu theory scrolls and books, alongside multiple burnt scrolls from improper seal calligraphy.
And Kaori only said that it was a proof of concept and a tool to help him build his first long term goal, as he had said. Because shortly after, he made a toy quadruped puppet move on its own. Granted, the movement is still very rough, and it broke from the rough movement, but still.
“You made an automaton?” Shikaku asked as the machine broke. “Is this related to your dream?”
“Just proof-of-concept for now. But yes, and I’m planning to go further with this.” Kaori answered before focusing back on the broken crawler.
After a few moments of silence, the child noticed something and spoke his thoughts loudly.
“Ah, I think the problem is on my lack of skill in woodworking.” He said as he rubbed the doll joints. “Hm… the surface is too rough.”
Shikaku shook his head in amusement and walked closer towards his nephew’s worktable.
“Don’t be late for dinner, okay?” Shikaku patted Kaori’s head.
Kaori just responded with a hum, while still focusing on the broken toy.
Another year had passed. And another milestone has been achieved.
“P.I.C.A, status on your seal array?” He asked his AI assistant.
“I detect no problem, sir.” The AI answered with a feminine voice into an earpiece that Kaori got from a trashcan.
Kaori hummed as he walked to the playground near the Shinobi Academy. “The Yamanaka clan are truly the master of their arts, huh.” He commented.
He was currently alone, not counting his own creation. Shikamaru was taking a nap, as usual, and Choji and Ino were doing their own thing. So, the Nara boy decided to visit the playground while working on the design of his first of many projects.
Well, not really designs as in how she would look like, but on how would he separate the parts. The most he’d done in the past were assembling pre-made parts from either a kit or repairing a broken robot.
Touching grass is good, after all. Even though he’s still doing some work.
As he saw several kids of various ages there, he decided to flex on some kids… who are older than him by casually climbing a tree by walking on it.
What purpose did it serve? Nothing, he just wanted to do it. Plus, sitting on a tree branch would lessen the chance of a kid looking at his notes and drawings.
After all, it’s not exactly SFW, even though the things that make it NSFW proper are missing.
As Kaori draw another design and notes on it, he heard several voices that sounded… not openly hostile, in his opinion, but still wanting a reaction from whoever the subject was.
His curiosity got the better of him. Plus, it’d be a good thing if he could get a friend from it. His family keeps pestering him about getting some friends and not literally marrying his hobby.
Not the exact wording that they used, but he felt that it would be if his physical age is the same as his soul’s age.
And while he’s very interested in learning everything about chakra as well, he sometimes fell back to his old techniques when it’s more convenient.
“Alright, let’s test this one. Epsilon: silent teleportation.” He murmured as he jumped from the branch he was sitting on and immediately blinked out of existence. And one moment later, he touched down behind one of the people surrounding the commotion.
“So, Epsilon class is still good. P.I.C.A, note it down, please.” Kaori muttered.
“At once, sir.” His AI assistant responded.
“Thank you.” Kaori nodded. Then, after he finished looking like someone with an imaginary friend, he casually walked in between the gathered civilians.
After he managed to get to the front row, he soon saw that the subject of all of this ridicule is none other than the child of destiny himself: Uzumaki Naruto.
Seems that while his presence already changed the timeline, some things stayed the same.
Not for long, he decided.
With a resolve he rarely uses even in his first life, except when he’s learning things that he finds interesting, Kaori stepped forward and addresses the people surrounding him and Naruto.
“Good afternoon, fellow citizens of Konoha.” Kaori started. “I heard that someone is bullying a kid, and I feel that I can’t let that slide. So, here I am.”
The civilians and several children were stunned for a bit, the adults more so by the way that the boy speaks.
After a short moment of silence, one of the adults spoke up.
“Kid, stay away from him. He’s dangerous.”
“Oh, how so?” Kaori tilted his head.
“That… thing,” another spat, “Is the fox demon.”
Now, Kaorigoku Nara, or, as he’s more comfortable with his old name; Myrodius Ouranou, knows more than he should. Both from meta-knowledge, which could be useless because of a timeline divergence, which his existence alone already does that, and from a lot of reading. So, he knew that Naruto is Kyubi no Kitsune’s jinchūriki. Asking the surrounding people is just to confirm his thoughts.
“Then, if he’s as dangerous as you said, why are you provoking him?” he asked.
It was just a simple question, and while what is considered dangerous can be relative, any of the Bijū is dangerous regardless, especially an angry one. Weakened or not, a bunch of civilians wouldn’t be able to fight one.
At least they listened.
“Because you’re a child. This is an adult’s matter.” The second man from before said.
…Or not.
“Ha… Did your head got hit by a rubble five years ago?” Kaori facepalmed.
“Let me say this to you like we’re equal. Because clearly, some of you have similar intelligence as a five-year-old.” He quickly said before anyone could say anything. “Have you ever approached a scared cat with no way out? If you haven’t too bad, I’m not gonna explain it to you. But you can imagine this is almost exactly like that scenario. Now, what do cats usually do when they’re scared with no way out? They try to fight whatever is in their way, which other animals, even humans, also do.”
Kaori paused a bit to breathe before continuing. “Plus, I can see most of you share the idea that this five-year-old boy you’re surrounding is the Kyūbi no kitsune itself. If that is true, you’re lucky that the village is still here. Because, good news, a weak chakra monster is still a chakra monster. And if he decides to explode this block, none of you. Will. Survive.”
Kaori exhaled after he ended his long rant. Shortly after that, he offered his hand to Naruto.
“Let’s get out of here. I’m Kaorigoku Nara, but you could call me by either Kaori or Myrodius.” He introduced himself. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” He attempted to joke.
Naruto hesitantly held Kaori’s hand. His eyes were still wary of everything.
“Well, it’s been fun talking, but we take our leave now.” Kaori mock-saluted and walked away from the crowd with Naruto.
After they walked far away enough, Kaori tried to start a conversation by first asking Naruto his name.
It felt weird, but as far as Naruto knows, the stranger doesn’t know his name.
“I’m Naruto Uzumaki!” Naruto said. “In the future, I’m going to be a hokage, believe it!”
“That’s a nice dream.” Kaori nodded. “I have several, and I’m working on one of them. I’m making a puppet. And my end goal is… living a peaceful life, I guess.”
“Wow…” Naruto drawled. “You’re boring.”
Kaori just snorted at that. Well, Naruto isn’t wrong.
“Sure. That might be boring.” Kaori reached his earpiece. “But I made something that might interest you.”
Naruto watched Kaori mumble something into the earpiece before giving it to him.
“Try putting this into your ear and say hello.” Kaori instructed.
Naruto did as Kaori instructed, and as he said hello to it, a feminine voice greeted him back.
“Establishing connection… greetings, Naruto Uzumaki, I’m P.I.C.A, Master Myrodius’s Artificial Intelligence Assistant. How can I help you?” it greeted.
“Cool, right?” Kaori smiled. “If you’re not convinced, try asking it to fly a drone here.”
Naruto, again, did as Kaori asked him to do. Though, the blonde didn’t know what a “ドローン” is.
Not too long after the voice in the earpiece confirmed the request, a small quadcopter approached them with a very noticeable whirring noise.
“Woah.” Naruto gawked at the drone as he returned the earpiece.
The Nara boy silently put the earpiece back in his left ear as he watched the scene.
“P.I.C.A, return to home, and tell my family that I’ll have a lunch with a friend. After that, come back to me with my other wallet.”
“Well, it’d be better if I didn’t have to use the money in there. But… just in case.” Kaori thought as he sent the drone off.
Before Kaori said anything else, he heard a rumbling stomach. And he knew that wasn’t his because he’d feel it.
As he looked at his first friend (No, Shikamaru doesn’t count), he saw the end of a slight embarrassment.
“So… I’m going to get lunch, want to join me?” Kaori asked.
Naruto nodded eagerly and asked if he knew of Ichiraku Ramen.
The Nara boy exhaled in amusement and nodded. “Yes, I know of it. I am planning to go there.”
Naruto jumped in joy, like the child he is.
Kaori ignored the fact that he is currently the same age as him and less than 1 cm taller.
“Alright… I think I’m ready to do the integrated test.” Kaori stated as he finished preparing his latest puppet.
After almost a year of training in woodworking and R&D, he was finally able to make a human-like puppet. Though, the puppet was unlike the one his puppet making teacher taught him.
For the most obvious one, is that the puppet he made has more likeness to a human than most other puppets, especially when compared to Wind Country’s standard puppets. And it is covered in several pieces of thick rubber with elasticity and color close to real human skin.
And the less obvious ones are that it has functioning eyes, ears, and vocal cord… well, the electronic versions of them. It was a bit difficult to get an image sensor small enough to fit in the ocular modules, there’s simply no cameras small enough for a phone yet, so he had to make one himself. But testing with P.I.C.A showed that a slightly roundabout way of using seals to shrink the readily available image sensors is good enough for now. Though, the image quality is… not great.
As he closed his Magnum Opus’ back seam, Kaori called for his AI assistant.
“P.I.C.A, send a drone to Naruto and tell him to go to my workshop. Also, tell him that I want to show him something cool.” Kaori commanded.
“Yes, sir.” The AI assistant confirmed from inside Kaori’s head. At the same time, a seal array tattooed onto his shoulder warmed slightly in response.
He’s glad that his collaboration with the Yamanaka clan had resulted in something that somewhat replicated Great Sage from Tensura.
A moment later, a drone flew from its charging pad and exited his workshop through an automatic hatch on the roof.
“Oh yeah, almost forgot…” Kaori mumbled as he looked at the opened hatch. “Crawler, get Shikamaru here. Drone #2, look for Uncle Shikaku, tell him I’ll tell him everything he wants to know.” He commanded the rest of his automatons. Directly, this time.
Unfortunately, his puppet making teacher went back to his home last week, so he can’t see this integrated test.
While he waited for an audience, he stepped back from the puppet and let the pulley on the stand pull it up. Letting him see the puppet at its full height at 144 cm tall, plus or minus several millimeters.
The puppet has long dark cyan-blue hair styled with a braid half crown and bangs parted to the left, exactly like his own. Its eyes are colored red, with a translucent part on the bottom half of each pair’s iris that will glow when he activates the puppet, if it works perfectly. Its rubber skin is light tan with darker, brownish color on areas where he put the connectors of each skin section and some decorations, like the number 41 on the upper center of its chest, under the collarbones. And the chest themselves are slightly padded.
Overall, the puppet looks like a young, short woman.
As he contemplated whether he should give it… no, her, some clothes or not, he heard something wooden and four-legged enter his workshop.
“What do you need me for, Kaori?” Shikamaru asked lazily from on top of the crawler-transporter.
“I want an audience. You’re the first to get here, cousin.” Kaori answered, looking at the CT. “Get him off of you, and go back to your pad.”
“What a drag…” Shikamaru complained as a large claw picked him up and put him on the floor gently.
The crawler robot then walked away from the door, revealing someone else standing behind it.
“Ah, hello Chōji, I didn’t expect you to be here.” Kaori greeted the Akimichi. ”Come in, the more, the merrier.”
Chōji entered the workshop and looked around, before standing near Shikamaru.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt your game.” Kaori apologized.
“Well… your automaton did interrupt my cloud watching.” Shikamaru mumbled.
“That doesn’t count.” Kaori snarked. “You sleep almost all the time if given the opportunity.”
“I think it does count.” Chōji (un)helpfully remarked. “Also, Shikamaru said you’re making a puppet. Is that the puppet he’s talking about?”
Kaori followed the direction Chōji pointed. Because his workshop is full of them. Even parts of prototypes were all over the place. Turns out, he was talking about the one puppet that is made to look like a human.
“Yeah, it’s that one.” Kaori nodded. “She’s my most recent creation.”
“She, huh…” Shikamaru mused.
Meanwhile, Chōji asked something that was more expected… about the puppet’s clothing.
“Well… I was considering whether I should dress her up or keep her naked. But I think I’ll keep her naked for now, I want to see if there’s anything wrong with the artificial skin, or how it’ll effect the joints underneath.” Kaori explained.
The part where the puppet had nothing to cover went unspoken. As that small detail were universally known for someone who has seen girls playing with their toy dolls or see a string puppet show.
Chōji hummed in understanding as he continued to eat his chips.
Before long, the drone that P.I.C.A controlled returned to its charging pad. And shortly after, Naruto entered the workshop.
“Hey, Kaori. The drone lady said you have something cool.” Naruto asked.
Kaori nodded and explained that the puppet is the thing he intended to show, but they have to wait for Shikaku first.
Just after he finished talking, the second drone returned.
“Speaking of…” Kaori glanced at the front door. “Hi, uncle. Oh, Inoichi and Ino too.”
“I heard that you want to show me something, Kaori?” Shikaku asked as he entered.
“So, this is the lab of the crazy kid, huh?” Ino commented as she looked at her surroundings.
Kaori blinked several times in befuddlement of that nickname. After a while, he reasoned that he is abnormal for a 6-year-old kid. But still…
“Inoichi, what did you tell your daughter?” Kaori asked flatly.
Inoichi responded to the accusation by deflecting it and blaming his clansmen instead. Which were supported by Ino herself.
Kaori snorted at the reaction of the two blonde mindbenders. “Relax, I’m joking. Though, it makes me curious; what do I do to get that nickname? I’m not sure I’m doing anything that insane.” He then asked.
“Kaori, you proposed the idea of an artificial mind to us. Something that no one has ever think of.” Inoichi pointed out.
“Oh, right, AI…” Kaori trailed of. “Speaking of AI, the reason why I called you here is because I’m doing an integrated test for my new puppet: LD-41-A. Don’t think too much about the naming convention, I made that up.” He explained, gesturing to the very human-like puppet currently hanging on a pulley mechanism.
As the audience of six shifted their attention to the LD-41-A, Kaori commanded P.I.C.A to disconnect from everything that wasn’t essential to the startup and monitoring system and to connect itself to the speakers.
“Affirmative… All systems ready, Master Myrodius.” It announced from the speakers on the four corners of the workshop.
Kaori nodded and exhaled to steel himself, in case of failure. This could probably be the first AGI since the Bijū. Not that anyone else that he knows of see them as a man-made living mass of chakra with intelligence.
“Alright, P.I.C.A, begin the startup sequence.” He commanded.
With an affirmative, the AI assistant sent a command to the puppet’s seal-computer matrix and initiated the startup sequence.
Almost instantly, the LEDs on the puppet’s eyes started to glow. As P.I.C.A announced that the process had reached 20%, the fingers started moving on their own, followed by the hand and feet. Slowly and steadily, LD-41-A activated all of her systems and sent her subconscious system check to P.I.C.A who then announced the more important milestones to the speakers, while keeping the rest of the information flow into Kaori’s brain.
Then, as the system checks at 80% progress announced that all motor functions seemed healthy, the AI assistant lowered the activating automaton and detached her from the holders. As it reached 98%, the monitoring cable detached from the puppet’s neck.
“One hundred percent.” LD-41-A announced. She then checked her body’s mobility and set the limit on each of her joints. After she finished, she looked at Kaori and smiled.
“What do you think, Myrodius?” The puppet asked, in English. “Or… should I call you master?” she added playfully.
Kaori let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding. He then chuckled at the seemingly odd question. But for him, it was just like what he remembered.
“I don’t see anything off, so I think you look ready to go. And you can call me whatever you want, Linda. Also, I think you want to switch to Japanese. My new family and friends can’t understand you.” Kaori answered.
Linda nodded in understanding. Then she did something that everyone didn’t expect.
“Can I ask you something, master?” she asked carefully.
Kaori nodded, prompting Linda to continue with her question.
“You might give me freedom of choosing my own path, from how you programmed me, but… I want to serve you till the end of my life. I might be an imprint of the LD-41-A from your memory, but that’s just that, a memory imprint. We may share the same characteristic and appearance, but unlike the me in your memory, I’m your creation 100%. And I want to repay you for creating me.” LD-41-A explained. “Also… can I hug you?” She added with a head scratch.
Kaori could only stare at his creation with a dumbfounded look. But after he recovered from the second question, he looked at Linda in her synthetic eyes and answered with a smile.
“Yes, you can do both, if that makes you happy.”
With her requests accepted, she kneeled and hugged her creator tightly.
“Thank you.” She whispered.
“You’re welcome.” Kaori replied as he returned the hug. Idly noting that her skin smelled like rubber, as expected. And nothing was burned, as he’d hoped.
After they released each other’s hug and took a look at the audience they remembered about, they saw the adults awkwardly trying to look anywhere except Linda’s body.
Well, it was understandable, but there’s nothing to see anyway.
What both of them don’t remember to consider was how close LD-41-A’s appearance is to a real human: Almost exactly the same. And her very human-like mannerism didn’t help.
Kaori awkwardly coughed into his fist, after realizing the awkward situation that he and his robot/automaton/puppet made.
“Anyway, seeing as your synthetic skin doesn’t seem to interfere with your joints, please wear the clothes I provided. It’s the blue, white and red bundle over there.”
The puppet nodded curtly and grabbed the aforementioned clothes and went to a part of the room that was out of sight to wear it.
After a bit of a pause, Kaori decided that now is the best time to explain everything he promised to his new family and friends.
“Well, seeing that now Linda is active, I think this is the time for me to explain why my mannerism and chakra manipulation technique and skill doesn’t fit my age.” He started.
“Now that I think about it, you do talk like an adult, like you’re doing right now with those big words.” Choji recalled.
“Right, that plus other things that you kids don’t really understand but definitely notice.” Kaori nodded in confirmation. He then returned his focus on Shikaku. “In short, I’m someone with an old soul, reincarnated here as Kaorigoku Nara.”
“Speaking of old soul, he’s not the only one in this room.” LD-41-A sauntered towards Kaori’s side. Now in her full clothes. “Little Kitsune over there is also one.”
It consists of a pair of red sneakers, a pair of dark blue pants, an unbuttoned red tailcoat over a half-buttoned white shirt, and a pair of white gloves.
“How do I look, master?” she asked, ignoring the bombshell she just dropped.
“10/10.” Kaori answered with a small smile.
Both then refocused on the topic at hand after the small diversion.
“Anyway, the main thing is, I have the advantage of time and translatable experience. While about Naruto, at the very least, he has the same potential and similar chakra signature to his previous lives.” Kaori continued. “Speaking of, my current given name coincidentally has a very similar meaning to my old one.” He added idly.
“Myrodius Ouranou, roughly translated as [Scent of Heaven], correct?” Linda asked rhetorically. “Your appearance is also almost 1 to 1.”
Kaori/Myrodius hummed in affirmation. He then asked his audience if they had any questions.
Unsurprisingly, Naruto asked them about his past life. To which Kaori asked him if the name Senju or Ōtsutsuki rings a bell to him.
“I… hm… I know both names, but I don’t know why.” Naruto answered truthfully after thinking hard.
“Then you likely only have very fuzzy memories of it. Don’t worry, that’s more than enough.” Linda approached Naruto and patted his head.
“How do you know all of this information?” Shikaku asked with a furrowed brow.
“You believe me?” Myrodius asked back.
“Yes. And this information is not the weirdest thing you’ve shown us.” Shikaku nodded, eyeing the very human-like automaton as he said “weirdest”.
“Let’s just say I have some information from a higher being before arriving here. With the key divergence being I don’t exist in that information. So, some information might be inaccurate just because I exist. There’s an idea from where I came from that a small change can result in entirely different outcome.” Kaori explained as he glanced at Naruto halfway through his answer.
“Like you, ‘’Little Kitsune’’, being less obnoxious at this point of time than what I was told because you have someone who look after you every day.”
Then, Inoichi called him by his old name.
“Myrodius, is it?”
Kaori hummed as he looked at the blonde man in the eye.
“What are you planning to do?” he asked curtly.
“If I have my way, I just want to live a peaceful life. I was not a good fighter back then. Barely passable, even. But knowing what will come, I’ll train me and my friends to prepare for a potential conflict for the nine tailed beasts in the far future. And maybe make an army of robots.” Myrodius answered truthfully. After a bit of pause, he added a promise to not compromise the safety of the village.
“But if there is an extremist without morals in a high position, I won’t hesitate to… take care of that problem quickly.” He stated firmly.
Meanwhile, Hokage Tower
Danzo Shimura, the leader of ROOT and a pragmatist was not having a good week.
Hiruzen offered him a week of trying the position of Hokage, to see if the old friend still wants the position.
This was just the 3rd day, and the paperwork from the civilian suppliers and clan businesses were still increasing by the hour.
At this moment, he just remembered that while Konoha is mainly a shinobi village, it is still a village. And most supplies, especially weapon materials and food are supplied by the civilian populace.
And while he theoretically can control the logistics directly to his whim like he does for ROOT, the number of things he’d need to approve will increase significantly.
Just as he was about to read another request for a D-rank mission, he suddenly sneezed.
“That’s… acceptable. But I’m not the one in charge.” Inoichi stated carefully.
“Oh, I know. I’m just saying this so you two can ease your mind.” Kaori shrugged. “I don’t mind being mind-searched if you don’t believe me.”
“There’s no need for that.” Inoichi reassured the puppeteer. “Besides, your idea for the Jinko Chino seal helped my clan greatly. Now, we can use the Shintenshin without making our body vulnerable.”
“So, your version of Auto Battle Mode is working perfectly, then. That’s good to hear.” Kaori noted, slowly relaxing his initially tense resting posture.
It seemed that, even after the revelation, everything is still about the same.