"Tomorrow morning, all graduating genin shall assemble at the designated training field of the Preparatory Division for special preliminary training."
The next morning, an announcement was posted on the bulletin board managed by the Military Police at the village entrance.
At first unnoticed, it soon went viral among the Military Police and drew a crowd around the board.
Having someone inside the system helps—one Deputy Captain's father made things much easier.
Thanks to that, Akaba saved himself the trouble of running errands. Before long, a large group had gathered in front of the bulletin board.
The Preparatory Division.
Rumors about reforming this year's system had surfaced a month ago. Recently, Akaba even launched an open recruitment campaign.
Now, the department had finally officially opened.
Most were skeptical and curious, waiting to see what would come of it.
Until now, Konoha had always followed the jonin-led squad system. Suddenly switching to group training left many unconvinced.
But might makes right.
Even jonin couldn't easily change the village's decisions—let alone ordinary ninja like them. Therefore, most could only wait and see how the Preparatory Division would perform.
With training starting soon, Akaba's free time would definitely shrink. But with orders from above, he had no choice but to fulfill his duties.
Before that, though, he needed to pay the hospital a visit first.
The village strongly desired to enhance medical ninjutsu and cultivate qualified medical ninja and systems. As a result, the temporary tents previously standing beside the hospital had become the provisional headquarters of the Medical Division.
Since the Preparatory Division would begin a month-long closed-training program, no one could predict what might happen. To prevent accidents, the presence of a medical team was indispensable.
Although Akaba mastered the Mystical Palm Technique, he was only half-competent at best—useful mainly for emergency treatment. Proper healing still required professional help.
Elder Koharu Utatane temporarily led the Medical Division.
As one of the village Elders and having participated in the decision to appoint Akaba as Training Instructor, she naturally didn't refuse when Akaba made reasonable requests.
However...
"I hope you can join the Medical Department and assist in developing its techniques and systems."
"???!"
Akaba froze in confusion—did the village leadership really all know how to take advantage like this? Especially since he was doing this as a public service!
Utatane understood Akaba well enough to know forcing him wouldn't work. So she tried tempting him instead: "Ahem—it'd just be nominal membership. And think about it—you could come here often and study together with Tsunade."
"No need for that."
You've got to be kidding me! You really think I'd fall for that Tsunade trap?
Akaba refused firmly.
These old foxes keep getting sneakier. Claims like "nominal positions" or "light duty" were all lies—at the end of the day, he'd be working himself to death.
"I can specially arrange a personal medical room for you," Koharu offered again.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Elder Koharu Utatane, truly, there's no need. Excuse me—I should head off now. The Preparatory Division still has many troubles waiting for you."
Akaba didn't stick around any longer—he left decisively.
The village administration was utterly unscrupulous—almost losing control by stooping to such despicable tactics.
He knew nothing about medicine. Without any real knowledge, entering the Medical Division would only make him a danger.
Let medical matters be handled by professionals.
In the afternoon, Akaba considered releasing an extra chapter. Originally, today's update would have covered Tsunade refusing treatment for Orochimaru and deciding to act alone.
But considering he might become quite busy soon due to upcoming isolation training—possibly making updates difficult for a whole month—he felt it necessary to finish drawing this entire volume's plot in one go.
This volume mainly focused on the Three Great Ninja battle arc; what followed was Tsunade accepting her new role and returning to the village to assist with treatments, which could be drawn later at a more convenient time.
After much deliberation, he decided to work overtime.
Izumi Yamano would deliver another shipment in the evening, giving Akaba plenty of time to complete the remaining updates. He wasn't slow—he could easily finish by afternoon.
By the afternoon, Izumi Yamano delivered the remaining cargo. Within this batch were masterpieces created using Multiple Shadow Clones.
The second edition of the *Muzan Series*.
*Ninen (Ninen Short Stories)*.
The shadow clone had considered illustrating a *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* series but realized that since no one in the Fire Shadow World knew what the Three Kingdoms were, people might end up confused and fail to appreciate its charm. So instead, the second edition continued drawing inspiration from the Warriors series of the Warring States era.
Of course, the quantity remained unchanged—still ten volumes.
Rarity enhances value.
The *Muzan Series* is so highly sought after in Konoha precisely because it's rare. If supply increased until everyone had it, people wouldn't rush to buy anymore.
Akaba knew exactly how they thought.
Sure enough, as soon as the comic reached the Manga Shop that afternoon, several individuals began loitering nearby.
By closing time in the evening, all copies of the *Ninen Short Stories* were already sold out.
Seasoned veterans wielded [Vanish in an Instant] and [Transformation Jutsu] like true masters, but Akaba used his Sensor Ability to identify them based on chakra signatures.
For example, the first person identified was actually a Jonin from the Uchiha clan affiliated with the Military Police, thus gaining early access to inside information.
Then came the Uchiha Clan Leader, followed by The Third, and a few others whom Akaba couldn't personally recognize—though these were exceptions.
What surprised Akaba most was discovering even his own Clan Leader—who wasn't exactly in good health—was into these as well.
Isn't he worried about burning out and dropping dead from overwork?
Thankfully, his update schedule wasn't fast—if it were, the backbone of Konoha would suffer from content starvation and collapse during wartime, legs trembling helplessly in battle—how tragic would that be?
For the first time, Akaba felt lucky that his updates were slow.
But who knows what's going on beyond the country's borders?
The Land of Wind had strict border controls, meaning such comics had to be smuggled through alternative channels. Yet in places like Rock Village and Cloud, sales were incredible—whenever Caravans passed through, everything always sold out.
Of course, this was absolutely devastating for Jiraiya.
Out of these ten volumes this time, not even Sakuma Yunlang held any back—they were all released into Konoha's market. If Jiraiya wanted to get his hands on one, he'd have to swallow his pride and go straight to The Third.
With decreased orders for ninja tools at the factory, the manga's print output once again picked up.
Still, a shame, really.
They sped things up on their end, but Akaba had to slow things down on his part. Although he didn't have to do much himself during the month-long training camp, he still had to supervise a large number of students.
Besides—
After working this hard, he deserved some time off. If he didn't grab such a perfect chance to rest, when else could he? Wait until New Year's?
Give me a break!
After submitting this batch of work, he could just create a Shadow Clone tomorrow to handle the daily One Piece update.
With one less clone to maintain, life would be sweet!
The next morning.
As agreed, Akaba was supposed to wake up early and head to the training field to oversee the Genin's training.
But Akaba didn't get up.
Being late was a privilege of instructors. Could someone even be considered a qualified training instructor without being late on their first day leading a team?
The Preparatory Division's training field.
Over a hundred Genin had gathered together with around a dozen Chunin instructors, waiting for training to begin.
However, they waited and waited, until the sun was high at noon, before finally spotting Akaba's figure in the distance.
Under the blazing sun, everyone seemed to see a classic manga scene—the tardy Kakashi hurrying over while apologizing.
"Hey everyone, I overslept today, so I'm late. You all look pretty tired—it's not really the kind of attitude you'd expect from ninja, huh? Should I send you back to school for remedial classes?"
No way!
This guy was worse than Kakashi. At least Kakashi came up with a decent excuse when he was late, but Akaba didn't even bother making one up—he straight-up admitted he slept in.
No wonder he could come up with a character as unique as Kakashi.
The chunin instructors, now doubling as teachers, couldn't help muttering complaints under their breath. This guy really had no sense of decorum.
The group of Genin quickly stood up, no longer daring to sit.
"Alright then, today's training is simple—we're going to play a game. We used it during the Chunin Exams previously, and it worked great. Now let me explain the rules."
"First, everyone form teams of four by yourselves. Those who can't find teammates may form groups of one, two, or three members."
The first [True Illusion] test—the Desert Survival—had only involved nine participants before, but now the scale had expanded to over a hundred people.
The other instructors overseeing the course nodded slightly.
Although they didn't know exactly what the illusion would entail, just hearing the rules made it clear that this game would test both individual capability and teamwork. Those unable to find a team likely struggled with integrating into a group.
Take Uchiha Ryo for example.
Right now, he looked completely confused, glancing around helplessly in search of a teammate—but found none.
It wasn't entirely his fault for being too aloof.
As both a repeat student and a member of the Uchiha Clan, he wasn't exactly popular among his classmates. If it weren't for the improved relationship between the Uchiha and Akaba, he'd suspect Akaba was targeting him personally.
"So if there are no objections, you've got ten minutes to find your teammates. Ten minutes later, I'll use a genjutsu to pull everyone into one massive illusion."
"Just one reminder—though injuries in the [True Illusion] won't appear in reality, I'll ensure full sensory immersion. In other words, when you die in the illusion, you'll feel that exact pain in real life."
"...!"
A cold smirk crept across Akaba's face.
The Genin shivered involuntarily. Painful sensations upon death in the illusion… for real?!
"You're a demon!"
It wasn't just the Genin who were terrified—even the Chunin instructors looked visibly shaken. Shiragusa Ryosuke narrowed his eyes and said, "Akaba, isn't this going too far?"
"The very first lesson the Preparatory Division teaches all of you," Akaba coldly replied, "is that being a ninja is no child's game!"
Although Akaba wore a harsh expression, he was in fact finely calibrating the levels of sensory feedback. The pain and agony from the Gate of Injury were at most sixty percent of real-life intensity.
After all, these were all Genin who'd never seen real life-or-death combat. Experiencing one hundred percent of actual pain could potentially kill them, and that kind of incident would be impossible to cover up.
"Fine then."
Shiragusa Ryosuke could only agree—after all, Akaba was his superior.
"If there are no issues, we'll begin now."
Akaba bit his thumb, drew some blood, then flashed through hand seals and summoned.
Little Yumekuma appeared with a pop.
To create a server large enough for over a hundred participants, Little Yumekuma had to draw life energy from the ninja inside the illusion to sustain it. Otherwise, even though Akaba alone could maintain it temporarily, continuing like this long-term would be unsustainable.
[Gate of Opening] Feel pain! Endure pain! Embrace pain! Comprehend pain!
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