"Shizune, you take a look too."
Lady Tsunade casually handed the precious document over. From the look on her teacher's face, Shizune immediately understood how valuable it was.
As her eyes moved down the page, Shizune's calm expression shifted to one of shock and growing seriousness.
She didn't possess Tsunade's depth of vision, but even she could tell—this document was groundbreaking. It proposed a system that could stand shoulder to shoulder with the way of the shinobi.
"Lady Tsunade! This… this is nothing short of a madman's delusion!" Shizune gasped.
Tsunade shook her head. "No. He is a madman, but this isn't mere conjecture. It's a fully established path. And tell me—why couldn't such a madman also be a genius?"
Shizune exhaled sharply and muttered, "Then he's a crazy genius."
Tsunade only smiled, not bothering to refute her words. In truth, she agreed. To create an entirely new profession—something to rival shinobi—could only be the work of someone both brilliant and insane.
"Haku," Tsunade turned her gaze toward the youth, "you were sent by the Umbrella Organization's higher-ups. You should know the follow-up cultivation methods, shouldn't you?"
It sounded like a question, but her tone left little doubt. Haku caught on immediately and smiled faintly.
"As expected of Lady Tsunade. Yes, there are follow-up methods, but they must be exchanged through the Umbrella Organization's system, using contribution levels and points. Not just that—Jutsu can also be exchanged with points."
"Jutsu?" Tsunade raised a brow.
Haku explained patiently, "It's what we call them within the organization—essentially the same as Ninjutsu."
He personally preferred the term Jutsu. It carried none of the darker connotations that clung to the word shinobi.
"I see… and why didn't I hear about this sooner?" Tsunade asked, irritation creeping into her voice.
Haku tilted his head, amused. "Doesn't Lady Tsunade already know the answer?"
Her anger deflated instantly, replaced by a faintly embarrassed expression. She had to admit the point.
Months earlier, her true identity had been exposed. Too weary to bother hiding it, she'd simply carried on—only to be made dean of the institution rather than cast out. Yet even with her position, she had never met the organization's true upper echelons.
When she had asked about this, the response she'd received was:
"The organization does not forbid recruiting shinobi from other villages. In fact, we welcome them."
To her doubts—Aren't you afraid of spies?—the answer had been just as blunt:
"Our organization has special screening methods."
It was a statement steeped in mystery. And knowing what she did of dōjutsu like the Sharingan, Tsunade realized it wasn't an empty boast. Very few could withstand interrogation from even an ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan user. And if suspicion lingered, Mangekyō interrogation would uncover the truth.
"First things first. Tell me how to exchange for the follow-up methods of this Martial Arts System," Tsunade said, steering the discussion back.
Haku didn't tease them further. Reaching into his robes, he withdrew a slim, unfamiliar device—something reminiscent of the "tablet" Naruto had once described from his mysterious past life.
"What is this?" Tsunade and Shizune asked almost in unison, leaning closer.
"This," Haku said with a touch of pride, "is a smart tablet developed by the organization. With it, you can browse the Jutsu available for exchange, as well as the cultivation methods of the Martial Arts System."
He powered it on, and a glow lit up the screen, displaying a distinctive umbrella-shaped insignia.
The shinobi world already had some foundations in technology—computers, televisions. With Naruto's guidance, the leap to tablets had been achievable. He even had plans for "mobile phones," though those were still in development.
The key innovation was the power source: Chakra itself.
Naruto had even built a chakra-signal receiver to make it possible. The cost of constructing that single receiver had run into the hundreds of millions of ryō—equivalent to the worth of a dozen Sarutobi Asumas.
The expense came down to chakra metal. Only chakra metal could effectively receive and transmit chakra signals.
Tsunade and Shizune studied the device curiously. To them, it looked like a shrunken television.
The functions, however, were basic. It couldn't make calls yet, though it could send messages through the receiving device. Video capabilities hadn't been realized either—development time had been too short.
Still, Haku added that the calling function was already under testing. It simply remained too expensive for general release, but research was ongoing to bring costs down.
This was all thanks to the Ninjutsu Naruto had invented back then—the Chakra Dialogue Room. With that foundation, and given the shinobi world's half-decent level of industrial development, creating a finished product like this tablet had been inevitable.
Of course, people in the shinobi world weren't lacking in intelligence. If anything, the real issue was the number of unstable personalities running around.
Haku personally demonstrated how to use the device. It was surprisingly convenient. As Tsunade watched, she finally saw the follow-up methods for the Martial Arts System she had been longing for. They were all listed on the screen—though only by name. Alongside them were countless Ninjutsu.
Or rather, Jutsu—the Umbrella Organization's preferred term. Tsunade smirked. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. But it wasn't as though she had ever been short on techniques.
"Hmm, quite a wide selection," Tsunade muttered, scanning the catalog. "But Konoha already has many of these."
She hadn't expected the Umbrella Organization to possess such a vast collection of techniques. Among them, she recognized many that overlapped with Konoha's own repertoire.
What Tsunade didn't realize was that most of these techniques had been taken from Danzō's Root base—Naruto's spoils. If she knew, she might not know whether to laugh or curse.
Still, the sheer volume stunned her. Some of these Jutsu had clearly been gathered from rogue-nin who had defected from other villages. They had exchanged the techniques they knew in return for points, which they could then use to learn new Jutsu and grow stronger.
Why wouldn't they agree to such a deal? Tsunade thought grimly.
She tapped on the option for the Martial Arts "Tendon Refining" method. A prompt immediately appeared on the screen:
[Please bind identity information!]
"What is this?" Tsunade frowned, more curious than alarmed. For the first time in a long while, she felt as though she had been left behind by the times.
"Purchasing requires identity confirmation," Haku explained gently. "All you need to do is register your Chakra here, and it will bind your identity."
It was simple, really—like fingerprint recognition in Naruto's mysterious past life. Once recorded, Tsunade's Chakra signature could always be identified. Naruto had designed this with the long-term governance of the system in mind.
Tsunade's brows furrowed, but she quickly dismissed her hesitation. Revealing her Chakra fluctuations wasn't much of a risk. It wasn't as if she were Anbu. Her identity was hardly something she could—or wanted to—hide.
She pressed her hand to the device.
[Binding in progress… Name: Tsunade. Level: Yellow. Points: 70,962. Welcome!]
Lines of text flashed across the screen. Tsunade immediately opened the exchange list for the Martial Arts System.
What she saw left her stunned.
The cost was ridiculously low. The Martial Arts Introduction—Body Strengthening—was free.
Advancing to proper Body Strengthening required only 100 points. Bone Refining cost 1,000. Tendon Refining just 5,000. Even Organ Refining—the level described as rivaling a Kage's strength—was a mere 10,000 points!
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. It wasn't that the prices were high—it was that they were far too low. Something of this caliber should have been guarded and passed down like an S-rank secret technique.
In comparison, the Jutsu exchange costs were higher, but still reasonable. Certainly far more accessible than how shinobi normally acquired Ninjutsu through their villages.
...
TN:
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