One Week Later, a Town Near Konoha Vilge

  [The dosage I just added should be fine, right?]

  Link held the dark green pill he had made, hesitating slightly.

  Since he had the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique, he wasn’t worried about side effects from taking medicine. But this potent drug he had concocted… he wasn’t sure if he had measured the dosage correctly. The final product was almost the size of a fist.

  He had followed the recipe from a book, amplifying the part that squeezed the body’s cells while adding some herbs to restore stamina. Then, feeling it wasn’t strong enough, he threw in some digestive-enhancing herbs…

  Theoretically, it shouldn’t kill anyone. At worst, it might be too nourishing?

  He sniffed it—something smelled off. Breaking off a small piece, he popped it into his mouth to taste it.

  A bitter, astringent fvor flooded his mouth. After a moment, a fishy taste surged from his stomach.

  "Ugh—" Link gagged. The drug's effects hadn't even kicked in yet, but his body was already reacting. Some of the herbs must have cshed, producing a fvor akin to a hundredfold concentration of fish mint mixed with fermented herring.

  "Ugh—"

  Reflecting on the taste made him gag again. Then, he felt his stomach start to churn as the pill took effect, his body heating up slightly.

  The effect seemed decent, but…

  [I feel like this thing could be used as a torture device.] Link shuddered, staring at the dark green pill he had created.

  The medicine was undeniably potent—a small piece was enough for him to feel its effects. But a normal person would never be able to swallow an entire one.

  In short, this version of the potent pill was a failure.

  A major failure.

  Link tossed the pill into a bag, pnning to feed it to the rabbits he kept at Training Ground Seven. Maybe they'd like it?

  After all, expensive herbs shouldn’t go to waste!

  He sighed. His pn to mooch off the Nara Cn’s herbal supply had succeeded… but also failed. His teacher had generously allowed him to use the herbs, but he couldn’t really just take them for free.

  Nara Shikaku couldn’t represent the entire Nara Cn, so in the end, Link decided to buy the herbs at a slightly higher price than their cost.

  Even that was still very expensive.

  He wondered how the negotiations between the vilge and Sunagakure were going. It had been over a week with no results—Chiyo still hadn’t come to buy back her grandson, and no one from Suna had asked about the Third Kazekage either.

  Meanwhile, Link was sitting on a massive stockpile of high-quality puppets, yet in the end, the only things he sold to Kankurō were some broken scraps—

  Those that had been smashed by that Stand Spice Girl were all bought up by Kankurō at dirt-cheap prices. He only purchased one intact puppet.

  His need for money was endless—food, shelter, experiments, potent drug-making, the cost of kinjutsu… everything cost money!

  [Speaking of which, shouldn’t I try to find some wealthy dead people…?]

  Link watched as his shadow cleaned up the table, his mind spinning on ways to make money.

  The Pure Land was full of people—too many to count. Every time he broadcast or told stories, hordes of spirits gathered. Filtering out the ones without chakra was necessary.

  After all, compared to ninjas, ordinary people were far too numerous. Without filtering them, millions of civilians would flood in instantly.

  There was no way he could talk to them all one by one.

  Summoning techniques could help detect and filter out spirits with chakra, but they couldn’t differentiate between those who were wealthy in life.

  Asking each spirit individually was risky—he might end up talking to a rich guy from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. And even if they had wealth back then, their modern-day descendants might not want to pay to bring them back.

  Trying to use summoning techniques to make money from random spirits was difficult, time-consuming, and something he had no time for before.

  Now that he had some free time, he could seriously think about it.

  [Sigh, let’s see how those three are doing.]

  Link got up and stepped outside to check on his three subordinates, who were currently driving away wild beasts. High-level missions weren’t always avaible, so after returning from the Land of Rivers, they were back to their usual cycle of D-rank and C-rank missions.

  This time, it was a C-rank mission—helping local vilgers drive away a herd of giant wild boars.

  It was boring, but that was daily life.

  …

  Afternoon, Konoha Vilge – Hokage’s Office

  "Lord Third, you called for me?"

  As soon as Link returned to the vilge with his subordinates, he received a summons from the Anbu. Hoping it was because Sunagakure was finally ready to pay up, he rushed over. But upon entering the office and not seeing Chiyo or Ebizō, his heart sank.

  The Third Hokage was sorting through documents. Seeing Link enter, he looked up and smiled. "Of course, I called you here for a reason."

  After a brief pause, he continued, "We’re pnning to hold a Three-Nation Summit with Sunagakure and Amegakure next month. The location will likely be in the Land of Rivers."

  The Land of Rivers again?

  Link sighed internally. He felt like he was tied to that country—how many times had he already gone there?

  The Third Hokage removed his hat, revealing an even more aged face. Smiling kindly, he said, "Would you be willing to accompany me as a Hokage’s Guard for this meeting?"

  A Hokage’s Guard?

  Link was momentarily stunned. In the First Five Kage Summit, many of the Kage's guards ter became Kage themselves. The Third Hokage himself had once been the Second Hokage’s guard.

  In other words—

  "I accept," he replied firmly, without much hesitation.

  There was no reason to refuse. Opportunities to serve as the Hokage’s Guard were rare. The Third Hokage was usually surrounded only by Anbu, but since they couldn’t accompany him in formal diplomatic settings, it made sense for someone to take their pce.

  But… wasn’t he a bit too young for this?

  He was about to turn eleven, and he was already a Hokage’s Guard?

  "In that case, I’ll be counting on you for my safety," the Third Hokage said with a gentle smile. He wasn’t using his title as Hokage but spoke like a kind elder. His wrinkles rexed under the warm afternoon sunlight and gentle breeze.

  "Besides you, Kakashi will also be joining us."

  "Oh, and about the techniques you requested st time—many of them cannot be taught to you."

  "However, for some of them, you can come to my house and browse through them when you have time. If you run into any issues, I can guide you. As for the Eight Gates Release, when Guy returns to the vilge, he’ll be in charge of teaching you…"

  His tone and demeanor cked the usual authority and weight of a Hokage. Instead, he spoke like a regur old man—like a grandfather chatting leisurely with his grandson under the eaves on a breezy afternoon.

  "Thank you very much." Link was pleasantly surprised. He had assumed all his requests for forbidden techniques would be outright rejected.

  Maybe they would even forbid him from learning Flying Thunder God altogether.

  But now, it seemed like some of them were approved.

  In that case, would it be possible to casually ask about Edo Tensei as well?

  After all, Orochimaru had used it in the Konoha Crush pn. Out of sheer curiosity, asking about it should be fine, logically speaking.

  Bleam