Konoha chunins retreated to their room after the battle was over.
Tadashi couldn't resist but asked, "Fujin, how did you manage to kill a Jounin?"
Fujin shrugged and said, "He was very weak."
Ryota asked, "He is a Jounin. How can he be weak?"
Fujin chuckled and said, "If he was in my chunin exam, I am sure that he won't even get promoted to Chunin."
Fujin's teammates suddenly had strange expressions. Initially, they assumed that Fujin was being modest. But now, Fujin had implied that the students in his chunin exams were stronger.
Ryota asked, "What do you mean? Didn't he know some sort of secret jutsus?"
Fujin said, "During our fight, he had plenty of opportunities to use jutsus, but he didn't use any. Even in death, he didn't use any jutsu. So most likely, he didn't know any jutsu at all. He just had a very strong survival instinct that allowed him to dodge multiple killing blows. I guess that he was just lucky to never be discovered."
Fujin's answer left them dumbfounded. Tadashi's chin dropped. He exclaimed, "You've got to be kidding me!"
His dog Kenta barked in agreement.
After the moment of disbelief passed, Tamotsu said, "Fujin, about the bounty reward…"
Fujin looked at him and asked, "What about it?"
Before Tamotsu answered, Fujin said, "Oh, we divide the bounty rewards as well, right?"
Tamotsu nodded.
Fujin said, "Alright."
Tamotsu smiled. He was hoping that Fujin would answer this way. If Fujin had refused to share, he would have kicked him out of the team.
He said, "While we do usually share such bounty rewards, all the work was done by you in this case. So you can keep the entire reward. Does anyone else disagree?"
Fujin was surprised to see that no one showed any dissatisfaction. He asked, "Are you guys sure? I don't mind dividing the reward equally."
Fujin really didn't mind. After all, money wasn't much help in this world. The stuff that could aid Fujin in getting stronger, such as the Elemental crystals, couldn't be bought with money. At the very least, it couldn't be bought with just a few million Ryo.
Tamotsu said, "Yup. We are sure."
Fujin didn't insist anymore and just nodded. He thought, 'Wow, never thought an entire group would say no to millions of Ryo. If this was my old world, even the richest person would have said yes without a single thought!
Heck, I'd be worried whether they would plot something when I sleep! So many cases where friends and even family turned on each other just for money despite doing well financially!'
Fujin looked at the smiling faces of his teammates and sighed in his mind, 'How good it'd have been if that Monkey-Fox hybrid was as kind as them!'
The next morning, Daimyo, his family and the guards return to the castle. Saton updates him on all the events. After doing some preparations, they organize a small ceremony and invite the Konoha ninjas.
The Konoha ninjas arrived. The room was big and almost occupied the entire floor. At the center of the room was a long conference table with chairs around it.
Fujin observed carefully. The Daimyo sat at one end with a couple of Samurai bodyguards standing next to him. The Daimyo was very old. In the chairs adjacent to him, a young man and a young girl were sitting. A few more officials sat next to them.
Sotan asked the Konoha ninjas to take the seats opposite the Daimyo. Tamotsu sat on the chair exactly opposite the Daimyo, while Fujin and the rest sat in adjacent chairs.
The young man beside the Daimyo said, "I am Chikara. I thank you for doing the job so efficiently. Despite our estimates being incorrect, we were able to eliminate all the enemy with zero losses thanks to you."
Tamotsu replied with a smile, "No need to thank us, it was our mission."
Chikara and some of the subordinates of Daimyo praised the Konoha ninjas a lot. They paid additional monetary rewards to them due to the increased difficulty of the mission. The Daimyo signed a letter addressing Hiruzen praising the work done by them.
After an hour of boring talks mixed with great food, Fujin was given the 13 million Ryo bounty. Chikara, who presented the bounty, said, "Sotan couldn't stop singing praises of you. Are you also the Ghostly Swordsman who helped out others?"
Fujin replied, "Nope. I am just a normal swordsman."
Chikara observed Fujin's face. But he couldn't read anything. He thought, 'Based on the information, I'm sure that he is the one who cut them down. But looks like he doesn't want the extra attention.'
Chikara was very impressed with Fujin. He was young, strong and didn't seek fame. He said, "Fujin, I will be sworn in as the Daimyo for this country in a couple of years. Would you like to be a part of my Guardian team?"
Chikara's proposal surprised a lot of people. Meanwhile, Fujin's eyebrows twitched involuntarily. He politely said, "I will consider it."
Before waiting for any response, he turned around and joined his team. Chikara looked awkwardly as his first-ever invite was ignored in this manner.
Knowing his inexperience, the old Daimyo finally spoke, "The Land of Noodles will be in your debt. If you ever want to or have time, feel free to visit us."
He looked at Fujin and continued, "Our chefs will have the best dishes prepared for you. As for the Ghostly Swordsman, I will see that no one mentions him being you."
Fujin nodded while thinking, 'This old guy is smart.'
After some more formalities, the Konoha team left. While leaving, Ryota said, "Wow! I thought you would accept Fujin. Being a guardian of a Daimyo is a huge honor."
Fujin replied, "I doubt I'll get many opportunities to gain experience as a bodyguard. And, it's unlikely that they will suffer a bigger threat than the last attack any time soon. So it would be very boring."
While Fujin said that, his thoughts were completely different, 'Seriously, why do strong ninjas even have respect for the Daimyos? It's not like they have any real power. Their only real achievement is being born as the first child of a Daimyo.
I am surprised that someone like Danzo or any other psycho didn't get rid of them and took control of all the finances and management of entire countries.'
Tamotsu said, "While the job is boring, it is very prestigious. And there are a lot of perks to being a Guardian of a Daimyo. The most important being that you can be an ambassador for our village and use your influence to send most of the missions to Konoha."
Fujin said, "Oh, I didn't think from that point of view. But, isn't our Mission center full of missions anyways?"
Tamotsu said, "Yeah, that's true."
He became silent as he recalled the losses from the previous Great Wars.
After a day's journey, the group returned to Konoha and accepted the mission rewards. Tamotsu said, "You guys can leave. I will hand the Daimyo's letter to Lord Hokage and report him on the mission as well."
Others nodded and left. Tamotsu entered the Hokage's office and greeted Hiruzen and handed him the letter and said, "Our mission this time became a few times more difficult. The Daimyo of the Land of Noodles sent you a letter."
Hiruzen read it and said, "Looks like the Daimyo is very impressed by your work. He has especially praised Fujin a lot. How is your experience with him so far?"
Tamotsu nodded and said, "The kid is good. He didn't do anything in the previous two missions, but in this mission, he was invaluable. He spotted the attack long before others. In the fight, he killed 1 Jounin, 6 Chunins and 20 Genins. And he helped subdue the leader of the rogues as well."
Hiruzen analyzed for a bit and said, "The data on the Noodle Thief seems inconsistent. Though he had a huge bounty, there are no records of him being in any significant fight."
Tamotsu said, "Yeah. Actually, Fujin said that he was very weak. He just had a good survival instinct. I thought he was just being humble. But that might indeed be the case."
Hiruzen nodded and said, "Regardless, it is a very good performance."
Tamotsu agreed and added, "His attitude is good too. Though he killed the Noodle Thief by himself, he was willing to share the bounty with the entire team. We didn't accept it, but the kid is very selfless."
A weird expression formed on Hiruzen's face as he thought, 'Selfless? Is he talking about the same person?'
Tamotsu didn't notice the change in expression. He reported the remaining details to Hiruzen before leaving.
After he left, Hiruzen wondered, 'It's good that he was willing to share the rewards with his team, but how did he become so selfless all of a sudden? Does he only become greedy in front of me?'
Hiruzen's analysis was very close to the truth. Strong ninjas like Hiruzen and Renjiro knew a lot of jutsus that Fujin wanted. And it didn't cost them anything to teach apart from maybe time. So he will always use any means necessary to get some jutsus from them. As for money, in Fujin's eyes, Hiruzen handled all finances of Konoha. And Konoha was the richest hidden village. So he operates under the assumption that Hiruzen is loaded!
