Chapter 46: For Konoha, Please

"Phew~ I'm dead tired. No wonder Lord Yi even gave us a reward. This mission looked so simple, but I never expected it to be this exhausting to carry out!"

At noon, outside Shisui's residence, Jin Huo dragged back bags of various sizes and couldn't help but complain.

It was the dead of winter, yet his head was covered in sweat and his cotton clothes were soaked through.

"I mean, why did they have us buy groceries, and just one or two items at a time? That's not even enough for the annual gathering. Besides, wasn't this kind of thing always left to Grandma and the others before?"

Ying Shu nodded in agreement. It wasn't that he minded the hard work; he just found it strange.

This was already their fourth trip back since morning. Whenever they couldn't carry everything, they'd run back, put the things down, and head out again to continue shopping.

To this, Sima Yi's reply was, "Well done. I'll tell Shisui."

For Lord Shisui!

The two could only grit their teeth and keep working until now.

"Youth really is fast. Buying all these things has my back about to break."

As the two talked, two more people walked up from behind. They were also guards, but they pushed a wooden cart piled high with all kinds of purchased goods, panting heavily as they struggled over.

"You guys are back... huh? You can do it this way too? How many more streets do you have left?"

"Uh, we're only on our fourth street. Still a lot to go, might not even finish today. What about you?"

"We... third street..."

The four fell silent. It was the first time they'd felt misery from spending money to buy things.

"Thank you for your hard work, my lords. Steward Yi instructed that after you return from this trip, you should go eat, and then continue after lunch."

A person walked out from the courtyard gate — it was Yu Zhibo Xuehua. She wore a gentle smile and held a wooden box in her hand.

"Great, finally a break. I feel like I could eat ten bowls of tonkotsu ramen right now!"

Ying Shu also breathed a sigh of relief and teased, "That's too exaggerated, Brother Jin Huo. Besides, Grandma and the others don't know how to make tonkotsu ramen either."

"None of your business, you don't get to say!"

The other two laughed and said, "Then you two go eat first. Leave the stuff here and we'll push it in with the cart."

"Eh? Is that okay?" Jin Huo grinned, a bit embarrassed.

"Don't underestimate us. No matter what, we're Konoha's genin!"

"Hahaha, fair enough. Thanks a lot then. Ying Shu, let's go go go, let's go eat and see what good food there is today."

Jin Huo didn't refuse their kindness. After thanking them, he pulled Ying Shu and headed into the courtyard.

Unexpectedly, Xuehua suddenly reached out and stopped him at the gate.

"Eh?"

"This is money for lunch today. Thank you for your hard work."

Xuehua smiled sweetly. She took out paper bills from the wooden box and held them out to Jin Huo, but looking at the ten bills before him, Jin Huo's mouth twitched and a sense of foreboding arose in his heart.

"Money for lunch? What does that mean? Lord Yi isn't having us eat outside, is he?"

It was clearly a good thing. If it had been yesterday, he would have jumped for joy. But after a morning of torment, he discovered that Sima Yi's missions were not as easy as they appeared.

"That's right~ Lord Steward wants to know which restaurants outside are relatively good, so he can make purchases for the annual gathering later. So he hopes you can try several more places. Lord Jin Huo should understand Lord Steward's meaning, right?"

He certainly understood. But even at current prices, a bowl of tonkotsu ramen was only 90 ryo. These ten bills totaled a full ten thousand ryo, and that was just for him alone. Even eating barbecue would be more than enough. It was clear that this noon was not for them to rest at all.

"Do we have to try every place on the streets?"

"Of course. Every street and every restaurant that Lord Jin Huo and Lord Ying Shu are responsible for must be tried."

"Every single one?" "Every single one!"

Looking at Xuehua's beaming expression, the young Jin Huo actually forced a well character onto his forehead.

"Got it. This is the record from this trip. Please hand it to him!" Jin Huo viciously picked up the money, set down the record, then turned and left.

Ying Shu also took out his record, accepted the money, said thanks, and followed right behind.

Xuehua smiled and replied prettily, "Thank you for your hard work~"

The remaining two scratched their heads and looked at each other, discussing, "Lord Steward treating us to a meal should be a good thing, right?"

"Probably..."

Whether it was a good thing or not, Sima Yi was in no position to judge. He had just eaten lunch and was in the study organizing the records brought back by three squads all morning.

They included tedious records of streets, shop names, items, prices, and so on. Yu Zhibo Meihua assisted at his side. Aside from a brief rest at noon, the two had been busy for a long time.

Among them, shops dealing in grain and salt were all separately recorded by Sima Yi.

"Good, just like that. Record any price differences for the same goods inside and outside of Konoha. Those related to ninja don't need attention. Shops that carry mechanism-science goods must be recorded separately."

After so many days in Konoha, Sima Yi had mostly been learning about ninja. Now, turning his gaze downward, he quickly discovered some peculiar items.

They had nothing to do with ninja, yet possessed various strange effects — some practical and convenient for ordinary people, others serving to entertain nobles.

He keenly recognized the value of these items and took care to record them.

"Yes, Lord Steward."

Meihua was quick and efficient, could read and do arithmetic, and had helped Sima Yi a great deal.

Knock knock knock~ "Lord Steward, Lord Jin Huo's batch of records has arrived."

"Come in. Perfect timing. I'll leave the work here to you two. I need to rest a bit." Sima Yi stretched his body and instructed.

Xuehua walked in, set the records on the desk, and nodded obediently.

"Understood, Lord Steward."

After Sima Yi left, the two women exchanged a glance, then left his line of sight and silently continued their work.

By evening, Shisui finished his day of training, dropped off Itachi, and at his own courtyard gate saw Jin Huo and the others looking utterly miserable.

"What happened to you all?"

Shisui stepped forward to look and saw that Xuehua was actually handing out money to them. But what puzzled him was why everyone's expressions were so awful?

Hearing Shisui's voice, Jin Huo's expression changed and he immediately ran over, wailing, "Lord Shisui, the food outside is terrible, it's terrible! I don't want to eat it!"

The food outside naturally wouldn't taste too bad, but high-cost items like roasted meat weren't that many, and for the sake of keeping records the two couldn't eat at the same establishment.

So after eating their way down one street, they hadn't finished their money but the food was already stuffed up to their throats; having no appetite and then encountering some deep-fried and cloying things made Jin Huo feel even more miserable all over.

If it doesn't taste good, then just don't eat it.

Shisui smiled and was about to raise a hand to comfort him, but saw Xuehua circle around Jin Huo and walk over, whispering a few words in his ear.

Shisui's expression changed; he gave an awkward smile, and the hand he had raised also froze, before finally slowly coming to rest on Jin Huo's shoulder.

"Jin Huo, for the Uchiha, for Konoha! I'm counting on you!"

"Eh?"

(End of this chapter)