There was plenty of time, and since he got up too early in the morning and there were not many customers, Shuimu couldn't help but doze off on the chair behind the counter.
When Shuimu was sleeping soundly, he vaguely felt someone coming into the store. After a while, it seemed that someone was calling him.
Mizuki, who was disturbed from his nap, opened his eyes unhappily and found that Hinata Hyuga, who looked cautious, was greeting him, followed by Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame, whose presence was minimal.
"What's the matter with you?" Mizuki didn't have much dealings with these three Genin, and they were all from ninja families. He was not very familiar with them, but they often communicated in the ninja school. However, the only one who could get along well with them was Umino Iruka.
"We want to visit Teacher Hong, so we wanted to come over to buy flowers..." Hyuga Hinata said timidly.
"Buying flowers? This place doesn't seem to be on the way, right? Isn't Ino's flower shop closer? Why are you here?"
"Mr. Mizuki, you are open for business, why do you want to drive customers away?" Inuzuka Kiba is a straightforward person, and he says whatever comes to his mind. "We came too early, and it seems that the Ino family is not open yet."
"Morning?" Shuimu looked outside the door. The weather was fine, the view was clear, and it was already bright. How could a flower shop not be open now? But then Shuimu realized that Yamanaka Inoichi was injured in the fight with A Fei yesterday, and now he is either in the hospital or recuperating at home. If there is something going on at home, taking care of the shop will naturally take a back seat.
"Which ones have you chosen? I'll pack them for you..."
"Don't bother, Mr. Mizuki, we've got it all ready." Aburame Shino wanted to show her presence and actually spoke, "We've already put the money on the table."
"Huh?" Shuimu rubbed his eyes and then noticed the few coins in front of him.
"Why did you wake me up when everything is ready?"
"So what else do you want?" Shuimu tried his best to force a smile and said kindly. He still had to maintain the dignity and tolerance of a teacher.
"I heard that Mizuki-sensei and Hong-sensei went out of the village together on a mission and were both seriously injured. But it seems that Mizuki-sensei is in good condition, but I don't know if Hong-sensei is okay." Inuzuka Kiba asked Mizuki, "We asked other people, but they all told us to wait patiently and not to worry, and they didn't tell us the truth..."
"Well." It was inevitable that these Genin were worried. "Yuhi Kurenai's condition is OK. She shouldn't be in danger of death. But it's hard to say what will happen in the future. At least the recovery period will be very long..."
"That means, for a long time, Teacher Hong will not be here to guide us and lead us in completing the assigned tasks?" The taciturn Aburame Shino was the smartest and most serious of the three, and she immediately discovered the subtext in Mizuki's words.
"That's basically it. You have to be prepared. But..." Mizuki changed the subject and continued, "If there are better medical ninjas to treat, it's hard to say whether Yuhi Kurenai Jonin can be cured as soon as possible."
Mizuki didn't dare to say anything too definite. When Tsunade came back, there might be better treatment methods. Without having seen it, Mizuki couldn't judge the level of Tsunade's medical ninjutsu.
"We understand the situation. Thank you, Teacher Mizuki. We'll be leaving first." Now that they knew the truth, the three Genin thanked them and left.
Looking at the three people leaving, Mizuki shook his head slightly. Apart from these three people, perhaps no one in Konoha Village had ever cared about who would be the leader of the eighth Genin team.
Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba are all Genin with distinct characteristics and family heritage. The teaching of ninjutsu is naturally done by the strong men in their families, and it is no worse than the teaching by the leader jonin who is an outsider. In fact, what they need is not the leader jonin to teach them powerful ninjutsu, but to teach them how to be a qualified ninja. The latter is much more concerned by the elders of the three Genin than the former.
As a genjutsu ninja who was promoted not long ago, Yuhi Kurenai didn't have much to teach the genin of Team 8 in terms of ninjutsu. However, as a new and energetic jonin, and a genjutsu female ninja who was extremely difficult to become a jonin, her tenacity and extraordinary qualities would naturally attract attention. In the objective environment where Team 8 did not have very strict requirements for the team leader, Yuhi Kurenai was actually quite suitable for this role. She was neither overbearing nor lacking in patience and quality. In the past few months, she had indeed done a good job, which was quite rare for a new jonin.
Now that Kurenai Yuhi is seriously injured and cannot perform her duties as a team teacher for the time being, it is necessary to find a temporary replacement. With Konoha's background, it is a bit difficult to find someone as suitable as Kurenai Yuhi, but it is relatively easy to find someone who is similar or slightly worse. However, all this is not Mizuki's business. The jonin who can serve as the team teacher of the genin are at least quite patient. Before these people are promoted to chunin, they will probably have to work as nannies for another year.
…
After being disturbed by the three Genin from Team 8, Mizuki's sleepiness had gone a lot. As time went by, more and more people would take to the streets. At this point in time, even the laziest people would have to get up and go to work. The actual situation was indeed as Mizuki expected. More and more customers came, and Mizuki didn't have many opportunities to be lazy.
Although Shuimu and Xiaochun have not opened the Four Seasons Flower Shop for long, thanks to their own flower garden, the growth rate has greatly increased after using the medicine prepared by Shuimu himself, and the probability of flower mutation is much higher than the normal probability. Although most of them are worthless failures, some rare and unique varieties are still quite popular, which really attracts many flower lovers and flower arrangement enthusiasts to the store. As the business improves, it also brings Shuimu a lot of income. Without this, it would be a hassle to maintain Shuimu's expenses in all aspects. Although he is not well-off now, at least he is no longer worried about the financial difficulties a few months ago.
After a period of familiarity, Shuimu can barely cope with this busy situation. It is much better than before when he knew nothing and was often overwhelmed by customers' questions. However, it seems that it will take quite some time to adapt to this kind of life.
It was not until noon that the hot weather greatly dampened the enthusiasm of many people to go out, and Shuimu was able to take a short break and wait for Xiaochun to come and bring lunch.
However, before Xiaochun arrived, Uchiha Sasuke came to visit first.
Seeing Uchiha Sasuke looking at him with a complicated expression, Mizuki understood that Sasuke probably knew something about what happened yesterday.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Shuimu asked nonchalantly, "What's the matter? You should be having lunch at this time, right?"
"Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" Sasuke seemed a little unwilling and dissatisfied with Mizuki for not telling him the truth in time.
"Tell you what? Are you referring to Uchiha Itachi's return? And on what grounds do you ask me to meddle in your affairs?"
"I'm sorry for being rude." Sasuke seemed to realize that his attitude was very unfriendly. Using a questioning tone to address someone who had helped him was really not something a Genin should say to a Chunin teacher.
"It's okay, Sasuke." Mizuki waved his hand to show that he didn't mind. "How much do you remember about what I said yesterday?"
"Is that man really that strong?"
"Is that all you remember?" Mizuki was very disappointed with Sasuke's answer. "That sword-wielding warrior god is the technique used by Uchiha Itachi, and that's not all he has..." At least in yesterday's Susanoo, Uchiha Itachi did not use the divine weapon. Whether he didn't want to or couldn't for the time being, it didn't matter. It was enough to understand that Uchiha Itachi could be even stronger.
"So, I don't even have the qualifications to seek revenge now?" Sasuke said in despair, "Is my persistence a joke?"
"Okay, Sasuke, didn't I ask you, do you remember what I said yesterday?" Sasuke's negative emotions are actually a big problem, and this can be used by many people. Shimura Danzo, Uchiha Obito, and even Uchiha Itachi are deceiving him, even if it's for his own good. "As a ninja teacher, I will not lie to my former students. Your future will not be worse than your brother, but now, you can't even accurately judge the comparison between your strength and others. Especially Uchiha Itachi, you don't understand the gap between you at all."
"What should I do? After all this hard work, the gap between me and that man has not only not narrowed, but has even widened."
"If you hold this attitude and idea, it will be very dangerous, Sasuke." In Mizuki's opinion, in terms of absolute strength, Uchiha Itachi has indeed become stronger and stronger in recent years, far beyond what Uchiha Sasuke could imagine. Sasuke is only twelve years old, just entering the golden period of rapid growth for ninjas, and Uchiha Itachi is almost eighteen years old. In the past few years, how many people in the ninja world can grow faster than Uchiha Itachi?
"But even Naruto is stronger than me now..."
"A sense of crisis? Do you feel that you are growing too slowly?"
Uchiha Sasuke didn't say anything and agreed with Mizuki's guess.
Mizuki chuckled and said, "A month ago, Rock Lee beat you so hard that you had no chance to fight back. A month later, Gaara, who defeated Rock Lee, was completely suppressed by you in the Chunin Exam in front of everyone. Am I right?"
"But, in the end, Naruto still defeated him?"
"Naruto can't defeat Gaara?" Mizuki asked, "Is this the impression you have of your teammate Uzumaki Naruto? A lifelong waste? Never as good as you? Greed and jealousy, you made two mistakes. Do you think Naruto is just a lucky guy who got power?"
Mizuki's words left Sasuke speechless. In terms of talent, Sasuke believed that he was better than Naruto, but in terms of hard work, he had to admire Naruto's unyielding effort and confidence.
"Go back and think about it carefully. Ask your teacher Kakashi. He is your team leader..."
"I'm so sorry to bother you."
…
Watching Sasuke turning away, Mizuki couldn't help but feel sorry for what happened to this big boy. Sasuke is not at the stage where he can be convinced with just a few words. Without much experience, he won't understand too many truths. Living in a world interwoven with lies, coupled with unfortunate experiences, it is rare that he has not collapsed under pressure until now. However, Mizuki is really powerless to do anything about all this. He can only help when the time is right. For the rest, he can only wish for the best. The current situation is very different from the original. What choice Sasuke will make in the future depends on Kakashi's guidance.
"Why don't you come out? Everyone has left..." There are too many uninvited guests today, and it doesn't seem like they came to buy flowers.
Following Mizuki's words, Hatake Kakashi and Yamashiro Aoba appeared in front of Mizuki.
"I'm sorry to bother you with Sasuke's affairs." Kakashi felt embarrassed for causing trouble for Mizuki Ten again and again because of such things. Originally, these were his jobs.
"It's okay, it's just talking anyway." Shuimu then turned to Yamashiro Aoba and asked, "Why are you following?"
"Well," Yamashiro Aoba said with a wry smile, "I accidentally let it slip and let Sasuke know that Uchiha Itachi had come back. Then I saw Sasuke running away in a hurry. I was a little worried so I followed him."
"After all this time, it turns out it's your fault." Shuimu remembered that this person was the one who let the cat out of the bag in the original novel. "No wonder he came to me to vent his anger."
"Hey, Shuimu, is there a guest?" At this time Xiaochun finally came.
"I'm hungry too. Do you want to stay and eat together?" Xiao Chun has been cooking a lot of food recently and most of the time he can't finish it.
"No, since Sasuke is fine, we'll leave first."
…
After Xiaochun and Mizuki had lunch and packed up, Xiaochun saw that there were not many people around, so he handed a scroll to Mizuki and whispered, "It would be best if we could talk in person in three days?"
"What's so serious?" Mizuki took the scroll and carefully opened it to take a look. "Tailed Beast Chakra? You found it so quickly?"
As time went by, Shuimu's expression became more and more serious as he looked at the information.
"The Nidaime Hokage, Impure World Reincarnation, and Shadow Clone are not unrelated. It turns out that what I want to do has been attempted by others many years ago. They are indeed a group of smart people..."
The magical creatures of the tailed beasts, which have been around for thousands of years, are not only extremely powerful, but also surprisingly immortal. Even after being killed, they will be reborn again after a period of dormancy. When humans have the ability to initially control the tailed beasts, there is no reason not to be tempted by this magical ability. As the overlord of the ninja world, Konoha, when its power reached its peak, was the moment when Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha overwhelmed the entire ninja world. As the second generation Hokage, he knows much more than others, and there is a ready-made example in front of him, the reincarnation of Indra and Ashura. Although they are very different from the tailed beasts, it is not impossible to develop something special based on similar characteristics. Here, Mizuki has to admire the genius of Tobirama Senju, who was able to take a different approach to come up with some by-products that became magical skills that changed the entire ninja world.
Just like this shadow clone, the extension and recovery of will, Impure World Reincarnation, blurring the line between life and death, Flying Thunder God Technique, breaking the barrier of space. If you combine them together, you can actually clearly see a thread - the art of longevity.