It wasn't difficult for Chad to locate Hibui. Whenever she had free time, she liked to lean against the same tree in the courtyard of the complex and take what she called a "restorative nap," basking in the warm sunlight while wearing comfortable clothes.
"Are you sure you don't have some Nara blood in you?" he asked as he approached her.
"I doubt it. I don't like clouds or shade, they block the sunlight," Hibui opened her eyes with a calm expression. "Just like you're doing right now, by the way."
Hibui's figure bore a strong resemblance to Samui's in terms of physique, except for her wheat-colored skin and her reddish hair with a soft orange tint that reached her shoulders. Today, she seemed to be wearing a dark gray sleeveless shirt and earth-colored sweatpants.
"We have to go to the Lightning Capital," Chad said as he tossed the scroll containing the "invitation." Hibui extended one of the hands resting behind her head to catch it and opened it easily, reading its contents.
"I assume you were forced," she said. Though it sounded like a question, it was more of a statement.
"You assume correctly." Chad leaned back against the tree trunk, sitting beside her. "Can you get anything out of this?"
If they were going to do this, they might as well gain something from it.
"I don't usually attend events of this level," she mused while rolling the scroll back up and staring at it for a long moment. "But fine. I can make this a profitable trip for everyone."
Merchants and nobles were like walking piggy banks to her, lining up patiently for her to take money or resources from them. They believed their wealth and status made them intelligent, and Hibui would be more than happy to prove that wasn't how it worked.
In fact, there were several B-rank missions the village frequently obtained precisely because she stirred the hornet's nest—noble disputes and unfair business competition.
Her priority was always her own benefit, then the village, and then… there was no then.
"Go get Kiyui. Meet me at the village gate in an hour," Hibui told him.
By synchronizing her insight with Kiyui's information network, the results would be even better. If she had a productive night, she would walk out of that party with at least fifty to eighty million ryo more.
There was a reason she preferred these kinds of operations. Even an S-rank mission barely paid a million, and the risk was far greater, with serious consequences in case of failure.
…
"Is it really necessary for you to go?" Kiyui asked as she hopped between rocks and trees alongside both of her squadmates. "I mean, saying you despise the daimyo is an understatement. Why would he invite you to one of his parties?"
"Because he ignores it, and because he wants to prove he can," Hibui replied, not needing to think much about the daimyo's hidden motives. "Chad has gained a lot of fame over the years through both his actions and achievements, but he's avoided the capital like it was a contagious plague—or conveniently left the village the few times the daimyo bothered to visit in person."
"I was on missions. Not my fault."
"You took those missions at most an hour before his arrival."
"Coincidence."
"Yeah, sure. So, we just have to prevent the daimyo from becoming so unbearable that Chad ends up killing him and making the village look bad?" Kiyui asked, looking for a summary of their objective.
"More or less, but it's a bit more complicated," Hibui said as she leapt between two willows. "Officially, the invitation is to celebrate the fact that the daimyo's latest concubine is pregnant. It's most likely thanks to the Sea King meat we sent him, and at the same time, he wants Chad to personally conduct a medical checkup. So far, everything seems normal, right?"
"I feel a 'but' coming," Kiyui hummed.
And just as she expected—
"But our daimyo is fond of displays of authority. He doesn't just find them interesting—they greatly satisfy his ego as a ruler. So we can expect an 'order' disguised as a 'request,' just so we have to 'save face' in front of all the guests, making it harder to refuse whatever he asks."
That request was fairly predictable in this context…
"I am not spending nine months acting as a concubine's personal doctor!" Chad snapped.
He had nothing against performing checkups on an expectant mother. In fact, he was the most renowned pediatrician in the Elemental Nations, and it was one of his main medical specialties.
Kumo even received missions related to this from all across the Land of Lightning and nearby regions.
Over the past twelve years, Kumo's child population had become the healthiest in the world.
Because no matter how much Tsunade was praised as the one who advanced medicine, the truth was that her contributions were sporadic and heavily focused on ninja in general—completely ignoring civilians. Not to mention that she barely spent time on it before abandoning Konoha to spend decades gambling and getting drunk.
Then there was the knowledge she chose to hoard for herself, refusing to pass it on.
She earned her reputation because most medical staff in the villages either rigidly followed what they had learned or only tried to innovate in practical military applications out of necessity—or in search of merit. No one truly cared about improving general medicine.
So when someone used common sense out loud and made a few adjustments to a system that had been stagnant for eighty years, they were treated as if it were a revolution—under Konoha's publicity machine.
Tsunade could continuously decipher a thousand Suna poisons, but that was backed by the Senju clan's volumes of knowledge. She treated ninjas on the battlefield or those who returned from it.
But did she ever bother spending time in non-ninja departments like pediatrics?
No. She was too good to waste time on children who could die from a bad fever, right?
Chad, on the other hand, had been actively expanding Kumo's medical system for years as its director. Organized departments, specializations, new medical techniques, improved medicines, a new waiting system, new generations of tools, cutting-edge research…
And as the people he trained joined him in his efforts, the system's efficiency snowballed downhill.
He didn't just shout, "Every squad should have a medical ninja!" and call it a day.
He organized new information and discarded outdated or incorrect data before sharing and teaching it. He presented realistic development plans to the Raikage with transparent budgets and prudent timelines. He conducted tests to find people with potential, identified new diseases and devised treatments for them, meticulously built a true systemic reform step by step, and enforced standards that raised overall quality.
Over the past decade, Konoha could no longer proudly advertise itself to the world as the home of cutting-edge medicine. Whenever it tried, someone would ask:
"Better than Kumo?"
And Konoha would fall silent, look away, and whistle innocently while sending people to try to steal Kumo's procedures. Chad had lost count of how many spies from other villages he'd dealt with trying to sneak into the hospital.
In any case, expecting Chad to be available twenty-four hours a day for the daimyo's concubine until the baby's birth was completely impossible.
Even a single month of vacation was already a massive interruption for him, and it was meant for other purposes.
He had pending projects, research to conduct, the need to keep an eye on the Council so they wouldn't meddle in his affairs or his people, and countless other responsibilities.
Nine months of his schedule occupied like that?
Once again, absolutely impossible.
"We'll think of some excuse," Hibui said, fully aware that if that was indeed the daimyo's request, even a polite refusal would humiliate him in front of his guests and things would turn ugly.
"What about sending a clone disguised as a ninja from another village?" Kiyui suggested. "When the daimyo makes the request, it appears and causes chaos. People panic and forget about it."
A crude but simple way to dodge the kunai.
"Not a good idea. The daimyo has village guards with him, and they might recognize the trick. They won't expose us, but they can't pretend to be idiots in front of the daimyo," Hibui rejected it without hesitation. "We need another approach."
"We can take the initiative instead of being passive," Chad offered. "Rather than waiting for him to make the request in front of everyone, we approach him first when we arrive and propose the same thing—but under our conditions. He gets his checkup, there's no public humiliation, and we leave."
The daimyo stays satisfied, the concubine gains prestige, and they can invest their time in something productive. Chad still needed to check on Yugito's training progress, as well as that of his other two students.
"That could work," Hibui admitted after considering it for a few minutes. "But the daimyo could still change his plan and propose something different. In fact, he might be displeased by our initiative, even if he doesn't show it. As I said, the point is to demonstrate his authority in front of everyone. And you, Chad, have made him insecure enough that he feels the need to resort to this excuse."
"I tend to have that effect on men."
Both kunoichi exchanged glances.
They still remembered how the village had deliberately created a new private section in the hot springs just for Chad—though for him, there was no real difference. Every time he went to relax, the men's section emptied out and the women's section overflowed.
So he always had the water to himself, though now, with the new section, they sometimes joined him and it became mixed.
Chad didn't understand where the problem was. As far as he knew, alcohol sales among the customers skyrocketed every time he visited.
In fact, he was making the hot springs money!