"Hey, found it." He tapped Amado's portrait, and the dark silhouette lit up, followed by a system prompt.
[Successfully lit up character illustration. Reward: Peace Points]
Not bad; it was the same reward as for a Kage-level figure, a thousand points. This was the highest Peace Points reward achievable from the character illustration book.
With the Peace Points deposited, Torifu had nothing else to do, so he walked over to his desk. From his spatial ring, he took out an ancient-looking book. Judging by the color of its cover, it seemed quite old. Torifu didn't know what type of book it was; he had simply seen it gathering dust in his ring and, being bored, decided to take it out and flip through it. The cover was yellowed, and the title was long unreadable. Torifu gently turned the cover, revealing the name on the inner page: Kumotsuru Kajin's Journal.
He hadn't expected it to be a journal left by his ancestor. Torifu felt very curious and promptly turned to the first page of the journal's main text.
And along with the turning of the pages, time flowed like water.
...
Time, like flowing water, was ceaseless and tireless. In the blink of an eye, three years had passed. Torifu was now twelve years old, and his height had reached around 1.75 meters, which was quite tall among his peers.
In these three years, Torifu had successfully mastered Sage Mode, but lacking an opponent, he hadn't yet been able to test it in actual combat. However, he figured an opportunity would present itself soon. Tobirama's plan had been in motion for three years, during which Konoha continuously fed false intelligence to Kumogakure. Because Tobirama's plan was meticulously crafted, and Konoha's spies within Kumogakure cooperated from the inside, the entire operation proceeded very smoothly.
Kumogakure had grown suspicious over these years, sending numerous spies to Konoha, but they were all captured. The false intelligence provided by these new spies only made Kumogakure believe even more strongly that Senju Hashirama was on his deathbed. Kumogakure could now dispatch troops to decisively crush Konoha. Torifu could almost hear the Second Raikage's boisterous laughter.
At this moment, Torifu was in the courtyard, drinking tea. His white hair reached his waist, adorned with a jade crown, making him look ethereal, as if his very presence belonged to a different world. Snowflake, for some unknown reason, had feathers that had grown increasingly lustrous, some even developing golden edges. Her body had grown noticeably larger, and her tail feathers had lengthened considerably. Torifu increasingly felt that Snowflake was not just a chicken, but he couldn't quite articulate what she was.
"Snowflake, where are Aokumo and Ryūfū?" Torifu asked, taking a sip of tea.
"How should I know? They've probably run off to play somewhere again. Children grow up and leave their mother's side, you know."
Hearing this, Torifu nearly spat out his tea. He had no idea where Snowflake had picked up that saying. So, Torifu decided to stop worrying about Aokumo and Ryūfū and continued to leisurely drink his tea.
The green pines in the courtyard thrived exceptionally well. Torifu often sat there, drinking tea and enjoying the scenery. Because of the peaceful years, missions within Konoha Village had become relatively simple. Missions with high danger or difficulty were exceedingly rare. As mission difficulty decreased, village casualties dropped. Over three years, fewer than ten Konoha shinobi had fallen.
Torifu himself now rarely took on missions. Instead, he simply dispatched clones weekly to accept a pile of tasks, quickly complete them, and earn Peace Points. His accumulated Peace Points had now reached 390,000, just a little shy of 400,000. Torifu had also increased his chakra to twenty-thousand units, though his overall strength remained largely unchanged, still at Kage-level. Breaking through to Six Paths-level seemed distant, but Torifu wasn't in a hurry; his current strength was more than sufficient. Even if a Fourth Great Shinobi War broke out now, he had the ability to influence the battlefield's outcome, so combat power was merely something to adequately cope with present crises.
Just as Torifu finished a cup of tea and was about to pour another, he heard a loud bang from the courtyard! Thick smoke billowed, accompanied by fire. Torifu knew without a second thought that Amado was behind it; this was already the umpteenth explosion in the past year. Even the neighboring Oyashirō clan had grown accustomed to it.
Torifu waved his hand towards Amado's room, and a stream of water appeared out of thin air, flying towards the explosion. The nascent flames were instantly extinguished.
From beneath a pile of rubble, Amado lifted a wooden pillar and crawled out. His hair was singed, and his small face was blackened, but from his frame, it was clear he had grown considerably taller over the past three years, likely over 1.65 meters.
"Hehe, thanks, Nii-san. I almost didn't make it this time."
Torifu transformed into several cloud cranes and flew to Amado's room, then reformed into Torifu's shape. Seeing the complete mess, he couldn't help but sigh. "Sigh, how many times have I told you to be careful?"
As he spoke, Torifu placed his hand on Amado. A green light appeared, and Amado immediately felt an immense warmth. The explosion's injuries, the bruises from impact, and the burns from the fire all began to heal rapidly. A few minutes later, aside from his singed hair and blackened face, Amado's body had fully recovered. He jumped a few times and swung his arms. "Haha, thanks, Nii-san! It doesn't hurt anymore!"
"That's good. For tonight, go stay in another room. I'll find a craftsman to fix this later."
Amado scratched his head. "Hehe, sorry for the trouble, Nii-san."
Torifu waved his hand, saying nothing.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, Amado called out to him, "Nii-san, that gunpowder you asked me to make? I made it! This explosion was just from testing it."
This was actually good news, a definite step forward for Amado. For these three years, Amado would tinker with his things in the small house next to Torifu's, when not at school. Torifu saw his creations becoming better and more refined, so he exchanged some blueprints in the system. To his surprise, Amado truly managed to create it, and it didn't differ much from the blueprint.
Asking Amado to formulate gunpowder had merely been a whim for Torifu. With Konoha's current technological level, even if gunpowder was produced, not much could be made from it. And Torifu himself knew nothing about it; he could only direct. Moreover, even if it were made into a bomb, its usefulness wasn't that great, as the shinobi world already had explosive tags, which were convenient, fast, and easy to carry.
Nevertheless, for Amado to have formulated gunpowder at such a young age was certainly something worth celebrating.
"Well done. Tonight, Nii-san will treat you to a meal out. Pick whatever you want to eat."