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When Hibarayashi and his party woke up, they sadly found all their belongings missing.

Hibarayashi just sat there and didn't utter a word, as if his soul had left his body, while the rest of his party argued, flustered and unsure of what to do.

Theoretically, with the Shinobi speed, he should be able to go back and get them some help and money, but with the previous bandit incident, he couldn't leave Hibarayashi alone without protection.

While they were wondering what to do next, the person responsible for all of this was still sound asleep.

Haru and his party didn't come back until the morning. Since they weren't in a hurry, their pace was a little slower than when they left. He went straight to sleep after getting back to the clan.

It wasn't until noon that he woke up. He took his sweet time resting in his bed when suddenly a thought come to his mind, 'I wonder how Hibarayashi is doing.'

Haru shook his head, trying to drive away such useless thoughts. After having enough rest, he stood up and stretched, feeling very comfortable.

He then took a much-needed bath and went out of his room looking for Kazuki. It took him a while, but he finally found her.

"Good morning, Kazuki," he said.

Seeing her nod, he continued, "I have a present for you that will make your life easier."

Kazuki looked at Haru puzzled and said, "What?"

Haru chuckled and took a scroll from his pocket and handed it to her. As Kazuki started reading it, he explained, "I found it in Hibarayashi's room. It should be about the deal he was going to do with Murano."

After Kazuki finished reading, she looked at Haru and said through gritted teeth, "How does this make my life easier? This is just one more job for me."

Haru shrugged his shoulders and replied lightly, "Well, you can sell the information if you want. It will surely fetch you a good amount of money."

Kazuki looked up at the sky and sighed, "Why didn't you give it directly to Mito-sama? Why me?"

"Well, currently you are my superior. There's nothing I can do. I have to report to you, right?" he said.

Kazuki looked at Haru with tired eyes, and then suddenly it seemed she had made up her mind. "I suddenly realized that every time you come looking for me, trouble comes my way."

Haru enjoyed her changing expression and said lightly, "What are you going to do then?"

Kazuki didn't reply, but Haru understood what she meant just from her eyes. So he said with a chuckle, "I'm pretty good at hide-and-seek, you know. I don't think trying to avoid me is going to work."

"Please don't look for me again. I'm already pretty busy," she said, trying to leave.

Haru was enjoying this conversation too much. He said, "Well, let's look at the positive side for a second."

Feeling that he had her attention, he said, "We work now while we are young so we can rest later and enjoy it while we are old."

Kazuki turned to Haru and clenched her fist. "But I'm already old," she said.

"Oops," Haru said laughing as he flickered away, not giving her any chance to get close to him.

Kazuki looked at the way Haru went and said, "I guess I'll forgive him this time," sighing while looking at the scroll in her hand.

Inside of it were some trading information from the Land of Fire. If used properly, she could get a lot of resources out of it.

After making some distance from Kazuki and realizing that she was not following him, he stopped running and started walking to his workplace while humming a song.

When he opened the door and got inside, he found the clone still working. Haru nodded in approval, satisfied, and then dispersed him, retrieving the memories of those two days. All those memories caused just a slight jolt of pain in his head.

In recent years, as he had used the shadow clone more and more, the mental fatigue had decreased slowly. Now he could take a week's worth of memories and all he would feel is a strong headache.

'Taking a break sure helped a lot,' he thought. His energy and enthusiasm for research had returned to 100 percent.

"I can work with this," he said. Kazuki still hadn't given him everything he wanted, but at the very least, she had provided something that he could work with for the next couple of days.

While Haru got busy again and spent his days fulfilling, Hibarayashi, on the other hand, was having a lot of trouble.

After he came back from his last trip, it seemed that bad luck had fallen upon him. Adding insult to injury, he had to return being carried by ninja due to that accident.

Not to mention, someone seemed to have spread rumors about him taking Murano's money and getting out of the deal because of some unreasonable reasons.

Now, even the story of him being robbed was being circulated, and he had become the laughing stock that everyone would discuss while drinking with their friends. All the prestige that he had seemed to be smashed by a rock in just a couple of days.

Hibarayashi squeezed the cup in his hand and gazed out into the horizon, vowing, "You just wait, Murano Iwamoto, no matter who did it, I will make you regret it."

Haru, who was working on his experiment, suddenly sneezed. 'Someone is talking about me,' he thought, as he continued his work.

It has been a week since he came back, and since then he has been very busy with his experiment. He didn't leave his workplace except to go to the hospital for work or to sleep.

Haru looked at the tea bush in front of him and smiled. "I'm getting closer and closer,"

He took a deep breath and cleared all unnecessary thoughts from his mind. Then, he started sensing the natural energy around him.

Within a few seconds, he felt it all around him and focused to gather the energy closer to himself. Once he felt he had enough, he focused even more and guided the energy into the tea plant.

Now comes the hard part: the plant can only take a very small amount, so Haru's control must be very precise.

"This is enough," Haru suddenly stopped, and the energy dispersed into the atmosphere.

He didn't pay it any attention and observed the plant. He took a paper beside him and noted the amount he used and the immediate changes that may occur.

After finishing writing, he put the paper into a folder beside him that contains all his experiment results so far.

'This is the sixth time,' Haru thought. He started by adding the smallest amount of natural energy that he could and then added a little more each time to find the exact capacity of the plant.

This is the sixth time he has increased the dose, but the plant is still fine. "Well, this is going to take some time, but it's the most efficient method so far," Haru said.

Haru then looked beside him, where four other plant bushes are located. He focused again and gave each one their daily dose of natural energy, the same amount that he gave them the first time.

'The first one still needs six days,' he thought. For each one, he takes a 10-day cycle to see what changes might occur.

While Haru was observing the plants and scribing the results of his experiment on those plants, the door suddenly opened and an energetic Tsunade strode inside. She cleared her throat and said, "Haru, come on, I'm inviting you to eat out."

Haru didn't respond to her and continued with his work.

Seeing this, Tsunade huffed annoyed and got in front of him, waving her hand in front of his eyes. "Didn't you hear me? I'm talking to you," she said.

Haru replied, "I'm busy, maybe later," not taking his eyes off his paper.

Tsunade looked at what he was writing. Even though she didn't understand everything, she knew that he was just writing some observations. So she took him by his collar and dragged him. "Don't try to act in front of me. A clone can do this job. Let's go."

Haru stopped her and fixed his collar. "Why are you inviting me suddenly? I'm really busy, Tsunade-nee," he said, sighing.

Tsunade crossed her arms and said, "You are always working those days. Taking some rest is not going to hurt."

Haru replied, "I'm feeling pretty well, and I'm close to getting my first result. I don't want anything to go wrong. Let's do this later, please."

Tsunade looked at Haru and turned around leaving. Before Haru could take a sigh of relief and return to his work, she said, "No. Let's go. Don't let me come and take you with force."

Haru looked at his experiments, then at Tsunade, and sighed helplessly. He created a shadow clone and said, "Note any changes that may happen and don't take your eyes off them," before leaving.

He quickened his step and went after Tsunade. When he was beside her, he asked, "Why are you inviting me all of a sudden? Aren't you tight on money recently?"

Tsunade shrugged and replied, "Well, Jiraya is the one inviting, not me."

Haru asked, wondering, "Why would Jiraya invite me? I don't think I have met him before."

Tsunade smirked evilly and replied, "He didn't invite you. He invited me and Orochimaru, but since Orochimaru and I already have students, he is the only one left.

When he sees you and Nawaki, that bastard will surely be jealous."

Haru looked at her smile and asked, "What if he doesn't care?"

Tsunade chuckled and patted Haru on the head, saying, "Don't worry, that idiot has always been competing with Orochimaru and me. When he sees the two of you, it's going to be fun."

Haru thought of Jiraya's personality and smiled a little, then said, "That's interesting. Do I need to do anything?"

Tsunade mirrored his smile and replied, "No, just watch and enjoy."

Hearing this, Haru's low mood improved as the two made their way out of the clan.

'Meeting the last of the future Sanin, this is sure gonna be interesting,' Haru thought.

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I don't know about you guys, but I liked jiraya a lot , I cried a lot when he died . even why I rewatch that scene now when he talkesto tsunade before leaving the village its still hurt 😭