Chapter 047: The Gap Between Ninja

Under the escort of Sarutobi Asuma, Wang Bo and his party arrived safely in Konoha.

After resting for one night, Wang Bo went to the Hokage Building the next day and once again met the strongest Hokage who had brought Konoha to ruin.

"Welcome, Igarashi-sama."

Compared to last time, Sarutobi Hiruzen was even more courteous, since Wang Bo was now a great merchant in five countries, with funds so abundant that even he coveted them.

Moreover, Wang Bo was like a major client of Konoha, giving tens of millions of ryo each year, so being polite was only natural.

"We meet again, Hokage-sama." Wang Bo wasted no time and got straight to the point: "I came back this time to renew the contract with you, so let's begin."

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded. "Of course, of course."

He opened the drawer beside him, took out a scroll, and handed it to Wang Bo.

Wang Bo took it and glanced at it, finding that besides the protection fee for the hot pot restaurant being raised by three million ryo to forty-five million ryo, Konoha had added several conditions.

"The Country of Rivers, the Country of Frost, the Country of Waves, the Country of Mountains, and the Country of Tea—Konoha really has a big appetite. Do you really have that many ninja to guard my shops?"

Wang Bo expressed doubt about this.

Konoha's additional conditions were that they hoped Wang Bo would entrust the hot pot restaurants in these countries to Konoha's ninja as well.

Although Wang Bo had not yet established hot pot restaurants in these countries, they believed that given his expansion speed, it was only a matter of time, so they proposed this condition now.

Wang Bo also felt he could achieve this, but the problem was that if Konoha sent out so many genin all at once, wouldn't the village be alarmingly empty?

If something unexpected happened then, these ninja might not even make it back in time to support Konoha.

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled and said, "Igarashi-sama may not know, but these are small countries that don't require sending out very powerful ninja. Konoha currently has many retired ninja. Perhaps they can't go to the battlefield, but guarding some shops is more than enough."

Wang Bo suddenly understood—they were leeching onto him. They wanted to use his hot pot restaurants to support Konoha's retired, injured, and disabled ninja.

And he had to admit that the countries Sarutobi Hiruzen proposed were all small, with hardly any ninja. Some retired, injured, or disabled ninja were indeed qualified to guard his hot pot restaurants.

Wang Bo thought it over and did not refuse. "Since Hokage-sama is so straightforward, I can agree. But since you're sending injured or disabled ninja, my hiring fee can't be at the normal ninja rate. I wonder if Hokage-sama agrees to that."

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe and said, "Then how much does Igarashi-sama plan to offer?"

"One-tenth of a normal ninja's fee." Wang Bo said calmly.

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head and said, "That's too little. Although they are disabled, they have no problem dealing with ordinary people. One-tenth won't hire these ninja. I think one-third is more appropriate."

"No way." Wang Bo rolled his eyes and said, "One-eighth."

Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally disagreed with this price. After some bargaining, Wang Bo finally hired these retired, injured, and disabled ninja at one-fifth of the normal price.

These people were either blind or missing limbs—fatal flaws for ninja.

But for ordinary people, they were still ninja who killed without blinking.

Guarding a hot pot restaurant was a piece of cake.

After the two signed the contract, both showed satisfied smiles.

Sarutobi Hiruzen felt he had found a way out for Konoha's injured and disabled ninja, allowing them to generate income and protect their families without worrying about making a living.

And Wang Bo could expand his business with peace of mind.

Over the past two years, his hot pot restaurant business had expanded so rapidly thanks to these ninja.

With them around, those competitors couldn't use unfair means to sabotage Wang Bo's business, which was why he could expand recklessly.

Because these ninja had shielded his hot pot restaurants from countless open and covert attacks.

Otherwise, just the competitors' disgusting tactics would have been enough to give Wang Bo a hard time.

But thanks to the ninja, those disgusting tactics failed, allowing Wang Bo's hot pot restaurants to expand so smoothly and operate steadily.

That was why Wang Bo was willing to spend such a huge sum every year to hire ninja.

After all, these ninja were indeed trustworthy—they took the money and did the job without any hesitation.

Wang Bo was happy to pay this money.

After all, compared to the money Wang Bo earned, this amount was less than one-tenth of his net profit, yet it produced such tremendous results—why not do it?

The day after signing the agreement, Wang Bo left Konoha.

He first returned to the base in the Land of Fire and found that under Satō Ken's management, there were no major mistakes; everything was thriving.

The kids' strength had also improved considerably, with some outstanding ones even comparable to chunin.

In a sense, they could be considered geniuses.

Such a rate of progress was very rare even in Konoha.

However, to advance from chunin to jonin would take some time. Even a genius like Kakashi graduated from the Ninja Academy at five, became a chunin at six, but didn't become a jonin until twelve.

This shows that the gap between chunin and jonin is large.

At least it's a considerable gap compared to that between genin and chunin.

Of course, it should be noted here that genin, chunin, and jonin don't actually refer to strength but are a kind of qualification certification.

For example, there is only one Hokage, but there are many Kage-level强者.

For instance, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru all possess strength comparable to a Hokage, but in Konoha, they are still considered elite jonin, not Hokage.

And at the end of the story, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha could both fight Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, but in Konoha, they were still genuine genin.

From this, it can be seen that genin, chunin, and jonin refer to qualifications and cannot be equated with strength.

But it cannot be denied that this classification also represents strength in a sense.

After all, if one's strength is insufficient, Konoha will not award the title of chunin to a genin.

However, this classification is very vague.

Some powerful genin can kill a chunin without trouble, but the vast majority of chunin are stronger than genin.