"Yeah, I was a bit worried at first, after all, your mission target this time was one of the legendary Sannin, Orochimaru," Fugaku said with a smile.
At that moment, Seiryu took out the mission scroll he got from Yamamoto and laid it on the table.
"Seiryu, what's this?" Fugaku asked curiously, but Seiryu signaled with his eyes for him to open it himself.
Fugaku picked up a scroll, infused a bit of chakra, and after just one glance, he couldn't sit still. He looked up at Seiryu, "These... are all?"
"Fifteen billion ryo in total," Seiryu replied, "If it weren't for time constraints and not having enough sealing scrolls, it could have been even more."
"Impressive, Seiryu," Fugaku said happily. You know, for the Uchiha clan, after deducting the necessary expenses for ninja tools and such, it would take several years to save up this much money. Yet Seiryu managed to bring back so much in just one trip, and from the looks of it, there's even more out there.
"Send two of our clan's jonin to Tanzaku Quarters tomorrow. This is the payment for a long-term protection mission," Seiryu said.
"I understand," Fugaku nodded.
"How has the police force been while I was away these few days?" Seiryu asked.
"Things have been pretty good. Thanks to the manual you left, the new ninja recruits have picked things up quickly and are already able to patrol and be on duty as normal," Fugaku said. "But..."
"Did something happen?" Seiryu noticed Fugaku's hesitation and asked.
"In these past few days, the number of complaints about patrolling and on-duty members has multiplied several times compared to before, and they're all targeting the new civilian ninja. But complaints against our original clan ninja have dropped to zero," Fugaku said.
"Is that so?" Seiryu chuckled. "Is it because the new members aren't paying attention to smiling while on duty?"
"How could that be?" Fugaku rubbed his brow, troubled. "The police force has 4 squads, 28 teams. Before every patrol, the captains always remind everyone to enforce the law with a smile. Just yesterday, we even held a meeting for all members to stress this again. But the complaints keep coming in. Seiryu, will this affect your plan to integrate the clan with the village?"
"Don't worry, Elder Fugaku, I'll handle this tomorrow," Seiryu said calmly. He had foreseen this from the start.
After all, he knew all too well what kind of people these villagers were. When the police force was made up of only Uchiha, the villagers held back a bit out of fear of the clan's power. But now, with civilian ninjas joining, everything changed.
"Can't afford to offend the Uchiha, but can't afford to offend you either?" That was the perfect description of these troublesome villagers' mentality.
Seiryu was quite happy to see this. With the civilian ninja as a buffer, the Uchiha's public image in the village would greatly improve. Also, the civilian ninjas, who were strictly enforcing the law but still got maliciously reported, would build up plenty of resentment. When the day came to deal with these villagers, their batons might be much heavier.
"As long as you have a way," Fugaku said. "Aside from that, I also have a personal matter."
"Please, Elder Fugaku," Seiryu replied.
"I want to ask you to be Sasuke's teacher."
"Oh?" Seiryu raised his eyebrows. "Why did you suddenly think of this?"
"Sasuke's reached the age to formally start learning ninjutsu. I taught him our clan's basic Fire Release a couple days ago," Fugaku said, "but Sasuke's performance was far inferior to his brother's."
"Is that so?" Seiryu laughed. He remembered, back when he learned that ninjutsu, out of 28 Uchiha kids, he ranked 27th. That even made him wonder if he was cut out to be a ninja.
"But with your example in the clan, I had Sasuke tested for chakra attributes. His are fire and lightning. I had him try out lightning release, and his talent far surpasses his fire release," Fugaku said with a wry smile.
Sasuke's lightning release talent was as good as Itachi's fire release. He read the scroll for Lightning Ball twice and could already produce a one-meter-wide lightning ball. But their whole family specialized in fire release. Mikoto had the lightning attribute too, but her knowledge of lightning jutsu was limited. So teaching Sasuke became a headache.
Luckily, the clan had someone with a similar situation—Seiryu. As the former clan head, Fugaku knew Seiryu's history well. When Seiryu was in ninja school, he did well thanks to the clan's talent, but within the clan, he was mediocre. In the clan's private school, which focused on fire and genjutsu, his grades were terrible. The clan was about to give up on him until he managed to get his hands on his first lightning jutsu from a clan elder. That's when his real talent emerged.
So, seeing Sasuke's current situation, Fugaku naturally thought of asking Seiryu to be his teacher.
"Also, Seiryu, you know I'm not good at teaching kids. Itachi has already gone down the wrong path, so I want to entrust Sasuke to you," Fugaku said.
"I understand. From now on, let Sasuke come to me after school," Seiryu said with a smile.
"Thank you," Fugaku said sincerely.
"Don't mention it. If I can help a kid in a similar situation to mine avoid detours, I'd be more than happy to," Seiryu replied.
"No, this is a father's gratitude," Fugaku said emotionally. "Please take good care of Sasuke."
"I will," Seiryu nodded.
"Then I won't disturb you any longer," Fugaku said as he took his leave. Seiryu stood up to see him out.
After Fugaku left, Seiryu finished maintaining his sword and went to rest.
…
The next day, after arriving at his office in the police force, Seiryu looked around at the newly redecorated room, thanks to his subordinates who took advantage of his absence and nodded in satisfaction.