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It was about 10 o'clock in the morning when Haru returned to the clan. Seeing that he would have to work in the evening, he decided to take some rest. Being a doctor requires a lot of attention and focus. Even if he wasn't tired physically, not having slept for a day and a half now, he needed rest for his work later.

As he got closer to his room, he noticed Kazuki waiting for him. He sighed a little, knowing that he couldn't just go straight to bed. He just opened the door and let Kazuki in.

Once she was inside, she got straight to business and asked, "How was your mission?" Haru appreciated that she wasn't wasting time, but he decided to play a little. "Well, I thought we couldn't ask questions and have opinions."

Kazuki looked at him disapprovingly for his joking tone, but she still said, "That's for the rest, but you are special. If you want to take my place, you need to know a lot." Haru felt the seriousness in her tone. "I thought you were going to let me figure it out by myself," he replied lightly.

This time Kazuki didn't respond and just looked at him. Haru sighed, then said, "It was alright, okay," before he continued, "Well, you can tell me what you want now."

Kazuki frowned a little and said, "Be more detailed, Haru, and stop playing around." Haru clicked his tongue. From the moment he saw Kazuki, he knew it was going to be a serious topic. All he wanted was to lighten the mood a little bit before it got heavy, but it seemed Kazuki didn't appreciate it.

"What do you want to know exactly? I said the mission was alright. It wasn't hard, and we finished it really quickly." He cut the chase and went back to serious Haru. Well, that's what they wanted.

From Kazuki's face, it seemed like she wasn't satisfied with what she heard. So she asked, "Well, don't you have any opinions about the task you did?" Now it was Haru's turn to be confused. He looked at Kazuki and kept eye contact for a while, trying to assess what she meant. Then he replied, sounding bored, "You already said that I shouldn't think and just act. I took your advice very well. I don't have any opinions, Kazuki-san." Then their eyes met again, and he continued, "You're the captain. It's your opinion that's important."

Kazuki's mouth twitched slightly, but she didn't let Haru get away with it and pressed, "Then you really are a good listener. But as you said, you're going to take my position in the near future, so you should start to think below the surface. Come on, start thinking now. I'm waiting for your answer."

Haru thought to himself that she wouldn't leave if she didn't hear the answer. Well, she did have a temper, but that was to be expected. No one could stay with Mito for years like her and be just a tool without any personality.

So he thought for a while before saying, with seriousness this time, "I thought the mission was too easy. It shouldn't have come to us. Any Jōnin from the village could have done it in just a few days. For all the mystery and attitude, I was expecting more." His answer made the room freeze for a bit. Kazuki took a breath before asking, "What about that guard? What do you think?"

Ah, so that's what she wanted to know, Haru chuckled inside. "What about him? Just a rogue ninja with more power than sense. What's there to think about?" he said, joking again.

"Kazuki-san, are you testing me?" He kept his eyes on her, catching the slight change in her expression, before continuing, "Then you're quite wrong. From the beginning, I was pretty sure about what I was getting into. If you wanted to make me hesitate, then that target was the wrong one. I don't have sympathy for him. You said it yourself, it was just a task, and I looked at it as such. I won't back down from my decision, and you should stop too."

The silence was quite long this time until Kazuki broke it and said, "Well, it seems like I was getting pretty nosy. You should rest now, and later you can come to me, and I will explain to you how this works," she said, leaving the room straight after she finished.

Haru looked at Kazuki's back and was amused. Well, Kazuki was a little cuter than he had imagined. He chuckled at the thought of the older woman finding a task that was not too hard and not too dark to test him. It seemed that she liked him quite a bit, although you wouldn't notice from her serious outer appearance. A smile crept onto his face at the thought.

After taking a quick shower, Haru went straight to bed. Today was a long day, and he was even more tired now that he had talked with Kazuki. After a few minutes, he was in Dreamland.

Kazuki, on the other hand, went to Mito's study, where she found her sipping tea. Even though Kazuki appeared very expressionless, Mito could still sense her low mood. So the smile on her face grew, and she said, "How did I win the bet?" All she got was a nod from Kazuki.

Mito laughed out loud, her mood completely different from Kazuki's. "Well, I told you that brat is quite cold-hearted. He won't care, but you just won't listen," she laughed for a while before asking, "What did he say? Tell me." Kazuki sighed before recounting the conversation she had with Haru.

Mito had a very strong imagination, so she could already imagine Haru's mood at that time. Thinking about it, her own mood improved, and she laughed even more. "Well, it seems you are a little lucky. If he weren't tired, he would have teased you a lot," she said. As Haru spent time with Tsunade, his personality had changed slightly, especially around people he knew. He was now more fond of teasing them, and his claws even got into Kazuki and Mito.

Kazuki's eyes twitched as she thought about their earlier conversation. Haru really seemed to have teased her a little. Then she hesitated a moment before asking, "When he comes to ask me later, should I tell him everything?"

Mito, who didn't care at all, replied, "Do as you want." Unlike Kazuki, she knew Haru a lot better. Since she had agreed from the start, she didn't think about the issue anymore. Once she looked at it from a practical point of view and put her emotions aside, she accepted it.

Haru, who had a good sleep, woke up feeling very refreshed. No matter what, a good sleep can cure any fatigue. Right after that, he went to the hospital and started another busy day. But since he worked the night shift, the number of patients decreased from the morning. Most of them were old patients who came for a check-up or to get their medicine.

Haru was familiar with many of the patients, so his job was very easy. He spent his free time reading in Tsunade's office. The next morning, he met Tsunade as he was leaving.

Haru went straight home, knowing he had some questions to ask. Well, not many, as he had figured some out already. He went into his room, changed his clothes, and went back out again. He sensed a little before he figured out where she was.

Haru was a sensor ninja. He didn't know if it was by nature or if it was one of the side effects of absorbing nature chakra all those years. Now, he was capable of sensing many things unconsciously, especially if someone was looking at him. He could sense up to one kilometer if he did it manually. This was a great advantage that had served him well in many situations.

He went straight to her place and made his presence noticeable. Kazuki just nodded at him, and he got inside the smaller study room.

Haru looked around the place while Kazuki sat there in silence. After a while, he finally turned his attention back to her and asked, "Do we have many customers?" Kazuki sighed helplessly before saying, "Is this really what you want to know?" Haru looked at her oddly and replied, "Yeah, isn't money why we're doing this? The more customers, the better."

Kazuki couldn't really understand how he thought, so she said, "We aren't doing this for the money." Haru didn't reply at all and just looked at her. From his expression, Kazuki understood that he was surprised by her answer.

She then corrected herself, "Well, yeah, for money, but..." Haru didn't let her continue and said, "Yeah, I understand resources."

It was obvious. What can a businessman working in gambling and prostitution offer to the Senju clan other than money? He then said, "We are a big clan after all." With the size of their clan, Haru wasn't surprised. If a clan wanted to prosper, they needed money and resources for their members.

Kazuki sighed and repeated after Haru, "Yeah, we are a big clan," her tone a little sad. With the number of people the Senju had, most of them being elderly, children, and women since most men sacrificed themselves in wars, they needed a lot of money; missions alone couldn't afford that, especially since the Hokage couldn't just give them all the high-paying ones. There were a lot of other clans, and even civilian ninja.

They needed a stable income from somewhere else, and what is better than a shady businessman with such a high-risk job to work for?

Kazuki, seeing the all-knowing expression on Haru's face, said, "Well, it seems you already guessed something. Then no, we don't have a lot of customers. Two or three, at most." Hearing this, Haru sighed a little. "The Uchiha and Hyuga, huh?" he asked. "Yes, but there are some more," she replied. Haru snickered a little. "The Hokage or Danzo; he thought. Well, they can't let the cake fall into the hands of the clans, especially the Uchiha. Danzo won't allow it over his dead body."he tough to himself.

He then asked, "Does the Hokage know?" Kazuki nodded and replied, "Yeah, he does, but he turns a blind eye since the number of businesses is very small. Mostly the biggest clans are doing it, but we have a silent agreement. We will give some business back to the village, and he won't say anything." Haru hummed, then asked, "What about our customers? Are they okay with that?" This time, Kazuki's tone became more blunt as she said, "They can't have an opinion. If they work with the Senju, they have no choice but to accept our terms."

Her tone made Haru raise his eyebrow a little. She was quite arrogant, but that was to be expected. The Senju had a long history, and they were very experienced in this kind of business. Before he could ask anything else, he noticed a different chakra approaching, so he waited for a while. Kazuki also looked outside, and then there were some knocks on the door. "Haru, are you there?" the voice asked.