40

In the back of the Senju Clan on a small piece of land, a boy was squatting and fiddling with some plants.

Haru looked down at the tea bushes that were withering and sighed. He took his notebook and wrote about the failure of another experiment. This was already the eighth one in ten days. Any tea bush that he tried to infuse with nature energy would wither away by the next day.

He took the withered plant and headed back inside his workplace. He inspected it closely, trying to find any differences to the previous ones. After a while, he sighed and took a big scroll from the table.

It was filled with scratches and calculations. Haru thought for a while before he wrote an "X" mark on his latest calculation and started from the beginning again.

Each failed experiment brought him new data. He tried to optimize the amount of nature energy that he would push into the plant. Once he finished, he closed the scroll and put it back in its place.

"This is the hardest part," he said, rubbing his hair.

While Haru was still struggling to find a way to infuse nature energy into the plants themselves, his progress in adding it to the soil and water had far better results.

He took a paper and started writing about his progress, trying to find the difference between the two areas. 'For a start, this plant is alive, unlike the other two tea bushes,' he thought. 'Then what is the difference?' he pondered, tapping his finger on the table.

The room was calm and very peaceful, and the only sound was Haru's rhythmic tapping. Suddenly, the tapping stopped, and Haru chuckled. "Yeah, it's alive. Then it should be like a human, and it needs a balance of nature energy to work."

He laughed as he finally found the way. "Plants are like humans in this aspect. What I need to do now is try to find the approximate amount of nature energy that the tea bushes can hold. From there, I can try to optimize it. From the beginning, I was wrong. I completely skipped the first step and jumped to the calculations directly."

He took another piece of paper and started writing his experiment plans from the beginning. 'Finding the average amount of nature energy should be easy. I can start by adding the smallest amount and then increasing it little by little until I find the sweet point,' he thought.

Haru continued to write his ideas and plans for the next experiments for a while. After he finished, he stood up and stretched a little, feeling relaxed for the first time in close to two weeks.

He went out and took a walk around the clan, looking at the scenery that he was already familiar with. But thanks to the small success in his experiment, he found everything to be more relaxing.

While on his way, Haru finally found the person he had been looking for. He walked to the side and patiently waited for her to finish her conversation with a clan member.

After a few minutes, they finished, and Haru smiled and nodded at the man before approaching Kazuki. "Good morning, how are you doing?" he asked her.

"Busy and tired," she replied. "Thanks to you."

"Did you already start creating the tea house?" Haru asked, slightly surprised at the speed.

Kazuki shook her head slightly and explained, "No, but I'm busy scouting for the right place and workers. Our requirements are quite demanding."

Haru chuckled with relief, feeling glad that he wasn't the only one feeling the pressure. Feeling Kazuki's sharp gaze on him, he put his smile away and sighed, "I'm in the same boat. It has been very busy lately."

Haru felt Kazuki's mood improve and thought to himself, 'See, you also feel better when you find others just as busy as you. It's human nature.'

After coughing to clear his throat, Haru got to the main topic. "I need something. Can you help me?" he asked.

Seeing her nod, he continued, "I need the same bushes that you provided, but this time I want them in different qualities, from the worst to the best."

Haru was conducting an experiment on mostly grown tea bushes because the growth cycle of tea was very long for his experiment.

The bushes that Kazuki had previously provided him before were of the best quality. He was the one who requested them, believing only the best quality could allow the infusion of nature energy to work.

Kazuki raised her eyebrows at the unusual request and then said, "It seems your work is going well."

"I can't say it's going well, but at least now I know what to do," Haru replied.

"Good. You better not make all my hard work go to waste," she said, glaring at him in the end.

Haru chuckled and nodded at her, then did a military stance to show that he understood completely.

Kazuki snorted and said, "I can get them for you, but it will take some time."

"How long?" Haru asked. He needed a lot of data across the board for the second stage of his experiment to work, and it had to be as complete as possible, ranging from the worst quality tea to the best.

"Just a few days. I will try to bring them as fast as I can," Kazuki said.

"Thank you for your hard work," Haru replied, feeling grateful for her help. Without her, he would have needed more time and energy to gather the materials he needed for his experiments

Since the materials he needed weren't available yet, Haru found some free time to work on experiments that could be done with soil or water.

After Kazuki left, Haru stood there and thought for a while about what to do in his free time. In the end, he sighed and headed to Mito's study. Currently, all of his friends are either training with their teams or on missions, and Tsunade is in the hospital. The only person who might be free is Mito.

Haru found the older woman in her study as usual, working on some seals. He didn't disturb her and sat aside to help her grind the ink. He felt a slight sense of nostalgia as he remembered all the memories of grinding ink while she taught him how to use seals. 'Time really moves fast,' he thought.

Haru noticed that Mito was close to finishing, so he stopped and went aside to start brewing tea for her. By the time she finished, the tea was ready, so Haru poured some for her. Mito took her cup and noticed that Haru didn't pour any for himself, so she asked with a chuckle, "Any for you?"

Haru's scrunched expression was the answer. Mito laughed and said, "It seems working with tea a lot has decreased your love for it."

Haru poured a cup of tea for himself but didn't drink it. He just took it close to his nose and sniffed. "Being close to tea all day for a month does have its effect." While he didn't feel disgusted by the smell, it sure didn't smell as good as it used to in the past.

Haru's actions and response amused Mito even further. "Then what brings you here to this old lady? While I do want to help, I can't bear the idea of not liking tea like you, so you are on your own, young man," she said.

Haru chuckled at her. 'She really does like tea,' he thought. 'Then I can give her the first successful experiment. She should like it.'

"I have some free time. I thought you wouldn't mind my company," he said.

Mito nodded at him before calling one of the maids and saying, "Bring some snacks for me and Haru. If anyone asks, say I'm busy with work."

While the duo was enjoying their snacks, another member of the family was having a hard time.

In the past month, Haru had been busy with his experiments while Nawaki was having the time of his life doing missions outside the village. With his current power, C-ranked missions were a walk in the park for him, especially with Orochimaru as his teacher.

Although he didn't improve as much as his other teammates, he was still very satisfied with watching the scenery and visiting different places. But his fun didn't last long.

It was either his bad or good luck that Orochimaru was still a responsible teacher. When he found that Nawaki wasn't improving with missions, he decided to give him some private lessons alone.

For the first time in years, Nawaki felt what it was like to be under the attention of one of the Sannin, especially Orochimaru.

While Tsunade's lessons would bring him physical pain, Orochimaru's would bring him mental pain. Nawaki felt overwhelmed with the pace at which Orochimaru was explaining things, and again felt the difference between himself and the geniuses.

His brain felt like an overclocked CPU, but he still couldn't understand anything. In the end, he gave up and lifted his hand, saying in a weak voice, "Orochimaru-sensei, can you slow down a little? I don't understand."

Orochimaru looked at his student with a puzzled expression and replied, "I'm already going slowly."

If it weren't for the training he had with Tsunade and the mental damage he had suffered over the years living with a family of geniuses, he would have shed tears by now.

But even then, Orochimaru still noticed the pain on his favorite student's face. "Don't worry, Nawaki. This is a very complex technique. Take your time and don't be in a hurry," he said, patting Nawaki's head.

Nawaki nodded with difficulty, then asked weakly, "Sensei, can I go home? I feel very tired."

Orochimaru nodded and chuckled as he watched Nawaki's back getting further and further away. 'He looked like a frustrated puppy,' he thought.