I forgot

Several days have passed since I returned to Seimeigakure, and I've been a bit busy checking on Haku and Kimimaro's progress in their training, integrating Maki into the village, attending to Pakura and Ameyuri at night while studying poison in my free time.

"That's it, we're done," I declared while holding a vial with a semi-transparent violet reagent with yellow spots floating inside.

Karin, Anko, and I were in the public laboratory, where I was giving them an on-the-fly lesson on how poison worked, what things they need to pay attention to in order to detect its characteristics, and how to distill an antidote to counteract it, as well as the reason for each element used in its creation.

Karin was there as my student and managed to grasp a good part of what I said while taking notes to review later what she didn't understand or to ask me questions, as it would not be polite to interrupt in the middle of my explanation.

Anko, on the other hand, felt a bit uncomfortable at first when I called her, but as she paid attention and got into her element, she even made some unexpectedly valid comments about the poison.

I understood better why Orochimaru took notice of her.

I'll wait to see how Tsunade intends to fulfill her loss later; if she really doesn't take Anko as a student, I might consider taking her myself and teaching her some interesting poisons.

Like a poison that makes the enemy's perception of time dilate immensely, something quite terrifying, I must say. Imagine something that happens in just a few seconds for everyone else, while for the affected victim, centuries or millennia pass.

There was one week left until the deadline, and Tsunade came to find me to compare antidotes with great confidence, believing that this time she could surpass me.

Well, she didn't.

"I really didn't think about that approach," although annoyed by losing, Tsunade couldn't deny the superior effectiveness of my antidote after the tests. "Alright, I'll take Anko as a student. I'm going to show Orochimaru the raw diamond he missed!" she declared as she clenched her fist, redirecting her anger towards her former teammate. "Get ready, girl, because I won't go easy on you!"

And so, now Shizune had a companion to share her teacher and her sorrows.

I'll pretend I didn't see the touched look with tears almost falling that Anko gave me when she learned that I asked Tsunade, the idol of most kunoichis, to take her as a student and help her show her true talent, proving that she truly believed she could go far.

Sorry, Anko, you're too young, and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.

The matriarch of the scorpion clan was very satisfied and happy to have saved the lives of her children, providing the scroll of her clan to the village and promising her support.

Also, the estimate of gold in the mines was really high. Literally a mountain of gold yet to be excavated, more than enough to cover my needs for making Pure Gold and the need for money for the village in the coming decades or centuries.

Now I just have to find the elusive ferret and the Gelel stone.

As for Tsunade, it's possible or not that she found some gold ingots under her pillow a few days later. And Shizune too.

Well, I actually gave everyone some ingots under the pillow.

I had a damn gold mine!

What does it matter to give away a few kilos so that everyone has pocket money?

An interesting detail, Ameyuri forgot to turn off the snowfall in Sunagakure (although I think she simply didn't care enough to remember), and it wasn't until I noticed it when I went to recharge the island's battery that it stopped snowing in the desert three days later.

Scold her? Meh, we all make mistakes, and she knows how to divert my attention...

Rasa and his people questioned their knowledge of the weather, and from what I later found out, the Kazekage was forced to sell a part of his reserves of golden sand to cover all the damages and avoid economic paralysis despite his reluctance to do so.

Only after extracting the gold did Ebizo reveal our deal and the profits that were obtained to be invested where it was so needed.

Rasa fainted in anger after the revelation, Pakura was in a very good mood after learning the facts, and she made sure to let me know.

I kept my deal with Kumogakure and assigned Pakura and Ameyuri the deliveries to leave the village and stretch their muscles by hunting some rogue ninjas. Pakura was the diplomat, while Ameyuri... was Ameyuri.

The Raikage's face when he saw the "ghost" of Sunagakure and the traitor from Kirigakure, acting as sisters using the headbands of Seimeigakure while handing over the storage scroll with the goods, was priceless.

Ameyuri made sure to take a photo to show me and mock the Raikage mercilessly.

Naturally, the news that Pakura was alive and Ameyuri visited Kumogakure, both using a headband from a village different from their origin, quickly spread. Not because the Raikage tried to hide the matter, but because both Pakura and Ameyuri didn't bother to disguise themselves and entered openly.

Sunagakure sent people to the Raikage demanding to know what happened, and Kirigakure sent some ninjas to track Ameyuri.

The Raikage's official response to Rasa's delegation was: "Get lost, it's none of your business!"

Meanwhile, the ninjas sent by Kirigakure never returned to the village.

Now the baseless rumors were no longer baseless; they were real, and everyone confirmed at least two things. Both Pakura and Ameyuri were part of Seimeigakure, a mysterious village that explorers and spies were still unable to find. They also had some kind of deal with Kumogakure, but the details were unknown.

All they could deduce is that if these two women were in charge of delivering whatever they had, the value of the deal should not be low at all. Each one could deal with several ninjas of their same level without breaking a sweat.

No one thought that maybe they were just stretching their legs.

Even the Daimyos paid attention to the matter, looking at each other trying to figure out which of the others was the one harboring that new village in secret and calculating how they could use this information. Unfortunately for them, not knowing where the village is made it impossible for them to take the initiative to contact the other party.

Especially the Wind and Water Daimyos, as it involved two high-level jonin with a reputation from "their villages," and they asked for explanations from the respective Kages.

Pakura was a highly valued "ward" of the Wind Daimyo, and when he learned that she was alive but working for another village, it wasn't difficult to put two and two together. He wrote a letter full of fury and ink splatters to Rasa demanding an explanation.

Ameyuri was different; while the Water Daimyo wanted explanations from Kirigakure, his intentions were completely different. He wanted to know why Ameyuri was still alive despite having betrayed the village, in the double sense.

It didn't matter if it was due to her known illness or betrayal; Ameyuri should have died a long time ago to cleanse the dishonor, but she was alive and well!

It was a time of great turmoil behind the scenes.