Not far from the Hokage's office building stood a square, two-story building. It was made of brick and stone, with a footprint of probably less than one hundred square meters, even smaller than Habara's suburban "small house."
The exterior of this small building looked ordinary, even somewhat old. However, it was once Konoha's public property… Well, it still was Konoha's property, but it had been requisitioned by Kushina Uzumaki not long ago. This place became her new base of operations.
The Third Hokage kept his word. He helped Kushina Uzumaki smooth over the objections from the advisors and other parties, pushing through the opposition to establish a new small organization within the village.
"Akakammuri's" office was located in this small building, and now this organization was just as inconspicuous as this building.
It must be stated in advance that "Akakammuri" was an organization under Konoha, not an organization opposed to Konoha. It was just like "Root." Theoretically, everyone was a subordinate. Furthermore, the organization didn't require members to have any exclusivity. This wasn't about forming some kind of clique. "Akakammuri" had absolutely no either-or relationship with other departments within Konoha. For example, Habara would become a member of "Akakammuri," but this wouldn't prevent him from still being an Anbu ninja.
Over the past few days, this building had been cleaned, and today was the first time all the members of this organization had gathered. When Habara and Tenzo arrived, they found that everyone else was already there.
Let's take a look at all the members of this organization:
Kushina Uzumaki, the wife of the Fourth Hokage. She was the leader of the organization and its strongest combatant.
Genma Shiranui, Raido Namiashi, and Tatami Iwashi. These three were formerly the Fourth Hokage's guards.
Aoba Yamashiro, one of the young ninja the Fourth Hokage had thought highly of; Kakashi Hatake, the Fourth Hokage's direct disciple.
Shibi Aburame, a subordinate and friend of the Fourth Hokage.
Hana Inuzuka, Kushina Uzumaki's own friend, and in a sense, she was Kushina's "life assistant" at this time.
Then, adding Habara and Tenzo, these were the initial members of the new organization "Akakammuri."
No wonder the village had silently approved this organization. It was just a couple of big cats and a few kittens, only ten people in total. What was there to worry about? Neither in terms of combat power nor influence was "Akakammuri" worth mentioning as an organization.
And among these ten people, only Shibi Aburame was a typical ninja clan member. Aside from him, the others could be considered civilian ninja… Kushina Uzumaki came from a famous clan, but now she was the only one left of that famous clan. Hana Inuzuka, came from the Inuzuka clan, however, this clan was too small and had no great power, so they could be said to have been somewhere in the middle between clan ninja, and common ninja.
If we were to take stock of the ninja clans within Konoha, there were the Uchiha and Hyuga, representing tradition, large families, and deep roots; the Sarutobi, friends of the Senju, small in scale but unique because of the Third Hokage's status; and the Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi, the core establishment faction closely surrounding the Hokage…
Clans like the Aburame, although their ninja were very strong, were slightly inferior in terms of status and ranking within the village.
In short, if Habara were to put it, the "composition" of the new organization's members was quite good.
Once everyone had arrived, the new members introduced themselves briefly. Kushina Uzumaki didn't give any grandiose slogans. Although most of the people here were still a bit confused about the purpose of this newly established organization, things like ideals and goals would gradually become apparent in future activities. There was no need to over-explain.
In any case, for people like Genma and Aoba, it was good to have a new place to belong.
"Alright, there's plenty of time to get to know each other later. I'll briefly explain the organization's upcoming tasks… Everyone should be aware of the current world situation. The Third Hokage intends to encourage all countries to end the war, so Konoha is currently preparing to initiate a Five Kage Summit, and we will be responsible for some auxiliary work.
Sunagakure will definitely stand with Konoha. We now want to secure Kirigakure's approval in advance, so the village is preparing to send envoys to Kirigakure…"
Overall, Kushina Uzumaki's working style was quite swift and decisive. She didn't engage in anything flashy, but instead started talking about serious work on the first day of work.
As for being an envoy, Habara wanted to personally see the current situation in Kirigakure. As far as he knew, Madara Uchiha had controlled Kirigakure in his later years, and then Obito had been entrenched in the Land of Water for many years, causing trouble… He just didn't know if Obito was currently in Kirigakure.
Contacting Kirigakure wasn't a simple task. The Land of Water was an isolated island, with a relatively closed environment. Therefore, Konoha didn't even know the identity of the Fourth Mizukage, or rather, they didn't know if Kirigakure even had a Fourth Mizukage at this time… This was the same as how no one knew that Hanzo of the Salamander had died many years ago.
The only thing that could be confirmed was that the Third Mizukage was dead.
After briefly introducing the mission situation, Kushina Uzumaki's gaze swept over Kakashi, Habara, and Tenzo, and then settled on Shibi Aburame. "Aburame, can I leave this matter to you?"
Such an important mission should be entrusted to a mature and reliable person. At this time, no one wanted to hear any more news of major chaos in the Land of Water.
Shibi Aburame immediately nodded. "I'm familiar with the geography of the Land of Water. I can make the trip."
It sounded like he had been active in the Land of Water before.
"Good, then go see the Third Hokage later."
After talking about the main issue, Kushina Uzumaki gave a few more instructions, and then announced that everyone was dismissed. They could familiarize themselves with the environment here.
The leader hadn't left work yet, so of course, no one could leave. Habara went straight to Kakashi, grabbed him, and asked, "Are those things ready? Where's the storage room?"
Kakashi nodded and said, "They're ready. Follow me."
Basements and even larger underground spaces were standard features of most public buildings in Konoha, so strictly speaking, this small building wasn't a two-story building, but a three-story building… two stories above ground and one below.
Kakashi led Habara and Tenzo to a storage room on the underground level. After the three entered, Habara closed the door again.
This storage room only stored some ordinary supplies, like shuriken and kunai, so there was no need for strict security. In addition, some unprocessed steel ingots were even placed in a corner of the storage room. These were the materials Habara had specifically requested from the village when the organization was established… If they wanted to ask Konoha for a bunch of explosive tags, the logistics department of Konoha would definitely say no. But if they just wanted this scrap metal, they could have as much as they wanted.
Seeing these things, Habara walked straight over. Kakashi was a bit curious about what he was going to do, so he watched him intently.
Habara just walked to the pile of steel ingots, then he stretched out his palm and touched the dark steel. Then, with a lift of his hand, a simple-looking breastplate was pulled out.
Kakashi's eyes blinked, and then blinked again… Holy crap, what kind of master blacksmith was this?
He casually took the breastplate and found that it was very lightweight. The protective area only covered the front and back of the chest, but this was enough for a ninja. Any more would be overkill and affect physical agility.
The breastplate was a two-piece structure, with hinge-like connections at the shoulders. It was open on both sides, with two metal buckles on each side to lock it closed.
To test its protective effect, Kakashi took out a kunai and stabbed it with his greatest strength. Then, the tip of the kunai broke off, and only a shallow mark was left on the thin breastplate… This material was a bit insane. Was it really just ordinary steel?
"Master blacksmith" Habara was very fast. He quickly produced ten sets of breastplates, and then even faster, he took out ten straight-bladed long swords and ten straight-bladed short swords.
Twenty sword blanks were placed there, dark and seemingly very sharp.
At this time, Habara saw that Kakashi had already tried to put on the breastplate, so he walked over and tapped the breastplate. Then, the "one-size-fits-all" breastplate immediately became tailor-made for Kakashi.
Habara picked up a long sword and a short sword and handed them to Tenzo. Tenzo had an almost instantaneous epiphany. The next moment, wood grain patterns began to appear on the sword blanks… One forged, the other crafted scabbards; the two cooperated seamlessly. The ancestors of "Magnet Release" and Wood Release would surely smile in their graves upon seeing such descendants.
After finishing the scabbards, Tenzo handed the short sword to Habara, and he himself tried swinging the long sword.
Habara handed the short sword to Kakashi and said with a smile, "Try it out?"
Kakashi took the short sword. Compared to the highly defensive breastplate, he wasn't really concerned about such a short sword. After drawing it from its scabbard, he found that it was indeed very sharp, but that was all.
"It's very sharp," he said.
"Not just sharp. Try it again," Habara prompted again.
"Not just sharp? Could it be…"
Kakashi felt it was unlikely, but he still tried to channel his chakra along the blade. Then, the sword was instantly illuminated by his chakra.
"A chakra blade?" Kakashi immediately jumped up on the spot, leaping very high. A ninja like him wouldn't be so unworldly, but he was surprised by something else…
"You can mass-produce chakra blades? Why? You're clearly using ordinary materials!"
Habara immediately denied it, "Who's mass-producing? These are clearly just new benefits for new members."
He had no intention of being unconventional, but he was willing to give his people a little help. Exceptionally well-equipped gear would show that this new organization was a promising unit, increasing its attractiveness and cohesiveness.
Kakashi: "…"
Back then, who could understand his pain when he accidentally broke the chakra blade passed down from his father?
Habara stuffed the long sword and short sword into Kakashi's arms and said, "This set is yours. Then take a set to Aburame-senpai. The trip to Kirigakure might not be smooth sailing. I hope this equipment can provide some help."
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