Silas managed to muddle through 12 D-rank missions in less than 18 hours. They were all welding, like Anko said, and paid out the nose. He started at 2AM and ended around 5pm handed off the stack of completed missions to the Sandaime himself. The old man looked through the reports with raised eyebrows and smoke rising through his pipe. Instead of stamping and handing over the ridiculous payout for D ranks, the Hokage dawdled.

 

“Most Genin have a team to ease the burden of early missions. Your sensei has already accepted 12 D ranks a day for the next four days. Do you owe someone money?” The Hokage asked and gave Silas a grandfatherly smile. “I won’t have my shinobi bullied into working themselves to an early grave.”

 

Silas raised his hands in surrender. “No one is bullying me except maybe my sensei but we call it sparring besides it's basically free money.” Most D ranks paid 1000 to 5000 Ryo, while welding D ranks paid around 50,000 each. They worked him like a dog, but there was some prestige to it that walking dogs didn’t give Genin. “After Anko’s cut, I’m making around 250,000; that’s like a C-rank mission that could take days to complete. I’m surprised a jonin doesn’t make a shadow clone and clean up these D ranks for the extra cash.” Silas said.

 

“What do you know about the welding jutsu?” The old man asked.

 

“Its users need a glove, or they lose fingers. But that wouldn’t be a problem with a gloved shadow clone.” Silas said.

 

“Eye damage is also an issue. The jutsu can blind foes in a pinch; how is your eyesight?”

 

“I use chakra to shade my vision. How are your lungs? I can hear some rattling when you breathe? Have you seen any medic nin recently?” Silas said.

 

“You can’t talk to the Hokage like that, Silas,” Iruka yelled.

 

The Sandaime raised his hand to stop the chunin.

 

“Chakra protects my lungs from the harmful effects of smoking I’m old. You have shapr ears most shinobi don’t enhance their senses like you. The inner ear is fragile and easily damaged. Anko heard the report of your incredible durability and decided to adapt her teaching style accordingly. Jutsu that would be dangerous to others aren’t a problem for you. Keep up the good work.” The Hokage said.

 

“Could your lung protection trick be used to protect against poison gas?” Silas asked.

 

The old man smiled. “Why do you think I developed it?”

 

Silas smiled; he liked the old man. His smoking might be more of an excuse to always have his lung protection jutsu up than a habit.

 

“Jiji, I want a C-rank mission,” Naruto yelled as he burst in.

 

“Naruto, respect the Hokage. I’m sorry, Lord Hokage.” Sakura said quickly while Kakashi and Sasuke walked in.

 

The office suddenly filled with noise as team seven made their way inside the missions office.

 

“You have to take D-ranks like everyone else, Naruto,” Iruka said.

 

“Oh, hey, are you here for your first mission too?” Sakura asked. 

 

“I just finished number twelve. So I’m done for the day.”

 

“We’ll do 36 since we’re awesome,” Naruto yelled.

 

“Maybe we should stick with one and see how you feel then. Twelve missions are a lot for your first day on the job. What kind of missions were they?” Kakashi asked.

 

“You don’t have to tell your fellow shinobi the nature of your missions unless you’re ordered to by your direct officer, Jonin commander, or me,” Sarutobi said.

 

“Thank you, sir, but it isn’t a big secret. They were all welding assignments.” Silas said.

 

“How are your fingers?” Kakashi said in a dangerous voice.

 

“Undamaged,” Silas said.

 

“Do you have your glove and face shield sealed in a scroll? That’s a good idea that kind of equipment is costly.” Kakashi said.

 

“Um, sensei, no one at the academy said anything about welding. Do shinobi normally take that kind of mission?” Sakura asked.

 

Sasuke spoke up. “It's dangerous and expensive to get into but one of the more lucrative missions for its rank though hardly worthy of a true shinobi. Some shinobi get into the utility branches but remain Genin for life. They become highly specialized in flood control and irrigation, pattern welding and smithing, mining and construction, meteorology, and electrical engineering. You won’t normally find them in the field; they are too valuable keeping the village running smoothly to risk.” Sasuke said.

 

“A lot of Uchiha specialized in welding,” Kakashi said.

 

“That’s great, but I’m not a welding specialist; this is just to train up my chakra capacity while making money,” Silas said.

 

“How much did you make today, if you don’t mind me asking?” Sakura asked.

 

“Enough to take you out to an expensive place for a date tonight if you’re interested, my treat,” Silas said. 

 

Kakashi giggled; it was the most disturbing thing he’s ever heard. “Sorry, I read something funny,” Kakashi said as he turned the page in his copy of Icha Icha.

 

Sakura turned to Sasuke and Naruto before shaking her head. “Sorry, I can’t tonight.”

 

Silas shrugged. “Don’t worry about it,” Silas said and left.

 

…

 

From what he could feel, his power level was around 115 after training his chakra and sparring with Anko. It wasn’t a vast improvement, but it was better than nothing. He had a lot of money and next to nothing to spend it on. The only jutsu he had was strictly for welding or blinding people. While the money was great, he wanted something with a bit more utility in combat.

 

Welding was boring, but it paid, and that’s all Anko cared about. He read over the thick sealing text from the library and thought about his sensei and her snakes. Snakes were an outstanding summons; their speed, stealth, and poison were an excellent combination for shinobi. Still, they had a cost and were ultimately living things.

 

This life wouldn’t last forever and he would move on to the next one eventually. So, he needed to come up with a way to have summons without having summons.

 

He bought a dry-erase board and brought it to the abandoned factory. There he drew some designs for a project. He was currently shit at seals, but one way to get better was to have a project to work on. Silas decided he would create an autonomous snake puppet out of seals. He barely knew where to begin, but that would change over time.

 

“Brat, why are you drawing dicks on a board?” Anko asked.

 

“I have problems. You poisoned me sexually by showing off Mamba during my formative years. Now I can’t get hard unless a snake’s involved.” Silas said.

 

Anko opened her mouth and closed it.

 

“Those are snakes, is this what happened to sensei?” Anko asked.

 

Silas rolled his eyes and tossed his marker at Anko’s head but the Kunoichi caught it.“No, I’m thinking about making snake puppets out of seals,” Silas said.

 

“Oh, glad you said something. I was about to strip naked and try some conversion therapy.” Anko said.

 

“Sensei, I was joking about the puppets and need help with my boner,” Silas said.

 

Anko looked over his drawings and notes on the bottom. He broke each problem into smaller problems that, when completed, would hopefully end in a fully autonomous snake drone. For instance, he needed to make stable chakra ink or resin capable of standing in empty air, connecting multiple seals in the form of a snake, and leaving the snake’s fangs blank.

 

“This isn’t possible. Maybe if you had Jiraiya’s help, but you don’t have the tits to get his interest.” Silas thought about it for a second, then did a single-hand sign.

 

In a flash of smoke, he was suddenly a 7ft tall blonde woman with massive tits. “Lord Jiraiya, will you help me with a little project?” Silas said before switching back.

 

Anko closed her eyes and then shook her head. “You did not just do that. I have a perfectly normal student who will put in the work to get his little project off the ground. We will never talk about that again.” Anko said, then snapped her fingers. “I came here to give you this.” Anko tossed him a small leathery piece of paper with little indentions on the side.

 

“Does my affinity matter?” Silas asked.

 

“It's chakra paper to see what, right? You’re one of those well-informed Genin. How did I ever get so lucky?” Anko asked.

 

Silas flowed chakra through the paper, and it split in half, burned, doused itself, crinkled, and turned into dirt. Did that mean he was an amazing prodigy with talent in all elements? That didn’t make any sense.

 

“I’m not buying it.”

 

Anko laughed. “Sorry, I went by a shinobi joke shop and bought some of their merchandise. So here is the real chakra induction paper.”

 

Silas flowed some chakra through it, and it caught fire. “See now we know for sure you’re fire natured.” Anko said.

 

“Maybe you need a minder to keep you from spending money on useless crap. How much Dango did you eat today? You know it's going to make you fat one day.” Silas said.

 

Killing intent washed over him. “I’m not impressed I can do that too,” Silas said.

 

“I try to do something nice for my cute little Genin, but all he wants to do is talk about my spending habits. What are you doing with that fat wad of ryo you made thanks to me?” Anko said.

 

“I’m saving it to blow on hookers and hooch. Maybe if I get enough, I can bribe the toad sage to help me out.” Silas said.

 

He wasn’t going to tell his sensei that he had more plans than fully autonomous snake drones. There was property for sale and training rooms to build. Sure, he couldn’t make a legit gravity room yet, but soon. Once he did that, his PL would rise rapidly. But before that, he should get some training weights like Rock Lee. Silas was tired of feeling weak. His bench wasn’t quite as impressive to shinobi as it would be too normal humans. Even if he was closer to 200 tons than 150.

 

Silas had two objectives from Orochimaru: the long prehensile tongue jutsu because that had so many kinky uses and the snake summoning contract. He needed sage mode, preferably without the cursed seal of heaven on his neck. Then there were the goodies all over the elemental nations, like the Sharingan eyes on a poor defenseless old man who Silas planned to visit in a few months.

CH7