That evening, Fumori Masaki returned home. Before he even had a chance to sit down and take off his shoes, he heard a rush of footsteps. Then, he saw Akemi hurrying over, saying, "Welcome home, Father. Ah, let me help you with your clothes."
Masaki handed his clothes to Akemi, a little surprised. He asked, "Akemi, why are you home so early today?"
In the past, Masaki and Akemi usually came home around the same time—because some of Masaki's work had been taken on by others, so he wasn't as busy as usual. But now, Akemi had already changed out of her work clothes into something more casual, and there was a faint scent of spices on her hands, suggesting she had been helping with dinner.
"Work finished a bit early, so I came back to help out," Akemi winked at Masaki. "I have some good news to tell you, Father."
"What good news?" Masaki was immediately curious and asked.
"Oh, I'll tell you later, let's talk about it at dinner." Akemi put away Masaki's coat and accompanied him into the inner room.
"You child, you've learned to keep me in suspense," Masaki said, looking at Akemi with a smile. "What exactly is the good news? Can you give me a hint?"
"You'll definitely be happy when you hear it, so just look forward to it for now," Akemi said. Then, hearing Rimi call her from the kitchen, she added, "I'll go help out first. Wait a bit, Father."
Then, Akemi quickly left, and Masaki pondered what Akemi's good news could be. Since Akemi hadn't specified, he didn't know what area it concerned. For Masaki, he preferred to hear good news about some research work in the Scientific Research Department.
Thinking about Akemi returning so early, Masaki wondered if there had been progress in her research, which was why Akemi came back early.
This thought was quite reasonable. Akemi used to spend all her time in the Scientific Research Department. Besides her interest in scientific research, another possible reason was Orochimaru. He heard that Orochimaru was also a workaholic; he had no other interests and basically stayed in the Scientific Research Department all day.
Every time Masaki thought of Akemi's relationship with Orochimaru, he felt a pang of bitterness. Why did she fall for that gloomy fellow? Although he knew that Orochimaru in this timeline was not like the one in the original timeline, established impressions were hard to change. Even regarding Orochimaru's education, Masaki himself had actively pushed for it, and the current situation was also influenced by him, but he still felt uncomfortable.
While thinking about Akemi, Masaki picked up the day's newspaper. Besides the usual content from the propaganda department, other events within Konoha Village were also published, which Masaki wouldn't otherwise know about, so he would read them.
Recently, private media had also started appearing in Konoha Village. Although the village's shares were involved, making it difficult for private media to escape the village's influence, compared to the official newspapers affiliated with the propaganda department, the content of these private media newspapers was much broader.
As he was reading, Masaki heard a "I'm home" from the doorway. After a while, Asuna entered. Compared to Akemi, who worked in the Scientific Research Department, Asuna, as a combat ninja, didn't have many missions during peacetime. After all, ninjas now had a regulated salary, and the adjustment of the ninja organizational structure meant they didn't have to constantly take missions to earn money like in the original timeline.
Moreover, as Masaki's daughter, Asuna also had her own secret mission: to befriend important personnel among the Sand Village exchange students. In the future, when the older generation retired, these young people would become the pillars for maintaining relations between the two ninja villages, and this could not be taken lightly.
"Welcome back, Asuna." Masaki put down the newspaper and nodded at Asuna. From Asuna's attire, he could tell she had been out shopping with someone. The person was, predictably, the Sand Village exchange student. He remembered that Karura was particularly close to Asuna.
Currently, Bunpuku was the Kazekage of Sand Village, and Karura was Bunpuku's student. Since Bunpuku had no children, Karura was essentially his daughter. In other words, in terms of status, she was similar to Masaki's daughter, so it was natural for them to be suitable people to interact with.
Although Karura's initial target was Hatake Sakumo, who was also a student of the Hokage, Sakumo was older, making them less suitable for interaction. Asuna, being of a similar age, was a more appropriate choice, so Karura turned to interact with Asuna.
After all, the other party was Masaki's daughter, whose status was similar to that of a student, and even higher in some respects. Blood relatives were, after all, blood relatives.
"I'm exhausted," Asuna sighed deeply and immediately sat down at the table, looking utterly worn out.
"Did you go to many places today?" Masaki asked.
"Yes," Asuna rested her face on the table without much grace, her expression showing a sense of "mental fatigue." "Compared to our village, their Sand Village really doesn't have many new things. It was fine at first, but the more places we visit now, the more things there are to ask about."
"You really worked hard," Masaki shifted his body to Asuna's side and gently stroked her head.
Asuna silently accepted her father's caress. She wasn't a child anymore, but she still enjoyed her father's warmth. She moved her head slightly, looked at Masaki, and said, "Father, can you please not make me take Karura shopping anymore? If you let me accompany her in training, that would be fine; I'm more suited for that."
Masaki knew that Asuna had never been a talkative child since she was young. If she were at a negotiating table, she might prefer to convince people with "strength" rather than reason. Asking her to be a ninja village guide and host was indeed a bit difficult for her. However, as Masaki's daughter, she had to build a good relationship with the "princess" of the Sand Village.
Although he hadn't seen it firsthand, Masaki felt that Asuna had probably tried her best, and at least her relationship with Karura wouldn't be too bad. According to Asuna's earlier reports, when they discussed their Wind Release insights, they had a very pleasant conversation. It was only when it came to the tour guide task that Asuna, who was not very articulate, felt a bit overwhelmed.
Masaki had never been to the Sand Village either, but from the original story, the Sand Village was very backward. Its meager funds were basically used to support military construction, and the amount spent on civilian life was negligible. Konoha Village, while maintaining strong military power, could allocate a portion of its energy to civilian life. Even though it was still less than the proportion of military spending, this alone was unimaginable for the poor children of the Sand Village.
The clean and tidy streets alone were enough to make them incredibly envious, not to mention the bustling commercial streets. In a place like the Sand Village, Masaki knew there wouldn't be many consumption channels. If even organizing the military wasn't enough, where would there be room for commercial development?
The visiting delegation's previous tour only showed them some important places, and the commercial street was only briefly glanced at. But today, after Asuna took Karura on a tour of the commercial street, Karura was completely captivated. Not to mention the delicious food, there were also beautiful clothes, jewelry, and other dazzling items.
The Sand Village had almost no entertainment or other businesses. Even if they did, they were things like ninja tool sales or puppet sales. Karura had never seen such a diverse commercial street before. She had occasionally visited more prosperous places in the Land of Wind, but frankly, Konoha Village was still superior.
Even for professionally trained ninjas, times had changed. Many ninjas who didn't join places like the Anbu were no longer as cold as in the past, and human emotions became richer. The traditional three ninja taboos were not really followed by ninjas born in the new era.
Of course, having undergone ninja training, they had resistance to these things, but even with resistance, there would be desires. Karura's natural girlishness immediately led her to drag Asuna around the commercial street, occasionally buying things. Compared to Asuna, who was used to it, Karura, seeing it for the first time, seemed quite wild in this regard.
Although Asuna was also a girl, her needs weren't very high, and she wasn't very good at shopping. The result was that Karura exhausted her mentally. After visiting so many places, Karura didn't buy too many things, mainly some daily necessities. The only relatively luxurious item was clothes.
Karura first noticed Konoha Village's ninja uniforms. Because female ninjas in the Warring States period mostly relied on their beauty to gather intelligence and perform similar missions, female ninja clothing tended to be seductive, with things like black fishnet stockings being standard for many female ninjas.
Even after the establishment of ninja villages, with the creation of ninja academies, combat-oriented female ninjas became more common. This traditional lingering custom had not completely disappeared. In prosperous Konoha Village, it was less prevalent, but in the original timeline, such traditional ninja attire was not very common, yet it still existed, for example, for Anko Mitarashi, Kurenai Yuhi, Ino Yamanaka, and others.
However, due to the internal weakness of the Sand Village, this aspect was more severe. Karura's ninja attire was not as seductive as the traditional ones, but it still retained some of those characteristics. Karura initially thought nothing of it, as tradition dictated, but after encountering Konoha ninjas on the battlefield, she became somewhat wavering.
Because Masaki did not approve of this bad custom, in his view, ninjas in the new era should break free from the shackles of past traditions and possess dignity, making them admirable. As he himself had said in the past, in the Konoha Village he governed, ninjas were no longer like ninjas, but rather people who used chakra.
Past female ninjas, if not for their low strength, would not have chosen this method to prove their worth. And for Masaki, even with low strength, this method should not be adopted. Of course, he could understand that in those times, female ninjas without strength could only survive this way, but in the current Konoha Village, there was no longer a need to prove oneself in this manner.
And eradicating those bad customs was one of Masaki's methods for reshaping the spiritual core of current chakra users. Clothing reform was just one part of it.
Another point was that Masaki felt the ninja outfits in the original story were truly not very good-looking. Some were indeed nice, but others were not.
Some even looked fine on the surface, but other parts were not. For example, the Akatsuki organization's uniform—the black robes with red clouds were indeed cool, but the nail polish was an operation Masaki couldn't understand.
Besides that, there were open-toed ninja shoes, thick ropes tied around the waist, and so on. Masaki disliked all of these and changed them if he could.
The reform of ninja attire had already been carried out in the past. Both female and male ninja uniforms became more formal. Both tops, pants, and shoes were all changed. Among them, female uniforms still retained feminine characteristics, but the feeling they conveyed was not the traditional seductive female ninja, but rather a heroic and valiant one.
In addition to Konoha Village's officially unified combat uniforms, private custom-made clothing was also sold in ninja shops. Following the village's policy, those shopkeepers also changed their past design styles, designing with the concept of Konoha's official ninja uniforms. Even custom-made ninja outfits no longer had the shadow of the past.
For Karura, this type of ninja attire was indeed appealing. She had also studied the books by Masaki and others, and she strongly agreed with some of the concepts within. As a talented and gifted female ninja, she didn't need traditional methods and could completely prove herself through other means.
Karura couldn't wear Konoha Village's unified uniform, but she could order custom private ninja attire. Private ninja attire was even better looking than Konoha's unified ninja attire. After all, Konoha Village's unified ninja attire also had to be practical, while custom-made clothing emphasized individual characteristics and was related to the customizer's requirements.
In Konoha Village, this kind of custom-made ninja attire was also very popular, and many high-ranking ninjas wore ninja attire with their personal characteristics.
"If you feel too tired, why don't you call Mizuki? She's the daughter of the Security Force Captain and is very familiar with the commercial street. With her there, she should be able to help you relieve some pressure," Masaki said.
"That works," Asuna nodded repeatedly. If someone could take over the role of introducing, she wouldn't be afraid. And Mizuki was also a child of a high-ranking official, so maintaining a good relationship with Karura would also benefit the village.