As soon as Naruto said those words, the three of them looked at him in unison. They had been trudging along all morning. Why didn't he say something sooner? Their eyes were full of blame, questioning, and suspicion, as if they wanted to pierce him.
"Cough, cough."
Naruto coughed. No matter how thick his skin was, he could only turn away to avoid their scrutiny.
"I don't know why, but it suddenly got better again."
As soon as he finished speaking, he quickly changed the subject before they could ask for an explanation. He reached out to Jiraiya and Shizune next to him. "Hurry up and grab on! Hold on tight, we're about to go!"
Seeing that Tsunade was still standing there with her arms crossed and staring at him, Naruto immediately winked at Jiraiya, hinting at him to quickly grab the hot-tempered Tsunade.
After the four of them were ready, a surge of chakra erupted from Naruto, instantly connecting all of them.
Flying Thunder God, activate!
Whoosh!
With a flash, a spatial power appeared, and the four of them vanished without a trace. The distance to Konoha was quite far, so Naruto used a coordinate relay once in the middle.
Whoosh!
When the four of them came to their senses again, they had appeared in a room.
"Where is this?"
Tsunade found the room, the layout, and the four Hokage faces outside the window to be a little familiar. She remembered. This was the Hokage's office.
Jiraiya and Shizune were also looking around to get their bearings, trying to figure out where they were.
The few of them immediately saw an old man sitting at the main desk in the Hokage's office. A crystal ball was on the desk.
At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi was completely engrossed, watching the scene inside the crystal ball. Naruto looked closely. Huh?
The scene was incredibly inappropriate. The sharp-eyed Naruto saw that what was displayed in the crystal ball was a hot spring. Inside the hot spring, many beautiful girls were splashing around and having fun. They were lightly dressed, their skin was as white as snow, and their figures were lovely. With every movement, a torrent of waves surged. It was a real feast for the eyes!
And Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, who was supposed to be a serious old man, was smiling salaciously, squinting his eyes as he appreciated the scene.
The four newcomers stared at the sight, their minds completely blown.
I never would've thought it. So you're this kind of Third Hokage!
Naruto's eyes lit up, not knowing what the other three were feeling.
Third Hokage! Why didn't you tell me you had a jutsu like this sooner?
This kind of powerful technique was an absolute treasure for intelligence gathering. He, Naruto Uzumaki, had to master it!
"Hmm?"
The Third Hokage looked up and suddenly found four people standing in the room that had been empty just a moment ago. He looked at the four people, then down at the scene in the crystal ball, and the lewd smile on Hiruzen Sarutobi's face instantly froze.
For a moment, the air was awkward.
However, Hiruzen Sarutobi was worthy of being an old politician. His expression didn't change as he gently covered the crystal ball with his sleeve. He then looked at the four who had suddenly appeared as if nothing had happened.
"Cough, cough."
He coughed lightly, resuming his serious demeanor. He showed a kind smile. "Tsunade, Jiraiya, Naruto, you've returned."
"Hmph!" Tsunade didn't give the old man any face.
Jiraiya's eyes, however, lit up. His teacher was indeed much more impressive than he was. He actually possessed such an incredible, high-level jutsu. Jiraiya felt he still had a lot to learn, like this jutsu. If he mastered it, wouldn't he be able to...
"Hehehe."
In broad daylight, Jiraiya started smiling pervertedly.
"Hmph!" Tsunade glared at him, letting out another cold snort.
Jiraiya's smile instantly froze. He had forgotten that she was here. He sneaked a peek at Tsunade, his gaze lingering on a certain area for a moment. Before her angry glare shot at him, he instantly looked away. He had wanted to go up and ask him about the jutsu, but he immediately stopped in his tracks.
The three of them had different expressions, and the scene fell into an awkward silence for a moment.
"Bang—!!!"
Suddenly, an Anbu member crashed through the door, breaking the silence. The Anbu, who had just detected something unusual, was shocked to see four extra people in the room.
He looked closer. Luckily, it was Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade, not an enemy. Otherwise, the Anbu felt his career would be over.
"Lord Third!" The Anbu immediately knelt and apologized.
Hiruzen Sarutobi just looked at him and said reassuringly, "It's nothing. You can go now." He knew that the four had appeared so suddenly that not even the Anbu on duty, let alone himself, could have detected them.
He, too, had been caught completely off guard. If he had to find a reason, it could only be blamed on Naruto's Flying Thunder God. No wonder so many people had died because of this jutsu. It was incredibly sudden.
But who would dare to blame this guy? Naruto was Konoha's prized possession right now. Even he, Hiruzen Sarutobi, could only say, "You're a rascal!"
Looking at the four of them, Hiruzen Sarutobi knew from this team composition that the mission he had given Jiraiya was complete. Tsunade had been brought back to take over as the next Hokage. It seemed she had already agreed.
Tsunade looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi out of the corner of her eye. She hadn't seen him in years, and he did look much older, but... Hmph!
She didn't give Hiruzen Sarutobi any face. "Old man, if there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."
As soon as she finished speaking, she grabbed Shizune and left without waiting for a reply from Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Jiraiya wanted to follow them, but when he looked back at the spherical outline under the old man's robe, he stopped in his tracks.
"Jiraiya? What are you staying for?" As his long-time teacher, how could Hiruzen Sarutobi not understand what Jiraiya was thinking?
"I..." Ashamed by his beloved student's look of disgust, Jiraiya turned to walk away. "It's nothing. I'll report to you later."
'Excellent! I've gotten rid of the last competitor,' Naruto thought happily.
"Naruto," Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Konoha's treasure. "The village has made a decision. I hear you signed a separate agreement with the Sand Village? You got rid of the 10 billion ryo fee?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Good!" Hiruzen Sarutobi took a small scroll from his drawer and handed it to Naruto. "These are our final conditions. See if you're satisfied."
His cloudy, old eyes looked at Naruto. With the treaty with the Sand Village already in place, he surely wouldn't go back on his word now, right? Hiruzen Sarutobi thought.
Naruto stepped forward and took the scroll, looking through the terms one by one. The contents were similar to before. Besides the Sand Village's money, there was an additional 3 billion ryo.
Naruto was quite satisfied, but...
"I have one more condition!" Naruto looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi. This condition absolutely could not be refused!
"What is it?"
He still wasn't satisfied with all these conditions? Hiruzen Sarutobi thought Naruto was being a greedy lion.
Naruto pointed at the crystal ball under his robe. "Add this thing to the deal!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi: Huh?
A moment later, Naruto walked out of the Hokage's building with a huge smile. He happily summarized his great gains from this trip. 8 billion ryo in cash, a large oil field, two pieces of land, and various other immeasurable assets and powers.
Naruto felt that with just this large sum of money he received, it would be an exaggeration to call him the wealthiest person in the Land of Fire, but the wealthiest in Konoha...
Wait, not necessarily. Konoha had so many clans. Which one of them wasn't rich beyond belief with all their history?
Never mind, Naruto sighed. Money wasn't the point.
The point was: The Foundation! This organization, which had been left leaderless after Danzo's defection, had been given to him, Naruto. After all, if he wasn't going to be the Hokage, he should at least be given some people to practice his management skills, right?
Naruto had just mentioned it casually, so it was a pleasant surprise to actually get it. With the Foundation, he could secretly make his moves. He held up the scroll and looked at it. With this treaty, he, Naruto, would belong to Konoha in the future.
No problem!
Thinking of this, Naruto almost burst out laughing. Not to mention whether the treaty could be torn up. Besides, he was a Konoha resident in the first place.
As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. He never thought he would gain so much just by playing hardball. Konoha had not treated him badly. In that case...
He, Naruto, swore that from today onwards, he would firmly uphold the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, as the core of the...
Cough, cough, no, that's wrong.
It would be Tsunade soon. It was the old lady who deceived her to become the Fifth Hokage and take power.
"Heh, I'll just play along."
After a quick comment, Naruto looked up at the sky. It was already noon, no wonder he was hungry.
At this time, in the aftermath of the "Konoha Crush", the village's shinobi were all extremely busy. But he, Naruto, had nothing to do.
"I'll go grab a bite first."
The scene changes.
Location: Ichiraku Ramen.
"Naruto?"
Naruto was slurping a bowl of tonkotsu ramen when a surprised voice sounded from behind him. The voice was so familiar. He turned around in curiosity and saw an old acquaintance. He grinned. "Iruka-sensei, it's you."
"It really is you!" Iruka looked happy. He took a step forward and patted Naruto's shoulder, then his burning gaze examined his student from head to toe.
He and Naruto hadn't seen each other in a long time. Ever since Orochimaru's Konoha Crush, Naruto had been very elusive. After hearing about all of Naruto's great accomplishments from others, Iruka had been eager to praise him in person but could never find him.
Now, he finally saw him.
"This time..."
Iruka was about to call out to Teuchi and offer to pay for Naruto's ramen, but Naruto beat him to it.
"This time, I'll treat you, Iruka-sensei."
"Huh?" Iruka looked back in surprise. When did Naruto become so generous?
"I just earned a little bit of money," Naruto said, winking mischievously.
8 billion ryo was not just a little bit of money. This money was enough to fully restore his chakra regeneration speed. It was not easy! Unable to continuously cast his Super Dust Release with a ten-kilometer diameter, Naruto was unable to sleep soundly.
Twelve years had passed, and Naruto's fear of insufficient firepower could finally be solved!
"Naruto, have you been watching the news recently?"
"What news?" Naruto ordered another bowl. When he heard Iruka-sensei's question, he looked at him with curiosity. It wasn't that Naruto didn't watch the news, but there had been too many hot topics recently. The ninja world's trending topics were coming one after another. Naruto didn't know which one Iruka-sensei was referring to.
"The Eight-Tails Jinchuriki from the Land of Lightning's Cloud Village... apparently a guy named Killer B. He's disappeared. The Ninja World Daily says it's highly likely that the Eight-Tails has been taken by Obito Uchiha."
"Oh?" Naruto knew which news Iruka was talking about. He had been the one to keep this news from being released until today.
The purpose? Naturally, it was to add fuel to the fire of the already tense international situation.
If this were a game, there would probably be a message pop-up.
World Tension +50.
First the Two-Tails, then the Eight-Tails. Now, the Land of Lightning no longer had a Tailed Beast. It had become a country ripe for the taking. In other words, the Land of Lightning was on the table. The outbreak of war depended entirely on the ambitions of the other countries.
All he had to do was wait. Naruto was fearless when it came to war. He was even pushing for it behind the scenes!
However, Iruka, as a normal shinobi, was particularly worried about Naruto. Was Naruto really strong? He had only heard about it. On the day of the war, as a teacher at the Ninja Academy, he was busy evacuating the students and had no time or energy to pay attention to the battlefield. He didn't know the situation on the battlefield either. He only heard afterward that Konoha had won, and Naruto had shone brilliantly during the chaos.
The news, and the messages he had heard from others, only said that Naruto was very strong. Things like "The Yellow Flash has returned" and the like... Iruka felt relieved. Compared to the prankster child he was in the Ninja Academy, Naruto had really grown up.
But after hearing the news, Iruka couldn't rest. Even though he had never experienced war, he knew how terrifying it could be. As a strong shinobi, Naruto would definitely be on the battlefield.
"Naruto, you have to be careful." Iruka's eyes were filled with complex emotions.
"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei. I'll be fine," Naruto said with a carefree laugh. His smile was so lighthearted that it made Iruka feel a little more at ease.
After lunch, Naruto said goodbye to Iruka.
He focused his senses for a moment, and with a "whoosh," he instantly vanished. When he reappeared, he was already in the Land of Wind.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The biting wind and sand blew mercilessly. Naruto opened his mouth and almost got a mouthful of sand.
"Ugh! Bah!" He spat twice unhappily and looked around. It was just sand and more sand, endless sand dunes as far as the eye could see. Was this a place where people could even survive?
He extended his senses, and sure enough, there wasn't a single person within dozens of kilometers.
"Is this where the oil field is?" Naruto grabbed a handful of sand. Under the scorching sun, the surface sand was hot in his hand. "It's so desolate."
He wondered what it would be like to build a Las Vegas-style entertainment city in a place like this?
Never mind, that was a matter for later. However, recalling Iruka-sensei's reminder, Naruto suddenly remembered something.
"Right, I need to inform Tetsu-chan about something. I must clarify one thing."
The previous information was wrong! He had thought that his father, the Fourth Hokage, had died because of Obito Uchiha, but he had actually died from sealing the Nine-Tails. This had to be stated separately and with emphasis.
For no other reason than to highlight one point: there was a difference between Fourth Hokages. There was a difference between Kage!
Heh, what garbage is the Fourth Raikage, A?
He actually dares to try and leech off my dad's fame?