Chapter 1: The Gambler and the Gold
Fifteen years had passed since the founding of Konohagakure.
In a traditional-style house with a small courtyard within the village, a boy of about seven or eight knelt on the tatami floor of a sunlit room. The sliding door was open, allowing a soft breeze to drift inside. A low wooden table sat in front of him, its surface dominated by a large, carefully drawn map.
The boy, Shenjin Youya, rested his hands on the table's edge, his gaze fixed intently on three distinct black marks he had inked onto the parchment. He was deep in thought, his young face serious with concentration.
Shenjin Youya was a child Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage himself, had found and brought to Konoha a few years prior. Now, he lived under the same roof as the legendary shinobi. Today was a day off from the Konoha Ninja Academy, and while other children might be playing, Youya was at home, studying his map.
And what was on this map? It was a chart detailing the locations of gold-bearing veins within the Land of Fire.
In his previous life, Shenjin Youya had been electrocuted while playing a mobile game. When he woke up, he found himself in this new world. He hadn't arrived empty-handed, however; he had brought the "golden finger"—the special ability—from his game. The game was called The Road to the Strong, a title based on one of the great migrant comics, One Piece. Ironically, he had ended up in the world of Naruto with this power.
The ability he had purchased was linked to a newly released character, Gild Tesoro, the user of the Gold-Gold Fruit. His golden finger was the power of that very fruit. A part of him was grateful to have been given the ability directly, sparing him the ordeal of having to eat the actual Devil Fruit, which was famously disgusting.
The fruit's power allowed him to turn anything he touched into gold. Its major weakness was that contact with water would revert the gold back to its original form. In its current, unawakened state, the ability was almost useless for combat. If its nature were discovered, it would more likely get him hunted than hailed. Even later, after awakening, the power might not be overwhelmingly useful in a fight.
But it did grant him one incredibly valuable skill: the ability to sense gold.
Konoha was situated in the northwest of the Land of Fire, and its shinobi missions took them across a wide radius of the country. Whenever Youya was on a mission, he would quietly use his senses to scan the area for traces of gold. So far, he had pinpointed three locations. They were only small, scattered veins, each holding no more than a few hundred kilograms of gold, but he planned to absorb every last gram eventually.
Where there were scattered veins, however, a main mother lode was almost certainly buried deep below. The vast majority of the gold was hidden far underground, far beyond the reach of his current abilities. Since he had no means to dig deep into the earth yet, these smaller surface veins were essential.
The shinobi world had enjoyed fifteen years of peace, and nations were focused on development. Youya's goal was to increase his own strength in the shortest time possible. This meant personal power, of course, but it also hinged on a universal truth that held fast in any world: money was power. And in the shinobi world, gold was the ultimate hard currency.
While the standard currency was the ryo, gold could always be exchanged for it. In recent years of peace, the exchange rate had fallen compared to the war-torn era, but gold's fundamental value never truly wavered.
Of course, Youya wasn't very strong yet. In this world, nothing was more important than one's own power. Even if you wanted to become Hokage, you needed immense personal strength.
Therefore…
Tap. Tap. Tap. Youya used a wooden stick to gently circle the three marked points on the map one last time before carefully rolling the scroll up and putting it away. He needed to get his hands on the gold in those three veins.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The sound of hurried, heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway. Youya looked up just as a man with long, tied-back hair and a comically panicked expression burst into the doorway. The man rushed forward and threw his arms around Youya's legs in a desperate plea. "Youya! My good disciple! You have to save your master!"
This man was none other than the so-called "God of Shinobi," the man who had founded Konoha and established the one-village-one-country system, the First Hokage: Senju Hashirama.
Youya looked down at the man clinging to his leg, his own face a mask of perfect calm. "How much is it this time?"
Senju Hashirama gave him a wide, guilty grin. "Three hundred thousand ryo."
"Three hundred thousand?!" Youya stared at Hashirama in shock. "That's enough to feed Lady Mito and me for an entire year!"
Hashirama rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I can't help it! I was winning at first, but then I lost it all. I just wanted to win back what I lost, and, well… it ended up like this…"
Youya simply stared silently at the grinning man before him. When he had watched the anime in his past life, he hadn't gotten a deep impression of the First Hokage, as he appeared so briefly. But after living under this roof for a few years, he had discovered the truth: Senju Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, was really just an easy-going man with a massive gambling problem. He knew the gambling dens were shady, but he went anyway, even using the Transformation Jutsu to avoid being recognized as the Hokage.
He won sometimes and lost others, but his wife, Uzumaki Mito, always saw through his excuses. She would scold him when he won back money, and her punishments were even worse when he lost…
"If I don't help you, Master, you'll be kneeling in the yard all night again, won't you?" Youya said, his voice utterly deadpan.
Senju Hashirama let out a bold, forced laugh. "Hahaha! Yes, Mito would definitely make me do that." Then he looked at Youya with expectant, puppy-dog eyes. "So, you'll help your old master out, right?"
Youya put on a hesitant expression. "Master, you know the limits of my ability. The gold I create… it turns back if it gets wet…"
Hashirama waved his hands dismissively. "Hey, don't worry about that! Those guys won't care. As long as the gold appears, they aren't going to pour water on it, right? This has worked plenty of times before."
He was right. This wasn't the first time.
Yuya looked at Senju Hashirama, his face the picture of reluctance. "But… but…"
Seeing his disciple's hesitation, Hashirama knew what to offer. "I'll talk to your uncle for you tomorrow!" he said decisively. "I'll tell him you don't have to go to the Academy."
Youya's face immediately broke into a grin. He stood up, walked into the yard, and picked up a small, ordinary stone. He held it in his palm and concentrated. A faint golden glow enveloped his hand, and the stone gradually shimmered and transformed into a lump of pure, bright gold.
"Let's see… this is about half a pound… a little over two hundred grams. Converted to ryo, it should be worth about a million," Youya said, tossing the gold stone to Hashirama. "Remember! Don't let it get wet!"
Hashirama nodded his head so vigorously it seemed it might fall off, then turned and sprinted away, the lump of gold clutched tightly in his hand.
Youya dusted his hands together. Whether his gambling master got caught cheating those people was no longer his problem. He had helped, and in return, he had secured a day off tomorrow.
If I only have one day… I can't possibly visit all three locations. I'll head to the western one first.
With his plan set, Youya began gathering his supplies for the next day's trip.
His chakra nature affinity was for Water, Wind, and Earth. Having three affinities seemed like a lot, but it also meant that if he took the conventional shinobi path, he would need to master Water Release, Wind Release, and Earth Release techniques. His progress in learning ninjutsu was slow; his golden finger didn't help him there. Without the chakra heritage of someone like Indra or Asura, he had to work three times harder than a prodigy just to keep up.
If it weren't for his golden finger, Youya knew he'd probably have to train as hard as Rock Lee. But with the power of the Gold-Gold Fruit… his path was different.
Improving my ninjutsu is important, but finding a real gold vein is far more reliable.
Finding a major gold vein was the key to taking off. It was their ticket to a secure future. All he had to do was find one, and they would truly be set.