Konoha Drunkard

"...Kazekage, let's retreat and negotiate. Continuing to fight will only lead to greater losses for us," Uncle Haicang said to Rasa.

"...No way! We Sunagakure have never retreated before the battle even begins." Rasa shook his head decisively. What a joke! These people have only recently taken office and haven't even built up enough reputation yet. You want me to retreat? How am I supposed to survive in the ninja world after this?

Uncle Haizang didn't say anything when Rasa refused his proposal. It's a common practice for all the villages to boost their reputation as soon as they become Kazekage. Rasa's situation is a bit special this time. He hastily stepped up when the previous generation in the village was getting old and the next generation of super geniuses was nowhere to be found. Moreover, Rasa's reputation in the village is the lowest ever for a Kazekage, so he has no choice but to boost it.

.......

The day after Minato arrived at the battlefield in the Land of Wind, the final battle began. Rasa, with a serious expression, led more than 10,000 Sand Ninja toward the Konoha camp. At this point, there was no need to play any more tricks and schemes. To build a good reputation, they had to fight head-on. Even if they lost, the villagers would think that they were still honorable, because at least they had seen the Kazekage's courage.

"Minato, keep an eye on me later and get me a few assists. The kills and MVP are yours." On the Konoha side, Nawaki pulled Minato away from Tsunade and Orochimaru and whispered.

With a teammate who has their own system to work with, it will be much faster to rack up stats. He doesn't believe that bastard Rasa would dare to let those Sand Ninja surround him now. He's got this assist king title in the bag.

"Ah, I know, but you have to be careful." He still had to give his nominal brother-in-law face. After taking on so many missions over the years, he finally had enough for the dowry. If his brother-in-law put in a good word for him, maybe he would get married before he even became Hokage!

"Don't worry, if it weren't for that bastard Luo Sha sending twenty people to gang up on me, I would have been the MVP champion for over ten times in a row." When it comes to farming, everyone here is a noob.

Half an hour later, the two sides met on the battlefield. Both Rasa and Orochimaru were ruthless and didn't talk much. Since it was a decisive battle, they were too lazy to waste words. They would just have a head-on clash to see who was tougher.

"Kill!" Rasa gave the Konoha ninja a simple and direct word and rushed to the front to continue searching for Orochimaru. He would rather die than play ninja games with an assassin like Minato Namikaze who had all his agility points allocated.

This time, Rasa didn't send twenty Jonin to entangle Nawaki as usual. After Minato Namikaze arrived, no matter how many arrangements he made, it was useless. Didn't you see how many people died on the Iwa ninja side because they didn't believe in evil? Even Onoki's kidneys were sacrificed.

When no one was watching, Nawaki once again became the focus of attention. Even Minato couldn't overshadow his brilliance. It was simply too dazzling to be seen carrying four divine weapons. Even the jet-black ape demon that could grow bigger and longer emitted a dazzling light.

On this path, even Minato would have to look up to him. Unsupervised, Rope Tree carries three unsheathed swords and swings his golden cudgel towards areas with many enemies. Whether he gets kills or not doesn't matter; as long as he gets assists, that's enough. So on the battlefield, you can see someone carrying a staff that grows bigger and longer every now and then, smashing it into areas with many enemies. After smashing, he doesn't care about the effect but continues to look for another group of enemies.

While Nawaki might not have gotten as many kills as Minato, who was constantly flashing around saving people, his assists were far superior to Minato's damage output. Nawaki was, after all, of the Senju clan bloodline. Although his talent was a bit lacking, his stamina was outstanding, far better than those fast-paced guys like Minato. While Minato was already panting heavily after a few flashes, Nawaki was still leisurely carrying his golden cudgel and farming minions.

Orochimaru glanced at the disciple who had ruined his reputation, then looked at his friend's disciple. He suddenly realized that his disciple was not bad either. It was just that because of the Senju clan, everyone had high hopes for Nawaki, hoping that he could be like Hashirama Senju, often taking on an entire village single-handedly.

But when Nawaki couldn't reach that level, everyone hoped he could be like his older sister Tsunade, dominating the ninja world with his unstoppable punches. Later, Nawaki also failed to achieve that. People started to think Nawaki's talent was too poor, that he was useless, and so on. Compared to Minato, it seemed like Minato was the real Senju clan member.

After observing the situation of the two, Orochimaru realized that sending Nawaki to fight against strong opponents would actually waste his talent. Yes! Talent! Orochimaru discovered a talent in Nawaki that no one else possessed: skill!

Rope Tree has a unique instinct for farming data in various ways. Look how much fun he has farming on those low-level soldiers. In fact, his role on the battlefield is even greater than that of Minato. Because Minato was born a commoner, he naturally doesn't have much chakra, and the Flying Thunder God Technique is a chakra-consuming skill. Therefore, Minato carefully calculates when he will use the Flying Thunder God Technique and how many times he can use it in a big battle.

Therefore, Minato's role was not very significant until the crucial moment. Instead, Nawaki was relentlessly pushing the enemy's minion wave. Nawaki's role in reducing the enemy's strength became apparent. He appeared on the enemy's minion wave carrying four divine artifacts, making him an almost domineering presence.

325. The sand-covered area has been brushed off.

Rasa was speechless at Nawaki's MVP-level performance. He originally thought that after Minato Namikaze arrived, the most outstanding one would be Minato Namikaze who could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, since he was fast and unstoppable.

Unexpectedly, Minato Namikaze appeared weak in the knees after only a few flashes, while Nawaki, whom he thought was being overshadowed by Minato, had become incredibly powerful. The three swords on his back were still unsheathed, and he had already racked up a lot of kills, not counting the assists and damage output from just one stick.

"Damn it, stop him! That disgrace to the Thousand Hands clan!" Rasa shouted at the guards behind him as he watched the man carrying the golden cudgel brushing the bouncy rope tree.

He was filled with regret. He was initially intimidated by Minato Namikaze's feat of taking on the Fourth Raikage one-on-one. After all, while this Raikage wasn't as outrageous as the previous one, he was still a formidable opponent, especially in terms of speed. Although he hadn't witnessed it firsthand, Minato was known as the fastest man in the ninja world, so he had to be incredibly fast. Therefore, he hadn't expected anyone to be able to hold off Minato from the start. Even though he knew that Minato's Flying Thunder God technique relied on special kunai, this guy hadn't even started fighting yet and was already scattering kunai everywhere. Luckily, Minato didn't have much chakra left, but after being outplayed a few times at the beginning, Rasa was terrified. No wonder a seasoned veteran like Onoki with his red nose was kicked in the back. This was like cheating; there were no tricks involved, just space jumps that were impossible to defend against. If it were just a fast speed, at least you could guess the direction of movement based on the trajectory. But with this kind of space jump, there was no way to find a trajectory. Besides knowing that the pile of kunai around him was where he jumped, you had no idea where he would appear. It was terrifying to watch.

He was already struggling to deal with Orochimaru when they were fighting, and he also had to keep an eye on Minato Namikaze all the time, for fear that a kunai would fly over halfway through the fight and he wouldn't be able to react in time so that his crystal would be stolen.

As for that Thousand Hands Shame, he only gets to be active by using a few divine weapons anyway, so even if you let him farm, he won't be able to farm much.

But now Luo Sha realizes that he still lacks experience. In this kind of team battle, the warrior who farms minions is more effective than the assassin. After reaping some kills, Namikaze Minato was out of mana and was slowly farming to recover mana, while this Thousand Hands Shame farmed a whole field of minions. How could he not be furious?

"Minato! Go!" Nawaki shouted to Minato as he saw Rosa sending his henchmen over again.

".....OK!" Minato looked up at the sky, sweating profusely. Didn't he see I was out of mana? I shouldn't have agreed to escort him in the first place. This guy has no shame at all. Using those artifacts to farm minions, is this something a Senju clan member should do? And he did it so excessively.

Back when the ninja world was spreading rumors about Nawaki shamelessly farming minions, he figured he probably couldn't have farmed that many. Rasa was just exaggerating when he said a few hundred kills. Anyway, even if he were to farm, he couldn't get a few hundred kills.

Now he finally saw what a real "grind" was. This was exactly the routine Shanks taught them: find enemies a level below them to grind. And Nawaki was even more thorough in his grinding. With his Jonin level and a few divine weapons, he reached the level of a Quasi-Kage, yet he didn't even spare Genin. It was as if he was specifically looking for these people. Every time he saw a group of Chunin or Genin, he would go over and hit them with a stick. He was practically a walking slaughterhouse.

Minato regretted it. He shouldn't have agreed to such a shameless request. He could already foresee that after the war ended, his reputation in the Land of Wind would definitely suffer. He would either be called a "headhunter" or a "big brush."

Minato watched as the two Jonin charged toward Nawaki. He flashed and appeared on the Flying Thunder God Kunai beneath their feet, using his newly recovered chakra to launch a Rasengan at each of them.

"Damn it!" Rasa was filled with grief and indignation when he saw the two Jonin he sent be instantly killed before they even arrived. "Is this disgrace of the Senju your boss?! Why is everyone protecting him?!"

Rasa might not be aware of Nawaki's status in Konoha, but Uncle Kaizo's situation is not surprising. After all, Konoha was originally founded by him and the Uchiha clan, and the first two Hokage were from the Senju clan. The current Third Hokage is a disciple of the previous two, and his older sister is one of the Legendary Sannin. As long as he doesn't do anything reckless, no one can kill such a super second-generation ninja.

The key point is that his family is now the only remaining member of the Senju clan. If it weren't for his incredibly poor talent, he could probably have been the Fourth Hokage. If someone like that were in their Sunagakure village, they would receive the same treatment. Even if they were terrible, they would still be treated like a daimyo. If Hiruzen Sarutobi saw Nawaki in danger here, he would say that war could be lost, but the person must be saved.

"boom!"

Taking advantage of Uncle Kaizo's momentary distraction, Tsunade blasted him into a state of near-death.

"You dare to get distracted while fighting with me, old man Haizang, you've got guts." After blasting Uncle Haizang away, Tsunade gave him a kingly look of disdain.

"Magnetic Escape. Golden Sand Rock Wall!"

Just as Tsunade was about to rush up and smash Uncle Kaizo to pieces, a rock wall formed of gold dust blocked her way.

"Lord Haizang, are you alright?"

Rasa nervously approached Uncle Kaizo and asked, "I saw Tsunade's punch just now. It hit his stomach, and his eyes almost popped out. If it had hit his head, it wouldn't have been just a matter of being left with little blood. Right now, he still needs Grandma Chiyo to help him maintain his position. He hasn't gained enough reputation in this war. Although he could gain some reputation by fighting Orochimaru head-on, he can't do without a big one. He can't keep those old men in the village in check. If Uncle Kaizo dies now, and Grandma Chiyo goes into seclusion out of grief, then what's the point of him playing?"

"Cough...cough! I'm not dead yet. Tsunade's fists are really..." Uncle Kaizo said with difficulty as he got up. Everyone knows that Tsunade's iron fists from the Legendary Sannin of Konoha are invincible. You really don't know how deadly they are until you've been hit by one. Just think about how painful Shanks' iron fists are, but you don't know how painful they are until you've been hit by one.

"Lord Kazekage, let's retreat. It would be too much of a loss to let that Thousand Hands' disgrace continue." Uncle Kaizo said to Rasa, looking at Nawaki who had carved out a space under the protection of Minato and Kurenai Yuhi.

In just a short while, this guy has been unstoppable on the minion wave. If he keeps farming like this, even if they negotiate a truce, they'll suffer heavy losses. The minions are almost gone; are they expecting those Jonin to do D-rank missions?

"retreat!"

Rasa, watching Nawaki rampage through their lane, roared at his subordinates, barely containing his rage. He had imagined being defeated by Orochimaru, by Minato, and by Tsunade. He had never imagined that Sunagakure would be wiped out by this shameless scum of the Senju clan. This was the darkest moment of his life.

326. It took them so many years to become famous.

Nawaki never imagined that the final battle would end because his opponent couldn't handle his overwhelming performance. Originally, after Minato arrived, Minato could have just racked up kills while Nawaki provided some support. After all, he was the head of the prestigious Senju clan, and it wouldn't be right for his stats to look bad after such a big battle. So, after the battle started, Nawaki remained exceptionally calm, not thinking about anything, and just focusing on racking up kills.

As a result of Minato's arrival, Rasa focused all his attention on Minato's side, but he couldn't defend against it, so Nawaki's performance in this match was absolutely devastating.

Not only was Nawaki surprised, but his older sister Tsunade was even more astonished that a massive decisive battle would be won by her own brother. Looking at Nawaki wielding his golden cudgel, Tsunade finally realized that her brother, whom she often beat up, had finally grown up. The process had been somewhat erratic, but the result was good; her Senju clan finally had a man capable of deciding the outcome of a war. Give him two bodyguards, and he can create a future for you.

"Well done, keep up the good work next time!" When Nawaki walked up to Tsunade, Tsunade patted his head approvingly.

"...Minato, am I dreaming?" After Tsunade left, Nawaki asked Minato, who was exhausted like a husky, in a daze. In all these years, Tsunade had only praised him once. This was the second time. The first time was when Garp was born, when Garp said that he wasn't too useless. That was already a compliment.

This time, the words sounded so nice, which only made him dislike them more. He's still dreaming about this.

"...I'm sure it's still daytime." Minato rolled his eyes at him and said, panting heavily. Normal battles involve putting out fires and protecting people, which is more tiring than his one-on-one fight with the Raikage. This bastard is having a blast.

In this battle, Nawaki ranked first in every aspect: kills, assists, and damage output. There's no way around it; the Senju clan's physique gave him godlike stamina. Once he cleared the minion wave, no one could stop him, just like Hashirama Senju during the Warring States period. He had great stamina and could clear both big and small monsters at the same time. Although Nawaki couldn't clear big monsters, he could still rival his grandfather in clearing small monsters.

"Minato, I'm not trying to be mean, but your stamina is really terrible. You're exhausted after just a few dodges. Look at me, I sprinted from start to finish without even breaking a sweat," Nawaki said, patting his chest as he watched Minato slump like a shrimp.

"...Haha! There's no way around it, skills consume too much mana," Minato said. "If I had your Senju clan's body, I could carry you through the game..."

"Hehe, if you're willing, Minato, I can transplant Tsunade's or Nawaki's cells into you." Orochimaru appeared behind Minato at some point and said excitedly.

"Uh... Lord Orochimaru, no need, I'm fine as I am." Minato immediately shook his head upon hearing this. He didn't like having other people's things transplanted into his body, and what if Kushina didn't like it? He would be unjustly killed.

"Hehe, as long as you're willing, you can tell me anytime. I even have the captain's cells here," Snake said to Minato with a businessman's smug look.

"Haha! There's a chance." After all, he was his teacher's best friend, so Minato could only laugh it off.

"Orochimaru-sensei, the Sand Village has retreated. When are we going back to the village?" Nawaki asked.

"...Let's wait for the old man's orders. I reckon it'll be soon," Snake Uncle said. Actually, he longed to return to the village even more than Rope Tree. His lab hadn't been used for two years, and the equipment was covered in dust. He really wanted to go somewhere without conflict so he could play his single-player games. There were too many worldly affairs to deal with.

.........

The war in the Land of Wind ended in a disappointing fashion. No one expected that a war would be ended by the so-called disgrace of the Senju clan, the Leaf Village's Great Brush. This also gave some people in the ninja world who imitated Nawaki's sneaky style an inspiration.

Not only can you become a hero by fighting head-on, but you can also make a name for yourself by playing sneaky. Those ninjas from humble backgrounds with little talent still feel that the Rope Tree style of fighting is more suitable for them. As long as they use alt accounts to farm, they believe that one day they can also make a future.

Meanwhile, the "fight and retreat" style of play, which is called "sneaky style" by those intellectuals, is also bringing some changes to the ninja world. In the next few years, you will hardly see genin walking around outside the ninja world. They will all stay in the village and develop their skills in a sneaky way. When they reach the chunin level, they can go out and fight.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi received the news in Konoha, he looked up at the sky speechlessly. This was a temporary change of the main character. He was originally happily waiting for the perfect master and disciple to gain some prestige in the Land of Wind, and then he would spread the word in the village. When the prestige of the perfect grand-disciple reached its peak, he would go to the Daimyo and propose that the perfect grand-disciple inherit the title of Hokage. What a perfect script!

But now an unexpected thing has happened. Someone who should have been carrying three swords, a stick, and a staff has managed to get the Sand Ninja to 20 points. His perfect grand-disciple, after using up his chakra in the first few flashy moves, has been obediently acting as a bodyguard for the big spender. Protecting his brother-in-law is clearly more important than farming reputation.

What he didn't expect was that the nonsense Shanks spouted back when he was Shanks' homeroom teacher had actually been brought to fruition by Nawaki. Look at Konoha now; many ordinary ninjas have already quietly developed their skills, vowing never to leave the village until they reach Jonin level...

Especially considering the two batches of students Shanks led back then, after seeing the Nawaki tree spawn, he became even more determined to play cautiously and develop his character. To this day, Shanks' two batches of students have the lowest mortality rate after graduation. Although they often beat up their teammates for stealing kills, they survived on the battlefield and still lived a carefree life. The second batch of students is even more remarkable. Those who entered the elite class back then are still smart. Although they may not become as famous as their classmate Minato, their homeroom teacher was right: those who survive in the end are the strong ones. Just don't be reckless at the beginning.

So, apart from a very few talented individuals who went to the battlefield, about a dozen of Minato's classmates quietly eked out a living in the village. In the past, they might have been criticized by their companions or teammates for lacking ambition, but things were different now. Look at Nawaki, he only became famous after becoming a father. Even as a member of the powerful Senju clan, he could lie low for so many years before becoming famous. What was it to them, ordinary people without talent, lie low for ten years? Even if they never became famous in this lifetime, they would still outlive them.

327. You don't know how hard it is to support a family until you have to.

"Haha! I didn't expect Nawaki to be so skilled; he even stole Minato's thunder!" Shanks laughed loudly in the Hokage's office. He had just woken up this morning when the Anbu informed him that his position as vice principal had been revoked by Hiruzen Sarutobi. Originally, he wanted to continue being the "gatekeeper" at the school, but he had no choice but to come to Hiruzen Sarutobi for a job. He had two gambling addicts to support at home, and he couldn't be without work. Now, even if he wanted to scam others, there was no one for him to do so. Onoki wished he could hang a sign at the village entrance that said, "No Red Hairs or Dogs Allowed."

Sunagakure has really tricked people too many times. Besides, the current Kazekage, Rasa, will have his future daughter marry his grandson. They're family, so it's not good to keep tricking them.

Yunyin is now in charge as the eldest nephew. It would be shameful for an elder to cheat a younger person.

After much thought, I realized that Kirigakure is the only place I can develop a business there. Now that Madara and Obito are in power, there's another opportunity to make a move.

"You didn't come here because you want Shanks to become Hokage, did you?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, watching Shanks take a few puffs of his pipe.

"I'm not that bored. Besides, even if you asked Nawaki to be Hokage, he wouldn't want to! Look at you, you're only a little over fifty, you look old enough to be my father..." Shanks curled his lip in disdain. There used to be a time when Nawaki constantly talked about becoming Hokage, but ever since he joined Jiraiya, he'd completely let himself go. Being Hokage wasn't as important as a notebook to him anymore, and besides, Hiruzen Sarutobi definitely wouldn't leave the crystal ball to him...

Before, Nawaki thought Naruto was a crystal ball, but after growing up, he realized that Naruto is not a crystal ball and that it makes people age faster.

Shanks was also very curious about where this crystal ball came from. It appeared automatically after Hiruzen Sarutobi became Hokage, and it didn't appear even after he was defeated by Orochimaru in the original work. It was as if it was really used exclusively by Hiruzen Sarutobi, and no one had used it since Hiruzen Sarutobi died.

"Now that you're back, you can go back to school and continue as the vice principal. But in a couple of days, you'll have to come with me to meet the Daimyo. This time, the Daimyo specifically asked to see you," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.

"Tsunade's uncle wants to see me? I don't owe him any money, do I?" Shanks was taken aback. He had met this daimyo before, but that was a long time ago. Back then, he was a snotty-nosed kid following behind him, asking him to teach him how to woo older women.

So many years have passed, and Shanks never imagined that the chubby, foolish guy from back then could actually stand out among the fiercely competitive daimyo offspring and become a daimyo himself. It's no simple matter. Although it's the Naruto world, the daimyo battles in each country are even more intense than the struggle for succession among princes. A daimyo's country may not be large, but he has a lot of sons. If he doesn't have more than three digits, he's considered a wise ruler. The previous generation, Hashirama Senju's in-laws, were clearly not wise rulers. They were the infamous King of the Red Bronze Zone. Not counting those who had fallen into the common people's hands, there were about two hundred sons kept in the daimyo's mansion alone. There were also about a hundred who were old enough to become daimyo. Every time a previous daimyo died, the plot of fighting for the daimyo's position was much more intense than the struggle for succession among princes. The fighting power in the Naruto world is on a completely different level than that of the Imperial Guards.

To think that that idiot snot-nosed guy could actually stand out from the crowd, his brain is several levels higher than Danzo's. But Shanks can't figure out why he wanted to see him.

"The Daimyo just said he wanted to see his childhood friends. After all, you guys got along pretty well back then," Hiruzen Sarutobi said leisurely. He was about to retire, and this was his last shift, so he was in a good mood.

"Tch, I've only met him once. I can't even tell which son of the former daimyo he is." Shanks scoffed. Not to mention him, even someone as clueless as Jiraiya wouldn't believe such a reason.

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you can go back to school and be your old man. In a few days, the higher-ups from the various villages will be coming to negotiate, and you need to be there too," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.

"What would I be doing here? When the Third Raikage was around, it was fine for me to keep him company, but now the Raikage is a generation younger than me, and I'm not good at negotiating." Shanks clapped his hands.

“No one from the Land of Water is coming this time. The Iwa ninja who are coming are all acquaintances. The Suna ninja haven’t been confirmed yet. The Raikage is Azaburo Kujou, who is bringing their great strategist of this generation. I’m also planning to come and take charge of Minato myself. I asked you to come because I was afraid he was too young to handle things.” Hiruzen Sarutobi said, puffing on his pipe.

Several villages sent their new generation of people, and Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't bring himself to act like an old man and take advantage of his seniority, so he simply let Minato take charge. After all, the villages would be handed over to him in the future anyway, and he had already paved the way for his perfect grand-disciple.

"So that's why Aoki Nozomi came from Iwagakure?" Shanks didn't care about others, but he cared a lot about Aoki Nozomi. After being a high-ranking member of Iwagakure for so many years, his net worth must be several times higher than it was a decade ago. He could make another fortune.

“Yes, he’s now considered the number two in Iwagakure. Over the past ten years, many of Iwagakure’s original high-ranking members have disappeared, and the new ones have all been young people. He’s the one who has been with Onoki the longest now,” Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and said.

"Hehe...Let me greet him then. We're pretty good friends, and it's been so many years since we last met. I really miss him!" Shanks' eyes had turned into $.