Konoha Drunkard

"Boom!"

With his top-tier Observation Haki, Shanks would be finished if he got hit. He dodged the kicks of seven or eight giant scythes, then landed on the Seven-Tails' head and slammed it to the ground with an iron fist.

"Damn it, it hurts so much!"

Seven-tailed Fox rolled around on the ground with two huge bulges on its head. With each roll of its massive body, a section of building was destroyed.

"...Lord Shigeo, is that really the Seven-Tails?" A group of Takigakure ninjas in the distance watched the Seven-Tails wreaking havoc in front of them. It couldn't even last a single round against Konoha's Shanks. In just a few minutes, it had been beaten twice. It felt too unreal. A young Takigakure ninja said with his legs a little weak.

"You're still young. I still vividly remember the scene when that red-haired Konoha ninja beat the Seven-Tails to tears. I was only a few years old back then." The middle-aged Takigakure ninja reminisced.

"He's...too amazing. He's on a completely different level from us." The young Takigakure ninja behind the middle-aged Takigakure ninja said. Their village's records also contain information about Shanks, but those are all things from the past. They'd be bored enough to look at those things. They'd only heard that Konoha's Shanks was incredibly powerful, but they didn't know just how powerful he was. They'd never seen him fight, so how would they know how powerful he was?

Today they witnessed firsthand just how powerful a legendary ninja could be. The Seven-Tails wreaked havoc in their village, killing countless comrades, while they couldn't even touch a hair on its head. But then Konoha's Kurenai arrived and treated the Seven-Tails like a son.

"boom!"

"How about that? This painful realization still hasn't made you think of me!"

"asshole!"

"boom!"

"Looks like your brain has really been locked up and you've gone mad. Let me help you wake it up."

"Ouch, it hurts so much!"

.......

Half an hour later.

"boom!"

"Get up! Stop playing dead! I haven't had enough fun yet!"

"Waaaah! Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I know who you are! Waaah..."

The seven-tailed creature, covered in bumps on its head, had two huge tears welling up in its enormous eye sockets.

It did remember the bastard in front of it. It hadn't remembered him before because decades had passed. It never expected that the brat who beat it up back then would still be alive, now an old man. It couldn't recall him immediately, and now those painful memories were being drenched again. But even remembering him was pointless; it had been beaten again, and it hurt terribly.

"boom!"

"Not enough! This time I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget, so you won't get locked up like a madman again next time." As expected, he's a coward, even more cowardly than the Five-Tails, who can hold out for almost an hour.

"Waaaaah! Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I was wrong! I was wrong!" The Seven-Tails rolled on the ground begging for mercy after another big bump appeared on its head.

"It can't be real! The Seven-Tails really cried!"

A group of Takigakure ninja in the distance stared blankly at the Seven-Tails rolling around. This was the Seven-Tails! If you count by the number of tails, it was one of the top three tailed beasts. How could it be beaten to tears? It was too cowardly!

"What happened? Where's Nanami? Where's that bastard who hit me earlier?!"

The blind man, Shinobu Taki, who had just mistaken Shanks for Kakuzu, groggily opened his eyes and asked.

"...Big brother, that was Shanks from Konoha just now. He beat the Seven-Tails to tears again..." The middle-aged Takigakure ninja whispered to the blind Takigakure ninja, afraid that his older brother would not understand the situation and get beaten up again. Judging from the force with which Shanks knocked the Seven-Tails away just now, the punch he threw at his older brother was a soft one. If it happened again, who knows if he would hold back?

"".

499. Is the Earth Shadow still my grandson?

"Konoha Red Hair? What's he doing here?" Blind Taki asked, rubbing the still-aching bump on his head.

"It is said that Lord Takikage received news of the Seven-Tails' breaking seal, so he invited Konoha's Kurenai here," said the middle-aged Takikage ninja.

"What the hell are you all babbling about? The sealing team, hurry up and seal them! Aren't you tired of fighting tailed beasts?" Shanks looked at the group of Takigakure ninjas in the distance, chattering away, and was just short of grabbing some sunflower seeds, beer, and shouting "66" (a Chinese internet slang for "awesome").

"Oh! Yes! Sealing team!" The middle-aged Taki ninja finally came to his senses; now was not the time for discussion and research.

Once, the Seven-Tails, its head covered in welts from Shanks's beatings, saw the sealing team rushing over with a baby and lay prone on the ground without struggling. Being sealed meant no freedom, but it was better than continuing to get beaten on the head. After all, its lifespan was infinite; it could wait a decade or so until the red-haired brat grew old, then find a chance to escape, and the first thing it would do was go to Konoha and beat that bastard to a pulp.

The Seven-Tails had given up struggling, and the sealing process went quite smoothly. The Takigakure ninja who were still alive breathed a sigh of relief after watching the Seven-Tails being completely sealed into the new Jinchūriki's body. They had finally cleared the stage.

"All done. Where's the good wine and food? I've never actually tasted the wine from your Land of Waterfall before!" Shanks clapped his hands and said to the middle-aged ninja from Waterfall.

"Red-haired sir, the food and wine are ready. Please follow me." The middle-aged Taki no Shinobu did not dare to delay and led Shanks to a dilapidated house.

"Please, Shanks, if it weren't for you, things would have been unthinkable today," said Blind Shinobu Taki, raising his cup to Shanks.

"Haha. I take money to solve problems for people. Your Takikage paid me, so there's no need for thanks. My reputation as one of the Four Emperors, Shanks, is top-notch. But I can still handle things this time. I might not be able to in another ten years or so. I'm not young anymore." Shanks also picked up a glass and drank it all in one gulp.

"Lord Red-Haired Shanks is still going strong! I think he can fight for at least another ten years!" Although Blind Takishinobu was blind, he was still very good at talking and didn't take Shanks's punch that gave him a big bump on the head seriously at all.

"Haha, although I know you're just making things up, I still love hearing that!" Shanks laughed loudly.

..........

After eating and drinking, Shanks didn't rest. Carrying a jug of sake, he swayed and left Takigakure. The Seven-Tails' demolition efficiency was quite good; it had already demolished most of the village before Shanks arrived, and then it fought Shanks again. The two of them had almost completely destroyed Takigakure. There was no need for him to further trouble the dilapidated village. The Chunin Exams were over, so there was no need for him to rush back. Although he hadn't seen the finals, Itachi had already evolved to the three-tomoe form, and Garp's team was undeniably stronger than the Cloud and Mist ninjas. The championship for Konoha was practically guaranteed. As for whether the Daimyo of the Land of Wind would renege on his bet... even if he borrowed a water tank from the Daimyo of the Land of Wind as courage, he wouldn't dare to renege. Just looking at the top bettors from the Land of Wind would probably make their legs go weak.

Since he rarely gets to go out, how could he not wander around? After having Miss Slug tell Skyrocket to collect the remaining payment from Takikage, Shanks staggered off towards the Land of Wind. Now that the ninja world is dominated by the new generation, he doesn't have many old friends left. Grandma Chiyo and Ebizo from Sunagakure are his only two friends.

Upon entering the Land of Wind, Shanks was met with sandstorms, which he hated most. Although he knew there was a lot of gold dust below, he had already won a bet against the Land of Wind and ripped off Takikage, so he didn't care about such small stakes. He wasn't the kind of person like Kakuzu who would eat anything indiscriminately.

"Halt! What business do you have in our Sunagakure Village?" Shanks was stopped by two "gatekeepers" as soon as he arrived at the entrance of Sunagakure Village a month later.

These two "doormen" were both young men. The portrait of Shanks that was spat on at the Ninja Academy was still of Shanks when he was young, so they only felt that Shanks looked familiar, but couldn't remember where they had seen him before. The main thing was that Shanks had a bottle of alcohol on his lips the whole way, and his face was flushed, so he was obviously quite drunk.

"It's been many years. I've come to catch up with an old friend," Shanks said, reeking of alcohol.

"What's your name? And who's your friend?" A doorman named Shanks looked drunk and probably couldn't even write anything down, so I just took out a register and pen and wrote it down for him.

"My name is... my name is Shanks... As for my friends, I don't even know their full names yet. Could you help me look them up? One is called Chiyo, and the other is called Kaizo. Oh, right, there's also one called Rasa, who's also my junior." Shanks said drunkenly, leaning against the wall.

"Shan.....K....Chiyo...Kaizo...Rasa...you old drunkard, are you kidding me! The Kazekage is your junior? Then the Tsuchikage is my grandson!" The "gatekeeper" initially thought the names Shanks, Chiyo, and Kaizo sounded familiar, but couldn't quite place them. However, when he was about to write Rasa's name, he suddenly remembered that Rasa was their Kazekage's name. Looking at this disheveled, red-haired old man leaning against the wall, completely drunk, he didn't seem like a legendary master at all. He slammed his fist on the table and said angrily.

"Haha, you... how could you possibly be the grandfather of that red-nosed dwarf Onoki? It's impossible from a genetic standpoint, you... you don't have any of those traits." Shanks laughed, his face flushed.

"You damn old bastard, what's your name? Who are you looking for?" the doorman said impatiently, clearly mistaking Shanks for a drunkard.

"I...I didn't...say that my name is Shanks, and I came to...to catch up with Chiyo and Kaizo." Shanks, his face flushed, leaned against the wall and took another swig of wine.

"Damn it! Someone like you dares to impersonate Konoha's Red Hair! Do you really think I'm an idiot?" the doorman said angrily.

"...Sir, he seems to be Shanks from Konoha. I think I saw him once when I was buying goods in Konoha about half a year ago, but I was too far away to see him clearly. But I'm sure he has red hair." The merchant who was about to enter the village said to the "gatekeeper" after glancing at Shanks.

"...You must be mistaken, right? This drunkard is the Red-Haired Shanks from Konoha?" Another "doorman" came over and asked the businessman.

"It should be...right, even though it was a bit far away at the time. You could have just gone and informed your Lord Kazekage, better safe than sorry!" the merchant said disdainfully. These young people nowadays are just not experienced enough; they get flustered and impulsive when something happens.

500. Prepare the dowry as early as possible.

"..." After hearing the merchant's words, the two gatekeepers exchanged a glance. He was right! Why hadn't they thought of that? As long as they notified the Kazekage, it didn't matter. They were just two gatekeepers; whether or not the Red-Haired Shanks of Konoha was their Kazekage's business!

"You stay here and watch over him. I'll go inform Lord Fengying," a gatekeeper who had just walked over said, then headed towards Fengying Tower.

"This gentleman is quite knowledgeable. You must have traveled to many places in your business. How's business?" Bored while waiting, Shanks started chatting with the merchant. There was no need to force his way through. He was here to catch up with friends, not to grind dungeons. Why would he keep trying to break through dungeons? What kind of person did he think he was?

"We merchants travel all over the country year-round, making a profit from the price difference. Business is pretty good. It's only because there's no war these past few years that we can still travel to a few major countries. During the years of war, we only travel to those remote small countries, and we're afraid of encountering bandits or mountain robbers, so we don't dare to buy too much stuff." Regardless of whether the red-haired drunkard in front of him is Konoha's Red Hair, it's not bad to have someone to listen to his complaints when you're bored.

"Really? Well then, brother, you've seen a lot. So, brother, you're going to the Land of Snow? I heard it snows every day there, is that true?" Shanks had never actually been to the Land of Snow, mainly because it's almost at the border of the ninja world map.

"If I had gone to the Land of Snow a few years ago during the war, it would be an exaggeration to say it snowed every day, but it really did snow heavily often. Everywhere was covered in snow-capped mountains, and it was incredibly cold. If business hadn't been so bad, I wouldn't have bothered to travel that far. The Land of Snow's specialties are very popular, but the people there are too arrogant and not easy to get along with, so I only went once and never went back," the merchant said.

"Lord Shanks hasn't visited our Sand Village in a long time. We are truly sorry for not welcoming you properly!"

At this moment, Rasa also arrived with a group of his underlings. Earlier, when he was at the Kazekage Tower, the gatekeeper reported that a drunkard had come to the door claiming to be Shanks, looking for an old friend to catch up. Rasa initially scoffed. The Konoha Joint Chunin Exams had just ended, and their former Daimyo of the Land of Wind had just been bankrupted and had to open the national treasury to pay compensation. Knowing Shanks's character as he did, with so much money, why would he come to their Sunagakure instead of staying home counting his wealth? You have to understand that the environment in the Land of Wind is so harsh that, apart from gold miners and merchants, no one would be so bored as to come here to travel and visit friends.

Later, it was Maki, the leader of the group, who told him that Takigakure had previously spent a huge sum of money to hire Shanks from Konoha to help deal with the Seven-Tails after it escaped. Takigakure was right next to their Land of Wind, so Shanks might actually be bored and come to their Land of Wind to enjoy the scenery. After all, this wasn't the first time he had done something like this.

So, to avoid any impoliteness, Rasa brought a group of his underlings and some of his faction's leaders to the village entrance. At the village entrance, they saw a drunkard chatting with a merchant. Although it had been several years since they last met, and he looked a bit older, his slovenly appearance remained unchanged. Rasa recognized Shanks at a glance.

"Haha! It's my fault for bothering you. I haven't been out for a while, so I came to catch up with old friends since it's rare for me to leave the village. By the way, I heard you have three kids now. Your fighting ability is pretty good, huh? Why didn't you bring them along?" After so many years, Rasa had matured from his youthful days into a more composed and steady man. Rasa's fighting ability wasn't anything special, but his prolific prowess was second to none. Shanks and Haruko-sama tried for years to have a second child without success, while Rasa had three in his lifetime, and one of them was his future granddaughter-in-law.

"...The children are still young and at home. Lord Shanks, you are welcome to come and visit when you have time," said Rasa.

“It’s settled then, but… we’ll talk about it after we meet the children. I haven’t seen Aunt Chiyo and Uncle Kaizo for many years. I heard they’ve gone into seclusion, so I came to see them.” Shanks said, looking at the man who seemed unsteady on his feet by the wall.

“Advisor Chiyo and Advisor Kaizo have been living in seclusion for a long time. I’ll take you there.” Rasa gestured for them to proceed before leading the way.

"Young man, I wasn't lying to you, was I? It really is the Red-Haired Konoha. I hope you grow up to be a good man!" The businessman never expected that the drunkard he had been chatting with for so long was actually the Red-Haired Konoha. He could brag about this for the rest of his life. "I'm a man who has chatted with the Red-Haired Konoha for ages."

"By the way, I heard when I came that the Daimyo of the Land of Wind changed? How much did he lose exactly?" Shanks asked curiously as they walked. Shanks had long anticipated that the former Daimyo of the Land of Wind would be badly ripped off by them. After all, the bets from the entire Hidden Leaf Village plus their own Daimyo of the Land of Fire were already a huge sum. There was also Kakuzu's bet. Although other Daimyo also bet on their own country's villages, they were just token bets. The Land of Lightning only bet 20 billion on their own country's Cloud Ninja, so losing it wouldn't be a big deal. But Garp and the others had odds of 1 to 15. Even if the former Daimyo of the Land of Wind had a lot of money, he couldn't withstand those odds.

When his personal treasury ran out of money to pay off debts, he naturally had to open the national treasury to save face. As for borrowing money from his brothers, that was out of the question. His brothers all wanted him to fail, so why would they lend him money? Opening the national treasury to pay off debts for his own selfish reasons would show that this daimyo was incompetent, and it would be strange if he didn't step down! The Land of Wind may lack a Kazekage, but it doesn't lack daimyo. Anyone can be a daimyo; they can just eat and drink and that's enough. As long as they don't do anything reckless, they can be a daimyo for life. But a Kazekage is different. Without the strength and support of the higher-ups, a Kazekage cannot remain a daimyo.

"Hehe, Lord Shanks must have made a fortune this time. And I heard that Takikage even spent a huge sum of money to ask you for help." Rasa didn't know how much the former daimyo had swindled, but before the daimyo was chosen, people kept sending him gifts. When the Land of Wind elects a daimyo, he, the Kazekage, will also have some power.

"You'll understand how tough it is to be a parent when your three children grow up. I heard you have a daughter too, right? You'd better start preparing her dowry now!" Shanks patted Rasa's shoulder meaningfully. When Gaara was in charge, Sunagakure wasn't nearly as wealthy as it was under Rasa. And after the Fourth Shinobi World War, the village had to rebuild every time, so it wasn't as prosperous as it is now. If you don't get Rasa to prepare her dowry now, Sunagakure will decline after Rasa passes away.

"Hehe, my daughter is still young, it's too early to talk about this!" Luo Sha said, but in his heart he also marked his daughter's dowry as an important thing. He only had one daughter, so it was good to prepare some while those daimyo candidates were coming to give gifts. Otherwise, if he only gave gold dust as a gift when his daughter got married, he would inevitably be said to be vulgar.

501. Genius is forged through hard work.

"It's getting late. Do you know when I started preparing my daughter Lingling's dowry? I started preparing it before she was even born, before we even knew she was a girl. It took me over ten or twenty years, and all that money went to those lazybones in the Nara family. Sigh! You're starting a bit late now. As the saying goes, a daughter is her father's little cotton-padded jacket. The bigger the dowry you prepare, the more you love her. That way, her husband's family won't dare to bully her after she marries. Just look at Nara Shikaku now. He only doesn't dare to bully my daughter because he's afraid of my forty-meter-long cleaver." Shanks spoke with the air of someone who'd been there all along.

"Sigh! Lord Shanks is right." Rasa suddenly realized that there was such a thing as the Nara family being afraid of their wives in this generation. It's true that you can learn something new as long as you live.

"By the way, why didn't you guys participate in the Joint Chunin Exams this time? Even the Mist Ninja sent people all the way here to participate, and you guys are so close yet you didn't even come. That's so disrespectful!" Shanks glanced at Rasa, feigning reproach.

“Konoha is teeming with geniuses, so we Sunagakure might as well join in the fun,” Rasa explained.

"It's all about participation. Which genius hasn't emerged through the competition? This time, a young Cloud Ninja with Storm Release techniques stood out. Even their Raikage didn't know their village had such a genius. Just because you haven't discovered them doesn't mean they don't exist. If you had sent people to participate, maybe a few geniuses would have emerged. It's a real pity." Shanks shook his head regretfully. He knew that Sunagakure hadn't had any outstanding geniuses in recent years. It wasn't until Rasa's son grew up that they had some truly talented individuals. Don't think that Gaara only relied on the fat cat inside his body; his talent was also top-notch.

"Lord Shanks is right. I didn't think things through this time. I will definitely bring people next time I have the chance," Rasa nodded perfunctorily.

"Aunt Chiyo really knows how to pick a place, the scenery here is quite nice!" After arriving at the place where Grandma Chiyo and Uncle Kaizo lived in seclusion, Shanks looked at the surrounding scenery. This was probably the only place in Sunagakure with natural green plants.

"This is the ancestral land of our first generation of leaders, and also a rare natural oasis in the Land of Wind," Luo Sha explained.

"Oh? You mean Aunt Chiyo too? Back then, even though Madara was flirting with her like that, she still wouldn't agree to go to Konoha with him. If we're talking about greening the ninja world, which place can compare to our Konoha?" Shanks raised an eyebrow at Rasa.

"........." Rasa pretended not to hear Shanks' words because an old man with a very old appearance came out of a house in the distance. Although he was also very curious about how Madara had flirted with Chiyo, it was a story that spread throughout the ninja world back then. However, it was only mentioned in bits and pieces that Madara had fought with their First Kazekage for Chiyo. In the end, their First Kazekage lost the duel but won the title of the Flower of the Ninja World, making him a true winner in life.

"Oh? I don't know when Uchiha Madara flirted with me back then? Why don't you tell me?" Grandma Chiyo's voice came from afar. This little rascal started spreading rumors about her as soon as he arrived.

"Haha, Aunt Chiyo is still so sharp-witted! She can hear you from so far away." Shanks turned to the elderly Chiyo and laughed heartily.

“You haven’t even arrived yet, and your voice is already everywhere. I’m not deaf,” Grandma Chiyo said.

"Haha, I'm so happy to see you, Aunt Chiyo, after all these years! By the way, where's Uncle Kaizo? Didn't he go into seclusion with you? Did he get internal injuries from Tsunade's iron fist and die?" Shanks looked around but couldn't see Uncle Kaizo.

"...He's not dead yet, he went fishing." His mouth hasn't changed at all; otherwise, if this bastard had the strength to survive, he would have been hacked to death countless times.