Konoha Drunkard

Deidara, seeing that his mud centipede had entangled the wrong person and hadn't detonated it, arrogantly questioned Kakuzu, showing no fear of his benefactor.

"You little brat, if you blow this place up, even if you deduct your salary for twenty years, you still won't be able to pay for it!"

Kakuzu pointed at the facilities around the conference room and launched into a tirade.

"...What?! They're just some broken vases, how could they be worth so much?"

Deidara was startled and immediately backed down; these broken vases were actually worth so much.

"Hehe, each of these broken vases is worth at least several million, and the stool I was sitting on just now is worth one or two million."

Orochimaru, dressed in a white lab coat, chuckled as he explained the value of these artworks to Deidara, the academically challenged student.

685. The team is hard to lead.

"What? That's so expensive! You have so much money you don't know what to do with it all. How come you only give me a budget of around 100,000 a year?"

When Deidara heard that the broken stool he had just scratched was worth one or two million, he immediately complained to Kakuzu, "Damn it, my annual research budget for art isn't even as much as a broken stool."

"Hmph! You don't know anything. These are works of art, with a much higher collection value than your clay dolls. I bought them for 500,000 back then, and they've already multiplied several times over. Your clay dolls are useless except for causing destruction."

Kakuzu said arrogantly, he didn't know why, but ever since he switched careers and started working with Orochimaru in the pharmaceutical industry, he had been doing incredibly well these past few years. He made money no matter what he did. With money, he naturally wanted to improve his image, so he went to various countries to buy some artworks to show off. He didn't pay much attention to it at first, but who knew that in just a few years, even these artworks had appreciated in value. Kakuzu couldn't help but sigh that rich people can make money no matter what they do.

"How is that possible? These rubbish things can be considered art? What about my clay sculptures then?"

If Kakuzu had said anything else, Deidara might have tolerated it. But when it came to the topic of art, Deidara, who had dedicated himself to art, naturally had something to say. In Deidara's eyes, these were just a bunch of useless junk, how could they possibly compare to his most perfect art?

"These things are just as worthless as your clay dolls; only eternity is true art."

Scorpion, a handsome artist who had been staying at home for decades, said disdainfully, "These vulgar people dare to talk about art in front of an artist like me? Have they never seen a snake poop before?"

"Damn it! Explosions are art! Hmm..."

"Only the eternal is true art, you brat."

"Explosions are art!"

"Eternity is..."

"explode!"

"eternal!"

"......"

"What...what are they arguing about? Didn't Deidara want to challenge you to a one-on-one duel?"

Kisame stared blankly at the arguing artist duo.

Just a moment ago, Deidara was shouting and threatening Itachi, but now he doesn't even care about Itachi anymore. Art is much more important than Uchiha Itachi.

"...I don't know, let's go."

Itachi turned and left. He didn't want to be infected by Deidara. Spending too much time with that guy would really lower his IQ. Sasori used to be an emotionless, exceptionally talented person; otherwise, his teacher wouldn't have called him a super genius. Now that even a super genius like Sasori has been infected like this, it's terrifying to think about.

"...Let's go too."

Kakuzu, seeing that Itachi and the others had left, realized it would be embarrassing to stay any longer, so he said something to the bewildered Hidan and turned to leave.

.........

"Huh? Brother Scorpion, why did they leave?"

After arguing with Deidara for a while, Deidara, confused, asked his older brother Scorpion, seeing that no one was around.

"idiot!"

Little Scorpion muttered a complaint and turned to leave. He really wanted to slap himself. How could he, a top genius, have argued with this idiot? It was so embarrassing. He'd better keep his distance from this idiot in the future.

"Sigh! Leading a team is not easy."

Orochimaru watched them from afar and sighed. In his opinion, the strength of the Akatsuki was undeniable. Any few of them could easily sweep through all the major villages in the ninja world except Konoha. Kakuzu, Orochimaru, Itachi Uchiha, and Sasori were all famous figures in the ninja world. Even Kisame was quite well-known. They were definitely top-tier figures. Hidan and Deidara were weaker, but their bizarre forbidden techniques were incredibly powerful. Add to that the boss's circle eyes and Konan's billions of explosive tags, and they had more top-tier figures than Konoha. Even without him and Itachi Uchiha, they could still go toe-to-toe with Konoha.

These people are quite strong, but their personalities are something that makes people want to complain. Kakuzu loves money and Sasori is a total homebody, while Hidan and Deidara are just two immature kids.

Kakuzu and Sasori are alright, but Hidan and Deidara are definitely terrible teammates. If it weren't for the fact that he had to go undercover, Orochimaru would have preferred to give up his imperial life here and run off to a remote mountain village to be a happy otaku. To do great things, strength alone isn't enough; personality is also important. In his eyes, the Akatsuki crew is incapable of achieving anything great.

..........

"Naruto, have you given up now? I already told you, Orochimaru isn't so easy to find. Besides, you two are too weak. Now is not the time to be reckless. Don't worry, Sasuke Uchiha will be fine. I know Orochimaru. Since he went to such lengths to lure Sasuke Uchiha out of the village, it means Sasuke is useful to him. He won't harm that brat Uchiha for the time being."

In a small tavern in the Land of the Moon, Jiraiya, with a bitter face, advised Naruto and the girl with the wide forehead that he had spent the last time with the two kids searching all the places where Orochimaru had appeared, and had even found more than a dozen of Orochimaru's underground laboratories, but they were all deserted and looked like no one had been there for more than ten years. Also, because he had to take care of the two kids, he hadn't studied human anatomy for a long time.

Writing is his main job now, and his livelihood depends on it. But without studying the human body, he has no inspiration. Without inspiration, he can't write, and without writing, he has no income. Without income, he can't provide Tsunade with gambling funds. Garp has been urging him to write several times. Although he doesn't understand why Garp is in such a hurry when he hasn't provided Tsunade with gambling funds, he still needs to find a way to make money and doesn't have time to run around with those two kids. Besides, those two kids are so weak, especially Naruto, who is impulsive. He has been living in fear lately.

"...Yeah, Naruto, let's go back. Jiraiya-sama is right, we're too weak. Let's go find Sasuke when we're stronger."

The girl with the wide-banded hair spoke with a hint of sadness. Unlike Naruto, she wasn't carefree. The experiences she had gone through recently had been too much for her. She had thought that as a ninja from Konoha, even though she hadn't passed the Chunin Exams, she was still someone who had gone through them, and therefore considered one of the better ones in the ninja world. But after coming out, she realized that in the world full of powerful rogue ninjas, she was practically just someone to be used as experience points. Several times, if Jiraiya had been there, she and Naruto would have been dead long ago. Even Naruto's cheat codes weren't enough. At this moment, she realized how naive she had been to ask Naruto to take her out to find Sasuke. The ninja world was too dangerous.

686. The Unlucky Man's Spring

She didn't know what use it would be to go back to the village. As an ordinary child, she didn't have the privilege of being guided by powerful parents like Naruto. If she went back, she would have to work hard like a regular ninja, completing missions and earning merits to exchange for higher-level ninjutsu. She didn't know when she would be able to find Sasuke again. However, she still wanted to persuade Naruto to go back because Naruto's identity was too sensitive. The ambushes they had encountered recently were all aimed at Naruto, the son of the Hokage. Sasuke was her idol, that's true, but Naruto was also her comrade. She couldn't ignore Naruto's feelings.

"Damn it! Where did that bastard Sasuke go?"

If it were just Jiraiya trying to persuade him, Naruto definitely wouldn't agree to go back empty-handed. However, since the goddess has spoken, whether it's Sasuke or the second male lead doesn't matter; he just has to put on a show.

He's been away for so long, his mother must be very worried about him, maybe she's even cried herself blind. And they really can't find Orochimaru's whereabouts. This isn't a good situation. His father's teacher has been searching for him for so many years and they still haven't found him. It's not like they can find him in such a short time. So he might as well go back to the village and live a carefree life.

...........

"Lazybones, are you ready? We're about to set off."

Inside the Thousand Hands territory, Shanks patted the muzzle of the small Skyrocket and asked.

Why would Shanks appear in the Senju clan's territory?

Of course, it was the super luxurious dragon throne made with thousands of kilograms of gold dust that appeased Haruko. Daughters all love shiny things, and Haruko was no exception. Although she said it was a waste of money, her eyes, which were gleaming with gold, could not be lied about.

After appeasing Haruko-sama, that scoundrel was no longer of any use. So, to go all the way, in Haruko-sama's name, the scoundrel was given away for village development, so the world would know that even he, the Red-Haired Shanks, wasn't a greedy man...

However, Shanks still had one thing on his mind: the dowry Rasa left for the girl with the big fan. As Rasa's beloved daughter and only daughter, the dowry Rasa prepared must be substantial. Since Grandma Chiyo said to let the young people handle it themselves, that made things easier. The day after appeasing Haruko, Shanks immediately summoned his little rocket launcher to prepare daily necessities, intending to take him to Sunagakure for a friendly exchange to enhance the friendly relations between the two villages. Even Minato couldn't find a reason to object to this idea. Although he knew that Shanks was taking their future Grand Marshal to flirt with girls, if Rasa's daughter's daughter were to marry into Konoha, it would be a good thing for Konoha, which loves peace and advocates a harmonious ninja world. At least the threat from Sunagakure would be less significant in the future.

"...Ready."

Wearing a Chunin vest and a small, sky-high cannon-like outfit, he listlessly stared at the sky. He knew things weren't so simple when his grandfather had so easily brought that girl with the big fan back to the village; it turned out he was planning to use him to launch a surprise attack...

This shattered his hopes that promotion would alleviate his burdens. He had imagined that becoming a Chunin would free him from tedious menial tasks, and higher-level missions wouldn't be his responsibility. Considering the status of his class's teachers and students—all second-generation members of the Hokage faction, the teacher being the Third Hokage's son, and the students being the "Ino-Shika-Cho" trio—the Hokage wouldn't be so foolish as to assign them only dangerous missions. As for the menial tasks, Choji and Ino could handle them; he, as a Chunin, wouldn't need to do them at all. Before he could even plan how to while away his time, his grandfather's decree arrived…

Although the Chunin Exams didn't end with a team battle, it didn't prevent some outstanding individuals from advancing to the next level. Neji and his alter ego, "Little Sky Cannon," were among them. In the final third preliminary round, "Little Sky Cannon" showcased a ninjutsu that used shadows to enhance his defense and withstand Wind Release attacks, impressing everyone. Although he ultimately conceded defeat, this skill alone guaranteed his promotion to Chunin.

While Neji didn't showcase any amazing plays in the match, his victory over a James-like opponent without sustaining a scratch is still commendable. After all, his enormous size and arms thicker than his waist would make most people's scalp tingle.

Some of those promoted were veteran genin. There was a little twist in the middle: the unlucky guy, Tano, also took advantage of this momentum and finally became a chunin. It's unclear whether it was Naruto and the second male lead's halo that worked this time, but he and his teammates didn't encounter any surprises in the first two assessments. In the third preliminary round, they encountered an unknown extra, a big idiot. Perhaps the surprise would occur during the team battle, but before the team battle even started, an even bigger surprise happened. However, this surprise was actually a good thing for him. After so many years of hard work, he finally made it. Moreover, Tano's ambition wasn't that big to become a jonin. In his opinion, becoming a chunin was enough to make his life better. After all, he wasn't some great genius.

But who knew that it was precisely because of his contentment and his attitude of not blaming fate even after repeated exam mishaps that Shanks admired him. With Itachi gone and the generation gap between him and the little devils like the Skyrocket, he was quite bored. So he took in this unlucky guy, Tano, as his underling and brought him into the school to be a hardworking gardener. He had plenty of time and it wasn't hard work. He could also come over to sweep the floor and wash the dishes when he had nothing to do, which was not bad. The main thing was that he had a good personality and was hardworking and conscientious. This kind of person was comparable to Iruka and could influence the next generation with his own thoughts.

As the saying goes, even the unlucky can have their day, and Tianye's day has made everyone around him envious and jealous. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get into a school as a teacher. Just the registration and waiting list alone can take ten years or more without connections. But this unlucky guy, Tianye, who had been unlucky for so many years, actually took advantage of this opportunity and not only did he not have to wait in line to get into a school as a teacher, but he was also taken in as a follower by Lord Shanks. This is definitely a classic underdog's comeback.

They all witnessed how powerful Lord Shanks was during the Sand Village raid. He turned someone who could easily defeat the Third Hokage into an idiot with just a few punches. If it weren't for Lord White Fang holding him back, that person would probably have been turned into a meat pie.

With such a powerful figure protecting him, who would still call him unlucky? If he's unlucky, then what are these people? There are tons of Jonin in the village, what use are these Chunin? With Lord Shanks protecting him, it's different. Everyone has to give him face, everyone knows Lord Shanks is protective of his own.

687. Times are progressing, and people are changing too.

Ever since being taken in by Shanks and becoming a gardener at the Ninja Academy, Tano's unlucky life seems to have turned around. He's now constantly getting flirtatious glances from girls in the village, something that's never happened before. Although he's somewhat handsome, being a commoner and lacking the talent of the Fourth Hokage meant he didn't attract much attention. Now it's different; several older women approach him daily, trying to set him up with potential partners, making him feel overwhelmed, much like Kamezaburo's situation back then. However, in Konoha back then, girls were more reserved, choosing husbands based on feelings rather than background, so Kamezaburo didn't have these happy troubles. It just goes to show that times have changed, and people's mindsets have evolved.

"Teacher Tianye, since it's not enrollment time yet, why don't you work under Iruka and be his assistant to learn some experience? When enrollment starts next year, we'll arrange a class for you to mentor. What do you think?"

The school's nominal vice-principal, Iruka, was all smiles as he spoke to Tano, though his heart was filled with tears. He had waited until his mentor, Kamezaburo, retired, and he had taken over the vice-principal position. He had originally planned to enjoy being a high-ranking leader before retiring and letting his son take over. But Shanks had taken on another underling. Although the school wasn't a government office, he had been in the school for so many years and naturally knew some of the ins and outs. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get his son into the school. Although his son had taught a group of second-generation students, his qualifications would have been enough for him to take over in the past. But now, it was hard to say. This Teacher Tano was the big boss's underling, just like his mentor, Kamezaburo. He held a special position in the school and was always the first choice for any good opportunity. This had been a tradition at the school for many years.

The first vice-principal was Lord Sarutobi, who was the homeroom teacher of Shanks, Sakumo, and the Legendary Sannin. The second vice-principal was Lord Shanks, the current Hokage's homeroom teacher. The third vice-principal, Kamezaburo, was also the Hokage's assistant homeroom teacher, Shanks's deputy, and also taught the Third Hokage's son, the son of White Fang. This fourth vice-principal is the homeroom teacher of the eldest son of the Senju family, and with some nepotism, he can be considered one of Shanks's men. His son, Iruka, is different. He himself never worked with Shanks, only with his older brother Kamezaburo, so he can be considered Shanks's man to some extent. However, by Iruka's generation, the gap is quite large. Although Iruka has taught the current generation of second-generation ninjas through his connections, in his opinion, they are only evenly matched with Shanks's newly recruited subordinate; ultimately, ability will prevail.

"Yes! Thank you for your help, Principal Umino!"

Although life has changed, Tianye's original intention remains the same. He's a brick wherever he goes, ready to be moved wherever needed. He doesn't act arrogantly because of his status as Shanks's underling; he lives his life as usual. Having been unlucky for a long time, he knows that luck is hard-won and can't last forever, so he remains humble and low-key. Since the big boss has placed him in the best-paying job, he'll just do his job well. He never thought of becoming a big shot anyway. "My fate is in my own hands," he says. Many people without real ability become cannon fodder anyway. He's still young and wants to get married and have children.

.......

"You lazybones, remember, when we get to Sunagakure, don't treat yourself like a guest. You still have to bring that girl with the big fan some of Konoha's special delicacies every day. There's a saying that goes, 'To conquer a person, you must first conquer their stomach.' By the way, how's it going with the cooking lessons I taught you to your mother?"

Shanks had no idea how much trouble he'd caused by casually dumping his new underling on Iruka's father at school. Right now, on his way out of the village, he was teaching Shikamaru some dating tips he'd read in a book. He didn't know if they'd work, but he thought they made a lot of sense.

"...I've learned a few things, but they don't taste as good as my mom's, though they're still edible."

The little guy with the cannon on the side nodded resignedly. He had no choice but to accept his fate. His grandfather had pushed him to this point, and he didn't want to get punched.

"As long as it's edible, it's fine. You have no idea how bad the food in the Land of Wind is. It's all steamed buns and dumplings, and they only give you a little bit of water. If I didn't have something to do, I wouldn't want to go to the Land of Wind."

Shanks said with a look of disgust, "The Land of Wind lacks resources, especially water, so the food from the Land of Wind is dry, ugly and tasteless. This time, they brought their own ingredients."

"But...Grandpa, that girl's gotten used to the food. What if she gets married and I have to cook for her?"

This is a very serious matter, and Xiaobiao Tianpao has to take it seriously.

"That's why I said you're usually so quick-witted, how come you've become so stupid now? Don't worry about who will cook in the future. Once you win her over, are you afraid you won't be able to get her to cook? When have I ever stepped into the kitchen? Winning over that girl and having children for your Nara family is your top priority right now. Don't be like your grandfather and your father, who are almost thirty before getting married and having children. Times have changed, there aren't that many young grasses for you to gnaw on."

Shanks is acting like he's doing this for the Nara family's sake, seemingly forgetting that if he had insisted on waiting until Big Mom turned eighteen before marrying Shikaku, his current Shikaku-like self would probably be that age by now...

"........"

"Hey, you little idiot, don't put it so nicely. You're just after the dowry left by the Kazekage. You're all right just because you have the biggest fist."

"Huh? Aren't those Naruto and Jiraiya?"

Halfway there, the two saw a white-haired man leading a yellow-haired man with pink hair walking towards them.

"Hey! Captain, long time no see! Where are you guys headed?"

Jiraiya, wearing the same wooden clogs as Shanks, walked over with a pigeon-toed gait to greet Shanks.

"Hey, isn't this the busy Jiraiya? What have you been up to lately? You owe Tsunade several rounds of betting money, and you still dare to come back? Aren't you afraid she'll beat you up?"

Shanks joked that the gambling money Jiraiya sent to Tsunade every month hadn't reached her hands; instead, it had all gone to Garp. Tsunade had been quite busy lately, and Garp could only sneak out once or twice. The small allowance Hyuga Tsuruhime gave him each time wasn't enough for him to live a carefree life. And the gambling money that Jiraiya used to send to Tsunade every month had all been intercepted by him. So, Garp could barely manage before, but in recent months, Jiraiya had stopped sending gambling money, and Garp had started going to the Shimura family to forcibly borrow money from loan sharks.

688. Why should you repay money you borrowed based on your own ability?

However, this period of good fortune was short-lived. The Shimura clan members dared not confront the Leaf Village's tyrant to repay their debts, but Danzo didn't care. He brazenly ordered his men to spread rumors throughout the village that Garp had borrowed money and wouldn't repay it, viciously slandering the Senju clan. When this reached Tsunade, she naturally couldn't tolerate it. Why should she repay money borrowed through skill? She and Garp stormed the Shimura clan's gates and blocked them for three days. However, even after venting her anger, Tsunade still maintained her professional ethics; the money still had to be repaid. So, she forcibly borrowed a large sum of money from Shanks, using a small portion to repay the debt, while the rest disappeared without a trace.

Shanks gets furious every time he thinks about this. Why does Garp have to borrow money from me to pay it back? What kind of sins did he commit in his past life to have such a junior? But... he was just a total couch potato in his past life, how could he have had the chance to commit any sins...?