Konoha Drunkard

"I don't know. Since he dared to put it up for auction, it must have a function similar to a tailed beast. It can even act as a jinchūriki. Otherwise, someone as proud as Lord Shanks would never allow himself to be labeled a fraud."

..........

Like Sunagakure, Iwagakure, which also possesses Jinchūriki of Tailed Beasts, doesn't believe that what Shanks has is a Tailed Beast. After all, those Tailed Beasts have clearly stated that there is no tenth Tailed Beast in the world. Therefore, Onoki prefers to stay out of sight of it; he feels he can live ten years longer if he avoids seeing even a single glance at news about that red-haired bastard...

Even those from smaller, historically significant ninja villages, not just major ninja villages, had some doubts. After all, it was a well-known fact that there were nine tailed beasts in the ninja world. However, considering the reputation of Konoha's Shanks, it seemed unlikely that he would lie to them. Wouldn't that ruin his own reputation? Konoha's Shanks wouldn't be that stupid! So, they waited for the auction to begin with mixed feelings of belief and doubt.

...........

"Orochimaru, you've read a lot of books, tell me what's going on? Aren't there only nine tailed beasts? When did a new one appear?"

In the Akatsuki's meeting room in the Land of Rain, the core members and top fighters of the Akatsuki were all present. The addition of a tailed beast to the ninja world was a significant event for them. While Nagato and Nagato were powerful, they hadn't received much formal education, especially since their teacher was Jiraiya, that academically challenged guy…

"...Legend has it that the Tailed Beasts were created by the Sage of Six Paths using chakra from nature. Many sources record that there are only nine Tailed Beasts. These records are probably true, but they can't be guaranteed to be 100% accurate. So, before seeing this Tailed Beast, I'm not sure if there is a tenth Tailed Beast. Also, I know the captain quite well. He's a very proud person. Since he dared to auction off this Tailed Beast so openly, he must know the origin of the Tailed Beast he has. So, we can only listen to what he has to say."

Of course, Orochimaru couldn't tell them the origin of the tailed beast Shanks possessed, but he still needed to give a half-truthful explanation. After all, he was the only knowledgeable person in the entire Akatsuki crew, and it wouldn't be appropriate for him to say he didn't know.

Orochimaru's explanation surprised both Nagato and the wealthy Minami. Even the super scientist Orochimaru didn't know what was going on. But thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Those materials were written by predecessors, and who could guarantee that what they wrote was necessarily correct? Just like his Rinnegan, those so-called predecessors also said that the Rinnegan was only an eye that appeared in legends, and only the Sage of Six Paths possessed it. It hadn't appeared on Nagato yet, so what the predecessors wrote could only be used as a reference.

..........

"Madara, didn't you say there were only nine tailed beasts in the ninja world? Now another one has appeared. What's going on?"

Since Orochimaru couldn't figure it out either, Nagato naturally wanted to find Obito, the one who had tricked him into collecting tailed beasts to make nuclear weapons, and ask him for clarification.

"There are indeed only nine tailed beasts in the ninja world. As for the one with Shanks from Konoha, I will find out. You just need to proceed according to plan."

Obito had no idea what was going on. When he learned that Shanks had actually produced a new tailed beast, he was stunned. What the hell was going on? Madara had told him with absolute certainty before he died that there were nine tailed beasts in the ninja world, so he hurriedly asked him if it was a product of Madara's will.

Black Zetsu was also utterly bewildered. He had witnessed his nominal elder brother, the Sage of Six Paths, extract all the chakra from his stomach and then die... It was indeed Kujo, but... where did that red-haired brat get the one in his hand...?

...........

"Hahaha! Brother Mifune, thank you so much for using your country's territory to hold this auction."

At Admiral Mifune's house in the Land of Iron, Shanks sipped the wine served by a young lady and chuckled. He explained that the reason the auction was being held in the Land of Iron was that, although it was a neutral country, its overall strength was comparable to the Five Great Nations. This meant that those who couldn't afford the tailed beasts but still wanted them wouldn't dare to act within the Land of Iron. As for outside the Land of Iron, that was up to them. Shanks could only help to this extent. Without sufficient strength, even if they bought the tailed beasts, they might end up harming their families. It was better to die sooner and be reborn, starting anew.

This auction was really made possible by the help of Mifune, who contributed money, effort, and even lent him the venue.

"It's nothing. By the way, what's going on with this wild Tailed Beast? Although I'm not a ninja, I've heard a bit about Tailed Beasts. Aren't there only nine Tailed Beasts in the ninja world? How come there's one more? If I'm not mistaken, that Jinchuriki is Shennong, right? How did he end up like this?"

After Mifune and Shanks shared a drink, Mifune voiced his question. Shanks had brought Mifune to him with the idiot in tow and explain the auction. Mifune even tried to look up some information, but no matter how he checked, the result was always the same: there were only nine tailed beasts in the ninja world; he'd never heard of a tenth.

"Hey! Actually, there's nothing wrong with telling you the truth, but I'm afraid you won't believe me. I'm not even sure if this is a Tailed Beast or not, but as you saw, this Shennong thing has indeed become a Jinchūriki. You've heard about the Sky Ninja causing trouble everywhere recently, right? Minato sent Kakashi to investigate the Sky Ninja, and my grandson happened to be there too. I was worried, so I went along. Who knew that as soon as I got there, I saw this Shennong thing chasing after my grandson? I couldn't stand it, so I punched him a couple of times. Who knew that the old guy was so weak? He turned into an idiot after just a few hits. Later, I thought about it, whether it's a real Tailed Beast or a fake one, it's at least worth some money, so I might as well sell it as a waste."

742. A fart he let out before he died

"........."

Mifune listened to Shanks's serious nonsense and looked up at the sky speechlessly. Even if it's fake, he's still a Jinchūriki, right? You knocked him out in a few blows... How heavy was your punch?!

"But even so, isn't it a bad idea to auction off a tailed beast? Why not reseal it in your Konoha later to avoid causing a lot of trouble?"

"It's just a piece of trash, of no use to our Konoha. Taking it back to get verbal praise from the Third Hokage is less useful than actually selling it for some money. You don't know how fast Tsunade and Garp squander their wealth. If I don't work hard to earn money, my family will really be ruined..."

Shanks kept complaining to Mifune, joking that he had fought so hard and gotten nothing in return, and that this artificial tailed beast was just a piece of trash and wouldn't be of any use.

Hearing Shanks say that, Mifune thought it made some sense. He didn't go to Konoha often, but the people from the Land of Iron often went there to gamble. Tsunade and Garp, those two big fat sheep, had long been known throughout the ninja world. These two alone supported the entire Land of Fire's gamblers. Sometimes, when the people from the Land of Iron ran out of money, they would go to Konoha to earn some living expenses... But the only people who would take a tailed beast so lightly and sell it off, besides Hashirama Senju, were you, Shanks of Konoha.

..........

With the tailed beast auction at the end of the month drawing ever closer, many leaders from small ninja villages and countries have already arrived in the Land of Iron with their money, waiting for the auction to begin. Shanks, on the other hand, is getting tired of staying at Mifune's house. While it's certainly comfortable there, with people waiting on him hand and foot, Shanks is afraid that if he continues to live like this, he'll become decadent. That doesn't fit his persona, which is supposed to be spreading positive energy throughout the ninja world.

Fortunately, after staying for two more days, the auction finally started as scheduled.

"Ahem! First of all, thank you all for coming from afar to this Tailed Beast Auction. As the organizer, I am very grateful. We're all in this together, so I won't waste time with formalities and will get straight to the point. This Tailed Beast is one I discovered that was unclaimed. Since it's unclaimed, I won't be taking it back to Konoha. As the saying goes, unclaimed things should be acquired by those with the ability. Therefore, the starting price for this auction is 5 billion, and each bid must be at least 500 million. The highest bidder wins, and the final buyer will also receive a Tailed Beast Sealing Technique from the Uzumaki clan as a gift, so you can buy with confidence and use it with peace of mind! Now, everyone, you may begin bidding!"

Seeing that everyone present was a leader from various countries, Shanks decided to cut to the chase and get straight to the point. That Tailed Beast Sealing Technique was the real deal. Even though he didn't know it, as a big shot in the Uzumaki clan, getting a sealing technique was a piece of cake for him. He's a decent businessman, after all, he provides this much-needed after-sales service...

"Lord Red-Haired, before the auction, could you please explain the origin of this new Tailed Beast? Everyone knows there are only nine Tailed Beasts. Although we trust you, there should be an explanation for this sudden addition to put our minds at ease!"

After Shanks finished his opening remarks, a masked man with triangular eyes stood up and asked Shanks a question.

"This brother makes a good point! Then let me tell you about the origins of the Tailed Beasts! These Tailed Beasts are actually from the legend that after the Six Paths Sage established the ninja world, the world suddenly changed drastically. The chakra in the ninja world became extremely concentrated, causing many wild beasts to be affected and grow stronger, wreaking havoc everywhere. This severely disrupted the ecological balance of the ninja world, making humans a vulnerable group. The Six Paths Sage saw this as unacceptable; if humans were eaten by these chakra-enhanced beasts, the ninja world would perish. So, the Six Paths Sage devised a plan: he absorbed the excess chakra from the ninja world into his own body, and then used the absorbed chakra as a placenta to nurture the nine Tailed Beasts. Therefore, it's not wrong to say that the Tailed Beasts are the Six Paths Sage's nine sons..."

Shanks spoke with an air of seriousness, spouting nonsense.

"No way, Lord Shanks, how could the Sage of Six Paths give birth to nine beasts? And what does this have to do with the new tailed beast you captured?"

Someone has a question now.

"Don't rush me, let me finish! The Six Paths Elder is a legendary figure. How do you know he has two arms and two legs like us? Have you even seen him? Even the nine sons of the dragon are all different. Let alone the great Six Paths Elder, what's so strange about him having several tailed beasts of different shapes..."

The crowd below nodded in agreement. "That's true," they said. "The Sage of Six Paths is a legendary figure; there's not even a portrait of him. And immortals aren't necessarily human like them..."

"Everything was going smoothly at first. The Six Paths Sage successfully created nine tailed beasts. Although his math skills were poorly taught by a language arts teacher, and he wasn't able to distribute the chakra fairly among the tailed beasts, the ninja world was indeed no longer harassed by the tailed beasts. Days passed, and even the Six Paths Sage's strength couldn't withstand the passage of time. Finally, one day, the Six Paths Sage collapsed. But no one expected that the Six Paths Sage would let out a fart before he died! And this fart was no ordinary fart. It turned out that after giving birth to the nine tailed beasts, there was still some residual chakra in his body that he hadn't noticed... And this fart he let out before his death, because it wasn't cared for by the Six Paths Sage, needed to gestate for hundreds and thousands of years before finally becoming the tailed beast in my hands!"

Shanks drank a cup of tea. "Making up stories is really exhausting," he thought. "Making money is definitely not easy."

"Sigh! The Sage of Six Paths is amazing! Even a fart he let out before he died could become a tailed beast!"

The audience below listened with great interest!

"...What a terrible creature!"

Floating in the air above everyone was a strange old man with round eyes and a long staff. This strange old man was glaring angrily at Shanks below. If he could, he would really like to be resurrected and beat this unfilial descendant to a pulp with his staff.

Ever since that scoundrel started spouting nonsense in Iwagakure decades ago, he had been observing him. He was usually a bit crazy, but his character was not bad. Apart from being a little greedy and liking to talk nonsense, he didn't have any major flaws. Overall, however, he was quite fond of this kid.

But I never expected that this wretched creature would dare to slander him in order to make money. How could the dignified Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, be such a low-class person who would fart before his death?

That's outrageous!

He really wanted to drag his youngest son out and show him what kind of mess he'd made of his descendants just to make money!

"You wretched creature! You'll pay for this one day!"

743. No need to hire shills anymore.

"Alright, now that you've heard the story, let's start filming!"

Shanks, unaware that he was being targeted by a vengeful old man, announced to the various leaders below that the meeting would begin!

"Five billion..."

"Six billion..."

"Seven billion...eight billion...ten billion..."

"Stop, stop, stop! You, the ruler of the Moon Kingdom, are you buying groceries? How can you set prices like that? Each person gets to set their price first. You set your price and then wait for others to make theirs. You've been calling out all the time, how are others supposed to set their prices?"

As soon as Shanks finished speaking, the scene turned into a marketplace, with all sorts of wolf howls ringing out. Shanks couldn't even tell who was who anymore. And the leader of the Moon Kingdom shouted out several prices in a row, which was outrageous!

"Sorry... I got too excited!"

The leader of the Moon Kingdom felt a pang of guilt seeing the angry glares in everyone's eyes. However, he was too excited. These were tailed beasts! They were closest to Takigakure. Originally, Takigakure's strength was about equal to theirs, and it was hard to say who would win if they really fought. But because Takigakure had the Seven-Tails, they were always at a disadvantage.

Back then, Takigakure was only able to participate in the Tailed Beast auction because of Hashirama Senju, which allowed them to spend a large sum of money to buy the Seven-Tails. The Land of the Moon didn't have that privilege; even if they were willing to pay, no one would sell it to them. Now, Konoha's Shanks has gone mad, willing to put a Tailed Beast up for auction. How could he possibly miss this opportunity? The very night he received the news, the entire nation immediately began selling everything they owned, preparing money to wait for the auction to begin...

"Alright, the Moon Kingdom's leader has asked for 10 billion. Is there anyone offering a higher price?"

Shanks pulled out a small wooden hammer and shouted in a serious manner.

"Ten billion to buy a tailed beast? Are you out of your mind? My Kingdom of Commerce offers one hundred and eleven billion!"

The leader of a group of short, fat, and ugly middle-aged men in the crowd glanced disdainfully at the person in charge of the Moon Kingdom and raised his hand to add ten billion.

"Wow, this must be the big fish... no! the big boss of the Shang Kingdom. He's certainly generous enough, offering 11 billion! Anyone else making an offer?"

Shanks grinned broadly at the three short, fat men from the Land of Merchants. He hadn't expected a single, rotten-tailed beast to have such a powerful allure, attracting the people of the Land of Merchants. As the name suggests, the Land of Merchants was a place that produced people. Although the country wasn't particularly strong and was small, everyone there was a business genius. Its wealth index was second only to the Land of Wind in the ninja world. However, the Land of Merchants had maintained neutrality for many years, and since all countries needed merchants to invest in their development, they wouldn't bother with trouble in the Land of Merchants for no reason. He hadn't expected even these people to come. It seemed this rotten-tailed beast would definitely fetch a good price today.

"15 billion!"

At this moment, a person in the crowd who was dressed so tightly that only his eyes were visible, and who wasn't even wearing a ninja headband, raised his hand and increased the amount by another four billion.

"15 billion! 15 billion!"

Someone has already offered 15 billion, are there any more offers?

Shanks looked at the person who was wrapped up tightly in surprise. Wasn't this Takikage? Why was he dressed like this? He wasn't even wearing a ninja headband. What was he up to?

Despite being completely covered up, Takikage was unaware that his attire was indistinguishable from being naked under Shanks' Observation Haki. At this moment, he clenched his fists tightly, feeling extremely nervous. He was determined to obtain this tailed beast.

They were once known as the sixth largest village after the Five Great Ninja Villages because of the existence of the Seven-Tails. However, after Hanzo of the Salamander rose to power in the Land of Rain, the title of the sixth largest village was taken away by the Land of Rain for many years. During World War II, the Land of Rain was indeed powerful and was able to fight Iwagakure to a standstill. Hanzo of the Salamander was even able to kill a leader of Iwagakure.

Takikage had thought that there was no hope for him to bring the village back to its peak, and that this historical responsibility could only be passed on to the next generation. Unexpectedly, at this time, a major piece of news came from the ninja world: Konoha's Shanks had captured a new tailed beast and was preparing to auction it off in the Land of Iron!

This news overjoyed him. A tailed beast! A single tailed beast could elevate Takigakure to a whole new level. If they could acquire one...

It might actually become the sixth largest village, and then he'd be the first person in Takigakure's history...

However, bringing the tailed beast back to the village will be difficult. The entire ninja world knows they already have a tailed beast, and many countries and ninja villages don't want Takigakure's strength to increase. For example, their neighboring Sunagakure and Konoha don't want their subordinates to become powerful. And then there's the Land of the Moon, which is at odds with them...

So, the key issue was how to safely bring the Tailed Beasts back to the village. Takikage thought about it for a long time before coming up with this solution: as long as he didn't reveal his identity and didn't wear a ninja headband, no one would know who he was. There were quite a few rogue ninjas who went this time, and there were bound to be quite a few in strange attire...

"Hmph! You cowardly coward, my Shang Kingdom is so poor we only have money left, we offer 20 billion!"

The short, poor, and ugly merchant from Shangzhiguo who had just made the bid glanced disdainfully at Takikage, whose only eyes were showing, and his attitude was extremely arrogant.

They certainly possessed the strength to back up their arrogance. After not seeing any Sunagakure villagers appear this time, they were already quite confident of winning the auction. They had little interest in the constant fighting in the ninja world, but to survive in the ninja world, especially in a wealthy country like theirs, the ability to protect themselves was indispensable, and a nuclear weapon like a tailed beast was the most suitable. Their previous leaders had wanted to buy a tailed beast from Iwagakure, but before they could even negotiate a price with the Second Tsuchikage, the Second Tsuchikage Mu and the Second Mizukage both passed away. The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was a stubborn old man who refused to sell to them no matter what. Otherwise, they wouldn't have traveled all the way to the Land of Iron, which is quite a distance from the Land of Commerce, which is located in the east and west of the country.

"The big boss is indeed incredibly generous, his spending is extraordinary, 20 billion! Is there any other bidder?"

Shanks grinned from ear to ear at the arrogant antics of these short, fat men. With them around, he didn't even need to hire shills! If they bought it, the after-sales service alone would be enough to make him rich. The only downside was the distance...

744. This low-key Takikage

"Two hundred and ten billion!"

Thinking that no one knew him, Takikage once again made a low-key offer. Although he was ripped off by Shanks a few years ago, he could still afford a small amount of more than 20 billion. As long as he could be called the number one in the history of Takigakure, money was no object!

Takikage's unassuming shout drew the attention of those around him. These were small ninja villages and countries; 250 million yen was all they could scrape together, some couldn't even afford it. For example, the leader of Kusagakure, the closest village to Konoha, was present, but he was merely a figurehead. Caught between Konoha and Sunagakure, their lives were already difficult enough, let alone coming up with 20 billion yen. He had only intended to observe and see if there was an opportunity...

"Who is this guy? He's all wrapped up. Can he really come up with that much money? Or is he just making it up...?"

"Probably not. Konoha's Red Hair is right here; he'd only dare shout that if he didn't want to live anymore..."

"That's true, but even people from the Kingdom of Shang have come this time, so 20 billion is definitely not enough..."

"Two hundred and fifty billion! This low-profile Takikage is asking for two hundred and fifty billion! Is there anyone asking for even more...?"

Shanks, who was presiding over the meeting, naturally heard what the people below were saying. He even knew exactly what Takikage was thinking. However, he didn't make things difficult for Takikage. After all, it was just a pseudo-tailed beast. Even if they gave Takigakure two more tailed beasts, would they fly away? The sixth great ninja village... they were dreaming!