Chapter 239: Let Kakashi Publish It for Me
As everyone knows, Kinkaku and Ginkaku once gnawed on the Nine-Tails' flesh and blood, thereby obtaining the Nine-Tails' chakra.
Then it wouldn't be strange at all if the White Snake, having once gnawed on the flesh and blood of the Sage of Six Paths, who was the jinchūriki of all nine tailed beasts and also possessed a Sage Body and the Rinnegan, gained some special abilities.
"Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense!"
Hanabi suddenly spoke up from the audience seats, drawing everyone's attention.
"I've heard Father talk about the stories of the Three Great Sage Regions before. I was always curious why the three sages could live for so long."
"Even if other summoning beasts are long-lived, they're not long-lived to this extent… now I get it!"
"The three great sages—one had an intimate relationship with the Sage of Six Paths, one is a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths, and one ate the Sage of Six Paths' flesh… mm."
Hanabi only got halfway through her analysis before Kushina, snapping back to her senses, covered her mouth.
"Little Hanabi, why are you seriously analyzing this stuff?! Hurry up and clear your mind—don't say things like that!"
Kushina grabbed Hanabi by the shoulders and shook her frantically.
While shaking her, Kushina suddenly noticed Tsunade holding pen and paper, writing something down, and was instantly dumbfounded.
"Tsunade-sama, what are you doing?"
Kushina was confused. Was there really some kind of intelligence in that story just now that was worth recording?
"This world's stories don't feel like something humans could come up with. They're so bizarre—I need to write them down properly and make a good profit off them."
As Tsunade answered Kushina, she had already finished writing another page, pulled it out, and placed it at the bottom of the stack.
"Huh?"
Both Kushina and Hanabi, whose shoulders were still being held, froze.
"If Jiraiya and Kakashi can both make that much money publishing books, why can't I earn a bit of extra income too?"
Tsunade continued speaking while recording key information.
She was afraid that if she wrote too slowly, she'd forget what had just happened.
Of course, in reality, what had just happened was something no one could easily forget, even if they wanted to.
"No, Tsunade-sama, what I mean is—why? You're the Hokage. Could you really be short on money?"
Kushina asked after coming back to her senses.
"Why? Isn't it because after the system reforms, it became inconvenient for me to embezzle… uh, I mean, inconvenient for me to slightly reallocate some funds to maintain my physical and mental well-being."
Because she was so focused on writing, Tsunade nearly let her true thoughts slip out, but luckily corrected herself in time.
In fact, maintaining physical and mental well-being was something that already had a reimbursable allowance written into the regulations.
Even traveling abroad every few days wouldn't be a problem.
The reason Tsunade still needed this excuse was because her leisure activities were simply too expensive.
Rather than saying the new system made it impossible for Tsunade to embezzle funds, it would be more accurate to say that the reanimated Hokage made it impossible for her to embezzle funds.
Pay attention, "Hokage" here refers to three people.
Tsunade seriously suspected that if she gambled using public funds, she might get beaten up at any moment.
Especially one of them, who was particularly ruthless and might even create Shadow Clones to join in.
When people are poor, they seek change. Tsunade had no choice but to think of other ways to earn money legally and reasonably.
And this was the method she had come up with.
"But Tsunade-sama, as the Hokage, if you publish a novel with this kind of plot, wouldn't you completely lose Konoha's face?"
Kushina whispered in objection.
"Hm?!"
At that exact moment, the very person Tsunade had just been thinking about, the one who would ruthlessly beat her up with Shadow Clones, happened to look over.
"It's fine. I can have… have Kakashi publish it for me."
Tsunade had originally wanted to say Jiraiya, but after thinking it through, she discarded that idea.
Jiraiya was of the same generation, and his behavior was unreliable. At any moment, he might get drunk and bring this up as idle chatter with women in the pleasure quarters.
In short, letting Jiraiya publish it would cause all kinds of trouble.
But Kakashi was different.
Kakashi was a junior. She could completely use seniority pressure to force Kakashi to obey.
And Kakashi was the brooding type, not a blabbermouth. He didn't get drunk either, so he was very good at keeping secrets.
"…Uh, alright."
Kushina hesitated for a moment, then didn't say anything more.
If it were the Kakashi from before, the Kakashi in her memories, Kushina might have spoken up for him.
But ever since being reanimated together with Rin and personally witnessing Kakashi's moral downfall, Kushina clearly understood that there was no need to treat Kakashi like a child anymore.
Things that even they found outrageous were probably already commonplace for Kakashi.
Don't make Kakashi laugh.
At the same time, on the other side.
Seeing that Shiromo and the other two were about to enter the borders of the Land of Lightning, Yugito switched perspectives. After confirming roughly where she herself was in this world, she passed the information to Uchiha Hikari.
"Luckily, I've always been traveling around looking for places to train. I'm already extremely familiar with the terrain of the Land of Lightning."
A hint of pride appeared on Yugito's face.
"Yeah. It's just a pity that only people like us can see the scenes of this genjutsu world. If the entire ninja world could see it, that would be great."
Samui maintained her usual cool persona, always speaking only halfway.
But Yugito understood what she meant.
If the whole ninja world knew about what was happening in the Infinite Tsukuyomi world, they would definitely compare the other four great ninja villages with Kumogakure, and then realize just how normal… uh, righteous Kumogakure was.
Even now, just having this comparison made Yugito and Samui feel extremely comfortable and pleased.
Originally, they were still considering whether or not to give Shiromo and the others a heads-up.
But once the comparison appeared, there was no need to consider it anymore.
They needed to hurry and let Shiromo and the others take a look at Kumogakure.
Ideally, they'd even develop a favorable impression of it.
"Alright, got it."
Uchiha Hikari received the approximate coordinates inside Susanoo's cockpit. She compared directions with the sky, then looked down to confirm her own position, and glided off in a certain direction.
"Just as I thought, the red dots in the night sky from that perspective earlier were them."
Yugito switched back to her own perspective in the Infinite Tsukuyomi world, smiling confidently as she waited for Shiromo and the others to arrive.
Only…
This time, after switching perspectives, something felt off.
Her Infinite Tsukuyomi self was no longer looking up at the sky, nor sparring with Samui…
Well, not exactly. Rather, it seemed she was preparing to spar with Samui in a different way.
"Wait…no way, right?"
"That's impossible! My nails are this long!"
After switching her perspective back, Yugito stood there talking to herself with a shocked expression.
"What do you mean, nails being long?"
Samui was puzzled.
Yugito's nails were indeed very long, that was one of her usual attack methods. Why was she so surprised?
"Ah."
The moment Uchiha Hikari landed and saw what was going on inside the cave below, she immediately performed a classic Uchiha turn-around.
She knew it, her precautions back at Hōzuki Castle hadn't been meaningless after all!
(End of this chapter)