"Old man, if we're going to bring Tsunade back, we'll need your help too."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was somewhat surprised, then a little pleased.
It seemed that, in Orochimaru's eyes, the bond between him and his former teacher and teammates still ran deep!
Did he need this teacher to reason with Tsunade, appealing to both her emotions and logic?
"Well... as the Hokage, I cannot leave lightly, and I have far too many matters to attend to. I may not have the time to accompany you in searching for Tsunade."
"No, old man. I need you to transfer some money."
"Hmm???"
Orochimaru pulled out a thick stack of bills.
"Recently, Tsunade has sent Jiraiya and me quite a few bills, all of them debts she incurred during this period. I don't even have enough money for my experiments lately, so there's clearly no way I can help her pay them off."
"I imagine Teacher Sarutobi, you wouldn't want debt collectors chasing her all the way to Konohagakure, would you?"
Of course he didn't!
If debt collectors came all the way to Konohagakure, Tsunade might not care about losing face, but he, the Hokage, cared deeply about his reputation!
He still wanted to promote himself as the strongest Hokage in history!
Not as the Hokage under whose term Konohagakure accrued the greatest debt!
That record could stay with the First Hokage!
"It's fine. How much could Tsunade possibly owe on her own?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled confidently and accepted the bills from Orochimaru.
He had just received a sizable sum from the Daimyo, and the village's reserves were still plentiful.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands... what the hell?! Eight whole zeros! How could Tsunade owe so much?! A full three hundred million ryo! Even if I sold ten Asumas, this old man still couldn't