The innkeeper was a middle-aged man—or woman?—with an unkempt beard and a rather rough appearance, yet dressed in a women's kimono, making it impossible to tell his gender.
When Master Minato entered with his three students, the innkeeper remained motionless behind the counter and asked listlessly, "Welcome.
How long do you plan to stay, and what kind of room would you like?"
Master Minato glanced at the price list. Fortunately, he could afford it.
He rummaged through his wallet and pulled out several small-denomination bills, placing them on the counter. "Boss, give us a standard room. Just two days for now."
"A standard room only has one bed."
"That's fine. I'll sleep on the tatami," Master Minato replied. As a shinobi, being able to avoid sleeping outdoors was already a luxury.
The innkeeper curled his lip. He looked so respectable, so why was he being this stingy? After taking Master Minato's money, he pulled out a ring of keys, removed one, and slapped it onto the counter.
"Second room from the back on the left."
"Got it~"
Master Minato took the key, thought for a moment, then asked Might Guy for the poster. He spread it out in front of the innkeeper and asked, "Boss, have you seen this woman in the past few days?"
Tanzaku Town was, when all was said and done, only a few streets. If someone genuinely wanted to find a person, asking around enough would eventually yield results. Master Minato had officially entered work mode.
"Hmm?"
The innkeeper put on his glasses and leaned toward the poster, examining it closely while occasionally making sounds like "Hmm? Hmm~" as though he really had seen Tsunade.
But he refused to give a definite answer, stringing the group along while subtly rubbing the index finger and thumb of his left hand together.
Got it.
Master Minato painfully pulled another 1,000-yen bill from his wallet and slapped it onto the counter. Paying for information was a necessary expense.
The innkeeper took the bill and tucked it into his clothes before saying, "I've seen her."
And then?
Master Minato waited for a long while, but still heard no follow-up. When he saw the innkeeper rubbing his fingers again, he realized that the man wanted more money.
Seriously...
Just as Minato was about to take more money from his wallet, Uchiha Mai abruptly pressed his hand down.
"How much did you pay for this counter?" Uchiha Mai asked.
The innkeeper was somewhat confused, but answered anyway. "About 1,500 yen. It was a cheap piece I found at a flea market. Is there a problem?"
"No problem."
Uchiha Mai shook his head, then suddenly exploded into action. Chakra flooded into his leg, and a whip kick slammed into the side of the counter. With a crack, he blasted it into a pile of broken boards.
"!"
The innkeeper was badly startled and fell hard onto the floor. Only then did he realize that the people before him were definitely shinobi, not fat sheep he could slaughter at will.
To ordinary people, shinobi were beings that absolutely could not be provoked—unless you had hired them.
During the Second Shinobi World War, the Sannin encountered the young Nagato and his two companions in the Land of Rain. Orochimaru suspected that Nagato and the others were spies and planned to kill them.
That certainly had something to do with Orochimaru's ruthlessness. But in some situations, shinobi really were ordinary people's harbingers of death.
Uchiha Mai took Master Minato's wallet, pulled out 2,000 yen, and handed it to the innkeeper. Then he pointed at Tsunade's poster.
"Now, tell us everything you know about this woman."
Master Minato was still too kind.
The innkeeper nervously accepted the bills and desperately racked his brains for a moment, afraid he might omit some detail. "A-about ten days ago, this woman came to Tanzaku Town. She spent money lavishly.
"At first, she stayed in the finest inns and drank the best liquor. Day or night, she went to the casino almost every day, staying there for at least four or five hours.
"Later, I heard people calling her something like Big Fat Sheep and Little Lamb.
"Then, every two days, the quality of the inn she stayed at would drop another level, and the liquor she drank would be worse than before.
"Until yesterday, when she came to my inn and rented the worst room. I estimate that if this continues, she'll soon be sleeping on the streets."
Seriously, her spending had plunged off a cliff, with only the decline remaining steady.
"How much did she lose to go this far, that profligate woman?" Uchiha Mai muttered.
"I heard she lost more than ten million yen," the innkeeper chimed in.
Good grief, that was at least one-third of Asuma gone.
After so many years in this world, Mai had gained some understanding of the purchasing power of the Ninja World's currency. Roughly speaking, 100 yen was equivalent to 1,000 yen in his previous life.
If you couldn't figure out the conversion between yen and yuan, that was fine. All you needed to know was that the yen-to-dollar exchange rate was basically 100 to 1.
More than ten million yen was roughly over a hundred thousand dollars, which already counted as an enormous sum.
"Where is she?" Uchiha Mai continued asking.
"She should be at the casino."
The innkeeper brought over a map of Tanzaku Town and pointed to a location, answering cautiously, "This woman often changes inns, but she goes to the same casino every day.
"This casino is the largest in Tanzaku Town. It has all kinds of gambling, with both high-stakes and low-stakes tables. It even provides free cigarettes, mineral water, and small snacks."
They provided snacks?
Might Guy immediately perked up. He rubbed his chin solemnly, pretending to be profound as he said, "This is only a guess, so it may not be right.
"Do you think it's possible that Lady Tsunade is going there to mooch food?"
Emmm... It wasn't impossible.
They had unexpectedly found something right after arriving in Tanzaku Town.
Uchiha Mai took two more 200-yen bills from the wallet and handed them to the innkeeper, instructing him, "Clean the room.
"At eleven tonight, boil a pot of hot water. I'll need it to take a bath. Understand?"
"Understood." The innkeeper accepted the bills with an ingratiating smile.
"Let's go to the casino."
Uchiha Mai stuffed the wallet back into Minato's hand and led Kakashi and Might Guy straight toward the casino, leaving Master Minato and the innkeeper staring at each other.
Seriously...
Why did it feel like it made no difference whether I, the Jonin team leader, was here?
My students' strength is advancing at an astonishing pace. Not only can they fight, they handle problems decisively too. They make me, their teacher, seem completely irrelevant. What should I do?
Asking online. It's urgent.
Perhaps that was simply what being a genius meant. Master Minato could only comfort himself with that explanation.
After finishing his own mental counseling, Minato used the Body Flicker Technique and transformed into a golden streak of light, catching up with the students who had gone on ahead within seconds.
Tanzaku Town wasn't very large. A few minutes later, the four of them reached the casino the innkeeper had mentioned. Its decorations were indeed quite impressive.
The guards watching the entrance, who were clearly shinobi, paid no attention to the three children. Everyone who came was a customer. As long as they could lose money, who cared how old they were?
After entering the casino and looking around only a few times, Uchiha Mai noticed that one gambling table was highly unusual.
Judging by the casino's markings, that table should have been a low-stakes table. Such tables were neither too popular nor too deserted, since they lacked the spectacular high-stakes gambling that attracted spectators.
Yet at that moment, the table was surrounded by at least several dozen people, packed three layers deep inside and out.
A transitional chapter. Please vote with your monthly tickets...
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