"It wasn't the food that cost so much. That was just pocket change, and it had nothing to do with the ninja tools we bought at a high price on the black market. Even Explosive Tags aren't especially expensive."
"The medicine you drink every day, and the medicinal hot springs you soak in—that's where most of the money goes. And apparently, Hiashi never spent any money on that for you before."
The spacious, luxurious carriage was like a small room. Uchiha Jie had set up a cushion to lean against, while Hinata still habitually knelt.
"Father?" Hinata recalled. "I don't think I ever drank any medicine or soaked in hot springs at home."
"Did the Nara Family not sell herbs to your family? That can't be right." Uchiha Jie looked puzzled. "Do your families have some kind of grudge? I never noticed anything like that."
Did her family have a grudge against the Nara Family? No matter how Hinata thought about it, that couldn't be the case.
"N-no!" she replied softly. "Father visits Lord Shikaku, and Lord Shikaku sometimes visits the Hyuga Clan, too."
"Oh, right. Lu Yu and I came up with this together. She never told her family about it!" Uchiha Jie smacked his forehead as he suddenly remembered that he and Shikaru Nara had developed the medicinal baths together.
The Nara Family controlled Konoha's entire herbal medicine industry, which was also the economic backbone of the Ino-Shika-Cho families. Although Lu Yu wasn't from the Clan Head's branch, her family still managed a substantial business.
Compared with Uchiha Jie or Hyuga Yue, she was the richest of them all.
Not just in Konoha, but all over the Land of Fire, hospitals, clinics, small medical offices, and even barefoot doctors had to buy herbs from the Nara Family. Soldier Pills and all kinds of medicines used by ninja also came from their clan.
When Uchiha Jie wanted to buy herbs, he naturally went through Shikaru Nara and got the friends-and-family price. It was even cheaper than the wholesale rate, but he bought quite a lot each time.
That had made Lu Yu curious.
Uchiha Jie couldn't use that much himself. Was he buying supplies for the entire Uchiha Clan? But the herbs were far too few for the whole clan—and far too varied.
He bought all kinds of different herbs, and Shikaru Nara couldn't figure out what sort of pills he was trying to make.
Once she had questions, she naturally went looking for answers.
She went straight to the Uchiha Clan's compound and knocked on Uchiha Jie's door. A completely black Ninja Cat answered, while Uchiha Jie was tending a fire in the courtyard.
A huge vat sat above the flames, fragrant with herbs. Uchiha Jie was about to take off his clothes and jump in, seemingly intent on boiling himself along with the herbs and serving Lu Yu, who had come to visit, a Sharingan medicinal hot pot.
Lu Yu had been about to yell at Uchiha Jie for being an idiot and wasting precious herbs. But after thinking it over, she considered the herbs she'd sold him and his recent surge in strength. In their last spar, he'd come close to defeating Hyuga Yue.
Could this really work?
So the two of them began working on the formula together, improving the effects of the medicinal baths. Yet Lu Yu never told her family about it.
"The hot springs played a big part in how quickly your strength improved. Herb prices have gone up lately, and Lu Yu won't even give me free shipping." Uchiha Jie thought back on it and sighed, leaning against the carriage.
"So you'd better get back to training. The road ahead could be dangerous at any time. You might run into more than Genin—you could face Chunin, or even Jonin."
He looked at Hinata, who was still fretting over the money, and said:
"Don't worry about the money. We'll soon be making a big score."
He didn't tell Hinata how they would make money. He simply watched her train inside the carriage. This luxurious carriage had shock absorbers, so it traveled exceptionally smoothly.
The bandits and robbers in the area had also been thoroughly cleared out by Hinata over the past few days. They continued east and reached the next town only at dusk.
This town was much larger than Lishan Village, where they had stayed recently. Even as the moon rose above the treetops, the streets were still packed with people.
They entered the town through a night market, where the variety of local snacks left Hinata dazzled. But Uchiha Jie ignored her expectant gaze. After leaving the carriage at an inn, he led her to a glittering, golden building.
The two people standing guard at the entrance weren't security guards, but two young women. Hinata clutched Uchiha Jie's hand tightly. Could this be that kind of place? Has my master finally shown his true colors?
But Uchiha Jie lifted her up and carried her on his back, whispering in her ear, "This is the place I told you about—the place where we can make money fast."
"Welcome in." The girl at the door had a particularly sweet voice as she opened the entrance for Uchiha Jie.
Only after entering did Hinata realize it was a massive casino. Cards, dice, roulette wheels, slot machines—people crowded around them everywhere.
Some shouted excitedly, but most sounded frustrated and angry.
Uchiha Jie went straight to the counter for exchanging chips and pulled out a stack of bills.
He handed the bills to the beautiful young woman at the counter, then leaned in and whispered, "One special chip, please."
The girl nodded, took the money, and placed a selection of chips with different designs and values on a small tray.
"Thank you."
Uchiha Jie nodded and took the tray. He sifted through the chips, picked up a small, worn one, and held it in his hand. Then he tucked the others into his clothes.
He carried Hinata on his back as he made his way through the casino. That way, they could still speak quietly to each other in the noisy crowd.
"Don't activate your Byakugan without a good reason. There may be people here who are very sensitive to chakra. And we're not here to gamble."
As they ventured deeper into the casino, the crowd thinned. Locked private rooms began appearing along the passage. Uchiha Jie opened the door to one that wasn't locked, set Hinata down, and handed her an orange-yellow fox mask.
"The private rooms meant for customers are all on the second floor. This, though, is the entrance to somewhere else."
Uchiha Jie put on his own mask. It was also a fox, just like Hinata's, but red.
He took out the worn chip and fed it into an equally worn machine in the corner of the room. A sound came from beneath the floor, and soon an opening wide enough for several people to walk through side by side appeared.
"Welcome to the underground Money Exchange. This is where rogue ninja make their home, and it's the fastest place to make money—faster than the casino upstairs, since that place is designed to take your money."
Uchiha Jie took Hinata's hand, and they stepped into the darkness.