Tsunade of the Senju Clan

Just as Yuya was packing his things into his backpack, the sound of "tap-tap-tap" footsteps approached once again.

However, these footsteps were far lighter than those of Senju Hashirama.

One could tell at a glance that they belonged to a child.

Yuya ignored them and continued stuffing items into his bag.

"Bang! Yuya-nii-chan! Bang-bang-bang!" A little girl with her hair tied in a high ponytail pointed her fingers at Yuya and shouted.

Yuya looked at the little girl in front of him, speechless.

"Tsunade, your big brother is busy packing right now. I'll play with you in a bit, be a good girl, okay?"

Senju Tsunade, the future Fifth Hokage, but for now...

She was just a two-year-old brat.

She couldn't even speak clearly yet, though she did know how to address people—she could call for her grandparents and for him, her big brother.

That, at least, was worth a little praise.

Tsunade stood at the doorway with her bare feet, turning a deaf ear to Yuya's words—she truly didn't understand them anyway—and continued to reach out her hands, though this time she remained silent.

Yuya sighed, finished packing his bag, and walked over to pick up little Tsunade, who happily reached out to touch his face.

Yuya felt a wave of speechlessness; he knew exactly what little Tsunade wanted.

Sighing again, Yuya hoisted Tsunade onto his shoulders and ran around the house amidst her constant cries of "Nii-chan!"

In the evening, Tsunade's mother came to pick up her child and took the opportunity to bow and apologize to Yuya.

Yuya was so exhausted he could only wave his hand, lacking the strength to see her out.

Later, at dinner time, Uzumaki Mito—who was in her thirties and at the peak of a woman's charm—sat kneeling on the tatami mat across from Yuya at a low table. The meal was not lavish, consisting of only three dishes: one meat, one vegetable, and a soup.

Uzumaki Mito was not only beautiful but also an excellent cook.

However, Yuya felt as calm as still water toward his beautiful mistress, and even sat at the very end of the table in a state of trepidation.

As long as Uzumaki Mito didn't pick up her chopsticks, Yuya certainly wouldn't dare to move his.

The two of them sat there in silence.

But unlike Uzumaki Mito, who kept her back straight, Yuya was hunched over, his head bowed, nodding off as he drifted in and out of sleep.

"If you're sleepy, you can eat first. Once you're done, go to bed," Uzumaki Mito said softly.

Feeling as if he had been granted an amnesty, Yuya immediately reached out and began shoveling rice into his mouth.

Uzumaki Mito kept her eyes closed, seemingly ignoring the sound of Yuya eating, and continued to sit with her back perfectly straight.

When the time was right, she spoke softly: "Did Hashirama look for you today?"

Yuya's movements came to an abrupt halt. Feeling incredibly guilty, he glanced at his mistress, only to find her in the same posture, eyes still closed.

Yuya swallowed the food in his mouth and replied respectfully: "What would you like to ask about Master, Mistress?"

Uzumaki Mito simply repeated: "Did your master look for you today?"

Beads of sweat began to form on Yuya's forehead. He hesitated, wondering whether he should lie to cover for his master.

After much deliberation, he lowered his head respectfully and said: "Reporting to Mistress! Master did look for me today!"

Uzumaki Mito didn't move, merely continuing: "Mm, good. You didn't try to lie to me. Not bad."

Cold sweat broke out even more profusely on Yuya's face, and he was already silently mourning for his master in his heart.

"What did he want with you?" Uzumaki Mito asked.

Yuya gritted his teeth and spoke decisively: "Master wanted me to use my ability to help him hide from his creditors! I righteously refused him! But Master threatened and bribed me; he said if I didn't agree, he wouldn't let me eat, and he promised that if I did, he would give me a day off tomorrow so I wouldn't have to go to the academy and face my uncle...

I had no choice but to agree."

Uzumaki Mito finally opened her eyes, her gaze fixed calmly on Yuya: "Is that true?"

Yuya slapped his chest firmly: "Every word is the truth!"

Uzumaki Mito let out a cold snort: "You gave in that easily?"

Yuya coughed, looking aggrieved: "I wanted to eat. If I didn't agree, he wouldn't let me eat. I've been starved enough in the past..."

Uzumaki Mito gave a huff of annoyance, then waved her hand with a look of disdain: "Eat, eat. Get lost once you're finished."

"Yes, alright!"

After inhaling his food in a few quick bites, Yuya slipped out of the dining room, stripped off his clothes, and headed to the bathroom to wash up.

While bathing, he hummed the theme song [Hero's Comeback] and played with a rubber duck, feeling quite content as he sat in the tub.

However, the very next second, a scream startled him so badly he nearly drowned in the tub.

What followed was a series of continuous, piercing screams.

Yuya clutched his rubber duck and shivered; his mistress really was...

Well, a woman of intense temperament.

After his bath, he went back to bed, silently offered a three-second prayer for Senju Hashirama, and drifted off into dreamland.

The next day, Yuya went to the basin on the west side of the village. His ability allowed him to draw gold out from underground; naturally, it wouldn't work if it were too deep. For now, he could only absorb it from a depth of one kilometer, though this distance would increase significantly as his strength grew.

However, it was basically impossible to reach the level of the mantle.

Yuya took out a scroll and bit his finger until it bled, sealing the two hundred-plus kilograms of gold he had absorbed inside.

The quantity was still too small; if only he could find a mineral vein.

Even a small vein should contain a total of several dozen tons.

If it were a large one, that would be even better; with thousands of tons of gold, many problems would cease to be problems.

It was no wonder Senju Hashirama had once sighed to Yuya: if it weren't for him, he wouldn't have needed to sell those Tailed Beasts.

When Konoha was founded over a decade ago, although they had reached a cooperative agreement with the Land of Fire, the aid provided by the Land of Fire was insufficient for Senju Hashirama to build Konoha into a developed village where people didn't have to struggle for a living.

Furthermore, the money required for the profession of a ninja was essentially a bottomless pit.

Put it this way: a ninja without money could risk their life training like Rock Lee to improve their strength.

A wealthy ninja was different; they could simply throw money at the best Chunin or even Jonin to guide their cultivation. This naturally counted as a mission, and the rewards were not low, so there would always be ninjas willing to take them.

Being taught by someone and struggling to learn on one's own were two completely different concepts.

Not to mention the ninja tools, scrolls, and other equipment that ninjas needed—all of these cost money.

--So it's not hard to understand why Tenten is a rich woman; after all, she sells these things, and basically, every ninja is her potential customer.

If Yuya had been born fifteen years earlier, Senju Hashirama wouldn't have needed to sell Tailed Beasts to obtain the startup capital for Konoha.

That Five Kage Summit back then was, in reality, just a marketplace.

While Senju Hashirama's claim that the Tailed Beasts were too dangerous and needed to be sealed was indeed a factor, that reason was merely a facade.

If they were truly dangerous, wouldn't it have been easier to just kill them? Would the God of Shinobi lack that capability?

Sealing them and then selling them to other villages—wasn't that just a hypocritical display?

However, a facade was still necessary; that way, they could sell the Tailed Beasts in a legitimate manner.

Moreover, the wealthy Land of Lightning even wanted to buy them all.

In the end, Hashirama stated that they could buy at most two.

Thus, the Land of Lightning bought the most expensive Eight-Tails in the first round and picked up the Two-Tails that no one else wanted in the second.

As for the One-Tail...

To be fair, although the First Kazekage said things like, "We don't need to buy these things; the One-Tail Shukaku is within the borders of the Land of Wind, we will capture it ourselves, just don't get in our way," if you think about it carefully, you'll understand.

That guy had no money; he couldn't afford a Tailed Beast at all.

If he could actually afford one, wouldn't he have to buy it just like the Land of Lightning?

This thing was equivalent to a nuclear deterrent; if you pissed me off, I'd just send the Tailed Beast to wreak havoc in your village and see if you could withstand the losses.

Therefore, there was no need to view the Five Kage Summit as something so lofty.

Wasn't it just a meeting to divide the spoils? Senju Hashirama provided the effort, the others provided the money, and as for the First Kazekage...

He had no money.

Let's set it for midnight. [Single-player is good, single-player is wonderful~ Single-player makes me happy, single-player makes me merry.] I know that the protagonist's fruit ability-derived gold would lose its effect due to Seastone or seawater, but the Naruto world doesn't have those things. So, I simply changed it so that the gold reverts to its original state upon contact with water. It doesn't affect much, because from the very beginning, I never intended for the protagonist to use his ability to scam people; there's no need for that.