Sarutobi Hiruzen

"I leapt at it! Grabbed that tiger by the tail! Then I swung it right over my head and hurled it away! The tiger came charging at me, so I slid beneath it and slashed its belly open with my Kunai! Then I roasted the tiger and ate it~"

In a classroom at the Ninja Academy, Yuya held his head high, bragging shamelessly to the students.

He was a professional at fooling little kids.

"Alright, alright, class is starting! Yuya, stop boasting about your tiger-fighting exploits and sit down!" A young man walked in. He adjusted the Headband on his forehead and smiled at the group of children. "I'll be teaching your class today. Your teacher, Miho, isn't feeling well, so I'm filling in for her."

Yuya pursed his lips and said to the girl beside him, "Who's this guy? He looks so young. He must only be a Genin, right?"

The girl had a head of smooth black hair and fair skin, but her colorless eyes were unsettling to look at.

Hyuga Kazuko propped up her chin with one hand and said impatiently, "Who knows? Middle-aged guys like him are so sleazy."

The young man at the front of the classroom stiffened, then continued his introduction. "Um, my name is Sarutobi Hiruzen. Could you all sit down and pay attention, please?"

But the children, who had been sitting obediently, saw that the young man seemed easygoing and grew more and more unruly.

Yuya and the Hyuga girl beside him started making a ruckus, too.

The classroom descended into chaos.

Sarutobi Hiruzen panicked. He tried to stop the rowdy children, only to get pelted with books and backpacks.

For a while, all he could do was shield his face with his hands, looking utterly miserable.

At last, Sarutobi Hiruzen could take no more. He roared, "Everyone, quiet down!"

Then he immediately formed a hand seal. Earth Style: Earth Wall (miniature version).

Stone platforms sprang up beneath the children's feet, their edges rising to trap each child inside.

"Whoa! Awesome!" Yuya's eyes lit up.

After using that Earth Release technique to bring the kids under control, Sarutobi Hiruzen began the lesson.

A little after three in the afternoon, classes at the Ninja Academy let out. Yuya turned down a few kids' invitation to play at the Back Mountain and raced toward the Hokage Office Building beneath Konoha's cliffs.

When he arrived, he saw a crowd of middle-aged men packed outside the office, clamoring anxiously.

A few of them recognized Yuya as First Senju Hashirama's student. He lived at Senju Hashirama's house, and Senju Tobirama was his uncle by marriage. But they had come to ask for money today. They couldn't go home empty-handed just because a child was there; they weren't about to lose face in front of him.

As mentioned earlier, Konoha had grown from nothing into what it was through Senju Hashirama's influence and the wholehearted support of the various clans.

Back then, without the cooperation of the Inuzuka, Sarutobi, Hyuga, Aburame, and other clans, there was no way the Senju and Uchiha clans alone could have built Konoha from the ground up.

That was because the Senju and Uchiha were clans of hired fighters. Simply put, their shinobi were all skilled at killing, but they didn't produce anything. And shinobi needed a great deal of resources.

Food alone was a massive expense every day.

But the ordinary people in those two clans couldn't support so many mouths.

That was why the powerful Senju and Uchiha clans could only make a living by taking jobs that involved cutting people down.

They all had to eat, after all.

In short, the other clans might not measure up to Senju Hashirama in strength, even combined, but their contributions to Konoha were tangible and undeniable.

Konoha owed its size today to the support of those clans.

But here was the problem.

When everyone was poor, there was nothing to argue about. They were all in the same boat.

But now word had spread that the Second had found a gold mine...

A gold mine!

Something that could keep everyone in Konoha comfortable for decades!

How could they not be tempted?

They'd all been poor together before, but now there was a benefit like this. They couldn't just forget about everyone else.

That was more or less what these men were thinking when they came together to claim their share.

Yuya knew he couldn't get in just yet, so he didn't rush. He sat on the wooden floorboards outside the room, leaned against the wall, and dozed off.

Inside, Senju Tobirama was swearing to the leaders of the Hyuga, Sarutobi, and Shimura clans:

"I really only got a few dozen pounds of gold! How did that turn into me finding an entire gold vein?! Who's spreading these rumors?!"

Senju Tobirama was furious. Understandably so: he'd only gotten a few dozen pounds of gold, but somehow, through a game of telephone, the story had become this.

Senju Tobirama was exasperated!

Seeing that Senju Tobirama was practically ready to tear his heart out and lay it bare to prove he was telling the truth, the leaders of the Three Great Clans felt a little awkward.

It was one thing when everyone was poor. They could all tighten their belts and get by.

But as soon as they heard there was money to be had, they'd rushed over, afraid it would all go to someone else.

Senju Tobirama then explained to the leaders of the Three Great Clans that the money was meant to build a stone bridge across the marshland west of Konoha.

It was a vast stretch of marsh, so large that it was on the verge of becoming a lake.

Beyond it lay wetlands filled with valuable medicinal herbs, plants, and seasonal crops.

Every autumn, the Chunin of Konoha used to spend a whole month doing nothing but gathering resources from the wetlands.

Even so, they only managed to bring back a small fraction of the seasonal crops and fruit each year.

The reason was that these things couldn't be stored in scrolls. In theory, they were plants, and plants were alive. Only fruit that had been dried or cooked could be stored inside.

In the past, they could only look at all that bounty and drool.

The moment Senju Tobirama got his hands on the money, he decided they absolutely had to build a bridge to the wetlands.

The Three Great Clans had no objection to how the money was being spent.

As long as it wasn't given to one particular clan, they were fine with it.

Once the Wetland Bridge was built, they'd benefit from it, too.

At the very least, the ordinary members of their clans would be able to gather fruit in the wetlands.

With the Three Great Clans settled, the other clans would be easy enough to handle.

Senju Tobirama went out and explained things to the other clan leaders as well. After finally putting an end to the farce and seeing them off, he spotted little Yuya asleep against the wall.

Senju Tobirama shook his head. The corners of his stern mouth lifted slightly as he walked over and hoisted Yuya onto his shoulder.

I promised to teach you ninjutsu, and I won't go back on my word...