Senju Hashirama, his face bruised and swollen, shoveled rice into his mouth while watching Yuya eat with one hand and hold the other in a claw shape, straining to hold his breath. Curious, he asked, "Little Yuya, what are you doing?"
Yuya's face was bright red from the strain. "I'm practicing a jutsu."
Two question marks appeared on Hashirama's face. "A jutsu? What kind of jutsu do you have to learn like that?"
"My uncle taught me a jutsu called the Flying Thunder God Mark," Yuya replied, then resumed holding his breath.
Uzumaki Mito frowned. "Stop for now. Finish your food first."
Yuya said, "Wait! I can feel it! I think I can use chakra to form the first symbol!"
Uzumaki Mito put down her chopsticks and smiled at Yuya. "Finish your food first, then we can talk about that, all right?"
Yuya froze for a moment. Sensing an extremely dangerous aura, he quickly lowered his hand, picked up his chopsticks, and started eating.
Uzumaki Mito nodded. "That's a good boy."
Senju Hashirama, sitting nearby, watched with a twitching eyelid. Seriously, Mito, treating a little kid like that is going to leave him with emotional scars, you know.
But Hashirama only dared to grumble about it in his head. He certainly wasn't willing to say it out loud.
The next day, Yuya packed his schoolbag early in the morning and headed to the Hokage Office Building.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Come in," Tobirama's calm voice answered.
Yuya raised a hand, grabbed the doorknob, and pushed the door open, glancing around.
Without looking up from the proposal on his desk, Senju Tobirama asked, "What are you looking for?"
Yuya chuckled awkwardly. "I'm checking if those three uncles from yesterday are here."
"They have things to do, too." Tobirama frowned and thought for a long while, then finally signed his name on the proposal on his desk.
Yuya came running over and planted both hands on the desk. Looking at the proposal, he tilted his head. "What's this?"
As Hokage, Senju Tobirama had two tall stacks of "pending documents" on his desk. But this one had been singled out, and the Second was frowning deeply at it, which meant the matter was clearly not so simple.
Tobirama wasn't annoyed. As far as he was concerned, it was perfectly normal for children to be curious about everything.
In fact, it was precisely their natural curiosity that gave them such an innate ability to learn.
Tobirama had actually enjoyed his days teaching at the academy more.
Unfortunately, he was Hokage now, with countless matters to handle every day, and he hadn't taken on any new students in nearly ten years.
"Hmm? A Wetland Bridge proposal? What's this? Oh, an application for five Earth Release jōnin to help build a bridge? Why send jōnin to help build it?"
Watching Yuya tilt his head in confusion, Tobirama shook his own. He was a child, after all; there were plenty of things he couldn't understand, which was perfectly normal.
Tobirama ruffled Yuya's hair. "With the jōnin's help, the bridge can be built in a day. Then, next autumn, everyone will be able to go to the wetlands to gather medicinal herbs and tree fruit."
Yuya looked at Tobirama. "If that's the case, why send jōnin? The bridge will be finished in one day, but it won't be used until next autumn?"
Tobirama asked, "Hmm? What's the problem?"
Yuya frowned at the Second. "Why not have ordinary people build the bridge?"
Tobirama waved a hand. "Ordinary people are too inefficient. It's better to send shinobi—"
"But, Uncle, you also said the bridge won't be useful until next autumn, right?"
Tobirama opened his mouth, then frowned at Yuya. "What would a brat like you know? It's not just about efficiency. This also creates a mission for five jōnin.
Konoha doesn't have that many missions for shinobi to carry out.
If they can't get missions, the jōnin can't earn money, and that'll affect their strength."
Yuya said, "Is that so? But I think that instead of paying five jōnin, wouldn't it be better to hire a few hundred ordinary people and give them work until the bridge is finished?"
Yuya blinked up at Tobirama, looking utterly innocent.
Senju Tobirama fell into thought as he looked at Yuya's expression. Then he turned his head without a trace of emotion. "What did you come here for, anyway?"
Yuya raised his hand and grinned at Senju Tobirama. "Look, look! I've already completed the first symbol of the Flying Thunder Seal!"
Senju Tobirama said nothing.
"You've only done the first one and you're already so pleased with yourself? Get back there and keep practicing." Senju Tobirama stared at his nephew, speechless.
Yuya pouted. "Once I've got the first part done, the rest will be easy, right? And don't forget, Uncle..."
Yuya narrowed his eyes. "I paid more than ten kilograms of gold for this. If you think about it, Uncle, I gave you that much gold and you only taught me one jutsu. Isn't that a bit too much?!"
Senju Tobirama understood. So that was why the kid had come so early.
He held back his pounding pulse and forced a smile at Yuya. "Little Yuya, this is a powerful jutsu. It's absolutely worth more than ten kilograms of gold."
Yuya curled his lip. "That's just what you say, Uncle. Who can guarantee it's really worth that much?"
There was a saying: a work of art by a living artist and a work of art by a dead artist were worth different amounts.
Senju Tobirama wasn't an artist, but the principle was the same.
When Senju Tobirama was alive, he had created more than a thousand jutsu. But had those thousand-plus jutsu really received a lot of attention?
Not really. Otherwise, a shinobi born a civilian like Namikaze Minato wouldn't have had the chance to learn the Flying Thunder God.
Of course, you could say Minato had been able to learn it for many reasons: the Third Hokage's approval, his own achievements, and his natural talent.
But it certainly couldn't be said that the jutsu was incredibly valuable at this point.
After all, Senju Tobirama was right here, and he wasn't very old. He still had several decades ahead of him.
The world was peaceful now. The villages had their conflicts, but no one was dying.
Things weren't worth much in peacetime.
Like gold, for example.
Gold in wartime and gold in peacetime were worlds apart.
Senju Tobirama was furious. Yes, I invented this jutsu!
In my opinion, it might not be worth as much as your ten-plus kilograms of gold! But that's just my opinion!
Could you learn this jutsu from anyone else in the world?! No, right?
By that logic, my jutsu is priceless!
You can't buy it, no matter how much you pay!
After Senju Tobirama said all that to Yuya, Yuya stared at him with dead fish eyes. "Then give me the gold back."
Tobirama fell silent.
Taking a deep breath, Senju Tobirama put on a painfully forced smile. "Tell me, what jutsu do you want to learn? Nothing too outrageous."
Tobirama's first thought was that the kid wanted to learn some of his big brother's impressive jutsu.
To his surprise, Yuya answered without hesitation, "The Clone Technique! I want to learn the Clone Technique! The exam's in a few days, and I still haven't learned it, so could you teach me, Uncle?"
Senju Tobirama's long face froze instantly. Then, furious, he kicked Yuya in the butt. "Get out! Get out of here!"
I thought you were going to ask me to teach you calculus, but you want me to teach you the elementary-school multiplication table?
Are you insulting me, the Professor of Ninjutsu?!
After driving Yuya away, Senju Tobirama sat down at his desk and pressed his fingers to his temples. As he rubbed his aching head, he looked again at the Wetland Bridge construction proposal in front of him.
A moment later, Senju Tobirama forced a smile, got up, and climbed out the window.
He headed straight for a certain casino on Konoha's Commercial Street.
Before you continue