Tenten's father clutched the ledger, his fingers trembling so badly he could barely hold on to it.
The figures on it had long since blown past the old man's understanding of money. Try as he might, he could not fathom how those filthy rich people had gone mad, willingly throwing gold and silver into treasure-hunting expeditions where they could not even catch a glimpse of what they were after.
Every stallholder inside and outside the village was making a killing, prices had shot up tenfold, and those oil-rich gentlemen still fought to squeeze their way in.
He was just a small merchant who dealt in kunai and shuriken. When had he ever seen the sort of tricks Naruto had used in his previous life to make people spend money?
Before they even entered Konoha, two Genin were assigned to follow behind them and put on a show of status.
Those wealthy merchants, who normally did not even dare breathe too loudly around ninjas, had never received such treatment.
Although ninjas lived off the missions these merchants commissioned, the two sides were ultimately equals. If a client concealed a mission's rank—like that Land of Waves job—the ninjas could drop everything and walk away at any time.
But not everyone had the nerve to order Zabuza Momochi around like Gato did. Hadn't that man in the manga ultimately been sent on his way with one slash from an enraged Zabuza Momochi?
For most merchants, hiring ninjas was more like paying protection money. As long as a ninja stood beside them and shouted for bandits to scatter, that was enough.
So even if they were merely two Genin, ordinary wealthy merchants had never been able to offend them before.
But now everything had changed. The moment they stepped into this place, two Genin