Trading Lunches

Tsunade and Mito had looked into Minato beforehand. He was cheerful, outgoing, and fairly strong.

The old man's unilateral arrangement annoyed Tsunade, but Kushina did need friends. She saw nothing wrong with Minato, so she had said little.

But from the look of things now, Minato was completely out of the running.

Don't blame me for not giving you a chance, old man.

Now that Kushina had accepted Ryuuzaki Eiji, Tsunade needed to take action too.

He was strong and knew Space-Time Ninjutsu. What if that old dog Danzo set his sights on him?

Should I just invite him to live at the Senju Ancestral Home?

Tsunade shook her head at the thought. Honestly, she was getting ahead of herself. Nothing had even happened between those two yet.

She would watch a little longer. The higher-ups probably wouldn't move that quickly.

Just then, someone knocked on the door of the Senju Ancestral Home.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. She had a good idea who it was.

She walked over and opened the door. An Anbu Ninja in a cat mask crouched before her.

"An Anbu Ninja? What does the Third Hokage want?"

"I don't know, Lady Tsunade. Please read the scroll."

The Anbu Ninja presented the Secret Scroll with both hands. Once Tsunade took it, the ninja leaped away.

Tsunade opened the scroll. After reading it, she gave a look of understanding and casually tossed it to Kushina.

"Tsunade, that's an order from the Hokage. You could at least show him some respect. How can you reveal what it says?"

Mito Uzumaki reminded her.

"It's nothing, Grandma. The old man heard about Ryuuzaki Eiji and wants me to examine his eyes. If everything checks out, he'd like me to take him as my student."

"Really!? That's wonderful!"

Kushina had only read halfway through when Tsunade spoke. She excitedly dropped the scroll and rushed over to her. If Eiji became Tsunade's student, she could see him often.

"You girl... You fell for him awfully fast, didn't you?"

Tsunade's mouth twitched. What was so great about that boy? He had won Kushina over on the very first day.

Was he that smooth, or was Kushina just that easy to win over?

"I—I haven't fallen for him! I just want to be friends!"

Knowing she had been a little too eager, Kushina blushed. She tapped one toe against the floor and stammered out her defense.

"All right. I haven't decided whether he's suitable. I never said I'd definitely take him as my student."

"Huh!? How can you say that..."

Kushina looked disheartened.

"Wow. That's just mean."

Nawaki's comment earned him a punch on the head from Tsunade. He fell silent in pain.

"Enough out of you! You've trained with me all this time and you're still only half-decent. Aren't you embarrassed? Don't get beaten by him on his first day here!"

"Tsunade! How can you say that? He has a Kekkei Genkai. Of course I couldn't beat him!"

"Of course, my foot! You can't beat him, so you've just given up!? Get back to training!"

Konoha Ninja Academy.

Ryuuzaki Eiji propped his cheek on one hand, boredom written all over his face.

He found it strange. Yesterday, he had sent Shinji to Konoha Hospital with one punch, yet the Genin brother Shinji had mentioned still hadn't appeared.

And Eiji had been looking forward to seeing how much Fusion Value he would get for defeating a Genin.

Instead, there had been no dramatic showdown at all. Even his walk to school that morning had been uneventful.

One thing was worth mentioning, though: members of the Uchiha and Hyuga Clans had apparently argued in the village last night. In the end, even the Anbu had stepped in to stop them.

But according to an unreliable source, the two sides hadn't fought at all. Only one unnamed Genin had been caught up in it and sent to Konoha Hospital.

Then the Uchiha and Hyuga clan members had scattered. It made no sense.

That's what you get for hanging around to watch. I'd have stayed well away, Eiji thought.

But why did Fugaku and Hiashi keep making faces at him? What were they up to?

Come to think of it, those two had been involved in last night's dispute too, hadn't they?

It was hard to imagine those two timid guys standing their ground. Maybe neither would back down when it came to claiming the title of Strongest Dōjutsu Family.

Incidentally, Eiji had made a decision yesterday that his ancestors would have disapproved of.

He had eaten Daifuku again.

When he unlocked the system yesterday, he had suspected that eating Daifuku might increase his unlock progress.

After all, unlocking the system had required eating ten thousand Daifuku, but he hadn't eaten a single bite after unlocking it. And Daifuku was Satoru Gojo's favorite food.

Sure enough, eating it had raised his Fusion Rate by five percent, bringing it to fifteen percent. He had also learned the Cursed Technique Azure.

Eiji felt a lot more confident now.

It was a move that worked for both offense and defense.

Azure represented absolute gravity.

Released at low power, it could rapidly pull an enemy toward him, much like Banshō Ten'in.

At full power, it was like creating a miniature Black Hole. Anything caught in it would be torn apart, and he could control it freely. It was a technique capable of widespread destruction.

Azure's pull could also let him float in the air. He could even compress space to move at high speed, rivaling the Flying Thunder God.

His movement was limited to the Six Eyes' detection range of a few kilometers, so it fell a little short of the Flying Thunder God in that respect.

On the other hand, he didn't need to throw Flying Thunder God Kunai during a fight to prepare the area. As long as he could detect his destination and there were no obstacles along the way, Eiji could move there.

At noon, everyone took out the lunches they had brought from home.

Eiji swept his Six Eyes around the room. Fugaku's and Hiashi's lunch boxes were filled with expensive food. As expected of the great clans, they spared no expense on meals.

Choza's lunch was a bit much: his rice was piled into a little mountain. Everyone else's looked fairly normal... except for one person whose lunch box was full of edible insects.

Eiji took out his own lunch, ready to make do with it, when Kushina beside him gave him a poke.

"How about we trade lunches today?"

Kushina looked at Eiji earnestly and offered him her lunch box with both hands.

They called it a lunch box, but to Eiji, it looked more like a treasure chest.

It had beautiful patterns, the Uzumaki Clan crest painted in the center, and glittering gems set around its edges.

She's loaded.

But that made sense. After the Land of Whirlpools fell, Kushina and Mito Uzumaki had become the rightful heirs to its treasury.

And Mito Uzumaki would eventually pass that wealth on to Kushina. That made Kushina the richest person in the entire Shinobi World.

Though if events followed the original story, the Konoha F4 would probably divide up the money after Mito Uzumaki died, leaving Kushina only a street in Konoha as compensation.