Orochiroku

That day, Dave realized something... he was fucking broke...

His Old Father, Tobirama, had completely cut off Dave's allowance, afraid Dave would spend money on that little girl from the evil Uchiha Clan...

"Uncle Madara... I'm out of money... that stingy father of mine won't give me a single coin." With no other choice, our Dave could only go crying to Uncle Madara about how poor he was...

"How much do you need?" Uncle Madara asked flatly.

"Um... five hundred thousand ryo!" Duy scratched his head awkwardly and ventured the figure.

"No problem." Uncle Madara looked disdainful, as if Dave had asked for too little.

"You're the best, Uncle Madara! Mwah!" Overjoyed, Dave took the money Madara handed him, then jumped up and planted a kiss on him.

"Mm. If he won't give you money in the future, come to me. The Uchiha Clan can certainly afford that much." Madara's words dripped with contempt for Tobirama. He wouldn't even give Dave this little bit of money? Tobirama was the Senju Clan's second clan head. How could he possibly be broke? What was he keeping the money for instead of giving it to Dave? Saving it for New Year's?

"Hehe! Thanks, Uncle Madara! I'll have a surprise for you in a couple of days!" Dave skipped away with the money, while Madara silently watched him go...

Of course, Dave wasn't planning to spend this money on himself. He was going to use it to make more money.

He had been a math major in his previous life, after all. As far as he was concerned, Konoha was a little lifeless at the moment and needed some energy... hehehe...

"Bro Roku! Are you home?" Duy headed into the civilian district, walked up to a house, and knocked on the door.

This was a talented fellow he had met a couple of days earlier: Orochi Roku. Dave had stumbled across him by chance. He was sixteen this year and had no talent as a ninja, but when it came to researching things, he was a real expert.

A few days earlier, on the day Orochiroku came of age, he happened to be marrying a civilian girl. Somehow, he had ended up running late for his own Wedding. Dave spotted him sprinting down the road and, in the spirit of an official's son caring for the people, helped get him to the Wedding venue on time. That was how they met.

As for how Dave got him there... well... ahem, better not talk about that...

When he heard at the Wedding that the groom's surname was Orochi, Dave perked up even more. As far as he knew, Auntie Snake—the scientist Orochimaru from the original story—had been a civilian as a child. This Orochiroku fellow could very well be his father. After chatting with him for a while at the Wedding and discovering his passion for research, Dave considered his identity as Auntie Snake's father confirmed. After all, heredity could be pretty powerful.

"Duy? What brings you here?" Orochi Roku was a sixteen-year-old young man with messy hair and fairly pale skin, though nowhere near as pale as Orochimaru's in the original story.

"Oh, Dave! Come on in," said a smiling brown-haired woman behind Orochiroku, with two streaks of face paint on her cheeks.

"Hello, Big Sis Nagareyama Tamaki! Wait, I should call you Big Sis Orochi Tama now." Dave chuckled as he walked inside.

This woman was Orochiroku's wife, Nagareyama Tamaki... though whenever Dave saw her, he couldn't shake the feeling that she looked familiar...

"Oh, you two chat. I'll go wash some fruit for you," Tama said with a shy smile, then left the two of them alone.

"Bro Roku, what have you been working on lately?" Duy asked first.

"I farm during the day and do a little research at night. It's not bad." Orochi Roku kept his resentful gaze fixed on Dave.

Orochiroku wasn't a ninja. His family had some land allocated by the Village, and they lived fairly well by civilian standards.

"Ahem. Bro Roku, don't look at me like that... all I did was use a Peashooter to send you on your way with a whoosh. You don't have to keep staring at me..." Duy said, coughing awkwardly twice.

"You've got the nerve to bring that up?! Do you know what that did to me that night..." Halfway through, Orochiroku's pale face turned bright red, and the rest of his words caught in his throat...

"...Ohhh, got it, got it!" Duy gave him a look any man would understand.

"You bastard!"

Orochi Roku pinned Dave down and gave him a beating, though they were only messing around.

"Bro Roku, I'll get straight to the point. I need you to help me research a few things! I know you love studying living things, metals, and all that, so I'm sure you know the properties of plenty of metals. I'm good at calculations, so I can help you work out all sorts of things. Don't worry about funding. There'll be plenty." After they had horsed around for a bit, Dave spoke with a smile.

"But... I still have fields to tend at home. It's almost harvest time." Orochi Roku was tempted, but the thought of the few mu of land at home that were nearly ready for harvest worried him... otherwise, they would have no income for the second half of the year, and they couldn't live like that.

"Oh, relax. You've still got Big Sis Tama, don't you? Just leave it to her. I heard she used to be the prettiest girl in the fields. How did she end up falling for you, Bro Roku?" Duy had already thought of all that and gave Orochiroku a thoroughly disgruntled look.

"You!" Orochi Roku glared at Dave. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What? Am I not good enough for her?

“Hahaha, enough joking. Bro Roku, I'm not asking you to help for nothing. As long as you can develop these things, I promise you fifteen percent of their profits! Until you've developed them, I'll also pay you twenty thousand Ryo a month. How does that sound?” Dave hurriedly turned serious.

"Deal. It's settled." Orochi Roku agreed without a second thought.

Twenty thousand Ryo a month. His family only earned fifty or sixty thousand Ryo from two harvests a year.

"Great. Um, do you have a spare room here? I don't have a place to work yet," Dave said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"...There are three granaries out in the fields. Every year, one of them goes unused. We can use that one," Orochiroku said after a moment of silence.

He couldn't help feeling that this little bastard Dave was using money to exploit him.

"Great! Then I'll leave purchasing, research, transportation, and all those other issues to you! I'll provide the money, and you'll provide the labor and the space! Sounds perfect, buddy! Big Sis Tama! No need to wash the fruit! Bye, Bro Roku! I know I'm a good guy who doesn't exploit workers! Just call me Mr. Nice Guy!" Duy immediately sprang to his feet, rattled all that off, and ran.

Orochi Roku watched him go, his eyelid twitching...