If Shinji had previously been hiring people to work for him, now he was trying to outsource the entire "project" to Konoha.
It was an idea he had come up with on the spot that day.
It was nothing particularly clever, but it was worth a try.
After all, money was tempting, and an operation as large as Konoha burned through money everywhere. No matter how much the Land of Fire's Daimyō allocated to Konoha each year, it would surely never be enough.
And now, faced with a deal worth several million ryo, perhaps even close to ten million, all they needed to provide was some chakra they could replenish at any time. The cost of this business was practically zero!
Still, from what Shinji knew of the Third Hokage, even a deal that was essentially free money would probably take several days of wrangling to finalize.
Until then, needless to say, he could not keep the shop open.
If he dared to keep operating in defiance of the order, someone would probably arrive to shut his shop down right afterward.
Forget it. There's no need.
"Why haven't Hidan and Tobi come back yet?"
After closing the shop, Shinji was a little uncertain whether those two had really run into trouble or had wandered off somewhere to have fun.
Five days had already passed, and there was still no sign of them. He would have believed it if someone told him Tobi had lured Hidan into the Akatsuki to partner up with Kakuzu.
Of course, with the exceptionally high bond points between him and Hidan, Hidan would most likely find a way to hack Kakuzu to death first, then come back to him.
"Those two unreliable bastards. Sigh!"
Shinji sighed and continued strolling around as though nothing were amiss, as