Aka Uchiha and Homura Uchiha soon arrived and successfully met up with Uchiha Takashi to the south.
"Takashi, which way did they go?" Aka Uchiha asked as soon as they met.
Uchiha Takashi pointed in a direction, then said, "They went that way, but that's where the Sarutobi Clan gathers around here. Now that the Shinobi World is at peace, quite a few of them are there.
"Although our Uchiha Clan hasn't gone to war with the Sarutobi Clan directly, they've been getting close to the Senju Clan lately, so... there's no telling whether they'll make a move."
Aka Uchiha fell silent at that, while the hotheaded Homura Uchiha looked utterly disdainful. "It's just the Sarutobi Clan! Worst comes to worst, we'll fight them too!"
"The Sarutobi Clan has ten clan members stationed here. Ten Sarutobi clan members plus four from the Senju Clan-tell me how we're supposed to fight them?" Uchiha Takashi rapped Homura Uchiha on the head irritably.
"Which of us awakened his eyes, you or me? I have the Sharingan, and even I'm not that cocky. How are you even cockier than me?"
Homura Uchiha held the spot where he had been hit and said sulkily, "Who knew there were so many Sarutobi? I thought there were only two or three.
"Anyone who knew would say they were out on a mission. Anyone who didn't would think they were out for a team-building event..."
Uchiha Takashi pressed a hand to his forehead and looked at Aka Uchiha. "Aka, what do you say? Are we still going to attack?"
Aka Uchiha shook his head. "It's too risky to attack now. Let's follow them quietly and wait until they're out of Sarutobi territory before we make our move."
Uchiha Takashi nodded. "That's our only option. But... did you finish your missions?"
Aka Uchiha said, "Of course. We had nothing else to do these past two days, so we went to do missions."
Uchiha Takashi narrowed his eyes. "Oh, really? Where's your mission money, then?"
The rewards for missions issued by the mission hall were split into two portions. One went to your clan. If you were the clan leader yourself, or a civilian ninja with no clan, then it went to you.
But if you had a clan behind you, twenty percent of your mission reward was taken out and given to the clan. Every large town's mission hall had people from the major clans keeping watch, so there was no need to worry about that money being stolen.
It was precisely because of their presence that members of some major clans could get relatively good missions with little danger but generous rewards.
After Aka Uchiha accepted and completed his missions, part of the reward had already been handed over to the clan. The rest was naturally theirs to spend as they pleased.
At the mention of this, Aka Uchiha stammered, "That money... ah... well... um... would you believe me if I said it grew legs and walked away?"
Uchiha Takashi tilted his head helplessly. "Did you and Homura spend all that money on food?"
Homura Uchiha immediately jumped forward. "Nonsense! We didn't spend all of it on food. Some of it clearly went toward equipment..."
Aka Uchiha closed his eyes in utter despair at those words, while Uchiha Takashi raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so you spent it on food and fun!"
Realizing what he had said, Homura Uchiha hurriedly covered his mouth. "I didn't say anything."
Uchiha Takashi folded his arms. "You two... you just went and spent all that money like it was nothing. Now tell me, how are we supposed to eat for the next three days?"
Knowing they had done wrong, Aka Uchiha and Homura Uchiha obediently stood at attention, rooted to the spot in punishment with their necks drawn in as they listened to Uchiha Takashi's scolding.
"How can you two be so obsessed with having fun? You spent all the money on eating, drinking, and playing, so tell me, how are we supposed to survive these three days?
"Eat Military Rations Pills? Won't we starve to death over those three days? And if we happen to run into the Senju Clan when we leave town, won't we drop dead on the spot in that state?"
Homura Uchiha protested under his breath, "How could there be such a coincidence? How could we just happen to run into the Senju Clan?"
"Oh, now you're talking back? I said if!" Uchiha Takashi grew even angrier at that and pointed at Homura Uchiha as he berated him. "Just look at you! You haven't done anything useful these past two days. All you've done is play. Why is playing all you ever think about? If you put the energy you spend playing into training, you'd have become a Jonin ages ago!"
Homura Uchiha said, "..." I'm only eight, and I just reached Chunin level, and you're talking about Jonin? But right then, he did not dare argue at all, afraid Uchiha Takashi would scold him again.
After scolding them for a long time, Uchiha Takashi finally tired himself out. He stopped, took a water flask from his pocket, drank a couple of mouthfuls, and gave the two another look.
He said helplessly, "We'll have to let that group from the Senju Clan go now. We have to stay and keep doing missions."
As though his underlying code had been triggered, Homura Uchiha tried to say something again, only for Aka Uchiha to hurriedly cover his mouth. Keeping Homura's mouth covered, Aka Uchiha nodded repeatedly at Uchiha Takashi. "Okay, okay.
"Takashi, let's just do missions for the next few days. Once we've saved enough money, we'll head back."
Only after hearing Aka Uchiha agree did Uchiha Takashi nod. "You two had better not spend money on this sort of thing again. Some entertainment is fine, but when you spent it on this, did you consider your living expenses?"
Looking at these two idiots, Uchiha Takashi almost thought he was looking at Naruto Uzumaki. If he remembered correctly, Naruto was just like this, fond of spending money on milk and instant noodles, only to end up with no money left for meals.
Or he liked buying his dad some cosmetics to be Konoha's number one filial son.
" Sigh, what a bunch of troublesome guys." Uchiha Takashi closed his eyes and sighed, lamenting how mentally exhausted he was. Aka Uchiha had clearly been quite levelheaded, so why had he become just like Homura Uchiha now that the war was over? Had he revealed his true nature?
Over the next few days, the three did nothing but accept missions, carry them out, and turn them in.
And all the missions they took were D-rank ones: catching thieves, finding cats, dogs, and lost items, the sort of missions that posed no danger whatsoever.
Although these missions did not pay very much, they made up for it in quantity and were free of danger, so Uchiha Takashi simply ignored Homura Uchiha's complaints and chose these missions.
"Takashi... can't we really go out and kill a couple of bandits?" Homura Uchiha said, looking as though he had nothing left to live for. "Just let me go out and do a couple of C-rank missions. I feel like I'm about to grow mold from being cooped up in town."
Uchiha Takashi looked Homura Uchiha up and down. "Didn't you love having fun in town? Why do you want to leave now? I'm telling you, it's too late. Get back to work and do your missions. Don't even think about returning to the clan grounds until we've saved up 100,000!"
"No! I want to go home! I want to go back and skip stones! Xiao Li is still waiting for me at home!"
"Stop talking nonsense and get to work. We're the ones who caused this mess in the first place." Aka Uchiha hurried over and consoled him. "After all, replacing our ninja tools and all our other expenses will cost 50,000."