Since the distance wasn't far, Natsuki and Gai arrived back at the village in less than half a day, and then they each went their separate ways.
Natsuki specifically stopped by the ninja tools shop and found, to his surprise, that it was Tenten manning the shop. His father-in-law didn't seem to be around.
"Natsuki, you're back!" Tenten exclaid, jumping up with excitent.
"Yeah, I'm back. Where's Dad?" Natsuki asked, lifting the octopus he was carrying.
"Dad went to the capital on a business trip. I'm looking after the shop for these two days, but since I also have regular patrol missions, the shop's open and closed half the ti, and business has been down a lot."
Ever since Tenten realized how important money was, she'd taken the family business a bit more seriously. After all, the more money they had, the more she could splurge freely. For instance, those explosive tags—during the Chūnin Exams, she'd only managed to get a million of them, which still wasn't enough for her dream of a Kaidō: Ōgi (Explosive Path: Ultimate Secret Technique).
In Tenten's mind, an Ōgi had to start at ten million tags—that was a true ultimate technique.
If her strength wasn't enough, she'd make up for it with explosive tags. If she couldn't defeat an enemy in battle, she'd just blow them up with a mountain of explosive tags.
She'd even secretly imagined scenarios where she might have to fight a Tailed Beast—maybe for sothing like that, she'd need ten billion or even a hundred billion explosive tags. As long as she had enough, even a Tailed Beast could be blown to bits.
Tenten had ntioned this idea to Natsuki before, thinking he'd laugh at her for being a bit nuts. But to her surprise, Natsuki had actually thought it over seriously.
Then he told her about the forbidden technique—Kakezan Kibaku Fuda (Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags).
It had to be said, Tobirama really was a genius—he'd created so many incredible forbidden techniques. Even the Flying Thunder God no Jutsu was his creation.
This Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags technique could continuously summon explosive tags until the target was blown to pieces.
It was a forbidden technique that suited Tenten perfectly. After all, what she lacked most was never money, and naturally, she'd never lack explosive tags either. If she could master this forbidden technique, even a Tailed Beast wouldn't scare her.
As for the danger of using a forbidden technique? That wasn't a big deal—just have a Shadow Clone handle the detonation. No problem.
Ever since she'd heard about Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, Tenten had been obsessed with the idea. While she couldn't get the technique just yet, she knew that since Natsuki had brought it up, there was a chance she'd get her hands on it eventually. No need to pester him. Her job for now was to earn more money so she'd never run out of explosive tags.
That's why she was grumbling about the shop's business.
Natsuki couldn't help but laugh. He pinched her little nose. "If that's the case, just hire soone to watch the shop, or simply close for a couple of days. Dad's a savvy businessman—he's always out there making money for his precious daughter. A few days of the shop being closed won't matter. Hiring soone won't even cost much."
Tenten pouted. She just wanted to earn more money.
Besides, she wasn't just thinking about herself—wasn't the family's money also Natsuki's money?
"Alright, alright. I'll help you watch the shop."
Natsuki plopped her down on the chair behind the counter, then changed the subject. "This ti, it was a group called Akatsuki—rogue ninjas—who sent two people into Konoha. Their target was our village's Jinchūriki, Naruto. Sasuke, Kakashi-senpai, Kurenai-senpai, Asuma-senpai, and I all worked together to drive them off. Then Kakashi-senpai sent Gai-sensei and to support Jiraiya-sama and Naruto. We ended up running into those two again and drove them off a second ti. After confirming the area was safe for two days, Gai-sensei and I ca back."
Tenten froze, her expression turning serious. "This Akatsuki... are they strong?"
Natsuki felt the ti was about right, so he decided to tell Tenten about Akatsuki.
After all, once Tsunade beca Hokage, Akatsuki would beco more active. Tenten could run into them during missions, so she needed to understand how dangerous they were and stay cautious.
As for the Jinchūriki issue—well, it was no secret by now.
Gaara turning into Shukaku had caused such a huge commotion. Anyone who hadn't been knocked out by genjutsu at the Chūnin Exam arena knew about it.
Naturally, Naruto's identity as a Jinchūriki wasn't a secret anymore.
Natsuki couldn't be bothered to complain about it. Given the Nine-Tails' reputation, it was only the Konoha villagers who were unaware of the truth. Other villages weren't stupid—of course they knew who the Jinchūriki were.
Trying to hide it was pointless and only stirred up negative rumors, making the village restless.
This was probably one of the Third Hokage's political strategies—and a major criticism from fans of the Hokage.
Besides, the matter of the Tailed Beasts wasn't even ntioned in the academy's ninja curriculum, let alone the Jinchūriki. Not educating students on such an important topic was like a modern-day school refusing to teach students about nuclear weapons. How could ignorant students understand the importance of world peace?
Anyway, going off on that tangent would just be exhausting.
"Akatsuki is very strong."
Natsuki answered decisively. "While information about Akatsuki hasn't been officially released yet, even Jiraiya-sama is extrely cautious and doesn't dare take them lightly. They wear black cloaks with red clouds on them—just seeing that outfit is enough to recognize them.
The two who ca this ti—one of them was an S-rank rogue ninja from Kirigakure, Hoshigaki Kisa, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsn of the Mist. His weapon is the sword Sahada."
The mont she heard "Seven Ninja Swordsn of the Mist" and "Sahada," Tenten's radar practically lit up.
After all, she'd heard Natsuki talk about the Seven Swordsn's power when she was little. Later, to acquire special ninja tools, she'd even paid for investigations into the Seven Ninja Swords of Kirigakure. On Natsuki's advice, she'd chosen the Rairyū (Thunder Swords).
As for Sahada, both the intelligence and Natsuki had said it was strong, but Natsuki told her it wasn't suitable for her, so she hadn't set her sights on it.
Who'd have thought Kisa would just show up with Sahada?
Seeing Tenten's interest, Natsuki specifically recounted his fight with Kisa, highlighting Kisa's formidable Suiton (Water Release) techniques and the bizarre properties of Sahada.
Tenten listened with great interest but didn't seem too fixated on Sahada.
After all, Sahada was a living blade that recognized Kisa as its master. Even if she took it, she wouldn't be able to use it.
What really made Tenten happy was that an opponent even three Jōnin like Kakashi-sensei couldn't defeat—her boyfriend showed up and almost killed one of them. Didn't that prove her boyfriend was starting to surpass Kakashi-sensei and the others?
She was very proud!
Natsuki looked at her beaming face and could only feel a mix of helplessness and indulgence. "Don't take it lightly. Akatsuki may not have many mbers, but each one is incredibly strong—at least Jōnin level, and so of them are even stronger than a Kage. If you ever encounter them, don't try to be a hero, okay?"
"Got it, got it. I'm not stupid."
Tenten still smiled brightly. "Didn't you say there were two of them? Who was the other one?"
Natsuki's expression imdiately turned serious. "The other one... was Konoha's S-rank rogue ninja—Uchiha Itachi."
(End of Chapter)
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