Night had fallen.
Rinjin stepped out of his bedroom. Though his back ached terribly, his face wore a deeply satisfied, almost mischievous grin.
Partial Expansion Jutsu! Truly the greatest technique of all time!
This kind of jutsu should be spread far and wide, regardless of gender. It could help with weight loss, make what needs to be bigger bigger, and what needs to be longer longer...
Heh heh~
Still grinning to himself, Rinjin quietly closed the bedroom door and formed a silent hand seal with one hand.
Flying Thunder God Technique—activated. The world spun.
The next second, Rinjin appeared in a dimly lit room. There was only a single wooden door, no windows, and a low table in the center with an oil lamp flickering on top.
Across the table, Danzō sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, pretending to meditate with fake solemnity.
Sensing Rinjin's arrival, Danzō finally opened his eyes, his eyelids twitching almost imperceptibly.
This bastard! Last time he swore he hadn't left any Flying Thunder God marks on me, and now he's popping up behind my back again! Damn it—always deceiving honest old folks like me!
Cursing internally while maintaining a perfectly calm exterior, Danzō looked at Rinjin, who had just seated himself across the table.
"Rinjin, long time no see!"
Rinjin nodded, glancing around the room with feigned innocence.
"Brother Danzō, why do you always like staying underground?"
"If roots don't grow underground, how could they ever climb up to the branches?"
Danzō reached out and adjusted the lamp's wick. Instantly, the light grew much brighter.
"To be honest, I did call you here to discuss something." After a moment's hesitation, Danzō spoke up.
He'd considered many approaches—various ways to extract information from Rinjin. But in the end, he'd abandoned all those conversational tricks and techniques.
He'd dealt with Rinjin too many times. From getting beaten up at first, to struggling and getting beaten again, until finally he just stopped struggling altogether.
That's when he discovered something fascinating: Rinjin seemed uninterested in people who didn't fight back. As long as you minded your own business and didn't cross him, he'd ignore you completely. But the more you struggled and resisted, the more excited the bastard seemed to get.
After reaching this conclusion, Danzō immediately abandoned his prepared tactics and chose to be direct and straightforward.
Faced with such a serious Danzō, Rinjin scratched his head uncomfortably and replied:
"What is it? Just tell me."
Danzō felt secretly pleased, cleared his throat twice, and continued:
"So, did you visit the Hyūga clan today?"
Rinjin nodded.
"And did you discuss something called insurance with that pig-headed clan leader?"
Rinjin nodded again.
"You were being monitored by that Sarutobi bastard! Afterward, he even called the Hyūga clan head to his office—he's planning to muscle in on the action."
Danzō had no psychological burden about selling out old man Hiruzen completely.
Hearing this, Rinjin felt utterly calm inside—he almost wanted to laugh. But he understood a thing or two about social dynamics and conversation skills. To give Brother Danzō some positive feedback, Rinjin immediately put on a serious expression, his brow furrowing instantly.
This kind of feedback was like planting seeds—it probably wouldn't fool Danzō, but it would give him a tiny psychological satisfaction from having leaked information. Over time, Danzō might choose to share similar information with him in the future.
"Really? Lord Third is too much! He wants to stick his fingers in my little bit of money!"
Seeing Rinjin's wide-eyed indignation, Danzō scoffed internally.
Look at that pathetic act—who are you trying to fool?!
After mentally cursing, Danzō didn't take Rinjin's expressions and body language to heart, continuing:
"Hiruzen plans to bring in more families to share the risk. Originally, he wanted me to participate too, but who am I?! I'm Shimura Danzō! Could I possibly take advantage of a friend like that? Absolutely not! So I righteously refused him!"
Seeing this, Rinjin seriously gave him a thumbs up, making no attempt to hide his admiration for Danzō.
And so, two scheming old foxes began performing for each other with mutual understanding.
Rinjin's approach was simple: as long as Danzō's goals weren't excessive, he'd give him some positive feedback. In plain terms, whenever Danzō made a request, he'd help solve part of it.
This way, he could make Danzō subconsciously think he could turn to Rinjin for help with difficulties, while preventing Danzō from expecting free handouts.
Uh... this explanation is also quite obscure. Put it this way:
Rinjin was now Danzō's boyfriend. Danzō wanted fancy milk tea, and Rinjin readily agreed to buy it—but got him cheap bubble tea instead. Danzō wanted to watch Gone with the Wind, so Rinjin took him to see Saw. Danzō wanted to spend Valentine's night together, so Rinjin took him to sleep under a bridge.
It seemed like he fulfilled every wish, but actually satisfied none of them.
When Danzō finally wanted to break up, Rinjin would start coaxing him, saying he'd never refused any reasonable or unreasonable request. "Where else would you find a boyfriend like me! I'm just a bit slow, a bit tasteless, a bit thick-headed, but I really do care about you! Think carefully!"
Then Danzō would think: That's true! Rinjin has never actually refused any of my reasonable or unreasonable requests! Maybe I've been too harsh on him?
Then they'd reconcile! From then on, Danzō would buy his own milk tea, his own movie tickets, get his own hotel rooms, all while happily saying how good Rinjin was to him~
See, this is called PUA. The way Rinjin looked at Danzō now was just like looking at his own girlfriend!
After all that rambling, Danzō finally got to the main point.
"Rinjin, you know I've recently taken on some of Konoha's research projects, and money's tight. Do you have any other money-making projects like this insurance scheme?"
Hearing this, Rinjin pondered for a moment, then shook his head with difficulty:
"Brother, it's not that I don't want to take care of you—I really don't have any other projects right now. How about you go talk to Lord Third and ask nicely? Maybe get a share in this insurance project?"
"That won't work! I absolutely cannot steal your ideas like they're doing!" Danzō declared righteously.
"Brother Danzō, go ahead and steal it—it's fine," Rinjin urged earnestly.
...
After quite a while, Danzō finally waved his hand with apparent reluctance.
"Since you put it that way, little brother, I'll respectfully accept your offer! But is there anything I should be careful about with this insurance?"
Here it comes!
Rinjin's eyes lit up with amusement.
This old fox wants to make money but doesn't want to take any risks!
After thinking for a moment, Rinjin pretended to glance around, then leaned forward and lowered his voice:
"Short-term, you can definitely get involved—guaranteed profit, no loss."
"Oh? How short is short-term?" Danzō looked at Rinjin with gleaming eyes.
Rinjin immediately put on a troubled expression and spread his hands:
"Now that's got me stumped. All I can say is short-term—how could I possibly guess the specific timing?"
Without waiting for Danzō's response, Rinjin stood up firmly and walked to his side.
Patting Danzō's shoulder, Rinjin said gratefully:
"Brother Danzō, you risked so much to tell me this information—I'll remember this favor! Don't worry, I'll definitely be fine!"
With that, he formed a hand seal and instantly vanished.
Looking at the empty room, Danzō's previously smiling face instantly fell.
Who cares if you're fine or not?! Get back here and tell me the specific timeframe for 'short-term'!
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
The story isn't over...
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