Naruto thought for a moment, then asked again,
"By the way, Shinju, you like money so much. If you'd accepted that Lady Daimyo's request, you could've gotten all the wealth of the Land of Birds. How could you possibly turn that down?"
Shinju gave Naruto a disdainful look.
"You really don't understand me at all."
"I can still tell the difference between what's more important—freedom or money."
"Besides, it's not that I actually like money. I just enjoy that feeling of security when it's in my pocket, and the satisfaction that comes with having it. ( ˝ᗢ̈˝ )"
...
After leaving the Land of Birds, Shinju originally planned to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to send Neji and the others directly back to the village.
Just then, a messenger hawk suddenly appeared in the sky.
Shinju frowned slightly.
"Whose hawk is that? I've never seen it before. (‧_‧?)"
The ever-studious Neji replied,
"That looks like Iwagakure's fastest messenger hawk. Strange, why would it be flying all the way to the Land of Birds?"
Hearing it was from Iwagakure, Shinju decided not to mess with it. After all, he'd just taken their Four-Tails not long ago.
But the hawk seemed to have locked onto him — it dove straight down and landed on Shinju's arm!
"Huh? Don't tell me this message is for me? That shouldn't be possible…"
Still puzzled, Shinju removed the small scroll tied to the hawk's leg.
He unfolded it. The message read:
[The Five-Tails is in trouble. Requesting aid from Shinju.]
Reading that, Shinju nodded to himself.
"So that's what this is about."
"But why would their tailed beast going missing have anything to do with me?"
"Shouldn't this kind of message be sent to the village first, and then passed on to me?"
He had barely finished speaking when another messenger hawk appeared in the sky — this one from Konoha.
As expected, it was Konoha's notice requesting assistance for Iwagakure.
"Well then," Shinju clapped his hands. "Before heading to Iwa, let's get you guys back first."
Tenten, who was already bored out of her mind from staying in the village for too long, quickly said,
"Shinju, come on, don't send us back yet! Let us come with you! Besides, going back from the Land of Birds to the village takes forever. It's such a pain~ (•‾̑⌣‾̑•)✧˖"
Shinju smiled.
"With me here, how could I let you waste time on the road?"
"You don't even realize just how fast my Flying Thunder God is…"
Saying that, he grabbed everyone by the arm.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, the four of them appeared inside the Hokage's office!
Tenten: (*꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ)
All I wanted was to tag along for some fun! Who asked to see how fast your stupid teleportation was?!
Inside the Hokage's office, the high-ranking officials were in the middle of a meeting when Shinju and the others suddenly appeared, forcing the meeting to an abrupt halt.
Tsunade glanced at them, completely unfazed.
She was numb to it by now.
¯\(ツ)/¯
The Hokage's office — symbol of Konoha's supreme authority — had basically become Shinju's personal respawn point. -_-||
Tsunade said, "Since you're back, I assume you've received the message."
Shinju nodded.
"Yeah, but I thought our relations with Iwagakure weren't exactly warm. Why would their request for aid be sent to Konoha of all places?"
Tsunade explained,
"They've probably heard about your successful rescue of the Two-Tails and One-Tail."
"If you don't want to take this mission, that's fine too."
"After all, we've already paid back the money we owed. →_→"
After thinking for a moment, Shinju said,
"Forget it, I'll go. After all, they did give me their Four-Tails as a gift. (ﾉ∇︎〃 )"
Tsunade: ⊙▽⊙
"What?! When?!"
"Wasn't the Four-Tails' Jinchūriki, Rōshi, still alive and well?!"
The moment she said that, Tsunade realized how naive she sounded.
Her own disciple had already successfully extracted the Six-Tails. Pulling out the Four-Tails would've been child's play for him.
The Konoha elders nearby were all stunned: ⊙▽⊙,Σ(っ °Д °;)っ
He took the Four-Tails too?!
That means this guy now carries the Three-Tails, Four-Tails, and Six-Tails inside him!
Three tailed beasts sealed in a single body!!!
Unheard of!
For an ordinary person, even one tailed beast could destroy their body. And this kid? He's walking around with three. Unbelievable.
Tsunade quickly said,
"Since you've decided to help, then you'd better hurry. The Five-Tails was taken a day or two ago."
Shinju nodded.
"Then it's really urgent. If I go any later, the beast might already be extracted. ＜(￣3￣)＞"
"I'll head out now."
With that, his body vanished on the spot.
Tsunade dismissed Naruto and the others, then looked at the dazed elders.
"What are you staring at? The meeting continues..."
...
Iwagakure.
Shinju's body appeared inside Iwagakure's hospital.
This particular Flying Thunder God mark had been placed there earlier when he was pretending to be injured — right on the headboard of the hospital bed.
When he appeared, there was already a patient lying there — a man who'd just had surgery on his broken leg.
Shinju materialized and sat right down on the man's freshly operated leg.
"AAAAHHHH!!!"
The room instantly filled with a scream like a dying pig.
Shinju calmly stood up, medical chakra glowing on his hands.
"Don't get so worked up. I'll heal you right away."
The patient, nearly in tears, gritted his teeth in pain.
"What the hell are you talking about?! My leg was just broken before — now you've probably turned it into a pile of dust! (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)"
Shinju ignored him and kept channeling medical chakra into the man's leg.
When he realized the injury was indeed severe, Shinju raised his hand and—
Bam!
Knocked the guy out cold with one punch.
Surgery start.
...
Ten minutes later.
The patient slowly regained consciousness.
When he opened his eyes, the room was packed with doctors in white coats.
Panicking, he looked down at his leg.
"Doctor, help! My leg! (*꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ)"
The doctors were busy writing notes. One of them, clearly annoyed by his shouting, said,
"Stop yelling already. Your leg's fine."
Then he turned to his colleagues.
"This is unbelievable — the fracture healed this fast! (´◊ω◊｀)"
"Who performed this medical ninjutsu? I need to become their student!"
"Too bad we didn't see their face. If I did, I'd kneel down and bow to them twice on the spot!"
"That's a bit much... but I'd be willing to donate my body for their medical research!"
...
Meanwhile, inside the Tsuchikage's Office.
Ōnoki, now seventy or eighty years old, felt humiliated that his village's tailed beast had gone missing and that they had to ask a Konoha kid for help.
So instead of meeting personally, he sent Kitsuchi to handle things.
Shinju sat on the guest chair, looking at Kitsuchi.
"If the Tsuchikage isn't here, it's kinda hard for me to help you guys. o(￣ヘ￣o)"
It wasn't that Shinju was being difficult — it was just that since Iwagakure had come asking for his help, they should at least show some sincerity.
Kitsuchi replied flatly,
"Once it's done, the reward will be one hundred fifty million ryo."
Shinju: (⊙ˍ⊙)
Hmm. Well, now that's the kind of sincerity I like. (〃∇〃)
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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