The imagined wildfire suddenly turned out to be a bonfire, surrounded by roasted wild boar and a towering giant.
The continuous twists in the scene before she made Shizune's mind freeze for a second.
This also caused her body, which had leaped into the air, to start falling. By the time she reacted, she was less than four meters from the bonfire, about to fall into the roaring flames.
Shizune was shocked.
Tonton, the tiny pig clinging to her neck, was even more terrified, especially seeing the circle of roasted boar around the fire, making it feel like it could see its fate.
Just as Shizune tried to take some action, she suddenly felt her falling motion halt.
She could feel her waist being gripped tightly as if caught in a vise.
Was she... caught?
"Another ninja brat out of nowhere?"
Whether male or female, everyone was a ninja brat to Whitebeard.
"S-sorry!" Shizune, caught by Whitebeard's fingers around her waist, hurriedly apologized, "I thought this fire was a forest fire and came to put it out."
"I-I didn't know this was a bonfire set by you, Mr. Giant, and I didn't know you were roasting meat here..."
Wait a minute!
Shizune suddenly realized something and looked back over her shoulder.
She saw a giant with a crescent-shaped mustache.
"You... you..." Shizune's memory was suddenly triggered, her face filled with shock, "You're Whitebeard?"
A few days ago, due to Tsunade lost a large sum of money in the casino.
Unwilling to accept defeat, she sent her disciple, Shizune, back to Konoha to get money.
Reluctantly, Shizune hurried back to Konoha.
Upon returning, she found out that many major events had taken place in Konoha recently.
She also saw the bounty for Whitebeard.
It was an internal bounty for Konoha, and lower-ranked ninjas didn't even have the authority to know about it.
Only because Shizune was Tsunade's disciple did she have access to this information.
Shizune had marveled at the time— even the Hokage couldn't defeat this giant!
She thought she would never encounter such a dangerous individual.
After all, she had no intersection with the giant.
But who would have thought she would run into this giant on her way back to find Tsunade?
The Whitebeard who defeated the Third Hokage!
This... this...
How could this be such a coincidence?
"Gurararara!"
Whitebeard, holding Shizune, twisted his wrist and turned her around.
Their eyes met in mid-air.
Whitebeard smirked, "You little ninja brat, if you recognize me, then you must have seen me in the Leaf Village!"
"N-no... ah, no, wait, maybe..." Shizune realized her words were contradictory.
She quickly explained, "I saw your picture in the internal bounty order in Konoha, Mr. Whitebeard."
The technology in the ninja world was
Very skewed.
It might not seem very advanced, but things like computers and cameras did exist.
Whitebeard didn't deliberately pose for photos in Konoha. It was probably ANBU who secretly took his picture.
But Whitebeard seemed more interested in the bounty.
"Oh? A bounty?"
Whitebeard casually tossed Shizune down.
Caught off guard, Shizune almost fell flat on her face.
Fortunately, she was a capable ninja.
She quickly steadied herself.
She landed firmly.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Whitebeard said with interest, "Gurararara! I didn't expect to be wanted by the Marines on the sea and now by Konoha in the ninja world. Today, I'm a pirate with two bounty orders on my head, gurararara!"
"Ninja brat!" Whitebeard teased, "So, did you come to take my head? And now that I've caught you, you start making up clumsy excuses?"
"Ah? You misunderstood!" Shizune was terrified.
How could she dare to take on such an S-rank mission?
She hastily explained, "I really was just passing by. I didn't come to take your head!"
Whitebeard could sense.
Shizune wasn't lying.
"So, little brat, tell me, how much is Konoha offering for my bounty?" Whitebeard already knew the ninja world didn't use "berries" but "ryo" as currency.
"5... 50 million ryo." Shizune weakly stated a number she found extremely exaggerated.
After all.
Lady Tsunade lost about that amount in the casino last year. She thought a bounty comparable to Lady Tsunade's losses was an incredibly high number.
"50 million ryo?" Kakashi, resting against a tree, opened his sleepy eyes, showing surprise.
Kakashi remembered clearly that the Third Hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi, had a bounty of only 35 million Ryo.
This was 15 million Ryo more than the Hokage's son...
And this was Whitebeard's first bounty!
Kakashi was amazed, "The higher-ups are really willing to spend, 50 million ryo is no small amount."
His voice caught Shizune's attention.
White spiky hair + black mask + forehead protector covering one eye.
Three distinctive features.
Too obvious.
"Are you...?" Shizune was stunned. Although she often followed Lady Tsunade and rarely returned to Konoha, she knew some prominent figures in the village.
"You're Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi?" she exclaimed.
"50 million ryo!" Naruto's voice rang out, "How many Ichiraku Ramen bowls could that buy?"
He started counting on his fingers.
The more he counted, the dizzier he got.
Kakashi explained to the math-challenged Naruto, "50 million ryo could buy the entire Ichiraku Ramen shop. The 'protection fee' the noble in the previous town gave Mr. Whitebeard was worth only 10 million ryo."
"So much!!" Naruto was shocked.
Naruto, at just five years old, couldn't comprehend specific amounts, but knowing it could buy Ichiraku Ramen made him realize it was astronomical!
Kakashi said, "Luckily, this is an internal Konoha bounty, not publicly announced. Otherwise, such a large bounty would attract many bounty hunters."
In the ninja world, bounty hunters...
Supposedly, there was a very skilled one.
At this moment, Kakashi noticed Whitebeard's expression seemed off.
The next moment.
Whitebeard said something that left everyone except Naruto dumbfounded: "A mere 50 million ryo bounty... is your crummy Konoha underestimating me? It's far less than the Marines' bounty!"
With that.
A sliver of Whitebeard's kingly aura leaked out, causing Kakashi and Shizune to feel immense pressure.
50 million ryo.
Was that little?
"I know! I know!" Naruto shouted, "Dad told me his bounty on the sea was incredibly high!!"
"Uh..." Naruto scratched his head, "But Dad didn't tell me the exact amount."
"Gurararara!"
Whitebeard laughed heartily, "Brat! Your dad's Marine bounty was a whopping 5,046,000,000!"
Naruto didn't quite grasp how large that number was.
But Kakashi and Shizune were stunned.
How much?
...
...