At the same time, at the same place, the people on Senju Tobirama's side were quite relaxed.
It couldn't be helped. With the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, around, there was a strong sense of security.
Look, even Mito was eating sunflower seeds.
Cough cough.
"Mito, everyone is waiting for the light screen to appear, and you're the only one eating sunflower seeds. Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"
Uzumaki Mito rolled her eyes at Senju Hashirama.
After all these years together as husband and wife, she knew Hashirama all too well.
The only reason he said that was because he wanted to eat sunflower seeds too.
"Here."
Mito took a large handful of sunflower seeds out of her pocket and placed them in Hashirama's hand.
"…Mito, that's not what I meant."
Hashirama wanted to be a little reserved, but Mito wasn't going to let him off the hook. "You don't want them? Then I'll give them to someone else."
After saying that, Mito reached out, trying to take the sunflower seeds from Hashirama's hand.
"Wait, I was just joking."
Hashirama quickly pulled his right hand back, avoiding Mito's attempt to grab the seeds.
"Tch~ Such a character!"
Mito rolled her eyes at Hashirama again, then began handing out sunflower seeds to everyone.
She had brought a lot of sunflower seeds, enough for everyone present to have a large handful.
In contrast to the relaxed atmosphere on Senju Tobirama's side, the mood on the Third Hokage's side was a little tense.
"Jiraiya, I've heard that recently several ninja squads' missions have been disrupted by those rogue ninjas. Although the missions didn't fail, the employers suffered some losses. If this continues, Konoha's reputation will be severely damaged."
"Old man, I don't have a good solution either."
When Jiraiya heard this, he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
To deal with the damage caused by the rogue ninjas and traitors, he intentionally sent out Minato and Sakumo, secretly acting as bodyguards for the ninja teams on their missions.
At first, it had some effect. Minato and Sakumo took action and killed a group of rogue ninjas and traitors.
Their power shocked everyone, making these money-driven fools understand the truth that they could earn the money, but not have a life to spend it.
But as the saying goes, money can move people's hearts.
After Cloud and Rock villages increased the bounties for underground black market missions, these guys began to destroy Konoha's missions again.
Compared to last time, this attack was even more intense.
So intense that even Minato and Sakumo couldn't handle it anymore.
After all, there were only two of them, while there were many Konoha ninjas out on missions.
With divided attention, even Minato's Flying Thunder God technique couldn't reach every mission team.
Moreover, it was truly a waste to have Minato and Sakumo, two powerful ninjas, act as bodyguards for Genin teams doing C-rank and B-rank missions.
But without these two watching over them, the failure rate of missions and the losses for employers would only rise further.
Fortunately, Sunagakure and Kirigakure had already agreed to Konoha's request and began supplying ores, seafood, and other goods.
Even if the prices were slightly higher than usual, it was still good news.
"How about we send Minato and Sakumo to Cloud and Rock to cause some trouble?"
"No, old man, on the surface, those rogue ninjas and traitors have nothing to do with the Cloud or Rock villages. Konoha can't take the first step and make the move."
"Then let's go to the underground black market and issue tasks to disrupt Cloud and Rock villages."
"This might not work either. The prices they offered are too high to encourage the reckless people to cause trouble for us. I also suspect that they'd rather us intervene, then use their financial strength to drag us down."
".This won't work, that won't work. How did you become more indecisive than me?"
The Third Hokage looked at Jiraiya with some frustration, feeling that his student was being too indecisive.
This disciple is good at everything, in every aspect he is like him, but sometimes he can't tell the difference between what's important and what's not.
Konoha doesn't start trouble, but it's not afraid of trouble either.
From the way Cloud and Stone villages only dare to make small, sneaky moves and don't openly challenge Konoha, it's clear they are cautious of Konoha too.
So, in the Third Hokage's view, as long as Konoha shows some strength, it's enough to intimidate Cloud and Stone villages.
"Jiraiya, you're the Hokage of Konoha now, you need to step up and not back down," the Third Hokage said.
"..."
Jiraiya was speechless. He stared at the Third Hokage with a complicated expression for a while before speaking, "I can step up, and I can also order Minato and Sakumo to take a trip to the Cloud and Stone villages, but after that, if any chain reactions happen, old man, are you willing to take responsibility for it?"
"Responsibility? What responsibility? I've already retired, and now you're the Hokage."
Hearing this, Jiraiya almost laughed in frustration.
He looked at the Third Hokage and gave him a thumbs up, sarcastically saying, "Old man, you're truly my teacher, giving me a lesson once again."
Damn it, I'm Jiraiya, not Danzo. You think you can trick me? No way!
"Heh, I'm your teacher, it's my duty to teach you. Remember to pay for this lesson after the light goes out."
"Old man, you really are getting bolder the older you get."
"Haha, I'll take that as a compliment. Also, even if you compliment me, don't think you can dodge the lesson fee."
Jiraiya: "..."
[Hey hey hey~ Hello, dear audience! I'm the newcomer UP, Hayashi Sora.]
[Today, we're continuing our series on the Akatsuki members.]
[To speed things up, this episode, just like the previous one, will cover two characters at once.]
[First, let's start with the one who's known as the demolition factory worker: Deidara, the strange man from the ninja world who blows himself up whenever something doesn't go his way.]
"Deidara? If I'm not mistaken, Orochimaru, didn't you say he's a rogue ninja from the Stone Village?"
As the light show began, Jiraiya didn't feel like talking with the Third Hokage anymore.
"Yeah, he's not only a rogue ninja from Stone, but also a disciple of Onoki."
"Tsk tsk, a disciple of the Tsuchikage, and he actually became a rogue ninja. That's really funny, huh? Orochimaru, don't overthink it, I'm not talking about you."
"Heh, if you give me more funding, I won't hold it against you."
"You really are the old man's disciple. You two are crazy about money, aren't you?"
"Just tell me, are you going to give it or not?"
"...Give it!"
"Should've just agreed earlier, and this wouldn't be a problem. What a waste of my breath."
Jiraiya gritted his teeth and agreed to give Orochimaru more funding.
However, he was also being cautious. He only promised to increase the funding, but didn't say how much.
When the time came, he'd symbolically add 10,000 ryo to Orochimaru's budget. Surely, Orochimaru wouldn't come all the way here just to cut him down for something so small, right?
Thinking of Orochimaru's rather sly nature, Jiraiya decided that it would be safer to increase it to 100,000 ryo.
Any more, though, and he'd really have nothing left.
The village's funds were planned out, and this extra funding for Orochimaru was coming from his own small treasury.
If he gave more, even the landowner's house wouldn't have extra food to spare.
Shaking his head, Jiraiya brushed away the distracting thoughts. He looked at the image of Deidara on the screen and muttered softly, "If Deidara really is a disciple of Onoki, then this might be something we can work with."
*********
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