Naruto: IY Ch. 38

However, when it comes to being scheming, Hanzō wasn't bad either. Putting on the appearance of a kindly uncle with a respectful nephew, he personally squatted down and carried Yahiko on his back.

He made a quick tour around Ame.

Everyone in the village soon knew the news, that Yahiko had cried himself unconscious for the villagers. The leader was still the same as before, not having changed one bit.

But Hanzō was a deeply suspicious man, and that very suspicion was what made him vulnerable. It allowed Danzō to manipulate him into joining forces with Root to wipe out Akatsuki.

He returned to his quarters and spread the word that Yahiko could do whatever he wanted today, but he also secretly ordered people to monitor his movements.

Yahiko didn't bring Kakuzu. He went alone to a small riverside. When he saw someone, his eyes immediately lit up.

"Obaachan!"

"Hmm? Do you know me?"

An old lady doing laundry looked up, startled, and stared in confusion at the orange-haired little boy in front of her.

"Haha, of course I do. I'm Yahiko."

The old woman thought hard, then shook her head and said, "I don't know you."

"Hehe..." Yahiko chuckled softly.

"Don't you remember? Back then, Nagato and I were fishing by this river. We were so hungry we almost fainted, and you made us some rice balls. I said I'd repay you once I made it. You weren't around the last time I came."

He drifted into a memory, looking tenderly at the old woman.

The old woman smiled faintly: "I've fed a lot of people in my time. I never hoped for repayment. In times like these, if you can save one person from starving, that's enough."

"But I always repay kindness. This is a small token of gratitude, please take it." Yahiko pulled out a sealed scroll from his robe.

"I can't take that! It's too valuable."

Sealing scrolls were precious tools only used by ninjas. How could she accept one?

"Take it." Yahiko didn't let her refuse and placed the scroll into her hands.

"I—"

"Alright, now that you've taken it, you're not allowed to give it back."

Yahiko followed the old woman back home. Surrounded by curious onlookers, she opened the scroll.

Inside was valuable ninja-world currency: ryō, and plenty of food: meat, eggs, and dairy.

"She is under my protection. Anyone who has a problem with that can go talk to Hanzō."

Yahiko declared loudly and clearly in front of everyone.

"This isn't right... I only gave you a few rice balls back then!" The old woman was shocked.

Everyone around looked on with envy. Those harboring dark thoughts quickly changed their minds upon hearing Yahiko was close with Hanzō.

In Ame, the Salamander was known to watch everyone's words and actions carefully.

Yahiko even wondered, Could it be that in the future, Nagato got the idea for the Rain Tiger at Will Technique from this very kind of surveillance?

"Yahiko's back!"

In the crowd, a fish vendor's expression changed from surprise to anger.

Back then, Yahiko had tried to steal fish from him and was caught red-handed. The vendor had personally beaten him half to death.

It wasn't until a blue-haired girl came crying, pulling out a few crumpled coins from her pouch, that he let Yahiko go and allowed her to take him away.

That incident left a deep impression on the vendor.

I have to run!

When he got back to his fish shop:

"We need to leave town for a bit, that Yahiko kid is back!"

Before the man even fully stepped inside, his voice arrived first. But the moment he stepped through the door, he saw an orange-haired boy standing with his back to him, calmly inspecting the interior of his shop.

"We're closed today. Get the he—"

Before he could finish yelling, the boy turned his head at the sound, revealing a face that almost made him panic just from seeing it.

How did he get into the shop faster than me?

Is this what a ninja is?

"You're Kenji?" Yahiko's face showed no emotion.

"Y-Yes... that's me." Kenji's legs trembled, so nervous he could barely speak.

"Are you here to kill me?" At this point, his wife walked over, confused. Kenji, filled with despair, spoke with lifeless resignation.

"Back then, it was my fault for stealing that fish."

Yahiko's words stunned Kenji.

He's pretending to let me go, but he's going to finish me off the moment I relax, isn't he? There are plenty of twisted people like that...

They speak gently but act ruthlessly.

"This has nothing to do with my wife. Let her go. You can do whatever you want to me." Kenji managed to muster some courage, forcing the words out through his fear.

"You're lucky it was me, and not Konan," Yahiko said something that sounded completely unintelligible to Kenji.

"Give me two saury."

Trembling, Kenji weighed out two saury and handed them over in a bag.

Yahiko paid and left.

Kenji touched his neck.

Still alive? I'm... not dead?

Wait, no!

Maybe he's just avoiding killing in broad daylight. What if he comes back at night to quietly finish me off?

Suddenly, Yahiko turned back.

Thud!

A punch landed squarely in Kenji's stomach, making him black out for a second and spit out a mouthful of water.

"We're even now."

Kenji clutched his stomach in pain but still managed to grin in relief, tears welling up from surviving the ordeal.

---

Up in his quarters, Hanzō had been monitoring Yahiko's every move.

Hearing that Yahiko had repaid an old woman with some ryō and food simply because she once gave him some rice balls... That he had spoken calmly with the fishmonger who once beat him half to death, even bought fish from him, and, seeing the man's fear, resolved the grudge with a single punch...

It made him reflect.

Back in the day, in order to turn himself into a killing machine, he had brutally tortured the former Ame higher-ups who experimented on him by implanting a salamander into his body. He locked them in dark rooms for 49 days before finally tearing them apart.

And yet Yahiko...

Hanzō didn't think that Yahiko's earlier crying spell was faked.

"Hanzō-sama, Yahiko wants to invite you to eat fish with him."

A subordinate entered and reported after knocking.

---

The next day, Hanzō personally escorted Yahiko and the others to the village gates.

A great crowd followed, over a thousand well-vetted refugees, all with good character.

"Ame will always be your home. You're always welcome to come back."

He discovered Yahiko had many strengths, and also quite a few hidden weaknesses.

But overall, the boy's strengths outweighed his flaws.

He regretted deeply, why hadn't he realized Yahiko's worth sooner?

At the village gate, merchants from Yoake arrived. Their carts were mostly loaded with grain, harvested during the autumn, but the key thing was, they even had meat.

He provided Yahiko with food for 500 people.

The rest were all recruited by Yahiko himself.

So, Yoake would sell rations for 500 people at a low price.

"We're leaving."

He waved goodbye.

When Hanzō finally made up his mind and came back to his senses, Yahiko had already taken Kakuzu and the others far away.

It's all my fault! Staying silent when I should have spoken, weak when I should have been brave.

He deeply regretted why he hadn't just gone all in earlier...

---

Kakuzu held a book in his left hand and a pen in his right, scribbling and calculating something.

Bored, he flipped through the Yoake accounts and found plenty of plans inside, with "Approved by Yahiko" scribbled messily on every page.

Feeling uneasy, he looked more closely for a while and, between the lines, he made out one word written all over the book: Bankruptcy!

Today, the Yoake payroll had suddenly increased by more than a thousand people.

And Yahiko was spending money left and right!

A few rice balls costing a thousand ryō?!

Aaaahhh!

Unacceptable.

My chest hurts hurt!

"This situation... this situation is just..." Kakuzu couldn't take it anymore. He leaned close to Yahiko's ear, clearly determined to earn back all the money they'd lost.

"You want to resell it?" Yahiko widened his eyes in disbelief.

Resell the grain from the major villages to Ame?

If we get caught, Yoake might end up blacklisted everywhere!

Absolutely not. Sure, we can eat the grain from the five great nations and sell our own produce to Ame, but selling their grain directly to them is absolutely forbidden!

---

On the road back to Yoake, Yahiko was assigning everyone's tasks.

Some joined the construction team, the village's shops had opened, but the housing situation was terrible. Some of the Uzumaki clan were still living in temporary shelters, so a new residential area needed to be developed.

Some went into assembly-line work, making toys, communication devices...

Childre went to school.

"Yoake is still growing. As long as we think creatively, respond to the village's call, and follow the village's policies, getting rich isn't hard."

He reassured the newly arrived people.

For example, take Nobita, he had started working in construction, and the commercial street project in the village had already given him plenty of orders.

"Mm."

With Yahiko's encouragement, his sense of fairness, and the reputation of "a meal worth a thousand ryō," people's hearts were eased.

But the masked man standing behind him... ugh, they were terrified. Why did his eyes look like he wanted to eat them alive?

---

On a plot of land in the eastern part of the village, Yahiko decided to build employee dormitories.

The population was growing, but there weren't enough houses.

At the Yoake gate was the classic welcome ceremony.

"Yoake welcomes you! We've cleared land for you!"

Genno and Shuzen led the children in singing the village's song.

"Want some candy? It's really tasty."

After singing, Yuki stepped forward to hand out sweets. But today, there was an extra step in the process.

"Come have a bowl of noodles, warm your stomach."

The squinty-eyed hand-pulled noodle master pushed his cart to the gate and made ramen for everyone.

Sakumo and Kakuzu were participating in the welcome ceremony for the first time.

"Let's take a few photos to show Kakashi, so he knows I'm happy here." Sakumo, holding an old camera, captured the scene.

Kakuzu, however, felt a bit annoyed, wouldn't it be better to use this time to teach them how to work?

"People in Yoake are really kindhearted."

"Yeah, Yahiko-sama is such an honest and decent man."

Travelers and merchants visiting the village paused in their steps. They had traveled all over the shinobi world, but people willing to go this far for refugees were rare, no, practically nonexistent.

Not long after, the small squads sent outside to catch bandits returned.

All of these were... potential manpower.

Yahiko allowed the bored Kakuzu to freely exploit the bandits who had committed crimes.

Kakuzu was pleased.

Sakumo snapped a photo of Kakuzu's smiling eyes. But when he lowered the camera and looked at the members of the returning squads who came to report, he fell silent.

Was he... seeing things?

How were three of them his former subordinates from Konoha?

"Raizō, Kiyokawa, Yukisai?"

The three froze. "Uh... this..."

The Third Hokage had sent them, so they came. They still didn't know why Sakumo had left Konoha.

After months away eliminating bandits, they returned to find that their former captain had suddenly become their superior again.

---

Meanwhile in Konoha, a group of orphans displaced by the Second Great Ninja War had been taken in.

"I can see in your eyes a hunger for power. There is darkness in your heart. You, come with me."

"You... hm. Your darkness isn't quite enough yet. But in time, I may give you a chance. Prove yourself."

At the orphanage, Danzō himself came with a cane to select children. He observed each one carefully, those with potential for ninjutsu were taken; those without were left to fend for themselves.

He picked two or three at a time who could already mold chakra.

When it came to exploiting Konoha's resources, he was the best at it.

The children taken away would be raised in a brutal elimination style, only one of the group would survive in the end.

Following him was a blonde woman with round glasses, looking a bit worried.

"You seem displeased with me."

"Not at all, Danzō-sama."

Nonō lowered her head, not meeting Danzō's probing gaze.

Unable to extinguish kindness, that was his evaluation of her.

Recently, with his schemes against the Uchiha, he had found a use for a spy talent like Nonō.

Conveniently, she liked children, perhaps she could also find him a few more promising seeds.

Tapping his cane on the floor, Danzō said in a deep voice, "I have high expectations for you. You will work at both the hospital and Root."

Cold sweat slid down Nonō's temple... was she no longer of any use to him?

In Root, those without value had only one ending.

"I..."

Seeing the fear in her eyes, Danzō felt satisfied.

"Never mind. You have done much for me already. I'll entrust this orphanage to you."

"What?" A flicker of joy hid in Nonō's eyes.

But when she looked at the frail, emaciated children, she suddenly felt the crushing weight of responsibility.

"I will never betray your trust, Danzō-sama!" she still spoke firmly.