Naruto: IY Ch. 25

"B, look at that cow in the commercial. Why does it look so much like the one from Kumo?"

"Yo yo! I'm sitting here today, watching this movie, and there's a cow on the screen. It must be the Yoake cow, oh yeah."

A punched the rapping youth next to him in the head.

"You idiot! You jerk!" B turned his head away, looking hurt.

A was breathing heavily. The cow got stolen and you're still arguing, muttering your lame raps. If you really were my brother, I'd want to beat you to death.

On the big screen:

After Yoake Toys, it's now "Welcome to Yoake."

Now, it's Yoake Cows.

Was that cow thief really related to Minato? What was the connection between these villages?

It was a brain-burner.

A couldn't figure it out. But Kumo's ANBU assessed: this Yoake was becoming a real concern.

After the Yoake Cow ad, there was also a promo for Yoake Academy's admissions next year.

"Are they trying to make me watch this?" A angrily slammed his fist onto the armrest.

Finally, the ads ended, and the movie started.

The film was three hours long.

During those three hours, the audience didn't even want to go to the bathroom, afraid they'd miss the plot.

Minato kept feeling like someone was talking about him and sneezed for no reason.

"This hairstyle seems familiar," Minato, who had studied history thoroughly, muttered to himself.

Looking at Kushina next to him blinking and watching intently, he suppressed his doubts.

In a classic scene, Jin hugged Ria from behind.

Just from the back, Tsunade felt an absurd familiarity, it was like seeing her grandfather and... someone else. A terrible thought, Get out of my head!

"Ahhh~~ So romantic! Let's go take pictures like that sometime!"

Kushina nudged Minato excitedly.

"Okay." Minato smiled dotingly.

The movie was near its end.

Yahiko hadn't forgotten to mess with the men of the shinobi world.

[Ria, you asked me before, if you and the mission both fell into the sea, who would I save first.]

[Now... I have an answer.]

On the icy surface, Konan was so cold that tears wouldn't even come out. She just stared blankly as Yahiko fell into the deep water.

That kind of love, dying right in front of your eyes, was a pain that made her mind crash.

It suddenly started to rain. She couldn't tell if the water on her face was tears or rain.

The theater was filled with the sound of sobbing.

"Minato, I don't want you to die!"

Kushina's eyes were red and swollen, her voice choked. She was fully immersed in the characters. The thought of being separated from Minato hurt her heart like someone had it clenched in their fist.

She unconsciously gripped Minato's hand tightly, squeezing it painfully.

"I won't die, I won't die. I'll always be with Kushina. Wherever you are, I'll be there too."

Minato was also deeply moved. He had cried a lot just now and clenched his teeth, comforting Kushina.

"Dan! Dan!"

"Grandpa!"

In the movie, Tsunade saw Yahiko save Konan by giving her the floating plank. She couldn't help but think of her late boyfriend.

And for some strange reason, she thought of her grandfather too.

"Ahhhhh...."

"Lady Tsunade fainted!"

It was bad. Tsunade's hemophobia got worse, now she was even triggered by ice.

The two actors were so skilled that they made the grief of life and death separation feel painfully real.

---

Back in the Land of Lightning, A was nearly falling asleep. "What... what was this?"

His head was still full of the Yoake Cow from the opening commercial.

What was it again? "The Yoake Cow drinks water personally blessed by the Sage of Six Paths"?

It's clearly theft! They stole our cows!

B was biting a handkerchief, little pearls of tears dripping one by one. "Bro is a bad guy, no romance, destined to be single forever, oh yeah."

Bonk!

A just casually gave him a knock on the head.

The movie was boring, but they definitely remembered the name "Yoake."

Their impression of Yoake? Not good.

Usually, it was Kumo exploiting others. But today was the first time someone had "fleeced" them.

---

Konan raised the microphone: "Let me tell everyone some good news!"

"Yoake's box office sales in the shinobi world have reached 700 million!"

The citizens of Yoake puffed out their chests with pride.

Their village was finally making money, finally rising!

The movie was a hit!

In every sense of the word, on fire!

The Land of Lightning publicly condemned them for stealing their cow.

Yahiko was a bit ticked off.

That cow was clearly found by... legitimate means. How can they say we stole it?

He looked down at the letter on the table.

Hiruzen was under pressure from the village's younger generation and wanted to co-establish a cinema.

"To think the kid who once took a cookie from me when he was hungry... has now become a famous man in the shinobi world. How unpredictable life is."

"Time really flies."

Standing in front of Yahiko now was Orochimaru, skin unnaturally pale.

He had just finished cleanup duty on the frontlines of the Land of Rain, and after hearing about the cinema project from Hiruzen, and not being able to find Jiraiya, he came over on his own since it was on the way.

He licked his lips, looking curiously up and down at Yahiko seated behind the desk.

"What is your opinion on Konoha establishing a cinema?"

"What cinema?"

"Fine. Very fine." Orochimaru chuckled.

He launched his attack, shadows flickered from his sleeves as countless small white snakes shot toward Yahiko, flicking their tongues.

Yahiko reacted swiftly, pulling out a kunai and slashing in a deadly arc, the gleaming blade cutting the snakes clean in two. Snake blood sprayed into the air.

Ever since Sakumo joined the village, his swordsmanship had improved significantly. He would always leave two shadow clones to practice sword techniques.

The first few slashes left Orochimaru slightly stunned. In Yahiko's techniques, he saw a shadow of Sakumo.

"That's the Hatake sword style?"

He withdrew his hand, now watching Yahiko with interest.

"Take a guess."

Yahiko lowered his blood-stained kunai and looked at Orochimaru, intrigued.

"I'm not even at full strength yet, once I am, things will change."

Annoyingly, Orochimaru refused to leave Yahiko's office, sitting there with snake eyes that looked like they could see through him.

Did Yahiko seem afraid? Nope. He slouched lazily in his chair, licking his lips and giving Orochimaru a look like, "You're quite interesting."

"I'm leaving."

"Looking forward to our next meeting."

Orochimaru had sensed a powerful chakra approaching the area.

And another, extremely well-hidden, that he could barely detect. Yet that presence could probably kill him seven times in three minutes.

Is this the real strength behind the founding of Yoake?!

A snake's danger sense was rarely wrong.

Shortly after Orochimaru left, Shuzen from the nursing home arrived. Smelling the blood in the office, he grew furious.

"Who?! Who tried to hurt you?!"

"Just Orochimaru acting out a little."

Yahiko wiped the blood off his kunai with a handkerchief.

"Too much tea."

Next to him was a still-steaming cup of tea. With dramatic flair, he picked it up and took a sip.

He looked skeptical. Did Yahiko really fight off Orochimaru?

As Shuzen left, Yahiko was already pondering where to recruit more talented people.

He couldn't always rely on Shuzen, could he?

The Sealing Squad was all Uzumaki.

The Barrier Squad was also all Uzumaki.

Damn! And even the ANBU leader was Uzumaki!

This setup made it way too easy to get sidelined.

"Balance is not achieved by having many of the same, but by having different strengths in harmony... This may be something Master Shifu would have said."

"Kukuku..."

A balance of powers must be maintained within the village...

He summoned Nagato, his intelligence handler.

"Take note. I'm making the following changes to the ANBU."

"Kiri's isolation is a front. Their ports still do small-scale trade. Try to sneak our people in."

"Let me think what kind of fish they like eating..."

---

"Madara-sama, want to watch a movie?"

Recently, a lot of traveling merchants had come to Yoake to watch movies, and security had gotten a little lax.

White Zetsu took advantage, sneaking in for a free viewing, and even found time to buy a ticket to see another one.

"What is a movie?"

Madara, upon hearing that, slowly opened his long-closed eyes.

"Mmm, it's when a boy and girl... hug each other."

White Zetsu said cheerfully, "After watching, I didn't even feel like using the bathroom anymore!"

Madara wasn't sure what thought hit him, but his face flushed red. He pointed at White Zetsu and shouted, "OUT! GET OUT!"