Chapter 49.4- Gamer of the Desert

“Really? And what are you here for then?” He said, walking forward and dropping out of his combat ready stance. It was a feint, and they all knew it. A subtle genjutsu made the spinning sharingan in my left eye appear to all as a calm teal. The same shade as the eye that matched it in my right socket.

“We have an offer for you” Jiraiya said, taking the reins of the conversation once again. Tsunade did not hesitate to samoothly hand them back to him. An interesting dynamic.

“Well, I don’t have all day. Begin speaking” I said.

“Your manners have taken a sharp nosedive, I see” Tsunade glared at him for his words, and when I did not reply, he thought flora few seconds before speaking.

“Danzo is a false Kage who broke faith with you. We will help you get into Konoha and assassinate him.”

“Alright then. So it seems like you both aren’t fans of the guy who killed your sensei being the next hokage, but what does that really have to do with me? What does all this have in it for me?”

“Danzo broke faith with and attacked you. He almost killed you and orchestrated an attack on your Daimyo. He even broke the agreement you had wit the third Hokage. You have as much reason to want to see him dead as we do.”

“Do I? The only reason I have to see him dead is the whole not living up to the agreement I had with the old man, thing but apart from that- bygones can be bygones. If you want my help with the coup of yours, you’re going to have to grease my fingers” I said to them with a leer. Truthfully speaking, I didn’t like Danzo one bit. I’d honestly have preferred it if he wasn’t the one in charge of the closest threat to me, but after taking Iwa off the board, I had substantially more leeway in negotiations. Danzo and his horde of edo tensei shinobi would always be a threat, and that was the only reason I was even listening to this but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t play hard to get. I’d fuck them either way- just had to make them work of it a bit.

“You don’t see how Danzo is a threat to everyone? He is expanding the Leaf even as we speak. I know him, you don’t. His idea of a peaceful world is one where the entire world flies the flag of the Hidden Leaf. If you think he isn’t going to set his eyes on your village sooner or later, then you’re dead wrong.” He said, stepping forward. I matched him. We were now looking at each other, eyeball to eyeball. My growth spurt meant I wasn’t feet shorter than him, but Jiraiya was a giant of a man. Even so, he towered over me and looked down upon me with a sneer on his face. I ached to cleave his head from his shoulders for the affront.

“Let him come then. Let him take the world and let him come for me and he will find the ninja of Suna ready to tear his intestines from his stomach and cast his ashes to the wind. I am much stronger than I was when he failed to kill me. Even as the three of you stand, I could kill you all without breaking a sweat” All I had to do was attack before Jiraiya got the chance to summon the toads and use sage mode. Naruto would not be a threat. Tsunade’s strongest attacks were all blunt force. A sand body meant blunt force would do nothing to me. They’d die, and they’d do it quickly too. That was just the power that a year of training and the sharingan had given me.

“Sure you could, kid” The Toad Sage’s retaliatory snort made me take half a step forward. There wasn’t enough space between us for a full step. I could feel his breath on my face now. That was how close we were.

“Enough with the dickmeasuring contest” Tsunade barked out.

“Jiraiya, behave yourself” He took a step back and I turned to her.

“We will pay you. Four million Ryo” She said, making me bark a laugh.

“I raided the coffers of Iwa. I have more money than I know what to do with. You know what I want. We both know what I want”

“The land deal you had with the Third. We’ll honour it.” She said, making me scoff instantly and dramatically.

“You can’t pay me with what you already owe. Try again.” I said.

“We can’t offer you any more land without the Daimyo”

“So you have to offer something that matters to me. I want techniques. I’ve heard tales of Konoha’s fabled scroll of seals”

“You might as well ask to see me naked”

“Is that on the table”

“Nice try. Something else.” She said.

“Alright then. I want him” I said, pointing at the Kyubi Jinchuriki, making the boy jump backwards in shock

“What?”’ The main character of this story shouted, looking at me askance, and then turning to his minders when neither of them made any attempt to defend him from my gaze.

“We don’t engage in slave trade” Jiraiya finally said after letting the boy stew in his shock.

“Not like that. I want to study his seal. And I want to do it for at least a week.” I said.

I could see them mulling it over. And then they turned to each other- Jiraiya and Tsunade- and began making hand signs. I memorised everything with my sharingan but it wasn’t a code I’d ever seen before. It didn’t look to be something based on the standard Konoha code or even that used in any of the other villages. It was also very contradictory. Their body language should have given something away, but they’d used the same signs in what my eyes told me had to be about five different contexts. It was maddening.

“Okay. We’ve come to a decision” They said.

“Three days with the seal. That’s all”

“And forty million Ryo.” I added

“What happened to money not mattering?”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t want a shit ton of it” I said with a shrug.