"Alright, it's over. Everyone, go back to whatever you were doing. As for fixing the training ground, the Uchiha will cover the cost."
Fixing a normal training ground wasn't a big deal—it wouldn't cost much.
Rather than letting Tsunade stress over it, it was easier to just take care of it themselves.
Yan was sure that Fugaku would be more than happy to pay. After all, his son had just gained a Summoned Beast as strong as an elite Jonin for free.
The village's ninja would handle the repairs, and the Uchiha would foot the bill.
With that, even the Third Hokage, who wasn't too happy about the situation, had nothing more to say.
"Try to avoid letting Summoned Beasts fight in the village from now on."
After leaving that remark, the Third Hokage finally walked away.
Orochimaru took Sasuke with him, and Jiraiya left with Naruto.
There were plenty of things giving him a headache.
He needed to handle Naruto properly, and he also had to explain things to Mount Myoboku.
Damn it, Manda. Why did you suddenly attack?
"What are you thinking about?"
Everyone else had left. Tsunade had sent Shizune and Izumi away, and once only she and Yan remained in the training field, she finally voiced her question.
"This has nothing to do with me. I never told Manda to jump in and start a fight.
Manda just wanted to get on my good side. You can't blame me for that, can you?"
If he didn't do it, he wasn't going to take the blame for it.
"I'm talking about Manda!"
Tsunade rubbed her temples, reminding Yan.
I wasn't talking about the summoned beasts fighting—I meant Manda.
"Sasuke is still a kid. He hasn't even graduated from the ninja academy yet. Giving him such a strong and unpredictable summoned beast—do you really think that's a good idea?"
"And why wouldn't it be?"
Yan countered:
"Jiraiya's whole plan was flawed from the start. He wanted to push Naruto forward, but he had to drag Sasuke into it too.
Even if I refused this time, he'd bring it up again next time.
So I might as well go all the way and have Manda obey Sasuke completely.
Besides, don't underestimate Sasuke. That kid has a strong sense of pride.
Even if he can summon Manda, he wouldn't do it unless absolutely necessary."
"As for the danger? The only ones who should be worried are those who try something stupid."
"As long as no one targets Sasuke, he won't summon Manda. If Manda isn't summoned, he won't go on a rampage and start biting people. It's that simple."
"....."
What kind of twisted logic is this? And why is it actually convincing?!
"Besides, isn't it a good thing for the next generation of the village to be as strong as possible?
Whatever Jiraiya does to handle Naruto and deal with the toads at Mount Myoboku—that's his problem.
If he hadn't started this mess, none of this would've happened. Let's go. We still have plenty of things to take care of."
"No rush. Let's eat first and take our time heading back."
"Hey, woman, I have a feeling you're trying to scam me. Did you lose all your money again?"
Yan widened his eyes. The moment Tsunade opened her mouth, he knew exactly what she was up to.
"*Ahem*... My luck was bad. It's all the arcade owner's fault—he tampered with the machines and made me lose everything."
Tsunade's expression was a little awkward.
Losing all her money wasn't exactly something to be proud of. At least it was just Yan who heard it.
If it had been someone else, she wouldn't have admitted it.
As ninjas got stronger, so did the technology in the ninja world.
It used to be rare to see arcade machines, but now, they were everywhere.
Tsunade quickly got hooked on this thing too. Compared to other forms of gambling, arcade machines had smaller wins and losses.
So, it was pretty common for her to end up losing all her money.
"Come on, with your luck, it'd be scarier if you actually won. Let's go. What do you want to eat?"
Yan was glad he didn't have a gambling habit. Plus, he had saved up quite a bit, so he didn't have to worry about living expenses.
If he were like Tsunade, life would be much tougher.
Sasuke was either getting beaten up or on his way to getting beaten up.
Tsunade, on the other hand, was either losing money or heading somewhere to lose money.
"Barbecue!!!"
After leaving the training ground, Yan and Tsunade took their two assistants straight to a barbecue restaurant. They had a great meal before heading to the Hokage's office to continue their work.
Since no one tried to keep it a secret, word quickly spread around Konohagakure that Naruto and Sasuke had summoned two powerful beasts—and that those beasts had fought each other.
Many ninjas were beyond jealous.
After all, being able to form a summoning contract wasn't easy. Most ninjas wanted one but couldn't find the right beast.
Meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto casually summoned creatures stronger than most ninjas.
It was enough to make people lose their minds.
At the academy, the students were all fired up, talking non-stop about what had happened.
Jiraiya had achieved his goal—Naruto was deeply affected by it. So much so that he had become unusually quiet.
But in private, he was training like crazy, practicing summoning over and over, hoping that one day he could surpass Sasuke.
He didn't want to lose to him.
Still, Naruto didn't think he had actually lost. Manda only listened to Sasuke because someone interfered, so it didn't count as his loss.
Without outside help, even if Sasuke could summon Manda, he definitely wouldn't be able to control him.
That was Jiraiya's reassurance to Naruto.
Thankfully, Naruto believed him and didn't get too hung up on it. He just trained even harder.
Watching Naruto work himself to exhaustion every day—so much that he even nodded off while eating—Jiraiya wasn't sure if this kind of extreme training was good or bad.
"Alright then, time to eat!"
To reward Naruto for his hard work, Jiraiya took him out for ramen. No limits—he could eat as much as he wanted.
Naruto was overjoyed and started wolfing down his food.
But as he ate, he suddenly realized—his grandpa Jiraiya was gone!
"Ahhh!!!"
Jiraiya picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a huge mouthful of noodles, stuffing them into his mouth.
But the moment they entered, his whole body froze.
His eyes snapped open—what he saw wasn't a ramen shop.
And what he was eating wasn't ramen either.
It was a pile of colorful, wriggling worms.
"Ugh!!!"
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