When Orochimaru arrived at the meeting point, she saw Tsunade, arms crossed, glaring fiercely at Jiraiya, whose left cheek was swollen, making it obvious who had hit him.
"Sorry, I'm late."
"Orochimaru, it would have been even better if you could have been faster!"
Tsunade was displeased with how slowly Orochimaru had arrived.
"So slow, Orochimaru!"
Jiraiya complained, covering his face, and looked angrily at Tsunade.
This hateful, flat-chested, violent woman!
Tsunade tilted her chin, hands on her hips, as if to say, 'What are you going to do about it?'
"Something came up and delayed me."
Orochimaru was helpless; she couldn't very well say she was discussing *that* kind of medicine with her dear Hiruzen-sensei, could she?
"Jiraiya, your face."
Orochimaru looked at Jiraiya's left cheek, where a fist print was still faintly visible.
Yes, it was Tsunade's punch.
"It was, it was this flat-chested woman, Tsunade, who hit me! She's crude and flat-chested, not gentle at all!"
Jiraiya pointed an accusing finger at Tsunade, getting more and more agitated. "Orochimaru, you must stay far away from Tsunade in the future. You're such a quiet girl; you can't be as violent as Tsunade! It wouldn't be good if you were influenced!"
"Jiraiya! You perverted old man! Do you want your right cheek to be symmetrical with your left?"
Tsunade clenched her fist, wanting to give Jiraiya's right cheek a similar mark.
"Do you think I'm afraid of you?"
Jiraiya said, moving his feet towards Orochimaru.
"Ugh… here we go again."
Orochimaru sighed helplessly in her heart, listening to Tsunade and Jiraiya bickering.
"Speaking of which, what exactly am I doing on this mission to the Land of Waves?"
"Am I escorting my own company's products? Earning my own money?"
"Or is it a commission from which Konoha takes a cut?"
"They… aren't going to start fighting again, are they?"
The two guards at the Konoha gate watched Tsunade and Jiraiya, who were about to come to blows after their argument. Remembering Jiraiya being punched and sent flying by Tsunade not long ago, they wondered how high he would fly this time.
"Tsunade, Jiraiya, we should get going."
Orochimaru tugged at the purple scarf around her neck, walked to the gate, and registered their departure with the guards.
Tsunade looked at Orochimaru's scarf, a happy smile on her face, and followed her with light steps.
"Um… Orochimaru, could you give me an autograph?"
One of the guards awkwardly pulled out an autograph board.
"No problem."
Orochimaru readily signed her name on the autograph board.
This wasn't the first time this had happened. She never understood why she had become something like a celebrity, with people watching her wherever she went, and even asking for her autograph.
"Sign mine too!"
The other guard, seeing how accommodating Orochimaru was, also pulled out his prepared autograph board.
Being a guard had this one advantage: you always met famous people, and now his prepared autograph board was coming in handy.
"Thank you very much!"
The guard held the signed autograph board as if it were a treasure and carefully put it away.
"Orochimaru is really popular!"
Jiraiya exclaimed, wishing he were that popular too.
Imagining beautiful, curvaceous women vying to embrace him, Jiraiya's face broke into a slightly lewd, silly grin.
"You pervert, you're definitely thinking something bad!"
Tsunade punched Jiraiya on the head, interrupting his fantasy.
"Tsunade, you fiend! Don't go too far!"
Jiraiya clutched his head, glaring at Tsunade.
"What are you going to do if I go too far? Want a fist to the face?"
Tsunade swung her fist.
"Here we go again…" Orochimaru watched Tsunade and Jiraiya bickering, feeling a bit worried about this mission. She wasn't concerned about their safety; she knew their strength well.
The key was the potential enemies they might encounter on this mission. Their target wasn't them, but the goods they were escorting. There was more than one organization eyeing the White Snake Pharmaceutical Technology Company's products.
No matter what, the goods weren't important; human lives were.
Orochimaru would never put the mission first. The mission was important, but compared to human lives, it was nothing.
Root's Base
Bang—!
Crash—!
Danzo Shimura slammed his hand down on the table, sweeping his arm across it. Office supplies, reports, and documents scattered everywhere. He pointed at Hiruzen Sarutobi and roared, "Hiruzen! I'm telling you! Impossible! I will never agree!"
"Danzo, let me finish!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi had anticipated Danzo Shimura's reaction. Even he found it difficult, let alone Danzo Shimura.
"The ones who want to buy the medicinal tea are the nobles of the Land of Fire. From what I know, you've been using the Shimura Clan's money to train Root's Ninja. If this continues, the Shimura Clan will become dissatisfied with you; it's only a matter of time."
"So, you want me to persuade the Aburame Clan, the Uchiha Clan? Hiruzen, what kind of joke is this?!"
Danzo Shimura's gaze was aggressive. Asking him to persuade the Uchiha Clan was the funniest and most unrealistic joke he had ever heard!
"Danzo, you are the Assistant Hokage. Don't you want to achieve something great?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi calmly looked at Danzo Shimura and advised, "I know this is difficult, but you must understand that this is beneficial to the Shimura, Sarutobi, Aburame, and Uchiha Clans."
Danzo Shimura fell silent. If he didn't want to achieve something great, would he have tried to win over Orochimaru, or provided research funds to her?
Everything he did was for Konoha, and also to achieve something great to show the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, who hadn't chosen him as Hokage, that he was more suitable for the position than Hiruzen Sarutobi!
"Medicinal tea, are there really that many people who want to buy it?"
Danzo Shimura asked suspiciously. An ordinary medicinal tea could be prepared by any doctor. Why would so many people want to buy it, especially the nobles of the Land of Fire?
Those people were rich, it was true, but they weren't fools who would pay for anything.
Just like the White Snake Brand skincare products, whose formula Orochimaru provided and White Snake Pharmaceutical Technology Company produced—they were genuinely effective, which was why those nobles bought them.
"The medicinal tea formula was developed by Orochimaru."
Hiruzen Sarutobi said in a lowered voice.
"Orochimaru… then it's not surprising."
Danzo Shimura finally understood why Hiruzen Sarutobi was so confident. If the formula came from Orochimaru, there would be no problems.
She could even improve the Akimichi Clan's Three-Colored Pills formula, so developing a popular medicinal tea was not surprising.
"Hiruzen, I agree to persuade the Aburame Clan and the Uchiha Clan, but regarding the profit distribution, my Shimura Clan needs a larger share."
Danzo Shimura was well aware of the consequences of uneven profit distribution, so he wasn't too greedy. After Orochimaru took one-tenth of the net profit, the remaining nine-tenths would be divided among four clans, with each clan getting 2.25 tenths.
But since he, Danzo Shimura, was doing this, it wouldn't be too much for the Shimura Clan he represented to take three-tenths, would it?
"Three-tenths? Danzo, don't be too greedy. I'm willing to give the Shimura Clan 0.25 tenths from the Sarutobi Clan's share."
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not agree to Danzo Shimura taking three-tenths of the net profit.
"Alright, then it's settled."
Danzo Shimura thought that the current profit distribution was good enough. At least the Shimura Clan had an edge over the Sarutobi Clan.
Thinking that the Shimura Clan would get more money than the Sarutobi Clan from the medicinal tea business, he felt incredibly relieved, and even looking at the monotonous reports and documents didn't bother him as much.
"Then, Hiruzen, arrange for the Anbu to notify the leaders of the Aburame Clan and the Uchiha Clan."
Danzo Shimura didn't want to waste too much time. Since the medicinal tea formula was fine, they should finalize things quickly.
"I'll arrange for the Anbu to notify them right away."
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to walk out, then paused. He just realized something.
"I'm the Hokage, right?"
Soon, Aburame Shisuke, the leader of the Aburame Clan, and Uchiha Hikaji, the leader of the Uchiha Clan, secretly arrived at the Hokage Building's conference room at the Anbu's invitation.
Aburame Shisuke and Uchiha Hikaji met at the conference room door, looking at each other with suspicion.
They wondered why Hokage-sama had specifically sent the Anbu to summon them.
Could it be that their clansmen had been getting too close to the villagers recently, making it difficult for the Police Department to enforce laws?
Uchiha Hikaji thought of the orders the Uchiha Military Police Force had been implementing for several months. He was also thinking of his clan and Konoha; it wasn't good for the Uchiha Clan to be too isolated.
Indeed, since the Uchiha Clan changed its way of doing things, complaints against the Uchiha Military Police Force had significantly decreased, which proved his orders were correct.
Aburame Shisuke saw Uchiha Hikaji lost in thought, ignoring his presence, and reluctantly spoke, "Hikaji, Hokage-sama summoned us…"
"I don't know."
Uchiha Hikaji shook his head, pushed open the door, and entered the conference room.
What happened next was completely unexpected for Aburame Shisuke and Uchiha Hikaji. They had thought it would be a very serious matter, but they never imagined that the Third Hokage and the Assistant Hokage were there to discuss cooperation on behalf of their respective clans.
"Is the medicinal tea business really that profitable?"
Aburame Shisuke and Uchiha Hikaji were completely unaware of the affairs of the Land of Fire's noble circles. They were skeptical about the medicinal tea business Danzo Shimura spoke of, but seeing his confidence in his family's traditional medicinal tea formula, they couldn't say much.
(It couldn't be revealed that the medicinal tea formula was developed by Orochimaru. Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't claim it as his own, and Danzo Shimura could only say it was a family formula, completely unaware that Hiruzen Sarutobi, with his thick eyebrows and large eyes, had set him up.)
Uchiha Hikaji, wanting to give the clan members who weren't qualified to be Ninja something to do, agreed.
Aburame Shisuke also had no objections. Earning money by providing some insects for medicinal purposes was good. The Aburame Clan's secret technique of raising Kikaichu inside their bodies required a lot of money.
If it weren't for some insects having medicinal value, the Aburame Clan wouldn't have fared much better than the Yamanaka Clan in Konoha previously.
Danzo Shimura saw Aburame Shisuke and Uchiha Hikaji agree, and he glanced at Hiruzen Sarutobi out of the corner of his eye. This glance subtly conveyed a sense of showing off, as if to say, "Isn't this simple? Hiruzen, look at you, making such a big deal out of it."
Hiruzen Sarutobi, who felt he had tricked Danzo Shimura, smiled, a pipe in his mouth. Since the Aburame Clan didn't particularly like the smell of smoke, he could only inhale the scent of the tobacco and couldn't light it.
"I hope the day Danzo learns the truth comes later."
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