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Naruto: IY Ch. 40
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 01:09:43 +0000 UTCAfter the film crew made a round, Yahiko had a good grasp of the situation.
He looked at Tobi, and Tobi looked back at him.
Yahiko asked, "Tell me about your dream."
"I want to be able to pull out..."
"Get lost!"
Yahiko decisively kicked Tobi out of the film crew.
This weirdo can go bother Madara instead.
Everyone in the crew heard Tobi roaring outside the door.
Yahiko clapped his hands. "Problem solved."
Jiraiya felt a little bad. "Was that really okay?"
"Forget him."
"I'll build you a new film studio."
Yahiko planned to build a film base twenty kilometers away by the river near Yoake.
Once the filming was over, people would need tickets to visit, and playing inside would be another fee.
Hmm, if someone in the village performs well, they'll be rewarded with a family trip to the film base. Save on bonuses too.
Yahiko made a call to Kantaro's Dad.
He had already contracted the staff dormitory; now Yahiko gave him another job.
After all, he was a veteran who had followed Yahiko since before the village was founded.
Sigh... Yahiko was envious of Kantaro. All the suffering he should've faced in the future, his dad already went through it before building the village.
When Kantaro's Dad heard he was building a film crew for Jiraiya, he rushed the work and had it ready in three days.
As for the actor for the protagonist, Yahiko was a bit surprised.
It was the face he used when he went around on missions, Minato.
That was when the gambling hall had just been built.
Kushina, being a jinchūriki, usually had to stay within the barrier. But seeing that many people from Konoha had taken photos at the riverfront, she didn't want regrets, so she created a shadow clone and asked Minato to accompany it for a few days.
At this moment, the her clone was wandering around, while Minato sat on a boat's resting area reading Yoake's latest newspaper. Jiraiya sat beside him, trying to persuade him.
[Today's Headline]
[What defines a good village leader? Yahiko is the example. It's spring planting season...]
Under the headline was a photo of Yahiko planting rice seedlings.
"Minato, this protagonist has to be you. You're good-looking and can add popularity to our movie," Jiraiya said, rubbing his hands and smiling beside Minato.
"Jiraiya-sensei..." Minato put down the newspaper and gave a helpless, bitter smile. "There are a lot of missions in the village lately. The burden on jonin is heavy. If it weren't for Kushina not wanting regrets, I..."
Jiraiya had already suffered from a full dose of Minato and Kushina's relationship.
Most people would think, Regret? Can't she come later?
But he knew that regret was really just her fear that, as they grew older and their looks changed, the photos would no longer capture the youthful faces of a teenage couple.
That was Kushina's regret. Minato understood without needing her to say it, so he took leave to come.
Knowing how stingy the higher-ups were, Jiraiya figured Minato must've completed a mountain of missions just to get time off.
His chest ached from envy. Why couldn't he be a girl and have a boyfriend like Minato?
Tsunade would never understand what young lovers' regrets even meant.
"I'll send a request to Hiruzen-sensei. A C-rank mission with a 30,000 ryō reward. Just keep me company, okay? I'm getting older by the year..."
Jiraiya heartbreakingly deducted 30,000 ryō from the film budget, putting on a sorrowful act for Minato, first looking pained, then full of worry.
Minato, being soft-hearted towards friends and family, could tell Jiraiya was full of nonsense, but in the shinobi world, you never knew what came first: tomorrow or an accident.
"I..." he hesitated.
"Ugh... I just fought Hanzō the other day, cough cough cough..."
Jiraiya suddenly turned ashen and started coughing violently.
Outrageously, he even had photo proof. He developed one photo showing him beating Hanzō, made Tsunade impressed.
Another one showed him getting beaten by Hanzō, made Tsunade feel bad.
The one he pulled out now was the beaten-up one.
"Sensei... I'll do it," Minato choked up, believing him.
When Kushina's clone returned, she gave Jiraiya a suspicious look.
Jiraiya looked a bit guilty.
Minato hurriedly explained everything.
Poof~
The shadow clone dispersed. She wasn't unreasonable.
Jiraiya almost burst into laughter. I'm a genius.
"Cough cough... here's the script."
He weakly handed over the script.
Filming went quickly.
These days, Yoake newspapers were circulated far and wide, making even the Five Great Nations develop a morning newspaper-reading habit.
[Yahiko visits Ame seeking an old lady...]
[Shocking! Occasionally, small white hands appear from under Yoake's School?]
[Explosive! Following the success of Yoakitanic, another movie launches! The previous film has grossed over 1 billion, will Jiraiya's new film break the record?]
Thanks to all the promotions, people knew a second movie was coming.
They didn't know the title, but they knew it starred Jiraiya and was gambling-related.
---
"Gambling?"
At Tsunade's place, she was lazily lying on the floor reading the newspaper, enjoying the hallway breeze.
Interesting.
Jiraiya filming a gambling movie, was he trying to convince people to quit gambling?
She was a little conflicted. Dan, when he was alive, didn't like her gambling habit. Maybe she should try quitting?
Guess it takes a dead man to make her think twice.
---
Once filming ended, Jiraiya ran off to edit the footage.
Yahiko and Nagato came to visit Minato.
"Minato-senpai?"
"Yahiko? Nagato?"
They shook hands twice.
Yahiko shook with excitement.
But his heart was a bit guilty. He had previously used Minato's face for missions, hopefully that wouldn't be a problem?
Minato had such a good temper, he probably wouldn't hold a grudge against them!
Nagato, on the other hand, didn't look guilty at all: "Let's go, Minato-senpai. To Yoake Tower, Yahiko's treating."
Yoake Tower was a newly built structure Yahiko had developed during the recent filming to give Yoake another landmark.
It covered 9,000 square meters, about 1.1 standard soccer fields.
It was planned to be three stories tall, filled with every luxury decoration and antique from the village.
Currently, only the first floor was completed, and it was already extravagant, just by the décor, you could tell it was the kind of place most people couldn't afford.
Inside a private room, they served the best dishes Yoake had to offer.
Premium seafood, Yoake beef dishes... At the round wood table.
"Minato-senpai, since you've acted in a film, that means you're part of our film company now. Come sign this NDA and employment contract," Yahiko said before the meal.
It was an S-Class Actor Contract.
Until the village grew stronger, he couldn't afford to travel abroad often. If some feudal lord's daughter tried to pressure him, he'd have no way to refuse. He wanted to see if he could trigger a small bonus by having Minato join the company.
Minato glanced through it. Seeing nothing problematic, he signed.
The moment he signed...
[Detected that a high-level space-time individual has joined the Yoake Film Company. Rewarding host with a space-time ninjutsu skill.]
"Boom baby!" Yahiko stood up in shock.
"W-What's wrong?" the two others looked over at him.
"N-Nothing. Keep eating, keep eating," Yahiko said, barely able to contain his grin.
Damn! Where else was he gonna get Flying Thunder God?
Jiraiya didn't know it. Hiruzen would never sell it.
Nagato rolled his eyes and ignored Yahiko.
"If you come to Yoake Tower and don't eat the stinky tofu Yahiko invented, then your trip's wasted, Minato-senpai."
He ordered a plate of stinky cheese and sauce.
"Smells terrible, tastes divine," Yahiko added.
Once the food arrived, Minato broke his personal rule. First meeting with Yahiko and Nagato, and he ended up getting completely wasted.
It was a gathering of close comrades, full of joy, no one bothered to use chakra to sober up.
Forget rules about minors drinking, this was all about personality.
"Drink! Damn it, Minato-senpai is here today... I am ecstatic! Cheers!"
"Thank you for the meal, Yahiko. Next time you're in Konoha, I'll definitely host you! Say, last time you went to see Sakumo-senpai, why didn't you come visit me?"
At the banquet, Yahiko drank Minato under the table, though Minato still had a sliver of consciousness left.
He couldn't remember how long it had been, but Yahiko suddenly saw two Minatos.
All three of them were completely wasted.
"Minato-senpai, I'm so sorry... for using your face..."
"Me too... for the missions..."
"Huh?"
Seeing the two of them crying like that, Minato felt like he had to respond too, otherwise, wouldn't that be a bit cold?
"More drinks!"
In the end, seeing the two drunken men passed out without anyone to help, Yahiko smirked disdainfully, then collapsed face first, only to be carried away princess-style by Konan, who had come after school let out.
Yup. A full-on princess carry.
Not long after, Nagato was also taken away by someone.
Seeing this, Minato teared up. After just five and a half days apart, he really missed Kushina. He raised his cup to drown his sorrow, but drinking only made him more depressed. After Yahiko and Nagato left, he took another two strong shots, missing Kushina terribly.
Now completely wasted, he hugged Tobi, who had come up out of curiosity to watch, and mistook him for Kushina, vomiting all over him.
---
Underground, Madara had just awakened from a nap to see a young man wearing a Konoha forehead protector drunk out of his mind.
Bad roots lead to crooked branches. That damned Tobirama... what kind of idiot... what kind of moron could possibly have set a good example?
His disappointment in Konoha grew deeper.
And his obsession with the Eye of the Moon Plan grew stronger.
In his Infinite Tsukuyomi world, there would be no Tobirama, and no Tobirama faction!
Suddenly, he sniffed the air. Why did the whole place reek of vomit?
"Ah, sorry, sorry," Tobi said as he walked up to Madara. "Minato puked on me when I went to check things out."
He flicked the vomit off his clothes with disgust, splashing it everywhere.
"..."
"Urgh..."
"Get out!"
"Urgh..."
Hiding in Madara's shadow, Black Zetsu couldn't help but question everything.
Was this man really the reincarnation of Indra?
Shouldn't you be back at the clan picking an heir?
Why, the moment you wake up, are you staring at these three idiots?
