Chapter 167 Chief Demolitionist of Yamato Construction Group
To be honest, Uchiha Tokō ( Touhuan) was incredibly annoyed looking at Deidara's excited expression.
When the brat was destroying other people's houses, Uchiha Tokō could laugh it off, sometimes even applauding Deidara's brilliant ideas. But now that this kid was wreaking havoc on his own property, Uchiha Tokō just wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
"Um, Naruto's about to get out of school. I'll have someone take you to him later," Uchiha Tokō said to Deidara.
"Okay, I'll come back to learn from you later!" Deidara still considered Uchiha Tokō his mentor on his artistic path, so he respected him greatly, showing no trace of the Iwagakure bully who had Onoki pull out his beard.
After sending Uchiha Touko to escort Deidara to the Ninja Academy to find Naruto, ostensibly to monitor the boy and prevent him from causing trouble in the village, Uchiha Touko surprisingly took the initiative to video call Onoki.
Lately, it was usually Onoki who called to yell at him, while Uchiha Touko watched Iwagakure's antics.
Therefore, Onoki was quite surprised to learn that the call was from Konoha.
"What brings you to Iwagakure, Hokage?" Onoki on the other end of the screen looked rather agitated. It seemed that the recent news of the Jinchuriki's capture and his disciple's disappearance had truly tormented the nearly seventy-year-old man.
"Has the Tsuchikage's disciple recently run away from the village?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"Why is the Hokage suddenly concerned about my disciple?" Onoki immediately became wary.
"Your disciple came to Konoha today," Uchiha Touko said helplessly.
"What? That brat!" Onoki immediately cursed.
After venting his emotions, Onoki turned to Uchiha Touko and asked, "That kid didn't cause any trouble for Konoha, did he?"
"No, Deidara is quite polite," Uchiha Touko replied.
"That's good," Onoki nodded.
"I wonder how the Tsuchikage plans to handle this matter. Are you going to send someone to bring him back now?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"Hmm..." Onoki originally wanted to immediately send someone to catch that brat Deidara and bring him back to the village for a beating, but then he thought, why rush to bring this kid back to the village? Although this kid is quite strong among his peers, he can't be of much help in their special military operations. After returning to the village, he would have to live in constant fear, always on guard against this kid causing trouble again. On the contrary, keeping this kid in Konoha can also annoy Uchiha Touko, who has been watching him make a fool of himself lately.
Thinking of this, Onoki immediately changed his expression, suppressing a laugh as he said to Uchiha Touko, "As the Hokage knows, we at Iwagakure are currently mired in war and simply don't have the energy to send anyone to pick up this brat and take him home."
"Uh, how about I send someone to take him back?" Uchiha Touko suggested.
"No need for that," Onoki said. "Since my good-for-nothing disciple likes to stay in your Konoha, could you please ask the Hokage to look after him for a while? I really don't have the time to look after him right now."
"Uh… that's not a good idea." Uchiha Touko saw through Onoki's plan; he was trying to dump all the trouble on Konoha. So he politely declined, "After all, he's a disciple that the Tsuchikage has high hopes for. He's at the age where he should be improving his strength. If he stays here too long, I'm afraid it will hinder his growth."
You'll never believe why I moved to… Karachi
MeetSingles
Looking for someone in Karachi today
Singleflirt
Looking for someone in Karachi today
Singleflirt
You'll never believe why I moved to… Karachi
MeetSingles
"Your Hokage needn't worry about that. Deidara's ninjutsu already has its own system. He just needs to hone his skills and increase his chakra reserves. You don't need to teach him anything," Onoki hurriedly said.
"Then what about this child's safety in our village..." Uchiha Touko hadn't finished speaking when Onoki interrupted him.
"Does Your Hokage and Konoha not even have the confidence to guarantee the safety of a ten-year-old child?" Onoki secretly gloated. He had been choked by Uchiha Touko's words before, and now he had the chance to return the favor exactly as they had been.
Uchiha Touko: ...
Is my concern about this kid's safety? I'm concerned about the safety of my village!
"Your Hokage, if that kid acts recklessly, don't worry about my feelings. He should be punished. I have other matters to attend to, so I'll hang up now." Onoki didn't give Uchiha Touko a chance to speak again and directly ended the video call.
Uchiha Touko, whose video call had been abruptly ended, rubbed his head in exasperation. He hadn't expected Onoki to be so straightforward as to dump Deidara on him.
While Uchiha Touko and Onoki were talking, Deidara, at the gates of the Konoha Ninja Academy, saw Naruto walking out with the Seven Stars Study Group.
"Naruto, my little brother!" Deidara waved and shouted excitedly the moment he saw Naruto.
Hearing Deidara's voice, Naruto turned around sharply. At first, he thought he'd misheard, but upon seeing Deidara, he exclaimed joyfully, "Big Brother Deidara!"
The two ran towards each other, giving each other a big, cheerful hug before exchanging pleasantries.
"Big Brother Deidara, what brings you here?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Iwagakure can no longer let me perform my art, so I came to find you," Deidara said with a smile.
"Let's go! I'll treat you to the best ramen in the world!" Naruto put his arm around Deidara's shoulder, and the two blond-haired guys, one big and one small, headed towards Ichiraku Ramen under the watchful eyes of the crowd behind them.
"Who's that guy?" Kiba Inuzuka, who hadn't gone to Iwagakure last time, couldn't help but ask.
"He's from Iwagakure, a disciple of the Tsuchikage. What's he doing in the village?" Sasuke said.
"I smell trouble on him." Shikamaru said with deadpan eyes.
"You're really good at judging people." Neji couldn't help but say, thinking about the various explosions his group had encountered in Iwagakure.
"Naruto-kun... going with him... will it be okay?" Hinata asked timidly.
"What could be wrong?" Neji said irritably, "These two together are like turtles seeing green beans, and besides, in the village..."
At this moment, Neji also realized that they were in Konoha, not Iwagakure. If these two got together and accidentally caused an explosion, it would be disastrous.
"Damn it! We have to tell Shinobi right away!" Neji said hastily.
"I'll take everyone and keep an eye on them. You go tell Shinobi!" Sasuke also realized this and said.
"Okay, let's split up!" Neji nodded and then ran towards the Hokage Building at top speed.
Seeing this, the others followed Naruto and Deidara.
Before long, Naruto and Deidara arrived at Ichiraku Ramen. Naruto took the lead, lifting the curtain at the entrance and sitting down at the counter, saying energetically, "Uncle Teji, two deluxe tonkotsu ramen!"
"Naruto?" Teji, who was calculating the bill behind the counter, peeked out and smiled as he saw Naruto. "Why are you here today? And ordering so much? Kakashi told me not to let you eat too much ramen."
"Uncle Teji, today I'm treating our guests who have come from afar to a meal," Naruto said.
At this moment, Teji noticed Deidara beside Naruto and asked curiously, "Is this your new friend? I've never seen him in the village before?"
"Brother Deidara came all the way from Iwagakure," Naruto said, turning to Deidara and introducing him, "Brother Deidara, this is Uncle Teji. His ramen is the best in the world!"
"Really? Since you say so, little brother, I'll have to try it!" Deidara chimed in enthusiastically.
Soon after, Neji arrived at the Hokage's office and reported the incident at the school gate to Uchiha Touko.
"I already knew about this," Uchiha Touko said, rubbing his head. "Don't worry, with Inahisa around, nothing serious will happen."
While he said that, figuring out where to settle Deidara was a huge problem. First, sending him to Fugaku was probably out of the question. Although Uchiha Touko had turned the Fugaku family into the village's daycare, there was still a Jinchūriki from Takigakure living there, and the two might fight if they met.
As for actually controlling Deidara, that wasn't feasible either. Onoki's attitude was secondary; the main issue was that Uchiha Touko couldn't bring himself to force himself on a ten-year-old child.
"That old bastard Onoki has really given me a headache," Uchiha Touko sighed. Just as Uchiha Touko was worrying, a message came from outside requesting an audience with Yamato.
After Uchiha Touko let him in, Yamato entered, dressed in a suit.
"Hokage-sama," Yamato greeted Uchiha Touko politely.
Uchiha Touko, after sizing up the other man's business attire, felt much better.
Lately, Yamato had gradually faded from the ranks of ninjas, focusing his attention on making money. Now, Yamato Construction, as Konoha's village-run enterprise, completely monopolized the village's real estate industry, bringing a steady stream of funds to the village every year. Moreover, Yamato was very aware of his position; whenever Uchiha Touko needed money, he only needed to send someone to inform him, and the money would arrive the next day.
"What brings President Yamato to my Hokage's office?" Uchiha Touko asked with a smile.
"Hokage-sama is too kind. I owe my current success entirely to your rescue," Yamato said sincerely. After being in business for some time, Yamato's mind had become sharper. He realized that the life he had endured in Root was inhuman, so he was deeply grateful to Uchiha Touko and Kakashi for saving him from that ordeal and would never forget their kindness.
"Enough with the formalities, tell me, what brings you here?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"Well, it's like this," Yamato said, becoming serious as well. "It's about that piece of land east of the village. Gato and I are planning to build a new commercial district there. The blueprints are here."
Yamato took out a blueprint from the sealed scroll and placed it in front of Uchiha Touko.
Uchiha Touko glanced at it and couldn't help but marvel. Gato was truly a genius in a way; the central part of the commercial district blueprints was designed entirely based on the shopping center from Uchiha's previous life.
"So, have you encountered some difficulties?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"Yes," Yamato nodded, "This large central building, although I can barely construct it with my Wood Release, is too large to be safe with just Wood Release alone. It needs a sufficiently solid foundation. If we dig it manually, given Konoha's current labor costs, we won't make any profit on this project."
Uchiha Touko nodded. As Konoha developed, the average salary level in Konoha was also rising. Moreover, under Uchiha Touko's tough policies, no merchant in Konoha dared to delay paying wages. After all, if a Konoha civilian complained to the Hokage Building because of unpaid wages, Kakashi would really send them to practice swimming in the Naka River.
"So, what are your thoughts?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"I'd like to request a batch of explosive tags from you, Hokage. My engineers have already calculated that if we use explosives for excavation, we only need to cover the cost of transporting the excavated soil. This way, the cost of this commercial district can be reduced to a minimum."
"Explosives, huh?" Uchiha Touko looked at the 210,000 square meter commercial center. If they were to use explosives for excavation, the cost of the explosive tags wouldn't be low. Wait, explosives?
"I understand. Just go back and wait. You can start construction in a couple of days. As for the cost of the explosive tags, you can bring them to the Hokage Building yourself." Uchiha Touko looked up and said to Yamato.
"Yes!" Yamato didn't think much of it. After all, using so many explosive tags would require the Hokage to send someone to operate them with peace of mind. That's why he brought the blueprints today.
After Yamato left, a glint of light flashed in Uchiha Touko's eyes. He thought to himself:
[Old man, you sent your disciple here, don't blame me for treating him like a child laborer!]
Uchiha Touko stood up, took off his divine robe, changed his clothes, and rushed to Ichiraku Ramen. When he arrived, the two blond-haired guys had almost finished eating. "Naruto, bro
, this ramen is really good! Much better than what we have in Iwagakure!" Deidara slapped the table, saying happily.
(End of Chapter)