"I truly thank you so much, nma-sama..."
Hyuuga Hizashi bowed deeply, his voice solemn, carrying an indescribable sense of relief in his heart. Finally, it was over—he had not only survived but even got to see Neji again.
However, Naruto simply waved his hand. "Alright, I know." He lazily interrupted. "Since the matter has finally concluded, let's skip the pleasantries."
Hizashi startled, then a bitter smile appeared at his lips. This person before him clearly possessed power capable of overturning the shinobi world, yet showed complete indifference to others' gratitude.
"Yes." He nodded. "If you have any orders, Hyuuga Hizashi will face death without hesitation."
Naruto glanced at him, thinking that even after creating an organization, he could still be a hands-off boss. However, what pleased him more was the system notification echoing in his mind.
[DING!]
[Congratulations Host: Bond established with original character "Hyuuga Hizashi" Level 7 (Maximum)!]
[Points Gained: 150!]
[DING!]
[Congratulations Host: Bond established with original character "Hyuuga Neji" Level 7 (Maximum)!]
[Points Gained: 700!]
[Warm Reminder: Normal favorability Level 7 is maximum. To increase bond level further requires qualitative changes in the relationship]
Already maxed out? It seed this father and son's gratitude toward him had reached "unwavering unto death" levels. Qualitative change? Could there be further advancent?
For instance... making Neji his disciple in the future? Or simply having him join the "Ember" organization?
Now Naruto had 1650 points—enough for another ten-pull lottery. But... so Level 7 represented maxed favorability?
He hadn't expected that just one heart-to-heart talk with Neji would max out the kid's favorability, reaching a level where he'd bare his heart and soul.
...Ridiculous.
But thinking carefully, the shinobi world did have similar examples.
Like Kimimaro.
Orochimaru had just fed him so inspirational soup, and Kimimaro completely fell for it—even willing to beco Orochimaru's new vessel, burning his life to fight until the very end.
So Neji's current loyalty toward him was probably at that level?
'Are shinobi world people all too easy to deceive...'
However, compared to Neji, he was more concerned about another person's bond level.
Satsuki.
Currently her bond level was 5—still two levels away from maximum Level 7.
Level 5... what did that an?
The mont this question ford in his mind, the system imdiately responded.
[Satsuki Bond Level 5: She considers you her closest friend. Your existence has beco an indispensable part of her life.]
[Current Relationship: Deep trust, emotional dependence.]
[Developnt Trend: With just ti accumulation, this bond will naturally evolve to higher levels—soulmate, or... romance.]
"..."
Naruto stared at those last two words, falling into brief silence.
Romance?
He could understand the first option—the original Naruto and Sasuke had that kind of friendship transcending life and death. But the second option...
Romance? Satsuki... becoming his girlfriend?
His thoughts involuntarily began wandering. Objectively speaking, Satsuki's appearance was indeed flawless—even after gender-swapping, she maintained her status as a beauty ceiling setting.
Moreover, the current Satsuki hadn't experienced the clan massacre tragedy, so her personality wasn't as gloomy as the original—just carrying so cute tsundere traits...
Having such a girlfriend actually seed pretty nice...
...Wait wait wait wait wait! When did he start having such dangerous thoughts? He clearly rembered that when first eting Satsuki, his inner thought was "it would be nice if I had such a cute daughter in the future"!
Sothing was wrong... this was definitely wrong... could it be Indra's chakra influencing ?
"nma-sama?"
Hizashi's confused voice pulled Naruto back from his wild thoughts. Only then did he realize his state was sowhat strange, quickly coughing twice to mask his embarrassnt.
"...Ahem, it's nothing." Naruto rapidly switched back to serious mode. "You understand my objectives, right?"
"Yes." Hizashi respectfully lowered his head. "Using military intimidation against all nations to prevent war. Since nma-sama wants to establish an organization, may I ask how complete this organization currently is?"
The air fell silent for several seconds.
"...If we count you," Naruto's tone beca sowhat subtle, "Ember currently has two mbers."
He sowhat embarrassingly stated this shaful truth. However, Hizashi's expression didn't change at all—he simply nodded steadily.
"I see. So does nma-sama plan to establish a base first, or prioritize recruiting capable individuals?"
His tone remained calm. Hizashi had already decided to dedicate his loyalty completely to nma—without questioning reasons or considering costs. This resolve had long been established.
Though nma was a terrifying existence throughout the shinobi world, Hizashi had witnessed nma arrange his eting with his son. He clearly understood that this leader's heart burned with true flas of justice.
As the Hyuuga head's younger brother, Hizashi had considerable managent experience. Over the years, the Hyuuga family's various affairs had been handled jointly by him and his elder brother—calling him the family head's right arm wouldn't be excessive.
Recalling past events, while he indeed harbored resentnt toward the main family due to Caged Bird constraints, that resentnt toward his elder brother as family head had never truly taken root.
Until Neji's birth changed everything.
When this exceptionally gifted son displayed amazing talent yet still had to be marked with the Caged Bird curse, when the main family daughter had diocre talents yet was spared this humiliation due to her main family status—in that mont, years of suppressed resentnt finally broke through the surface.
He had accepted his fate as a branch family mber, since his talents were at most ordinary jounin level. But seeing Neji about to repeat the sa tragedy, that long-endured unwillingness finally exploded.
"I'll handle mber recruitnt. You'll be responsible for establishing the base. The Land of Hot Water, as a neutral nation, has loose information control and no hidden village, so major nations won't focus surveillance there. Plus, with its developed tourism and frequent personnel movent, it's perfect for a base location."
Naruto outlined requirents point by point. "First, we need legitimate surface identities—preferably using proper businesses to cover activities. Second, the main base must be concealed yet easily defended. Can you manage this?"
Hizashi nodded slightly. "I understand and will complete nma-sama's mission with all effort."
The requirents seed complex but weren't actually difficult. Under the premise of not exposing Ember's identity, Hizashi only needed to start a business in the Land of Hot Water as an ordinary rchant.
The real problem was funding. Naruto couldn't personally build houses, but couldn't let Hizashi start from nothing either. So how much did Naruto have in savings?
500,000 ryo—mostly from system lottery rewards. In Konoha, this barely covered a house down paynt, but was severely inadequate as organizational startup capital.
Thinking of this, Naruto sowhat regretted not extorting Kumogakure when he'd critically injured the Raikage. But at that ti, having just made those world-shaking declarations, imdiately asking for money would have been too undignified. Plus, the experience card's ti limit was approaching...
However, besides savings, Naruto had other things that could be converted to money.
Suddenly, with a soft "poof," a piece of specially lustrous tal appeared on the table from thin air.
"This is..."
"Spoils from previous battles." Naruto said casually, fingertips lightly tapping the tal surface. "Should be able to exchange for so startup capital. What's the current market price?"
After careful examination, Hizashi couldn't hide his surprise. "This is... chakra tal?" As a core mber of the Hyuuga branch family, he'd only seen this rare material once during major family celebrations—that tribute gift had been rely thumb-sized, while this piece was half a palm's width.
Hizashi carefully lifted the tal to gauge its weight. "Current black market rates..." he paused, "approximately 100,000 ryo per gram."
"100,000 ryo per gram... hm?"
Wait, how much?!
Naruto's expression beneath the mask suddenly froze as his heart erupted in shock. 100,000 per gram? Then the 1,500 grams stockpiled in his system space would be... 150 million ryo? This amount could bounty four Asumas on the black market!
Was using Asuma as a unit of asurent perhaps excessive?
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