Anko rubbed her chin and spoke again, curious.
“Are you a chunin?
Feels like you’ve got a fair amount of chakra.
Take a few C-rank missions and that covers a month’s security deposit.
Konoha’s rates are already low.”
Chunin my foot.
Yuuga had genin-level strength, that was all.
A guy whose only trick was the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu taking C-rank missions like escorting people or moving classified documents would be a joke.
And a C-rank you couldn’t handle could turn into a B-rank at any moment.
The System wouldn’t save his life then.
Besides, Konoha had rules: normally an outsider could take C-rank and D-rank missions posted by Konoha, but first your record had to be clean and you couldn’t be a rogue ninja from another village, second you had to have paid the security deposit, and third you paid half of what you earned on a mission in tax.
As an outsider he had all kinds of restrictions on him, and nothing to do about it.
He glanced at her curious look and answered honestly.
“Anko-senpai, I’ve only got genin-level strength.
Don’t give me ideas.
A small fry like me doesn’t take on jobs he’s not equipped for.
And I’m not a ninja of Konoha, so half of whatever a mission pays goes to tax.
I’ll just write books and earn my money honestly.
With a little luck the writing fees should be enough to support me here.”
“Huh?” Anko grinned, bent down and winked at him, teasing.
“So the Konoha Love Story you’re writing is going to a publisher.
Once it’s out I’ll definitely buy a few sets to boost your sales.
It’ll be a huge hit, it’s good stuff.”
Having picked up a little fan, Yuuga was in a great mood.
He told her thanks for the support, then added, “Anko-senpai, you have to keep it secret for me.
And no spoilers for anyone else.”
“Relax, relax.” Anko waved her hand up and down and shook her head, promising she wouldn’t spread it around, then asked, “By the way, which publisher are you submitting to?
If I’m out on a mission I’ll go put in an advance order at their place.”
“Maruzen-do.
I’ve written close to one twentieth of it already.
Another ten days or so and the whole book will be done.” Like Tokyo Love Story, the Konoha Love Story he was writing was tight, no dragging it out.
Anko frowned the moment she heard “Maruzen-do.” She looked at him, all eager, and checked again.
“Yuuga, are you sure you want to submit to Maruzen-do?
Iwanami Shoten seems pretty good too.
Won’t you consider them?”
Yuuga looked at her, puzzled.
Was there some problem with Maruzen-do?
The thought gave him a jolt.
Still, he explained.
“The books Iwanami Shoten publishes are mostly traditional poetry collections and cultural works.
They wouldn’t take fiction like this.
Maruzen-do publishes a much wider range by comparison.
Icha Icha Paradise, the big hit right now, came out from Maruzen-do, didn’t it?”
“Don’t put your own work next to a book like Icha Icha Paradise.
That scumbag author isn’t worth it.” At the mention of Icha Icha Paradise Anko rolled her eyes and pulled a face.
“An author who writes books like that should just die.
I have no idea how something like that sells across all Five Great Shinobi Countries.
If I ever find out who wrote it, I’m going to beat him senseless.”
You can’t really beat him, though.
Yuuga, who knew who the author was, felt a little sorry for Jiraiya.
It seemed the book that men everywhere treated as a masterpiece was also loathed by women everywhere.
Then again, even knowing it was Jiraiya, not many people could actually lay a hand on him.
No, there was that strange woman, Tsunade.
But Tsunade was in a very low, down and out state right now.
Yuuga had actually run into her at a gambling den in Tanzaku Quarters while she was wandering the world, and had fleeced that “legendary sucker” nicely.
About fifty percent of his travel money to Konoha and his rent had come out of Tsunade’s pocket.
“Hey, listen here…” Anko crouched right down and poked his forehead with a finger, lecturing.
“A brat like you knowing about Icha Icha Paradise.
Don’t tell me you’ve read it too?”
Danger.
Her pupils were about to go vertical.
Yuuga waved his hands and said, with total sincerity, “Anko-senpai, you’re overthinking it.
How could I read something like that?
What I like is a passionate love story between a man and a woman.
Icha Icha Paradise does nothing for me.”
What Jiraiya wrote wasn’t exactly “top tier,” so it never had caught Yuuga’s eye.
Nothing wrong with the statement.
“Good.
Otherwise, as an upright and warmhearted big sister, I wouldn’t just let it slide.” Anko smiled, and it was a threat.
Very warmhearted indeed.
Yuuga grumbled to himself, then remembered the Maruzen-do business and asked, curious, “Right, Anko-senpai, why don’t you want me submitting to Maruzen-do?”
“Because Maruzen-do has run into some money trouble,” Anko explained.
Maruzen-do was one of Konoha’s top publishers, able to stand on equal footing with Iwanami Shoten, which most people considered a minor miracle.
Iwanami Shoten had been around a long time, while Maruzen-do had only risen in the last decade.
Maruzen-do had Icha Icha Paradise, a bestseller across the Five Great Shinobi Countries, and every year when Jiraiya finished a new one they made a killing off it.
But there was a hidden problem the whole time.
Maruzen-do relied on that one book too much.
And Jiraiya wrote too slowly.
Besides being an “author,” he was also one of the Legendary Sannin, the Toad Sage, Jiraiya.
He had his own duties and missions, so Icha Icha Paradise came along slowly, and there was nothing Maruzen-do could do about it.
Chasing him for the manuscript wasn’t an option either, since they couldn’t find him.
All they could do was wait for the great man to mail a manuscript in each time, seeing as he might be off traveling.
Aside from Icha Icha Paradise, Maruzen-do had almost no other bestsellers.
Iwanami Shoten was different.
It had no number one bestselling “H book” like Icha Icha Paradise, but it did have the number two poetry collection and the number three, four and five ninja autobiographies, so overall Iwanami Shoten stood firm.
“Also, there’s a rumor going around lately.” Anko held up her index finger at him and said, very seriously, “My last mission was guarding the daughter of a big merchant family.
Maruzen-do’s money trouble is that their boss lost a lot on a business deal recently, so he pulled most of the funds out of Maruzen-do.”