After school, Shanks invited Haruko out for barbecue.
Haruko refused, and Shanks couldn’t exactly force her.
Hatake Sakumo, however, had no such hesitation.
“Why are you following me?”
“You said you were treating people to barbecue,” Sakumo said with his usual serious face.
“I can go.”
“What?
Shanks is treating everyone to barbecue?”
A small tremor came from the distance.
A little fatty rushed over at a speed completely mismatched with his body.
Shanks’s mouth twitched.
“Even Flying Thunder God isn’t that fast.”
There was a saying in Konoha: if you were treating someone to a meal, never let anyone from the Akimichi Clan find out.
Otherwise, even the reward from an S-rank mission might not be enough to pay the bill.
And once an Akimichi came, could the Nara and Yamanaka be far behind?
“Ugh… fine.
Let’s go.
Akimichi barbecue.”
Shanks suddenly felt very tired.
“Uncle Chihiro, thirty portions of charcoal-grilled beef and two jugs of sake, please.”
The moment he entered the barbecue restaurant, Shanks acted as if he had come home.
“Shanks,” Akimichi Chihiro said calmly, as if he had expected this.
“Lady Mito already spoke to me.
I’m not allowed to sell you alcohol.”
“Damn it.
Look, I brought you so many customers today.
Just sell it to me secretly.
If you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, how would Auntie ever know?”
“Is that so?
I’m truly heartbroken.”
A red-haired beauty walked in from outside the restaurant, followed by a long black-haired middle-aged man.
In her arms was little Tsunade.
“To think I raised our dear Shanks with so much care, and now that he’s grown up, he’s secretly drinking behind his aunt’s back.
I’m so hurt.
So very hurt.”
“…”
A crow seemed to fly over Shanks’s head.
Lady Auntie, could you at least pretend a little better?
“Lord First Hokage!”
The group of little brats instantly went wild when they saw the old fool Hashirama.
Hatake Sakumo was the only normal one.
As the legal heir of the Hatake Clan, he had met Senju Hashirama plenty of times before.
“Hahaha!
I didn’t expect Shanks to treat his classmates to barbecue today,” Hashirama said, habitually rubbing Shanks’s head.
“Your aunt was worried you wouldn’t get along with your classmates.”
Shanks looked up at the ceiling.
My hair…
“All right, let’s go,” Mito said.
“We shouldn’t disturb Shanks and his classmates while they eat.”
Before leaving, she gave Shanks a gentle smile.
“Shanks, when you come home later, you’re going to tell me what else you’ve been hiding besides secretly drinking.
Otherwise, your aunt will be very sad.”
The look on her face practically said, If you don’t confess, I’ll die right in front of you.
Enough already.
Two hours later, after the little brats finally finished eating, Shanks skillfully told Uncle Chihiro to put the bill under Hiruzen Sarutobi’s account.
Then he packed an extra portion of barbecue to bring to Haruko.
Why put it under Hiruzen’s account?
Because Hiruzen would become Hokage in the future.
In Shanks’s world, the words Hokage and debt repayment were basically the same thing.
Besides, he didn’t dare put it under Tobirama’s name.
Second Hokage meant tattletale.
Third Hokage meant bill payer.
Perfectly reasonable.
Carrying the packed barbecue, Shanks had not yet reached Grandma Inoue’s house near the dango shop when he saw three little brats ahead.
They were standing arrogantly in front of a thin figure curled up in a corner, pointing and scolding.
Shanks moved closer and heard one of the Uchiha children say, “Don’t think you’re impressive just because you know Shanks.
In the eyes of the Uchiha Clan, you’ll always be a lowly civilian.”
“I… I didn’t…” the thin figure cried.
Damn it.
Wasn’t that Haruko?
“You three bastards, stop right there!”
Shanks rushed over and stood in front of Haruko.
It turned out to be Uchiha Sorato and his two little followers from class.
After school, they had seen Shanks invite everyone to barbecue while Haruko hadn’t gone along.
So they waited on Haruko’s way home to vent their resentment from this morning.
The three of them were startled when Shanks suddenly appeared.
But for the sake of face, none of them ran.
Uchiha Sorato forced himself to stay calm.
“Shanks, this has nothing to do with you.
You’d better move.
Otherwise, our Uchiha Clan won’t let you off.”
“Did a door crush your brain, or is it just full of garbage?” Shanks sneered.
“Can you represent the Uchiha Clan?
Because I can tell you right now, I can represent Senju Hashirama.
Tell your Uchiha Clan to come touch me and see what happens.”
Damn it.
When it came to arrogance, Emperor Shanks feared no one.
Wasn’t this just a contest of backing?
All of you were little brothers.
“You…”
Uchiha Sorato choked.
“You what?
If you want to fight, I’ll give you two choices.
Single combat or call for backup.
If you’re not choosing either, then hurry up and get lost.”
“Get lost yourself!”
One of the boys couldn’t take it anymore and rushed forward.
Since when had the Uchiha Clan suffered this kind of humiliation?
The other two saw him move and charged at Shanks as well.
What could six-year-olds of this era really do?
Sure, unlike the children of later peaceful times, they didn’t spend all day playing pretend ninja games.
The clans did train their children from a young age.
But at this age, that was all it amounted to.
At most, a true genius might know a C-rank ninjutsu like the Great Fireball Technique.
And these three clearly weren’t that kind of genius.
Seeing the three of them rush over, Shanks punched the ground.
“Chakra-Enhanced Fist!”
The stone beneath him cracked.
Shanks grabbed a broken slab from the ground and threw it straight at them.
When Uchiha Sorato and the other two saw Shanks crack the ground with one punch, they were already frightened.
Then they saw the stone slab flying toward them.
Their eyes filled with terror.
Just as it was about to hit them, a figure appeared in front of the three boys.
Bang!
The stone slab smashed into the ground, sending cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb.
Not far away, the three boys stared at Shanks in horror.
For a moment, they truly felt that Shanks would have killed them.
Uchiha Kagami stood in front of the three of them and looked at them helplessly.
He had just returned from a mission.
On the way, he saw three children from his clan bullying someone.
This kind of thing was common, but Kagami disliked it deeply.
He had never understood why members of his clan couldn’t simply get along with the people of the village.
They were both great clans, yet look at the Senju Clan.
Kagami had been about to step forward and stop them when Shanks suddenly rushed in first.
No wonder the girl looked familiar.
Wasn’t she the girl Shanks had confessed to?
What was going on here?
Before long, Kagami saw the three boys charge at Shanks and immediately knew things were about to go badly.
He wasn’t worried about Shanks.
He was worried about the three boys from his clan.
Shanks often trained with their teacher and the others, so Kagami naturally knew how abnormal this little brat’s strength was.
At five and a half years old, Shanks could already fight a chūnin back and forth.
The main problem was that he had no sense of restraint.
So Kagami had immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to rush over and save them.
“Brother Kagami… thank you,” Sorato said, his voice still trembling.
“You three go home first.”
“O-okay.”
The three little brats turned and ran.
“Hey!
If you three have guts, don’t run!
Come back and fight me for three hundred rounds!”
After Kagami appeared and saved them, Shanks quietly let out a breath of relief.
He had never actually intended to kill the three of them.
He had only wanted to teach them a lesson.
Who would have thought they were that weak?
Seeing them nearly crushed by the slab had scared Shanks too.
But now that Kagami had saved them, his arrogant nature immediately returned.
Three hundred rounds?
They couldn’t even survive one.
Hearing his shout, the three boys ran even faster.
“All right, Shanks, stop making trouble.” Kagami rubbed Shanks’s head.
“I’ll apologize to you on their behalf, okay?”
Shanks looked up at the sky.
“Can all of you stop rubbing my hair?”
Kagami laughed awkwardly.
“Fine.
For your sake, Brother Kagami, I’ll let those three go this time,” Shanks said.
“But you have to tell them they’re not allowed to bully Haruko again.”
“All right, all right.
I’ll tell them not to bully your little girlfriend again.”
Haruko’s face instantly turned red.
“There’s also one very important condition.”
Shanks’s expression suddenly became serious.
“Go ahead,” Kagami said, his face turning serious as well.
“Brother Kagami, you go on missions alone now, right?”
“That depends on what Teacher arranges.
Most of the time, yes.
Why?”
Kagami looked curious.
“When you leave the village for a mission, help me buy a few bottles of alcohol.”
Shanks actually looked a little embarrassed as he said it.
“Why would I do that?
You’re still too young to drink,” Kagami said with a helpless smile.
“Just tell me whether you’ll help or not.
If you don’t, I’ll go back and tell my uncle that your Uchiha people blocked me on my way home.
Then I’ll ask him to plant trees all over your clan compound.”
“You little brat…”
Kagami didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Only once.”
“No problem.
It’s a deal!
Brother Kagami, Haruko and I are leaving first.”
The moment he finished speaking, Shanks grabbed Haruko’s hand and ran.
He was afraid Kagami might realize that Mito had already blocked all of Shanks’s alcohol sources inside Konoha.
“Haruko, are you okay?
Did they hit you?”
“I’m okay.
They didn’t hit me.
I was just a little scared.”
Haruko’s face was still red, but there was a sweet warmth in her heart.
“That’s good.
Here, I packed barbecue for you.
It’s from the most popular Akimichi barbecue restaurant in the entire Land of Fire.”
“Ah, you really don’t have to.
I can eat when I get home.”
“Then take it back and eat it with Grandma Inoue.”
“Then… all right.
But next time, don’t buy me something so expensive.”
“Mm.
Next time, I’ll take you to barbecue myself.
I’ll grill it for you.”
“Okay.”
“Come on.
I’ll walk you home.”