Chapter 342: Telescope
Following Kurotsuchi's group, Masahiko and the three children entered the Hidden Stone Village without any hindrance.
After bringing them into the village, Kurotsuchi waved goodbye. "Red-haired uncle, we have to go see the old man first. See you later!"
Masahiko also waved his hand. "Mm, we'll look around the Hidden Stone Village first."
Once Kurotsuchi and the others were far away, Karin suddenly lost her mind.
"Hahahahaha hiccup... Red-haired Uncle Shanks, where are we going first!"
Masahiko's face was covered in dark lines. "Steady, steady. Kimimaro is watching you!"
Karin was startled. She hurriedly restrained her tomboyish behavior and peeked at Kimimaro, only to find that Kimimaro wasn't looking at her at all, but was instead observing the scenery of the Hidden Stone Village...
Masahiko was helpless. "I just disguised myself as Shanks, why did it make you so happy?"
The corners of Karin's mouth were still twitching. "Great Elder, we've entered the Hidden Stone Village! How could we possibly hide our identities? And what's this about you being a performance artist..."
"I never planned on hiding it in the first place. Ohnoki will soon receive the news and know that I'm here. But he might not necessarily tell those two children."
Karin was stunned. Just as she was about to ask why, Masahiko smiled and said, "Let's go. I'll take you to see what the Hidden Stone Village is like."
...
Meanwhile, in the Tsuchikage's Office.
The little old man Ohnoki floated in mid-air, his fist pressing down on the top of Deidara's head, constantly grinding and twisting.
Deidara shrunk his neck, looking like he dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak.
Kurotsuchi, on the side, was smiling broadly. She wasn't gloating, but rather...
"Old man, you have to fly just to teach Big Brother Deidara a lesson now."
Ohnoki glared, then let out a sigh. "This hateful brat is growing too fast."
"Old man, it's not that Big Brother Deidara is growing fast, it's that you're getting shorter. I'm taller than you now too." Kurotsuchi blurted out the truth.
Ohnoki blew his beard and glared, but he couldn't do anything about this mischievous granddaughter.
It took a long while for him to calm down. He floated back to his seat and sat down. "Brat, I heard you were intercepted by people from outside the village?"
Deidara turned his head away haughtily, refusing to answer. It was Kurotsuchi who replied, "It was a red-haired uncle named Shanks. He said he was hungry and wanted to shoot a bird to eat, so he shot Big Brother Deidara down."
"Hungry, shoot a bird? Red-haired Uncle Shanks?" Ohnoki was slightly taken aback. This style seemed somewhat familiar.
"There's something wrong with that Shanks. He's accompanied by an Ice Release ninja, and another one who seems to have the legendary Shikotsumyaku, using the bones from his own body to fight. Un!" Deidara added from the side.
"Ice Release and... Shikotsumyaku?"
Kurotsuchi looked surprised. "So that was the legendary Shikotsumyaku! No wonder it was so strong that even you weren't a match for him, Big Brother Deidara. That guy named Kimimaro is even a year younger than you."
Deidara's face flushed red. "That's because I was out of clay! Otherwise, my art would never fail! Un!"
Kurotsuchi curled her lip. "If there was something wrong with that Uncle Shanks, why would he let Kimimaro fight you alone? He's so strong..."
"Is that Shanks very strong?" Ohnoki interrupted.
Kurotsuchi was stunned. "He should be very strong. Uncle Taiseki used Invisibility to sneak attack him, but he knocked him unconscious with a single kick, and he's still out cold."
"Taiseki..." Ohnoki nodded thoughtfully. He roughly guessed who this so-called 'Shanks' was.
"Did that Shanks say what he came to our Hidden Stone Village for?"
Kurotsuchi nodded. "He said he wanted to show the three people with him around. He also told us to spar with them more to improve our strength together."
Ohnoki understood. "Tempering the younger generation?"
Pondering for a moment, he looked at the two children in front of him. "Since there's no malice, it's good for you to find peers to spar with. But before that, Deidara, you brat!"
Deidara: "Ah!~"
...
Hidden Stone Village Casino.
Masahiko smiled as he watched the three children in front of him gamble.
Gambling was indeed something easy to get addicted to. Only Haku remained somewhat calm. Even Kimimaro stared at the dice cup being shaken and opened with a slightly flushed face, not to mention Karin, who was shouting loudly on the side.
As for why they were in a casino? Naturally, it was because Masahiko was short on money.
Traveling and having fun along the way had used up all of his banknotes, which he had squeezed out of the fat cat's mouth when he was a chef.
The amount of banknotes wasn't much. If they hadn't run into a few blind ninjas who came looking for trouble on the way, that little bit of money wouldn't have lasted until now.
Finally entering the Hidden Stone Village, the banknotes Masahiko had on him were only enough to cover the lodging expenses for the four of them. They couldn't even afford to eat. Naturally, they had to come to the casino to 'withdraw some money'.
About half an hour passed. The three children, who had been playing with great enthusiasm, returned dejectedly. It was perfectly normal to lose everything on one's first time gambling.
'Dang dang dang! Dang dang dang~~~ Dang dang dang! Dang dang dang~' — This was the God of Gamblers BGM Masahiko played in his mind as he strode forward, clutching his remaining one thousand Ryo note.
An hour later, the three children stared dumbfounded as Masahiko went on a winning streak, adding the word 'ten thousand' after the 'one thousand'.
"God is truly omnipotent!" Kimimaro's face was full of worship.
"Great Elder, share some with me." Karin also had a money-grubbing attribute.
"Great Elder, many people are watching us." Haku was the calmest.
Masahiko smiled. "Let's go. We'll look around the Hidden Stone Village. Buy whatever you want!"
Not long after making that bold claim, Masahiko's expression stiffened in front of a shop.
"You dare sell this thing for five million Ryo?!"
It was indeed his first time seeing the item in Haku's hand in the Naruto world—a monocular telescope.
Although rare, Masahiko didn't think it was worth the bounty of an S-rank mission.
He felt he could make several of these things in minutes. Wasn't it just finding the right distance between two lenses and putting them together?
The shop owner was an honest-looking middle-aged man, his face full of pride. "This is no ordinary telescope. The materials are rare, and the craftsmanship is exquisite. Our shop only has two in total, and the other one was bought by Lord Tsuchikage!"
Masahiko was momentarily taken aback. He took the telescope from Haku's hand and placed it over his eye to look through it.
"Oh? It uses chakra?"
The magnification of the telescope wasn't high, only around 40x. However, using it required focusing chakra into the eye, and the resulting image was very clear.
"Interesting. Using this thing for a long time might bring some unexpected gains."
Constantly focusing chakra into the same eye while using this telescope would make that eye's 'vision' exceptionally good, even granting it the ability to see through simple genjutsu. If that was the case, five million Ryo was well worth it.
Masahiko turned in a different direction, switched eyes, and tried the telescope again.
"Huh?" Masahiko was startled. In his line of sight, Kurotsuchi and Deidara were slowly walking towards them.
But what exactly had Deidara gone through to end up with a 'don't look at me' attitude and a 'bird's nest' hairstyle?
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