Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Friends Under the Sunset
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Under the setting sun, on a park bench, Menma and Naruto sat at opposite ends.
The two orphans simply watched quietly as the other children in the park were picked up by their parents.
"Um... Menma, why are you willing to hang out with me?" Naruto mustered his courage and asked the boy on the other end of the bench, his voice tinged with hopeful confusion.
Though the two had only sat in the park for a short while after dinner, quietly watching the sun set in the west.
But for Naruto, when all the other kids in the park avoided him like the plague, having someone willing to sit on the same bench and watch the sunset with him was already a rare friendship.
"Hm?" Menma turned his head slightly, the sunset's glow casting a soft outline on his face.
He looked at the blond boy with blue eyes and six whiskers on his cheeks beside him—Uzumaki Naruto.
The protagonist of this Naruto world, the future "Child of Prophecy" who would save the world.
"I had a friend once who helped me out when I was feeling pretty lost myself. Maybe I see a bit of my old self in you," Menma made up on the spot.
He knew the Third Hokage's crystal ball was monitoring Naruto at all times.
There were Anbu keeping constant watch around Naruto too, so the Third Hokage was bound to find out about him getting close to Naruto.
Besides, Menma wasn't entirely sure himself what was drawing him to Naruto.
Was it because Naruto was the protagonist? Or because he'd transmigrated as Naruto's brother, stirring up some deep familial bond thicker than blood?
Menma couldn't quite sort out the feeling.
He didn't want to disrupt Naruto's growth, at least not before Naruto graduated and the main storyline kicked off.
But he was furious about Naruto's current situation.
Where had Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina's assets gone? All that money! And the house!
Kushina was the last of the Uzumaki Clan, and Grandma Mito had treated her like her own daughter. Even if the clan's inheritance didn't go to Kushina, Grandma Mito would've set aside some family-starting assets for her, right?
And Namikaze Minato—not to mention his pay as the Fourth Hokage, he'd completed 39 S-rank missions in his ninja career, earning a fortune.
A single S-rank mission paid at least a million ryō, and that was after the village took its cut for the team that accepted it, with the jonin leader taking half, so 500,000 ryō.
39 S-rank missions alone came to at least 19.5 million ryō!
And that didn't even count 323 A-rank missions, 216 B-rank, 147 C-rank, and 122 D-rank.
Even at the lowest estimates—A-rank at 150,000 ryō, B-rank at 80,000, C-rank at 30,000, D-rank at 5,000—Minato's total career earnings came to over 230 million ryō at mid-range values, or more than 54 million at the bottom end.
All that money! It couldn't have all gone to custom Flying Thunder God kunai for Minato, and it sure couldn't have vanished after he and Kushina got married and bought a house.
So where was it?!
Even if only a fraction like four million ryō was left, spread over the twelve years until Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy and could earn as a genin, that'd be over 27,000 ryō a month!
If it all went to Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto could've eaten over 500 bowls a month! Until he puked!
But how much had old man Sarutobi Hiruzen given him?
Naruto loved eating cup ramen, never cooked, had instant noodles for two out of three meals a day, maybe milk and fried eggs for breakfast—how much could that cost?
Yet he scraped by with no pocket change each month, and going to Ichiraku Ramen was a luxury feast!
"Friends?" Little Naruto's eyes suddenly lit up, full of anticipation. "So, are we friends now?"
"I suppose we are." Menma rubbed his stomach.
This month's friend fee had been collected.