章 98: Show Me the Money!

After Naruto and Sakura had slept the night away in their hotel room in Shukuba town, Jiraiya had eventually returned from wherever he'd gone off to, after chasing after the curvy woman in the black dress.

Naturally, Naruto and Sakura had been furious at him for not having been there to protect them against the Akatsuki, but upon spotting the bright red slap mark on his right cheek, their anger had immediately abated.

'What kind of monster can land such a hit on a Kage-level opponent?' Inner Sakura had said fearfully. 'Was it Kara? Actually, has Kara even been founded yet? Is that how they got Jiraiya's DNA!?'

Sakura had never watched Boruto, but she had read some of the manga— as such, she was missing plenty of crucial information that would only appear in filler.

…

And so, after forgiving Jiraiya, the group had once again hit the road, and after walking for a while, they had reached the next city on their pilgrimage to visit all of the Land of Fire's gambling hotspots.

"We'll be stopping there for a while," said Jiraiya, pointing at the large crater coming up ahead in the road. "It's the perfect place to collect information and relax!"

Sakura had no idea how a crater would bring them any closer to finding Tsunade, but as they drew nearer, she began hearing the sounds of a bustling town. Whose idea exactly had it been to build a city inside of such a deep hole!? Didn't it flood every time it rained?

Putting aside the logistics of rainwater elimination, snippets of old memories were beginning to resurface in Sakura's memory. Wasn't this where Naruto had begun to learn the Rasengan?

"Shouldn't we hurry up and find Lady Tsunade?" said Sakura quickly. "The Leaf Village is in a huge pinch without a Hokage, isn't it!?"

Sakura didn't want to spend too much time playing around, seeing as she didn't know what sort of treatment Hinata was being forced to endure at the hands of the Hidden Cloud. Also, if Naruto were to learn the Rasengan, then the only cooperation Ninjutsu they'd ever use together again would be Rasengan combo moves!

"You did well, driving off the Akatsuki," said Jiraiya, ruffling Naruto's and Sakura's hair. "You need to learn to relax, or you'll get stiff shoulders…"

Speaking of which, Sakura had got very lucky. It's not like Itachi would fall for her tricks again— the only reason why she had bested him in the first place was because they'd been competing in Genjutsu, and all of his concentration had been going towards maintaining the Tsukuyomi's dream world. In a one-on-one scenario, Itachi would have instantly killed her before she had even woven the first seal to the Breast Illusion Genjutsu— and he wouldn't underestimate her again.

At any rate… what Jiraiya had said sounded dangerously close to sexual harassment, so Sakura shot him a suspicious look… which he gleefully ignored.

"Wow!" said Naruto, his eyes shining, as he eyed the people below them milling about like ants. "I've never been to a place like this before, ya know!"

"Would you mind going on ahead and renting a room for us?" said Jiraiya, turning to Sakura, "I need to speak to Naruto alone, for a little bit."

And there it was; Sakura was already being treated like their personal maid, while the lads were going out to have fun and train!

"Money," said Sakura spitefully, holding out her hand.

"Lemme see your wallets, you two," said Jiraiya. "We'll split the cost of the room."

Naruto unsuspectingly rummaged around in his backpack until he found his froggy wallet, while Sakura reached into her cleavage and retrieved her depressingly empty pink wallet. Surprisingly, even though they had gone on the same missions, Naruto still somehow had more money than she did.

Did Naruto have the entirety of Minato's inheritance in there!?

"I saved my money, little by little," Naruto proudly explained, as he lovingly rubbed the full froggy wallet against his cheek. "I put some money aside for my retirement, after each mission!"

Compared to Sakura, who liked to splurge on snacks and sweets, Naruto spent very little of his money on food— cup ramen wasn't expensive, and he'd often get free meals at Ichiraku's. And thanks to his Shadow Clone Spam no Jutsu, Naruto never really ran out of ninja tools— he'd always have his Shadow Clones throw their kunai and shuriken, while he'd keep the originals in his pockets!

"That can't be all you've got," said Jiraiya, eyeing Sakura up and down. "Unless…"

"Wait," said Sakura nervously, as she watched him slowly inch closer to her. "What are you— kyaaaa!?"

Jiraiya flickered behind Sakura and grabbed her by the ankles, lifting her into the air and dangling her upside down… and then he gave her a good shake.

"St-o-o-o-p!" Sakura shrieked with a jittery voice. "They're gonna pop o-u-u-u-u-t!"

Sakura held onto her chest for dear life, while Jiraiya shook her like a mother shakes her toddler; pricking up his ears to listen for the telltale jingling of coins rubbing against each other.

"I! Don't! Have! Any! Hidden! Money!" Sakura howled. "Now! Leggo! Or! I'll! Tell! Tsunad-e-e-e-e-e!"

In the end, a solitary 50 ryō coin fell out of Sakura's pocket, and Jiraiya finally stopped shaking her up and down. She really was that poor…

'Oh,' said Inner Sakura, eyeing the coin. 'I've been looking for that.'

"Do you see what happens when you don't respect the Three Prohibitions, Naruto?" said Jiraiya sadly. "Your girlfriend's already becoming like Tsunade, at such a young age…"

Naruto kept trying to look Jiraiya in the eye as he listened to the old man's lesson, but his eyes kept drifting just a bit lower, to the upside-down weapons of mass distraction. Just a bit more, and he'd be able to see the pink…

"What's that?" asked Naruto distractedly. "The Three Probihimissions, or whatever, I mean."

"You mean, you don't know!?" Jiraiya exclaimed. "They're the three vices that will lead a shinobi to ruin: alcohol, pretty girls, and money."

Naruto was now looking pretty worried. In the future, when he married his Sakura-chan, would she waste all of his hard-earned money, causing them to live in abject poverty?

"I'm really going to get mad, ya know?" said Sakura calmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Are you going to let me down, or am I going to have to punch someone?"

Jiraiya shook his head in sympathy for whoever would marry Sakura in the future. She really was similar to Tsunade, in more than two ways…