Hanging onto Konoha's biggest backer is the only way.
People like Danzo who enjoy brainwashing, and Orochimaru who likes dissecting, are both unreliable.
It's only because Orochimaru has his eye on him that he's willing to get involved in Konoha's messy affairs.
For the first time.
Kaze felt a surge of resentment towards Danzo, which even extended to the Konoha higher-ups like Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Always engaging in so much pointless infighting.
He hopes Minato Namikaze takes office soon.
The group of twelve people spent two hours successfully reaching the mountain outpost.
And under Nara Shikaku's arrangement, they completed the basic defense.
— — — — — — — — — —
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Chapter 87: Sasori of the Red Sand
Crunch, crunch, crunch...
Akimichi Choza sat cross-legged on the ground, munching on the potato chips in his hand, unable to understand why they were having so much fun.
"Royal Flush!! Gone, right? Can't beat that, can you? Give up, right? Still trying to fight me? Overestimating yourself! Last card, a three..."
Kaze threw out his last card, clapped his hands, narrowed his eyes, and casually stubbed out the cigarette butt he was holding in his mouth on the ground.
"Inoichi, sort the cards!"
As he spoke, he didn't know where he got two small white strips, spit on them, and stuck them on the foreheads of the two people amidst their extremely disgusted gazes.
Nara Shikaku was alright; there weren't many strips of paper on his face, maybe a dozen or so, but Yamanaka Inoichi was different. His face was covered in white strips, almost obscuring his features; only the eyes seen through the gaps confirmed that there was a human face underneath.
"Where did you get so many good cards, kid? Are you cheating?" Yamanaka Inoichi complained, the paper strips fluttering erratically in his breath as he spoke.
Despite complaining, he honestly sorted the cards.
"Cheating? You underestimate my title as the Gambling Saint too much," Kaze said with a disdainful expression.
However, his face wasn't completely empty either; there were still a few strips of paper stuck to his face.
There was no way around it; Nara Shikaku was a BUG. In just a few rounds, he had gradually grasped the essence of Fight the Landlord and even mastered simple card counting and hand planning.
The strips of paper on Kaze's face were basically all stuck on by him.
As for Yamanaka Inoichi, that was purely his own fault.
He frantically bid to be the landlord as soon as he got good cards, but under the seamless cooperation of Kaze and Nara Shikaku, the commoners repeatedly defeated the landlord.
Overall, Kaze, who was better at planning, had the upper hand.
But if it continued, that wouldn't necessarily be the case. He was already starting to feel hesitant to compete with Nara Shikaku, but fortunately, there was Yamanaka Inoichi, a pig teammate, who had screwed him over more than once.
"Continue! I don't believe it!"
Yamanaka Inoichi didn't think he was stupid; at least, based on his usual performance, he belonged to the category of smart people.
It was just that he took things too much for granted.
"I'm not playing anymore, I'm not playing anymore. You can't even stick any more on your face; it's no fun," Kaze said, backing down.
"You spat so much saliva on our faces, and now you want to run?" Yamanaka Inoichi grabbed Kaze.
"You guys can find Choza; he's been watching for so long; he probably knows how to play too."
Anyway, he wasn't going to play anymore, no matter what.
Yamanaka Inoichi glanced at Choza, who was still eating, his eyes gleaming.
"I'm not playing; I don't know how," Akimichi Choza said honestly in a muffled voice.
"Don't be like that, Choza, give it a try," Yamanaka Inoichi said, unwilling to give up.
"Not playing," Akimichi Choza said firmly.
He just didn't like using his brain, which didn't mean he was stupid. He couldn't beat others in this kind of game that obviously relied on wits, so it was better to be honest.
"Forget it; if you don't want to play, then don't play. It's too brain-taxing and too troublesome," Nara Shikaku said, tearing off the white strips on his face.
Fight the Landlord was brain-taxing; at first, he just found it novel.
After gradually mastering it, he also found it boring; playing shogi was more fun.
No, playing shogi was also troublesome.
He shook his head.
Only Yamanaka Inoichi was left there, feeling somewhat unwilling.
"It's about time; we should go out and patrol to change shifts," Nara Shikaku clapped his hands and stood up.
"Whose turn is it?" Kaze asked.
Changing shifts had nothing to do with him.
But three pairs of eyes fell on him, their meaning self-evident.
"Hey, I'm injured," Kaze said, his eyes widening.
"How are you like an injured person at all?" Nara Shikaku said, smoking his cigarette.
Yamanaka Inoichi nodded, and Akimichi Choza also said matter-of-factly, "When you were snatching my food, you didn't look like an injured person at all."
"It's okay; it's temporarily very safe here, and you're not going alone; Hota and the others will go together."
"Is it possible to say that there's no danger and there really be no danger?" Kaze muttered softly.
But he wasn't too resistant.
The group of twelve of them were just right to be divided into four groups to take turns guarding the border.
He was a corpse collector, but he wasn't an exception here.
