Chapter 242: The Freeloader Who Came for the Free Lunch
Every pair of eyes in the room — startled, curious, openly puzzled — settled on Ryū as if he were some rare specimen on display.
Minato's earlier words, paired with Danzō's reaction, had been more than enough to send the outside-village shinobi spiralling into speculation. Their instincts told them this young man was nothing simple.
For Konoha's leadership to behave this way toward someone? Beyond bizarre.
Which was why the elderly Sand jōnin had asked the question in the first place.
Caught in the spotlight, Ryū blinked once, then answered with cheerful indifference. "Me? Just a Konoha citizen. That's the right word, right? Citizen? Anyway, that's all I am for now. I'm only here to make up the numbers today — don't mind me, please continue."
Every word out of his mouth was the literal truth. He really was just an ordinary citizen.
But the elderly Sand jōnin clearly wasn't buying a syllable of it. A man capable of producing that reaction from both the former and current Hokage — an ordinary Konoha civilian? Was this young man mocking him for being old and slow? The excuse was almost insulting in its laziness.
Still, since this peculiar young man had no interest in giving a real answer, the elderly Sand jōnin chose not to press. The way Konoha's leadership treated Ryū had quietly raised his guard.
If even the Hokage looked at this kid with that kind of deference, then this young man was no ordinary figure.
And Minato's earlier phrase — "Konoha's strongest" — that one really did invite a great deal of thought. A young man who looked barely twenty, the strongest in Konoha? If anyone else had said it, he would have laughed it off. The problem was that the speaker had been the Fourth Hokage of the Land of Fire himself.
Could this young man… really possess strength of that order?
While the representatives of the other hidden villages sank into their private calculations, Minato rose smoothly from his seat, a practiced smile on his face. "Now that the appointed time has arrived and everyone is present — the Chūnin Exams will be held in two weeks. Which means we have just over ten days to prepare. We need to settle today the matters surrounding the exams themselves."
Minato slipped into the role of seasoned orator with ease, barely glancing at his notes.
He really was a competent Fourth Hokage. The unfortunate part was that Konoha's "old guard" — every one of them — refused to release so much as a fingernail's worth of their authority, even to the man wearing the hat.
The result was that Minato often looked less like a Hokage and more like a figurehead. Apart from the title "Fourth" and his personal strength, nothing about his position resembled what a village Kage was supposed to be. He had been comprehensively boxed in.
Of course, Minato knew this perfectly well. He saw the game clearly.
Which was precisely why he'd swallowed his pride and invited Ryū here — to put the fear of god into those very same old men. Honestly, he hadn't held out much hope that Ryū would actually accept.
Things, however, had taken an unexpected turn. The great Buddha had actually shown up.
And right now? The great Buddha was very much fulfilling his purpose.
Take Danzō, for instance — normally the most enthusiastic disruptor in any room. Today his face was frozen in a sour mask that radiated I would prefer not to speak. The former Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, meanwhile, had drifted into a serene, far-off contemplation, ceding the entire stage to Minato.
As for the rest of the advisory council? Their political acumen might be a matter of debate, but none of them were fools.
If Danzō and Hiruzen had both elected to keep their mouths shut, the rest of them weren't about to seize the spotlight.
And so the floor belonged entirely to Minato.
Listening to him in full flow, Danzō pursed his lips with an expression of muted disgust, and his eyes drifted — almost against his will — toward Ryū, several seats down.
This bastard has actually inserted himself into the proceedings. And he's making it abundantly clear which side he's on. This is a problem. Every day he backs Minato openly is a ten-percent reduction in my opportunity.
Damn it… Didn't he say he had no interest in politics? No — technically he hasn't intervened in Konoha politics. He's just standing on Minato's side… Bastard! What's the practical difference between that and intervening?
Danzō cursed internally — but only internally. Out loud was impossible.
Until he became Hokage, he valued his own skin above all else, and he wasn't about to throw it away for the satisfaction of one tantrum. Voicing that kind of curse in this room could very plausibly result in him dropping dead on the spot.
Ryū was no longer a thorn in his side.
Ryū was a Tsar Bomba.
The kind that would flatten Konoha into a parking lot the moment it detonated.
Then a small tremor ran through Danzō's chest — because that same Ryū was looking at him with a faint, almost-amused expression, eyes glittering with mockery, as if he could see straight through every thought Danzō had just had.
Danzō yanked his gaze away, pretending the glance had been incidental.
A damp sensation was spreading across his back. His robes were already half-soaked with cold sweat.
Tch… So that's the famous King of the Wok. The man who, in the original storyline, ate the blame for more than half of Konoha's catastrophes. He doesn't seem to like me much — though I suppose that's because the attitude I've shown is registering as a threat. Past fifty, almost sixty, and still clinging to the Hokage seat? I genuinely don't understand the appeal of that job.
Ryū didn't need to deploy Observation Haki for even a shallow read to know that Danzō was, at this very moment, cursing him out internally.
But Ryū didn't have the King of the Wok on his radar. Honestly, the man was just… too much of a pushover.
In canon he'd been killed off by Sasuke, which was, frankly, embarrassing. Hard to understand how he'd ever crawled into that position. He had every expensive skin unlocked, the best possible rune loadout equipped, a full six-item endgame build — and still played like an unranked bot.
Going to war with someone like that would just invite accusations of elder abuse.
Ryū gave a resigned smile and decided to leave the King of the Wok to his own devices. Whatever scheme Danzō was cooking up in there, he had zero interest in finding out.
Given Danzō's chronically paranoid personality, the man would never actually move against him. Ryū wasn't the Uchiha — the Uchiha had their special eyes, yes, but almost the entire clan also had something wrong upstairs, which was precisely how Danzō had been able to engineer their downfall.
Ryū's head was in perfectly good working order. And his strength sat several tiers above everyone else's.
Which meant Danzō, no matter how hard he wracked his brain, couldn't dream up a workable plan.
The meeting ran for about two or three hours. Once every matter had been settled, Minato and the rest finally drew the discussion to a close.
Ryū, whose ears were on the verge of growing calluses, glanced up at the wall clock.
It was already 11:40. Nearly lunch. Come to think of it, he hadn't eaten breakfast — the whole point of showing up had been the free meal — and after sitting through hours of administrative chatter, he hadn't even been offered a glass of water.
He was beginning to suspect he'd made a serious miscalculation.
He stifled a long, bored yawn — and then Minato's voice cut through.
"Excellent. With all outstanding matters now resolved, I will assign personnel to handle the preparations and ensure that this year's Chūnin Exams proceed without incident — for the peace of all our villages."
The moment Ryū heard that sentence, his entire posture sharpened. Finally.
Minato continued. "If none of you object, I would like to invite you all to the Hokage Building's dining hall. Our chefs have prepared a generous luncheon — featuring delicacies unique to Konoha."
The elderly Sand jōnin inclined his head with a smile. "Since the Hokage has extended such hospitality, it would be impolite of me to refuse today."
The representatives of the other villages nodded in turn, accepting Minato's invitation.
Tsunade drifted over from the side, her expression somewhere between bemused and openly curious. "Lord Ryū — please tell me you weren't being literal earlier when you said you only came here to mooch a free meal. You spent the entire meeting looking like you were about to fall asleep, and now suddenly you're wide awake."
Ryū nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Do I look like the kind of person who shows up to do actual work?"
Tsunade: "…"
She had nothing. Genuinely nothing. Because the lethargic, slumped energy Ryū had radiated during the meeting really did give off the impression of a guy who'd shown up purely to drift through the proceedings and inhale a free lunch on the way out.
In fairness, though — Ryū hadn't done nothing. The act of simply walking into this office had been his largest contribution of the day.
His mere presence had effectively muzzled Danzō and the rest of the old guard.
Because Ryū was in the room, Danzō hadn't dared open his mouth.
And the rest of the advisory council, reading the situation precisely, had likewise stayed quiet.
Ryū had no interest in whatever Tsunade was puzzling over. He was already on his feet, looking at Minato, rolling his neck out. "It really is a generous luncheon, yes? My appetite is on the substantial side."
Minato blinked, then broke into a warm laugh. "Generous indeed. Having invited Ryū-kun, I would hardly be so careless as to underprepare."
He had, after all, witnessed Ryū's eating capacity firsthand at Ichiraku Ramen.
Minato had ensured the kitchen was prepared for the apocalypse.
And as it turned out, he hadn't been exaggerating. When the group arrived at the Hokage Building's dining hall, the long banquet table was buried under platter after platter of every conceivable delicacy.
The sheer volume was absurd — enough to feed two hundred people.
There were only twenty-some of them.
A representative from one of the outside villages muttered under his breath. "Isn't this… a bit wasteful?"
Some time later, he would have entirely forgotten ever saying those words.
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