Chapter 560: Five Hundred Thousand Ryō (Patreon)

Kenway Compound — Medical Room — Konohagakure

"…How much money do I receive according to the contract?"

Madara's question hung inside the medical room long enough for Alaric's raised eyebrows to slowly settle.

He opened his mouth… then stopped.

His gaze moved toward the ceiling while he mentally reviewed the agreement they had made after Izuna's resurrection had been offered.

Five years of employment.

Madara would remain neither subordinate nor slave.

No kneeling, genjutsu, seal of obedience, no expectation that he call Alaric by any title, no Infinite Tsukuyomi.

No new organization built around overthrowing civilization, attacks against Konoha, and no Ten-Tails… not like Madara could ever make another one.

Madara could refuse an order he considered morally unacceptable.

Izuna's resurrection would never be held over him as leverage.

They had discussed almost everything necessary to prevent Madara Uchiha's employment from somehow becoming another international catastrophe.

Except money.

Alaric slowly scratched his cheek. "Huh…"

Madara's eyes narrowed.

Izuna looked between them.

Haku recognized his teacher's expression immediately.

"You never decided," Haku said.

Alaric pointed toward him. "Correct."

Madara stared. "You offered me five years of employment without determining compensation."

"In my defense, you had the Ten-Tails inside you when we were negotiating."

Madara's expression remained flat.

Alaric continued, "There was a lot happening."

"You were the one who proposed the agreement."

"Yes."

"…And you neglected the salary."

"Also yes."

Madara remained silent.

"Alright," Alaric folded his arms. "That's easy enough to fix."

Madara watched him carefully.

The matter was more complicated than simply assigning a number.

Someone with Madara's capabilities could complete missions that entire hidden villages would normally treat as military campaigns. Paying him according to the destructive capacity he represented would be absurd because no conventional mission structure had been designed for a shinobi capable of fighting all Five Kage, summoning meteors, flattening armies, and surviving attacks that would kill almost anyone else.

At the same time, giving Madara ordinary Jōnin wages would be insulting.

Alaric considered the practical requirements instead.

Housing was already covered whenever Madara remained at the Kenway Compound.

Food there cost him nothing.

Medical treatment, should he somehow require it, would cost him nothing.

If Alaric assigned Madara a mission under the five-year agreement, mission expenses would be separate from personal money.

Travel required another category entirely.

Madara noticed his silence. "You appear to be calculating."

"I am."

"How much does a modern shinobi normally earn?"

"That depends."

Alaric shifted his weight against the edge of a nearby table.

"Village missions are ranked. D-rank missions pay very little because they're usually simple local work. C-rank increases from there, while B-rank and A-rank can provide meaningful money depending on the client and risk."

Izuna listened with increasing interest.

"And S-rank?" he asked.

Alaric looked toward him.

"Usually enough that nobody sane treats it as casual work."

Madara's expression carried little concern.

"I assume you are not assigning me D-rank missions."

Alaric smiled.

"I would pay to see someone send Madara Uchiha to find a missing cat."

Hearing this, Izuna's mouth curved.

Madara, however, ignored both of them.

Alaric continued more seriously, "The problem is that your capabilities break the normal scale. If I price every assignment according to how many high-level shinobi would ordinarily be required to replace you, I would distort the economy simply because I asked you to destroy a fortified position."

Madara folded his arms. "That is your concern."

"Yes, which is why I'm not doing it."

Madara raised a brow.

Alaric began counting the terms upon his fingers.

"Your housing at this compound is free."

Madara said nothing.

"Food here is free."

Still nothing.

"If I assign you a task, travel and mission expenses are mine."

Madara nodded faintly.

"If equipment is specifically required for that task, I cover it."

"I require little equipment… almost none even."

"I know," Alaric lowered his hand. "And also, any legitimate bounty you collect while acting independently is yours."

Izuna looked interested. "Missing-nin?"

"Yes."

Madara glanced toward Alaric. "You would permit that?"

Alaric frowned slightly. "Why wouldn't I?"

Madara gestured vaguely toward the village beyond the walls. "Modern villages regulate their shinobi heavily."

"You aren't a Konoha shinobi," Alaric replied. "And Izuna isn't under any village's authority either."

Izuna smiled faintly.

Alaric continued, "If either of you encounters an actual wanted missing-nin with a legitimate bounty and decides to hunt them, I'm not stopping you. Just verify the bounty first instead of dragging some unfortunate traveler to a collection office because you thought he looked suspicious."

Madara's expression suggested that particular mistake was unlikely.

Alaric considered the figures one final time… then he nodded. "Five hundred thousand ryō."

Madara's gaze sharpened.

Izuna turned fully toward him.

"Per month," Alaric added.

Madara remained quiet.

Alaric pointed first toward him and then toward Izuna.

"Each."

Izuna blinked.

"I'm not employed by you."

"No."

"Then why am I receiving five hundred thousand ryō?"

"Because you're traveling with someone whose first solution to food expenses was hunting."

Madara's eyes narrowed.

Alaric continued before Izuna could laugh.

"Call yours a monthly allowance. Madara's can be treated as the ordinary personal portion of his compensation under our agreement."

He looked toward Madara.

"Contracted missions are separate. If I send you to do something that requires spending money, you don't fund it out of those five hundred thousand."

"So," Madara studied him. "You would provide one million ryō every month between us."

"Yes."

"For five years."

"If both of you want the allowance that long."

Izuna's eyes widened slightly as he performed the multiplication mentally.

Madara did not react outwardly, although his expression showed that he understood the number was substantial.

Alaric continued, "And that means neither of you needs to hunt for food."

Madara looked toward him. "Unless we want to."

"Yes, unless you actually enjoy hunting."

"Well," Izuna leaned slightly toward his brother. "Nii-san probably does."

Madara ignored him.

"You can also hunt missing-nin if you become bored." Alaric smiled. "Nobody's stopping you."

Haku finally spoke from beside the medical bed.

"I would recommend learning the current Bingo Book before doing that."

Izuna turned toward him. "There is a book containing wanted shinobi?"

"Several versions, depending upon village and region."

Izuna looked genuinely intrigued.

Madara's attention shifted toward him. "You wanted to experience modern life."

"I do."

"Hunting missing-nin is not ordinary life."

"For us," Izuna smiled. "It might be."

"…" Madara had no answer to that.

Alaric pushed himself away from the table. "Good. Salary problem solved."

Madara looked toward him. "How do you intend to give us the money?"

Alaric glanced around the room, then toward Madara's hands. "Give me your wrist."

Madara did not move, though his Rinnegan narrowed immediately.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to give you something."

"What?"

"Your wrist."

Madara's expression suggested that Alaric's explanation had somehow become less satisfactory.

Izuna extended his own arm first. "Do mine."

Madara looked toward him.

Izuna shrugged and said, "He brought me back from the dead and replaced my eyes. I doubt this is where he finally decides to kill me."

Alaric smiled. "Good reasoning."

Madara's brow twitched.

Alaric placed two fingers against the inside of Izuna's wrist, then chakra moved.

Izuna felt a brief warmth travel beneath his skin before black lines emerged from the contact point. They spread in a precise circular arrangement, forming a compact tattoo no larger than a coin before the surrounding chakra disappeared.

Izuna immediately examined it with his newly restored eyesight.

"What is this?"

"Storage seal."

Haku's eyes sharpened.

The structure was far denser than the ordinary storage formulas most shinobi used.

Alaric lifted Izuna's wrist slightly.

"One hundred cubic meters."

Izuna stared at him.

Madara's attention snapped toward the seal. "One hundred?"

"Yes."

"In that?"

Alaric tapped the tattoo. "Space doesn't care how large the ink looks."

Madara slowly extended his own wrist.

Alaric looked at him.

Madara's expression remained severe. "Do it."

Alaric smiled. "See? You're learning."

Madara did not dignify that with an answer.

Two fingers touched his wrist.

The same warm chakra flowed beneath his skin before another compact black storage tattoo formed.

Madara immediately examined it with the Rinnegan, and his expression changed.

There was no conventional scroll medium, nor was there a visible containment chamber.

The fūinjutsu itself functioned as a stable spatial storage system connected directly to the tattoo.

Madara had seen powerful seals throughout his life. The Uzumaki had produced monsters of the art, he witnessed them himself. But this seal… this was different in architecture, although the sophistication was unmistakable.

"A hundred cubic meters," Madara repeated.

Alaric nodded. "Each."

Izuna continued looking at his own wrist. "What can we store?"

"Most nonliving objects," Alaric answered.

"So food, weapons, clothing…"

"Yes."

"Bodies?"

Alaric looked at him.

Izuna's expression remained innocent.

"Dead missing-nin," he clarified. "For bounty collection."

Alaric paused before shrugging. "Technically, yes."

Izuna looked pleased.

Madara gave his brother a long look.

Alaric raised one hand over Izuna's new tattoo. "Hold still."

The black seal emitted a faint light.

Izuna immediately felt something shift inside the sealed space. It wasn't weight against his body, but just presence.

A large quantity of material had simply appeared somewhere beyond the surface of the tattoo.

Alaric moved toward Madara and repeated the process.

Madara's seal glowed, then went dark.

Alaric lowered his hand. "Five hundred thousand ryō each."

Madara examined the tattoo through his Rinnegan. "You transferred currency directly into the seal."

"Yeah, efficient ain't it?"

Izuna focused upon his storage space experimentally.

His perception touched organized bundles of money, causing his eyebrows to rise. "There really is half a million ryō in here."

Alaric nodded.

"Try removing some later. The activation is intuitive once you send chakra into the outer ring. You know, like any other storage tattoo."

Madara continued inspecting the tattoo, then he looked toward Alaric. "You could have simply given me a storage scroll for the money."

Alaric looked around the medical room. "…"

"…" Madara waited.

"Hey," Alaric spread both hands. "Do you see any storage scroll around?"

Madara stared at him. "You could just…"

He wanted to say something but stopped before his eyes closed briefly.

"I don't know anymore."

When Izuna heard this, he laughed.

Haku lowered his head enough to conceal the small smile that appeared.

"Good," Alaric looked satisfied. "Then we're done."

Madara opened his eyes again. "You have not explained whether unused money accumulates."

Alaric had already begun walking toward the door, so he looked back with a raised brow. "Of course it does."

"And if you assign a mission?"

"Expenses separate."

"Bounties?"

"Yours."

"Taxes?"

Alaric stopped. "Oh damn…"

Madara waited seriously.

Alaric stared at him for several seconds before sighing. "Please do not make me explain taxation to you today."

Izuna smiled.

Madara's expression remained entirely serious. "I asked a practical question."

"I know, which is why I'm leaving before this becomes accounting."

Alaric reached the door and touched the sealing formula.

The medical-room barrier loosened.

Before leaving, he glanced toward Haku. "Keep monitoring Izuna's eyes for another hour."

Haku inclined his head. "Yes, Sensei."

"And you," Alaric looked toward Izuna. "No Mangekyō testing until I get back… or you can hse it, whatever…"

Izuna nodded.

Then Alaric looked at Madara.

"Try spending money before you decide money is useless."

Madara scoffed.

Alaric stepped into the corridor.

The medical-room door closed quietly behind him.

What came next made Alaric smile a little… Itachi stood several feet away.

He had apparently been waiting without leaning against the wall or making enough noise to announce his presence.

Alaric stopped when he saw him.

"Itachi."

Itachi inclined his head. "Is the procedure finished?"

"Perfectly."

"And Izuna?"

"Seeing, stable, and currently half a million ryō richer."

Itachi's expression changed by the smallest amount.

Alaric did not explain. Instead, he approached and placed one hand on Itachi's shoulder.

Itachi glanced toward the hand.

"Where are we going?"

"Hokage Tower."

"Now?"

"Yep."

Platinum-gold light erupted around them.

Itachi's Sharingan activated instinctively as space compressed.

Then both men vanished.

Hokage Tower — Hokage's Office — Konohagakure

Tsunade Senju was asleep… not comfortably.

One arm rested across the large desk beneath her cheek while the other hung loosely at her side. Several military reports had become trapped beneath her elbow, and another document remained held weakly between two fingers as though she had fallen asleep halfway through deciding whether she hated its contents enough to throw it across the room.

Her blonde hair had shifted across one side of her face.

A faint line of drool marked the corner of her mouth.

Shizune stared at her.

She had tried twice to wake the Hokage properly.

The first attempt had earned a tired sound that might have been a word.

The second had resulted in Tsunade moving her head to the opposite arm before falling deeper asleep.

Shizune had finally decided that five minutes of unconsciousness was better than another hour of Tsunade insisting she was perfectly capable of continuing.

The office reflected the reason.

Reports from the Five Great Villages covered nearly every available surface.

Supply movements, alliance correspondence, reconnaissance updates, medical-stock inventories, troop readiness, sensor-network changes, and emergency evacuation routes.

Every village remained on alert because Madara Uchiha was supposedly still somewhere beyond their reach preparing whatever came next.

The irony would have been intolerable if Shizune knew he was currently examining a one-hundred-cubic-meter storage tattoo in Alaric's guest medical room.

She did not.

Shizune quietly collected several empty cups.

Then she noticed the bottle.

Tsunade's liquor sat near the edge of the desk.

Shizune's eyes narrowed. "No."

She carefully lifted it to where Tsunade did not wake.

Shizune looked toward the sleeping Hokage, then toward the tea she had prepared earlier.

A decision formed.

She removed the liquor bottle from the desk and began replacing it with the teapot.

If Tsunade awoke and reached automatically for alcohol, she would receive tea instead.

It was a small victory, and Shizune was willing to take it.

She had just lifted the bottle completely away when platinum-gold light exploded in the middle of the office.

FLASH.

Shizune spun around. "AH!"

Her shout tore through the room.

Alaric appeared with one hand still resting upon Itachi's shoulder.

Itachi's Sharingan was active.

Because of the loud yell, Alaric blinked.

Shizune clutched Tsunade's liquor bottle against her chest.

"What?!" Tsunade jerked upright.

Several sheets of paper slid off her shoulder and scattered across the floor.

Her hand immediately reached for the desk as though expecting an attack.

She blinked.

Once… twice.

The office came gradually into focus.

Alaric stood in front of her.

Itachi stood beside him.

Shizune stood near the side of the desk looking guilty while holding Tsunade's liquor.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed.

Alaric looked toward Shizune.

Then toward Tsunade.

Then toward the bottle.

Then toward the teapot now sitting suspiciously where the liquor had been.

His brows drew together. "What was going on?"

Shizune's mouth opened.

Tsunade groaned.

She wiped one hand across her face before stopping when her fingers reached the moisture near the corner of her mouth.

Her expression became darker.

Alaric noticed the drool, but he wisely did not mention it.

Tsunade looked at Shizune, then at Alaric, then back at Shizune.

Her gaze slowly lowered toward the bottle held in Shizune's hands, causing the latter to freeze."

"Tsunade-sama… hehe…"

Tsunade could only stare groggily.

"What the hell is going on…!?"