After finishing the match, Hiruzen felt a heavy weight in his chest.
Looking at the pile of administrative work in front of him, he suddenly lost the motivation to continue.
Now, every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was [Are you hurt?]
No physical injuries, but his heart was wounded.
"Hokage-sama, the Mizukage from Kirigakure has come to visit. Will you meet with her?"
---
"Choujuro, what are all these people on the streets doing? Those little black squares in their hands... they're so strange."
"I... I don't know either."
Chojuro shook his head, and both of them turned their gaze to Ao.
Ao coughed lightly, "I'm not sure either, but it seems interesting. Maybe we can ask."
Suddenly, a Ninja wearing Anbu uniform appeared in front of the three.
"Hokage-sama has agreed to meet with you. Please follow me."
---
After winning against Hiruzen's account for the first time, Naruto was ecstatic. "Uncle Zabuza, you're so awesome!"
Zabuza chuckled, "Alright, I still have some boosting to do. If you want to learn, you can watch from the side."
"That's awesome!"
---
For Yuto, this wave of updates had indeed brought in a huge profit. The system interface showed that the money he had easily surpassed one billion and was now heading toward three billion.
And this number was still growing!
How many Ninjas were there in Konoha? Yuto wasn't entirely sure, but the number of registered players in his game had already reached over 4,000.
Since the founding of Konoha, the total number of Ninjas had only been around 12,000.
Based on the comparison between Hiruzen's Ninja Registration Number (261) and Naruto's (12607), it was clear that in the past sixty years, Konoha had produced around 12,000 Ninjas.
Not many of them had died of old age, probably no more than a thousand.
Because most of the Ninjas had died in battle.
After several Ninja World Wars, the number of these Ninjas had been reduced by nearly half.
Yuto didn't want to overstate it, but based on the clues he could gather, the current number of Ninjas in Konoha wouldn't exceed 5,000.
This also aligned with the speculation from a 'Naruto Expert' in his previous life, who estimated that Konoha had fewer than 6,000 Ninjas during the Fourth Ninja World War.
Of course, every village had its periods of rapid expansion.
During the Third Ninja World War, when Minato was leading teams, Konoha had an average of over 600 Ninjas graduating each year.
In Sunagakure, Matsuri was the 212th graduate in his class. Although the total number of graduates in that class wasn't known, compared to Konoha's current average of around 100 graduates per year, it was clear that Sunagakure had also gone through a rapid expansion phase.
From this perspective, it was clear that his game had truly become a phenomenon among Ninjas.
As for the total number of civilians, Yuto couldn't provide a detailed estimate.
But one thing was certain... the number of civilians wouldn't exceed ten times the number of Ninjas, and it might not even reach six times.
This also means that there are still many people who do not have these two slightly superior Ninjas, Edo Tensei Hashirama and Tobirama.
'Doesn't that mean...'
Yuto began to imagine the possibilities of expanding the game to neighboring cities and villages.
While he was lost in thought, three special guests arrived at the shop.
"Is this where Zabuza works? It looks quite busy."
"Yeah, I wonder how he's been doing here. Taking care of so many customers must be tough for him."
"If I had known, I would have left him more money. If he had starved himself and lost weight, his muscle lines wouldn't have been as perfect."
Hearing this, Ao couldn't help but say, "Mei-sama, all of Zabuza's money is meant for rebuilding Kirigakure. That's his wish. It's fine if he suffers a little."
---
Seeing the group entering the shop, the customers didn't even look up.
Instead, they were either yelling or cheering at a small black square in their hands.
"I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead …"
"Shodaime-sama is too powerful! My skills are just too good!"
"Bro, what are you thinking? You dare to initiate from that far? What's going through your mind?"
"Just tell me, did it hit or not?"
…
Looking at the absurd scene in the shop, the smile on Mei's face froze.
As Chojuro looked at the store full of Konoha Ninjas, a look of panic appeared on his face.
"Mei-sama... maybe we should just leave and come back for Zabuza another time."
Mei shook her head and said, "We're already here. Besides, we can ask him to explain why Konoha feels so different from last time."
As she spoke, Mei gave a strange look to the odd Ninjas in the shop.
But seeing how focused they were, she decided not to interrupt them directly.
At that moment, a short figure slowly approached.
"Excuse me, what can I do for you three?"
The newcomer was none other than Dosu, the shop clerk.
Mei took a look and saw that the mature boy in front of her was wearing a forehead protector from Otogakure, which made him look out of place among the other Ninjas of Konoha.
This was actually something Yuto had specifically requested, aiming to let Dosu fully embody his character.
Even though Dosu was no longer an Otogakure Ninja, wearing the forehead protector wasn't a big deal.
It was like how some Missing-nin from certain organizations still liked to wear their old village's forehead protectors, albeit with a scratch through them to show they were no longer affiliated.
Dosu's, however, was brand new.
Mei looked at the boy in front of her and, instead of getting straight to the point, teased him, "Little brother, you're working in a shop at such a young age?"
Dosu's expression darkened. These days, people either called him 'Dosu the Sage' or 'Brother Dosu.' But looking up at the Mizukage hat on Mei's head, he swallowed his anger and said, "Are you here to see Zabuza-san?"
Mei smiled and nodded, then followed behind Dosu.
Seeing the line of people and Zabuza sitting nearby with his legs crossed, also holding a small black square, Mei asked, "What's going on here?"
Dosu replied, "Boosting services. These people are waiting in line."
Mei looked at the line. The person at the front of the queue said, "Brother Zabuza, help me get to Anbu rank. 300,000 ryo. Uh, preferably by tomorrow night."
Haku, who was handling the registrations, said softly, "Tomorrow night won't work. There are over ten orders ahead of you. How about the morning after?"
"That works."
The man handed over 100,000 ryo to Haku, "As per the rules, the remaining 200,000 ryo will be paid after the job is done. Please thank Brother Zabuza for me."
"Understood. If the rank isn't achieved by the agreed time, the remaining payment will be waived."
After a brief exchange, the person in line handed over the small black square.