Chapter 12: Selling por…a Love Story

The discussion with Danzo went as well as Hiruzen expected it to go. In conclusion: It didn’t go well at all.

‘Sigh, there is nothing more annoying than attempting to get information from Danzo. If questioned he deflects the question and if given some form of proof he just slaps an “It’s for the betterment of Konoha” on it. Whatever, it’s not like he can do something while the twins are protected by ANBU.’

He was just about to relax a bit and to prepare his smoking pipe with his favorite herbs when someone knocked on the door.

“Hokage-sama I have something to report about the twins”

‘Sigh, can’t an old man enjoy a relaxing smoke’

He quickly stowed away his smoking utensils and called for the person to enter.

“What happened this time? Has Yuna reappeared?”

“Yes, she has. She returned to the hotel room a few hours later. Then she left with Naruto and went towards the market. There she entered one of the flats on the main street.”

“A flat? Who is the owner?”

After Hiruzen asked that question the ANBU in front of him visibly started to fidget, which naturally was something Hiruzen would notice.

‘If it’s Danzo I will probably get an aneurysm’

“Err, it was just bought today. The person that bought it was called…err… Biyuku Muzukia…”

An oppressive silence descended upon the whole room, while Hiruzen felt like he is about to get a massive headache.

“Please tell me that name isn’t written like I think it is”

“I’m afraid it is written exactly like that”

Both people in the room were trained shinobi so they instantly saw through such a simple trick. An anagram. That’s right, Yuna casually revealed that she knows about the Kyuubi. Why did she do it? First of all: It changes nothing about her situation. Whether people know that she knows about Kurama or not doesn’t really matter. As long as she doesn’t leak any of his bloodlust or chakra, nothing will be done about it. The second and much more important reason is, that she imagined it would cause quite a few people to panic, which she thought would be hilarious. She was indeed correct about that assumption, because after Hiruzen finished digesting the new information his headache got so bad that he felt like a mountain was smashed on his head.

“*groan* Whatever. Whether she knows about it or not doesn’t matter. As long as she seems to be stable, just ignore it. Inform me again if she starts acting aggressive and starts attacking people. As long as nothing negative happens we will do nothing. Dismissed”

“HAI!”

‘Now that I think about it, where in the world did she even get the money to buy the hotel room and that flat?’

He was just about to ponder it some more when another spike of pain went through his head and he decided to just drop the matter.

‘Since no one complained, it’s fine, right?’

Meanwhile, Naruto and Yuna reached their new flat. Naruto didn’t really care where he lived. The people at the orphanage were ignoring him anyway, so he didn’t really care whether he stayed there or left for a new place. As long as Yuna was present, it was enough for him.

“Well, here we are Naruto. I have some writing to do.”

“Nee-san you can write? What are you going to write?”

“Haha, your nee-san can naturally read and write. I can teach it to you later.”

Naruto however only gave her a weak nod as an answer. He was clearly not really interested in it.

“As for what I’m going to write. It’s por… *cough*a love story.”

[I told you that you are the greatest source of corruption for Naruto.]

‘Shup up, stupid fox. I totally saved it. No corrupting has happened.’

[I wonder when you are going to slip the first time~]

Naruto on the other hand immediately lost interest. He wants to be a ninja and doesn’t care about love stories. Just like that the twins entered their new flat and started their own activities. Yuna would write her book, while Naruto would continue his chakra control exercise.

Three weeks later, Yuna was finally done with her book, while Naruto is at the last step of his training: coating his whole hand in chakra.

“Naruto I’m going out for a while. I will be back in about two hours.”

“Okay, nee-san!”

‘Well then let’s get this thing to a publisher. Oh, I almost forgot to get rid of my stalkers.’

10 minutes later she walked into the publisher of her choice without any stalker following her around. They might have paid more attention to her than the first time, but that only increased the difficulty by a bit. At first, people were rather skeptical about her claiming that her work can compete with the Icha Icha series, however, a little preview of one of the spicier scenes quickly let her pass through the reception, and just 10 minutes later she managed to meet someone that looked important. Big belly, expensive-looking clothes, and a bunch of rings on his finger. The typical “I’m really important” look.

He also started reading Yuna’s book. While he was reading his face became redder and redder. And after just a short while he started breathing heavily as well.

‘Kurama, if he takes “it” out then prepare to turn this building into dust’

[Can’t we do it before he takes “it” out. I really don’t want to see that]

Just when Yuna was contemplating Kurama’s suggestion, the man smashed both his hands on the table.

“OUTSTANDING! This will sell. This will sell A LOT! We will publish this as soon as possible! Can you sign the contract right now?”

‘Oh, so he was just getting excited about being able to publish something good, huh. Good thing we didn’t turn him into dust preemptively.’

[Still not convinced.]

“Haha, of course, but are you up for a little marketing scheme?”

Yuna’s smile turned slightly mischievous after asking that question. There is no way she would just sell the book and then be done with it. She thought of something that might grant her an additional trump card in certain situations.

“Oh? What kind of scheme are we talking about here?”

“You will send out review copies, right?”

“That is indeed the case. We usually send out somewhere between 50 and 100 review copies.”

“Then what if, there happens to be a little accident while making those copies? For example, in one instance the main character is called by the wrong name. Let’s see. Maybe the name of the main character of another novel that’s really popular right now? That would be a really funny mistake, right? In case my book gets popular enough, some collector would probably pay quite a bit of money for one of those copies, right? And then, we may be, coincidently find some more unsent copies laying around that we forgot to send away. Of course, all of that would just be a coincidence and certainly not attempted fraud.”

[Have I mentioned that you are the Devil?]

‘Pretty sure you called me a Demon last time, not the Devil.’

“I see, that really would be a lot of convenient coincidences.”

Naturally, the man in front of her wasn’t stupid. He could see that this scheme would make a lot of money, but also that there was a bit of a risk to it. After thinking it through some more he decided to just accept the deal. This wouldn’t be the first time someone did something like this and certainly not the last time. Even if people started to spread rumors, that’s all there will be to it.

“I accept. After all, what can I do if the people in the print department make a mistake like this? I can’t exactly check every copy for mistakes.”

“Haha, indeed. By the way, I would like 5 of those accidentally written copies for myself and naturally, I will sign all of the ones that accidentally didn’t get sent.

“Naturally.”

Just like that, the two of them sat opposite each other with a crafty smile on their face and hashed out the last details of the contract.

Only four days later a new book appeared in the bookstores and took the fire nation by storm: Garden of Lilies written by Red Rose.