I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 576: Inadequate wording can even distort the truth.

When Yekura saw the line of people, forming a black line, coming over the sand dunes in the distance, she finally realized that the Sand Ninja in the camp had really come to find her, and that Tatsuma wasn't just making things up.

She looked at Tatsuma with a flustered and guilty expression, put the kunai back into her ninja tool bag, and subconsciously raised her hand to smooth out the wrinkles she had made at Tatsuma's collar.

She also noticed some small, loose vines, which she picked away as well, then said, "Don't give yourself away!"

Shukaku crouched down, bringing its large face close to watch the interaction between the two. It didn't understand, but it found it very interesting.

This is much more interesting than that strange old man chanting scriptures every day. It's tired of hearing those scriptures, and it doesn't even need to consciously recall the content; it can still reproduce the sound and image of that strange old man chanting scriptures in its mind.

Tatsuma bent down to pick up the fallen rubber cup lid, patted off the yellow sand stuck to it, and was about to hand it to Yokura, but stopped halfway through his outstretched hand.

The next moment, tendrils of vines grew from his hands, intertwining to form the shape of cup lids. He held two cup lids in his hands and handed them to Ye Cang.

"What are you doing?! Aren't you afraid of being found out?"

Yekura's words were filled with panic and resentment, but she quickly took the two cup lids. However, instead of putting them back on the cups, she glanced back at the approaching Sand Ninja and stuffed the two cup lids into her ninja tool bag.

Brushing aside her hair, which was flying wildly in the wind, Yecang tried to calm herself down. She then waved to the approaching Sand Ninja, indicating that there was no danger.

The approaching Sand Ninja slowed down immediately. On one hand, they were intimidated by the imposing presence of Shukaku, which resembled a mountain of gold. On the other hand, some noticed the man in front of Pakura who wore gold-rimmed glasses and looked like a refined scoundrel.

Juan was one of the few who didn't slow down. Even though she was panting from the depletion of her chakra, she rushed to Yekura's side and buried herself in Yekura's arms.

Yekura naturally wrapped her arms around the back of Maki's head and gently stroked it.

After confirming that her teacher was not injured, Juan gently pinched her cheek and looked at Chenma.

Tatsuma also lowered his head, revealed a smile, and greeted the little girl. At this moment, more and more Sand Ninjas gathered around, and some of them were even anxious, asking what had happened.

Ye Cangsong opened the book, looked at Tatsuma, and said, "I'm not entirely sure either, so let Ginpachi-san explain."

Tatsuma pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and said, "I just went to Rasa's place and took some chakra. I happened to run into Shukaku who had escaped, so I freed it from Rasa's imprisonment."

"Hmph, I ran away on my own."

Shukaku complained, as if Tatsuma had saved it. Tatsuma paused, then said, "Didn't you say you didn't run away?"

"I said run, not escape!"

Hearing the conversation between the human and the tailed beast, the Sand Ninja, who were initially on high alert, suddenly became less afraid, feeling that Shukaku had a kind of endearing, stubborn charm.

Tatsuma shrugged, not delving into the matter, and continued to the crowd: "So, as you can see, I brought back the gold, and Shukaku."

As they spoke, the gold slid off Shukaku's body, gathering into a cube. Tatsuma asked, "Can you sell this gold?"

"That's a bit too much."

Ye Cang was dazzled by the amount of gold. No gold merchant could possibly consume so much of it, and the difficulty of selling it was far greater than she had anticipated.

"Then don't sell so many. Keep some for me to make a suit."

Seeing that its body surface had turned back to the color of yellow sand and was now covered with black runes, Shukaku was somewhat dissatisfied. It looked better when it was golden, and it was more majestic than any tailed beast!

That strange old man didn't like the golden body, but it loved it terribly. No, wait, the golden body is for the dead. Oh well, it's not human, so it doesn't care about that.

Tatsuma glanced at Shukaku and said to Yekura, "Ignore it. We can take our time and deal with it slowly. After all, war isn't just a single battle."

When Tatsuma said those words, Yekura felt a strange and disjointed feeling. This bastard in front of her, who was playing the role of a refined scoundrel, was a ninja of Konoha, and moreover, the undisputed Fourth Hokage.

Does his helping me count as aiding the enemy?

Tatsuma wasn't worried about that much. In a sense, victory in war is achieved by spending money, but that's only "a certain way." To win, it's not just a matter of money.

Given the current state of Sunagakure and the fact that Pakura's approval rating has not yet recovered, money does not have as much of an effect as one might imagine.

In particular, if, like Konoha, they start planning and stockpiling war supplies before the war officially breaks out, then the money at this stage will be extremely useful.

But now the war has entered a deeper stage, and it is too late to adjust the layout of war preparedness resources and production capacity. By the time the adjustments are made, the war may already be over.

Now that all five great nations are involved in the war, the situation of Iwagakure selling war supplies during the Second Shinobi World War will not occur again; they can only be self-sufficient.

Sunagakure's production capacity is completely insufficient to cope with a large-scale war. In other words, no matter how much money Yekura has now, she cannot buy any supplies that can directly benefit the war effort.

The only way to improve the combat situation is to change some of the resources that need to be collected, such as food and water, into a procurement model.

It might be beneficial in combat, but its effect is not significant, since there will be losses during the energy conversion process.

Tatsuma took the gold from Rasa, then exchanged it for money, and used the money to purchase supplies. In the end, the positive effect he had on the battle against Sunagakure was not enough to make up for the losses suffered by Rasa's side.

This round of resource restructuring is internal to Sunagakure and will not have any impact on the outside world. In fact, at least for now, Konoha has actually benefited.

Luo Sha's resources were destroyed, and Luo Sha's personal strength was reduced to a certain extent due to Chen Ma's plundering. It will be difficult to restore the combat effectiveness of the entire army in a short period of time.

On Yekura's side, although they obtained money and the tailed beast Shukaku, it still takes time to convert gold into money and money into resources.

As for Shukaku, the best-case scenario is that it doesn't cause trouble if Tatsuma isn't around. Tatsuma brought Shukaku here not to help Pakura fight against Konoha, but to use the influence of the tailed beasts to weaken Rasa's trump cards.

While it may seem like he was aiding the enemy, in reality, Tatsuma's actions impoverished Rasa but didn't truly enrich Yokura.

However, it is only because Yekura, as the beneficiary, has this misconception.

She gave Tatsuma a deep look, though his deadpan expression annoyed her—she was just hungry. She then looked away, her gaze falling on the gold-flecked cube, and said:

"Not only is the quantity large, but no major gold merchant would dare to buy magnetic sand gold. The gold in Rasa's hands has never been worth much because Rasa can get it back whenever he wants after selling it."

Tatsuma nodded, but he wasn't worried. He simply said casually, "Let's melt it down. Once it's melted into a large piece of gold, there won't be any more concerns."

"Then what about your combat strategy?"

Yekura asked instinctively, but then she realized that the guy in front of her was just pretending to be "Ginpachi-san" but he was still Sakamoto Tatsuma.

For Rasa, gold dust is the foundation of all his power, but not for Tatsuma. Rasa's strength lies in the amount of gold dust he can manipulate.

Although it's unknown when he learned Magnet Release, compared to Tatsuma's other techniques, Magnet Release is insignificant. Even if he loses these gold dust, it won't affect Tatsuma's strength.

But the question had already been asked, and the other Sand Ninja had also thought of this problem. They looked at Tatsuma with doubt, and Tatsuma pushed up his glasses and said, "I am a teacher, not a ninja. You can handle things like combat."

Moreover, it was agreed beforehand that I would not fight against the Konoha ninjas because I am afraid of dying. As for the Sand Village, if I could take Rasa's gold dust once, I could naturally take it a second time.

"Once we've fought him, I can just use his gold dust directly, can't I?"

That makes sense, and "Mr. Ginpachi" did indeed do it, but it sounds a bit strange. In "Mr. Ginpachi's" eyes, was the gold dust that Rasa relied on for survival and even became famous for was just a resource that could be directly obtained?

The Sand Villagers had never seen anything like it before; they couldn't understand how a capable ninja could so calmly squander his talents.

Yekura understood; she knew this was just Tatsuma's excuse! Afraid of being killed by Konoha ninja?!

She actually believed that excuse back then! Not to mention Sakamoto Tatsuma, based on the strength that "Ginpachi-sensei" showed, Konoha probably only had Sakamoto Tatsuma who could kill him.

What's infuriating is that Sakamoto Tatsuma couldn't possibly have killed "Ginpachi-sensei" because they are essentially the same person.

"Alright, let's melt them all down then."

Yekura nodded, having figured it out. Many Sand Ninja frowned, even Maki gently tugged at Yekura's hand, and even Tatsuma frowned.

Yekura lacks sufficient leadership skills.

Although none of the Sand Ninja present would suffer losses as a result, and in fact all would benefit, Pakura's decision, or rather her way of speaking, was easily disheartening.

Clearly, Yekura had realized what was happening, but she didn't know how to smooth things over. Tatsuma sighed inwardly, but outwardly smiled and said:

"Then I thank you very much, Lady Yecang. I was worried that after I demonstrated my abilities, you would disregard our previous agreement and insist that I go to the front lines to fight."

In just a few words, Ye Cang's actions completely reversed the image in everyone's mind. She was not someone who disregarded the interests and losses of her partners, but someone who kept her promises and knew how to conduct herself appropriately.

Taking "Mr. Ginpachi's" gold was not to take advantage of "Mr. Ginpachi's" achievements for free, but simply to fulfill the agreement that he did not need to go to the battlefield.

That's often how it is; a sentence or two, or even just a word or two, can turn something negative into something positive, and vice versa.

Yekura glanced at Tatsuma gratefully. Although it was wrong of her, she enjoyed the feeling of having someone to back her up. These were the few times she had experienced this, and it was all thanks to this person.

"Let's go back to camp first. It's not safe to smelt so much gold here. Let's do it back at camp. Also, please ask those in the camp who are skilled in fire-style techniques to offer their help."

Tatsuma loudly addressed the people around him. In fact, at least in Tatsuma's opinion, there were no Sand Ninjas skilled in Fire Release techniques in the camp. But it wasn't difficult to say some nice things. There were quite a few people in the team who only knew one or two Fire Release ninjutsu, and they eagerly raised their hands to sign up.

After nodding and responding a few times, the group prepared to set off. However, many people still looked at Shukaku with concern. Tatsuma noticed this, turned around, raised his hand, pressed it down, and gave Shukaku a look.

"Ugh! What a hassle!"

"Whoosh~ Rustle~"

Shukaku's body disintegrated, its mountain-like form instantly shrinking to human size. As it walked, although countless sand dunes still followed it, at least the Sand Ninja's megalophobia was gone.

Aren't you leaving yet?

Shukaku muttered something, and then all the Sand Ninja subconsciously tensed up, because they had been supported by Shukaku's sand and were now gliding along.

"Thanks."

Yekura said softly, but Tatsuma seemed not to hear her.

(End of this chapter)