Well, my name is Li Li. After time-traveling, I changed my name to Artoria. Because I turned into a wife, I've been working hard to maintain the image of a wife in front of my peers, imitating a wife's mannerisms. In front of my elders, I've always stuck to the shameless policy of acting cute.
I wake up at six every day and exercise for three hours. Ever since Invisible Air appeared, I've trained in this skill every day to grind proficiency, and then wait for the System daily quests to refresh. Because quests can only be claimed once a day, I always pick the one with the highest reward out of the many options. The one I do most often now is "doing a good turn daily." Thanks to that, most of the villagers have a very good impression of me.
Originally, everything was going well, until a few days ago, when I ran into a perverted monkey peeping in the bathhouse. After I caught him, instead of repenting, he actually stared straight at me. Damn it, I'm a man with a normal sexual orientation! Staring at me is one thing, but he actually called me Lily. Damn it, is Lily a name for you to use?
So, without hesitation, I beat him up. I didn't expect this perverted monkey, who looked unreliable, to actually have some strength; I almost flipped over. Fortunately, his father arrived in the end.
Watching him stare at me even after being beaten, yelling, "I won't give up on you, Lily!", I didn't feel a shred of being moved—instead, I felt a chill down my spine. Being targeted by a man is no good thing.
Also, yesterday, Uncle Akai told me that two days from now, the three surviving Sengoku F4 will be openly taking on disciples at the village square. Who knows how many disciples these big shots will take.
To get chosen by the F4, today I got up at 2:30 in the middle of the night. After working out for two and a half hours, I started claiming today's quest.
Today is another D-rank quest, but unexpectedly, a hidden quest popped up.
"Hidden Quest: Become the disciple of one of the following: Senju Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, or Senju Tobirama.
Quest Rewards: 500 Free Points, 1,000 Mall Coins, Super Projector.
Failure Penalty: Permanently lose your little brother."
Very well, the rewards are great, the penalty is also very humane, and the System speaks nicely—I love it so much.
I silently clenched my fists. What's so great about that? Worst case scenario, I won't sleep tonight, and I'll just double my training volume today, right?Having made up her mind, she strode out of the living room and headed toward her other property, a place called Arthur Casino. From watching anime, she had realized that thanks to certain fat sheep, a casino was likely the most lucrative business of all. Therefore, shortly after arriving in Konoha, she had used the money earned from selling sushi to build a wooden cabin, bought some gambling equipment, and put together a decent-sized casino.
However, although she now had a casino and making money wasn't much of an issue, food remained her true passion, which was why she had never sold the sushi restaurant.
Because of the sushi shop, the casino typically didn't open until the afternoon, meaning it should have been completely empty at this hour. Yet the moment she opened the door, a middle-aged man with long black hair came into view. One hand was holding her classic cadre-style thermos, while the other was using the matching tea mug to catch the pouring water.
He was using her thermos! Her mug! Drinking her water!
"Oh! Lily, you're here!" The middle-aged man seemed pleasantly surprised, a reaction best demonstrated by him promptly swallowing a mouthful of steaming hot water—from *her* mug! Using *her* water!
"Lord Hashirama..." *We don't seem to be that close...* Artoria narrowed her deadpan eyes, barely holding back the rest of her sentence.
The man in front of her could kill her with a single slap. No matter how friendly he appeared in the anime, she didn't dare act too presumptuous when meeting him for only the second time.
"Come on, come on, don't be so serious. Kids these days are really no fun at all." Lord Hashirama grinned cheekily as he handed Artoria a cadre-style tea mug. Just yesterday, he had been thinking about coming over to ask if Lily was interested in gambling. Who would have thought that after a casual inquiry—well, what do you know?—the kid actually ran a casino! Wasn't this a tailor-made disciple just for him?
Lily's eyelids twitched, and she nearly failed to suppress her rising fury.
That's my tea mug! Mine! This is *my* home, not yours! Aren't you getting a little too familiar here, Lord Hashirama?
"Lord Hashirama, what brings you here?" Artoria forced down her anger and shifted her gaze away so she wouldn't have to look at the middle-aged man before speaking.
"Oh, right, almost forgot," Hashirama scratched his head and said, "Lily, what do you think of Konoha?""Konoha?" Artoria blinked, pretending she had never heard of it before.
"Ah, Konoha is the name Madara and I came up with for the village just a couple of days ago. Catchy, right?"
"Yeah!"
"Then what do you think of Konoha?"
"It's great. The villagers are all happy, everyone is very friendly, and with the village around, the Land of Fire has far fewer wars," Artoria answered without hesitation. This was genuinely what she thought. In fact, she believed that for a country to truly prosper, the existence of another powerful rival was indispensable. Otherwise, if there were only one nation in the Shinobi World, it might be fine for a short time, but division follows unity, and unity follows division; a massive war would eventually break out all over again.
As long as a single enemy still existed, even if there were internal issues, the vast majority of the time everyone would unite against the outside world at the crucial moment.
However, since she had never been a leader, her thoughts right now were probably just her desire to slack off and be lazy.
"Then what do you think is the meaning of the Hokage? Or rather, what is the meaning of the village's leader?" Hashirama asked, worried that she might not have heard of the Hokage, and hurriedly added.
"The meaning of the Hokage... probably just to make sure the villagers can eat their fill and dress warmly, and that they can unconsciously wear a smile during their leisure time," Artoria said after a moment of thought, giving the answer held in her heart. In her view, true greatness might be measured by how powerful the leader was or how prosperous the village was, but the daily lives of ordinary people were actually an equally vital part of the equation.
"Is that so..." Hashirama looked deeply at Artoria, then smiled and said, "Then would you be willing to become my disciple? My only one, you know."
"Ah, sure," Artoria replied unconsciously. Only after it registered did she instantly raise her head, looking at Hashirama in disbelief.
At the same time, the system's signature electronic chime echoed in Artoria's mind.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for completing the mission."
"Reward: 500 free attribute points, 1,000 store coins, Super Projector."
"Item Name: Super Projector"
"Function: Can remotely project any object within a ten-kilometer radius, with effects 100% replicated (Note: Can only project, has no real physical effect)."
"So it's just for show? Can the Holy Grail be projected out?"
"Yes," the system replied.
It actually could... Artoria swallowed hard. Wouldn't that give her all the time she needed to develop safely...? These two supreme powerhouses—one was now her teacher, and the other was temporarily being stalled by her using the Holy Grail—if these two didn't fight a civil war, how could a war possibly break out!
This! She had never had such a wonderful starting hand!
Artoria looked carefully at the Super Projector, only returning to reality after a long while. She had almost scared Senju Hashirama, who meticulously checked her over and kept pulling on her arm, saying he wanted to take her to see Tobirama to get her brain checked. It took a lot of talking from Artoria to convince him that nothing was wrong with her head.
Finally, after spending the afternoon sitting at Arthur's casino, a fully satisfied Hashirama left. Before leaving, he told Artoria to go to the Senju clan grounds the next day to meet her second master.
Artoria didn't pay too much attention to her cheap master's words. After dumping all her recently accumulated free attribute points into Taijutsu, she silently continued today's training task.
"Name: Artoria"
"Age: 5"
"Ninjutsu: E+ (207/500)"
"Taijutsu: D+ (255/5000)"
"Genjutsu: E+ (278/500)"
"Chakra: D (55/1000)"
"Noble Phantasm: Invisible Air Level 2 (C) (399/500)"
"Store Coins: 4700"
"Evaluation: Chunin"
"Ding... The System Store has upgraded to version 1.1."
"The store has been updated."
Artoria covered her mouth in surprise, then took a look at the store.
Just like before, this time the store also only had a single Noble Phantasm available. The last one had been Invisible Air, which had only appeared after she finished redeeming it and kept going until one of her attributes reached Chunin level. This time, the Noble Phantasm was named: Excalibur Gallatin, and it required a full 50,000 store coins.
Looking at Excalibur Gallatin, a flicker of contemplation crossed Artoria's eyes: Could it be that every time this store updates, it only allows the redemption of a single item?
......
Uchiha clan grounds
Uchiha Madara irritably tossed the letter he had just finished reading to the side. The Holy Grail... where on earth was it......
......
Senju clan grounds
Senju Tobirama's residence
Senju Tobirama angrily placed the administrative paperwork he had just finished processing onto the desk. Anija... don't let me catch you!