"Hm? Huh? Golden Will? Who triggered it this time?"
"Oh—Minato? Why did he suddenly grant me Golden Will? Isn't he still below Kage level?"
"What? The Golden Will came from playing *Fruit Ninja*? Let me see… Whoa, he cleared over sixty high-difficulty *Fruit Ninja* runs after the press conference? What a grindlord."
"Right, Minato's biggest limitation has always been lack of actual combat experience, and the chakra drain and risk involved in advancing Flying Thunder God Technique training. But this genjutsu game that simulates a player's actual condition makes up for that perfectly."
"Plus, there's the buff from being the 'official spokesperson'—it makes sense that his growth is fast."
"Tch… So that means Minato's already hit his peak state from the Third Great Ninja War era?"
"Damn… In canon, once Minato reached his peak during the latter part of the Third War, he practically soloed both Iwagakure and Kumogakure and ended the whole war. If he's hitting that level early… how are the other nations supposed to even fight in the Third War now? Am I really about to witness the legendary 'blink and you're dead' in real time?"
"Tch tch tch. I could go around bragging, 'My bro Minato is Hokage material.' Eh, better not. It'd just be awkward—for him and for me."
Uchiha Kei looked at the system notifications, feeling rather pleased.
How did he know it was Namikaze Minato?
Because Minato was one of the characters Kei had marked for special system monitoring. And did people really think becoming the sole certified spokesperson of the genjutsu game was that simple?
[System: Since the spokesperson represents the host's game brand, the selected spokesperson must undergo special monitoring to ensure their gameplay behavior doesn't negatively impact the host's creation.]
Exactly. Because Minato was the designated spokesperson, the system tracked him directly. Any emotion value or Golden Will generated by him was separately logged.
Another perk of being a spokesperson: emotion value and Golden Will weren't limited to actual gameplay. Even just thinking about the game with the right emotional state could generate output—essentially turning the spokesperson into a special emotion-value generator.
Like this time—two points of Golden Will were generated when Minato reached Kage-level and reflected emotionally on *Fruit Ninja*, which, when combined with previous experiences, triggered the reward.
Given Minato's age, he was bound to keep producing emotional value in the future—he was a super output perpetual motion machine.
Of course, Kei didn't choose his best bro to be the spokesperson just to harvest his gains. Minato gave something, but he also received.
As a system-certified spokesperson, Minato gained a +20% boost to learning ability, recovery rate, injury resistance, and training efficiency.
According to the system, a proper spokesperson must embody all-around development—whether athlete or celebrity, they'd receive buffs to help them improve efficiently.
Basically, the spokesperson had to be someone like Eddie Peng or Kobe Bryant—someone known for pushing themselves to the limit and constantly striving for more. The system's buffs made them even more exceptional, and their personal excellence would reflect positively on the host's game.
No doubt, these buffs would be crazy even on Earth. But given the average human ceiling there, their effect would be limited.
In the ninja world, however? They were borderline game-breaking.
If the system didn't forbid it, Kei would've signed himself as a lifetime spokesperson immediately.
But since he couldn't use it on himself, his best bro would benefit instead. If the system allowed more than one spokesperson, he would've signed up every close friend to share the buffs.
Right now, though, only one slot existed—so it naturally went to the most profitable choice: Namikaze Minato.
Given the current state of the ninja world and Kei's situation, the stronger Minato got, the more Kei stood to gain.
Kei also had a fantasy carried over from his past life—if Minato survived, if he got some kind of cheat like others, could he one day catch up to monsters like Uchiha Madara or Hashirama Senju?
In canon, Minato had always been hailed as an unprecedented genius. Next to him, everyone else seemed lesser.
Now, with Kei helping him power up, he hoped his bro would rise to the top.
As for whether secretly giving Minato this power-up made him an 'invisible hero'...
Tch tch tch. Did people really think Minato didn't know?
Or that the system would hand out this kind of buff without the recipient knowing who it came from?
Kei didn't say it. And Minato didn't ask. That was the mutual understanding between true bros.
Digging deeper would just make the whole thing too absurd to explain.
That's what you call Konoha's legendary "bonds".jpg!
With that thought, Kei used up all the Golden Will for a high-tier draw—six points in total.
Why six?
Because he hadn't used the two from Tsunade before, and another two had recently come from grumpy old Uchiha Madara.
Apparently, Madara had gotten his hands on a new copy of *Fruit Ninja* and danced his heart out in the genjutsu game again.
While the emotional value wasn't as fiery as the first time, his satisfying gameplay still generated two more Golden Will points for Kei.
At Madara's current rate, *Fruit Ninja* would soon stop producing returns. Kei would need new games to keep the old man pumping out coins.
When all six points were spent, the results were six purple items—and a mountain of blue and green ones. The drop rate was abysmal, making Kei wonder if the system had opened a backdoor the first time just to give him a newbie boost.
Of the six purple items, three were attribute boosters: two stamina vials and one energy potion. Kei used them all immediately.
The effects were clear, but didn't push his Sharingan to the next level. He'd need more energy potions for that.
The other three items? A bulletproof yacht, a bulletproof armored vehicle, and a spray that instantly healed all external injuries. All classic items based on the system's deep paranoia about real-world business warfare.
The system clearly feared its host might one day die from hostile corporate tactics.
————
Meanwhile, within the Hidden Leaf Village, a delegation from Sunagakure had arrived.
Their leader, Rasa, went to meet Lord Third at the Hokage Office, while the others stayed at the inn.
Officially, that was the plan. In reality, the delegation's second-strongest ninja—Sasori—immediately left the inn and, quite boldly, asked the Konoha ninja assigned to 'watch over' them where to find the genjutsu game.
The Konoha ninja was speechless. But seeing that Sasori looked young, handsome, and gave a good first impression, he didn't react harshly. Besides, the village higher-ups had anticipated that foreign villages would send people to investigate the game. Their instructions were simple—just redirect them to the arcade.
So, the Konoha ninja told Sasori to head to the arcade and gave clear directions, making sure he could find the place.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, Sasori arrived at the Leaf's largest arcade—an Uchiha-run facility that was enormous and constantly packed.
When Sasori walked in, he saw a sea of people. The interior was divided into segments, each with people playing the genjutsu games.
Since the games immersed players into a genjutsu world, what Sasori saw was a bunch of people sitting or lying around in weird poses with blank expressions.
Each area also had zones for livestreaming. Sasori saw previews of several different games.
The most popular, by far, was the newly launched *Left 4 Survival*. Nearly 90% of the players were there for it.
The other two games were single-player, so players could just buy them and play at home. *Left 4 Survival*, on the other hand, required a team.
Without internet, the only way to find teammates was at a place like the arcade.
Sasori didn't know any of this, of course. But the staff warmly welcomed him, introducing several games, offering recommendations, and advertising membership perks—spend 10,000 ryō and get 1,000 ryō bonus, that kind of thing. It was full-on 21st-century Earth consumer trap vibes.
Determined to gather intel, Sasori ended up spending 5,000 ryō to register as a Leaf Gaming Association member—and immediately topped up 50,000 ryō.
That was the highest recharge tier, which earned him a bonus of 10,000 ryō. Sasori thought it was the best deal, so he went all in.