"I'll go take care of these two guys. Wait for me here. Don't wander off, but also don't let your guard down."
Natsume pointed at himself and smiled. "I, the Hokage, am worth 100 million Ryo. Your battle isn't over yet."
"Don't worry, Teacher Natsume!"
Naruto Uzumaki said with full fighting spirit, "One more time, and we definitely won't be so embarrassed! Right, Sasuke?"
"Yeah."
Sasuke Uchiha nodded, his tone quite firm.
Natsume noticed the change in his attitude and couldn't help thinking that the Uchiha clan really only respected the strong.
Of course, it was also because Mikoto Uchiha was still alive, which made him not as cold as in the original story.
Natsume's gaze fell on Hinata Hyuga.
Unlike the other two, there was a faint look of worry and reluctance on her small face.
Well, she was especially like a young wife.
Natsume couldn't help but stroke her hair before disappearing from their sight.
Kiri.
Since it was already night, Mei Terumī wasn't in the Mizukage's office but at home.
When she was taking a bath, she suddenly looked vigilant. She quickly put on a bath towel and quietly went out.
"Can't you pick a more appropriate time?"
Mei Terumī frowned when she saw Natsume on the sofa and said.
She almost thought there was a thief in the house.
If she hadn't seen clearly who it was, she would have spat out a mouthful of acidic solution, leaving not even a bone.
"Sorry."
Noticing her appearance, Natsume immediately apologized. "I didn't know you were taking a bath."
But he had to admit that she looked quite good.
Her reddish-brown hair was wet and scattered on her waist.
She was wearing a white bath towel, showing her delicate and fair arms and slender legs.
A pair of delicate feet were in slippers, and her dainty toes were rosy and cute from the bath.
Overall, she looked more alluring than usual.
"What do you want?"
Mei Terumī held the bath towel with one hand to prevent it from falling. "Get to the point and leave quickly."
Her tone was a bit impatient.
Anyone would be annoyed if interrupted while taking a bath.
"How about you finish your bath first, and then we'll talk?"
Natsume smiled. "Although I don't mind seeing such a beautiful sight."
Mei Terumī gave him a glare and directly turned around and entered the bathroom.
A few minutes later, she walked out wearing a loose light blue pajamas.
"Do you need me to dry your hair?"
Natsume said brazenly. "I can also help you style it."
Mei Terumī suddenly remembered something from a long time ago.
After being saved by him in Uzushio Village, he changed her hairstyle while she was unconscious.
But she quite liked it and had kept it until now.
Mei Terumī sat on the sofa and threw a dry towel at him. With a straight face, she asked, "What do you want?"
Natsume stood behind her and dried her hair. "I'm offering you two people for sale."
"What do you mean?"
Mei Terumī curled her lips and asked. "Is the great Hokage also involved in such business?"
"Zabuza Momochi and Haku."
With a beaming smile, Natsume asked, "Are you interested?"
"You caught them?"
Mei Terumī's face instantly changed color. Her breathing quickened slightly as she asked.
Currently, Kiri was in dire need of powerful ninjas.
Zabuza Momochi was a former member of the Seven Swords of the Bloody Mist, with extraordinary strength.
Most importantly, he defected from Kiri because he couldn't stand Yagura Karatachi's bloody rule.
In other words, he was a true Kiri Ninja.
"They tried to assassinate me and got caught by me," Natsume put down the dry towel and started to style her hair. "I thought they were rogue ninjas from Kiri, so I came to you."
"Thank you."
Mei Terumī felt a warm glow in her heart and asked, "What do you want?"
Suddenly, she remembered the kiss during the day, and her face blushed slightly.
If he made that kind of request again, should she agree or agree?
"Be my little maid for seven days," Natsume thought for a moment and said.
"…What?"
Mei Terumī was slightly stunned and refused without hesitation. "Impossible!"
She is the Mizukage. If people find out about this, how can she stay in Kiri in the future?
"Really not interested?"
Natsume whispered like a demon in her ear, "Seven days can bring two powerful fighters to your Kiri. What a good deal it is."
Mei Terumī fell silent immediately.
Actually, after careful consideration, it wasn't a bad deal.
The premise was that she could accept this kind of game in her heart.
She pondered for a moment and made a decision.
Anyway, being a little maid wouldn't lead to anything. It was worth it to exchange for two people.
"When?"
Mei Terumī asked reluctantly.
"Next time," a smile flashed across Natsume's lips.
As expected, she would agree.
It was a pity that this wasn't a good time. Otherwise, he could play the master - servant game with her.
After leaving Zabuza Momochi and Haku behind, Natsume returned to the tent.
His three students weren't resting and were waiting for him.
"Let's go to sleep."
After setting up a barrier outside the tent, Natsume got into his sleeping bag.
In the wild, it was definitely not as comfortable as at home.
Especially for ninjas, they had to be ready for battle at any time, so they slept fully dressed.
[Due to your actions, the fates of Zabuza Momochi, Haku, and Mei Terumī have changed. You have gained a total of 137 destiny values.]
Oh, well!
A new day began.
As Natsume expected, Zabuza Momochi and Haku were just the beginning.
The farther they were from Konoha Village, the more assassins there were.
But their strengths varied.
There were Chunin and Jonin among them.
However, the standards for judging ninjas in the Five Great Ninja Villages were different from those in other villages.
Their Jonin were only about 90% as strong as the standard, or even weaker.
Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Hinata Hyuga gradually regained their confidence.
It turned out that it wasn't that they were weak, but that Zabuza Momochi was too strong.
The four of them walked and stopped. They didn't reach the Metropolis in the Land of Fire until dusk.
During this time, they had experienced seven assassination attempts.
The biggest change is that Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Hinata Hyuga have become more decisive.
Although he couldn't bring himself to kill anyone, it was still not bad.
"Wow! It's so lively!"
As soon as Naruto Uzumaki entered the Metropolis, he was like Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, constantly exclaiming in amazement.
Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga weren't as exaggerated as him, but they couldn't help looking around either.
Thanks to its superior geographical environment, the Land of Fire was the most powerful country in the ninja world.
Naturally, its Metropolis was the most prosperous city as well.
However, Natsume didn't feel much about it.
It couldn't even compare to the cities in his past life.
He had seen real magnificent cities, so he remained calm.
Natsume glanced at the sky. Instead of going to see Daimyo Enichi right away, he treated his three students to a good meal.
They had really worked hard today.
At night, Naruto Uzumaki was still full of energy and dragged Sasuke Uchiha to go shopping.
Neither Natsume nor Hinata went.
The former thought there was nothing interesting to see, while the latter simply wanted to stay with him.
Enichi had built a Daimyo's Mansion in Konoha Village.
Konoha Village also had a permanent residence in the Metropolis of the Land of Fire.
The person in charge here was Shin Nara.
Due to their extremely high intelligence, the Land of Fire permits Nara Clan members to serve as government officials.
In this situation, they were undoubtedly the most suitable to be liaison officers.
On the rooftop.
Natsume casually handed Hinata a pack of potato chips.
He looked up at the night sky.
There was a huge full moon in the sky.
He thought of Tsunade and wondered if she could catch some Z's without him.
Hinata glanced at him and quickly averted her gaze, munching on the potato chips absent - mindedly.
"How did you feel today?"
Natsume reached out, picked up a chip, and tossed it into his mouth.
"Pretty good."
Hinata replied subconsciously.
Maybe feeling that her answer was too brief, she added another sentence.
"Although I was a bit nervous at first, once I got used to it, I felt it was no different from our regular training."
The training she referred to was the Genjutsu[b]Genjutsu[/b] set up by Natsume for her.
Sometimes, it was no less intense than a life - and - death battle.
"You've worked hard."
Natsume reached out and let Hinata rest her little head on his lap.
This sudden move made her face flush instantly.
She chewed on the potato chips uneasily.
But Natsume didn't say anything else.
The atmosphere was rather quiet.
Hinata gradually relaxed.
Coupled with the few battles during the day, she soon fell asleep.
Natsume picked up her small body and carried her back to her room.
Then he returned to Konoha Village.
"Can't sleep?"
Natsume got into the quilt and asked.
"Yeah."
Tsunade nodded, hugged him tightly, and said, "Now I can fall asleep."
Natsume kissed her on the forehead and stopped making any noise.
In the morning.
The bright sunlight sneaked in through the window and landed on Tsunade's serene and delicate sleeping visage.
Natsume stared at this beautiful scene and was lost in thought.
"Good morning."
Tsunade opened her eyes sleepily, reached out to hug him, and rubbed her warm face against his, looking very reluctant to let go.
Maybe because she was pregnant, Natsume increasingly felt that she was like a girl in love, extremely clingy.
But he liked this change.
"I'm going to see the Daimyo."
Natsume glanced at the sky and said.
"Let me hug you for a little longer."
Tsunade didn't let go and hugged him even tighter.
It made Natsume feel what real physical pressure was.
"Alright, go then."
Tsunade whispered in his ear like a secret, "When you come back, I'll give you a reward."
"Okay."
Natsume stroked her head and then appeared in the Metropolis of the Land of Fire.
"Shin Nara led the way, and the two soon arrived at the Daimyo's Mansion."
To Natsume's surprise, it wasn't a meeting at the court but a private meeting between him and Enichi.
There was definitely something wrong with this.
"When Tsunade sent the message, I thought she was joking,"
Enichi said with a smile, "I didn't expect it to be true, and such a young Hokage at that. Truly a young man of great promise."
"Your praise is too kind, Daimyo."
Natsume maintained the due politeness and said calmly and confidently.
He couldn't respect the so - called Daimyo as much as other ninjas did. Apart from the influence of his past life, it was because he had sufficient strength.
If Enichi was obedient, he might let him off.
But if he had any bad intentions, then don't blame him.
"How is Konoha doing now?"
Enichi noticed his attitude and was slightly dissatisfied, but he didn't dig deeper.
After the Third Great Ninja War, after years of recuperation, Konoha is doing quite well.
Natsume thought he was concerned and answered truthfully.
"That's good."
Suddenly, Enichi changed the subject and said, "The Land of Fire has been plagued by natural disasters and man - made troubles in the past two years, and there are some financial difficulties."
Natsume raised his eyebrows. Oh, come on!
So that's why he was called here in person.
It turned out to be about cutting the budget.
In the original story, after Naruto Uzumaki became the Hokage, because there had been no wars for a long time, Enichi also talked to him about this.
And incredibly, he actually agreed to this request.
It should be noted that this was already the end of the story, and Naruto Uzumaki was the most powerful ninja.
It can only be said that this system is quite strange.
Now it was Natsume's turn.
Just as he took office, Enichi put forward this request.
Obviously, he thought Natsume was young and easy to bully.
As for the rest, it was just an excuse.
"Daimyo, have you ever heard a saying?"
Natsume activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan[b]Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan[/b] and said, "Are lords and ministers of noble birth?"
Enichi immediately went into a daze.
"Sure enough, I shouldn't have hoped for anything."
Natsume shook his head and said, "In that case, don't blame me for being rude."
However, he didn't plan to kill Enichi for the time being. It was too easy to cause unrest.
And it would be hard for him to explain to Tsunade.
Controlling the Land of Fire through Enichi was undoubtedly the best way.
Then he could make further plans slowly.
Natsume didn't have the time to stay by Enichi's side long-term, so he planned to have Shisui Uchiha do it.
He was currently in the Land of Snow and had quite a bit of free time.
After all, everything was on the right track and didn't require his input.
Having Yukie Kazahana around was more than enough.
After finishing his conversation with Enichi, Natsume took his three students back to Konoha Village.
On the way, they encountered four assassination attempts.
Overall, this trip to the Land of Fire had been quite successful.
It had not only trained Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuga, but also settled things with Daimyo Enichi.
From now on, Konoha Village wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
Natsume could then operate with confidence.
For example, implementing the ninja Payment system.
Although it was costly, the benefits were obvious.
First, ordinary civilian ninjas would surely be extremely loyal to Konoha.
After all, it increased their income.
Second, many ninjas from ninja clans would change their mindset that the clan was more important than Konoha.
The reason was the same as before, income.
Money talks.
Especially in this world, ninjas' thoughts were relatively simple and straightforward.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was able to gain loyalty through the abstract Will of Fire.
Natsume was using a two-pronged approach and would surely make them even more grateful.
[Due to your actions, the fates of Danzo Shimura, Hyakuju, and Sāra have changed. You have gained a total of 112 Ryo of destiny value.]
The sudden prompt sound made Natsume freeze.
He put down the document in his hand and fell into deep thought.
Hyakuju and Sāra were characters from the movie version [Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower].
In the ruins of Loulan, there was a Dragon Vein, which represented endless Chakra.
In the original story, Tsunade sent Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sai, and Yamato on a mission.
They happened to encounter Hyakuju.
He devoured the seal and unleashed the power of the Dragon Vein. Then he traveled back twenty years.
Hyakuju transformed into An Lushan, controlled the Queen of Loulan, and planned to use the Dragon Vein to dominate the ninja world.
Naruto Uzumaki, who had traveled through time, met the young Minato Namikaze. The two groups joined forces to defeat the big villain and seal the Dragon Vein.
"What? Danzo can't be Hokage now. Is he planning to go back in time and be one?"
Natsume couldn't help but complain.
But it had to be said that Danzo Shimura had arrived at just the right time.
Moreover, he had also gotten involved with Rasa, the Kazekage.
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