After the Nine-Tails Plan and the sealing of Haseo's chakra, as he endured the ongoing torment of Sage Art and developed new ninjutsu techniques despite his hair loss, twenty-five years passed in Konoha—and now year twenty-six had begun.
Despite major events like the Nine-Tails Plan, this period had overall been surprisingly peaceful—for Haseo, for Konoha, and even across the entire Ninja World.
So this was considered a rare period of peace—a peace so complete that even something like going on a picnic became possible.
And after this year's New Year celebrations, counting precisely, it had already been ten years since Haseo, as a wandering soul, arrived in Konoha. From around fifteen or sixteen to twenty-five or twenty-six, he had matured from a psychologically mature young man into a well-rounded, emotionally balanced adult.
Though physically younger than his actual age, at heart, he was still a middle-aged man through and through.
The Great Ninja World War felt like it had happened only yesterday; peace always seems to fly by faster than bloodshed.
Despite experiencing a serious regression midway, Haseo had essentially undergone a second growth spurt. The last time he measured his height, it had already reached 183 centimeters… As a malnourished orphan growing up, Haseo had assumed this would be his limit.
Even this was already an impressive height.
Yet the key question was… as a drifting soul, had Haseo truly taken root in Konoha now?
Somewhat yes, but also not really.
So ultimately, it still didn't count.
Fortunately, Haseo wasn't the type who aged without maturing mentally, nor someone who thought the whole world owed him—believing everyone should endlessly indulge him—he knew all too well that people expecting such things were bound to keep getting slapped back to reality.
That's why Haseo had always done his duties diligently.
Just considering the favors and gifts he'd received from others was more than enough for him to maintain a proper attitude toward Konoha.
Still, the question lingered—just how long could such a peaceful existence last?
"...Investigate conditions of neighboring nations? Provide detailed foundational data for global situation changes over the coming several years?
Why did we suddenly receive such a mission? Kagenami isn't specifically an intelligence unit—this clearly is work belonging to the Intelligence Division. Could it really be that they're all just collecting paychecks without doing any actual work?"
On this day, Haseo unexpectedly received such an order from Konoha's upper echelons. Yet given the current relatively stable situation across the entire Ninja World, the mission itself felt rather abrupt and disconnected.
Shikou took the mission scroll, scanned it briefly, then spoke after a brief pause, "Lord Haseo, you must understand... because of the Uzumaki clan relocating to Konoha, during these past years, Kagenami's expenses consumed excessive funds. Although nowadays resources have returned to normal levels since the Uzumaki have settled down, previously, negative impressions were unavoidably left among the higher-ups.
Excessive spending alone wouldn't be so problematic—what matters more is that we've failed to deliver any noticeable results lately. That's what truly concerns them."
The most significant and far-reaching achievement Kagenami had obtained over the years was its Nine-Tails containment and fragmentation strategy. However, due to strict confidentiality protocols, such accomplishments could never be publicly acknowledged.
Although The Third Hokage knew every detail, his dry verbal defense probably wouldn't make much difference—after all, Konoha was no longer under dictatorship but oligarchy. The Third Hokage was merely an "opinion leader," not someone whose words carried absolute authority.
Therefore, the biggest officially recognized action Kagenami had taken was capturing the Two-Tails—an act that brought conflict with Kumo. Given Kagenami's nebulous founding principles and lack of meaningful contributions, it was reasonable for some people to regard us as expendable.
"Probably there are high-ranking officials who think we're too idle and have excess personnel wasting resources, so they assigned this long-term mission to us," Shikou speculated about the task's origin.
To put it bluntly, in certain higher-ups' eyes, Kagenami might simply be a drain on the village's resources.
And there was no way to refute this accusation. Lately, Kagenami indeed hadn't made any notable moves; aside from some Ninja handling routine missions for the village, the rest spent their days hiding underground, even idling away time playing cards without concern.
Haseo felt frustrated. "So this kind of mission would actually fall to us?"
It wasn't unusual for the upper echelons to assign specific tasks to Kagenami, but the issue lay in how vague Haseo's assignment was. What exactly qualified as detailed data? And how should one investigate surrounding nations?
Viewed one way, completing such a mission might require the entire village's intelligence network and still yield no results. On the other hand, it could be fulfilled by just one Ninja discreetly gathering information along the borders.
True to his nature, when faced with ambiguous mission parameters, Haseo naturally wouldn't interpret them as requiring complex or resource-intensive action—even if he understood what others might expect, he'd always opt for the simplest viable solution.
Though the intention of the higher-ups was likely for Kagenami to conduct a major intelligence operation, they hadn't explicitly ordered Haseo to do so. Therefore, he couldn't be blamed for choosing a more straightforward approach.
"Though Uzumaki's reconnaissance capabilities are truly impressive, Kagenami has never undertaken large-scale external surveillance operations before. Our sudden deployment probably won't produce great results either. Considering the mission itself is somewhat unclear, I'll handle this alone. After all, it's just going around the Land of Fire," Haseo finally said after thinking it through.
What started as a team mission quickly became a solo assignment under his interpretation.
"At least let us form a small team to carry out such a mission," Shikou suggested uneasily at the idea of Haseo acting alone.
"There's no need. During infiltration and reconnaissance missions, fewer personnel mean greater flexibility and safety. Although individual efficiency remains questionable, safety comes first.
Even if I run into a situation where I'm outmatched, I'm confident I can still escape."
If I leave Konoha to carry out a mission like this, I suppose the elders won't have much to say.
When even the "Master of Kagenami" goes out personally as a mere errand runner, the leadership indeed wouldn't dare complain.
Besides, what Haseo said made sense. Truthfully, if he were to travel alone across the Ninjutsu World, he'd be extremely flexible. To put it bluntly, as long as he didn't provoke trouble by recklessly entering the major ninja villages, his safety could definitely be guaranteed.
So Shikou simply nodded in agreement.
Frankly speaking, this kind of general intelligence-gathering work was quite similar to a tourism mission. It was nothing more than going out for a round trip and reporting back on any valuable sights and experiences encountered along the way.
Therefore, Haseo didn't dwell on it. The day after receiving the mission, he packed a backpack and brought sufficient funds, preparing to leave the village alone.
Kagenami's daily operations were in good hands with Shikou managing everything.
Haseo departed in the morning. On this outing, he passed by the entrance of Konoha Hospital and happened to run into Tsunade, who was heading to work early.
"Haseo? What's this about..." Seeing Haseo dressed for a journey, Tsunade couldn't quite figure out the situation and asked curiously.
"I've got a small mission. I'm going out of the village for a while—it might take longer than expected."
"Oh, I see."
Haseo briefly explained he needed to go out on a mission, and Tsunade didn't press him for details. After all, it was quite common for ninja to leave the village. Haseo was an official Jonin; although he hadn't specifically mentioned it, over the years there was no way he had remained inside Konoha without ever leaving except for important missions.
In fact, he'd done plenty of routine field missions. After all, a Jonin was a scarce resource, and some clients, though their requests weren't significant, would still be willing to pay handsomely for safety and insist upon hiring a Jonin specifically to handle their assignment.
After a brief greeting, Haseo walked forward toward Konoha's main gate while Tsunade turned right, heading for Konoha Hospital.
However, just before entering the hospital, Tsunade glanced back at the direction Haseo had gone.
Under the cool-toned morning sunlight, Haseo strode briskly forward alone with a backpack on his back and carrying his usual ninja tools.
His silhouette appeared somewhat broad-shouldered yet lonely.
In the blink of an eye, he vanished around the corner.
But for some reason, at this moment, Tsunade found herself unable to describe her feelings; Haseo's retreating figure lingered persistently in her mind... She had an odd feeling, as though once this man disappeared around the street corner, he wouldn't come back anymore.
It felt like he might not come back at all.
Tsunade knew Haseo's strength well. She understood such a thing wouldn't happen—just as Haseo himself had said, it was only a minor mission... But inexplicably, once this ominous gloom surfaced, she couldn't shake it off anymore.
Tsunade couldn't bring herself to move forward any longer. She turned around and quickly ran in the direction Haseo had just left.
"Haseo!"
"Huh?"
And so, on this morning, came Haseo's puzzled, one-syllable response.
There was no way he could have any idea what Tsunade was feeling right now, so his expression looked somewhat confused... How could a middle-aged man possibly understand the subtle feelings of a young girl?
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