11: Chapter 11 D-Rank Mission and Peeping in the ShadowsThe first official mission of Team 7 was to capture the pet cat named "Tiger" belonging to the Lady of the Fire Country.
Next came weeding the villagers' gardens and cleaning up the garbage in the river.
A typical D-level mission: tedious, boring, and devoid of any technical skill.
Sakura Haruno's complaints were almost incessant, and Sasuke Uchiha's usually cold face was now covered with obvious impatience.
Naruto Uzumaki, however, was full of enthusiasm.
Bang!Bang!Bang!
Hundreds of shadow clones appeared at the mission site.Half of them were responsible for a thorough search of the fat cat, while the other half were clearing weeds with hoes and sickles at an industrial efficiency.
Naruto himself, with his hands in his pockets, strolled leisurely through the streets and alleys of the village under the pretext of "patrolling and guarding."
This is certainly not laziness.
His consciousness was connected to each of his shadow clones, and the miscellaneous tasks were carried out in an orderly manner.Meanwhile, he himself was familiarizing himself with every corner of the village, matching the two-dimensional information on the map with the three-dimensional buildings in reality.
Just as he turned into a small alley, a feeling of being watched arose without warning.
[Ding!Detected 80 [Judgments] from Hiruzen Sarutobi!]
[Ding!Detected 50 [Observations] from Kakashi Hatake!]
The notification on the system panel flashed by.
The old man and my cheap teacher?
I'm still worried.
Naruto remained unmoved and continued walking forward.
However, besides the two gazes he was already used to, there was a third.
It was a cold, emotionless gaze.
It doesn't carry the weight of scrutiny like the Third Hokage, nor does it carry the intention of observation like Kakashi.
It simply exists, like a cold machine, precisely locking onto itself and recording its every move.
The system did not display any emotional feedback.
Because the other party has no emotions at all.
Naruto didn't stop walking, and the idiotic smile on his face didn't change at all.
Danzo Shimura.
There is no other possibility but the dark ninja entrenched beneath Konoha and his "Root" organization.
On the night of the graduation exam, the "unknown power" I displayed finally caught the attention of this venomous snake.
very good.
The fish has taken the bait.
Naruto did not choose to alert the enemy.
Instead, he strolled leisurely to training ground number three, as if he were really on patrol.
He took out shuriken from his ninja tool bag and began practicing against a target in the distance.
Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
The first three shuriken landed precisely in the center of the bullseye, arranged in a triangular pattern.
Then, he seemed to get "distracted".
The fourth shuriken grazed the edge of the target and embedded itself deeply in the tree trunk behind it.
The fifth shot, lacking power, landed shakily on the ground in front of the target.
Naruto scratched his blond hair in frustration, his face bearing the typical expression of a loser.
In this way, he was sending a message to those who were watching him: Naruto Uzumaki's power exists, but it is extremely unstable, greatly affected by his emotions and state, and completely uncontrollable.
An uncontrollable genius is far more likely to lower one's guard than a cunning genius.
Just as he was about to continue his "performance," a timid call came from behind him.
"Um.Naruto-kun."
Hinata Hyuga stood not far away, nervously fidgeting with her hands in front of her, her face slightly flushed.She held a small box of ointment in her hands.
"I.I saw you were doing some really strenuous training, this.is to relieve muscle fatigue."
Naruto could feel that the cold gaze from "Root" became even more focused after Hinata appeared.
He turned around, and a radiant smile instantly bloomed on his face, a smile so warm it could melt ice and snow.
"It's Hinata!Thank you!You're so kind!"
He walked over in a few steps, took the ointment without any hesitation, and the moment his fingertips touched her, a faint, warm chakra, carrying the breath of life, flowed through Hinata's fingers, dispelling the fatigue she had accumulated from the main family's high-intensity training.
"Don't overwork yourself, you need to get some rest."
He was showing his "bright" side to the monitors.
An immature teenager who cares about his friends and interacts intimately with girls.
Hinata's body trembled slightly.
In her Byakugan vision, in that special world she called "Heart Eye," Naruto's chakra displayed two completely different colors.
One layer is a warm and bright orange light, which becomes exceptionally dazzling and full of goodwill when facing her.
Beneath this orange glow lies a layer of cold, deep blue aura.
It has always existed, like the deep sea.
Just now, when she sensed a prying gaze from afar, the blue halo suddenly contracted inward, transforming into a vortex exuding a dangerous aura.
In between missions, Naruto became a frequent visitor to the Konoha Library.
Instead of browsing the sealed scrolls that recorded A-rank and S-rank ninjutsu, he plunged headlong into the most tedious history section.
"History of the Founding of Konoha", "Geography and Customs of the Land of Fire", "A Study of the Genealogy of Major Ninja Families".
He browsed through the information extremely quickly, and with the system's built-in memory function, he categorized and stored a massive amount of information in his mind.
All of this was recorded word for word by the "Root" spy hidden in the shadows of the bookshelf.
That night, underground in Konoha.
As Shimura Danzo looked at the detailed report in his hand, his exposed single eye gleamed with a complex light.
Its power is extremely unstable, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.
Because of her immaturity, she will spend a lot of time having unnecessary contact with the young lady of the Hyuga family.
He had no interest in ninjutsu, but instead harbored skepticism towards vague and unfounded historical and geographical concepts.A constant thirst for knowledge.
However, his tactical talent was astonishing, and he demonstrated command abilities beyond his years during the seventh squad's exercises.
These conflicting pieces of information constitute an extremely complex Naruto Uzumaki.
[Ding!You have received 1500 [Greed] from Danzo Shimura!]
[Ding!You have received 2000 [Vigilance] items from Danzo Shimura!]
Danzo both desired to possess this unknown power and feared that it would slip completely out of his control.
A few days later, Naruto took advantage of a break in a mission to use his transformation jutsu to change into an ordinary, unremarkable face and enter a chaotic black market in Konoha.
He skillfully bypassed several sentries and entered a shop with a sign that read "All Things Grocery".
The shop owner was a shrewd and capable-looking middle-aged man named Zhou Wenyuan, one of the most famous information brokers in Konoha's black market.
"Hey buddy, what would you like to buy?I have everything here, from explosive tags to the secrets of the neighbor's house," Zhou Wenyuan said with a smile.
Naruto didn't speak, but just silently recited it in his mind.
"System, consume 1000 Glory Points to exchange for a [Fake Ancient Scroll Fragment]."
A palm-sized, antique-looking scroll fragment with burn marks on its edges appeared in his hand.
"I'm not buying anything." Naruto placed the fragment on the counter."I'm selling things."
Zhou Wenyuan's smile faded slightly as he picked up the fragments and examined them closely.
A moment later, he quoted a hefty price.
The transaction was complete.Naruto took the money and turned to leave without saying a word.
What he wants to establish is not a one-off buying and selling relationship, but a long-term chain of interests that he controls.
Late at night, inside a general store.
After seeing off the last customer, Zhou Wenyuan closed the shop door and took out the scroll fragment he had bought from Naruto once again.
He always felt that this thing was not simple.
He took a small bottle from the hidden compartment and dripped a drop of a special potion onto the fragment.
As the medicine seeped in, some extremely faint, almost unrecognizable patterns slowly emerged on the originally blank back.
That's not writing.
Zhou Wenyuan leaned closer to the light and, with the help of a magnifying glass, his breathing suddenly became rapid.
It was an extremely ancient sealing rune, which, when combined, formed a precise geographical coordinate.
He rushed to the wall, unfurled a huge map of the ninja world, and compared it with his trembling fingers.
Finally, his finger stopped on a whirlpool peninsula in the middle of the sea.
The ruins of Uzushio Village, the land of whirlpools.
Zhou Wenyuan stared intently at that point on the map, unaware that this was exactly what Naruto wanted him to "discover."
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