Chapter 557: The Return Trip
"Do you guys feel like you've forgotten something?"
Early the next morning, Naruto and the others were eating breakfast at the inn when they noticed Kakashi looking at them with a teasing expression.
"Sensei, are you talking about our mission objective?"
Naruto naturally knew what Kakashi meant.
They had originally come to this area to track down the bandits who had been raiding settlements in the Land of Fire.
However, they had temporarily left their original route to avoid Kisame Hoshigaki. They had not expected to stumble into the battle between Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, and Team 8.
Although Team 7 had helped with that battle, their own mission could not be considered complete because of it.
Tch.
Kakashi clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had thought these three brats might have forgotten their original mission.
Unfortunately, they remembered.
How disappointing.
He had planned to seize this rare opportunity to properly lecture his three students and make them remember the importance of completing their assigned missions.
"Sensei, I think those bandits were probably people working for Gato's company."
Naruto stood and began explaining.
"I found gold bars stamped with the mark of a merchant shop from Haibo Town inside Gato's warehouse."
That was why Naruto had not been worried about their mission.
Although it was possible that Gato had obtained those gold bars through legitimate business, Naruto had already gathered intelligence in Haibo Town before coming here.
"Huh? Are you talking about the gold that the Haifeng General Store reported stolen? The one I asked about before?"
Sasuke hurriedly swallowed the fried dough stick in his mouth, wiped the soy milk from the corner of his lips, and looked at Naruto curiously.
He still remembered the shopkeeper kneeling before him with a deathly pale expression, desperately begging them to recover the stolen money.
The memory had made Sasuke furious.
Those bandits had pushed an entire family to the point where they had considered suicide.
"Yeah, that's the one."
Naruto nodded.
Then he lifted his bowl and finished the remaining soy milk before glancing toward the counter.
The innkeeper stood there trembling slightly while calculating their bill.
"Then where are those gold bars?" Kakashi asked.
"I kept them."
Naruto pointed toward his room.
"They're in there. Something that obviously belongs to a victim can be returned, but there's nothing we can do about the valuables we can't identify."
Naruto had not forgotten the matter, so he had naturally kept the gold.
Strictly speaking, they were not really large gold bricks.
They were smaller gold bars.
However, for a merchant shop that was not particularly wealthy, they were valuable enough to be considered a fortune.
In reality, Kenichi had deliberately left those particular valuables behind for them.
"Um... Naruto, did you happen to find a pearl necklace?"
Sasuke suddenly spoke with an awkward expression.
"One with a photograph of a man hanging from it?"
It was obvious that he felt embarrassed asking.
Naruto thought carefully for a moment, then shook his head.
He had not seen any pearl necklace matching that description among the recovered valuables.
None of the necklaces had photographs attached to them.
After hearing that, Sasuke stopped asking and silently returned to his breakfast.
Kakashi, meanwhile, fell into thought.
He knew Gato.
The man was a famous tycoon in the Shinobi World who had built his fortune through shipping.
Since the Land of Water relied heavily on maritime transportation, Anbu intelligence suggested that Gato had some unclear connections with certain parties in the Land of Water.
But Kakashi had never expected that the idiot would actually maintain a group of bandits to raid coastal settlements in the Land of Fire.
That was not a minor matter.
Was Gato really stupid enough to do something like that?
There might be more to this situation than it appeared.
However, looking at his three students, Kakashi chose not to say anything.
This matter had already gone beyond what these young genin should be handling.
It might even involve disputes between countries.
That was no small issue.
He would need to report everything to the Third Hokage after returning to Konoha.
"What made you start looking for a pearl necklace?"
Kenichi looked at Sasuke curiously.
Sasuke had remained as silent as a wooden post before and had never mentioned anything about it.
If Kenichi had known earlier, he could have helped search Gato's warehouse.
After all, the stolen gold had been found there.
That made it extremely likely that the bandits Team 7 had been searching for were indeed Gato's thugs.
If the pearl necklace had also been stolen by them, it should have ended up somewhere in Gato's organization.
Of course, it was also possible that one of the bandits had secretly kept it for himself.
And if that particular bandit had been washed off the bridge by Kakashi's Great Waterfall Jutsu yesterday...
Then things became much more troublesome.
"I..."
Sasuke scratched his head.
Then he told them an equally melodramatic story.
While gathering intelligence in Haibo Town, a little girl had approached him with red eyes.
She told Sasuke that the only keepsake her father had left her had been stolen by the bandits and tearfully begged him to help recover it.
Her mother had died early.
Her father was now dead as well.
The girl had become an orphan.
Orphan.
Kenichi immediately understood.
That word had clearly struck the most fragile part of Sasuke's heart.
The Uchiha Clan had once lived happily together.
Then everything had collapsed in a single night.
Sasuke's own older brother had become the murderer who slaughtered their clansmen, killed their parents, and abandoned Konoha.
And just like that, Sasuke had become an orphan.
The experience had left deep psychological scars.
It was probably also the reason Sasuke had become so angry when Sakura once mocked Naruto for lacking proper upbringing.
"I really didn't see anything like that."
Kenichi thought carefully before sighing.
He truly had not seen the necklace.
Going back to search now was also unrealistic.
After taking Gato's valuables that day, Kenichi had left.
With Gato's company suddenly abandoned, those who had been too afraid to rob Gato while he was alive but had no problem stealing once he disappeared had probably already stripped the place clean.
Sasuke waved his hand.
Naturally, he did not blame Kenichi.
He himself had not realized yesterday that Gato's company was connected to the bandits.
There simply seemed to be nothing more he could do for that little girl.
He could only apologize.
Kenichi looked at Sasuke.
He could tell that Sasuke felt disappointed, but there was no helping it.
They did not even know for certain whether the pearl necklace had been taken into the Land of Waves or carried by one of Gato's bandits.
If someone in the Land of Waves had taken it, searching through so many people would be extremely difficult.
It could have been hidden anywhere.
If one of the bandits had kept it on his person, then locating it now would truly be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"Sasuke, I have an idea."
Kenichi suddenly thought of a method and smiled faintly.
Sasuke immediately raised his head and looked at him with anticipation.
He knew what it felt like to become an orphan.
If he could help another orphan, perhaps the heaviness in his heart would ease a little.
"Do you know how to use genjutsu?"
Kenichi looked at Sasuke with a kind smile.
Naruto instantly shivered.
There it was.
His big brother's "kind" smile!
Naruto immediately looked at Sasuke with sympathy.
This unlucky bastard was about to get dragged into another one of his big brother's schemes.
May the gods protect him from suffering too badly.
"Are you sure that would work?"
Sasuke widened his eyes after hearing Kenichi's idea.
He had never expected Kenichi's proposed solution to be something like this.
Was that not basically deceiving the girl?
"Do you have a better idea?"
Kenichi shrugged.
"We're looking for a single pearl necklace across an enormous stretch of ocean."
He already felt that his suggestion was fairly reasonable.
It was certainly better than searching every household in the Land of Waves.
And if the necklace could not be found there, the only remaining possibility would be searching the ocean itself.
The odds of success would become even lower.
It would almost be more realistic to hope that Kenichi's special ability suddenly became absurdly powerful enough for him to kill Otsutsuki Kaguya with a single punch.
Sasuke had no better solution.
If he had one, he would not have felt so helpless in the first place.
Kenichi's method might be somewhat unreliable, but it was still the best option currently available.
So Sasuke turned toward Kakashi.
"Don't worry. For something this simple, I'll help you."
Kakashi smiled.
"But learning ninjutsu isn't easy, you know."
He had heard the entire conversation between Kenichi and Sasuke, so he naturally understood what Sasuke intended to do.
Although Kakashi did not know why Sasuke had not simply asked Kenichi to perform the genjutsu himself, he had no intention of refusing to help.
The matter was not particularly difficult.
That little girl was not a ninja.
She was only an ordinary civilian.
Even if Sasuke was merely a beginner at genjutsu, he could still make her see what he wanted her to see.
"I won't give up!"
Sasuke answered seriously.
He did not want to disappoint that little girl.
Kenichi's method really was a little...
Questionable.
But it was still better than having no solution at all.
"Then we'll see how quickly you learn."
Kakashi stretched lazily.
"It takes less than two days to return to Haibo Town from the Land of Waves."
Naruto and Sasuke really were clever brats.
Kakashi himself had also considered using genjutsu to let the girl see the necklace again, then finding some way to reproduce her father's photograph.
Having intelligent students made teaching considerably easier.
He only wondered why Kenichi wanted Sasuke to learn genjutsu for this when Kakashi could simply handle the matter himself.
Kakashi could easily guarantee that the girl would see her necklace and her father's photograph for a very long time.
Still, Kakashi was pleased.
Naruto was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
The boy's behavior today had shown that he was not only capable but also kindhearted.
For a Jinchuriki, character was ultimately far more important than raw ability.
Naruto revealed a happy smile.
Great.
Once Sasuke learned genjutsu, Naruto could use their future sparring sessions to practice resisting it.
Genjutsu did not seem particularly impressive to him right now, but having resistance against it was certainly better than having none.
"Jonin Kurenai Yuhi already left with Team 8 last night."
Kakashi casually mentioned it after seeing that his three students had finished eating.
He had originally intended to leave yesterday as well.
However, he had wanted to test Naruto and Sasuke regarding the unfinished bandit mission, so he stayed until this morning.
He had not expected Naruto to have already noticed the connection between Gato and the stolen property.
Since that issue had been addressed, Team 7 could leave.
Hinata remained quiet as usual.
She was still extremely shy.
Naruto's reaction was lukewarm.
He did not have much of an impression of Kiba or Shino.
Sasuke, however, glanced toward Kenichi.
He remembered seeing Kenichi talking with Kurenai yesterday.
Kenichi remained expressionless.
After returning to the inn the previous night, he had locked his door and gone directly to sleep.
Because he had often suffered from insomnia in his previous life, Kenichi had developed a set of effective methods for falling asleep.
Using those methods, he had quickly entered dreamland.
Sasuke felt slightly relieved.
He had accidentally offended Kurenai yesterday.
Fortunately, she had not barged into his room and beaten him awake.
Apparently, Kurenai was quite generous.
Kakashi gave Sasuke a strange look.
This brat clearly had no idea what he had done.
When Kurenai said goodbye to Kakashi the previous night, she had crushed part of the inn's doorframe with her bare hand.
Then, through gritted teeth, she told Kakashi that after they returned to Konoha, she would definitely treat Team 7 to a meal.
She had also specifically reminded him to make sure that little bastard Sasuke attended.
Who was Kakashi?
Naturally, he could hear the personal grudge hidden beneath Kurenai's invitation.
He simply had no idea what Sasuke had done to provoke her.
Kakashi had originally planned to bring it up during breakfast and see whether he could get any information out of Sasuke.
Unfortunately, Sasuke was surprisingly good at concealing his emotions.
Seeing that, Kakashi decided not to pursue the matter for now.
He gathered Team 7 and boarded a boat departing the Land of Waves, heading back toward Haibo Town in the Land of Fire.
During the journey, Kakashi began teaching Sasuke genjutsu.
Even while instructing him, Kakashi remained extremely vigilant.
He constantly monitored their surroundings in case Kisame Hoshigaki launched a surprise attack.
Kakashi still did not know why Kisame had appeared in this region.
That information would also need to be reported to Konoha.
"You've learned the False Surroundings Technique quite well."
After some time, Kakashi watched Sasuke perform the technique and nodded in satisfaction.
Sasuke had already grasped most of it.
He could now use the False Surroundings Technique without much difficulty.
Although a trained ninja could easily see through such a simple genjutsu, it would be more than enough against an ordinary civilian.
Sasuke looked pleased.
This ninjutsu would certainly not help him kill that man.
But it might allow another orphan to live a little more happily.
"Oh? Sasuke already learned it?"
Kenichi suddenly climbed out of the sea with several oysters in his hands and looked at Kakashi and Sasuke with amusement.
Beside him, Naruto's and Hinata's heads also emerged from the water.
They were carrying several oysters as well.
"Mm."
Kakashi nodded.
Sasuke looked toward the oysters in Kenichi's hands.
Kenichi climbed from the sea onto the boat, then casually reached down and grabbed his little brother's hand.
He pulled Naruto aboard.
Naruto, in turn, grabbed Hinata's hand and pulled her up.
The instant Hinata realized Naruto was holding her hand, her face turned crimson.
She fainted directly onto the deck.
Kenichi stared at her, dumbfounded.
Naruto, completely oblivious, picked up an oyster and pried the shell open.
A pearl rolled out from inside.
Its quality was not particularly good.
Naruto opened several more oysters.
There were not many pearls among them.
Still, they had found enough.
"These pearls..."
Sasuke crouched beside them.
He could naturally guess what Naruto intended to do.
However, among the valuables they had recovered earlier, Sasuke had also seen a pearl necklace of considerably better quality.
So why use these inferior pearls from wild oysters?
"Giving her something too valuable might get her killed."
Kenichi explained while removing the oyster meat from its shell.
Oysters were highly nutritious and tasted quite good.
Today's lunch was settled.
Sasuke immediately understood.
Kakashi nodded as well.
Kenichi had considered the matter very thoroughly.
If they gave an orphaned girl an expensive pearl necklace, it might bring her enormous trouble.
While Team 7 remained nearby, she would be safe.
But once they left, people with bad intentions would inevitably notice something that valuable.
At that point, the gift intended to make her happier might instead place her life in danger.
....
https://discord.gg/KvMN2CFsMR
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03].