Chapter 70: Infiltrating the Grass Village

The moment he heard about the Uzumaki Clan, Orochimaru immediately became interested.

"If it’s inconvenient for Naruto-kun to take care of your clan member, you can leave her in my village."

He eagerly volunteered to take responsibility for her.

Looking at Orochimaru’s burning gaze, Naruto was speechless.

He hasn’t even met her yet, and he’s already thinking about researching her?

But Naruto also understood that if you wanted a horse to run, you couldn’t refuse to feed it.

"Fine. But don’t go too far. You can only collect data."

As long as Orochimaru didn’t dissect her and merely performed physical examinations and collected blood samples, his research was basically no different from a medical checkup in Naruto’s previous life.

Orochimaru could also provide suggestions based on the collected data.

That could even help improve her strength to some extent.

After receiving Naruto’s permission, Orochimaru immediately smiled.

"Don’t worry. Since she’s Naruto-kun’s clanswoman, I’ll be careful with her."

After saying this, he glanced at Kabuto beside him.

Kabuto understood and nodded slightly before beginning to prepare the laboratory.

Naruto didn’t pay much attention to it.

He once again handed Orochimaru a Flying Thunder God kunai.

"Prepare a room that I can use whenever I need to come and go."

After saying that, Naruto took Uchiha Izumi and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.

The scene before their eyes shifted.

The two appeared inside the Grass Village.

In the past, Naruto and Uchiha Izumi had visited many places while earning bounty money.

Aside from the Four Great Shinobi Villages and the Rain Village, they had also visited many of the smaller shinobi villages near Konoha.

Naturally, they had been to the Grass Village as well, so Naruto had left a Flying Thunder God mark there.

After making some simple disguises, they concealed themselves in the shadows.

Uchiha Izumi whispered,

"Naruto, do you know where she is?"

"No. I’ll just interrogate a Grass shinobi."

As he spoke, Naruto activated his Kagura Mind’s Eye.

Uchiha Izumi nodded slightly.

She was curious about how Naruto knew that the Grass Village had an Uzumaki clan member, but she didn’t ask.

Before long, Naruto spotted a lone Grass shinobi and nodded toward Uchiha Izumi.

The two quickly approached.

"Who’s there?"

Sensing someone approaching, the Grass shinobi held a kunai and warily stared in Naruto’s direction.

But Naruto had no intention of hiding from an ordinary Grass shinobi.

He appeared instantly and activated his Sharingan genjutsu.

The Grass shinobi’s eyes immediately became vacant.

Naruto asked,

"Where is the Uzumaki clan member in the Grass Village?"

"I don’t know any Uzumaki clan member."

The dazed Grass shinobi instinctively answered.

Naruto’s heart stirred.

He continued asking,

"Where is the person with a special constitution who can heal injuries by absorbing chakra?"

"She died."

Hearing this, both Naruto and Uchiha Izumi frowned.

She died?

Naruto continued.

"When did she die?"

"Yesterday."

"Did she leave behind any family?"

"A little girl."

"Where?"

"On the eastern outskirts of the village."

Naruto nodded.

Uchiha Izumi asked in confusion,

"She had such an incredible constitution that she could heal injuries by absorbing chakra. How did she die?"

She still hadn’t figured out what exactly was being absorbed.

Was she absorbing other people’s chakra, or were other people absorbing hers?

"She was bitten to death by several injured jōnin."

The Grass shinobi under the genjutsu answered Uchiha Izumi’s question as well.

"Bitten to death?"

Uchiha Izumi froze and turned toward Naruto.

Naruto’s eyes flickered.

"The chakra within this Uzumaki clan member contained powerful vitality. The Grass shinobi probably treated her like a medical supply pack and absorbed too much chakra from her, causing her chakra reserves to be completely depleted..."

Uchiha Izumi immediately understood.

It wasn’t that the Uzumaki clan member absorbed the injured people’s chakra to heal herself.

The injured people had been absorbing the Uzumaki clan member’s chakra to heal themselves!

The biting wasn’t the important part.

It was simply the Grass shinobi’s inhumane way of forcibly extracting chakra rich in vitality.

Every shinobi knew that completely exhausting one’s chakra could result in death.

That was because chakra was formed by combining physical energy and spiritual energy.

The physical energy was extracted from the body’s cells.

Once one’s chakra was completely exhausted, it was essentially equivalent to squeezing every last bit of energy from those cells.

And once the cells were completely depleted, there was naturally no way to survive.

Understanding what had happened, a layer of frost appeared on Uchiha Izumi’s face.

She turned toward the Grass shinobi.

"Have you ever been treated by her?"

She deliberately avoided using the crude word bitten.

"I’ve bitten her..."

The Grass shinobi under the genjutsu answered without the slightest hesitation.

A cold flash swept through Uchiha Izumi’s hand.

Slash!

The Grass shinobi’s head suddenly flew into the air as blood sprayed everywhere.

His body and head were instantly separated.

Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Since when did Izumi become so eager to punish evil?

Noticing Naruto’s gaze, Uchiha Izumi’s face flushed.

She lowered her voice.

"She was the only clan member you had left. They went too far."

In Uchiha Izumi’s mind, Naruto had grown up without any family.

He must treasure the last surviving members of his clan in the shinobi world.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone all the way to the Grass Village specifically to save her.

But now, Uchiha Izumi suddenly realized that she might have misunderstood him.

Naruto smiled and shook his head.

A clan member was still just a clan member.

He had never even met her.

There was no emotional connection to speak of.

He had simply decided on a whim today to come and save her.

If he couldn’t save her, then so be it.

There were far too many injustices and tragedies in the shinobi world.

Naruto himself was just one of countless people who had suffered injustice.

At least he still had moments when he felt like helping someone.

But who had ever, on a whim, decided to help Naruto?

No one.

All these years, aside from Uchiha Izumi, no one had ever voluntarily extended a helping hand or offered him any assistance.

That was why Naruto had long since learned to look at things objectively.

If someone had value and helping them wouldn’t affect his own interests, he could save them.

If they had no value, or helping them conflicted with his own interests—

Why should he?

Of course, since he had already come here, Naruto wasn’t going to let this Grass shinobi off either.

He was merely curious because Uchiha Izumi seemed even more furious than he was.

Without thinking about it any further, the two headed toward the eastern part of the Grass Village.

The Grass Village wasn’t large.

Before long, they passed through a small forest and reached the eastern outskirts.

This area was some distance from the village’s central residential district, and there were almost no people around.

Naruto and Uchiha Izumi concealed themselves in the trees and looked down at a small wooden hut made from crude planks.

Faint sobbing could be heard from inside.

The girl’s voice was already hoarse from crying.

The two were just about to infiltrate the hut when—

"Hang in there! We’re almost there!"

Voices and hurried footsteps came from the distance.

Naruto and Uchiha Izumi exchanged a glance and stopped.

Their eyes turned toward the approaching figures.

Two Grass shinobi were supporting a severely injured shinobi as they hurried toward the wooden hut.

When they were about a hundred meters from the hut, one of the Grass shinobi shouted loudly,

"A shinobi is seriously injured! Get your ass out here immediately!"

Hidden in the shadows, Naruto and Uchiha Izumi couldn’t help frowning.

A red-haired girl suddenly ran out of the wooden hut.

She screamed at the Grass shinobi,

"You already killed my mother! What more do you want?!"

As she spoke, her body swayed.

She collapsed to her knees.

Then she burst into heart-wrenching sobs.

"She died?"

The expressions of the Grass shinobi froze.

The severely injured shinobi’s pupils contracted, and despair appeared on his face.

Seeing this, one of the Grass shinobi beside him hurriedly reassured him,

"It’s fine! Even if she died, doesn’t she still have a daughter? She should be able to do it too!"

Hearing this, hope immediately returned to the severely injured shinobi’s eyes.

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