Chapter 451 - The Adventures of Naruto Uzumaki 17.

Chapter 451: Chapter 451 - The Adventures of Naruto Uzumaki 17.

[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]

Canon World, Konoha, 63.

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Team 7, consisting of Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Yamato, and Kakashi, along with Team 8, consisting of Hinata, Kiba, and Shino, as well as Jiraiya, gathered in front of the western gate.

Kurenai had recently given birth to her daughter, Mirai Sarutobi, with Asuma Sarutobi, leaving a gap in Team 8, without a jōnin responsible for them. Kakashi, also being a jōnin specialized in tracking, would be responsible for leading Team 8, while Yamato would take care of Naruto’s team.

"3 S-Rank missions, but they didn’t give us many details. What’s going on?" Kiba was the first to break the silence when everyone gathered with backpacks, with the exception of Naruto, who now knew how practical it was to use storage scrolls. Kiba had asked Naruto, since he knew he couldn’t speak that way to the adults.

Shino and Hinata’s gazes were also curious, although Hinata was actually keeping her eyes on Naruto with a certain shyness. She remembered that night they had been together, about a month and a half ago, the moment when Naruto carried her back to the Hyūga Clan as they walked through the Village. Hinata couldn’t stop thinking about that moment when she and Naruto had been alone...

She didn’t care in the slightest about the change in his appearance. He was still the same Naruto, even if the girls she knew commented that he was more handsome. To her, he would always simply be Naruto. Her Naruto.

Naruto didn’t fail to look at her and give her a warm smile, causing Hinata to lose her composure a little.

"Hey, Naruto! I asked you a question," Kiba said, looking at him.

"Hey, hey, calm down." Naruto laughed, patting him on the shoulder. "This is a secret mission, we can’t give you many details," Naruto warned, although he maintained a friendly and even slightly apologetic tone. After all, he couldn’t say exactly what they were doing. They only knew that they would travel through three countries and spend weeks, perhaps even two months, away from the Village. The mission would be classified as S-Rank, and Team 8 would serve as trackers at some point during that mission.

Despite that, Naruto sincerely thought that his mastery as a sensory ninja was already strong enough for something like that. Even so, he couldn’t deny how good it would be to have their help.

"Kiba, calm down. Sorry about that, Naruto. He’s been jealous lately..." Shino said, making Kiba look at him, while Akamaru barked as well. But the dog seemed to be agreeing with Shino.

"Hey! What are you saying, Shino?!" Kiba growled at him, but at the same time, looked at Akamaru. "And don’t agree with him!"

Naruto started laughing. "Kiba, don’t get so irritated. Anyway, we’re in this together, right? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. After all, it’s an S-Rank mission," Naruto said in a joking tone.

"Who wants to be protected by you?!" Kiba growled, but Naruto only laughed. He approached Kiba and tapped him on the shoulder, as if greeting an old friend.

He did the same with Shino.

Finally, he reached Hinata, who stared at him in surprise. "No matter what happens on this mission, Hinata, I’ll protect you too," he said with a charming smile, while Hinata, once again, seemed to have steam coming out of her ears, her face as red as a pepper.

Naruto was surprised when she simply fainted. "Hey, hey, hey!" Worried, he looked at his companions, while Kiba merely shook his head. Shino seemed to have a contemplative look, Sakura rolled her eyes, Sai seemed to scratch his chin as he tried to understand that interaction, while Yamato and Kakashi merely watched him in silence. Jiraiya already had a smirk on his face.

The older ones knew what Naruto had done. He had touched Kiba after patting him, done the same with Shino and, finally, went to touch Hinata. He had certainly passed his chakra to each of them. The problem was that Hinata’s reaction had been far too chaotic, and Naruto should already know that the girl was far too shy for her own good.

"Hey, Sakura, carry her. Let’s continue the mission," Kakashi said. The option of Naruto carrying Hinata also existed, but as soon as she woke up and realized that Naruto was carrying her, she would certainly faint once again.

"Naruto, you’re already knocking out our own teammates, huh?" Sakura commented, dissatisfied.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "But I didn’t do anything," he merely said, trying to defend himself.

Sakura simply stuck out her tongue and picked Hinata up, placing her over her shoulder before everyone began preparing to leave.

"I think everything’s ready. Let’s go," Jiraiya said, and everyone nodded as they quickly headed toward the Land of Wind.

Hinata woke up shortly afterward and soon went back to traveling on her own, while they continued onward over the next few days.

As they moved forward, finally reaching the border, Naruto narrowed his eyes. He was trying to extend his sensory range far beyond the fifty meters he could reach and was even trying to concentrate to expand it for several kilometers. That was when he sensed something.

"I can sense the presence of a group of four ninjas at the border. They’re all jōnin-level," Naruto said. Jiraiya looked at the only two jōnin, who turned their attention to the only Hyūga girl.

"Hinata?" they asked, while Naruto approached her.

"Look at eleven-thirty," Naruto said.

Hinata activated her Byakugan, looking in that direction as she peered through the trees, until she finally found a group of ninjas camping.

"There’s a camp, just as Naruto-kun said," Hinata warned.

"And they’re not friendly, right? I can sense a somewhat cruel chakra coming from them," Naruto said.

"No..." She hesitated a little. "And there are severed heads in one corner of the camp," Hinata said, feeling somewhat disgusted.

"They could be bounty hunters, but we’d better take a look at this," Jiraiya said.

"There’s a woman and a child among the 4 victims," Hinata immediately made everyone tense when they heard those words. "They seem to be a family that was killed by them."

Since Naruto couldn’t sense the chakra of dead people, he hadn’t noticed that detail. He knew those people were bad, but his expression couldn’t help but darken even further.

"Maybe hired assassins," Yamato said in a rather grim tone.

"Let’s go take a look and deal with them," was all Jiraiya said as they moved forward.

The four ninjas were camping peacefully, while four heads were displayed there. They weren’t versed in fūinjutsu to hide bodies inside scrolls. They were rogue ninjas who had left their Villages after the Third War and taken on jobs in the underworld. Their job on that occasion was to eliminate a family. That didn’t mean they were weak, all of them were at the jōnin level. So it wasn’t surprising when they noticed a group approaching, especially since the Konoha ninjas hadn’t tried to hide their presence. It was easy for them to notice.

"Someone’s coming," one of them said, making everyone stand up immediately.

"There shouldn’t be any ninjas on this border," another said, as a group of around nine people emerged from the trees, landing in front of them, all wearing Konoha headbands.

"Konoha ninjas," one of them said before widening his eyes as he recognized some rather famous people there.

"That’s Jiraiya... and Kakashi Hatake!" he announced, recognizing the two most famous members of the group.

No one was surprised by that, not even Naruto. He wasn’t even known worldwide with his old appearance, aside from certain iconic figures in the ninja world who knew him, his face was still unknown to most of the world. And now he would be even more unrecognizable with his new appearance.

However, with the atmosphere growing tense between them, it was Naruto himself who acted first, before anyone could discuss anything further. Before they could prepare to escape, which would be the best choice when you had Jiraiya of the Sannin in front of you, golden chains began emerging from the ground, immediately grabbing them by their legs and torsos, binding them firmly. And before they could do anything against the chains, their chakra began to be drained. The ground began to be dug up by the chains until they emerged at Naruto’s feet, taking Team 8 in particular by surprise with his abilities, since they weren’t as accustomed to them as the others.

Naruto simply lifted the four people, already weakened, with their chakra completely sealed and being drained, bringing them over to the group. "It seems you’re hired assassins?" he said, not failing to look at the four heads, ignoring the terrified looks they gave Naruto.

There was a child among them, a woman, an older man, and another younger man around the woman’s age who resembled the older one. Even the child had similar features. They basically seemed to be a grandfather, parents, and a son. Naruto was overcome with anger at seeing something like that, but Kakashi’s hand landed on his shoulder.

"Leave this to us," was all Kakashi said, his tone serious and indicating that Naruto shouldn’t get involved.

Naruto nodded, causing all the chains to break apart, while the four men simply fell to the ground with parts of them still wrapped around their bodies, sealing their chakra the entire time. Naruto didn’t need to remain connected to the chains to keep them active. They could stay there for a long time, even a day, if he wanted.

"You go on ahead. We’ll find out what happened here and how we should proceed. We’ll meet up with you later," Jiraiya said.

"I’ll take them," Yamato said. While only Jiraiya and Kakashi stayed behind, everyone else followed Yamato, leaving the area in a rather tense atmosphere.

When they were near the entrance to the Land of Wind, Jiraiya and Kakashi finally joined them.

"So?" Naruto asked.

"They were hired assassins, as you probably already imagined. They were hired by another noble to massacre them. The victims were also a family of nobles. We sent clones to investigate and found a place near a city to the south, where there were wagons and some records. The hired men were killed, and we also found the victims’ bodies. The heads were taken as proof. It was a noble from the Land of Wind who hired them," Jiraiya said, with a grim expression.

"All the more reason to talk to Gaara," Naruto said with disgust.

Two hours later, they finally entered the desert. Border ninjas quickly approached them. Ever since the Kazekage had been captured, around half a year earlier, the entire border had been reinforced. Even without a jinchūriki, they still feared an Akatsuki attack. Because of that, it was normal to see a group of ninjas waiting for them.

"Konoha ninjas, what is your purpose for entering the Land of Wind?" they asked. Despite being allies, such a question was perfectly normal, even though they had already recognized the great Jiraiya and Kakashi.

"We have an S-Rank diplomatic mission and need a meeting directly with the Kazekage," Jiraiya replied, handing over a scroll.

The ninjas took the scroll and examined it, seeing Tsunade’s signature and the information stating that the group needed to have a private conversation with the Kazekage.

As allies, they didn’t need to prove much, unlike what would happen when they went to the Land of Water, since they would bring the jinchūriki himself with them as a way of getting the chance to speak with Mei Terumī in Kirigakure.

"I’ll escort you," one of the ninjas said.

Everyone nodded, and the group quickly followed the ninja, traveling through the desert until they finally spotted the massive rock formation in the middle of that vast expanse of sand, characteristic of the Sand Village, after two days of crossing the desert.

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi had already been there when Gaara was captured by Deidara, while Jiraiya had certainly infiltrated the Village at some point. The others, however, were quite surprised when they entered through the Village’s passage, which was basically a narrow opening between the enormous rock walls.

The ninjas guarding the area watched every person or merchant entering and leaving the Village. Many looked at the Konoha group, appearing surprised to see them accompanied by one of the ninjas from the special forces that guarded the border.

After the ninja introduced himself and spoke briefly with those in charge, without giving much information beyond the fact that they were on a mission and seeking an audience with the Kazekage, they proceeded inside. Some greeted Kakashi and Sakura, recognizing them from the last time they had been there, but no one seemed to recognize Naruto with his new appearance.

Naruto couldn’t help but show a somewhat disappointed smile, as he remembered how much that group of people had thanked them for saving the Kazekage back then, after Chiyo’s sacrifice.

Anyway, they entered along with some people who were entering the Village as a group, without permission to go jumping across the rooftops as they normally would, since they were in a foreign Village, even if it was an allied one. They continued walking until they reached the Kazekage’s building.

At the same time, Gaara couldn’t help but remain intrigued in his office, observing with the Third Eye the strange group that had just entered the Village. Obviously, there was a ninja escorting them, but others had quickly gone to inform the Kazekage about their arrival a few hours earlier, and the one who escorted the Konoha team took a route that wasn’t so ’direct’ to the village in order to buy some time.

Gaara continued observing the group, but was stunned when he saw the red-haired young man.

Aside from the Akatsuki, thanks to the Zetsu, no one in the ninja world knew what had happened in Konoha, since no one else would have spies like the Zetsu to check on the situation.

So, the change in Naruto’s appearance would be quite surprising to Gaara, who knew his old friend. Even though Naruto had changed quite a bit, he would still recognize him there. Gaara saw the young man raise his gaze and stare at the Third Eye in the air. Naruto simply smiled, recognizing that Gaara was watching him.

"Naruto..." Gaara murmured.

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