Land of Wind.
Amidst an endless expanse of yellow sand.
Sunagakure ninja were conducting military exercises. As they advanced towards a sand dune, several burly figures leaped out from the yellow sand.
Without a word, they launched an attack.
"Enemy attack!"
Seeing their comrades ambushed by the suddenly appearing enemies, the Suna ninja immediately halted their planned exercises and rushed to the battlefield to provide support.
After sacrificing several comrades, the Suna ninja successfully eliminated all the enemies.
"Identical enemies?" The Suna ninja who had regained their composure looked at the corpses on the ground in shock.
One or two looking alike could be explained by them being twins.
But looking at the bodies on the ground, there were at least fifty of them. Quintuplets, fifty times over?
What kind of joke was this!
Whoosh!
"More are coming!" The Suna ninjas' expressions changed.
"How can there be so many?"
This is the Land of Wind, for crying out loud!
"Not good, we're surrounded!" A jounin, seeing the strange men encircling them, looked grim.
Although their numbers weren't small, because it was an exercise, few were carrying real weapons.
Most were just exercise props.
Fighting with exercise props? What a joke.
"Try to delay for as long as possible! The command post will notice something's wrong and send reinforcements!" the jounin hurriedly encouraged, seeing his comrades' morale waning.
Thwack!
Feeling the immense force transmitted from the enemy's weapon, the Suna jounin's expression tensed. For him, such force might not be much.
But for genin-level ninja, it was terrifying.
And indeed, in just a few short breaths, two genin had already been killed.
However, as the number of clashes increased, the Suna ninja also found the strange men's weakness: they only used taijutsu to attack.
As long as they carefully evaded and seized the openings revealed when the strange men attacked, they could counter-kill.
But the strange men had the advantage in numbers, so sometimes, even if an enemy revealed an opening, they had no chance to launch an attack.
The battle between the two sides entered a stalemate.
"Sand Waterfall Funeral!"
A massive wave of yellow sand, like a tsunami, slammed a large number of the strange men into the ground.
Under Gaara's control, the fine yellow sand became a terrifying killing tool, the immense pressure instantly crushing the strange men into pulp.
The Suna ninjas' faces lit up with joy; they understood that reinforcements from the command post had arrived.
With the addition of Gaara and his group, the stalemate between the Suna ninja and the strange men was instantly broken.
Watching the Suna ninja begin to organize a counterattack, Temari breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the problem didn't escalate, otherwise it would have affected Gaara…
The purpose of this exercise was precisely to build momentum for Gaara's succession as the Fifth Kazekage. If this exercise had been botched…
"Gaara…" Temari looked at her younger brother, just about to say a few words of encouragement.
Gaara suddenly spoke: "Fire the flare bombs!"
Hearing this, the surrounding Suna ninja, though not understanding the reason, all complied.
Several flare bombs were shot into the sky.
The pitch-black night instantly became as bright as day.
"What is that?!"
As their vision cleared, a warship, approximately one hundred meters long and twenty meters wide, in a distant lake, strikingly entered their view.
"Kankuro." Gaara turned his head to look at his older brother.
"Understood." Without needing further explanation, Kankuro understood his task. He quickly led several puppet masters towards the distant warship.
"Temari, I'll leave this place to you."
Seemingly still uneasy, Gaara entrusted matters here to his older sister, then he too headed towards the warship.
Inside the warship.
Kankuro cautiously observed his surroundings.
Several puppet masters were spread out around him, vigilant against any enemies that might appear at any moment.
Above his head, within a shadowy area, a woman with the same hair color as Temujin stared intently at the group below.
When the group entered the predetermined location, she leaped down, the Stone of Gelel on her chest erupting with a massive amount of life energy.
Her form slowly began to change; her originally delicate face transformed into a beastly visage resembling that of a bat.
"Screee!"
A bat-like cry emitted from her throat.
The puppet masters below felt a sharp pain in their eardrums.
"Finally decided to come out, have you?" A smirk played on Kankuro's lips. With a slight movement of his fingers, his Crow puppet met the attack.
"That should be about enough."
Sensing that Temujin's life energy fluctuations were gradually stabilizing, Naruto removed his palm, which was imbued with life energy, from the young man's chest.
"Considering you're willing to take me to see your boss, I won't charge you a treatment fee," Naruto said comfortingly, seeing Temujin's bewildered expression.
Although he didn't know medical ninjutsu, the healing effects of life energy were far superior.
"Is this truly the power of the Stone of Gelel?" Temujin asked in disbelief, looking at his mostly healed injuries.
"Let me correct you again: this is life energy, not the power of the Stone of Gelel," Naruto stated.
"Absolutely do not use your superficial understanding of the Stone of Gelel to comprehend life energy."
Regarding Temujin and his group, Naruto didn't quite know what to say. Using life energy for combat…
Even he wouldn't dare to be so extravagant!
A complete and utter reckless waste of a heavenly gift!
Even if used for reforestation, the Stone of Gelel would yield far greater value than in combat.
Gently stroking the fur on Nerugui's back, Kahiko looked at Temujin, who was undoing his bandages, his expression unreadable.
"Grandpa, what's wrong? You haven't said a word since just now," Kahiko's granddaughter, Emina, walked to his side and asked with concern.
"Emina, do you remember?" Kahiko sighed.
"Remember what?" Emina paused, puzzled.
"Our ancestors once established an exceedingly glorious kingdom. But due to a sudden catastrophe, this kingdom perished, and only a very few lucky individuals managed to survive," Kahiko said.
"But Grandpa, didn't you say that was just a legend?" Emina asked.
"Things that have already passed, what difference is there between them and legends?" Kahiko sighed.
"You mean, our ancestors really did establish a kingdom?" Emina asked in shock.
"Nerugui was a pet raised by the royal family. It is the best proof that kingdom once existed."
Kahiko looked at Temujin's hair and eye color, comparing them with the ancient records passed down through their clan for generations.
The more he compared, the stranger his expression became.
An aura that Nerugui would naturally feel close to… only the royal bloodline…
"Where were you all active before? To the point where you've never even heard of ninja?" Sakura asked curiously.
From their conversation with Temujin, they had learned that this fellow not only had never seen chakra but was also encountering ninja for the first time.
Not having seen chakra was understandable; after all, it was a term used among ninja.
But never having seen a ninja was bizarre.
One had to remember, the current era was the era of ninja. From the Five Great Nations down to tiny countries barely visible on a map, traces of ninja could be found.
Ninja missions were even inextricably linked to the economies of various countries.
"Since I was very young, I received training at Lord Haido's base. I only recently came out to perform a mission," Temujin said.
Sakura's face showed understanding.
So he was cut off from the outside world. No wonder he'd never seen a ninja.
"Let's rest first; it's getting late," Naruto said.
He was already beginning to look forward to meeting Haido.
He just wondered if the Ideal Nation Haido sought to establish was an ideal nation for everyone, or just for Haido himself.