Chapter 553: The Artifact That Traverses Time and Space
Haibo Town was an ordinary settlement located on the border of the Land of Fire.
Situated directly beside the sea, it was a true coastal town.
However, the place had one particularly distinctive feature.
It was the closest location in the Land of Fire to the Land of Waves.
The Land of Fire was not especially large, and after several days of travel, Kenichi and the others finally arrived at Haibo Town.
The target of their bandit suppression mission was hiding in a forest not far from the town.
The bandits frequently raided Haibo Town, leaving the local residents miserable.
"But now that the ninja have arrived, justice has been served!"
For some reason, a strange line suddenly echoed through Kenichi's mind as he looked at the town before him.
He immediately shook his head and pushed the thought aside.
"Big brother, look over there!"
Naruto excitedly tugged at Kenichi's clothes.
Aside from the beginning of the journey, which Naruto had found interesting, he had already grown bored after only a day of traveling.
Now that they had finally reached their destination, he immediately became energetic again.
Kenichi followed the direction Naruto was pointing.
In the mist above the sea, he could faintly see the outline of a massive bridge.
Because it was still quite far away, only its vague silhouette was visible.
"That's a bridge, right? Was it built by the Land of Waves?"
Kenichi glanced at it.
That bridge was where much of the Land of Waves arc took place.
In the future, it would be named the Great Naruto Bridge.
However, now that they had arrived in this area, Kenichi had no idea which ninja team had accepted the Land of Waves mission.
"That isn't within the scope of our current mission."
Kakashi also glanced toward the distant bridge.
"Let's go. We need to gather intelligence first."
As a Konoha jonin and former Anbu ninja, Kakashi knew a little about the bridge.
The Land of Waves had previously submitted an application to Konoha regarding its construction.
After all, once completed, the bridge would connect the two countries, so the Land of Fire naturally needed to be informed.
The Land of Fire had raised no objections.
The Land of Waves would provide all the money and labor required for construction.
In return, the Land of Fire only needed to open Haibo Town as the first commercial town connected to the Land of Waves.
However, that proposal had been submitted quite a long time ago.
Despite that, construction on the bridge seemed to have made very little progress.
Perhaps something had happened within the Land of Waves.
But that had nothing to do with their current mission.
Kenichi nodded and said nothing further.
Sasuke was even less interested.
A tiny country whose name barely appeared on maps was not worth much of his attention.
Hinata, however, looked around curiously.
As a member of the Hyuga Clan's main family, she rarely had opportunities to leave Konoha.
She did not know why, but her father had actually agreed to let her participate in this mission.
Because of that, Hinata was both excited and curious about everything around her.
After changing out of their ninja gear and removing their forehead protectors, the group entered Haibo Town and temporarily checked into an inn.
Kakashi paid for the rooms.
"All right. Since this is Team 7's first C-rank mission, I want all of you to gather relevant intelligence."
Kakashi looked at his three students.
"We'll meet back here at the inn this evening."
"Then what are you going to do, Sensei?"
Naruto looked at Kakashi suspiciously.
"Me?"
Kakashi looked back at him as though the answer were obvious.
"I'm going to take a bath and rest."
Naruto's face immediately fell.
Sasuke did not care.
After spending so much time with Kakashi, he had already confirmed that the man was indeed a powerful jonin.
Unfortunately, Kakashi's personality was genuinely infuriating.
"Go on. Gather intelligence."
Kenichi did not mind.
It was obvious that Kakashi intended to use this as training for them.
Since Kenichi had spoken, Naruto and Sasuke stopped complaining.
The three genin left the inn together.
Kakashi yawned.
Then, once they were out of sight, he silently followed them.
Naturally, there was no possibility that he would genuinely leave the three children unsupervised.
Team 7 certainly needed practical experience, but Naruto was Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Nothing could be allowed to happen to him.
Furthermore, Hinata was also with them.
That was one of the reasons the Third Hokage had specifically assigned Kakashi to lead this team.
"Sasuke, where do you think we should go to gather information?"
Naruto looked around curiously as they walked through the town.
This was his first time traveling so far from Konoha, so nearly everything still seemed new to him.
"We just need to ask where the bandits usually come from."
Sasuke shrugged.
"Then we search in that direction and look for more clues."
Finding people was not much different from finding cats.
Gather intelligence.
Locate tracks.
Follow the target.
Surround and capture them.
The basic process was essentially the same.
"It's pretty similar to finding cats," Hinata added quietly.
She immediately remembered the painful period when Team 7 had been forced to search for missing cats and dogs all over Konoha.
Because of those missions, Sasuke now knew almost every corner of Konoha.
He understood the village's layout so well that he practically had the map memorized.
Perhaps that was one of the hidden purposes behind D-rank missions.
Naruto nodded thoughtfully.
Finding cats and finding people did have similarities.
People were simply more troublesome because they intentionally hid their tracks.
Cats did not.
Still, Naruto doubted ordinary bandits could possess particularly advanced concealment methods.
Compared with trained ninja, the hiding methods of normal people were far too crude.
Before long, Sasuke learned that the bandits frequently appeared west of Haibo Town.
Naruto and Hinata gathered the same information.
"Sasuke, should we go back to the inn and meet Kakashi-sensei now, or should we just go directly?"
Naruto rubbed his hands together eagerly.
This was his first C-rank mission.
He was genuinely excited.
"I think we should locate their hideout first."
Sasuke also felt that continuing the investigation was the better choice.
"Otherwise, Kakashi will probably just tell us to come back out and search for it anyway."
Hinata nodded.
She had no objection.
As far as she was concerned, whatever Naruto decided was fine.
Besides, a C-rank mission was unlikely to involve enemy ninja.
"Let's go."
Naruto made the decision.
"We'll find their hideout first, then return and report."
His hands were already itching to do something.
And so Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke left Haibo Town.
Behind them, Kakashi followed while reading Icha Icha Paradise.
Except for the side facing the ocean, Haibo Town was surrounded almost entirely by forest.
Kenichi had to admit that the natural environment of the Shinobi World was truly excellent.
Elsewhere in the forest, Kenichi was patiently searching.
Konoha's ninja had not yet found the object he needed, so he had decided to search for it himself while they were here.
Before long, Kenichi discovered several tracks.
Among them were marks that looked suspiciously like hoofprints.
"Horses?"
Kenichi paused.
Were there horses in the Naruto world?
Or did these bandits somehow possess horses?
He vaguely remembered that horses had almost never appeared in the anime.
The only time he could recall seeing one was in a movie.
"But these should belong to the bandits."
Kenichi examined the hoofprints.
Judging from the number of tracks, there were quite a few people in the group.
"I've found their trail. Now I just need to confirm where their base is."
Kenichi studied the hoofprints on the ground.
These bandits did not seem particularly cautious.
Either that, or they simply believed nobody would ever discover their tracks.
Kenichi stood and looked around.
Naruto and Sasuke had not reached this place yet.
He had no intention of helping them.
Instead, he sat off to the side and waited.
The clues here were extremely obvious.
The three genin should be able to discover them on their own.
Sure enough, Naruto and Sasuke arrived before long.
"There are hoofprints here, and a lot of them."
Naruto pointed toward the ground.
"I think they belong to the bandits."
Sasuke immediately became eager.
"Let's go."
He was not particularly worried.
Taking Naruto and Hinata with him, Sasuke followed the hoofprints deeper into the forest.
Before long, he noticed something strange.
"The hoofprints stop here."
Sasuke looked ahead.
A canyon separated them from the opposite side.
A trail continued on the other side, but there was a chasm nearly twenty meters wide between them.
Below, sharp rocks jutted upward.
There was seawater farther beneath them, but an ordinary person would never be able to cross such a gap safely.
Naruto lay near the edge and looked down.
Then he swallowed.
The height made him nervous.
If he fell, climbing back up would be extremely difficult.
Kenichi crouched among the treetops nearby and considered the situation.
He had already checked the opposite side.
There did not seem to be any suitable place to secure a rope.
Because the trees near the coast were exposed to strong winds, they did not grow particularly thick.
Suspending people across this gap using ropes would be extremely difficult.
Moreover, the bandits had stolen goods and money with them, increasing the weight they needed to carry.
Crossing this canyon directly would have been very risky.
"This canyon is really long. I can't even see where it ends."
Naruto looked into the distance.
Although he could not see the end of the canyon, its sheer length made it obvious that going around would take a considerable amount of time.
"It seems these guys aren't completely stupid."
Sasuke examined the hoofprints again.
They stopped here.
There were no obvious tracks nearby either.
Someone unaware of the situation might genuinely think these bandits were demons or ghosts capable of flying.
Hinata suddenly noticed something unusual.
Her gaze fell upon the edge of the canyon.
A few low shrubs grew there, but their arrangement looked strange.
She walked over and pushed the branches aside.
Then she noticed a very thin fiber caught on one of the thorns.
"They went this way."
Hinata examined the surrounding soil.
There were almost no visible tracks.
She became slightly interested.
She had initially assumed these bandits were nothing more than a group of fools.
She had not expected them to possess at least some skill in hiding their movements.
Once they found the trail again, Naruto and the others quickly discovered several dragging marks farther ahead.
However, the hoofprints had completely disappeared.
They had no idea what had happened.
After following the drag marks for some time, Naruto finally stopped.
"These guys..."
Sasuke stared at the place where the trail vanished.
Then he looked toward the beach ahead and the dark silhouettes visible in the distance.
He fell into thought.
The drag marks ended on the beach.
There were no tracks beyond that point.
The waves washed across the shore every day, erasing all traces.
However, that also gave Naruto and Sasuke a new possibility to consider.
"They couldn't be from the Land of Waves, could they?"
Sasuke sounded uncertain.
He did not think the possibility was particularly high.
But the tracks ended here.
"Did they come by boat?"
Hinata stood on her toes and looked toward the unfinished bridge in the distance.
From this position, its faint outline was still visible.
"They must be from the Land of Waves."
Naruto sounded excited.
"Unless they deliberately came here just to erase their tracks and then went somewhere else."
Kenichi rubbed his temples.
Why did everything keep leading back to the Land of Waves?
If the mission truly involved the Land of Waves, could it still be considered C-rank?
He had to remember that Zabuza Momochi was currently in that country.
According to the timeline, Zabuza should already have accepted Gato's employment and be preparing to kill the bridge builder.
However, after searching the surrounding area thoroughly, they found no additional clues.
"Let's head back and tell Kakashi-sensei."
Sasuke looked toward the distant bridge, then glanced around.
Kakashi still had not appeared.
Sasuke could not tell whether their teacher was absent or simply refusing to reveal himself.
Naruto and Hinata had no objections.
The three left the beach and returned to the inn.
When they arrived, Kakashi was drying his wet hair.
"Did you find anything?"
Kakashi asked calmly.
Although he was drying his hair, one of his eyes was still covered, keeping his Sharingan hidden.
"Kakashi-sensei, we found some clues."
Naruto quickly explained everything they had discovered.
"But it looks like the bandits might be coming from the Land of Waves."
If the hideout had simply been somewhere in the surrounding mountains, they could have gone directly there and eliminated the bandits.
But if they had crossed into the Land of Waves, the situation became somewhat more complicated.
Kenichi did not know how Konoha normally dealt with missions involving matters between two different countries.
"Then we'll go to the Land of Waves, find them, and kill them."
Kakashi spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Everything about his response seemed completely normal.
As if this was simply how the world was supposed to work.
Ninja fought above everyone else, competing for power and profit.
Ordinary people could only passively endure the consequences.
Even after the Fourth Shinobi World War ended, the structure of the Shinobi World had not fundamentally changed.
At most, it became somewhat more peaceful.
And even that peace was largely supported by the overwhelming military power of Naruto and Sasuke.
Kenichi rested his chin in one hand and looked at Naruto and Sasuke.
Neither of them seemed to find Kakashi's statement strange.
Apparently, they were already accustomed to this kind of logic.
Or rather, among ninja, only a very small number of people ever realized that there was something fundamentally wrong with this world.
Under Kakashi's leadership, Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, and the others boarded a ship heading toward the Land of Waves.
The large sign reading "Gato Shipping Company" was extremely conspicuous.
Kenichi yawned.
Gato was rich.
Extremely rich.
After all, he was a world famous shipping tycoon.
However, Gato was going to die soon.
If the story still developed according to the original plot, his death was practically guaranteed.
Afterward, Gato's accumulated wealth would likely be divided among the thugs who worked for him.
Kenichi had never cared much about money.
But right now, he needed it.
He planned to visit the underground black market and place a bounty for information about the object that had struck him.
He had spent a long time trying to recall the vague outline he had seen.
Whatever that thing was, it should possess the ability to travel through time and space.
Otherwise, Kenichi would never have ended up in this damn timeline.
....
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