A week after Gato was killed, the bridge connecting the Land of Waves to the mainland was finally completed.
From then on, the Land of Waves faced no more obstacles in trading with the towns on the mainland.
"See you, Brother Chuan! When you have time, you must come to our Konoha to play. I'll treat you to ramen, it's super delicious!"
On the bridge, Naruto waved and shouted to Li Chuan before leaving.
With the bridge completed, Team Seven's mission was completely finished, so they naturally had to return to Konoha.
"If you have a mission that takes you to the capital next time, you can notify this monk in advance, and this monk will also treat you well."
Li Chuan smiled and replied, holding his Zen staff.
He temporarily had no plans to leave the Land of Waves, because Matsukawa alone would find it difficult to completely take over Gato's shipping company, and he still needed to secretly eliminate some obstacles.
However, what he told Kakashi and the others was that Matsukawa planned to establish an orphanage in the Land of Waves to adopt those poor orphans, and he wanted to stay and help.
In fact, this was indeed one of the reasons he stayed; after all, he still needed to take time to teach those orphans some basic Chakra refinement techniques and Ninja knowledge.
"Alright! Let's hurry back to the Village. To celebrate completing the mission, I'll have Iruka Sensei treat me to ramen."
On the way back, Naruto was clearly in a very good mood.
Sakura on the other side was also the same.
"Um, Sasuke, let's go on a date when we get back to the Village?"
"No, I refuse!"
Sasuke replied without hesitation, with his hands behind his head.
After he returned, he still had to continue training even harder to improve himself. After seeing powerful Ninja like Kakashi, Zabuza, and Chuan, he felt even more that he was still far from achieving his revenge.
Kakashi, walking beside them, looked at his three disciples with a relieved expression, while also thinking of the Ninja monk from the Fire Temple named "Chuan."
His many years of experience told him that Chuan's identity was not as simple as just a Ninja monk from the Fire Temple on the surface; he was not as easily fooled as Sakura.
From his observations during this period, he had already seen that Matsukawa was not Chuan's friend at all; that kind of deep-seated humility upon seeing Chuan was only something a servant would show to their Master.
However, he did not think Chuan was a bad person. From the way he handled various matters, he was definitely a kind and good person; he might just be hiding another layer of identity.
On the other side, after Kakashi's Team Seven left, Li Chuan, along with Zabuza and White, also let loose and cooperated with Matsukawa to begin the planned actions.
In less than three days, Gato's conglomerate completely disintegrated, being absorbed by Li Chuan's merchant group, lock, stock, and barrel. Then, using the vast funds of Gato's conglomerate, they began rebuilding the towns in the Land of Waves.
All the bankrupt shops in the towns were bought back at high prices, rebranded with the Chuanji logo, and reopened.
Large quantities of goods were pulled out of the prosperous towns on the mainland by Li Chuan's merchant group and continuously transported into the Land of Waves.
The able-bodied young people who were originally jobless and hanging signs on the streets were also recruited into Chuanji's merchant group, shops, and various construction sites.
Poor families gained income. They no longer had to starve and could buy all kinds of food and daily necessities at Chuanji's shops. The money spent then re-entered Chuanji's pockets.
The towns of the Land of Waves changed daily because of Chuanji's presence, and almost everyone's life became closely intertwined with Chuanji.
And the children who were originally without families and looked emaciated were all moved into the orphanage, eating well and dressed warmly, and even had teachers invited by Li Chuan from the mainland to teach them basic culture and knowledge.
More than a month later, there were approximately ten days left until Li Chuan returned to the Main World.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Li Chuan formed hand seals, and a huge torrent of Water surged out, crushing towards Zabuza on the opposite side.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Facing a wide-area Ninjutsu with such a large coverage, evasion was impossible. Zabuza could only choose to counteract it with the same Ninjutsu.
"Lightning Release: Earth Corridor!"
However, Li Chuan was already prepared. He slammed his hands onto the ground, and a surge of Lightning Chakra spread from the two stalemated Water currents towards Zabuza.
"A Ninja with five Chakra natures is indeed troublesome."
Zabuza's whole body went numb from the electric current in the Water, so he had to jump up and hide on a large tree that was not electrified.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique! Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance!"
The C-rank Great Fireball, boosted by the D-rank Air Current Wild Dance, instantly reached the power of a B-rank Fire Release Ninjutsu, forcing Zabuza to release a Water Dragon Bullet again to counteract the damage.
Seizing this opportunity, Li Chuan had already closed in behind Zabuza, holding a large spear and launching an attack at him.
And Zabuza, whose body was slowed by the previous lightning paralysis, was actually knocked off the tree by Li Chuan's spear for a moment.
As soon as the numbness in his body finally disappeared, he intended to use Kubikiribōchō with all his might to cut off the opponent's long spear. To his surprise, the long spear suddenly transformed into a giant hammer, and one blow made his hands numb, almost causing him to drop the large sword.
Thus, the two exchanged blows, and Zabuza was consistently at a disadvantage under Li Chuan's varied and unpredictable attacks.
"I'm not fighting anymore, this is too frustrating!"
After a while, Zabuza put away his large sword, unwilling to continue sparring with Li Chuan.
After killing Gato, Li Chuan hired him and White to work at a high price of 200,000 ryo per day.
He was responsible for assassinations and assisting Li Chuan in Ninjutsu training and combat sparring, while White was responsible for guiding the orphans in the orphanage, teaching them the most basic Chakra refinement techniques and some Ninjutsu provided by Li Chuan.
It was a good way to evade the Hidden Mist pursuit teams, and he also got paid, so he readily agreed.
Initially, Li Chuan never won against him in their spars, but this guy's talent was indeed terrifying, constantly improving through repeated actual combat.
Now, he not only suppressed him in Ninjutsu by relying on his five Chakra nature talent, but his application of weapons in Taijutsu was also superb, and there was that disgusting ability to change weapons, whose principle he didn't understand.
In battles now, he found it almost impossible to gain the upper hand, and this was still without Li Chuan using the special Taijutsu that defeated White.
"Thank you for this time. I plan to return to the Land of Fire tomorrow. Are you interested in visiting the capital of the Land of Fire?"
Li Chuan put his weapons into his mission space, feeling very pleased.
Previously, at the Fire Temple, he trained alone, at most sparring with Chiriku, but he couldn't let loose that much. This led to many of his experiences and moves being conceptual, unable to be practically applied.
But during these fifty days, because he had Zabuza, an experienced Elite Jonin, as a sparring partner, basically everything he currently mastered had been effectively developed.
Now, his overall strength could be said to be not much worse than that of an average Elite Jonin; the only difference was the amount of Chakra.
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