Chiba Shun didn't dare travel slowly anymore. What if Danzo still refused to let this go?
The Konoha ninjas exchanged glances for a while before the four squad leaders finally discussed it among themselves. They were worried about unexpected trouble on the road too, so in the end, they agreed.
The moment he saw that, Chiba Shun moved first and hoisted one of the children up without hesitation.
Most of the Konoha ninjas were stronger than he was. Some carried a child in their arms, while others took them on their backs. Before long, all twenty-four children had been assigned.
Then seventeen ninjas and a cluster of children began racing through the night toward Konoha.
What they were doing was actually extremely dangerous. Moving at high speed meant their vigilance would drop to its lowest point, making them easy prey for an ambush.
But what Chiba Shun was gambling on was the gap in timing.
The Root ninjas who had just failed would need to return and report to Danzo before anything else. They probably never imagined Chiba Shun would dare to take such a reckless risk. By the time Danzo dispatched reinforcements and arranged another surprise attack, Chiba Shun's group would likely already be close to Konoha.
Of course, Chiba Shun only made that suggestion because his sensory ninjutsu hadn't picked up any other enemies nearby.
If Root still had people watching them from the shadows, then doing this would have been no different from jumping into a grave with his own feet.
Fortunately, his gamble paid off.
As dawn broke, they still hadn't run into another assassination attempt. Only then did the group slow down a little, and before the second night could fall, they finally reached Konoha.
Danzo really had sent another team after the first failure. He was just a step too slow. By the time the second group found Chiba Shun's trail, they were already too close to Konoha. No matter how arrogant Root was, they couldn't openly attack right outside the village.
So for the moment, Chiba Shun and the children had survived.
***
Danzo, however, had no intention of giving up.
It didn't matter that he had missed his chance on the road. Once they entered Konoha, he would have even more opportunities.
In Danzo's eyes, the entire Cloud exchange group was already made up of corpses.
Especially the leader—Chiba Shun.
A mere Chunin had made Root fail twice in a row. That alone was enough to make Danzo regard him as a stain that needed to be wiped away.
And Hiruzen Sarutobi was too soft. How could a Hokage bend to Kumogakure?
In Danzo's view, the proper answer was simple: kill them, provoke a new war with the Hidden Cloud, and crush Kumogakure while it was still weakened. That, to him, was how a Hokage should act.
Naturally, Chiba Shun had no idea what Danzo was thinking. After entering Konoha, he didn't immediately meet any of Konoha's higher-ups. His status was too low, and even if they wanted to see him, they wouldn't lower themselves so quickly.
Still, the person Konoha sent to receive him surprised him badly enough.
The Yellow Flash.
Well… not yet.
Minato Namikaze had not earned that title yet. He was still only a twelve-year-old boy. Judging by his current aura, his strength was probably around Chunin level.
That was normal. Minato was from a civilian background too, and his early growth hadn't been especially outrageous. He hadn't yet reached the stage where his talent would explode and make the entire ninja world stare at him.
Even so, Chiba Shun estimated it wouldn't be long before Minato reached Jonin.
From Konoha's point of view, having a Chunin receive another Chunin was appropriate. On top of that, Minato Namikaze was one of the purest inheritors of the Will of Fire, with a natural warmth that drew people in. If he could influence Chiba Shun even a little, so much the better.
Seeing that bright, sunlike smile on Minato's face, Chiba Shun put on an equally warm smile of his own.
The two boys were similar in age, similar in background, and both knew how to talk. They got along almost immediately.
Minato told him about Konoha's Will of Fire.
Chiba Shun told him about Kumogakure's Will of Lightning.
Their conversation flowed so smoothly that it was hard to tell how much was sincerity and how much was calculation.
Not long after, Chiba Shun suggested they go sample Konoha's local food together.
That, more than anything else, was the one thing that made his trip as part of the exchange group genuinely pleasant.
He didn't need to spend his own money in Konoha.
Every expense for the entire exchange group would be covered by Konoha—the richest ninja village in the world.
***
At this point, Chiba Shun's chakra reserves were enough for him to perform around seventy C-rank ninjutsu.
From what he understood, among civilian ninjas in Kumogakure, the average genin only had enough chakra to use roughly ten C-rank techniques.
Of course, in actual battle, nobody really had the chance to throw around ten jutsu in a row. Taijutsu consumed chakra. Throwing kunai consumed chakra. Even movement and breathing under pressure drained the body.
As for the average Chunin, their reserves were usually enough for about ten B-rank ninjutsu.
Chiba Shun didn't truly know any B-rank techniques yet, but he did possess a B-rank Lightning Release jutsu. Based on that, he estimated a B-rank technique cost about ten times as much chakra as a C-rank one.
Of course, a Chunin's chakra quality was higher than a genin's as well. Even using the same C-rank jutsu, the result would differ as long as the user's level was different.
By that standard, Chiba Shun's own chakra reserves were still on the lower side for a normal Chunin.
That didn't bother him much. It was only natural. He had enjoyed proper nutritional support for barely a year, and his body was still weaker than that of most adult Chunin.
That was exactly why he was so eager to see how much his chakra might rise after this trip to Konoha.
So he threw himself into Konoha's food like someone who had never seen the world.
Which, in a sense, was true.
He hadn't just been talking nonsense to those twenty-four children earlier. He genuinely wanted them to eat more too. Every extra bite they swallowed was one less mouthful Kumogakure's strained budget would need to provide later.
His strength was in a stage of rapid growth. More than ever, he needed food.
In just six months in Kumogakure, he had burned through two hundred thousand taels worth of food simply to keep up with training.
Now that food expenses were no longer his problem, Chiba Shun had only one strategy.
Eat.
Eat whatever contained the most energy.
Don't even look at the price.
If there hadn't been danger hanging over his head, he would have been perfectly happy to freeload in Konoha for a few years.
***
But while he ate, he also watched.
He didn't care about Hokage Rock. There was nothing there worth studying. What interested him was Konoha itself.
It was far more prosperous than Kumogakure.
The villagers passing through the streets looked at Chiba Shun with the easy superiority of people who belonged to the richest and strongest village in the world, as if he were some country bumpkin from a poor mountain backwater.
The confidence of Konoha's ninjas was something the Cloud never quite had.
This was a village that had won two Shinobi World Wars.
A village that had once fought four enemies at once and still held firm.
In Hiruzen Sarutobi's propaganda, Konoha hadn't merely endured that battle. It had won decisively.
That kind of history forged an unquestioning confidence in Konoha's people.
Chiba Shun also saw one powerful ninja clan after another.
To an outside observer, the major clans and the civilians coexisted in harmony, as if everyone truly believed in the Will of Fire and everyone stood equal beneath it.
The Sarutobi clan didn't act arrogant just because a Hokage had come from their line, nor did they swagger around flaunting their monkey summons.
The Nara clan didn't lord their intelligence over others.
The Akimichi clan was cheerful and generous enough that their barbecue restaurant even gave Chiba Shun and Minato Namikaze a discount.
The wife of the Yamanaka clan head even presented the visiting Cloud envoy with a bouquet of flowers, smiling all the while.
These clans, especially the ones closest to Hokage Hiruzen, all made a show of goodwill toward the Hidden Cloud delegation.
But there were exceptions.
The Uchiha clan, Konoha's largest and most famous clan, didn't bother hiding what they were.
Right in front of an outsider like Chiba Shun, they harshly punished several villagers who had broken the regulations of the Police Force. Then one of them swept crimson Sharingan eyes across the crowd, effortlessly planting fear in the hearts of the villagers.
Chiba Shun lowered his head at once, not daring to meet that gaze.
The Hyuga clan was another story altogether.
He never saw the clan head in person, but even from the branch family members alone, he caught something else entirely—resentment.
They were proud, looking down on civilians and ordinary ninjas alike. Yet beneath that pride lurked envy and insecurity, as though they resented the freedom everyone else possessed.
One hand rubbing his full stomach, the other holding a bouquet of flowers, Chiba Shun smiled and said to Minato, "Konoha really is lively. The young members of every great clan seem so approachable."
The timing of those words was almost maliciously perfect, because the Uchiha had just walked away.
Minato looked faintly embarrassed. After a pause, he said in the Uchiha's defense, "The Uchiha are actually very fair. They're not strict only with outsiders. They treat their own people the same way."
Chiba Shun nodded with a smile. "Ah, I see. So the Uchiha aren't only strict with 'outsiders.'"
Minato instinctively felt that something about the wording was off, but he couldn't immediately say why.
He was still young, still bright and straightforward. It took him a moment to realize he had fallen into a trap of language.
By using the phrase their own people, he had unconsciously separated the Uchiha from the rest of Konoha.
And by following that wording so naturally, Chiba Shun had quietly driven the wedge a little deeper.
Minato didn't argue. Instead, he found himself thinking.
Had a rift really formed between the Uchiha clan and the village?
If so, what could he do to mend it?
Maybe… when he became a Jonin someday, he could take an Uchiha child as his disciple.
***
Not long after, the two arrived at one of Konoha's training grounds.
There had originally been many ninjas training there, but before Chiba Shun's arrival, the area had already been cleared out by the ANBU.
That wasn't because Chiba Shun was important.
It was because Konoha didn't want him watching and learning their ninjutsu.
He understood that perfectly, and he didn't care.
In full view of the hidden eyes monitoring him, Chiba Shun began nothing more than basic physical training.
Because he intended to eat as much as possible during this visit, he pushed his body very hard. His training intensity was brutal, the kind that devoured energy almost as fast as he could replenish it.
He even invited Minato to train with him.
Minato politely declined and stayed to the side, watching.
Chiba Shun spent half the day training alone until he was exhausted to the bone. Then, as if that were the most natural thing in the world, he asked Minato to take him out for another expensive meal.
He deliberately chose foods known for restoring stamina and chakra quickly.
After dinner, he returned to his quarters and trained again.
Only when both his strength and chakra were wrung completely dry did he wash up and go to the room Konoha had arranged for him.
Then he lay down and went to sleep.
Just like that.
In the darkness, one of the spies assigned to watch him muttered to his companion, "He's really just going to sleep? No precautions at all?"
The other thought for a moment before replying, "He probably figured there's no point. Even if he set up defenses, they wouldn't matter here."
After a pause, he added, "Do you think he came to Konoha just to freeload?"
The first spy actually considered it.
"Honestly? Maybe. At the Akimichi barbecue place earlier, he ate at least as much in one meal as a high-consumption Jonin."
The other man let out a soft breath.
"And the second he finishes eating, he goes right back to training. Like he's afraid the food will be wasted."
The first spy was quiet for a while before saying, "Is the Hidden Cloud really that poor?"
The two whispered back and forth for a bit longer. Once they were sure Chiba Shun was truly asleep, one of them slipped away into the night to report everything to the Third Hokage.