Chapter 91: Teaming Up With Snake Auntie
Land of Waves, this is a small island located in the eastern seas of the Land of Fire, bordering the Land of Fire to the west and the Land of the Sea to the east, perpetually shrouded in damp sea mist.
During the Third Great Ninja War, the Land of Waves was also one of the battlefields where Konoha and Kirigakure clashed.
Although the war has now ended, the scars left by the gunpowder smoke have yet to heal, and this small island country still has not returned to the peace and stability of before the war.
Instead, due to various factors such as pirates, bandits, wandering samurai, and rogue ninja, it has become even more chaotic.
This also created conditions for the Kado Group to monopolize trade in the Land of Waves a few years later.
On the coast of the Land of Waves, the black robe billowed with the sea breeze, and Menma, wearing a White Three-Eyed Fox Mask, walked along the Land of Waves coastline. Ahead was a small city, but he did not head toward the city, instead standing by the sea gazing at the strait.
From here, one could even vaguely see the outline of the continent opposite through the sea mist.
Eight years in the future, Team 7 would encounter Zabuza and Haku here, engage in fierce battle, and build a cross-sea bridge—the Naruto Bridge.
“So, the technology tree is truly strange. Clearly this country is still in a feudal era, yet it can build a bridge spanning over a dozen kilometers,” Menma muttered.
In the Kagura Shingan, a familiar chakra was gradually approaching.
The sound of wooden clogs stepping on sand came from the thin mist.
The White Three-Eyed Fox Mask slightly turned its head, and a figure was slowly walking over.
“Kept you waiting,” Orochimaru, dressed as a noblewoman, approached slowly, his golden vertical pupils flickering behind his disheveled long hair.
The trip to Kirigakure was somewhat dangerous, so she had not brought any subordinates. The fewer people, the lower the risk of exposure, and the easier it was to escape.
“That ship is heading straight to the Land of Water,” Menma raised his head to signal Orochimaru to look at a sea ship docked at the port of that coastal small city.
Orochimaru looked over, and on the sea ship, a Kado Group flag was faintly visible in the thin mist.
The two each used their skills: Orochimaru used illusion technique to control the crew on the ship and successfully boarded with a noble identity, even securing a nice room.
Menma simply leaped directly onto the sea ship and rendezvoused with Orochimaru.
After two days of twists and turns, the sea ship gradually approached the coast of the Land of Water.
A sudden clash of ninjutsu in the mist drew the passengers on the ship to crowd against the railings, gazing at the sea surface in the mist where several figures were fighting, discussing animatedly.
When Menma and Orochimaru emerged from the cabin, they happened to overhear these ordinary people discussing.
“Seems like ninja, right?”
“How many times has this happened this month already?”
“I’ve traveled to the Land of Water five times and seen this sort of thing three times.”
“Tch, as long as they don’t come bother us ordinary folk.”
Orochimaru stared at the fighting figures on the misty sea surface, his vertical golden pupils glowing faintly: “Looks like the situation in Kirigakure is worse than we imagined, with defections happening one after another.”
He glanced sideways at the silent Shura beside him, but only saw the fox mask reflecting the gray daylight, leaving Orochimaru somewhat disinterested.
After the sea ship docked, the two vanished into the noisy crowd.
“After the last great war, Kirigakure’s Seven Ninja Swordsmen have never been fully replenished. It’s said some even defected with their ninja swords, so the ones we need to watch out for are just the bloodline limit families in Kirigakure and the Mizukage’s Anbu,” the two walked toward Kirigakure, with Orochimaru explaining the current situation in Kirigakure.
“So, shall we act together or split up?” Orochimaru brushed aside his long hair, his pair of golden vertical pupils looking at Shura.
At this moment, Menma was using Kagura Shingan to sense chakra within a hundred kilometers around.
He vaguely remembered that Haku was not from Kirigakure, but born in a small village that snowed year-round. Because his mother was from the Yukigakure Clan, he awakened the Ice Release Bloodline Limit, but was regarded as an ill omen by his father and the villagers.
His father even organized the villagers to kill Haku’s mother, and just as they were about to beat the young Haku to death as well, the terrified Haku activated Ice Release and killed everyone.
From then on, Haku became an orphan, wandering the streets and alleys of the Land of Water.
Menma guessed that Haku’s wandering area should be in the southwestern part of the Land of Water.
Because after Zabuza defected, he couldn’t stay in the Land of Water for long—the Mizukage’s Anbu were no pushovers. To evade the Anbu’s pursuit, Zabuza had to leave the Land of Water.
So Zabuza most likely encountered Haku while setting out to sea from the southeastern part of the Land of Water.
With the radar-like wide-range search and detection of Kagura Shingan, Menma finally discovered in a nearby city a faint chakra carrying a chilling aura.
“I found something good. Interested in coming along to check it out?” After Menma spoke, he body flickered onto a big tree, not minding whether Orochimaru followed, and sped into the forest.
“Something interesting?” Orochimaru naturally took interest and followed.
In a certain city in the Land of Water, snow was falling heavily.
A dirty little boy was rummaging through a garbage heap for food.
His thin clothing and bare feet clashed with the heavy snow.
Suddenly, three wild dogs appeared beside him, barking at him as if claiming the territory as theirs.
The little boy expressionlessly raised his right hand, forming an ice spike in his palm and shooting it at the wild dogs.
Pfft—
The leader wild dog was instantly headshot, blood and brains spilling onto the snow.
The other two wild dogs yelped in pain, tails tucked, and fled in panic.
The little boy picked up half a piece of hard bread and started gnawing on it.
Suddenly, he saw a figure land on the snow in front of him.
The little boy looked up to see a mysterious person wearing a fox mask reaching out to him.
The little boy, squatting on the ground, stood up and stared blankly at the mysterious person before him, somehow sensing something and slowly walking over.
“What’s your name?” came the question from under the mask.
“Haku,” the little boy raised his head, his expression somewhat dazed.
Menma reached out and ruffled Haku’s dirty short hair.
“From now on, you’ll come with me,” Menma took Haku’s hand and headed toward an inn in the small city.
“Tsk tsk,” Orochimaru, arriving afterward, landed beside the earlier garbage heap and looked at the ice spike still undissolved on the headshot wild dog corpse, his vertical snake pupils full of envy.
“You find an Ice Release kid right away?” Orochimaru watched the two figures, big and small, walk off into the distance.
Looks like bringing Shura to Kirigakure was the right call. With his grasp of ‘future intelligence,’ he must know which bloodline limits in Kirigakure can be poached, which young geniuses!
But since it’s a bloodline limit that the other has his eye on, it’s not one I can poach. I’ll still need to find a way to get some other kids with bloodline limits.
