Naruto: The Age of Ninja Swords Begins in Kumogakure

Chapter 112 Arrival in Konoha

In the main hall of his own residence, Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned as he looked at his prospective daughter-in-law.

"The responsibility for that battle back then wasn't yours, and Shinnosuke certainly doesn't want to see you consumed by hatred."

With a sigh, Hiruzen Sarutobi tried to persuade him.

This prospective daughter-in-law suddenly submitted an application for the Chunin Exams. Although this girl, like her son Shinnosuke, had never participated in the Chunin Exams and had no promotion record in her official file, she was technically a Genin and therefore eligible to participate in the Chunin Exams.

However, he had already become a Special Jonin two years ago, and after two years of crazy hard training, he was able to rival a real Jonin. Moreover, his purpose in participating in the Chunin Exams this time was clearly not pure.

He valued this prospective daughter-in-law highly, even raising her as his own daughter. He taught her the Sarutobi clan's staff techniques and guided her to combine the Shimura clan's swordsmanship with their Sarutobi clan's staff techniques, making her extremely powerful in physical combat.

They never expected that a mission to the Land of Whirlpools would turn out to be so unpredictable, resulting in the loss of all the family's elite members and even the capture of their son.

Izumi Shimura remained silent, his attitude resolute.

She had previously asked Uncle Hiruzen to go to the Land of Hot Springs front to fight against the Cloud Ninja, but Uncle Hiruzen refused her multiple times.

Since the Hidden Cloud Village sent people to participate in the Chunin Exams, I must do something to make the Hidden Cloud Village pay the price.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 202ᴋᴋs.ᴄᴏᴍ]

"Sigh! Go back and prepare."

Seeing his future daughter-in-law's determination, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed again and gestured for her to go back and make preparations.

"Thank you, Uncle Xie Rizhan."

Shimura Izumi bowed in thanks, then got up and left.

Since returning from the Land of Whirlpools, she has never returned to the Shimura family or seen her father again.

In her view, it was her father's unauthorized actions and misinterpretation of Uncle Hiruzen's intentions that led to their encirclement and killing by the combined forces of Kumogakure and the Uzumaki clan.

Otherwise, the elites of both races would not have been robbed, and Shinnosuke would not have been captured.

"Is it feasible to let her participate in the Chunin Exams?"

Sarutobi Biwako walked in, her face filled with worry.

"Although Koizumi harbors hatred and murderous intent, he is very calm and knows what to do. This time, he will likely only target the Cloud Ninja and will not touch the Sand Ninja examinees."

Taking a drag of his cigarette, Hiruzen Sarutobi could see the change in his future daughter-in-law. Originally, after years of his guidance, her personality was compatible with his own, but after the battle in the Land of Whirlpools, her personality had become more like Danzo's.

Fortunately, they remained calm and rational, so there's not too much to worry about.

For now, as long as we don't target the examinees from Sunagakure, that's fine. As for the examinees from Kumogakure, it's good to kill and cripple them. If we can provoke Kumogakure into starting a war, that would be even better.

He has received intelligence that his son was traded from Kumogakure to Sunagakure and is currently being held captive by Sunagakure.

Therefore, the attitude of the Hidden Cloud Village is irrelevant. Moreover, there are significant problems on the Hidden Cloud Village's front. In the past two years, they have not launched a true all-out offensive or bloody battle, and they have not even lost many people. It seems that they have secretly reached some kind of agreement with the Uchiha clan, who are the main force in the war there.

This is not what he wants to see. He must find a way to make a real fight break out there in order to weaken the Uchiha's strength.

Especially now that the Sarutobi and Shimura clans have lost all their elite forces, all the major ninja clans must be severely weakened and brought to the same level in order to restore balance.

"What should we do about Shinnosuke?"

When asked about her son, she expressed great concern about his condition.

"Sunagakure intends to use Shinnosuke as a bargaining chip in postwar negotiations; they won't harm him."

Exhaling the smoke, Hiruzen Sarutobi clearly understood the actions of the Hidden Cloud Village and the intentions of the Hidden Sand Village.

The Hidden Cloud Village was simply trying to divert trouble and further involve the Hidden Sand Village.

Sunagakure intended to use their son as a last resort, and so far things seem to be going well.

Sarutobi Biwako had a lot more to say, but in the end, she held back.

She knew her husband had been under a lot of pressure these past two years, not only from outside the village but also from inside it.

In particular, the war in the Land of Whirlpools two years ago wiped out the clan's elite troops who had reached the level of Special Jonin, and even Hizuki died on the front line. Now is the weakest time for the clan.

Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent. He was indeed under considerable pressure, and what he needed to do most was to restore the clan's high-end combat power as soon as possible.

In the Land of Whirlpools' plan, he handed over all the elite members of his clan who had reached the level of Special Jonin or above to Danzo, and then the entire army was wiped out, and their corpses were turned into human puppets by the Sand Village.

Although he was furious, he also understood that the dead cannot be brought back to life. Now, he could only try to cultivate the next generation, especially those talented juniors who possessed two or more chakra natures.

Anyone who can master one nature transformation can become a special Jonin; two nature transformations constitute standard Jonin combat power.

Only by restoring the clan's strength as soon as possible can he secure his position as Hokage.

Unlike now, where the ninja clans in the village are all eyeing their Hokage positions and want to take them over during this Shinobi World War.

The Senju and Uchiha clans, in particular, are keeping a close eye on them, and even the usually well-behaved Hyuga clan has shown some strange behavior in recent years.

Alas! These are turbulent times!

Fortunately, that person was still willing to contribute to Konoha, and took advantage of the Chunin Exams to intimidate the other ninja villages.

As long as that person is there, the major ninja villages will not dare to launch a full-scale war.

Leaving aside Hiruzen Sarutobi's worries, on the other side, Tamura Hiroshi and his group arrived at the port, bought enough fresh fish and salted fish and dried fish for Tadashiro to take back, and then rushed to Konoha.

They needed to arrive in Konoha a few days in advance so that they would have time to observe the village and find an opportunity to contact Lord Danzo.

After traveling all this way, they finally arrived in Konoha four days ahead of schedule.

"Konoha, I, Tamura Hiten, am back!"

Looking at the familiar village gate of Konoha and the Hokage Cliff in the distance, Tamura Hao silently thought to himself.

After being chosen by Root, he knew he couldn't stay in Konoha. Right now, the Hokage faction and the major ninja clans were engaged in fierce competition, and if he got involved, he would definitely be reduced to ashes.

Therefore, he actively developed in the direction of espionage and was eventually trained as a spy and sent out of Konoha to Kumogakure.

Let alone the fact that he hadn't awakened his cheat ability back then, even if he had, it wouldn't have been easy for him to survive in Konoha, especially under Lord Danzo. If he performed too well, he might be investigated, or even have his memories searched using genjutsu.

This is the real hellish start; the only way is to progress to Kumogakure and become a Kumogakure resident.

And now I've finally returned to the place where I was born, but unfortunately my parents have long since passed away, and I have no relatives or friends here.

Yakushi Nonou barely qualifies; I wonder if I'll get to see her this time.

After Fauci showed his credentials and registered, the group was allowed to enter the village.

Of course, there were definitely ANBU ninjas secretly watching.

Meanwhile, their formation had also been changed. Tamura Hao was at the end of the line, like a little follower, while the leader was Yotsuki Ai, the son of the Raikage.

"Our people haven't arrived yet; it might take another day or two. We need to book a hotel in advance."

As Fukai moved forward, he spoke up, saying that he had asked the ninja on duty at the gate and confirmed that their Cloud Village examination team had not yet arrived.

"Is the entertainment complex in Konoha already finished? It's so small."

Ye Yue Ai looked up at the tallest building in Konoha Village, which had a huge sign that read "Konoha Entertainment City," visible from a great distance.

Ever since the junior brother handed over the entertainment city plan, the village has been secretly working on it, and a year ago, entertainment cities were already established in all the major cities within the Land of Lightning.

I didn't expect there would be one in Konoha now. That's really efficient.

However, compared to the entertainment complex in their Hidden Cloud Village, this one is much, much smaller, and even inferior to the one in the capital of the Land of Iron.

"That's not it, that one over there is."

Fukai pointed to the massive building under construction on the other side. Although it wasn't finished yet, judging from its size alone, it was several times larger than the Konoha Entertainment City.

Compared to Ye Yue Ai, who was focused on cultivation, he maintained correspondence with Lord Tutai and was aware of many changes in intelligence.

Especially after awakening and participating in the Chunin Exams in Konoha, he specifically requested a detailed report on the area, which included information about the entertainment venue.

"Konoha has also built an entertainment center. Can they compete?"

Ye Yue Ai grinned. He knew very well that the entertainment city's biggest competitive advantage was its cost-effectiveness. It minimized all kinds of consumption and waste through various means, and even reduced its own profits.

Compared to its enormous size, it doesn't make much money.

If the other party cannot control their greed and raises prices, or tries to make a profit by reducing costs and quality, they will inevitably be eliminated in the end.

"According to intelligence, Konoha Entertainment City was built by several ninja clans working together."

Fukai laughed too. With more forces involved, the profits would be divided, and the gains for each party would decrease. How could those people be willing to play this slow and steady game?

Of course, the main reason why their Hidden Cloud Village's entertainment complex was able to begin construction in Konoha was because they had signed a tax agreement with the Daimyo's Mansion in the Land of Fire.

Fifty percent of the revenue would be handed over to the Daimyo's office in the Land of Fire. It was only established in Konoha with the Daimyo's authorization. Even if the Third Hokage had ideas, he couldn't openly deny or stop them.

The same applies to the Land of Lightning and other countries; they have all signed tax contracts with the Daimyo Prefecture, which acts as guarantor and provides land.

In addition, the explanation given to the Daimyo's office in the Land of Lightning was to establish a new intelligence network, otherwise the Daimyo's office would not approve, as the Daimyo's office would not allow the ninja village to have an excessively independent economic source.

Furthermore, they definitely couldn't bring people from Kumogakure to establish this place. They had to recruit people directly from Konoha and the Daimyo's residence to operate it. Kumogakure only sent a small number of people to lead the operation; otherwise, they definitely wouldn't have been able to get past the Daimyo's hurdle.

They're not stupid; they wouldn't allow Kumogakure to send a large number of people over. After all, Konoha is the military organization of the Land of Fire, and Konoha wouldn't agree to that.

They opened the entertainment center here purely to make money and to suppress Konoha from using similar methods to make money.

It even includes a supermarket system that gathers all kinds of goods and uses the strategy of low profit and high volume to suppress prices, thereby squeezing out the shops in Konoha and damaging Konoha's internal economic system to some extent.

"Let's go check out Konoha's entertainment center."

Ye Yue Ai walked towards the Konoha Entertainment City. As for her own place, it was still under construction and definitely not habitable.

Tamura Hao followed behind like a nobody, and soon they arrived at the Konoha Entertainment City. It was very lively inside, but it was much less popular than the one in Kumogakure.

Most of the people coming and going were ninjas wearing vests and wealthy merchants; ordinary people and lower-ranking ninjas were rarely seen.

"Just by looking at it, you can tell that the cost must be quite high."

After surveying the interior layout and the types of guests, Yu Ye immediately realized that the prices must be high, otherwise ordinary people would have come long ago.

"Oh!"

Yozuki Ai and Fukai laughed; they knew it would turn out this way.

One of the core principles of their entertainment venues is cost-effectiveness; they emphasize low profit margins and high sales volume, relying on a large customer base to accumulate revenue.

That's why everyone in the Hidden Cloud Village can afford to spend money there and is willing to go.

Although this approach is troublesome, it is beneficial in many ways.

Konoha was clearly only focused on profits and income.

"Let's find some local delicacies in Konoha."

Hikari Uchiha wasn't interested in the Konoha Entertainment City's operations; she wanted to find some local delicacies.

The group shared the same idea and began to wander around the Konoha Entertainment City, but after a long time, they were greatly disappointed.

Although there are many food stalls here, most of them are the same as those in the Cloud Hidden Village Entertainment City, which they have already eaten at.

Moreover, the food here doesn't look very authentic; just by looking at it and tasting it, it doesn't seem quite right.

The remaining restaurants mostly serve sushi, tempura, ramen, curry rice, and the like, which are relatively ordinary.

Tamura Hao's interest waned considerably. The food culture in the Naruto world was really quite ordinary. The only food he was truly interested in in Konoha was the legendary Ichiraku Ramen, especially to see if the Otsutsuki Ichiraku actually existed.

Unfortunately, back when I was still in Konoha, I wandered all over the village but couldn't find Ichiraku Ramen. I wonder if that ramen shop still exists now.

Based on the timeline, Tetsuda should be just a teenager now. I wonder if he started Ichiraku Ramen himself or inherited it.

If it already exists, then find a way to develop a better ramen and then crush it.

This change will definitely bring a wave of divine intervention.

"Aren't you satisfied with the food here?"

Just then, a soft voice came from behind. The group turned around and saw a beautiful woman with red hair in a bun. She had a diamond-shaped mark between her eyebrows and two talismans hanging from her hair.

Behind him followed a blonde woman with a loose ponytail, whose imposing figure made Tamura Hao take another look.

"aunt!"

Upon seeing the person who arrived, Yu Ye called out "Auntie" with a complicated expression.

The person who came was none other than Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage. She came after sensing Tamahō Uzumaki's chakra.

Kushina Uzumaki also had a complicated expression; this was her great-aunt.

"Aunt Yuye!"

Tsunade also greeted Uzumaki Tamayo; she had met this cousin a few times.

"Tsunade has grown so much! Has she quit gambling? Does she have a boyfriend? When are you getting married?"

Uzumaki Tamamo's gaze shifted to Senju Tsunade, and she instinctively asked a question, instantly freezing the smile on Tsunade's face. Uzumaki Mito's hand also clenched involuntarily.

She's had a headache over this granddaughter for years, especially in recent years.

She's already in her mid-twenties, but she doesn't even have a boyfriend, while some girls her age are already dating.

"senior!"

After realizing Mito Uzumaki's identity, Aya Yoru and Fukai quickly bowed and greeted her, as she was a super big shot and currently the strongest ninja in the world.

"Thank you for helping the Uzumaki clan back then."

Mito Uzumaki nodded kindly to the two of them. Although it was a scheme by the Hidden Cloud Village, they did save the Uzumaki clan. Otherwise, the Uzumaki clan would have been wiped out long ago.

As for the hostile relationship between Kumogakure and Konoha, I have no say in it, nor should I.

"You seniors, please continue your conversation. We won't disturb you."

Seeing that Mito Uzumaki had something to say to Tamaha and the others, Ai Yozuki tactfully walked away.

Fukai and Tamura Hao quickly followed. Before leaving, Tamura Hao gave Vanilla Uzumaki a look, signaling her to stay.

They didn't care what the two sides talked about, and Uzumaki Mito was a smart person, so she certainly wouldn't try to win over Uzumaki Tamaha and the others who stayed behind. They could only talk about some everyday things.

Furthermore, at this stage, Mito Uzumaki definitely feels guilty towards her family. Keeping Vanilla Uzumaki would be more effective, and perhaps that person would offer something in return.

The other party certainly won't touch the Senju clan's things, but they must have accumulated some resources over the years, especially their research on the tailed beasts.

Of course, they probably won't give us the research on the Tailed Beasts, but they can only give us some new research on sealing techniques, which is also quite good.

Uchiha Hikari didn't follow. Instead, she set her sights on a boy with a fan-shaped emblem on his clothes. He must be from that clan. She could go and get more detailed information about that clan now.

"I'll take you to a ramen shop; their ramen is amazing."

Tsunade seized the opportunity to slip away; she didn't want to face that aunt again.

"I know a seafood rice restaurant that was opened by a man from the Land of Whirlpools who finished his apprenticeship. Shall we go and have some?"

Mito Uzumaki looked at her three juniors with affection and invited them to a favorite restaurant.

That seafood rice tastes just like home.

"It's been so long since I've had seafood paella!"

Yu Ye nodded. Their Land of Whirlpools is surrounded by the sea on two sides, and their main food source is various kinds of seafood. Seafood rice is a kind of delicacy made by combining a variety of seafood.

However, she hadn't eaten this for a long time since leaving the Land of Whirlpools.

Of course, the main reason was that the entertainment center in Yunyin Village had too many kinds of delicious food, and she had forgotten about the seafood rice she used to love. In fact, she had gained ten pounds in the past two years, even with doubled training.

Seeing that Uzumaki Tamayo agreed, Uzumaki Kushina and Uzumaki Vanilla naturally did not refuse. The three of them followed Uzumaki Mito to a restaurant, where a boy was already waiting.

"grandmother!"

Upon seeing his grandmother enter, the young man hurriedly went to greet her. His gaze then fell upon the three red-haired women behind him. When he saw Yu Ye, he was puzzled, feeling that she looked somewhat familiar.

"Little Rope Tree, don't you recognize me?"

Upon seeing the boy, Yu Ye smiled.

She had seen Nawaki before; back then, Nawaki was still very young and hadn't even refined his chakra yet.

Although she looked relatively unfamiliar, given how much she had changed, there weren't many people who could call their aunt "grandmother," and considering her age, her identity could be confirmed.

"Are you my aunt?"

After hesitating for a moment, Senju Nawaki was not quite sure.

He had few relatives with red hair, and only one female relative.

"Koroki is now a ninja too."

Looking at the headband on her nephew's head, Yu Ye was very pleased with his growth.

"Please sit down!"

Mito Uzumaki gestured to the group, walked to a nearby table, and then called out towards the kitchen.

"Boss, five large seafood rice bowls, please."

As members of the Uzumaki clan, even the women have large appetites; a small portion is simply not enough to satisfy them.

Uzumaki Tamamo sat down with Uzumaki Kushina and Uzumaki Vanilla. She sat next to her aunt and had Kushina and Vanilla and Nawaki sit opposite her.

She chatted with Nawaki Senju, who was directly opposite her, and introduced Kushina and Vanilla to Nawaki.

Senju Nawaki was also very curious about these two people of the same age, especially since one of them was his cousin.

Mito Uzumaki sat opposite them without saying a word, looking at the two girls with loving eyes.

(End of this chapter)