I work as an editor at Marvel.

Shen nodded, then left the convoy and headed from the commercial district toward the central city of Konoha.

Because of his unique equipment and demeanor, Shen attracted the attention of many people, especially children. Many children followed behind Shen, looking at him as if he were a rare animal.

"Mommy, what's that?" a child asked, pointing at Shen.

"Mom doesn't know either, but it should be in the book. We'll find out when we get back," the child's mother said, ruffling the child's hair.

Upon hearing the word "book," Shen looked in the direction of the sound and discovered a sizable bookstore. This was something he hadn't seen in the Iron Country town where he had started; there were only some book stalls there, and the books on display weren't exactly respectable titles.

Without the slightest hesitation, Shen walked into the bookstore.

Upon entering the store, the first thing you see is a bookshelf with a big sale, on which is a book called "The Resolute Ninja's Tale," the first original book by Jiraiya, the greatest author in the ninja world, which tells the story of a ninja named Naruto.

Shen's eyes swept over the seven-fold books on the shelf before he walked inside. He wasn't here for that; his real targets were history and mythology books.

After browsing the bookstore and taking one of every book he needed, Shen carried the stacks of books, which were half his height, to the checkout counter.

The bookstore owner was overjoyed to see such a generous customer, and his smile widened even more when he saw that Shen had a lot of unsold books in his hands.

Children's science books don't sell well in Konoha, since adults generally already know the information in them. Even if there's some connection between the books and the facts, it's hard to say who's right and who's wrong, since these are stories from hundreds of years ago.

After politely declining the bookstore owner's offer to move the books for free, Shen walked out of the bookstore. It was already evening, and the sun had slowly set below the horizon.

Just then, a figure running upside down came rushing over from a distance, about to collide with Shen, but Shen turned around slightly and dodged the person.

With a whoosh, Xiao Li stood up straight, a little sweat on his forehead, startled from almost bumping into someone. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Li, who apologized twice right from the start, made a good impression on Shen; he seemed like a polite child.

"Xiao Li! You haven't even finished 500 handstand laps yet, how can you get up!"

Another guy, Kai, dressed in green, walked backwards and stood upside down, shouting at Xiao Li.

"Teacher! I almost bumped into someone!" Xiao Li shouted back, then bowed again, "I'm sorry."

"Ah! It was my fault, Xiao Li. I should apologize for almost bumping into someone! Being brave enough to admit mistakes is what youth is all about!" Kai replied, his bright white teeth reflecting the sunlight even in the evening.

"Teacher Kai!"

"Little Li!"

The two suddenly hugged each other. Well, standing upright, Li and upside down, hugging each other—this scene is... cringe-worthy.

"Xiao Li! It's right to admit your mistake, but since you stood up before the training was finished, we still need to punish ourselves. Let's do an extra hundred laps!" Kai felt his blood boiling.

"Yes, Teacher Kai!" Xiao Li responded enthusiastically.

Then the two of them bowed deeply to Shen once again, as if they would keep bowing until he forgave them.

Standing there, almost turning black and white, Shen wondered for the first time if he had come to the wrong place. "I'm fine, no need to apologize."

"Teacher! He has forgiven us!"

"Xiao Li, this is youth! Let's run again!"

Two rare animals frolicked and ran towards the setting sun.

"I'm sorry, their apology was sincere, but their behavior was a bit strange. Did it cause any damage? I'll help them compensate." Tian Tian jumped down from the roof and landed next to Shen, saying this.

"No need, there's no loss." Shen shook his head.

"Tenten, Neji, hurry up and catch up! We can't waste our youth!" Kai's voice came from the far end.

Tenten could only give Shin an apologetic smile before following Neji and catching up with the group.

As Hyuga Neji ran past Shin, the two exchanged a glance. Seeing those completely white eyes, Shin finally understood where the feeling of being spied on when he came in came from. He guessed that this was the Hyuga family's X-ray vision that the boss had mentioned.

"Tenten, something's not right. That guy's too steady." Neji suddenly said while running.

"What?" Tian Tian hadn't reacted yet.

"Xiao Li is very fast, but the person took a step back before Xiao Li could react, just in time to avoid Xiao Li, and the whole pile of books in his hands didn't move at all from beginning to end," Neji said.

"Those are samurai from the Land of Iron, very different from us ninjas. Besides, that person might be a master, so we don't need to worry too much about it." Tenten, whose family owns ninja tool shops all over the ninja world, obviously knows more about the Land of Iron.

Neji didn't reply. He still had something to say. As he turned the corner, he activated his Byakugan and glanced at Shin, but he couldn't see anything. His Byakugan seemed to be blocked by a layer of light purple energy.

Are samurai really that strong? Able to be immune to the strongest detection-type bloodline limit in the ninja world?

Neji was a little puzzled. If that were the case, why didn't the village train some samurai for assassination? Wouldn't that be more appropriate?

Chapter 249 Otsutsuki = Hyuga + Uchiha + ?

The central commercial street of Konoha is the most expensive area in Konoha. Of course, the high prices here are for most ordinary people. As long as ninjas don't have family burdens, even genin can come here once or twice after completing a few missions.

Shen booked a luxurious room, and it must be said that electric lights are much better than ordinary kerosene lamps and candles; at least when reading, his eyes don't feel too uncomfortable.

From evening until now, over such a long period of time, Shen has read most of the mythological stories. Of course, he also knows that the mythological stories he read, published by Konoha, may have been altered, but even so, there is enough information behind these stories, much more than the information he collected while wandering around in various places.

Long ago, before ninjas appeared and chakra was widely used, the Five Great Nations were already in their current state, and just like now, they were constantly at war, except that back then the main force behind these wars was the samurai.

The description of chakra in the book is very simple, just a short sentence: "The great Sage of Six Paths, seeing the endless killing in the world, could not bear it and spread the method of using chakra and ninjutsu to the whole world, hoping that ninjutsu could bring peace to the world."

Regardless of whether ninjutsu was originally invented for peace, the moment Shin saw the Sage of Six Paths, he realized he might have found his target.

What? Why do you think that?

This is because there is precedent for this. Similar things have happened on Earth before. After Asgard destroyed Zoroastrianism, Norse mythology began to emerge among humankind, and Odin, the leader of Asgard, was revered as the King of Gods.

It can be said that in most primitive civilizations, their myths, apart from those derived from the surrounding natural environment and some incomprehensible fantasies, mostly came from extraterrestrials. After all, given their technological superiority, extraterrestrials were simply beyond the comprehension of primitive civilizations at that time.

After confirming the Sage of Six Paths as a suspect, Shin began searching. He didn't know if it was due to information blockade or if the information had simply not been passed down, but there was very little information about the Sage of Six Paths. There was no mention of his name or appearance.

The only legend still related to the Sage of Six Paths is the nine tailed beasts. However, this account is inconsistent in storybooks. Some say that the Sage of Six Paths saw that ninjutsu was being used for killing, so he created nine giant monsters to destroy the world, which people called the Nine-Tails.

Other stories say that the nine tailed beasts are giant monsters born from people's evil thoughts, and the Sage of Six Paths is the old man of this story. Under his leadership, all the tailed beasts were sealed away.

Regardless of the interpretation, in all the storybooks, the tailed beasts play the role of villains.

The Sage of Six Paths and the Nine Tailed Beasts—Shin wrote these two terms down in his memo, then opened the history book to the side.

After only a few glances, Shen was at a loss for words. This history book couldn't be more chaotic. There was no unified research standard. Basically, the author wrote whatever came to mind, and even the timeline was a bit messy.

Fortunately, Konoha's history isn't very long, so this part is still watchable.

Every author of history books has the utmost praise for the first generation of Konoha ninjas, using words like great, wise, compassionate, and so on.

However, after reading through these stories, Shen still managed to extract some relatively consistent and useful information, such as the first Hokage of Konoha, Hashirama Senju.

It is said that he ended the chaos of the time and formally established Konoha. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was his younger brother. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, seems to have been his younger brother's disciple. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was a little further away, being a disciple of Hiruzen Sarutobi's disciple.

The current leader of Konoha, the Fifth Hokage Tsunade Senju, is, by bloodline, the granddaughter of Hashirama Senju. It can be said that the entire Konoha has never left the hands of the Senju people. It is just strange that there are relatively few members of the Senju clan. Shin doesn't know if it's because they are low-key or what, but in any case, the name of the Senju is not as well-known as other major clans in the history books.

For example, the Hyuga clan is described as very noble in the book, as the guardians of Konoha and loyal warriors of Konoha. In short, all kinds of good words are piled up to the sky. However, the Uchiha clan is a bit strange. In some older versions of the book, you can see mixed reviews of them.

The positive aspect is that she is strong, joined Konoha early, and assisted in the establishment of Konoha under the leadership of Hashirama Senju. The negative aspect is that she is arrogant, looks down on others, and bullies the weak.

However, in the most recent book, the Uchiha clan suddenly disappeared without any explanation. The only name that occasionally appears is Uchiha Sasuke, but the book ended five years ago, so Shen can't find any further information about Uchiha Sasuke.

Compared to the Hyuga clan, which is adored by thousands, Shin is more concerned about the Uchiha clan, not only because of their strange historical records, but also because of the Sharingan, a bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan, as depicted by some authors.

The blood-red eyes contained a small pupil, and next to this pupil were three tomoe arranged symmetrically.

The moment Shen saw this hand-drawn picture, he immediately thought of the portrait of the Otsutsuki clan in the materials Professor Heimerdinger had given them. That person had a similar eye on the top of their head, except that the eye had more tomoe, and there were lines like tracks connecting the tomoe.

Furthermore, upon closer inspection, Shin noticed that the two eyes in the image of the Otsutsuki clan somewhat resembled the Byakugan of the Hyuga clan.

After a pause, Shin cut the drawing down, then placed the two Byakugan on the table and put the Sharingan in the center above the two Byakugan.

Finally, these things were compared with the image of Otsutsuki, and differences were identified, resulting in a ring of things that looked like spreading water ripples.

Stroking his chin, Shen pondered for a moment. He felt that the Otsutsuki clan was essentially a combination of the Byakugan and the Sharingan, plus some unknown entity. So, were the Hyuga and Uchiha clans of Konoha descendants of the Otsutsuki clan? And had they each inherited a portion of their power?

After thinking for a while, Shen imported the information he had analyzed into the Ouroboros mark, and also decided on the places he would visit tomorrow: the gathering places of the Hyuga clan and the Uchiha clan. These two major clans in Konoha should not be difficult to find.

Chapter 250 Mission System

The next morning, Shin set off, following the directions on the tourist map in his hand, to the Hyuga clan's residence. Unfortunately, the place that was supposed to be open to visitors was just the market town; the real Hyuga clan was a place that ordinary people couldn't enter at all.

This was not unexpected for Shen. After all, how could a large family's residence be opened to other people for sightseeing? This was not an era when the entertainment industry was booming, and even in that era, some truly confidential places were inaccessible.

After circling around the Hyuga clan's compound, Shen estimated in his mind that the entire Hyuga clan's territory was larger than some imperial palaces; it was practically a small village built within Konoha.

As for the Uchiha clan, which stood alongside the Hyuga clan, it was as if the clan had vanished. Shen searched for a long time but could not find their residence. Shen also did not want to ask people, as asking questions would easily arouse attention and suspicion from others, as an outsider.

After a fruitless morning of searching, Shen pondered for a moment, then changed his approach and headed towards the mission posting location in Konoha.

The place was bustling with people coming and going, and most of them were ordinary people rather than formal ninjas. In addition, ninjas treated ordinary people quite well in this place, so there were hardly any members of large clans present; it was mostly ordinary commoner ninjas who were receiving visitors.

After all, in this place, ordinary people are customers and ninjas are service providers. What if a conflict arises?

To wrong the customers? That would ruin Konoha's reputation. After all, everyone still needs to make a living through missions. If Konoha relied solely on the Fire Country Daimyo's funding, it would have starved to death long ago.

It might seem unfair to a powerful clan's ninja. On the surface, there might not be any problem. Even if an elder comes, they will first reprimand their own clan's scions. However, the difference in strength can easily lead to unexpected situations where customers are harmed. Once or twice is fine, but if it happens too often, problems will eventually arise.

Therefore, after all parties compromised, those who stayed here were either ninjas with great reputations that even big customers dared not offend, or ordinary commoner genin who were old and whose teammates had scattered, and who could only come here to earn money. After all, they still had to make a living. At the very least, they had to be ninjas with good tempers and big hearts, who could hold their tempers and would not secretly kill.

"Hello, do you have any tasks to post?"

As soon as Shen entered, a genin came over. After all, a samurai like Shen, who was wearing full armor, would issue a mission that was at least C-rank, not a D-rank menial job.

Although reception staff don't have KPIs, they do receive commissions, and getting big assignments is a status symbol.

What level of mission is required to get from here to Sunagakure?

The genin became even more enthusiastic upon hearing this, explaining that mission level and time consumption were positively correlated. "If you're alone, a C-rank mission should be enough. We'll arrange a Chunin squad to escort you there."

"Chunin? The newly formed kind?" Shen asked rhetorically, giving off the impression of someone who frequently issued missions, but in reality, all he knew were some descriptions of Zed, including those about the Gold Exchange Bounty Missions.

"Don't worry, our ninjas are all officially certified ninjas who have passed the exams," the genin continued. What officially certified ninjas? They were just new recruits who had just graduated from the ninja academy and been assigned to teams, the kind where the team leader was a chunin.

"Any other recommendations? I need something quick and safe," Shen continued, picking up a small booklet from the side. It listed the number of missions completed by various ninjas, serving as a kind of brochure.

"What is your budget?" the genin asked in return.

"More than 200,000 taels," Shen said casually. This was half of the commission the caravan owner gave him, and he hadn't even gone to the ninja hospital to redeem the bulk of the goods' delivery slips yet.

"Then I can issue you a B-rank mission. If you're lucky, you might run into a Jonin's team." The receptionist wasn't just making things up. Although Jonin usually take on at least A-rank missions, there are times when a Jonin leading a team takes Genin along to experience life, but the probability of that is very small.

"One million taels?" Shen immediately raised the price.

"Then I can assure you that your mission will be taken on by at least one Jonin," the receptionist said. This price was enough to entice any Jonin who was currently unemployed.

"For example?" Shen put down the booklet in his hand. It mostly contained information about Chunin squads, with very few Jonin.