In Konoha, Naruto lies down

Sakura and Ino stood together, chatting and laughing. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were also standing there waiting. It looked like Chouji and Shikamaru hadn't arrived yet, but Lee and Neji had arrived a little later.

After a moment of hesitation, Naruto gave up the idea of ​​going upstairs and simply waited in the yard.

Anyway, the team leader for this mission will probably be Shikamaru, the dog-headed military advisor, so there is no point for him to go up and take a look. If there are special orders, Tsunade will send someone to summon him.

Ino also noticed Naruto and her eyes were flustered for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure. She rolled around in bed for half an hour yesterday, but couldn't get rid of the shame in her heart.

He actually said it!

Damn it, he knew about it and responded to it. Her whole body and mind were shaking violently at that time, and her actions were completely out of control.

Thinking of her mother cooking in the kitchen, she almost held hands with her mother on the sofa! It was so embarrassing that she wished she could go back to yesterday and stop her stupid and foolish behavior.

Or, beat him up until he gets a concussion and loses his memory!

Forget it! I absolutely must forget that memory! When Ino woke up in the morning, she was filled with regret, wondering what she had done yesterday!

I really want to live in another world, it’s so shameful!

She arrived at the Hokage Building early, just wanting to stand there in advance to adapt to the atmosphere. Maybe if she pretended to have forgotten about the incident, the person would not ask about it.

Well, tacit understanding!

But Naruto didn't seem to have this tacit understanding. He glanced at everyone and walked straight towards Ino and Sakura.

Ino turned her eyes slightly, just as she was about to see where Naruto had gone, she saw Naruto walking towards her direction, and her mind went blank.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Huh?" Ino was stunned for a moment.

Sakura looked away slightly, frowning, "What happened to that dress? You suddenly stopped talking."

As Sakura spoke, she looked in the direction Ino had been lost in thought, and saw Naruto walking towards them. Her eyes dropped slightly, and she instantly understood what was wrong.

"Sorry, I was distracted." Ino said, "That skirt..."

"The mission started so soon?" Naruto leaned over and asked naturally, "When did you arrive?"

"Not long." Sakura said with a smile, "Ino was here earlier. She was already here when I got here."

"is it?"

"Well...not long." Ino laughed dryly, not daring to look at Naruto. But when she turned around, she met the Nine-Tails' eyes and immediately became happy.

"How did you bring it?"

"This guy is a ninja dog." Naruto lied casually.

I don’t know if anyone believes this, but this chubby fox terrier is right here, and since I’ve brought it, it must go on the road with me.

"Ino, yesterday..."

Hearing this, Ino's heart suddenly rose into her throat, pounding so fast that she almost ran away.

"Yesterday!" she said first, "Yesterday...you didn't get wet when you got home yesterday, did you? My mother was worried that you would get wet."

"Not really." Naruto looked at Ino strangely, but seeing that she seemed very nervous, he didn't say anything more.

Sakura's eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, but without further ado, she lowered her eyes to look at the ground.

"Is everyone here?" Shikamaru's lazy voice came from the stairs, "Is Naruto here? That guy loves to be late. Is he here?"

"Stop talking nonsense. I'm here! You came here without drying your hair." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes.

"Who knew you..." Shikamaru complained, then changed the subject, "Where's Ino? Has Ino come?"

Hearing this, Ino, who had calmed down, almost froze on the spot. Why did he call her after calling that guy? Was Shikamaru doing this on purpose?

"Here I come!" Ino tried to keep her voice calm and sound normal.

But when she opened her mouth, the trembling voice still scared her. She couldn't help but blame herself in her heart for being so useless. What was there to be nervous about?

"Okay, where's Neji?" Shikamaru glanced at everyone, as if he really didn't mean to call anyone out.

"Here it comes." Neji said.

"Then let's set off now. Meet outside the village gate. Team Eight will lead the way with the Micro-Fragrance Bugs." Shikamaru quickly issued the battle order. "We'll arrange the formation later."

Everyone had no objection and turned around and walked towards the village entrance in groups of two or three.

Ino had already joined up with Choji, Shikamaru, and the others, and they were probably traveling in a small unit called the Genin Squad. Naruto looked back at Sakura, but saw Hinata brush past him.

Hinata looked at him after a while. Her hair was half dry, with water stains visible at the ends. A small amount of water slowly slid down from her neck, wetting her collar.

Naruto was in a hurry when he went out, and it was summer, so he thought the dirt would dry up quickly on the way, so he didn't take it to heart.

Hinata looked at Naruto's appearance and her face turned slightly red for a moment. She even forgot what she was going to say and could only stammer and shout in a low voice.

"...Naruto-kun."

"Well, what's wrong with you?" Naruto didn't feel anything was wrong. Hinata always blushed easily when she saw him, so he was used to it.

"Nothing...nothing." Hinata's heart skipped a beat.

The summer heat was sweltering, the days long. A bird in some tree chirped strangely, drawing Naruto's attention. He looked away again.

Hinata said softly, "I'm leaving now, Naruto-kun."

Watching Hinata walk away quickly, Naruto was a little confused. Why did he feel something was strange today? Why were all these people so mysterious?

"Let's go." Sakura walked over to him and smiled.

"Okay." Naruto nodded. Fortunately, Sakura was still normal.

"This mission is over..." Hei Ying's calm voice came from the side. Naruto turned his head to look at her and asked.

"what?"

"This mission is over, please do me a small favor."

Chapter 201 This Jinchūriki doesn't seem to be shaking Bilian

"What's going on? Are you sorting out the information again?" Naruto asked, "Have you brought all the ninja tools?"

"I've got them all." Sakura nodded in response, "No, it's just a small favor."

"Oh, okay, we'll talk about it later. It's closer if we go in the other direction, right?" He naturally pointed in another direction. The village was a circle, and that was a straight line.

It just requires climbing over other people's roofs, which makes it easy for the Anbu to catch you.

Normally, no ninja other than the Anbu would casually travel from the rooftops. Genin and Chunin were too proud to jump around like monkeys in Konoha.

Furthermore, the older you get, the more afraid you are of being discussed.

The students in the ninja school are also thin-skinned. Only a few troublemakers like Konohamaru still imitate Naruto's original pranks and like to pass by other people's roofs.

Naruto didn't care, he could go wherever he wanted, he had no intention of becoming Hokage, he just did whatever was most comfortable for him. His unruly personality also gave Tsunade a headache, he was the kind of person who was unable to help others.

Sakura's face froze, "I'm not leaving!"

It would be very embarrassing to go up on someone else's roof for no reason and get caught.

“But this way is closer…”

Naruto looked puzzled, but he couldn't resist Sakura and was dragged away. When the two of them arrived at the village entrance, the rest of the people had already arrived.

"You guys are so slow." Shikamaru said with his dead eyes.

"Aren't we here yet?" Naruto said shamelessly, "I met an old lady crossing the road on the way, so..."

"Let's go!" Shikamaru looked completely unconvinced, but he couldn't do anything about Naruto. He sighed, waved his hand and directed everyone to hurry on their way.

People grow up, and compared to the others present, Shikamaru is not just wearing an extra Chunin green vest, but he carries everyone's lives on his shoulders.

Even a person with such a lazy and excessive personality will become serious and learn to think and act like an adult because of the sudden responsibility on his shoulders.

After leaving Konoha, the group fell silent. After all, this was tentatively designated as an A-rank mission. Tentatively designated as A-rank, it meant that it could potentially develop into an S-rank mission.

The highest mission level these people had ever completed was only A-rank. The only team present with experience in S-rank missions was Team 7, after all, they were the Genin team that had pursued Shukaku of the Sand.

Eleven people rushed forward, with Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hinata leading the way for Team 8, who were skilled in reconnaissance. Lee, Neji, and Tenten were in charge of protecting Team 8 from the flanks, and clearing a path through the jungle.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji of Team 10, whose primary role was to disrupt and control the team's attack, were at the core of the formation. Team 7, the main attackers, brought up the rear, with Naruto and Sakura at the very end.

If Sasuke hadn't defected, Team 7 would probably be the real main attacker. But with one person missing, if a fight really broke out, Naruto wouldn't be able to take care of the others.

So, he brought Kyuubi with him.

The current situation is that if a fight breaks out, Kyuubi won't be able to take care of everyone.

One less Sasuke, one more Kyuubi. Although I can't really take action easily, I have an extra layer of security. Calculated this way, it's still a good deal.

"What happened?" Naruto asked lazily to Shikamaru in front of him.

Shikamaru looked back at him, with a look of tension and vengeance, and a rare seriousness on his face, "Gaara has lost control, killed dozens of villagers, and is currently on the run."

"You're making this up, right?" Naruto was stunned for a moment, then looked at Shikamaru in surprise. "Hasn't Gaara changed his personality? How could he lose control?"

"I don't know." Shikamaru turned his head and said as he hurried on his way, "The news returned by the Anbu is this. Some high-ranking officials in the Sand Village are very dissatisfied with Gaara's decision to become the Kazekage."

Naruto is not impressed by the so-called high-level officials. He originally thought that the high-level officials of Konoha were mentally retarded, but now it seems that the high-level officials of Sand Village are not good people either.

The Fourth Kazekage was weak and had already died at the hands of Orochimaru. The Sunagakure high-ranking officials must have had some thoughts about the Kazekage position, at least they were not very willing to let a lunatic like Gaara inherit it.

"Any further information?" he asked.

"This time we have to cross the border of the Land of Fire to pick up the three siblings. The Sunagakure high-level officials have already sent ninjas to chase them back. Lord Hokage means that Konoha will temporarily guarantee their safety." Shikamaru said.

"Isn't that Sunagakure's private matter? What does it have to do with Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"Originally it didn't matter. Konoha would never interfere in the internal affairs of Sunagakure, but..." Shikamaru coughed slightly, and suddenly laughed, as if he had taken advantage of something.

"Tsunade-sama said that Sunagakure and Konoha have signed an alliance agreement. In addition, the eldest princess of Sunagakure, representing the opinions of the vast majority of the high-ranking officials, has also signed an agreement with Konoha to authorize the joint protection of the Tailed Beast Jinchūriki."

"Simply put, if Gaara's life is threatened, Konoha can cross the border of the Land of Fire to pick up Gaara and temporarily protect him."

“Signed so many agreements?”

"Yes, it's thick, probably hundreds of pages." Shikamaru nodded.

This time it was Naruto's turn to be dumbfounded. No wonder Konoha had always been so concerned about the affairs of the Sand Village. It turned out that after the collapse of Konoha, Temari stayed and signed so many agreements with Konoha.

Perhaps they had already anticipated that Sunagakure would find someone to take the blame for this stupid action, and if things went wrong, they would transfer their anger to Gaara.

Gaara's situation is somewhat similar to Naruto's. If he fails to become the Kazekage, his future will be very difficult. The future Kazekage will naturally regard the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki as weapons and manipulate them at will.

It was like a toy placed on the table, binding him with the friendship of his companions, or threatening Gaara to make various compromises with the interests of Temari and Kankuro.

Naruto did remember the time when Temari signed the agreement. He originally thought that Temari and Shizune had only signed some unimportant documents, after all, even Tsunade was not present.

But now that I think about it, it doesn't really matter whether Tsunade is present or not. Shizune is Tsunade's spokesperson. It's nothing more than a representation and a stamp of approval.

As for what Sand Village would think, they would have to spend some time haggling over those hundreds of pages of agreements with Konoha. And this time was enough to protect Gaara.

By the time the agreement was finalized, Gaara's crisis was almost resolved. This was the beauty of pre-emptive bargaining; this sophisticated method was definitely not something Temari's little brain could have come up with.

"Killing dozens of people is tiring." Naruto suddenly said something that made no sense.

"What?" Shikamaru turned his head sharply to look at him.

He frowned and said, "Shukaku of the Sand isn't very strong either. If he releases the Tailed Beast Ball, it's unlikely that only a few dozen people will die."

"Whether this matter is strange or not is another matter. Our mission is to pick up Gaara and the others." Shikamaru said in a low voice. Perhaps he felt that some words were difficult to say, so he opened his mouth and swallowed them back.

Naruto noticed it, but didn't take it to heart. The tailed beast Jinchuriki has no human rights, damn it.

He should now be considered a pseudo-tailed beast jinchūriki, able to draw and use the power of the tailed beast, but can not tailed beast. The real tailed beast has come out, hiding in a fat dog.

In comparison, Gaara's situation is quite miserable. But under the rules of this ninja world, there is no such thing as a peaceful life. Even if Naruto gets rid of his identity as the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, he may not be much better off than Gaara.

The sword never changes its meaning just because it's sheathed. Ultimately, the Nine-Tails' power is still being harnessed by Naruto. In the eyes of the higher-ups, it's no different than if it were still in his body.

He also understood that his situation was similar to that of the prisoners in the Snow Country. He had read a story in a magazine about a prison in a snowy country without walls. If a prisoner tried to escape, he had to be prepared to die in the vast snow.

A TV station paid money to encourage prisoners to escape from prison and broadcast the whole process live. A large number of people who tried to escape died in the snow, and the TV station's ratings increased significantly, but one person succeeded. That person was then hailed as a hero, and the path he took became a holy path.

People turned their attention to the remaining prisoners, calling them cowards. They would rather be kept like pigs than pursue freedom!

Freedom is so wonderful! Even if you die! But some people have succeeded, maybe they can also succeed in surviving, damn it! Why not give it a try!

The heroism they care about is the heroism of others, and they will remain silent when it is their turn.

Others may not know, but Naruto knows. If he defected like Sasuke did, he would be recaptured in less than three days. The main reason is that he has nothing to be evil about right now. He tricked Danzo and the Nine-Tails. As for the injuries suffered by his predecessor, what does that have to do with him, Naruto?

You can't just run away like a paranoid person, forcing yourself to become a lonely and ferocious beast, and then put on a cloak to become the ancestor of the ninja world. Oh, that's Obito.