novelraw Chapter 522 The Entrustment of the Feather Robe
Chapter 522 The Entrustment of the Feather Robe
Chapter 522 The Entrustment of the Feather Robe
While Onomura was busy with his work.
In the mountains north of the village, a group of people were lurking in the shadows, taking advantage of the dense canopy of trees.
There were about twenty of them, including men, women, and children, but without exception they all looked slovenly and thin.
They wore coarse linen clothes, some even simple garments sewn from tree bark and animal hides, patched upon patched, their original colors no longer discernible.
Their weapons were also very simple: long spears made of bamboo, sickles for cutting grass, woodcutting knives, and several wooden bows made of bamboo strips and cow sinews, the bow arms of which were already cracked, indicating that they had been used for many years.
Only the burly man at the head of the group held a samurai sword.
The scabbard was badly worn, and several of the cords binding the hilt were broken.
A sleeping little girl was tied to his back with a tattered cloth strap.
The girl was about five or six years old. Her cheeks were flushed abnormally, her brows were furrowed, and her breathing was rapid and hot. She was clearly sick.
"Boss Yuki, that's Ono Village over there." A skinny mountain dweller pointed to the village nestled in the valley in the distance.
Another villager carrying a wooden bow had bright eyes and clearly good eyesight. He squinted for a moment, then said hesitantly, "But why is there so many people in this village today? It's so lively—boss, should we still go?"
The burly man called Boss Yuki did not answer immediately.
He glanced back at his brothers.
There were more than twenty people, most of whom were thin and severely malnourished.
Several women and teenagers huddled at the back of the line, their faces filled with fear and unease.
They used to be just like the villagers of Ono Village, ordinary mountain dwellers who relied on the mountains for their livelihood, cultivating a small plot of land and hunting wild game. Although their lives were poor, they were able to survive.
Until that year, the barbarian lord sent people to collect the grain, who also stole their last bag of seeds, claiming it was to "pay off taxes."
His father went up to argue with the man, but the man lashed him across the face with a whip, causing him to fall to the ground and never get up again.
His mother rushed forward, crying and screaming, but was kicked away. Her head hit the threshold, and she died.
In a fit of rage, he led several strong young villagers and sneaked into the grain collector's residence under cover of night, killing him and his entourage.
Then, they fled deep into the mountains.
This escape lasted for ten years.
They built their village deep in the mountains and lived like savages.
There was no salt, no medicine, no ironware, and no cloth.
They learned to make clothes from tree bark and tools from stones. Although life was hard, at least they no longer had to be levied and exploited by the barbarian lord, and no longer had to watch helplessly as their loved ones were forced to their deaths.
But because of this, they were placed on the wanted list.
Ordinary villages dared not trade with them, fearing they would be accused of "colluding with bandits".
They could only occasionally go down the mountain to forcibly exchange some necessities with other villages through "robbery".
It was more like a forced transaction than a robbery; they would leave behind an equivalent amount of prey and mountain goods, and take away the salt and ironware they needed.
In recent years, I've heard that there has been a war outside the mountains.
The Land of Snow and the Land of Demons were both annexed by a country called the Land of Stars.
At first, Yuuki thought that this Star Country was no different from the countries before, just with a different name and title, but the lives of the common people were still just as hard.
But last year, when they went down the mountain to "exchange" some supplies, the villagers they met told them that the Star Kingdom of today was completely different from the Snow Kingdom and the Demon Kingdom of the past.
Without the oppression of a lord or a powerful daimyo, one doesn't have to pay 70-80% rent for farming, and doesn't have to offer tribute for the game one hunts.
The villagers even advised them to come down the mountain, saying that as long as they registered with the government, they could get land and houses and live a peaceful life.
Yuki didn't believe it.
None of the barbarian lords' subordinates he had met were good people.
He didn't believe that changing their names would turn them into bodhisattvas.
So they didn't go down the mountain. Instead, they traded the game they caught and some mountain goods for supplies of equal value and returned to the deep mountains.
Originally, if those supplies were used sparingly, they could have lasted another two or three years.
But five days ago, his daughter Aiko started having a fever.
At first, he thought it was just a common cold, so he boiled some herbs from the mountains for her to drink, but the fever wouldn't go down.
There were no doctors or medicines in the village, and he tried every folk remedy he knew, but none of them worked.
Watching her daughter grow thinner day by day, her once rosy cheeks turned sallow, and her once cheerful laughter turned into weak moans.
He finally couldn't sit still any longer.
"I'm taking my son down the mountain to find someone to help me," he told his brothers at the time.
But others disagree.
"Boss, it's too dangerous for you to go alone!"
"What if we get arrested by those government officials?"
"If we're going, we're going together! If we die, we die together!"
After arguing for a long time, the group finally descended the mountain in a grand procession.
They searched for several days in the mountains before finally finding this small, undeveloped village.
Because the surrounding villages have all been relocated and merged, they are not familiar with the terrain in this area.
At that moment, Yuki stood under the shade of a tree, looking at the bustling village in the distance, and gritted his teeth.
He glanced back at his brothers, then at his sleeping daughter on his back, and made a decision.
"You guys go back first." His voice was a little hoarse.
"I'll go alone with my son to check. If I can find someone to help, I'll come back to you. If I get caught, you—you go back to the mountains and never come down again."
"Boss! What are you saying?!" the man with the wooden bow exclaimed impatiently.
"It's too dangerous for you to go alone! Besides, we've watched Aiko grow up! How can we let you go on such a risk alone!"
"That's right!" another man holding a bamboo spear chimed in.
"Boss, let me go! If those government officials arrest me, they'll only arrest me! You still have to take care of everyone else."
""
"Stop arguing, I'm the best candidate. I can run fast!"
"What good is it if you can run fast? You can't even speak properly, so you won't know how to ask for help when the time comes—"
A group of people lowered their voices and argued heatedly, their faces flushed.
Just then, a voice suddenly came from above them: "Then go, all of you."
"!!!"
Everyone froze at the same time.
They looked up abruptly and saw three boys standing on the thick, horizontal branch extending from above them.
Two men and one woman.
The young man at the head of the group, with black hair and tea-colored eyes, and a short sword at his waist, was none other than Yuuyama.
Standing beside him were the tall and imposing Ozora and the Byakugan-wielding Chiyo Chizuru.
The three had silently circled around to the top of their heads, looking down at them from above, their kunai and ninja swords already drawn.
"Ninja!"
"It's a ninja!"
The mountain people panicked instantly.
Although they had never seen a ninja, they had all heard of their power and knew that their crude weapons were nothing to brag about.
Several timid children had already turned to run, but they froze after taking just one step.
They discovered that several teenagers had emerged from the surrounding woods at some point.
Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Choji, who was holding a bag of potato chips, were munching on them while curiously observing them.
They slowly approached from different directions, surrounding the group of mountain people.
A thin mountain dweller was so frightened that he turned and ran, disappearing into the bushes nearby in a panic.
But as soon as he crawled inside, he heard a muffled thud, and then he was sent flying out, crashing to the ground, rolling twice, clutching his stomach, too painful to speak.
Sasuke slowly emerged from behind the bushes, retracting his right foot that had just been kicked out, his face expressionless.
Naruto stood on the other side, his fists clenched and bumped together, a look of eager anticipation on his face: "Yosh, are you bandits preparing to go down the mountain to rob someone? Perfect, let me test the results of my special training these past few days!"
Although Sasuke didn't speak, he slightly adjusted his stance, assuming a ready-to-attack posture.
Just then, Shikamaru spoke up.
"Naruto, stop for a moment."
With one hand in his pocket, his gaze passed over the mountain people who held crude weapons and looked terrified, and landed on the burly man carrying a child in the center of the crowd.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the little girl on Yuki's back, then swept over the women and children huddled behind, his brow furrowing slightly.
"Something seems off," Shikamaru said.
Naruto paused for a moment, then followed Shikamaru's gaze and noticed the little girl with flushed cheeks and weak breathing, who was clinging to the back of the burly man, as well as the several women and children who were clearly malnourished and looked terrified.
He scratched his head, somewhat confused: "Uh—this is—"
Just as the two sides were locked in a tense standoff, Yuki made a move that surprised everyone.
He knelt down with a thud.
He placed his katana on the ground beside him, braced himself with his hands, and slammed his forehead heavily against the back of his hands, his voice hoarse and trembling: "Ninja lords! I beg you—save my daughter—"
His voice was loud, carrying a desperate, last-ditch plea.
"We are not robbers! We are mountain people! My daughter is sick, we have no medicine and no doctor, so we have no choice but to come down the mountain to beg for help! Please, please save her! She is so young—"
When the mountain people behind him saw their leader kneel down, they all knelt down as well, pleading and begging in unison.
"Ninja masters, please!"
"We're not bad people!"
"We just want our child to get medical treatment!"
Naruto and the others exchanged glances, their tense fighting stances unconsciously relaxing.
Half an hour later, the open space in front of the Onomura Village Office was filled with curious villagers.
More than twenty villagers were temporarily gathered together and placed under guard, squatting in a corner of the open space. Their weapons had been confiscated and piled up to the side.
Several women and teenagers were seated on the other side, where villagers brought them hot tea and steamed buns.
At first, they hesitated to accept the food, but after repeated persuasion from the villagers, they cautiously took it and ate it in small bites, their eyes reddening slightly.
Chiyo Chizuru is treating her son.
She carefully examined the little girl's condition with her eyes wide open, and after confirming that it was just a cold, she closed her eyes and said to Yuuki, who was standing beside her with a worried look on his face and his hands clenched tightly, "It's nothing serious, just a cold. It's probably because it's cold in the mountains at night. I have some effective cold medicine here, give it to her, and she'll be fine after a nap."
She rummaged through her medical kit, took out a blister pack of capsules wrapped in aluminum foil, and broke off two.
Sakura, who was standing nearby, helped the unconscious Aiko up and let her lean against her.
Ino brought over a bowl of warm water, gently pried open the little girl's mouth with a spoon, fed her the medicine, and then gave her a few sips of water to help her swallow it.
Yuki watched nervously from the side, his hands clenched tightly, his palms sweaty.
"Don't be so nervous, it's just a cold," Chiyo Chizuru comforted her.
"It will take at least ten minutes for this medicine to take effect. Please sit down and wait."
Yuki nodded, but did not sit down. He remained standing beside his daughter, staring intently at her.
The villagers who had gathered around started talking about it.
"Aren't these the villagers from the old Sanfangyan village?"
"Hmm? Now that you mention it, it does seem a bit like that—"
"What do you mean, they look a bit like them! The one leading them is called Yuki, and he's the son of the former village chief of Mikata-Iwa."
"They've been outlaws for ten years, haven't they?"
"Yes, they used to occasionally come down the mountain to exchange supplies with us. We even ran into them in the old village last year and tried to persuade them to come down the mountain."
"Alas, we are all unfortunate people—"
"I remember his parents were forced to their deaths by people sent by the vassal lord to collect grain? In a fit of rage, he killed them all?"
"Yes, later he led some people who were willing to follow him to the mountains to become outlaws. The village of Sanfangyan was later massacred by the tribesman's men."
"What a tragedy!"
Discussions rose and fell, filled with sympathy, sighs, and heavy memories of that dark period.
As Naruto listened to the villagers' discussions, his fists clenched unconsciously, and his face showed an indignant expression.
He looked around, wanting to find Menma and ask how these people would be dealt with, but after searching for a while, he couldn't find Menma anywhere.
Chino had already hung up the communicator, put her hands on her hips, and said to Yuuki, "Alright, the police department has sent people over to take over you."
Yuki and the others looked worried.
Their weapons have been confiscated, and now they are like fish on a chopping board, their lives entirely dependent on the other side.
Yuuki hesitated for a moment, then mustered his courage and cautiously asked, "Ninja-sama—what will happen to us?"
Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chizuru, and the others all looked at Chino, waiting for her answer.
Chino tilted her head, thought for a moment, and asked, "How many people did you kill when you went down the mountain to plunder before?"
Upon hearing this, Yuki quickly shook his head and hurriedly explained, "No, no! How could we dare to kill anyone! We rob people in the mountains because if we traded normally, the other villages would be arrested by the lord's army on charges of 'colluding with bandits.' That's why we rob them, but we never hurt anyone, and we only take goods of equal value. Sometimes we even keep some extra mountain produce and game!"
He paused, then added, "We may be bandits, but we were forced into this situation. We rob to survive, not to harm others!"
After hearing this, Chino's expression turned somewhat strange: "Then you can't be considered bandits—"
Did she think she had captured a group of vicious bandits, only to find out they were just ordinary mountain people who were dissatisfied with oppression and forced to go up the mountain?
She sighed, immediately losing interest, and waved her hand, saying, "As long as you haven't taken any lives, nothing will happen. After the investigation is over, you'll be settled in a resettlement village like Ono Village, given land, houses, seeds, and farming tools, so you can live a good life from now on."
"————?"
Yuki was stunned.
The mountain people behind him were also stunned.
Issuing land?
Issuing houses?
Sending seeds and farm tools?
Just live a good life?
They originally thought that what awaited them was prison, interrogation, or even the death penalty.
After all, they were "mountain bandits," "wanted criminals," and people who couldn't be brought into the light.
But now, this ninja girl, who looks no more than ten years old, tells them in such a nonchalant tone: You can start over, you can have your own land, your own house, and you can live like ordinary people.
this----
How is that possible?
Yuki's lips trembled a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but he found himself choked up and unable to speak.
He lowered his head, his eyes red-rimmed, his hands tightly gripping the hem of his clothes.
The mountain people behind him looked at each other in disbelief.
Some people began to sob softly, while others stared blankly at the new houses with green bricks and red tiles in the distance, their eyes filled with longing.
In the distance, under a large banyan tree.
Yu Yi stood at the edge of the shade of the tree, watching the scene unfold in front of the village office.
He saw the mountain people go from initial fear and despair, to shock and disbelief when they heard "land and houses will be distributed," and then to surprise and gratitude after confirming that they had not misheard.
Those complex emotions alternated on their faces, like a ray of sunshine finally breaking through a sky that had been gloomy for many years.
He rarely showed a slight smile.
The smile was faint and fleeting.
The millennia of suffering and sorrow in the ninja world are being gradually eradicated.
He carried a bamboo basket on his back and walked north along the village road.
The steps were slow and steady, as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I could finally let go.
Menma stood on the other side of the banyan tree, watching his retreating figure, and asked, "Aren't you going to stay a little longer? Aren't you going to ask me how I plan to deal with Mount Myōboku?"
Menma was a little curious that Hagoromo hadn't pleaded for the toads of Mount Myōboku.
"No." Yu Yi didn't turn around.
His voice drifted gently on the mountain breeze: "Send this body back to its homeland, and I will return to the Pure Land."
He paused, then his voice became even more distant.
"The Ninja World—I'm counting on you."
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