Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 230 Acceptance

On the third day of the festival, Uncle Fugaku made a grand appearance in the name of Dongfeng.

Dongfeng is, on the surface, the largest financial backer of the Land of Waves, so Zabuza naturally had to personally welcome them. At this time, Dongfeng was no longer the scattered, disorganized entity it was a year ago; it had truly become a unified, super-fast delivery company encompassing land, sea, and air transport. However, their leader was incredibly mysterious, never appearing in official settings. Therefore, although information about Fugaku's impending arrival only spread a few days before the festival, it was quickly reported to the daimyo of the five great nations.

The opening day was packed with people, almost reaching the park's designed capacity. The number surged even more on the day Fugaku arrived, nearly blocking the commercial street that was supposed to be part of the park. No one knew how many people were there because of Dongfeng's reputation, but Naruto clearly sensed a White Zetsu mixed in with the crowd. It seemed that once the industry grew bigger and stronger, even Akatsuki would glance at it.

In response, Naruto politely "invited" the clone out under the cover of night, since White Zetsu never travels in groups anyway.

Even if he was exhausted the day before, he had to be full of energy for the next day's activities. To avoid the embarrassment of not being able to get up in the morning, Naruto took advantage of Sasuke's absence the night before to run away a hundred miles away and let loose, dispersing more than half of his chakra. He really went all out to avoid being detected by Karin.

Unlike Fugaku's grand entrance, Kinrin's arrival was completely silent.

Hokushin said Kinrin was coming, but didn't specify a time. This information was far more confidential than Fugaku's leaked message. Therefore, while the staff at the Land of Waves border were working themselves to the bone, an identification document bearing the name "Namikaze Kinrin" unexpectedly appeared in the queue.

The staff handling the paperwork were initially bewildered. After working for over an hour, their minds were numb, and they were completely absorbed in reading documents, checking information, verifying that the documents and people matched, and confirming that the person was on the blacklist. If all of the above were fine, then they would just add a label at the end.

So, he didn't realize it until the very last stamp was applied. It wasn't until he was filing the forms that he suddenly realized what was happening, and he almost jumped out of his workstation on the spot.

That day, Shino, who was used to keeping a low profile, was on duty at customs. It was the first time he had been asked by staff to deliver something. The seemingly ordinary form didn't seem to need to be sent to the head of the office, but it was a request, so Shino naturally had to do it. He released a clone along with a batch of insects. As a ninja from the reconnaissance team, he was very sensitive to intelligence and immediately thought of informing Naruto.

Jinlun's white hair stood out conspicuously in the crowd, and he was intercepted in the shopping street. Zabuza jumped directly down from the rooftop. After so much training, he was finally able to speak normally despite his immense excitement.

"It's nice to meet you again, Mr. Taoli."

"It is an honor to see you again, Lord Jinlun."

Naruto patted Zabuza on the shoulder and said cheerfully, "No need to call me that, you guys are the stars of this festival. To be honest, I'm much younger than you, you can just call me by my name."

“How can that be? Without Lord Jinlun to guide me, I’m still just a muddle-headed mercenary, not knowing what tomorrow holds.” Zabuza didn’t care about his age at all; he always felt that he had lost completely, both in strength and spirit. “Let me show you around.”

Are you not busy today?

"With Bai helping me out, it's no problem. I can always work overtime tomorrow."

They didn't join the crowds during the busiest time; instead, they went to the seawater rice experimental field, a place where no outsiders would visit, during the peak mealtime.

Hui places great importance on food research. Fertile land can be used by everyone to grow food, but in special areas like sandy soil and saline-alkali land, food is scarce. Although Hui's land management is quite meticulous, ensuring that areas unsuitable for growing food will not experience food shortages or soaring prices, the ultimate dream of his predecessors was to create food seeds that could grow in any environment. The Land of Waves, a region completely enclosed by the sea, is ideal for experimentation. They don't expect a large harvest from "seawater rice"; they simply want to see if this type of rice can revitalize saline-alkali land.

Currently, research on seawater rice can be considered quite successful. It can grow tenaciously in artificial saline-alkali environments and produce seeds with good yields, which will surely bring vitality to inland areas.

"Would you like to try our specialty red rice porridge?"

"I've already tried it, and it tastes pretty good." Jinlun smiled apologetically. "Although I don't want to disappoint you, but... I'm not here."

Zabuza was stunned for a moment before he realized that a ninja with a huge amount of chakra would naturally make the Shadow Clone Technique work to its fullest potential.

“I understand. Everyone says that you are everywhere, and that you might be the person we meet on the street someday. Please don’t underestimate yourself. To us, you are right here.”

Shadow clones cannot eat. If they can even mimic how humans ingest energy, then it will be impossible to tell whether a shadow clone is a clone or the original body.

Although they couldn't have a meal, the beautifully decorated shopping street was still worth a stroll. Zabuza wanted Lord Kinrin to take some souvenirs back with him; although the Land of Waves was resource-poor, there were plenty of things from the sea, and seashell handicrafts were everywhere.

However, the two grown men's taste was rather questionable. One of them had completely lost his sense of aesthetics through verbal sparring, while the other, with everything taken care of by Bai, had no idea how to choose a gift. Just as they were arguing about the two ugly-cute seashell turtles, the sound of rapid hoofbeats suddenly came from afar.

Zabuza's expression changed instantly. He frowned sharply, leaped out of the crowd that was blocking his view. Riding horses was prohibited in the city center, especially during holidays when the crowds were even greater. No matter how wide the roads were, riding horses was still forbidden. This hadn't happened a few days ago, but he'd run into it during a leadership inspection, and he was so angry he almost drew his beloved guillotine.

The greatsword hasn't absorbed blood in a long time; it's worn out. It's time to have some fun.

The crowd panicked and dodged the galloping white horse, but Zabuza went to meet it, easily leaping onto the horse and throwing the woman off without hesitation. He then steered the horse to a sudden stop.

However, he didn't expect that this was just the beginning; a large cavalry force followed, each rider a fully armed samurai. Even the "experienced" ninjas were only skilled at instantly eliminating these people, not at figuring out how to subdue them with minimal impact.

At the critical moment, the ground where the cavalry was standing suddenly began to rise, with the highest point rising in the direction they were advancing.

Only then did the galloping cavalry finally come to a stop.