As the sun set, a carriage made its way along a mountain road surrounded by trees.
Orochimaru, dressed in a kimono, was driving the carriage.
At this moment, he had changed into a new kimono.
Tatsumi couldn't help but have a guess in his mind: Could Orochimaru be a kimono fanatic? Otherwise, why would he like wearing kimonos so much?
He analyzed Orochimaru's psychological disorder in his mind.
Ninjas rarely wore kimonos, so could it be that the outstanding Orochimaru had been single for so long because the women around him didn't wear kimonos?
To the point that he slowly became a pervert and simply turned himself into a woman, then wore it for himself to see?
Thinking of this, Tatsumi suddenly shuddered. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
While Tatsumi was analyzing, Mikoto, who was next to him, remained silent as always. Her eyes quietly watched Tatsumi.
Sitting at the back of the carriage was Nawaki, with yellow hair and a foolish look on his face.
Compared to the other three people in the carriage, Nawaki's appearance was somewhat ordinary.
He lowered the average appearance value of the group.
At this moment, he was sticking out his butt, blocking the view of the people in front, counting his gold bars all by himself.
There were only a few gold bars in total, and Nawaki had counted them back and forth several times.
After he finished counting, he stuffed them into his underwear. After hiding them well, he returned to his usual lively self.
"We can finally go back to Konoha!"
Nawaki said excitedly. At Nawaki's words, smiles appeared on everyone's faces.
Tatsumi comfortably rolled over in the carriage.
After resting for one night in Roguetown, the group embarked on their journey back to Konoha.
Unlike their hurried journey here, the group returned by carriage.
After all, the three of them had suffered injuries, both large and small.
As for Roguetown, Konoha would send ninjas to take over later, which had nothing to do with them.
"Everyone has worked hard these past few days."
Orochimaru smiled faintly. Now that they had left Roguetown, his tense face gradually relaxed.
From accepting this mission until now, the group of four had been on this mission for nearly a week. Orochimaru had to pay attention to the safety of the three of them at all times, so his nerves were also in a state of high tension.
"This time when I go back, I want to buy a hundred different types of manga books featuring professional women."
Nawaki rubbed his hands, getting excited. He had money again now, and this time when he went back, he could buy many manga related to romance and action.
In the past few years, the manga books that he had secretly bought and hidden away had all been sold cheaply as second-hand goods by his sister Tsunade.
"Nawaki, before you came on this mission, Tsunade-sensei made some conditions for you. You wouldn't have forgotten them already, would you?"
"I forgot them eight hundred years ago—"
"Then let me remind you, she said that 70% of your mission reward must be handed over to her. She said that she would save it for you and use it to support you in your old age in the future."
"I'm only nine years old now, what old age are you talking about! It'll be gone in one night if I give it to her."
Tatsumi shrugged helplessly. After all, he couldn't help either, he still had to hand over 20% of the mission money to Tsunade.
In Tsunade's words, even a mosquito is still meat.
After all, she was already heavily in debt from gambling.
So gambling is really harmful.
Orochimaru suddenly frowned. He felt that someone was summoning him.
"What's wrong, Orochimaru-sensei?" Tatsumi keenly sensed the change in Orochimaru in front.
"It should be intelligence from Konoha being sent back."
As Orochimaru spoke, he cut open his thumb, then made a hand seal on the carriage.
"Summoning Technique."
Then a small red snake was summoned.
The snake glanced at Orochimaru, then spat out a sticky scroll from its mouth.
"Uh..." Tatsumi felt like he couldn't control his stomach again.
He always felt like vomiting recently.
He now understood that being a clean freak was sometimes not his own problem, but could also be forced out by the people around him.
Orochimaru didn't care about the mucus on the scroll.
He picked up the scroll and wiped it on Nawaki's backpack, then opened the scroll.
Nawaki: "....."
That was what he had asked someone to buy back for him from the Land of Hot Water.
The postage was very expensive, and it was wasted like this.
Orochimaru silently began to read the latest information from Konoha.
The letter that Orochimaru had found in the cellar before had already been passed on to Konoha.
The letter ordered the leader of Roguetown to take away the collected wealth and immediately go to reinforce the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain. A small gold mine had been discovered there.
The signature was Hanzo of the Salamander.
Tatsumi held a doubtful attitude towards this.
After all, ninjas would destroy such secret letters after reading them. How could they still be left in the secret room?
Secondly, that gold mine was strictly speaking on the territory of the Land of Fire.
Even if Hanzo thought highly of himself, he wouldn't really think that he was the God of Shinobi who could fight ten people at once, right?
The Land of Fire was the most powerful country among the five great nations, and the current situation was so bad that a ninja world war could break out with the slightest carelessness.
If he provoked the Land of Grass, Konoha could still restrain him.
But would he really dare to provoke Konoha's sensitive nerves?
Unless he was crazy!
So was that ninja really from the Land of Rain? Was the content of this letter true?
Tatsumi was skeptical. He felt that this was a trap.
However, whether it was a trap or not was not up to him, Tatsumi, to decide.
Konoha was not his to run the show now. Although the Third Hokage said every day that they were the successors of the Hokage, after all, no ninja had come to talk to him about the specific succession issue.
To put it bluntly, he was still a salted fish now. A salted fish that couldn't even be considered cannon fodder. These things were matters for those big shots in Konoha to worry about, and had nothing to do with him.
Orochimaru put away the letter without speaking.
Tatsumi and the others would not be foolish enough to ask about the contents of the letter.
The ninja rules were written clearly: don't casually ask about things that you shouldn't ask.
After all, Orochimaru was the Jonin leading the team, they were just students and not qualified to ask about these confidential intelligence.
Orochimaru would naturally tell them if he wanted to, but if he didn't, then it was very simple.
They were not worthy of knowing.
Tatsumi turned over and found a comfortable position to lie down again.
The car kept shaking on the road, making him a little sleepy.
I really like this kind of car-shaking feeling!
Orochimaru turned his head, his golden eyes facing Tatsumi.
"Speaking of which, Tatsumi, is your body really okay?"
The wound on Tatsumi's chest was still recovering. After all, he was injured, but looking at his appearance, he didn't seem to be in any trouble.
Tatsumi waved his right hand with a faint smile, indicating that he was completely fine.
"A man can't say he can't do it! This kind of injury is nothing to me."
"That's good." Orochimaru nodded in satisfaction.
Tatsumi was a little confused. What was this sudden concern about? A warm conversation shouldn't appear in Orochimaru's mouth.
The carriage slowly moved forward, and a crossroads appeared not far away.
After turning right, you could go straight down and reach Konoha.
Seeing that they were about to pass the intersection, Orochimaru gently turned and turned to the left.
"....."
After a while, Tatsumi couldn't help but ask, "Sensei, are you lost? We're getting further and further away from Konoha now, aren't we?"
"That's right. We just received a new mission. Konoha sent us to investigate that small gold mine."
"But I'm injured!"
"I just asked you if your injury was serious. I was still thinking that if you really couldn't do it, I would give up this mission."
"But you said you were completely fine."
"It hurts so much... My chest hurts so much, Orochimaru-sensei."
"....."
"It's okay, the Tsunade squad is nearby. We'll be doing a joint mission with them this time, and she can help you heal."
"I remember she has a Slug Insertion Technique that's especially powerful. Do you want to try it? It's very refreshing!"
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