Takigakure

They returned to the Land of Fire along the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Rivers, then turned due north, traversing the fields of the Land of Fire, and went straight up to the Land of Waterfalls. The journey was about the same as the distance from Konoha to Sand Ninja, taking about three hours.

Leaving the ninja village and towns and walking in the countryside is like returning from the modern world to the feudal era. The dilapidated villages, dusty and bumpy roads, and the bustling towns with their wide and flat streets seem like two different worlds.

The uneven development in the ninja world is evident, no less than the gap between the rural areas of the western mountains in my previous life and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Because these areas cannot afford the rewards for the missions, they are essentially invisible to the ninja villages. Bandits and robbers usually operate in these places, and they are impossible to eradicate completely. This phenomenon is not just due to poverty; the underlying reasons are worth pondering.

Sakura Haruno led her class on a mission to eliminate bandits. Neither the ninja village nor the ninjas received any mission requests, nor could they possibly receive any payment from those dirt-poor villagers. So whether this was considered voluntary labor or the ninja village fulfilling its duty to protect its citizens was a very delicate matter.

Sakura was well aware that the relationship between the country and the village was currently very distorted.

Take herself as an example. Although she considers herself a person of the Land of Fire, her sense of identity with her village is obviously stronger. Jonin to their ninja village is far greater than their loyalty to their country. Many Konoha Ninja even equate the Land of Fire with Konoha and a few nearby big cities, and don't care about these poor and remote places at all.

On the other hand, in reality, the real power and the ability to determine the direction of the country still belong to the ninja villages that possess the vast majority of ninja power. Take Konoha as an example: the Twelve Guardian Ninja who protect the Daimyo are actually Konoha ninjas, and the Daimyo's army is completely powerless when facing ninjas.

When she and Gaara discussed the world situation, she didn't consider the daimyo's position at all. The original intention of establishing the ninja village system was that the ninja villages were subordinate to the country. In reality, how could a ninja village that wields power be controlled by ordinary people who have no power? It's already quite a favor that the daimyo wasn't controlled by the ninja villages using Genjutsu.

Some countries with ninja villages don't even have a daimyo; the highest leader of the country is simply the "Kage" of the ninja village. Several countries surrounding Konoha are like this.

The Land of Waterfalls is a typical example of Takikage serving as both a daimyo and a daimyo.

A distorted relationship cannot last. The ninja village system must eventually be reformed to adapt to the situation where the village is strong and the country is weak.

A few days later, Sakura Haruno entered the Land of Waterfalls. They deliberately slowed their pace, conserving their energy and not rushing. Gaara's warning was not without reason; they might encounter members of Akatsuki on this trip, and it would be very dangerous to expend a lot of energy on the journey.

Fortunately, Sakura arrived safely in the Land of Land of Waterfalls. The peaceful villages and towns there seemed oblivious to the shadow of Akatsuki looming over them.

In the Land of Waterfalls, before a massive waterfall.

The water cascading down from the extremely high cliffs obscures the only entrance to Takigakure, forming a natural barrier.

Hidden behind the waterfall, Takigakure is nestled in a valley behind a cliff. The entrance to the village is accessed via a dark river that runs through a cave behind the waterfall. It must have taken a lot of effort to find such a secluded place to build the village.

"No matter how well hidden the entrance is, it can't escape the ninjas' detection," Sasuke said dismissively, standing in front of the waterfall.

No matter how well they are hidden, they will always leave clues. The Inuzuka clan's ninjas can distinguish the footprints and scents they leave behind, the Byakugan and the Ninja Hawk can see the valleys and villages behind the peaks, and even an ordinary Anbu can track these countries' ninjas to find their villages.

In the Shinobi World, it is almost impossible to hide a large village. As long as there is contact with the outside world, traces will be left and the village will be exposed.

"Besides, the ninja village is too secluded. How can it attract clients to give them missions?" Sakura Haruno shook her head, somewhat speechless. "People who want to give missions can't even find where to post them. Takigakure would never get a mission order in its entire life. This kind of place is fine for living in seclusion, but using it to establish a ninja village is simply insane."

"To pursue safety excessively is to put the cart before the horse." Sasuke scoffed at this.

However, perhaps the Takigakure simply enjoys these leisurely days without missions? After all, the Land of Waterfalls is under their control, so they can use tax revenue to support a bunch of idle ninjas.

Without training through missions, the combat effectiveness of ninjas trained this way is a mystery.

In short, in the end, they neither succeeded in hiding themselves nor in making the village prosperous.

The only advantage was that, because their village had little fighting power and the Land of Waterfalls had little to offer, they were spared much of the threat of war.

"Let's go." The girl didn't say much, just chuckled and rushed into the entrance behind the waterfall.

They dived into the underground river through the cave passage behind the waterfall. With Sakura's Water Release accelerating them, the long underground journey of several miles passed in an instant. Soon, the two emerged from the water and appeared on the lake near Takigakure.

What comes into view are the old-fashioned wooden buildings and Waterfall Ninja from Takigakure.

"Welcome, envoys from Konoha," Takikage, standing on the shore with a complex expression. "You've arrived just in time."

It was a welcome, but Sakura could only sense a perfunctory attitude in his eyes and tone.

The unwelcome attitude of the Waterfall Ninja was written all over their faces; their wary and tense expressions clearly showed their distrust of Sakura Haruno and Sasuke.

Fortunately, Sakura's appearance was quite deceptive. When they saw that the newcomer was just a pretty girl, the Waterfall Ninja unconsciously relaxed their expressions.

She seems to be just a weak girl with limited combat abilities.

Waterfall Ninja thought to himself.

Unbeknownst to them, Sakura Haruno was silently assessing how long it would take her to conquer the village...

One hour?

Or less?

In any case, these ninjas don't seem to be among the best in terms of vigilance, strength, or observation skills, probably because they haven't experienced enough life-or-death battles. It's quite normal that the long-peaceful Takigakure doesn't produce any powerful ninjas.

In short, they're all a bunch of weaklings.

The girl Earth Flow and stood before the group of weaklings, shaking hands with Takikage: "Hello, Lord Takikage."

Takikage nodded, his expression still noncommittal. He touched the girl's hand briefly before letting it fall away, and then led the two of them into a magnificent building.

Takikage's office.

"So, what brings Konoha to our Takigakure?" Takikage, sitting high in his luxurious chair, looking listless and eager to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Sakura Haruno could probably understand how they felt after discovering their hiding place had been discovered. Judging from their expressions, they probably thought they were perfectly concealed, but they didn't expect that the Five Great Shinobi Villages could find their "rat hole" at any time with just a little effort. This psychological gap was evident on Takikage's face, even though he wasn't particularly shrewd.

As the saying goes, "Temple demons are strong, ponds are shallow and turtles abound." In this secluded village, Takikage actually managed to create such a custom-made chair made of precious wood, and even placed it on a higher step, displaying an air of superiority. Even the Kage of the Five Great Villages didn't have such airs.

Coupled with his squinting eyes and strength that's at most comparable to Sasuke's, it's simply laughable.

"This is an invitation to the Chunin Ninja Exams. This year's Chunin Ninja Exams will be held in Konoha this summer." Sakura muttered to herself as she calmly pulled a scroll from her pocket and handed it over.

"It's about the Chunin Ninja Exams, huh? Let me see..." Takikage squinted at the girl, glanced at the scroll, and said, "Is the limit still three Genin and one supervising teacher accompanying each student?"

"Then let's send Ryōko Shiraishi's class this year," he said after a moment's thought. He then closed the scroll and set it aside, asking, "Weren't the invitations delivered by Ninja Hawk in previous years? Why is your village sending someone this year?"

"Yes, because the situation has changed somewhat this year." The girl nodded and said frankly, "This Chunin Ninja Exams will also include Kirigakure, and high-ranking officials and nobles from the Land of Water will be attending. The scale of the exams will be unprecedentedly large, and the competition will be extremely fierce, so please make sure your village is prepared."

She deliberately emphasized the words "be prepared," implying that they shouldn't bring out the worst of the worst and embarrass them. Otherwise, it wouldn't be Konoha that would be embarrassed!

Takikage understood her subtext, his expression stiffened slightly, his smile froze, and he replied, "Please rest assured, Your Excellency, the students in Ryōko's class are all excellent..."

Sakura's eyes flickered a few times as she watched him, her tone sounding slightly stiff. Could this guy have been planning to just send any average class to handle this?

The ninja village is actually in a rather awkward position.

It wasn't that they didn't want to send their best ninjas out to make a name for themselves on the Chunin Ninja Exams stage, attracting the attention of the audience, especially the nobles, and winning back more missions for the village. It was just that the Genin trained by the ninja villages were generally weaker than those from the major ninja villages, and their best scouts were only of average to above-average quality outside the village, making it difficult to achieve a good ranking. If they suffered losses in the fiercely competitive Chunin Ninja Exams, it would be a serious blow.

Even with their best efforts, it's difficult to achieve good results; in fact, a single misstep could lead to their talents being wasted in another country. Considering these issues, over time, the ninja villages began to realize that they were merely there to make up the numbers in the Chunin Ninja Exams, and the ninjas they sent were mostly just there to fill quotas. The truly capable competitors were the Genin from the major ninja villages.

Sakura Haruno declined to comment on this "live and let live" mentality; perhaps this is the only way for ninja villages to survive.

She saw through it but didn't want to expose it; she had no intention of breaking the unspoken rules.

Takikage could tell from the girl's shifting eyes that she understood his meaning to some extent. Although he was somewhat annoyed, Konoha was behind her after all, so even if his tone was a bit harsh, it was still the superior country's way of teaching him a lesson.

Dissatisfied? Keep it to yourself!

"Ahem." He quickly composed himself, cleared his throat, and said, "Is that all?"

Sakura shook her head. "There's something even more important."

"Please."

"Have you heard... that the Akatsuki has recently shown signs of activity near your village?" Sakura Haruno stared intently at him. "In other words, after a year of silence, the Akatsuki's activities have resurfaced, and it's very likely that this time their objectives are no longer limited to intelligence gathering..."

Takikage's expression truly froze this time.

"This matter..."

(There will be another update tonight.)