Makoto and the blackened teeth ditch

A large cloud drifted across the sky, blocking out patches of sunlight. The Hot Spring Street was alternately bright and dark, and the wind carried a dampness. Although there was no sign of rain, it made people feel inexplicably irritable.

Tamamo-no-Mae led a group of thugs through the Hot Spring Street, heading straight for the villa where the Tsuchigumo Clan was staying.

The hem of her crimson kimono swayed gently with her steps, and a golden hairpin dangled softly beside her ear.

Her face was as cold as ice, and there was an air of authority between her brows and eyes.

The thugs following behind her each tucked short sticks into their waistbands, their footsteps barely making a sound.

Clearly, Tamamo-no-Mae to cause trouble.

She was the most cheerful person in the Pleasure Quarter, a beauty as stunning as the legendary Tamamo-no-Mae. She was gentle and dignified, as beautiful and pure as Yamato Nadeshiko. Even when faced with unreasonable teasing, she could remain calm and composed. She was charming, elegant, and captivating.

But when she reveals this side of herself, people suddenly realize that they have offended the most prestigious princess of the underworld.

Tamamo-no-Mae, the Second-in-Command of the Hiroyama Family.

The Tsuchigumo clan member guarding the gate was taken aback when he saw Tamamo-no-Mae and her group. He then forced himself to remain calm and stepped aside, asking, "Lady Tamamo- Tamamo-no-Mae, what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing?" Tamamo-no-Mae smiled, took out her fan and tapped it in her palm. "I've come to check on my little sister-in-law. I heard she suffered some grievances this morning, and as her older sister, how could I pretend not to know?"

The gatekeeper's face darkened further.

There were spies planted in this area? Why didn't they detect it?!

Tamamo-no-Mae didn't waste any words with him and led her people inside.

The man tried to stop her, but Tamaro grabbed his head and threw him away. This single blow caused him to vomit three liters of blood and collapse to the ground.

Hearing the noise, the members of the Tsuchigumo Clan came out of the house and stood on the porch, their expressions varied. None of them stepped forward, nor did they dare to stop them.

Where is Miss Zhen's room?

The female ninja stepped forward, bowed to her, and gestured, "Please follow me."

Tamamo-no-Mae walked to the front of Masato's room, pushed aside the female ninja, and then personally opened the door to take a look.

The room was empty, the bed was neatly made, there were pastries and cooled tea on the table, and the window was wide open.

Tsk, what kind of bullying did they have to endure before they had to climb over the wall and run away?

Tamamo-no-Mae's fan stopped in mid-air and slowly closed after two seconds.

She turned to look at the Tsuchigumo tribesmen under the eaves, her voice carrying a chilling amusement. "My future sister-in-law, why did you suddenly climb over the wall and run away? Who forced her to not even dare to stay in her own tribe?"

The Tsuchigumo tribe members looked at each other, none of them daring to speak.

The female ninja, her face pale, moved her lips slightly. "Master Shin... she just went out for a walk to clear her head..."

"You need to climb over the Tamamo-no-Mae raised an eyebrow. "Your method of clearing your head is certainly unique."

Tamaro stood behind her, holding an old sickle in his hand, his gaze slowly sweeping over the Tsuchigumo tribesmen under the corridor.

A murderous aura filled the air.

Everyone who made eye contact with him was frozen in place, unable to move.

Because they had already witnessed their own death.

That deep-seated fear, as if they were hallucinating the murderous intent of their own death, finally made them realize that they had provoked something they shouldn't have.

At the same time, Izuna saw Jōtarō and Enma off from the Hot Springs Inn.

He stood at the doorway, waving to the two of them with a beaming smile, "Take care!"

After watching their figures disappear into the morning mist of the Hot Spring Street, he slowly Earth Flow the main hall.

He sat cross-legged next to Ban, and his first words were, "What are we having for breakfast?"

Hashirama stood up. "I'll go order."

Tobirama, who had been recording the conversation, twitched upon hearing this. "You just finished discussing such important matters with the people of the Land of Whirlpools, and now you're thinking about food? In the current situation, how can you even eat?"

"Eating is the most important thing in the world," Izuna said matter-of-factly. "No one can stop me from eating. If I don't eat, how will I have the energy to handle the affairs of the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning, and how will I have the energy to draw lots?"

"Drawing a fortune slip doesn't require strength," Tobirama said coldly. "Also, why did you mention going to the Shrine in front of those two? Such things shouldn't be said in that setting."

"Why?"

Tobirama paused, "What?"

Izuna tilted her head and looked at him. "Why can't I say?"

"That would make them think you're still a child and they won't communicate with you as an equal."

"Is that so?" Izuna stared at him. "But it seems that Mr. Jōtarō didn't do that."

Tobirama pursed his lips. It wasn't that he hadn't tried; he just hadn't had the opportunity.

During the conversation just now, he was trying to Akari and overtly evoke Izuna's compassion, and even tried to get the young man to befriend Izuna. It was all too obvious.

"You're overthinking it," Izuna helplessly, looking at him. "Besides, isn't it true that the other person will only understand if you're honest about your feelings?"

Hashirama's eyes lit up; he found these words very pleasing.

"... Whatever, let it be."

Tobirama thought detachedly, since the matter had already been settled and the other party wouldn't dare underestimate Izuna after that question, why should he meddle so much?

Madara patted Izuna on the back of the head, his tone calm. "Izuna is right. There's no need to compromise yourself to please others. Just say what you want to say."

Izuna looked at Madara with some confusion.

Um, bro, I don't think that's what I meant.

Hashirama laughed Hashirama: "That's right! That's exactly it! Then let's go sightseeing after we finish eating!"

Tobirama looked at him disapprovingly, "Big Brother, the matters of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water should be dealt with first."

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Hashirama waved his Hashirama. "It's just drawing a fortune stick, how long will it take? Also, Tobirama, stop looking at documents all the time. You're already here, so learn to relax, okay?"

Tobirama's Tobirama narrowed with Dead-Fish Eyes. Did these people even realize that Konoha was still on the rise and needed to be kept a close eye on?

Never mind, I'll keep a closer eye on it.

Oh right, school seems to be starting soon. As expected, having Rokuhiko as the principal was the right decision. I'll drag my Big Brother back to give a speech then.

Hashirama suddenly sneezed, rubbed his nose, and looked quite puzzled. "Huh? Did I catch a cold?"

Meanwhile, Jōtarō had already walked away, was not in a relaxed mood.

Enma walked beside him, glancing at his expression several times, but didn't dare to speak first.

Jōtarō's pace was much slower than when he arrived, and his brow had been furrowed ever since he left the Inn.

The news he brought back was very important, but this very importance prevented him from taking it easy.

Izuna was too thorough in his dealings with important matters, so thorough that Izuna couldn't find any fault with him, which only made Izuna more uneasy.

Someone who understands the current predicament of the Land of Whirlpools so clearly is willing to discuss cooperation without any strings attached.

This is even more terrifying than looting during a disaster.

He didn't believe that anyone who understood all this would truly be like Izuna, wanting nothing at all; he must be plotting something he couldn't control.

After all, politicians don't talk about ideals with people.

What he couldn't get over was the last question Izuna asked him.

"Are you prepared to perish together with the enemy?"

This sentence is nothing; Jōtarō has a thousand ways to respond. He is confident that if he saw this sentence on paper, he could write a perfect answer.

Anyone can say nice things. Politicians' promises are always empty words. There are too many cases where they have the will but lack the power to back it up, so no one takes such words seriously.

But when he saw the child's... no, the man's eyes, he understood.

That's not something you can make promises about lightly.

What kind of eyes were those? Beautiful, clear, with dark, sparkling pupils, like a drop of ink falling into the whites of the eyes—so pure, yet so profound.

He looked at him calmly, as if he could see into the future, with a mixture of pity and encouragement.

In an instant, Jōtarō Byakugan had been through something like this.

He wanted to save them, to save them, because it was a matter of life and death for the nation, something that required a desperate gamble to secure a chance of survival.

Simply because we were in the same situation once.

However, Jōtarō did not respond to this statement.

He fell silent.

Because he was afraid of dying.

"That's normal, "Jōtarō thought. "I'm not Ninja who would sacrifice myself to complete a mission, nor am I a politician who would die for his reputation. I'm just a businessman."

But he also felt sorrow.

Because he is a member of the Uzumaki Clan, and there are now many people like him in the Uzumaki Clan who have lost their fighting spirit as Ninjas.

They, like myself, were afraid of death.

So Jōtarō remained silent, until Izuna sighed, got up, and saw them off from the Inn.

Enma, who was standing to the side, had been looking thoughtful since earlier.

He was also pondering Izuna's words, but unlike Jōtarō, he went through the question in his mind and found the answer almost effortlessly.

If the Land of Whirlpools ever comes to that day, he will rush to the front lines without hesitation.

That was his homeland, the place where his Uzumaki Clan had lived for generations. If his homeland was gone, what meaning would his life hold?

The idea surfaced naturally without much deliberation, as if it were an idea ingrained in one's very being.

Jōtarō stopped halfway and said he needed to go to the port to meet someone, leaving Enma himself.

Enma responded, waved to him, and watched as Jōtarō wrapped his Haori and hurried away down another side road.

The Hot Spring Street was already mostly awake in the early morning. Shops along the street were taking down their doors one by one, and laborers carrying sacks of rice were moving in and out of the alleys. Carts carrying firewood made a rumbling sound as they rolled on the stone pavement.

Enma walked slowly with his hands in his sleeves, his mind still replaying Izuna's words, pondering why he said and did what he did, trying to learn his rhetoric and logic, intending to try it in the next negotiation.

He aimlessly turned into a quiet alley.

The walls on both sides are very high, with patches of slippery moss growing at their base. The eaves overhead completely block out the sunlight, making the whole alley shady and cool, and even the air feels a bit chilly.

He walked for a while, and vaguely sensed something moving ahead.

Looking up, he saw a small, thin figure crouching against the wall, holding something in its arms, tiptoeing towards the other end of the alley.

The person walked very quietly, leaning slightly forward, stopping every few steps to look around, as if terrified of being discovered.

Enma paused for a moment, staring intently at the person's back.

She was petite, wearing a plain white nightgown with streaks of dust on the hem, and barefoot, her feet treading on the cold, damp stone slabs.

Most importantly, her long, pale golden hair, filtered through the morning light, stood out strikingly in the dim alley.

It's true.

Enma: "?"

The young lady of the Tsuchigumo Clan? What's she doing here?

Then Enma tilted his head slightly to take a look.

"Isn't that a baby?!" Enma exclaimed in shock. "You already have a child with that ugly man?!"

"What are you saying?!" Before she could recover from the shock of being discovered, Enma's words made her face flush red with anger. "Are you the kind of kid who thinks that contact between a man and a woman will result in a baby?!"

"Huh, isn't that right?" Enma looked bewildered.

Seeing Enma's genuinely bewildered expression, he couldn't help but roar inwardly, "Wow! Are there really people in this world who believe that men and women standing together will give birth?!"

She wanted to roll her eyes.

But the little one she was holding was too fragile, so she could only whisper and quickly explain, "This is a child I found!"

It turned out that after she climbed over the wall and left the villa, she followed a path to a nearby Cherry Blossom Grove.

It wasn't the season for flowers, and the trees were all lush green, but the verdant scenery shrouded in the morning mist was still breathtaking.

This place is so beautiful... It would be so much fun camping here! Bringing snacks and drinks, sunbathing here all by yourself, how wonderful that would be.

Just then, she heard a very faint cry of a baby.

She ran towards the sound, only to be met with an incredibly nauseating odor before she could even see what was happening.

It smelled like something rotten, or like ink; it was awful.

She covered her nose and walked over, only to find a baby abandoned in a dark, man-made ditch.

The ditch was very deep, filled with debris and garbage, and a layer of oily film floated on the surface, making it almost impossible to see below from the bank.

If she weren't Ninja, she wouldn't have dared to jump in to rescue the person.

But the child's cries grew fainter and fainter, like those of an abandoned kitten.

She could only carefully walk down the riverbank and pull the child out.

The baby was covered in that black, smelly sewage, its lips had turned blue, and its breathing was so weak it was almost inaudible.

Although Zhen really wanted to give him a bath, it looked like he wouldn't be able to make it to the riverbank.

Not daring to let him get cold any further, I had no choice but to take off the Haori I had hastily grabbed and wrap it around the child, holding him in my arms as we ran out of the woods.

"This child needs to see a doctor immediately." Zhen gently lifted a corner of the swaddling clothes in her arms to show Enma.

The baby's face was small and wrinkled, its skin had an unhealthy bluish-gray tinge, its eyes were half-closed, and its breathing was as thin as shredded paper.

Enma's expression changed immediately; his previous daze vanished, and his brows furrowed.

He reached out and touched the baby's forehead; the temperature was alarmingly low.

"Do you know any doctors around here?" Zhen asked him, her voice tinged with suppressed urgency. "I... I'm not very familiar with the Land of Hot Water."

Without a word, Enma took off his outer robe and wrapped it around Zhen and the child, saying simply, "Come with me, there's a clinic up ahead."

Zhen nodded, and followed Enma barefoot, the two running along the alley towards the commercial street.