Naruto: I'm Going to the Land of Stars!

On the street, the smile on Naruto's face seemed to grow even brighter.

He even waved hard at the villagers casting malicious looks his way and shouted, "Yo! Good afternoon, everyone!"

Then, before the villagers could react and let loose even harsher curses, he picked up speed and shot off like a streak of smoke toward the outskirts of the village.

Yamato watched the direction Naruto had gone and muttered under his breath, "That's the direction of Training Ground 3, right? Naruto's been... training with Lord Jiraiya lately, hasn't he?"

Kakashi gave a soft "mm," which counted as confirmation.

His right eye narrowed slightly, his gaze sweeping over the rooftops along the streets around Naruto, the shadows at alley mouths, and the branches of distant trees.

"Danzo's sent a few tails after him too." Kakashi's voice was very calm, but Yamato could hear the trace of coldness in it.

At that, Yamato immediately followed the direction indicated by Kakashi's gaze and looked carefully.

Sure enough, around Naruto's running path, in several inconspicuous corners and shaded spots on rooftops, figures flashed past and vanished, following that orange figure from neither too close nor too far away.

Ever since Menma's identity had been fully exposed and he had left Konoha, and Danzo had officially risen to power, the people closely connected to Menma—including Kakashi, his Jonin Instructor, as well as his former teammates Naruto and Hinata—had all been restricted and monitored to varying degrees.

Kakashi himself was powerful, deeply experienced, and held no small prestige among Konoha's ninja; Danzo could not find a suitable reason or enough manpower capable of suppressing him to deal with him directly for the time being, so he could only push him out and marginalize him through veiled political methods.

Hinata Hyuga, moreover, was the clan head