Naruto Bloodline Theory? Just Trash

The collapsed entrance had been blasted open into a huge hole.

It seemed to have been smashed open by brute force.

Minato Namikaze and Hanzo exchanged a glance and set aside their hostility.

The two walked into the darkness.

Minato Namikaze lit a torch.

When they saw the miserable sight of corpses strewn everywhere...

Their breathing involuntarily caught.

Especially when they found the bodies of Kaede Yamanaka and Shido Akimichi among them...

Minato Namikaze said, "Hm?! There are survivors."

They found Gato.

They questioned him about what had happened, but his mind was on the verge of collapse.

Yet Gato's account was vague and incoherent.

In the darkness, an ordinary person like him could not possibly have seen anything clearly.

He could only explain how it began and how it ended.

"Lord Hanzo, Lord Hanzo..."

Seeing the powerful backer arrive, Gato scrambled and crawled his way to Hanzo's side.

From the looks of it, he wanted Hanzo to escort him out of this place.

In the past, their cooperation had been fairly pleasant.

Their dealings had all been business-related, with no real conflicts between them.

"..."

Hanzo glanced at Gato, then at Minato Namikaze. The implication was obvious.

"So it wasn't Amegakure that did this?"

Minato Namikaze fell into thought.

If this had not been done by the Amegakure represented by Hanzo, then it must have been... Akatsuki, the other armed force active in the Land of Rain.

"Lord Hanzo, I will report what happened here. We may send people to investigate again..." Minato Namikaze stated his next course of action.

"Mm."

Hanzo nodded slightly.

He appeared to know nothing, but he had already guessed who was responsible.

After Minato Namikaze swiftly departed.

Hanzo sighed inwardly. Amakawa Mingren? He really is bold.

Perhaps he had been wrong about one thing.

Amakawa Mingren's personality was far more extreme than his own had been in his youth.

"Come, Lord Gato. I'll take you back to Amegakure. You need not worry about your safety..."

Hanzo grabbed Gato and used the Body Flicker Technique, vanishing from the scene in the blink of an eye.

Once his granddaughter Asuka returned, he would ask her for the details and decide how to handle Amakawa Mingren.

Whoosh...

Wind and rain swayed through the air.

Mingren looked at his fist, feeling power flow within it.

Then he raised his head and looked behind him. "Is there anything else?"

The beautiful, long black-haired Amegakure Girl stood in the rain, while her three subordinates waited nearby.

The trafficked people had already been rescued.

Those willing to return home went home, while those with nowhere to go were brought back to Amegakure for settlement.

Asuka seemed to have something she wanted to say to him.

"I wish to thank you for saving my life when we first met."

Asuka spoke softly.

Her black sclera and peculiar crimson pupils stared unblinkingly at Mingren's figure.

She had always wanted to say those words, but had never found the chance.

"We are people of the same country. So long as one does not betray the motherland and the people, one should offer a helping hand."

After Mingren spoke, he seemed to feel that his words might have sounded strange...

After all, the world of Naruto Ninja did not speak of concepts like motherland and people.

All it had were reactionary feudal terms such as bloodlines, Kage, and Daimyo...

Asuka said, "Mm... and money."

Asuka held a Scroll containing most of the money seized from the bodies of the High-ranking Officials and Nobles.

Silence.

Rain fell.

The atmosphere was cold.

Shennong stood nearby, pretending to admire the scenery.

This continued for a moment.

Mingren said, "Goodbye."

Asuka said, "Goodbye."

"Heh heh..."

Shennong's Corner of the Mouth curved upward as he Shook His Head.

The two of them were both so icy. Whenever he saw their interactions, he found them amusing.

"Where to next?"

Shennong held a Scroll and gave it a shake. It was the Scroll sealing the corpses of Hokuto Hyuga and the Gekko Clan.

The auction had fallen through.

They had taken a great deal of money from the corpses, but most of it had been given to Asuka.

After all, Amegakure needed financial support more urgently now to resist foreign enemies.

Mingren said, "We'll look around and travel through this country again."

The auction experience...

Had taught Mingren one thing.

While resisting foreign enemies, the Land of Rain had already been gnawed away from within by too many parasites.

So next, he would kill people—many people.

He would purge the Land of Rain from within and cut out its tumors.

Only then could the Land of Rain improve.

"The Land of Rain faces troubles both within and without. Hanzo has always focused on external threats. He has neither the energy nor, because of his position, the means to deal with internal matters. This is indeed a good approach..."

Shennong nodded.

Changing a country could not be done merely by talking. One had to take real action.

This auction had eliminated quite a few evil people.

This country would become better.

But the human heart was dark to the extreme.

Even if the old villains were killed, new ones would emerge. What would he do then?

My disciple... Mingren.

Thirty. Preparing to See Him in Person

Within the Tower of Amegakure.

Hanzo stood in the main hall.

A few seconds later, he turned and looked at four faces.

"Lord Hanzo, it was very dark at the time. We could not see the exact situation clearly..."

Ryu and the other two shook their heads.

They were not Sensor Ninja. In that environment, they truly could not distinguish things accurately.

In other words, the three did not know the extent of the power Mingren had displayed. They only thought that a group of people had slaughtered each other until everyone died. In truth, Mingren had killed most of them.

"I understand."

Hanzo nodded and dismissed the three.

Only Hanzo and his granddaughter Asuka remained in the silent room.

The sealing Scroll on the table, containing a vast amount of money, was also particularly conspicuous.

"Was it Amakawa Mingren?" Hanzo asked.

"Yes, Grandfather." Asuka nodded slightly and described what she had sensed.

"Let me think..."

Hanzo began to ponder.

What conclusion would Konoha's investigators reach?

Killing so many High-ranking Officials and Nobles was no small matter.

Even during the Second Shinobi World War.

When the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed.

Those who died were only ordinary people and Uzumaki Clan ninja from Uzushio Village.

Meanwhile, the upper ranks of the Land of Whirlpools had long since fled with their possessions to the neutral Land of Hot Water, where they resumed their lavish lives.

It was common sense, and an iron law of the Ninja World, that ninja battles did not affect High-ranking Officials and Nobles.

No one dared challenge that principle.

Even if ninja fought until heaven and earth crumbled.

Like the God of Shinobi Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the final clan head of the Uchiha Clan, who had carved out the man-made miracle known as the Valley of the End.

The nobles had not been affected in the slightest.

But now.

Amakawa Mingren had challenged tradition and convention.

He had broken the unspoken rules.

That meant he would become everyone's enemy.

Hanzo looked at his granddaughter and announced his decision. "I will go observe him personally and see up close what kind of young man Amakawa Mingren is."

Hearing that her grandfather intended to personally make a move.

To investigate a single person.

This had never happened before.