Wandering Samurai

"Come, come, gather up. Have you brought everything you need?" Tenzo, carrying a brown backpack, stood at the village entrance checking the gear of Zi Xu and the others.

"All ready—kunai, smoke bombs, Ration Pills are sufficient..." Hatsumi showed the Sealing Scroll to Tenzo for a glance.

"Good. Make good use of the Sealing Scroll. Hm? Zi Xu, why do you still look so sleepy? Seems like you didn't take what I said earlier to heart." Tenzo was fairly satisfied with Chino and Hatsumi's performance, but when he saw Zi Xu yawning again, his brow furrowed tightly.

"Hm? Ah, I woke up cold in the middle of the night, couldn't get back to sleep, so I practiced some ninjutsu." Overall, Zi Xu's words weren't off—training in Senjutsu counted as practice.

"Oh? When you sleep, make sure to cover yourself with a blanket. Training should also have balance—rest when you need to..." Nodding with half-belief, Tenzo didn't linger on the topic. He greeted the Konoha gate guards and led these eager little ones out of the village.

Konoha was surrounded by vast stretches of forest. As far as the eye could see, lush greenery filled the view, making the village seem like a giant ark in the middle of a sea of trees.

Though they had roughly understood the environment around Konoha from books, no amount of vivid description could match the impact of being there in person.

"Hey? That aphid on the tree trunk over there—I've never seen that in the village. A brand-new bug—must collect it... Hm? The pattern on this butterfly's wings is different from ones I've seen before. Is it a variation caused by different environments?... These grass blades attract ants—I can gather some for research..."

Among them, Hatsumi was the most unrestrained, like a husky long caged. The moment the leash was off, she ran wild, releasing her true nature, forcing Tenzo to send a Wood Clone to stay by her side.

Chino was also more relaxed than ever. Konoha felt like a Birdcage to her, restricting every move, forcing her to endure the Byakugan clan's disdain daily. Now, just smelling the wildflowers and seeing the untamed weeds filled her with joy.

Since starting his Sage Mode training, Zi Xu had grown accustomed to viewing things from an energy perspective. Though his Senjutsu training wasn't complete, in his vision, the energy in the wild was indeed purer than that in the village.

He cast his gaze back toward the village. Above it, he vaguely sensed something strange about the Natural Energy there, but he couldn't pinpoint the issue.

"So many strong enemies? I thought my current physique could handle most trouble..." Zi Xu sighed inwardly, recalling what the Three Divine Maidens had told him yesterday—roughly that there were many outside as powerful as them, and his physique, though strong, wasn't enough.

Of course, they were lying to him, to keep him from getting arrogant because of his body's strength. But Zi Xu didn't know that. He truly believed it. In his eyes, Black Zetsu had become an enemy as formidable as Luffy, starting at the level of the White Snake Sage.

"Alright, alright, everyone gather up. We're almost at the meeting point with the samurai. Rein it in—don't disgrace Konoha's name..." Tenzo rubbed his forehead and sighed. He hadn't known teaching students would be this hard, and it made him not want to be a teacher again.

Hearing Tenzo's reprimand, the three straightened their clothes, adjusted their Konoha-marked Headbands properly, and quietly followed behind him. Hatsumi, knowing when to act, put away her Bugs.

"Samurai, huh? Those two energy clusters ahead should be them..." Though Zi Xu's eyes didn't have the terrifying insight of the Byakugan, his perception of Natural Energy gave him a degree of penetration.

In his perception, two energy clusters stood out from their surroundings ahead—one a blue-white glow radiating icy cold, the other a blood-red light carrying a killing aura.

"Hello, are you two the samurai who commissioned the mission? We're the Konoha ninja who accepted it." Tenzo's tone was neither servile nor arrogant, showing the backbone of a Konoha ninja even before the client.

"Mm." The tall, masked man gave a cold grunt. Bandages tightly wrapped the lower half of his face, leaving only his eyes visible.

"Yes, sorry for the trouble. This is part of the payment. The full amount will be settled when we reach the outskirts of Kirigakure. Please understand..." Another figure, shorter, wearing a white mask, spoke with a neutral, gentle voice, completely unlike the cold man beside him who looked like someone owed him money.

Zi Xu and the others couldn't see the faces of the two speakers clearly because Tenzo was blocking the front. They only peeked out to observe while they talked.

The tall man had only his eyes exposed, with grayish-white skin. Messy bandages wrapped his lower face, a white cloth band was tied diagonally across his forehead, and he wore a loose kimono striped in dark blue and black. His lower half was clad in equally loose gray pants. At his waist and back, he carried two black-sheathed samurai swords, and on his back was a large sword entirely wrapped in bandages. He looked like he could ward off evil just by standing there.

The other samurai wore a pure white mask, with two strands of black hair hanging to his chest from beside his face. His hair was tied in a topknot. He wore a clean white robe on his upper body, dark gray arm guards on his arms, and extremely loose hakama pants on his lower half. He held a single sword reversed in his hand, resting it horizontally behind him. His aura was cold, but his tone was gentle.

"Samurai-sirs, hello. It'll take quite some time to get from here to Kirigakure. There's no time to waste—let's set off now." Tenzo's speech with these two samurai was completely formulaic, devoid of personal emotion.

"Good."

"Then we'll trouble you all."

The group didn't dawdle. After assembling, they headed toward the target location. The atmosphere was so heavy that Zi Xu and the others didn't dare speak, and the scene grew stifling to the point of being suffocating.

"Will we run into any danger along the way? Should we be ready to fight at any moment?" Zi Xu broke the silence first, and Hatsumi and Chino breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hm?" The man carrying the bandaged greatsword stared sideways at Zi Xu.

"It's like this..." The masked samurai began explaining to Zi Xu and the others.

According to him, they were wandering samurai training abroad. They'd stirred up trouble with local thugs and were being harassed. Tired of it, they sought ninja escorts, since samurai, unlike ninja, had many things they couldn't do.

"Wandering Samurai, huh..." After hearing the White-Clad Samurai's explanation, the group gained some understanding of them.

"By the way, what about you? I've heard that Konoha's ninja are quite exceptional." The Bandaged Samurai spoke, seemingly wanting to test their strength, as he slowly reached for the katana at his waist.