"Come on, everyone, gather up. Do you have everything you need?" Tenzo stood at the village entrance with a brown backpack on, checking Zi Xu and the others' gear.
"We're all set. Plenty of kunai, smoke bombs, and Ration Pills..." Hatsumi showed Tenzo the Sealing Scroll.
"Good. Make sure you put that Sealing Scroll to good use. Hm? Zi Xu, why do you still look so sleepy? It seems you didn't take anything I said earlier to heart." Tenzo was fairly satisfied with Chino and Hatsumi, but his brow furrowed when he saw Zi Xu yawning again.
"Hm? Oh, I woke up in the middle of the night because I was cold. After that, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I practiced some jutsu." Zi Xu's explanation was mostly true; practicing Senjutsu could count as practicing jutsu.
"Oh? Make sure you use a blanket when you sleep. Training should be balanced with rest, and you still need to take breaks..." Tenzo nodded, still somewhat doubtful, but didn't dwell on it. After greeting the Konoha Ninja on gate duty, he led the eager youngsters out of the village.
Konoha was surrounded by vast stretches of forest. As far as the eye could see, the landscape was a lush sea of green. Konoha Village was like a massive ark in the middle of a sea of trees.
They had all learned a little about Konoha's surroundings from books, but no matter how vividly a book described a place, it couldn't compare to the impact of seeing it for themselves.
"Hey? I've never seen those aphids on the tree trunks back in the village. A whole new species—I have to collect some... Hm? The patterns on this butterfly's wings are different from the ones I've seen before, too. Is that because of differences in their environments?... These grasses attract ants. I could collect some to study..."
Hatsumi was the most excited of them all. She was like a husky that had been cooped up for ages and, the moment she was let loose, ran off to unleash her wild nature. Tenzo had no choice but to send a Wood Clone to keep an eye on her.
Chino was more relaxed than she had ever been. To her, Konoha had been a Birdcage that held her captive, where she couldn't act freely and had to endure her clan's disdain every day. Now, simply breathing in the fragrance of wildflowers and looking at the weeds growing unchecked filled her with joy.
Ever since he began training in Sage Mode, Zi Xu had grown used to viewing the things around him in terms of energy. Although he hadn't completed his Sage Mode training, he could tell that the energy out here was purer than the energy in the village.
He turned his gaze toward the village. Above it, he could vaguely make out something strange about the Natural Energy, but he couldn't say exactly what was wrong.
Are there really so many powerful enemies? I thought my physique was already strong enough to handle most problems... Zi Xu sighed inwardly, remembering what the Three Divine Maidens had told him the day before. There were apparently many powerful people like them in the outside world, and although Zi Xu's physique was strong, it still wasn't enough.
Of course, they had only said that to fool Zi Xu. They didn't want him to become conceited just because he was strong. But Zi Xu didn't know that. He believed them. In his mind, Black Zetsu had become an enemy as powerful as Luffy, with White Snake Sage as the baseline.
"Alright, everyone, gather up. We're almost at the agreed meeting spot with the samurai. Settle down, and don't tarnish Konoha's name..." Tenzo sighed and rubbed his forehead. He hadn't realized how hard it was to take students along; it made him never want to teach again.
At Tenzo's reprimand, they straightened their clothes, adjusted their Konoha Headbands, and quietly followed behind him. Hatsumi also knew when it was time to behave, and put her bugs away.
"Samurai, huh? Those two clusters of energy up ahead must be them..." Zi Xu's eyes weren't as powerful at seeing through things as the Byakugan, but his ability to sense Natural Energy still let him see through things to a certain extent.
In his perception, there were two clusters of energy that stood out from their surroundings. One glowed blue-white with a frigid aura; the other glowed blood-red, carrying an aura of slaughter.
"Hello. Are you the samurai who placed the request? We're the Konoha Ninja assigned to it." Tenzo spoke with calm confidence. Even when addressing clients, he showed the backbone of a Konoha Ninja.
"Mm." The taller masked man gave a cold grunt. Bandages were wrapped tightly around the lower half of his face, leaving only his eyes visible.
"Yes. Sorry for the trouble, everyone. Here's part of your payment. The rest will be settled when we reach the outskirts of Kirigakure. I hope you understand..." The other man, shorter and wearing a white mask, spoke in a gentle, androgynous voice. He sounded nothing like the cold man beside him, who seemed to think the world owed him money.
With Tenzo standing in front of them, the three youngsters couldn't get a good look at the two men. They took the opportunity to peek out and observe them while the men were talking.
Only the taller man's eyes were visible. His skin was grayish-white, and messy bandages covered the lower half of his face. A white strip of cloth was tied diagonally around his forehead. He wore a loose kimono with dark blue and black stripes, along with equally loose gray pants. Two black-sheathed swords hung at his waist and back, and he carried a massive sword wrapped completely in bandages. He looked like he could ward off evil just by standing there.
The other samurai wore a pure white mask, with two long black locks hanging from either side of his face down to his chest. His hair was tied into a topknot. He wore plain white clothes on his upper body and dark gray arm guards. His trousers were extremely loose, and he held his sword hilt in one hand behind his back. His aura was cold, but his voice was gentle.
"Good day, samurai. It'll take quite some time to get from here to Kirigakure, so we should set out at once." Tenzo spoke to the two samurai in a completely formal tone, without a trace of personal feeling.
"Fine."
"Sorry for the trouble."
The group set off for their destination without further delay. The atmosphere was so heavy that Zi Xu and the other two didn't dare speak. The oppressive silence almost made it hard to breathe.
"Do you think we'll run into any danger along the way? Should we be ready to fight at any moment?" Zi Xu was the first to break the silence, and Hatsumi and Chino both breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hm?" The man carrying the bandage-wrapped greatsword turned his eyes toward Zi Xu.
"It's like this..." The masked samurai began explaining things to Zi Xu and the others.
According to him, they were Wandering Samurai who traveled around to train. They had recently run into trouble after offending some local thugs, and had finally had enough of the harassment, so they wanted to hire a few Ninja as escorts. After all, samurai were different from Ninja; there were many things they couldn't do.
"Wandering Samurai, huh..." After hearing the White-Clad Samurai's explanation, the group understood them a little better.
"By the way, what about you? I've heard that Konoha's Ninja are quite extraordinary." The Bandaged Samurai spoke as if he wanted to test their strength, slowly reaching for the samurai sword at his waist.
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