Leaf's night is filled with the aroma of charcoal fire and barbecue.
"Five more portions of premium beef tongue! And five more portions of that special diaphragm!"
The voice of Boruto echoed in the box, accompanied by the sound of sizzling barbecue, which was simply the most painful symphony in the world for Naruto. He sat in the corner, holding the shriveled Frog Wallet in his hand, looking at the mountains of empty plates on the table, feeling even more tired than fighting the impostor just now.
"Hey, Boruto, can you finish eating?" Naruto protested weakly, "And Kawaki, don't just pick the expensive ones, that snowflake beef is very expensive..."
Kawaki had his mouth full and didn't even raise his head. He just pointed at the meat on the grill with his chopsticks and said vaguely, "The uncle with only one arm hasn't eaten yet. I'm helping him grill it."
Sasuke sat opposite, holding a tea cup with one hand, watching Kawaki awkwardly put a piece of roasted meat on his plate. He didn't refuse, just silently picked it up and put it in his mouth.
"It's burnt." Sasuke commented.
"It would be nice to eat some." Kawaki snorted and stuffed another piece into his mouth.
Sasuke didn't speak anymore, but the one eye was missing a bit of its usual coldness.
Although he complained, Naruto looked at these two devouring children, and the Taiseki head in his heart finally fell. A few hours ago, these two brats were facing monsters that could destroy half the village. Now, they are just two teenagers grabbing the last piece of pork belly.
"Eat more." Naruto sighed and handed the menu to the waiter, "Just double what you ordered just now."
Boruto and Kawaki cheered at the same time.
At this moment, the door of the box was opened. Shikamaru walked in without a cigarette in his hand, but the smell of tobacco on his body was much stronger than usual. He glanced at the mess on the table and sat directly next to Naruto.
"Ino has the results over there." Shikamaru's voice was very low, but there were no ordinary people here, and even the sound of chewing meat stopped.
Naruto put down his chopsticks and his expression instantly switched back to Hokage mode. "Gen'ō did you do it?"
"Half of that old guy's mind is a machine. Ibiki almost burned Interrogation Room's instrument before he could pry open a crack." Shikamaru picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a cup., the herbal tea entered his throat, making him frown, "He is just an executor. The equipment, biological samples, and even the core technology of "Subject 02" in the underground base were not developed by him. He was only responsible for assembly and debugging."
"Who is the supplier?" Sasuke asked.
"There is no name, only a code name - "The Undertaker"." Shikamaru dipped his fingers in tea and drew a strange symbol on the table, like a broken anchor, "The transaction location is in an abandoned sea area at the junction of Land of Waves and Land of Water, which is called "Ship Graveyard"."
"Land of Waves..." Naruto narrowed his eyes. That was where his ninja career began, and where he and Sasuke first established Bond.
"According to Gen'ō's memory, every three months on the night of the full moon, the Undertaker will hold an auction there." Shikamaru wiped off the water stains on the table, "The auction items are very mixed, Shinobi World The Scroll of Seals left over from the E war, and the Kekkei Genkai samples that were lost in major ninja villages. In recent times, scrapped parts of Kara Organization have begun to appear."
"It seems to be a waste of money." Kawaki interjected coldly, "I have seen those kinds of parts. In the shell's base, the people who deal with the waste have this look in their eyes, greedy and disgusting."
"That's the problem." Shikamaru looked at Sasuke, "Gen'ō said, the reason why he was able to create that fake Naruto, It's because he bought a special "container" at the last auction. The container contained "Data Disk" dug out from an abandoned stronghold of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki."
Sasuke's eyes suddenly became sharp.
The data of Isshiki. This means that there may still be deeper secrets about Ten-Tails and Ōtsutsuki Clan. If these things fall into the black market and are used by interested people, they may create more than just a fake Naruto.
"I'm going to go." Sasuke stood up, his cloak swaying slightly with the movement.
"I'll go too!" Boruto immediately threw down his chopsticks, "Since that place sells shell parts, maybe there is information about Wedge!"
"No." Naruto held down Boruto's head and pushed him back to his seat, "You and Kawaki's Chakra overdraft today is too serious. Moreover, since it is an auction, we can't go in with a big fanfare. What we need is to infiltrate, not to demolish."
"Then who's going? You Hokage can't leave." Boruto shouted unconvinced.
"Sasuke and I will go."
A calm voice came from the door. Sai leaned against the door frame, changed into casual clothes, with a professional fake smile on his face, but his eyes were cold.
"Root has often dealt with this kind of black market trade before. I know their ins and outs and how to sneak in." Sai looked at Sasuke, "Besides, since that Gen'ō claims to be the heir of Gen, I have an obligation to clean up the remaining garbage."
Sasuke glanced at Sai and nodded. "See you Village Entrance in half an hour."
"Wait!" Naruto stopped the two people who were about to leave. He took out a crumpled card from his arms and handed it to Sasuke, "Since we are going to the auction, we have to bring some money. This is my private money... Although it is not much, it should be enough for emergencies."
Sasuke looked at the savings card with the frog pattern on it, and the corner of his mouth twitched very slightly.
"Keep it to pay for this meal, you guy at the end of the crane."
Sasuke turned around and left, his black cloak disappearing into the night.
"Really, why are you so cool?" Naruto put away the card and muttered, then turned to look at the empty plates on the table, his face instantly turned pale.
"Um...Shikamaru, can you ask the Finance Department to reimburse this meal? It counts as... post-war psychological counseling?"
"Get lost."
Two days later.
To the east of Land of Waves, there is a sea area where thick fog persists all year round.
There is no route map here, and the compass will spin like crazy here. The sea is full of huge, rusty iron lumps - various ships that have sunk and been stranded over the decades. Some only have broken masts exposed, and some have half of the hull stuck diagonally on the rocks, like steel tombstones.
An inconspicuous small fishing boat passed among these steel wreckage.
Sasuke is wearing a shabby Ronin Attire, Kusanagi Sword is tied behind his back with a strip of cloth, and the conspicuous Rinnegan is covered by Eyepatch, looking like a down and out wandering warrior.
Sai dressed up as a shrewd vendor, carrying a huge Scroll Case on his back and wearing two mustaches on his face.
"The smell here is worse than the sewer." Sai lowered his voice and said at a volume that only two people could hear, "That's the smell of corpse odor mixed with Machine Oil."
"Someone is coming." Sasuke did not raise his head, still pretending to adjust his cuffs.