Bald Head

The Land of Rivers shares some similarities with the Land of Fire; one could say it's not as good, but not far off.

At least compared to the Land of Wind, the Land of Rivers is very resource-rich.

The Land of Wind appears vast, but what can deserts produce? Basically, nothing but sand and the northwest wind.

More importantly, the Land of Rivers is a country without a ninja village... With all these conditions combined, the Land of Wind's ambitions towards the Land of Rivers are self-evident.

Unfortunately, the national borders between countries were established during the First Hokage's era. Although the First Hokage passed away long ago, the territorial boundaries of each country have long since become an unspoken agreement.

If the Land of Wind were to rashly "expand its territory," setting aside the Land of Rivers' hostility, at least the remaining four Great Nations would immediately react.

Being the target of everyone's criticism is not easy, and the Land of Wind has no intention of fighting four nations alone.

If the Land of Wind wants to acquire a piece of land with a favorable environment? Then don't blame everyone for striking you together.

The "international situation" in the Shinobi World is quite peculiar. During the Third Shinobi World War, Kumogakure even launched a surprise attack on Sunagakure... Kumogakure invading the Land of Wind makes no sense on the map.

One can only say that war and hatred are sometimes quite blind.

At this moment, in a jungle within the Land of Rivers, a reconnaissance team is hidden.

The good news is that most of the time the Land of Rivers is downwind from the Land of Wind, so the ninja dogs' noses can be used effectively. Enemy ninja auras cannot escape their sense of smell... as long as they aren't too far away.

The team remains vigilant, staring intently at the endless desert opposite them.

After hiding in the woods for a while, Yuzuru finally understood some of Jugo's feelings.

Perhaps because his body contained a lot of Natural Energy, Yuzuru had, in a sense, "merged with nature." Consequently, many birds of unknown species landed on him and around him, displaying a scene of harmony between man and nature.

Unfortunately, Yuzuru couldn't "talk" to these birds, otherwise, he would have gained some reconnaissance abilities. Even more unfortunately, he couldn't master Sage Mode, otherwise, he would have gained sensory abilities instead of reconnaissance abilities.

About an hour later, the captain, Kiba Inuzuka, signaled to the team members, indicating it was time to change positions.

Konoha needed to monitor too large an area with insufficient ninja, so they had to adopt a dynamic reconnaissance method.

The first mission for the team was set for forty-eight hours. During this time, they weren't staring at the desert with wide eyes; ninjas don't have that much energy. In fact, team members would take turns resting.

After the mission period ended, the team would return to camp to rest, and then rotate after they had recovered.

By the time they departed for the Land of Rivers for the second time, Yuzuru's dungeon had cooled down. However, due to the special nature of the mission and the team's overall situation, he couldn't infiltrate a dungeon during this mission.

More importantly, after repeatedly entering dungeons and receiving the enthusiastic help of the Fourth Hokage's couple and Orochimaru's Ryūchi Cave, Yuzuru had gained basic battlefield self-preservation abilities. His need to enter dungeons was no longer as urgent.

If previously his primary motivation for entering dungeons was "survival pressure," now his primary motivation had become "exploration needs"... Yuzuru began to wonder if he could become a true "all-around" ninja by using dungeons.

This refers to all-around abilities under normal circumstances, as Yuzuru had only obtained conventional techniques and abilities in dungeons so far. He couldn't be sure if he could acquire special powers like Kekkei Genkai... After all, Kushina Uzumaki hadn't dropped the Adamantine Sealing Chains skill.

Was this because Yuzuru was unlucky, or because Adamantine Sealing Chains was an ability exclusive to the Uzumaki Clan? Yuzuru couldn't be sure yet.

If Kekkei Genkai could also be acquired, wouldn't that mean Yuzuru could obtain both the Sharingan and the Byakugan? That would be a bit too exaggerated.

One point was also very important: after entering dungeons a few times, there weren't many high-level targets left to obtain.

Was Yuzuru supposed to deal with the Third Hokage now? How could that be possible? Remember, the Third Hokage could wield the Adamantine Staff to heavily strike the Nine-Tails. It was clear that Yuzuru's physique was incomparable to the Nine-Tails.

The only thing that seemed worth trying was Naruto Uzumaki in his infancy. Yuzuru just hoped that killing Naruto would be equivalent to killing the Nine-Tails within him, thus completing the dungeon mission.

Returning to the Konoha front lines, by the time of the second trip to the Land of Rivers, Yuzuru had confirmed that this reconnaissance mission was a rare good one.

Because when they returned to the Konoha camp, he heard that Konoha had clashed with Iwagakure several times during the first mission, with casualties on both sides exceeding triple digits.

Compared to the peaceful Land of Rivers, the Land of Rain was a veritable meat grinder.

Therefore, a team composed of two Chunin and two Genin should stay in the Land of Rivers to be effective. If they were in the Land of Wind, they would surely die quickly.

If they were reborn fast enough, they might even catch the upcoming Fourth Shinobi World War.

In short, based on the intelligence Yuzuru possessed, Konoha was locked in a fierce battle with Iwagakure, and Sunagakure was battling Amegakure. Therefore, the mission in the Land of Rivers should basically be without any problems.

However...

Just as the second rotation was about to end, a sharp whistling sound reached their ears.

Kiba Inuzuka, disregarding his exposed position, quickly moved to the top of the tree canopy and then saw two red signal flares shooting towards the sky in the distance.

"Something's wrong, it's the retreat signal!" Kiba Inuzuka immediately understood the meaning of the signal flares. Without any hesitation, he led the team towards the Land of Fire.

"Emergency situation? Nothing seems to have happened on our end."

"Could it be infiltration outside our surveillance range?"

"Let's just retreat from the Land of Rivers first."

Everyone seemed to be very professional when it came to running away, and they immediately took action.

But shortly after they received the order to withdraw, new signal flares shot into the sky and exploded. This time, the signal flares were red and blue.

"Halt, the retreat signal has turned into a distress signal. All Konoha ninja who see the signal flares must proceed to the target location to provide support."

How could things change like this? The retreat signal turned into a distress signal. Yuzuru suddenly had a bad feeling.

There was no choice; the team had to change their direction of travel.

As the saying goes, bad omens often come true. Indeed, some Sunagakure ninja had infiltrated the Land of Rivers.

There weren't many enemies, but they were quite troublesome.

When Yuzuru and the other three arrived at the target location, they immediately saw the Sunagakure ninja, who was surrounded by Konoha ninja but appeared remarkably relaxed.

Even though there was only one person on the enemy's side, the scene made it look as if he were the one surrounding the Konoha ninja.

The enemy was hunched over, quite old, and his most prominent feature besides that was his bald head.

A dragon was tattooed on his bald head.

Hmm, a true powerhouse who had entered the "tattooed version."