White Dove: My Kotoamatsukami Has Been Hungry for Ages!

Orochimaru!

The greatest scientist in the Shinobi World was the target he wanted to draw out.

In White Dove's eyes, Orochimaru was more valuable than anything else.

Whether it was strength, research, training subordinates, or management, Orochimaru excelled at everything.

So if he could lure him out, he could solve the problem once and for all.

His Kotoamatsukami had been hungry for ages.

So even though this mission was going to be quite troublesome, he had no intention of bringing a large force. He planned to take just two squads, with Five-Five Split to assist.

He was bringing two squads because he also had another task to complete this time.

Open up a trade route!

This was a private assignment for the One Heart Chamber of Commerce, so they naturally couldn't do it openly. They could only take advantage of this mission to leave the village and get it done.

In the past, they might have had to go through several layers of indirection to help the chamber of commerce without drawing attention.

Now that the Uchiha could leave the village, there was no need to hire ninja for these things. They could handle them themselves, and they would naturally put in more effort and do a better job, without having to worry about secrets getting out.

So securing the right to leave the village was something he had to fight for.

As he thought about this, Tekka and Inabi, his two closest followers, arrived with a three-person squad each.

For an S-rank mission, the village's higher-ups could surely understand bringing a few extra people.

The only thing was, the team was a little too strong.

Apart from White Dove, there were two three-tomoe Jonin, two Jonin, and four Chunin.

There weren't even any Genin... No, wait, there was one.

A Genin who had just graduated this year.

Uchiha Izumi!

She was also on this mission.

There was no helping it. She'd cried, made a scene, and threatened to hang herself to get White Dove to take her along. Nobody could stop her.

Even Uchiha Yezue was at a loss, and in the end could only give in and let her set off with White Dove.

White Dove was a little exasperated by this "obsessive girl," but he really doted on her, too, so in the end, he could only give in.

Besides, he trusted Uchiha Izumi's strength completely.

She was even more ruthless than the dutiful son, Shisui. A three-tomoe Sharingan at ten years old—think about that.

If White Dove hadn't been constantly nursing her health and forbidding her from using her Sharingan, her bloodline disease might have already manifested.

On the surface, her strength was that of an elite Genin, but her true strength definitely wasn't much weaker than Itachi's.

All he could say was that the Uchiha Clan's strength wasn't determined by age, but by who was more unhinged.

As it happened, ever since White Dove, a transmigrator, had appeared, Izumi had become quite the madwoman. And with plenty of resources to train her, it was no surprise she'd grown so strong.

When they registered to leave the village, the two "gatekeepers" looked them over several times. Fortunately, after checking their mission and confirming everything was in order, they let them through.

Any Konoha Ninja who left the village without permission was considered a "defector." That had been the biggest restriction on the Uchiha in the past.

Now, that restriction had been lifted.

"Izumi, didn't you just leave the village? Why do you want to go out again?"

White Dove tried to get to the bottom of why Izumi had gone to such lengths to come along.

"But last time you weren't with me, Gege. And this time we can go to the hot springs together, too..."

Izumi's voice was sweet. She even instinctively tried to hug his arm, but he dodged her.

Yeah, White Dove was a man of principle.

As a transmigrator, he couldn't let his values allow him to do something like that.

"Ugh... Don't say any more, or some indescribable unknown will descend!"

White Dove covered Izumi's mouth before she could get to the more risqué part.

After leaving the village, they didn't set off right away. Instead, they stood by the road and waited.

Rumble, rumble!

Amid the sound of rolling wheels, a convoy of wagons bearing One Heart flags slowly emerged from the village.

That's right. It was a transport convoy for the One Heart Chamber of Commerce.

It was these convoys that brought goods and local specialties back from all over, and transported Konoha products to various places.

One Heart Department Store had been able to seize market share because it had its own transport teams and purchasing bases. Otherwise, it wouldn't have had access to such cheap goods.

This time, they'd managed to gather the transport convoy for a major run without hiring any ninja to escort it. That was rare.

The convoy was headed for the Land of Hot Water!

So they'd need quite a while to get there.

White Dove was, of course, deliberately buying certain people time. That was why he'd planned this whole thing.

Fishing took patience and a good "chum." If they hurried there at full speed, he might have completed the mission before the "fish" even arrived.

Whoosh!

Five-Five Split, wearing an Anbu mask, arrived in front of the group. His silver hair had long since given away his identity.

He was there as an Anbu liaison.

He was also a "watcher." His superiors had given him a perfectly legitimate reason: to confirm that the Uchiha completed their mission and gather information along the way.

"Let's go!"

White Dove acted as if he hadn't seen Kakashi.

It wasn't time to make a move yet. At the very least, they had to get far away from Konoha first.

The transport team wasn't made up entirely of Uchiha. It simply didn't have any Uchiha ninja in it.

The village only restricted ninja. It didn't restrict ordinary people.

More than a dozen wagons set off, loaded with goods.

A small merchant convoy usually had only one or two wagons, but this time there were several times as many, and these wagons were different, too.

They were huge!

A normal wagon could carry only around one or two thousand jin, even with the stronger horses of the Shinobi World.

But these wagons' carriages were several times larger, and some of their key parts were even made of iron.

The carriages were neat, square rectangles. They didn't look particularly elegant, but they had a certain mechanical beauty.

"These wagons..."

Izumi gazed curiously at the wagon beside her.

She'd been out on missions for a while and knew a bit about the Shinobi World. Naturally, she could tell these wagons were unusual.

Their appearance and materials were both different.

"These wagons are pulling container carriages. They're detachable, so when we reach our destination, we can unload the containers and replace them with another carriage. That'll greatly improve efficiency!"

White Dove patiently explained.

It was the many little improvements he'd made to the merchant convoy that had helped the One Heart Chamber of Commerce grow so successfully. Without any advantages at all, trying to compete with those established chambers of commerce would be like asking for trouble.

Ninja knew full well how profitable commerce could be, but there was a reason no one had tried it before.

"I see..."

Izumi studied them even more closely.

Container carriages!

Naturally, this was White Dove's first improvement to the wagons, but there was a prerequisite.

The horses had to be selectively bred and improved.

Although cargo-container carriages had plenty of advantages, they were also much heavier. If ordinary horses pulled them, the amount of cargo they could transport would drop dramatically.

So White Dove had improved the horses and bred these "ninja horses," which were stronger and had greater stamina.

In a place like the Shinobi World, where even toads, slugs, and snakes could grow bigger than mountains, and ninja beasts could reach enormous sizes, making some simple secret medicines, potions, and the like really wasn't that difficult.

The improved ninja horses were somewhat expensive to breed, but they could pull wagons weighing several tons with ease, racing along at a brisk pace. They could also eat one meal and store enough energy to last for days without any trouble.

Amazing!

It was these ninja horses, combined with the improved container carriages and rubber tires, that had given One Heart Logistics a decisive advantage over other transport teams.

For example, right now.

They hadn't been moving very fast when they first left the village, but now they were traveling several times faster. Along the way, they'd already overtaken several merchant convoys.

Fast, so fast!

You had to ride in other wagons to appreciate just how fast these ones were.

It was like drinking Xtep and feeling like you could fly.

By now, they'd all jumped onto the wagon roofs to keep pace with the convoy.

And for ninja, moving freely on the rooftops of wagons racing along at this speed was no problem.

As for keeping an eye on their surroundings, White Dove didn't need to handle that. Tekka and Inabi had arranged for people to take care of sentry duty and scouting.

It was their own merchant convoy, after all. They had to protect it carefully.

And, while they were at it, they needed to open up the "trade route."

Some bandits took money from the established chambers of commerce to cause them trouble.

Fake business warfare: price wars, careful planning, and backstabbing!

Real business warfare: steal the company seal, burn the goods, and loot the cargo!

They'd fallen victim to that several times recently and lost some cargo. They'd take care of that problem along the way this time, too.

When they hadn't been able to leave the village, they'd had no choice but to hire ninja to protect their convoys. But now that they could leave the village, they naturally wanted to "clear the route once and for all."

Note that the word "clear" meant it literally.

With the convoy moving at such high speed, it had covered more than a hundred kilometers in just one afternoon, reaching its destination around ten at night.

Tsk, tsk!

That was an incredible speed.

Other convoys managed only about a hundred li a day... which was roughly fifty kilometers.

But the wagons White Dove had improved went several times faster.

Now that was what you called effective research!

You could only say that countless ninja techniques were a case of overwhelming force when applied to civilian use. Failing to make money was a problem with their thinking, not their technology.

"All right, we'll stay in Golden Deer Town tonight!"

White Dove gazed at the town lit up before them, a blood-red glint seeming to flicker in his eyes.