The Cruel Shinobi World!

The Land of Grass!

A small country situated between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire, it also served as a buffer zone.

Whenever the two great nations clashed, the fighting usually took place within the Land of Grass.

So, the small countries on the borders of the great nations survived without being annexed not because the great nations were kind, but simply because they served a purpose.

The level of development in such a constant battleground was easy to imagine.

Forget comparing it to Konoha—even some small towns in the Land of Fire would be considered prosperous places in the Land of Grass.

Meanwhile, thieves and refugees were everywhere, corpses lay scattered along the roads, and the land was barren.

This was the Shinobi World's true state!

Ninja were only a small part of the Shinobi World. They were the focus simply because they held power in their hands.

A carriage rolled slowly along a narrow, muddy road.

"This..."

Izumi looked away from the naked corpses by the roadside and glanced at White Dove, who was leaning against the carriage. She seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

During previous missions, she had spent some time in the Land of Fire. But she had only been around Konoha, where conditions naturally weren't this bad. She hadn't had a deep impression of the Shinobi World's true nature. Only now did she understand just how cruel it really was.

"Did you know that the nobles control over ninety percent of the Shinobi World's resources, despite making up less than ten percent of the population? The rest are left to starve or die of disease... The average lifespan doesn't even reach thirty!"

White Dove knew what Izumi wanted to say, and gave her the cold statistics.

Propaganda could lie, but statistics couldn't.

The nobles and daimyō claimed that the Shinobi World was entirely "peaceful and tranquil," and that this was all thanks to their rule.

He really wanted to scream.

Without these nobles and daimyō, the Shinobi World would only be better off. After all, things couldn't possibly get any worse than they were now.

The sad part was that the group with the greatest power—the ninja—sincerely accepted the nobles' rule, believing that it was only right for them to govern the Shinobi World.

White Dove had almost wanted to ask whether they, too, had fallen under the nobles' "Infinite Tsukuyomi."

As a transmigrator, he certainly didn't approve of the nobles. Once he rose to power, they would be nothing but fat pigs and walking ATMs. Then they'd finally learn what a hard life was.

As he thought about this, the carriage, driven by Tekka, arrived at Kusagakure.

Kusagakure!

It had taken them several days to get here from the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water.

They had acquired the carriage after entering the Land of Grass.

As for their prisoner, Samui, Inabi had taken her away. He would keep an eye on her and Kakashi, and they would all return to the village together once they met up again.

As far as White Dove was concerned, the Land of Grass was brimming with potential. It just had no one willing to develop it.

The first thing that came to mind when people mentioned this country was the grassland covering much of its territory.

To White Dove, it was the perfect place for farming.

Yet the Land of Grass was desperately poor.

It wasn't that no one wanted to farm. It was just that trying to grow crops in this "constant battleground" was incredibly dangerous.

So it was no wonder the Land of Grass didn't farm. They might have time to plant, but they wouldn't live long enough to harvest!

"What a waste!"

With that thought, White Dove and the others entered Kusagakure.

Compared to prosperous Konoha, Kusagakure was painfully shabby. Row upon row of low wooden houses lined the streets, where passersby were few and thin. Only now and then did a Grass Ninja pass by.

As soon as White Dove's group entered the village in their carriage, they drew attention.

But they had all disguised themselves.

White Dove was now a burly "one-eyed" man with his left eye wrapped in bandages, while Izumi was dressed as a maid.

Tekka, meanwhile, looked like a "rogue ninja," as if he had taken a job guarding the two of them.

This sort of group was perfectly ordinary in the Shinobi World.

Not everyone had enough money to post a mission with one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, so rogue ninja sometimes took jobs too, even if it meant accepting greater risks.

The carriage stopped in front of the Tsumago Inn.

"Tekka, I'll leave it to you in a bit!"

White Dove said.

Tekka didn't answer, only giving an almost imperceptible nod.

He would "cover" the other two while they acted.

Kusagakure was still a shinobi village, with over a thousand ninja in total. It wasn't somewhere they could just do as they pleased, so they had to follow this plan.

Soon, the disguised one-eyed merchant and his maid, guarded by a rogue ninja, entered the inn protected by Grass Ninja.

Staying here meant they didn't have to worry about their safety.

The only downside was the high price, since the inn was officially backed by Kusagakure.

The carriage was naturally left in the stable.

A little while later,

White Dove and Izumi emerged from the stable.

The two who had entered the inn with Tekka were their Shadow Clones. Their real bodies, of course, had gone to look for their target.

Karin!

This "born medical prodigy" was a target White Dove valued greatly.

She had enormous potential and would be easy to train!

She was a seed personally "handpicked" by Orochimaru, the Shinobi World's master instructor.

And in the original story, most of her potential went to waste.

She had grown up in Kusagakure, where she had received no resources or training. Worse, she had been used to heal others, draining her own potential.

Yet even so, she had still managed to shine.

Now that White Dove had transmigrated, he wasn't about to let such a promising prospect slip away.

With Karin in hand, he could keep searching for members of the Uzumaki Clan and make them allies under the Uchiha Clan.

The Sarutobi Clan, for instance, had an alliance with the Ino-Shika-Cho clans. That was the foundation of their influence, which was said to be the strongest in Konoha.

If the Uchiha wanted to rise to power, they needed not only to strengthen their own clan but also to win over more allies.

With these thoughts in mind, White Dove and Izumi began sneaking around and searching.

Fortunately, Kusagakure wasn't large, and its security wasn't especially tight—not for him and Izumi, at least.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible to search the entire village in such a short time.

White Dove and Izumi didn't search every house.

For one thing, they could rule out places outside the village. There was no way the village would let a valuable medical "resource" roam freely, but they wouldn't hide her too well, either.

That narrowed the search area considerably, giving them a chance of finding her.

When they reached the roof of a house overlooking the street,

"Hey, Yoshimura got pretty badly hurt on that mission. Where's he going for treatment this time? The village charges so much every time. It's infuriating!"

"Give it a rest. We're lucky to have any treatment at all. Before, an injury that bad would've meant months of rest. Now he's completely healed in a day. That's already pretty good!"

"Hmph. The higher-ups in the village are shameless. I'm a village resource, yet they still charge us such exorbitant fees."

"Enough. You and I can't criticize the village leadership. Come on, let's go have a few drinks!"

Hearing the faint voices from the street below, White Dove's eyes lit up.

They'd found what they were looking for without even trying!

At that, he signaled to Izumi. She gave a slight nod, and the two of them quickly headed to an alley up ahead.

After estimating the timing, they emerged from the alley just as two men wearing Grass Ninja Forehead Protectors ran into them.

"You..."

One of the Grass Ninja was just about to curse when he noticed three Tomoe in the maid's eyes. The one-eyed man beside her had them too.

The two Grass Ninja's expressions turned blank, and they silently followed the pair into the alley.

A few minutes later!

The two Grass Ninja came back out.

Only now, the Genin and Chunin who emerged were no longer the same men.

White Dove and Izumi!

After subduing the two, they had taken them down with a single genjutsu, then dumped them in the alley and covered them with some trash. They wouldn't be able to wake up on their own for at least a day or two.

Elite ninja from a great village, trained to resist genjutsu, or exceptionally strong ninja, wouldn't have been so easy to deal with.

But Grass Ninja?

They were only a little stronger than rogue ninja. They couldn't compare to the Five Great Shinobi Villages in any regard.

For example, a Konoha Chunin could probably go toe-to-toe with a Kusagakure Special Jōnin or even an ordinary Jōnin.

Yes, the gap in strength was that ridiculous.

The Sharingan was incredibly useful for interrogations. A few genjutsu were all it took to make the other person spill every secret.

White Dove and Izumi were now heading to Kusagakure's "Medical House."