Encountering Hidan (Part 1)

Ye Wuji looked at the map, thinking to himself that he had finally been clever for once. He had managed to get a relatively detailed map from Mai, and although it wasn't a world map, it roughly marked the locations of the major nations. With this, he wouldn't get lost again.

Ye Wuji's destination this time was a place called Zhu Town in the Land of Hot Springs. There was a village there called Zhu Village, which was the place associated with Shennong and where the Angkor Fortress was hidden.

To get from Takigakure to the Land of Hot Springs, one had to pass through the Land of Fields. Ye Wuji seemed to recall that the Otogakure later established by Orochimaru was located in the Land of Fields. While passing through, Ye Wuji carefully observed the area. The current Land of Fields was quite chaotic; not only were there wandering samurai and bounty hunters, but one could also occasionally spot rogue ninja. Although they were mostly low-level individuals, there were some experts among them.

Ye Wuji didn't stay in the Land of Fields for long, nor did he find any ninja wearing Otogakure headbands. It seemed that at this time, Orochimaru had no intention of betraying Konoha. In fact, it was easy to guess that Orochimaru probably hadn't even developed the mindset to research forbidden jutsu yet; even if he had, he was likely only studying the skin of the white-scaled snake he had discovered. Moreover, as one of the Sannin of Konoha, he held great power and had no reason to betray the village.

Ye Wuji was just looking around out of boredom anyway. He had to pass through the Land of Fields regardless, and for someone like Orochimaru, it was hard to guarantee he wouldn't lay down chess pieces in advance.

Standing on the soil of the Land of Hot Springs, Ye Wuji realized that the environment here was also incredibly beautiful. Outside the main areas, there weren't any large mountains; most of the land consisted of plains covered in flowers of various colors. When the wind blew, the sight of flowers dancing in the air was truly stunning. It seemed that Konoha wasn't the only place with a good environment in the world of Naruto. Ye Wuji hadn't been to the other major nations, but the places he had visited so far—Takigakure and the Land of Hot Springs where he now stood—had excellent environments. He really wondered what Konoha looked like.

However, there was one place in Konoha that Ye Wuji was determined to visit: the cherry blossom forest where Minato and his wife had gazed at each other. Since Konoha had such a large cherry blossom forest, how could he not go and see it?

Looking at the large archway not far ahead, he saw the most famous Rose Street in the Land of Hot Springs. The people on this street loved planting roses; their windows and doorways were always covered in them. When the wind blew, rose petals would drift along with the breeze. Another famous aspect of Rose Street was the abundance of hot springs. No one knew the principle behind it, but the Land of Hot Springs had opened numerous hot spring inns here, making this street a favorite destination for travelers from other nations. Sometimes, the Land of Hot Springs would add large quantities of rose petals to the springs. This was possible because the land was rich in roses; otherwise, it couldn't sustain such consumption. The benefit of this was that wealthy and powerful noble ladies and young misses loved to come here, including the wives of the Daimyo from various nations, because bathing in rose petals had great benefits. It was said to beautify the skin, making it better, and more importantly, bathing in it regularly left the body with the fragrance of roses, which was an irresistible temptation for those women.

Additionally, the information Ye Wuji received from Mai indicated that the Land of Hot Springs used to have a Yugakure, which was quite active during the First Shinobi World War. Unfortunately, as elite ninja died off and no new blood arrived, Yugakure gradually declined. It didn't even participate in the Second Shinobi World War, and it was likely that the village existed in name only. At most, a few remaining ninja were left to protect the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Springs. Fortunately, the nation possessed good specialties: a vast number of hot springs and an abundance of roses. Relying on these two things, the citizens of the Land of Hot Springs generally lived prosperous lives.

Furthermore, the geographical location of the Land of Hot Springs wasn't strategically important, and it didn't have anything that ninja needed, so no ninja came to disturb them. This meant the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Springs had no intention of rebuilding Yugakure. Plus, since they shared a border with the Land of Fire, they could simply pay Konoha ninja to resolve any issues that arose, and the reputation of Konoha ninja was well-known throughout the shinobi world.

Although the missions for Konoha ninja were a bit expensive, there was no helping it; that was basically the going rate for hiring ninja from the Five Great Nations. While ninja from other smaller nations were cheaper, their strength was lacking, and there were frequent cases of ninja from those nations harming their employers. Hiring ninja from a major nation had one benefit: as soon as you paid the money, they would settle everything for you, and once the mission was completed, the Konoha ninja would leave immediately without causing any trouble.

This was far better than building one's own ninja village. To build a village, you needed to train ninja, have a base, weapons, and funds—in short, you needed everything. And the most important part of a ninja village, the ninja themselves, had to be your own people. While you could hire people from other nations, they were in the minority, and being a ninja was always accompanied by danger.

Thus, Yugakure in the Land of Hot Springs slowly faded away. Aside from the Daimyo Mansion, one could barely see any ninja anywhere else.

It was for these reasons that the Daimyo of the Land of Hot Springs had no plans to rebuild Yugakure. Although it might seem foolish to people today, that was just how the world of Naruto was. Besides, even outside the world of Naruto, didn't the Earth Ye Wuji came from have those small nations? Some were pitifully small, yet they were still the leaders of a country. If something happened, they would look to the major powers, and they could still hold dialogues with the top leaders of those major powers. It could only be said that the world needed such things.

Ye Wuji found a relatively quiet hot spring inn with few guests. He ate some food first, planning to soak in the hot springs afterward—a luxury Ye Wuji had never even imagined before. Just then, he heard loud shouting coming from the street, and even the sound of something shattering.

"Boss, what's going on? Isn't the Land of Hot Springs supposed to be very safe?" Ye Wuji asked the old man behind the counter. His excuse for being in the Land of Hot Springs was that he was looking for relatives; his parents had died in the war, and this relative of his had moved to the Land of Hot Springs a long time ago. Although the excuse was flimsy, it was the most suitable one he could think of.

"It's nothing, just some kids messing around. They're all orphans who want to build their own ninja village and look down on the Daimyo's approach. They keep causing trouble on the street, hoping the Daimyo will rebuild the village. But they don't think it through—once a village is rebuilt, it's inevitable that they'll have to participate in wars. Kids these days... but ever since the First Hot Spring Shadow died, no one has brought it up. I don't know what's wrong with these guys, insisting on bringing it up. They've been at it for many years, starting when they were even younger. Everyone just watches them because they're kids and doesn't do anything to them. But in a few years, when they grow up, I'm afraid no one will tolerate them anymore. By then, they'll probably all be thrown into the Daimyo's prison." The old boss didn't know if he hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time, but he rambled on quite a bit.

However, upon hearing about the fear of being dragged into war, Ye Wuji's heart stirred. He thought, This is probably the mindset of ordinary civilians. They believe that living peacefully is a blessing and don't think about much else. You could say their ideological quality or awareness isn't high, but you can't blame them, because this is what most people think. Those who are unwilling to accept mediocrity are, after all, in the minority.

"Come to think of it, I don't know what's going on, but recently more and more kids have been bewitched and joined that cult, demanding the rebuilding of the ninja village." Just as the old man was about to continue, three figures appeared at the entrance. Thinking they were customers, the old man quickly stopped talking, but when he saw that they were three fourteen or fifteen-year-old kids, his face darkened.

"Hidan, Da Ye, Nakano, are you causing trouble again?" The old man glared at the three people at the door with a dark face.

Hearing the familiar name "Hidan," Ye Wuji quickly raised his head to look at the three people at the door. As he looked at the trio standing there, Ye Wuji immediately forgot about the two behind, his eyes fixed solely on the person in the front. "Silver-gray hair, combed back—although he's younger, one can clearly see the shadow of that Hidan."

"Hey, Old Man Gu, you'll be punished by Lord Jashin for saying that. And who is this guy?" Hidan said arrogantly, while the two lackeys behind him just nodded.

"This is a traveler looking for relatives; it has nothing to do with you." Old Man Gu said this first, then seemed to notice something and shouted angrily at the three of them, "You actually joined that evil cult! Didn't I tell you not to mess around with them? You're going to be the death of me!"

"Hey, Old Man Gu, even though you raised us, if you show disrespect to Lord Jashin, don't blame me for being impolite. Only Lord Jashin is inviolable; blaspheming Jashin will bring retribution." Hidan looked at Old Man Gu and said arrogantly.

"What Jashin? It's nothing but a deceptive trick. So many years have passed, and who has ever been punished by Jashin? I'm punishing the three of you: no dinner tonight. If you don't quit that cult, I'll have to teach you a lesson."

"Haha, Old Man Gu, Jashin is about to descend. You'd better join the holy religion, or when Jashin descends, everyone who doesn't believe in him will be punished by Lord Jashin!" Hidan shouted as he spoke.

Ye Wuji listened from the side with black lines on his forehead. This Hidan was truly ridiculous. His immortality must be some kind of Kekkei Genkai, yet he kept attributing it to Jashin. Honestly, when Ye Wuji saw Hidan, he also wondered if there was something wrong with this guy—why was he always going on about Jashin? If Hidan weren't like this and instead hid in the shadows to ambush people, who knows how many experts would have been killed by him? Now it seemed that joining this Jashin Cult had just become a habit.