Traveling a Small Nation

Uchiha Zhuang awoke amidst the dust motes of dawn, sitting up to watch the busy people outside his window with a flicker of pity, a flicker of mockery, and a flicker of envy. He dressed and ate under the service of Ootama and Tsugutama, then spent the morning watching the others train diligently in the courtyard. Setsuna had doubled the training volume and raised the standards, yet under such harsh conditions, everyone persisted. When the midday meal was ready, the sweat-drenched group first went to the renovated large shower room to wash and change before sitting down at the table with Uchiha Zhuang. Seeing their restrained demeanor, Uchiha Zhuang smiled. "If you remain this cowardly and timid after training, then you have failed. During training, your eyes should only hold the instructor and everything that can assist you; nothing else must influence you." After speaking, he nodded to Setsuna and left the dining hall. Under Setsuna's lash, the group began to wolf down their food, the scene a flurry of heated activity.

The lunch break lasted one hour, starting from the moment the dishes were washed. Everyone lay down to rest, and Uchiha Zhuang summoned Hanako, instructing her: "Find three kind, elderly, and lonely women who are good at cooking to handle the meals and daily chores. You all need to be liberated from these tasks to learn your own knowledge and skills." "Hai!" Hanako replied and withdrew.

The afternoon was reserved for even stricter combat training. There was essentially no time to rest, and everyone was exhausted to the point where their legs trembled even when standing. Wooden swords, knives, and daggers struck their bodies without pause all afternoon; any group that showed the slightest slack was met with Setsuna's fierce whip and reprimands. Near dusk, when it finally ended, several people collapsed to the ground. The others carried them to the house, and Uchiha Zhuang approached, taking the Nano Healer from his robes to scan their bodies before letting them lie down to rest. Afterward, everyone was forced by Setsuna to undergo massage for relaxation. Seeing the unique massage techniques of this ninja world, Uchiha Zhuang became interested and asked Setsuna to massage him that evening. After the day's training, the girls were chirping and lively, and after bathing, they recited Uchiha Zhuang's insights before starting their meal. Per Uchiha Zhuang's instructions, the dinner was specially prepared with saury, pork cutlets, pan-fried dumplings, thick-cut mutton, red pears (a fruit native to the border of the Land of Fire, harvesting four times a year), celery, natto, hot spring eggs, tofu and seaweed fish-roll miso soup, and a small cake for each person.

Looking at the table full of dishes, Uchiha Zhuang still missed delicacies like roasted meat, roast duck, and roast chicken. With everyone devouring their food, the warm reunion dinner came to an end. The night was reserved for studying Uchiha Zhuang's life experiences and insights, as well as common knowledge of the ninja world—geography, astronomy, and humanities—a daily requirement. The instructor was naturally Uchiha Zhuang, though after a period of establishing this pattern, he planned to arrange for teacher-bot AIs (redeemed with shop points) to teach the knowledge.

With the daily routine gradually getting on track after a few days, Uchiha Zhuang began to think about heading to his second base. A few nights later, after confirming the location provided by Hanako, he set off toward the western border of the Land of Fire. Traveling through increasingly lush forest vegetation, he arrived at the border of the Land of Grass. Looking at the ruins of villages and towns burned by the flames of war, Uchiha Zhuang sighed. Kusagakure was located in the center of the Land of Grass, merely a small ninja village; its leader was at most at the level of an elite jonin, or perhaps just an ordinary jonin. However, Uchiha Zhuang did not intend to go to Kusagakure to scavenge, and he even tried his best to avoid contact with ninjas. He was currently disguised as a wandering samurai, developing his own strength in secret, and he absolutely could not expose himself now. Moreover, his current strength did not guarantee he could infiltrate or kill his way into Kusagakure to seize treasures and escape unscathed.

Looking at the sallow, thin people before him, their eyes dull and movements sluggish, Uchiha Zhuang could not offer pity, for as long as the source of the war remained, these things would not end, and he lacked the ability to save every civilian he encountered along the way. As for Kusagakure, it was a village very adept at learning and deciphering the ninjutsu of others, and they possessed unique and even powerful special ninjutsu like the Kusagakure Style Explosive Palm and the Dragon Life Reincarnation Technique, but Uchiha Zhuang had no desire to engage with them. During these few days in the Land of Grass, Uchiha Zhuang slept in the open, gnawing on dry rations when hungry (the rations consisted of jerky, biscuits, bread, and canned goods; military rations were as difficult to swallow as chaff), and drinking from the sources of mountain streams when thirsty, as poisoning rivers and wells was inevitable during times of war between nations. In the deep mountains and old forests, Uchiha Zhuang continuously absorbed and converted natural energy, even attracting many animals—wild deer, boars, wild cats, foxes, rodents, birds, and many unique, cute, and strange animals of this world that he couldn't name, and even some spirits and monsters that could sense his aura and energy. Uchiha Zhuang liked the primitive forests of the Land of Grass very much; the natural energy here was generally higher than in the Land of Fire, and the animals were full of spirit. As he calculated bringing some animals back to the base as pets or forming a beast squad, Uchiha Zhuang, walking slowly through the great forest, did not notice a pair of clear green eyes watching him from afar.

After traveling through the forest for two more days, Uchiha Zhuang had already noticed his pursuer. Its aura and energy reaction were much higher than that of an ordinary animal, and it didn't feel like an animal, so it was nine times out of ten a monster. However, the opponent had the home-field advantage in the forest, making it difficult for him to lure it out; even at night, it observed from afar without approaching. It seemed the forest's cover could not affect its vision. While pondering, Uchiha Zhuang thought of a plan. At night, he lit a campfire, then quietly created a shadow clone behind a large tree. His main body suppressed its aura and released only a faint trace of natural energy, while the clone continued to walk forward, releasing chakra. Sure enough, with Uchiha Zhuang's excellent perception, he felt the pursuer slowly approach the campfire, intending to pass through it to continue tracking the clone. Just as it was about to reach the large tree, the pursuer stopped, sniffed gently, and suddenly turned to run. Uchiha Zhuang had known something was amiss the moment it stopped; he used a body flicker technique to pursue with extreme agility and speed, almost reaching the opponent's back. In the dark forest, amidst the shadows of various vines, man-high weeds, short slopes, and ferns, Uchiha Zhuang discovered the opponent's thin, humanoid body. It used both hands and feet, and its speed was not slow; even in places where the weeds were too thick to pass, a green light would flash on its hands and it would zip through, while Uchiha Zhuang could only go around or draw his short blade to hack through. Chasing through the gloomy forest, seeing the distance widening, Uchiha Zhuang had no choice but to use a skill. He quickly leaped onto a large tree, sprinted along the trunk, and jumped violently from the canopy. "Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!" A massive wave of water descended from the sky, washing away everything within a hundred-meter radius. Many floating objects surged up. Activating his two-tomoe Sharingan to observe the green figure floating in the water, Uchiha Zhuang landed, stepped onto the waves, rushed over, and scooped up the unconscious pursuer before carrying it on his back and running toward the campfire.