With five newly joined clanspeople, along with Nonō and the others...
Natsume teleported straight back to the Flame Hidden Village, a thousand miles away.
The battle was already over, so there was no need to worry too much about chakra consumption.
After returning to his own village,
Nonō was naturally overjoyed to take the rescued orphans to the newly built Orphanage and settle them in.
Natsume also had someone take the five new clanspeople away to get them settled.
Still, the shock tonight had brought them...
It would probably take quite a while for them to recover.
After sending everyone away,
Natsume finally relaxed and headed to the hot spring in the backyard.
He used two Fire Release techniques,
and the spring water quickly warmed, sending up clouds of steam.
Natsume leaped in and stretched out in the pool.
At the same time, a certain Little Sea Turtle quietly wriggled free of Natsume's clutches.
It swam off on its own to the edge of the pool, trying to get as far away as possible.
After all, if Natsume kept rubbing against it, the skin on its turtle head would get rubbed raw!
"Phew—"
"Now that's the life! This feels damn good!"
Soaking in the hot water, Natsume let out a hearty sigh of contentment.
He wasn't sure if it was the soothing hot spring or the success of tonight's mission that had him feeling so pleased.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"The people over in Konoha must be scared out of their wits by now."
"A Tailed Beast right in their faces! It's about time they had something to panic over..."
Natsume chuckled.
The later years aside,
Tailed Beasts still carried a great deal of menace at this point in time.
Then he carefully went over the whole operation again.
After confirming