Departure

After a week of leisure, Uzumaki Naruto knew it was time to end this. There was still much to be done, and he could not afford to lose himself in such comfort.

As soon as school ended that day, Uzumaki Naruto extended an invitation to Hinata: "Lovely Hinata, do you have time tonight? Would you like to go see a movie with me?"

"Oh, Naruto-kun, of course I would!" Hinata said happily.

Uzumaki Naruto took Hinata's hand and headed toward the Hyuga Clan Compound. Ever since Uzumaki Naruto began walking Hinata home every night, Hyuga Hiashi had stopped sending people to pick her up after school. Thus, if the two wanted to go on a date, they had to report it to Hyuga Hiashi at home first.

Upon arriving at the gate, Uzumaki Naruto didn't go in, choosing instead to sit on the stone steps to wait. No sooner had he sat down than he heard footsteps behind him. Turning his head, he saw a little girl in a black training suit standing not far behind him, hands on her hips.

The little girl was only about three or four years old, possessing a pair of Byakugan just like Hinata's. Seeing Uzumaki Naruto turn around, she feigned a fierce expression and said, "Hey, are you that Uzumaki Naruto? You're here to kidnap my sister again, aren't you?"

At this, Uzumaki Naruto realized this must be the younger sister Hinata often mentioned: Hanabi.

"Hey, little Hanabi, I'm not kidnapping your sister. We're just going out for a stroll," Uzumaki Naruto said softly, knowing she was Hinata's sister.

Hearing this, Hanabi pouted and muttered, "Hmph, I don't care! Because of you, my sister spends less and less time with me!"

Uzumaki Naruto chuckled, and just as he was about to say something, he saw Hinata walking out from inside.

"Oh, Hanabi, why are you here? Father is looking for you, hurry back," Hinata said, patting Hanabi on the head.

Hearing her sister, Hanabi dropped her hands from her hips, made a face at Uzumaki Naruto, and ran inside.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, Hanabi is just too mischievous," Hinata said with a slightly apologetic look.

Uzumaki Naruto grinned and replied, "Heh, it's nothing. I think she's quite interesting."

"It's just that she usually likes to cling to me, so..." Before Hinata could finish, Uzumaki Naruto took her hand and ran off. "Ah, it's fine! Let's go, let's go see the movie first."

When they arrived at the cinema, Hinata bought the tickets, her reason being that she didn't want Uzumaki Naruto to use a Transformation Jutsu to look like someone else while watching the movie with her. Uzumaki Naruto didn't insist. They picked a popular film, bought two tickets, a bucket of popcorn, and some other snacks before entering the theater (it was dark inside, so no one would recognize Uzumaki Naruto).

Hinata had chosen seats near the back where there were fewer people, which saved them a lot of trouble. Since they were still young, they simply held hands and watched the movie intently.

As the movie neared its end, the two slipped out of the theater. Seeing that it was still early, Uzumaki Naruto took Hinata to stroll through the night market. This time, they only ate some snacks and didn't buy anything else, as they were both already wearing hand-woven bracelets.

At the main gate of the Hyuga residence, Hinata noticed Uzumaki Naruto's lingering gaze and asked, "Naruto, is something wrong?"

"Nothing, I just think you're getting cuter and cuter," he said, giving Hinata a tight hug.

"I feel like your mood has been a bit off all night," Hinata whispered.

Uzumaki Naruto shook his head gently. "It's really nothing. It's getting late, Hinata, go inside and get some rest. See you tomorrow."

"Mm, then Naruto-kun, you go home and rest early too. See you tomorrow."

After saying goodbye, Uzumaki Naruto returned home and performed a series of hand seals. With a swish, he arrived at the Hokage office. Sensing the location of the mission desk, he walked quickly toward it.

At the mission desk, many missions were posted, all of which were D-rank or C-rank. Of course, Uzumaki Naruto wasn't there to accept missions. He might be gone for a long time, and the places he was going were very far away. As the saying goes, "Without money, one cannot take a single step." Currently, Uzumaki Naruto had no better or faster way to earn money.

The mission board had several tasks for wiping out bandits and robbers, all marked with the number of enemies, their strength, and their locations.

This was the reason Uzumaki Naruto had come. As far as he was concerned, there was no faster way to make money than robbing bandits and brigands. He had Kurama condense a map within the Sealing Space, marking the locations of these bandits, and planned to have Minato Namikaze point the way; he would wipe them all out as long as they were on his path.

Minato Namikaze was an outstanding ninja. Since becoming a ninja, he had completed many missions—over eight hundred in total, including 39 S-rank and 323 A-rank missions. Thus, Minato Namikaze was very familiar with every corner of the ninja world.

His teacher, Jiraiya, held the record for the most missions in the ninja world. In his lifetime, he had completed 1,839 missions. For S-rank missions alone, Jiraiya had completed 138, while A-rank and B-rank missions numbered 614 and 684 respectively. Conversely, he had only completed 345 C-rank and 58 D-rank missions, which were mostly for maintaining village security or acting as auxiliary police. This was why the first stop on Uzumaki Naruto's journey out of the village would be the Land of Hot Water to find Jiraiya.

After recording the information, Uzumaki Naruto returned home, left behind a Shadow Clone, and vanished. Reappearing in that valley, he didn't remove the barrier, walked inside, and lay down on the stone bed to practice.

As for why he didn't give Hinata the cultivation technique, it was a decision Uzumaki Naruto had reached after much deliberation. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hinata, but that if Hinata practiced the technique while staying in Konoha, she might be exposed. Therefore, he would have to wait for the right time to give it to her.

He left a Shadow Clone in the cave with the crystal ball, tasking it with monitoring the Uchiha Clan and Danzo. The Uchiha Clan's night of annihilation was about a year away, but the time before Danzo would force Shisui Uchiha—one of the only two people currently possessing a Mangekyo Sharingan in the Uchiha Clan—to his death by gouging out his eye was not far off.

Uzumaki Naruto wasn't sure exactly when that would happen, so this was the only way. He had to save Shisui Uchiha; after all, his Mangekyo Sharingan's ocular power, Kotoamatsukami, could be very useful if used correctly.

After leaving the clone, Uzumaki Naruto left the valley. Guided by Minato Namikaze, he headed toward the nearest bandit den. Even while traveling, Uzumaki Naruto didn't idle; he practiced splitting his spiritual energy. This was a technique he had seen in a martial arts manual: guiding a wisp of spiritual energy from his energy vortex into his palm and then splitting it to improve his control over his spiritual energy.

The result of this practice would allow him to use less spiritual energy when performing martial arts, while increasing their power. It also added a bit of fun to the monotonous journey.

The valley was about thirty miles from the bandit den, and Uzumaki Naruto traveled at a normal pace, taking nearly two hours to arrive.

Reaching the foot of the nameless mountain, Uzumaki Naruto activated his perception. "138 people in total, with seventeen tied up and locked together—those must be the captives. That means the remaining 121 are the bandits. Just as the mission board said... wait, what is this? This is interesting."

At this moment, the bandits were drinking and celebrating in the main hall, the noise and shouting blending together. The bandit leader, sitting in the seat of honor, looked at the rowdy bandits below with disdain.

What Uzumaki Naruto found interesting was that he could sense chakra fluctuations coming from the bandit leader, even though he clearly remembered reading on the mission board that this bandit den had no ninjas and consisted only of ordinary people.

"They set traps on the mountain path, two people are standing guard near the summit, and the rest are inside the stronghold." Keeping his perception active, Uzumaki Naruto avoided all the traps and soon arrived not far from the two guards.

Though they were supposed to be on guard, both men were sitting on the ground, each holding a jar of wine and bragging.

"Sigh, tell me, why is it always us two on guard duty?" one of the bandits asked.

The other took a swig of wine and replied with drunken, bleary eyes, "Why do you care so much? The boss ordered it, so we just do it. As long as there's wine, it's all the same."

"That may be, but there were several women captured and brought up the mountain today!" the first bandit said after a moment of thought.

"Heh, you kid, really... your turn will come sooner or later. By the way, am I drunk? I see a brat walking over," the bandit said, rubbing his eyes.

Before the two bandits could even stand up, Uzumaki Naruto was already in front of them. Concentrating spiritual energy into his hands, he used them like blades and struck their throats. The two men collapsed limply to the ground, their throats reduced to a mass of mangled flesh.

This was his first time killing, but aside from a slight tremor in his hands, Uzumaki Naruto felt no other discomfort. After all, when he had devoured that remnant soul, some of the memories within were far more bloody and cruel than this, and those images were already etched into his mind.

After dealing with the two bandits, Uzumaki Naruto arrived at the main gate of the stronghold. Most of the other bandits were drinking in the main hall. Uzumaki Naruto created several Shadow Clones to surround the hall, just in case anyone tried to escape.

Pushing open the doors to the hall, Uzumaki Naruto walked in. The drinking bandits stopped and turned in unison upon hearing the door open. Seeing that it was just a child, the bandit closest to Uzumaki Naruto stood up.

"Those two wastes on guard duty didn't even know someone came up the mountain?" He then walked toward Uzumaki Naruto with a sinister grin.

"Brat, how did you get up this mountain? Do you have any idea what kind of place this is?"

Naruto Uzumaki didn't waste any breath on him. With spiritual energy erupting from his feet, he unleashed the first form of the Mad Demon Leg—Mountain Breaker. He leaped into the air and slammed his foot into the bandit's chest. With a loud bang, the bandit was kicked into pieces, much like a watermelon dropped from a great height. Red, white, and yellow gore flew everywhere.

At this moment, the remaining bandits snapped to their senses, brandishing their weapons as they charged toward Naruto.

Seeing the mob rushing at him, Naruto didn't retreat. Instead, he condensed a Rasengan the size of a human head in his palm. Gripping the Rasengan, Naruto charged toward the bandits, pressed the sphere into the chest of the first one to reach him, and quickly leaped backward.

The Rasengan pushed the line of bandits back, steadily expanding until it reached a meter in diameter before detonating. Most of the charging bandits perished under the shockwave of the blast. Those at the very front were reduced to blood mist, leaving not even a scrap behind, while those slightly further back were merely blown into mangled chunks. A crater three meters in diameter was left in the ground.

The bandits who hadn't managed to charge in time were shocked into sobriety by the sight. Realizing they were no match, they scattered in a panic, jumping out of windows or fleeing through the back door. Naruto didn't bother with them, knowing his *Shadow Clone*s were guarding the perimeter. A series of screams echoed outside as the fleeing bandits were dealt with by the *Shadow Clone*s.

Only then did the leader of this bandit group rise from his seat.

"Brat, who sent you here?" Seeing Naruto dispose of his underlings with such ease, he naturally realized that Naruto was also a ninja.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. Where did you come from? The mission didn't mention there were any ninjas in this stronghold," Naruto countered.

Hearing Naruto mention a mission, a cold glint flashed in the bandit leader's eyes. He stopped talking and charged at Naruto, blade in hand.

Seeing his opponent rushing at him with a sword, Naruto made no move to dodge. He couldn't sense any chakra on the blade, meaning it wasn't forged from chakra-conductive metal; it was just an ordinary ninja sword.

The leader, seeing Naruto standing perfectly still, swung the blade down toward Naruto's head with all his might.

At that moment, Naruto reached out his right hand and caught the blade. To the bandit leader's disbelief, Naruto squeezed hard. A sound of metal fracturing rang out, and the ninja sword snapped in two at the point of Naruto's grip, the section held in his hand shattering into iron shards.

Hmm, an ordinary ninja sword without a chakra attribute can't break through my defense. The body-tempering effects of the Supreme Demon Sutra really are impressive.