The bandit chief saw Naruto snap the Ninja Blade, so he dropped the broken half in his hand and quickly retreated. He formed Hand Seals—Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger—and used the Great Fireball Technique.
Seeing that his opponent was using ninjutsu—and Fire Release Ninjutsu, at that—Naruto decided not to take it head-on. He wanted to test whether he could withstand ninjutsu now, but even if he could, his clothes couldn't. So he chose to dodge.
After avoiding the Great Fireball, Naruto didn't give him a chance to use another technique. He swiftly closed in and struck the back of his neck. Of course, Naruto controlled his strength and merely knocked him to the ground.
The bandit chief had been knocked down and was struggling to get back up, one hand clutching the back of his neck and the other braced against the ground. Naruto walked over and kicked him back down, then placed a hand on the bandit chief's head.
Soul Search—a technique for reading another person's memories, recorded in the Supreme Demon Sutra.
As Naruto performed Soul Search, the bandit chief passed out. A moment later, Naruto opened his eyes and sneered. "Hmph. Damn Shimura Danzō. No wonder these bandits were so close to Konoha and hadn't been wiped out, even though they were listed on the mission board. It seems Hiruzen Sarutobi knows about this too."
As it turned out, the bandit chief was a Root reserve ninja with the codename Blue Bird. On Danzō's orders, he had come here to pose as a bandit. He hadn't been the original bandit chief; he had arrived a year ago, killed the previous chief, subdued the gang, and taken over as their new leader.
They didn't usually take action often. Each time, they waited for information from Danzō, and most of the loot they seized was sent to him to fund Root's development. Blue Bird's memories also suggested that Danzō had other ways of obtaining money, though he didn't know what they were.
After reading his memories, Naruto recreated the scenes involving Danzō in the Sealing Space and had Kurama turn them into little balls of light. Then he punched Blue Bird in the chest, ending his life.
After sensing that there were no surviving bandits in the stronghold, Naruto used the Transformation Technique to change his appearance and went to the cells, releasing the prisoners inside.
A portly-looking man stepped forward, bowed to Naruto, and said, "Benefactor, thank you for saving us. I'm from the Matsushita Clan in the Capital of Fire..."
Before he could finish, Naruto coldly cut him off. "No need. You can leave now."
Hearing him mention his clan, Naruto knew what he was after: he wanted to take back the stolen goods.
The man had still wanted to say something, but when he saw Naruto's cold expression and the blood on his clothes—and remembered the screams he had heard earlier—he understood what had happened. Gritting his teeth, he led the others down the mountain.
Watching them leave, Naruto gave a disdainful snort. "You should be grateful I saved you. And you still want to take the goods?" He turned and headed for the room where the bandits stored their supplies.
The door was locked. Naruto hadn't thought to take the key, so he had to break it open by force. He kicked the chain, but used so much strength that the entire door shattered.
Scratching his head awkwardly, Naruto walked inside. The room wasn't very large, but it was packed with supplies. Some metal had been piled near the entrance; it was probably what they had stolen that day.
He walked over and picked up a piece of metal, turning it over in his hands. He couldn't make heads or tails of it, so he tried channeling spiritual energy into it. To his delight, the metal could withstand his spiritual energy. He increased the output, but the metal still showed no signs of changing. What's more, it seemed to amplify the strength of the spiritual energy to some extent.
"This must be Chakra Conductive Metal. What a pleasant surprise!" Naruto was thrilled.
He had originally planned to visit the Land of Iron, but now that he had this huge stash of Chakra Conductive Metal, he no longer needed to go.
Chakra Conductive Metal was refined from the Stone of Gelel, a specialty of the Land of Iron, through a special process. Weapons made from it could greatly increase the power of ninjutsu.
He had planned to go to the Land of Iron specifically to find Chakra Conductive Metal. Now that he had so much of it, this really was an unexpected windfall.
Besides the Chakra Conductive Metal, there were several large chests in the room. He went over and opened them one by one. Aside from one chest full of Explosive Tags, they were filled with gold coins, jewelry, antiques, and other such things. At the back stood a row of shelves, with just one small box on them.
He walked over and opened the small box. Inside lay a pitch-black stone about the size of a fist. He picked it up and examined it from every angle, but it didn't seem unusual. When he tried coating it with spiritual energy, he found that the stone was rapidly absorbing it, so he hurriedly cut off the flow.
Even after absorbing Naruto's spiritual energy, the stone showed no sign of change. Feeling frustrated, Naruto activated his perception and focused his spiritual sense on the stone, hoping to make out its inner structure. That was when he made a surprising discovery: the moment his spiritual sense touched the stone, he sensed spatial fluctuations emanating from it.
Unlike the spatial nodes he had seen while practicing Flying Thunder God, the spatial fluctuations from this stone felt more like devouring—or perhaps containing.
At that moment, Naruto remembered the Encyclopedia of Strange Objects he had read. It was a book from the world whose memories he had gained when he devoured that remnant soul. It recorded all sorts of bizarre items from that world.
After examining it over and over, Naruto finally confirmed what it was. Excited, he said, "I never thought there'd be a Space Stone in the Shinobi World too. Now I can make a halberd and get my hands on spatial equipment as well."
The Shinobi World had no way to craft spatial equipment yet, but Naruto did. His mind held a vast manual on artifact crafting. He hadn't studied it for two reasons: first, his spiritual energy didn't have the properties of fire; second, he didn't want to learn too many things. Just cultivating what he already knew left his schedule packed every day.
Naruto had already chosen the perfect owner for that artifact-crafting manual.
After practicing and using Flying Thunder God for some time, Naruto had reached the point where he could perform it by forming the Tiger Seal with one hand. He could also take people or objects wrapped in his spiritual energy along with him.
After checking all the supplies in the room, Naruto used his spiritual energy to envelop everything. Then he performed Flying Thunder God, and the room was emptied in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, Naruto appeared at the entrance to the cave. He created Shadow Clones and had them carry all the supplies inside, then walked over to the Shadow Clone that had been using a Crystal Ball to watch the Anbu entrance and exit. "How's it going? Any discoveries?"
"Shisui Uchiha has only gone to Root once. Nothing else unusual," the Shadow Clone replied without looking away, continuing to watch the Crystal Ball.
"Mm. Keep a close eye on things. If anything happens, contact Kurama immediately," Naruto instructed.
"Mm-hmm, no problem," the Shadow Clone replied.
Soon, all the supplies had been moved into the cave. Naruto took a backpack, casually tossed in some gold coins, and grabbed a few Explosive Tags. He left everything else untouched. Carrying too much was a hassle, and he didn't need most of it. If he needed anything later, he could always come back for it.
With the gold coins on his back, Naruto returned to the stronghold. He hadn't dispelled the Shadow Clones he'd made earlier. On his way back to the valley, he had them carry every bandit's corpse into the main hall, including the two guards he'd killed at the very beginning.
After sensing that none had been missed, he went to the main gate, took out an Explosive Tag, and tossed it inside before setting it off. Flames shot into the sky, and the buildings atop the mountain were reduced to ruins. As soon as he detonated the tag, Naruto dashed down the mountain.
With a bag of gold coins on his back and a spring in his step, Naruto headed for his next destination.
Before going to the Land of Hot Water, Naruto stopped at Muyuan Town, the nearest town to him. The town sat at the crossroads connecting Konoha to various other places, so it was bustling.
Specialty goods from all sorts of countries could be found there.
Beef and liquor from the Land of Lightning, tuna and flowers from the Land of Wind, a rock-cooking restaurant from the Land of Earth, and a seafood restaurant from the Land of Water were all common sights in the busy town.
But Naruto barely glanced at any of them. He went straight to the bank. His priority was exchanging his gold coins for banknotes. Carrying a bag of gold coins felt great, but they were too inconvenient to spend.
At the bank, Naruto took a number and waited until his turn. When he approached the counter, the employee inside saw that the customer was a child and gave him a mocking look.
Naruto said nothing about the employee's attitude. He simply tossed his backpack onto the counter.
The employee unzipped the backpack and saw that it was full of gold coins. Her attitude changed at once. Naruto said nothing more; he just asked her to open a bank account, deposit the coins, and give him two hundred thousand ryō in banknotes.
With the gold coins as motivation, all the paperwork was completed quickly. Naruto took his passbook and saw that he still had over five million ryō in savings. After getting his two hundred thousand ryō in banknotes, he turned and left.
Two hundred thousand ryō wasn't all that much, actually. Inflation in the Shinobi World was severe. A bowl of plain ramen at Teuchi's shop normally cost sixty ryō, and adding toppings brought the price to around a hundred ryō.
With his banknotes in hand, Naruto went out into the street and tried every snack he could find. Then he found an inn and checked in. The moment he entered his room, he went to the Sealing Space. The two people and one fox inside were still engrossed in their game of Dou Dizhu. They trained separately at night, but during the day, with nothing else to do, they played.
After training for some time, Kurama had grown another size larger. His fur looked smoother, and its color had deepened to a dark red. From a distance, he looked like a blazing mass of flames.
After greeting Minato and Kushina, Naruto said to Kurama, "Kurama, could you bring up the map?"
Spiritual energy gathered in front of Kurama, and a map appeared, marked with routes and various points.
"Kurama, remove the Land of Iron from the map," Naruto continued.
"Sure. We definitely don't need to go to the Land of Iron anymore." Everyone in the Sealing Space knew Naruto had obtained a batch of Chakra Conductive Metal. The marker for the Land of Iron disappeared from the map, and the planned route shifted.
Naruto then turned to Minato. "Dad, could you redraw the route? There's no need to mark the other bandit locations for now."
Minato stepped forward and traced a line across the map with his finger. As he moved it, a new route appeared on the map.
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