Mission complete, an inexplicable feeling of being watched

Hearing this, Hatake Sakumo looked at the innocent girl and shook his head. "Strictly speaking, the villagers in this town aren't natives of the Land of Fire. They're commoners from the surrounding small nations. Unable to survive there, they gathered along the borders of the Land of Fire. Gradually, more and more people arrived, and a town formed."

"Then, Sakumo-Teacher, is there anything we can do to help them?"

Kushina looked at the misery below, unable to bear the sight. She desperately wanted to do whatever she could.

"Qingyun, what do you think?"

Rather than answer Kushina, Hatake Sakumo turned to Qingyun and asked him.

The sight had stirred up turmoil in Qingyun's heart, too. Having lived in a peaceful era, when had he ever witnessed such human suffering?

But Qingyun soon worked it out. At Hatake Sakumo's question, he answered without hesitation. "Help? How? Even if we refused the mission payment and gave them every supply we had, would that really help them?

"All we can do is clear out the bandits in this area. No matter how strong we become, we can't change an outcome like this.

"Sakumo-Teacher, aside from the fighting between ninja, the armies under the various nations' Daimyo probably aren't keeping the peace either, are they? Otherwise, how could there be so many refugees while the Daimyo have no time to deal with them?"

When he had watched Naruto in his previous life, he had only seen battles between ninja, the story of the passionate Naruto growing up, and the brotherly bond through which Naruto pulled the radical Sasuke out of the abyss. He had seen...

He had seen so many inspiring stories that, despite a touch of darkness, ultimately ended with the light driving it away.

But what about now? This was a real