In the Capital of the Land of Grass, Orochimaru disguised himself as a traveling merchant and arrived at this place that merchants everywhere regarded as sacred ground.
Why did merchants everywhere consider it sacred ground? Because in the eyes of countless merchants, Chiba Tetsuya, the Daimyo of the Land of Grass, was a saint among their ranks.
Starting as the owner of a tiny ramen shop, he had fought his way up, using business acumen to steadily accumulate capital in this strength-worshipping shinobi world. He had built a vast commercial empire and ultimately even crossed the divide between social classes, rising from a commoner to the daimyo of a nation.
To ordinary people, such a story was practically a myth.
And yet it was no myth, but something that had happened in reality.
How could other merchants not yearn to follow in his footsteps? Over time, through the stories those merchants passed from mouth to mouth, Chiba Tetsuya had become a saintlike figure. Naturally, the Capital of the Land of Grass had become sacred ground in their eyes.
What was more, it was a key transport hub along the major trade route connecting two great nations, the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth.
"Heh, Boss Chiba, I never imagined you would come this far after all these years. The daimyo of a nation... you truly are admirable."
He recalled something he had heard from the old man back then. The old man had once asked Chiba Tetsuya what his dream was. Chiba Tetsuya had answered that his dream was to make the Chiba name known throughout the shinobi world through his own efforts.
Now, after all these years, he had achieved his dream. Across the entire shinobi world, what country did not have a branch of the Chiba