Arrival at Their Destination

Chiba let out a sigh of relief at the sight of blood spraying.

Fortunately, he had not reached out to block it, or another clash would have been inevitable.

More importantly, that would have left his mission up in the air.

Killing Zabuza Momochi was already a sure thing.

But Chiba had no idea how the kill would actually be counted.

If someone else killing him counted too, Chiba would not mind letting the other person have their way.

But there was no guarantee of that.

To ensure he completed the mission, Chiba decided it would be better to do it himself.

Besides, there was another fairly important hidden mission.

Naming the Great Bridge.

It sounded pretty embarrassing, but he could hardly pass up the mission reward, could he?

Refuse a gift from heaven, and suffer the consequences.

To leave a reward that had practically fallen into his lap unclaimed...

That really would have been inexcusable.

Chiba wanted to reach the pinnacle of the ninja world and become the one controlling the board.

The most important requirement was to grow stronger.

He could not afford to let a single opportunity slip by.

"Thank you for fighting Zabuza."

A boy wearing an eerie mask stood on a high branch.

"It gave me the opportunity to finish him with a single strike."

Kakashi Hatake recognized the boy's identity from his mask.

"A Pursuit Ninja from Kirigakure..."

Despite the guarded stances of Kakashi Hatake and the others, Haku did not seem particularly nervous.

He jumped down from the branch and approached Chiba.

"Could you hand the body over to me?"

"Kirigakure needs to retrieve it."

Naturally, Chiba turned his gaze toward Kakashi Hatake.

In a situation like this, the team's Jonin instructor should have the final say.

Kakashi Hatake exchanged a glance with Chiba and walked over.

After a brief examination, he nodded and said:

"He's confirmed dead. You can take him."

Haku took Zabuza Momochi's "body" and gave everyone a slight nod.

A cold wind suddenly swept through, and he vanished.

Watching Haku disappear, Naruto Uzumaki's eyes flashed with frustration.

But when he turned to Chiba, his determination to work harder burned all the brighter.

"Chiba, teach me how to get stronger!"

He ran up to Chiba and shouted.

"I want to work hard, get stronger, and become Hokage!"

Chiba pressed a hand to his forehead, speechless.

"Naruto!"

"Wouldn't you ask Kakashi-sensei?"

"Why come to me?"

At those words, Naruto Uzumaki's expression immediately grew awkward.

After seeing Chiba's performance earlier, he had momentarily lost his head.

"Still, there's no point asking him now."

Chiba gestured with his chin and said:

"He's out of mana. Down he goes!"

Everyone looked in the direction Chiba indicated, only to hear a thud.

Kakashi Hatake had lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.

"You two help support Kakashi-sensei."

At a time like this, Chiba took charge without hesitation.

"I'll keep watch and protect everyone."

Fortunately, nothing dangerous happened during the rest of their journey.

Only a few petty bandits jumped out of the woods.

Chiba simply left them to Naruto, who sent them packing.

This left Chiba marveling.

The gulf between people in this world was staggering.

Even a ninja barely into their teens could easily defeat an adult.

No matter how many ordinary people there were, they posed no threat to ninja.

Rather than saying the daimyo controlled the nations, it would be more accurate to say the ninja with overwhelming strength did.

Their words might carry more weight than those of the so-called daimyo.

They trudged along for more than half a day.

At last, to Tazuna's delight, they arrived at his home.

"Now that we're in town, we're safe for the time being."

"Gato still doesn't dare attack us openly here."

"He needs control over everything in this country, not merely to crush it through violence."

Tazuna explained this to everyone.

After settling Kakashi Hatake in, everyone sat down to their first dinner at Tazuna's home.

The exceedingly meager food made the country's condition clear.

But Chiba was not a picky eater.

During a hard spell in his previous life, he had even survived an entire week on three yuan.

His current circumstances were far better than they had been back then.

The next morning.

As sunlight streamed through the window and filled the room.

Kakashi Hatake finally regained consciousness.

When he saw Chiba and the others, the first thing he did was apologize.

"I'm sorry, everyone."

"The Sharingan drained all my chakra, and I passed out before I knew it."

Naruto Uzumaki reassured him:

"It's all right, sensei!"

"With Chiba leading us, we didn't run into any trouble!"

Kakashi Hatake reached out from beneath the covers, shielding his face from the sunlight.

"I see!"

"It looks like it's time for you to do some training."