Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 149 The Problem Caused by a Spring Rain

The location where they were attacked was very close to the village.

Kiba's scent tracking ability is quite remarkable. They made their way to the vicinity of the village. Although the enemy reacted quickly and cut off the subsequent scent tracking, it was only a matter of time before they found the village. Therefore, those three brats chose an aggressive attack. The moment the stab was completed and Team 8's attention was focused on Naruto, they were all caught in the illusion. Naruto's decision to send out three clones was absolutely correct; otherwise, he would have been frantically trying to rescue his three teammates while dodging.

Confirming whether the grain was in the village was simple. The grain transported from the Land of Fire was a different variety than that of Hui's. This difference might not be discernible to the naked eye, but it couldn't escape Naruto's superhuman senses. A single glance at the warehouse revealed that most of the grain wasn't Hui's variety. "Very good. They've even learned to secretly 'rob the rich to help the poor.' What will become of them in the future? Will they become local tyrants while headquarters remains completely unaware?"

Before figuring out the cause and effect, Naruto managed to calm his anger a bit by beating up the three of them. The troubles of the past few days had already put him in a bad mood, and now some people were just messing with him.

It didn't take long to drag the three of them together. Naruto transformed into a golden wheel on the spot, calmly created four stone chairs arranged in a circle, and silently waited for the three little brats to be resurrected.

"Ah!" "I'll blanch it!" "Damn it!"

Amidst the rising and falling shouts and curses, the three sprang into action, only to see Jinlun, who was propping his chin up with one hand and looking at them. They were instantly stunned, like geese caught by the neck, and all the sounds came to an abrupt halt.

"Please sit down." Naruto's indifferent gaze swept over everyone, and he extended his free hand in a gesture of invitation.

The sound was like a command, and the three of them knelt down in perfect unison, as if they had rehearsed it. They didn't even have time to wonder why Jinlun had appeared so timely.

"Lord Jinlun, it's all my fault. It was my idea. Please punish me!" The usually irritable Uchiha was no longer irritable and immediately bowed deeply.

"I also bear responsibility; I failed to supervise Yao properly!" Thousand Hands, who had been trying to restrain his teammates, quickly took the blame.

"...I'm sorry, Lord Kinlun, we've disappointed you." The composed Uchiha remained calm and quietly knelt down with his teammates.

However, Naruto anticipated their prediction. Just as they were about to perform the Dogeza (a deep bowing ritual), he flashed directly to the chair behind the three of them, resolutely refusing to kneel.

"I said sit down," Naruto said again, trying his best to remain calm. "Sit down and tell me why you're robbing me."

This matter is actually very simple.

The village consisted mostly of wooden and thatched houses, barely enough to shelter from the wind and rain, and requiring extreme caution when used for storing grain. This year's continuous spring rains quickly soaked up the newly laid thatch, and the old roof ridges, riddled with holes left by insects, were further burdened by the overly curious children. At a certain point, the roof collapsed, and rainwater-soaked debris fell into the grain, causing widespread contamination. After a frantic rescue effort, the lost grain could be used as animal feed, but the villagers still needed to eat, and they had to find a way to fill the hole.

"Why wasn't it reported?" After roughly understanding the whole story, Naruto only focused on this one question.

Yao, an Uchiha, lowered his head and said in a barely audible voice, "Last year we finally managed to get into the yield rankings, and with something like this happening, we might even lose our 'excellent' rating..."

"When has Hui ever been so harsh on even a base because of a natural disaster?" Naruto was trying hard to suppress the urge to beat them up again.

"But this... should be considered as our poor management; we didn't even consider the problem of the granary being unstable."

This is certainly a problem, but it's not the most serious one.

"Have you considered the consequences of robbing?" Naruto sternly swept his gaze over everyone. "Robbing is about stealing grain, and a considerable amount at that. Wasn't that grain the result of farmers' hard work? If you touch even one person in the grain convoy, the Land of Fire will follow the bandit suppression procedures and plow up the surrounding area first!"

"But no one was killed..." Yao whispered.

"You dare talk back! Do you think Konoha wouldn't have plowed the fields if they hadn't found anything? You think leaving no trace means there's no problem? How do you plan to explain how such a small plot of land could grow so much grain? Catching criminals does require evidence, but fighting bandits doesn't! Do you want to fight Konoha head-on, or do you want to run away with the villagers?!"

The uncontrollable pressure of chakra caused the three to lean back. They stood up with extreme guilt to receive the scolding, but no sound came for a long time. They secretly looked up and saw that Lord Jinlun was breathing deeply with his eyes closed, pressing his temples. He looked quite angry, but still couldn't bear to be too harsh on him.

"Lord Jinlun, I really know I was wrong. Please don't be angry. I'll go and count out the grain and return it..." Yao gently tugged at Senju Yun beside him, hoping that the other party could use his invincible medical ninjutsu to think of a solution.

However, Yun did not receive the correct signal. He blinked twice and said, "Don't worry, the two batches of grain are stored separately and will not be mixed up."

"Of course you have to return the food! And we need to figure out a way to keep it from being exposed..." Naruto's head was throbbing, a physical headache, yet he still had to concentrate on dealing with these troublesome matters. This was a recurring problem after prolonged periods of intense mental exertion; he was all too familiar with it. After all, since waking up in this world, his first truly unforgettable experience was this kind of excruciating pain. He was really getting more and more senile; how long would it take for his soul and body to reconnect?

After figuring out the whole story, Naruto personally carried the three little brats to the village to load all the grain, and ordered the two whose scent had been detected to immediately head towards the nearest city. The one who hadn't been detected, of course, couldn't be idle; he was sent ahead to the city to coordinate information with the Dongfeng branch there, to gather intelligence on the city, and then to find several daring bosses involved in the illicit industry to discuss the sale of the grain. He cleverly controlled the quantity sold each time to keep the buyers off guard, preventing them from tracing the source, thus successfully distributing the goods.

The Konoha ninjas are key to this plan.

At the moment of the surprise attack, the Sharingan immediately took control of the entire area, which was the best news so far. Naruto only dispelled his teammates' genjutsu after he had arranged the plan, because he had always appeared to be a complete genjutsu idiot.

When Team 8 awoke, they had no recollection of the Sharingan ever appearing, but they vividly remembered Naruto being pierced by a sword. The three of them used their eyes, noses, and even insects to confirm that Naruto was indeed unharmed before finally letting out a sigh of relief and refocusing their attention on the mission.

"I fought them yesterday. They were outmatched but ran very fast. I couldn't confirm their numbers, so I couldn't chase them without hesitation." Naruto's ability to lie through his teeth was getting stronger, but it wasn't all lies, like the part about fighting them.

"Next, we'll probably have to be even more careful in our pursuit."