Chapter 582 Attack of the Dark Night

Pond country, port city.

This is the political and cultural center of Ikenokuni, where the Ikenokuni noble group headed by the daimyo lived.

Because it is the capital of the country and a port city, the business travelers coming and going have injected a lot of commercial vitality here. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the most prosperous city not only in the country of Ikeno, but also among the surrounding small countries.

In the hot spring hotel, Tianzang took the three of Naruto through this port city, planning to stay in the hotel for one night, and take a dip in the well-known hot springs in the country of Ikeno in the evening, and set off from here early the next morning, returning to Konoha.

Sleep outside for several days in a row. Although the ninja has a strong willpower, he will inevitably feel that such days are a bit boring. He needs to enjoy himself in time and add some spices to his life.

"Speaking of which, Captain Yamato, what is going on in this country? It was obviously not like this when I passed by here before."

In a lounge near the courtyard, a group of people gathered here after putting away their salutes.

Naruto spoke first, asking out the doubts in his heart.

Obviously he is still brooding about the battle he encountered in the wild forest.

Seeing so many people died in front of him, and no one died, making a miserable cry, made people feel anxious, and made Naruto feel an indescribable depression in his heart.

Sakura's expression is also a bit gloomy. As a medical ninja, her compassion is not inferior to Naruto's. Those samurai should belong to the great masters of the Ikeno country, and they are the armed groups that protect the country, just like Konoha's meaning to the country of fire.

But now they died one by one in front of him. The samurai who didn't die were also taken away. They didn't know where they were taken.

Facing Naruto's question, Tianzang shook his head like he was in the forest before, and said, "No, I don't know the inside story. The soldiers who attacked the samurai of the Daimyo Mansion in the Ikeno Country don't know what happened either."

Then, he glanced at Naruto and Sakura, and continued: "However, these things are not our business. As Konoha's ninjas, if we rashly intervene in other countries' battles, it will have a great negative impact on the village."

Now is not the period of the Ninja World War. The village has very strict restrictions on ninjas who go out to perform tasks. They cannot act cheaply like they did during the war.

Although there are also ninja villages that act domineeringly, whether in wartime or peacetime, such as Yunyin, but in comparison, Konoha is relatively a relatively well-behaved ninja village.

If Konoha Village's reputation is damaged because of this kind of thing, Class 7 will definitely get angry, and trouble will continue after that.

"But"

"Naruto, we are ninjas, not philanthropists. It is our duty to take people's money and eliminate disasters from others. Don't meddle in things other than missions. Especially the previous battle, it seems to involve changes in the power of Ikenokuni's high-level officials. It will be even more troublesome to intervene casually."

Tianzang said to Naruto seriously.

Kindness is not a defect of a ninja, on the contrary, it is a very good character, but a ninja must know when to give his kindness and when to restrain his kindness.

means giving one's own kindness, which may eventually result in extremely huge evil results instead of good results.

"It's really bad if you want to help others, but you end up putting yourself in it. In this foreign country, it's better for us to keep a low profile."

Sai also said with a smile.

As a member of Gen, he has long been used to fighting. Maybe the previous battles were too cruel in the eyes of Naruto and Sakura...but it is indeed a real thing in the ninja world.

Perhaps, the truth of the matter is more cruel and violent than they imagined.

Every minute and every second in this world, there is a struggle between human beings.

The conflict I encountered by chance in the forest before was just the tip of the iceberg in this ninja world.

"Got it, I don't need you, Saii, to explain it, huh!"

Naruto turned his head and snorted softly, as if he was a little impatient with Sai's words.

Always preaching to himself as if he had seen the world, but he couldn't refute a sentence, which made Naruto extremely depressed.

He naturally knew that ninjas were not philanthropists, but suddenly seeing so many lives dying in front of his eyes, he couldn't bear it.

Sai smiled slightly, he had already known Naruto's nature, he only thought that Naruto was pretending to be relaxed.

Just as Naruto couldn't understand his reality, he also couldn't understand the kindness in Naruto's heart.

In this ninja world, he never thinks that kindness and love are needed, and some are just pure violence and cold-blooded fighting.

The colors in his inner world are so monotonous and indifferent.

This may be the reason for the ambiguity they are currently having.

But I don't really hate this kind of different life. Sai asked himself in his heart.

But the warm tone is too extravagant for him now...

"Then, it's time for free activities. In short, we'll talk about soaking in the hot springs in the evening. You can spend the afternoon at your own discretion."

Tianzang stood up from the floor and smiled at the three Narutos.

In short, carrying out the task will also put huge physical and psychological pressure on the ninja, so he decided to let the three of Naruto relax here at this time.

Because the protection power of Anbu Anbu has been strengthened, even if there is an emergency, his side can catch up with the support.

In addition, Naruto is not the same as it was half a year ago. Even if a ninja of the upper ninja level wants to attack Naruto, under the protection of Anbu, it is impossible to do so.

"You too, Sai, it's hard to come out, so let's relax too."

Walked up to Sai and knelt down, patted him on the shoulder, left the words 'Naruto is temporarily begging you for now' in his ear, and disappeared from the room.

Sai stared at the direction where Tianzang was leaving, thoughtfully.

Are you going to do something?

It seems that the captain is quite concerned about the things in the forest on the surface, and he is not as indifferent as he appears on the surface. Sai secretly thought in his heart.

"It would be great if it was just me and Sakura..."

On the other side, Naruto began to think about it.

Sai turned his head and smiled again: "That's really embarrassing, it seems that this time I will disturb your date."

If it is in the Konoha, the vigilance can be relaxed, but not outside the Konoha Village, you must take strict precautions and follow Naruto inseparably.

"Sai, don't listen to Naruto's nonsense, dating or something, I'm not interested at all."

Sakura vetoed without hesitation.

However, the capital of Ikenokuni is also a well-known prosperous city in the ninja world. Due to the prosperity of commerce, the variety and quality of goods are not inferior to those of Konoha, and even more complete in variety. She indeed has a great shopping interest in her heart.

The three of them summed up for a while, then left the hot spring hotel and walked to the street.

Next, I plan to spend half a day playing in this port city.

"I didn't expect there to be a ninja shop here. It looks like a complete range. I just don't know the price?"

The first thing I entered was a ninja shop. The owner of the ninja shop was a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairstyle. He was sitting at the door of the shop, shining in the sun, looking drowsy.

There is only one young female clerk in charge of the store. When the three of Naruto came in, she showed them a friendly smile and was very friendly.

"At any rate, it is also a port city where sea and land merchants gather. In this city, it is normal to open a ninja shop."

Sakura disagrees.

Ikenokuni is a country with a large number of ports and a well-developed hot spring industry. Businessmen passing by, and ninjas passing by on missions, can't help but stay here to enjoy the scenery of this country.

In this kind of city, it is really normal to have a large number of ninja shops.

Naruto had already picked up the ninja tools on the shelf of the store and began to ponder. Sai also couldn't help but walked to the shelf where the ninja knives were placed, staring carefully at the excellent ninja knives on the shelf.

Although the store is small, the ninja tools in the store are all high-quality goods, and even many ninja tools are made of precious chakra metal, which has a strong chakra transmission property. This kind of ninja equipment has a very obvious effect on the increase of ninjas in actual combat.

Ordinary metals are very inefficient in conducting chakra, which also weakens the attachment effect of chakra, resulting in a greatly reduced power.

Therefore, ninja tools made of Chakra metal are definitely in short supply and are favored by many ninjas.

Compared to Naruto's random look, Sai's posture of choosing ninja swords is more like a professional connoisseur, who can quickly judge the pros and cons of a ninja weapon, and his eyes are also extremely serious. It makes people know that he has learned similar tasting knowledge at a glance, and he is not just showing off for outsiders.

"Sai, have you chosen your ninja sword?"

Sakura came to Sai and asked softly.

Sai turned his head and glanced at Sakura, then turned his gaze back to the two light ninja swords of similar standard in his hands.

"No, I'm considering which kind of ninja sword is better. This ninja sword is the standard ninja sword for the military ninjas in the kingdom of ghosts, and this one is made by the elite blacksmiths in the country of iron. The quality of the blade, including the ability to transmit chakra, seems to be not too different."

Sai frowned in embarrassment.

Ghost Country benefits from its own powerful industrial capabilities, and the quality of ninja tools is improving year by year.

The Kingdom of Iron benefits from the accumulation of its own country, especially in the aspect of smelting weapons, which is unique in the ninja world.

After all, the samurai culture in this country is extremely prosperous, and the requirements for the quality of the blade itself are also stricter.

It can be said that the cold weapons ninjas in the international arms market are basically ninjas produced by these two countries.

Ninja tools independently forged by other countries are slightly inferior in comparison.

"If this is the case, wouldn't it be enough to buy them all?"

Sakura suggested.

"No, if I buy them all, I won't have any money left to buy painting tools."

Compared to the requirements for ninja tools, Saii's requirements for painting tools are also not lower than those for ninja tools, and he is even more picky. This makes the purchase of painting tools a large expenditure in his daily expenses.

Besides, ninja swords forged from Chakra metal are extremely expensive, and they cannot be compared with ninja tools such as kunai and shuriken.

"I see."

Sakura nodded, but didn't say much.

On the other side, seeing Sakura who was quietly talking with Sai, Naruto's eyes suddenly burst into flames of jealousy.

Just when he was about to step forward and interrupt their communication, a figure suddenly rushed in from the outside, grabbed Naruto's shoulders, and shouted happily:

"You are Konoha's ninja! Great, you are finally here, Daimyo-sama has been waiting for you for a long time!"

This sudden scene made Naruto stunned in place.

"Hey, wait, grandpa, who are you? You shouldn't be mistaken, right?"

The man who ran over and grabbed his shoulder in front of him was about fifty years old, his hair was starting to grey, and his face looked happy, as if weeping with joy.

But Naruto was sure that he didn't know the old man in front of him, and he was confused for a while.

"I didn't admit the wrong person, I'm looking for your Konoha ninja! Come with me quickly to meet Daimyo-sama!"

As he spoke, the old man was about to pull Naruto out of the ninja shop.

"etc!"

Sakura and Sai walked over, preventing the old man from making any further moves.

Sakura looked at the old man vigilantly, and said, "We are indeed Konoha's ninjas, but who are you and why did you come to us?"

The old man saw Sakura and Sai, and knew that his actions were too rude, so he let go of Naruto, coughed, and replied solemnly: "I am a retainer who serves Daimyo-sama of the Ikeno country. Now, Daimyo has something important to do. I urgently need to see your Konoha ninjas. Please follow me."

"My lord?"

Sakura and Sai looked at each other, and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

I don't understand what's going on at all, why it suddenly involves the daimyo of Ikenokuni.

The drowsy shop owner at the door of the ninja shop, heard the conversation of several people, opened his eyes slightly, then closed his eyes as if nothing happened, and continued to take a nap on the old chair.

Daming House.

Ikenokuni Daimyo is a man in his thirties with a rather rich figure. Wearing gorgeous clothes on his body, he gives people a bloated feeling.

On both sides of his body, there is a beautiful young girl with a charming expression, with charming eyes and an extremely obedient attitude, serving this daimyo.

Naruto and Sakura looked a little unnatural when they saw this scene.

I always feel that the current scene gives them a sense of inappropriateness, and it is a bit explosive.

The impression of Ikenokuni Daimyo directly dropped by three points.

Only Saii seemed to be used to this, and the expression on his face did not change at all.

"You Konoha ninjas are finally here, and now I have an important task for you to do. That is to help me quickly suppress all the rebels in the country!"

Ikenokuni Daimyo ate the fruit brought by the maid, and while holding a folding fan, he gave orders to the three Naruto as a superior.

Although Konoha Village is powerful, as an employer, Daimyo Ikenokuni doesn't have any respect for the ninjas in Konoha Village, and commands them just like he usually gives orders to his subordinate samurai.

"Well, Your Excellency Daming... Did you make a mistake? We haven't received any missions about Ikeno Country, and we're just passing through Ikeno Country and will return to the village soon."

Although Ikenokuni Daimyo's attitude is a bit harsh, considering that this is the lord of a country, if he speaks ill at each other, it is easy to leave a bad impression on the other party, so Sakura had to try her best to keep her tone calm, and at the same time signaled to Sai with her eyes, asking him to hold down Naruto and not let Naruto come up to make trouble.

"Are you kidding me? The power of attorney has been sent to your Konoha Village three days ago. Now you are telling me this, are you trying to tarnish Hokage's reputation?"

Ikenokuni Daimyo frowned, pushed away the maids serving him on both sides, and glanced at Sakura with some displeasure, thinking that the other party was playing with him.

"We didn't mean that, but we really didn't receive the mission about Ikenokuni... I think the Konoha ninja who took on the mission entrusted by His Excellency the Daimyo should be someone else, not our team."

Sakura explained patiently.

This kind of erroneous situation occasionally happened.

For example, when a ninja completes a mission and returns to the village, he passes through a certain country and meets a client who happened to entrust Konoha Ninja to do something. As a result, he mistakenly thinks that the team that is rushing back to Konoha is the ninja team that took their mission.

The current situation is similar. The Konoha ninja who received the task of Ikenokuni is not their seventh squad, but another unit.

In this case, generally speaking, just ignore it.

But not right now, although the rules are correct, but if you really follow the rules and leave directly, it is very likely that the name of the country of the pond will be insulted.

As the monarch of a country, it can be said that he has the power of life and death in a country. If you explain it yourself, it will appear more sincere.

After all, depending on the identity of the client, the pros and cons occasionally need to be weighed, and it cannot be generalized.

Rules are dead, and the problems encountered in reality often need to be modified to be effectively solved.

Sakura's meaning made Ikenokuni Daimyo's brows gradually relaxed, and seemed to be a little uncertain.

"Aren't you really the Konoha ninjas who came to help me?"

"Yes, our team is on the way back to Konoha, just passing by here. The Konoha ninja who received the daimyo mission should be on the way."

Sakura couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she saw that Daimyo Ikenokuni had finally listened to her words.

Ikenokuni Daimyo looked at the retainer standing next to him, it was this person who led the three of Naruto over, he gave him a hard look, as if he was blaming him for finding the wrong person.

The old retainer lowered his head in embarrassment, not daring to look at Ikenokuni Daimyo, and also realized his mistake.

The three Narutos are not the Konoha ninjas I was looking for.

Just then, a warrior came in from outside the hall.

Walk to the center of the main hall, and kneel down in front of Ikenokuniu's list.

"Master Daimyo, a Konoha ninja named Yamato is asking to see you outside."

"Yamato?"

Ikenokuni daimyo glanced at the three Narutos.

"He is the leader of our team."

Sakura replied.

Ikenokuni Daimyo tapped his head lightly with a folding fan, as if he was thinking about something seriously.

"Bring him in."

"yes."

The samurai led the way.

After a while, the warrior led Tianzang into the hall.

Tianzang saw that Naruto and the three were all fine, and nodded slightly at them, then his eyes fell on Ikenokuni Daimyo, and he stepped forward and said, "Your Excellency Daimyo."

"Are you Konoha's Jonin?"

Ikenokuni Daimyo didn't care about Tenzo's salute, but asked this question.

"Yes."

Tianzang responded neither humble nor overbearing.

The well-informed Tenzo naturally understands what is going on in the current situation. It is nothing more than that the retainers of Ikenokuni Daimyo found the wrong person, and mistakenly took the seventh class as the Konoha ninja who received the mission. And the Konoha ninja they were really looking for was still on their way and hadn't arrived in the country of Chi.

"Do you understand the current situation?"

"I can guess a little bit. So please forgive me, the Konoha team I want to accept the task will arrive soon."

The implication is that the task of Chi Zhiguo will not be involved in their seventh squad.

On the one hand, this does not comply with the rules and disrupts the task system, and on the other hand, it will also cause some disagreements among colleagues.

For Tianzang, such troubles should be thrown away as soon as possible.

"But the current situation is critical, the castle may encounter some unexpected situations at any time..." Daimyo Ikenokuni seemed hesitant, "It's better than this, I will pay you double the remuneration of Konoha, which is a temporary contract. Your team, you should also participate in this mission."

Provide double remuneration, that is to say, the remuneration assigned to the original team has not been reduced. In this way, disagreements among colleagues are avoided.

After all, this so-called disagreement, in most cases, is based on the unreasonable distribution of remuneration, and major problems have arisen.

For most Konoha ninjas, the task is a job to support their families, and they don't want to detract from any task rewards that belong to them.

"Your Excellency, this is really..."

"Needless to say, Yamato Jonin. Regarding the current situation, I will personally write to your Hokage-sama to explain, and the rewards belonging to you Konoha will not be less. In this way, you will have no worries, and you can also gain the friendship of the country of Ikeno."

Ikenokuni Daimyo saw Tenzo's refusal, and blurted out first, blocking Tenzo's words, and by the way talked about the friendship between Konoha and Ikenokuni.

If you do not agree, it is likely to affect the diplomacy of the two parties. This responsibility is too heavy for a jonin.

Tianzang smiled helplessly in his heart, what's the matter, if he had known earlier, he wouldn't have come here to soak in any hot springs.

He went out to investigate just now, and got some extremely shocking news from the people of Chizhi Countrythat is, the country is undergoing a civil war.

The militia organized by the people and the aristocratic group headed by the great masters of the Ikeno country are engaged in extremely fierce firepower collisions and openly declare war.

Many places in this country have been occupied by militia organizations, and only a few important cities are still in the hands of the aristocratic group of Chizhi Country. However, according to the trend of the battle, the people generally believe that the aristocrats have a greater chance of losing.

Intuition told him that getting involved in such a thing would mess things up.

But the words of Ikenokuni Daimyo had to be carefully considered.

If because of his refusal, the relationship between Ikenokuni and Konoha will be at odds... It will be a headache to think about it.

"How are you thinking, Yamato Jonin?"

Ikenokuni Daimyo asked.

"In that case, that's fine. However, we will stay here for one night at most. Our team will leave here early tomorrow morning and return to the village to report."

Tianzang considered it again and again, and decided to agree to it.

But the bottom line is that they can only stay here for one night. No matter what happens the next day, their seventh class will leave here and will not be involved in the disputes in the country of the pond.

"One night..." Daimyo Ikenokuni frowned thoughtfully, then opened his brows and said, "Okay, just one night. Then, I'll leave the castle safe tonight, everyone. Well, I can finally sleep peacefully now."

Ikenokuni Daimyo considered that three days had passed since he sent the letter for help to Konoha. After calculating the time, the Konoha team that actually took over his mission would arrive tomorrow at the latest, just in time to complete the handover of work.

The name Konoha Kamijino has a very high gold content in the ninja world.

Compared with Jnin in small countries, Jnin in big countries are not only strong in business ability, but also very good in strength.

Although the cost of hiring is a bit higher, it is definitely worth the money.

As long as he can protect his own safety, Ikenokuni Daimyo is not stingy with money.

Into the night.

The air in the port city is much colder than during the day.

The castle-style daimyo mansion, every important checkpoint, is full of patrolling samurai and government soldiers, armed with samurai swords and spears, vigilantly sticking to their posts under the moonlit night.

Located inside the castle is the room prepared by Ikenokuni Daimyo Naruto and his party, not far from the courtyard where Ikenokuni Daimyo is located.

If something unexpected happens, you can also provide timely support.

"I clearly said that I would take a good bath in the hot spring at night, but in the end I have to go out to patrol. That daimyo is really good at calling people..."

Naruto said in a complaining tone.

Not only him, Sakura also had some complaints on her face, being forced to accept the task of not losing to her team's troubles, no matter how you say it, it will affect her mood.

It's just that unlike Naruto, she doesn't express it verbally, but murmurs in her heart, cursing the daimyo of the country of the pond in a low voice.

Different from them coming out to patrol in the cold at night, the daimyo of Ikenokuni might be hugging his concubine at this time, enjoying the romance in the warm room.

The first impression I saw during the day was that this Ikenokuni daimyo was very good at enjoying himself, and was fundamentally different from the image of the monarch in his fantasy.

Can such a monarch who only knows how to eat, drink and have fun really manage the country well?

She knows how hard Hokage in her village is working. In order to improve the living standard of the village, it can be said that she is working hard every day to stay up late. It is precisely because of such an example that Konoha was able to quickly recover from the downturn in the previous year and grow further.

Sakura couldn't understand.

Sure enough, there is a gap between fantasy and reality.

"Don't complain, it seems that we can only go back and talk about the hot spring."

Tianzang comforted him.

"Understood, then, let's start to act."

Naruto patted his cheek vigorously in order to cheer himself up and avoid getting sleepy at this moment, and was about to act.

Suddenly there was a whistling sound, loud and clear in the night sky.

boom!

Something exploded in the dark and deep night skyit was a magnificent firework.

Taking this as a signal, countless whistling sounds rose into the sky, coming from all directions of the castle, and the loud and clear sounds continued continuously.

I saw that the originally dark and monotonous night sky was instantly dyed with colorful light, and then the gorgeous petals that exploded fell like rain one after another, like a dream.

The lonely and deserted night suddenly became lively.

Seeing this scene, Naruto was stunned.

"Eh? Is there any festival tonight?"

Not only Naruto, Tenzo, Sakura and Sai also frowned, puzzled by this.

They have never heard that there is any festival celebration in the country of the pool tonight.

In order to find out the situation, Tianzang took the lead in jumping onto the tall buildings of the castle, looking at the situation in the distance.

The three Naruto also jumped up and inspected the surroundings.

At this moment, Naruto discovered something, and pointed his finger at the sea behind the castle.

"Look, what's that!"

Under the night, the sea area was dyed pitch black, like a bottomless and terrifying quagmire, producing a frightening atmosphere.

In that dark field, there was only one light source, and the hideous silhouette of a huge steel monster loomed.

"That is"

Yamato was shocked when he saw the giant steel beast looming on the sea.

Before he could speak, the steel monster burst into a flash of light, illuminating the sea area.

Boom!

The sound of the explosion was deafening. In the wide-eyed eyes of the four, the castle tower located at the highest point of the castle turned into ruins in an instant. A large amount of rubble was scattered. The flames from the explosion surged violently in the dark night, and plunged the castle tower into a sea of flames.

All of this happened without warning, and people were caught off guard. The castle thousands of meters away from the giant steel beast was bombarded.

"What, what's going on?"

Naruto stammered and asked, this scene exceeded his imagination.

Tianzang was not in the mood to respond to Naruto, but swept out of the castle condescendingly, feeling a chill behind him.

The sound of the explosion was covered by the sound of fireworks. Under the light emitted by the fireworks, countless black shadows flickered under the light, flying like lightning, like locusts crossing the border, spreading across the mountain road in the blink of an eye, approaching Daimyo's castle.

Silent depression and horror, reminiscent of suffocation-like death.

(end of this chapter)