Late at night, when everything was quiet, a dark figure flashed across the rooftop of the Land of Water Daimyo's home.
The tip of a blade pointed straight at the sleeping Daimyo inside, and a chilling killing intent filled the room.
The Daimyo woke with a start, eyes wide in fear, just as the blade stopped right in front of his face.
Looking up, all he saw was a face wrapped tightly in black cloth.
"Come to this address tomorrow. Bring as many people as you can. But don't tell anyone about what happened tonight."
"Otherwise, you might not live to see tomorrow night."
Then the figure leapt out the wide-open window and vanished into the darkness.
Still shaking, the Daimyo got out of bed and scrambled to turn on the light, grabbing the paper that had fallen nearby.
He thought it might be a ransom note or something threatening, but when he looked closer, it turned out to be just a travel flyer.
Kirigakure Village? A trip to Onsen Spring?
Not just the Daimyo of the Land of Water— even Gato, the shady tycoon hoarding money in the Land of Waves — found this strange flyer in the middle of the night.
Even though none of them wanted to go, these mysterious black-cloaked figures had somehow slipped past all their guards and threatened them directly — clearly they had skills.
Everyone tried to track them down overnight, but no one could figure out where they came from or where they went.
Left with no other option, these rich and powerful people decided to go to Kirigakure Village, hiring a bunch of regular folks and foreign ninjas to go along with them, just in case it was an assassination setup.
They stayed in Kirigakure Village for a full day and night, constantly on edge. The hot spring and hotel fees were all charged per person.
While the prices weren't too bad, they brought way too many people.
Hatake Satoru made back almost all the construction costs in just one night.
That same night, he and Hozuki Mangetsu sat down for a meeting with the Daimyo of the Land of Water.
Hatake Satoru talked excitedly with them about Kirigakure's future plans — how to rebuild, attract investments, and grow the village.
At first, the Daimyo didn't seem too interested, but Hatake Satoru made everything sound amazing with his wild ideas and smooth talk.
In the end, the Daimyo agreed and said they would provide funding for the village's basic infrastructure.
Hatake Satoru even boldly promised:
"Well~ Kirigakure may be known for assassinations, but if you're here on vacation, we can guarantee your safety 100%!~"
"So not only is it a great place to relax — it's also a great place to hide from assassins!"
Shisui, standing nearby with a drink, nearly spat out his water. Hatake Satoru was lying so confidently — when he was the one who had threatened these people in the first place.
And now he was turning that into a selling point.
Basically, Hatake Satoru's plan was to pull in rich investors first, and use their money to fix the financial problems left by the previous Mizukage.
And these wealthy people had more influence too.
This way, the village could quickly clean up its image as "the Bloody Mist" and replace it with something better, like hot springs and tourism.
He even wanted to turn the so-called assassin's hideout into a safe place from assassins.
The goal was to shift the village's target audience from ninjas to regular people.
With the Daimyo and the rich people from nearby small nations promoting it—
Just a few months later, thanks to the constant flow of tourists, Kirigakure's economy began to grow rapidly.
…
Meanwhile, in the Land of Fire, at Konohagakure—
Students at the ninja academy were lined up in a noisy mess near the training field.
A group of kids chatted nonstop while Iruka called them up two by two for sparring matches.
Naruto was resting his chin on Sasuke's shoulder, hanging on him like a dead weight, drawing strange looks from the girls nearby.
"It feels like it's been almost a year already, and there's still no news from Satoru. I wonder when he'll come back."
"He said he'd write or something, but we haven't gotten anything."
Naruto glanced sadly toward the civilian school.
Ever since Hatake Satoru left, the teachers there stopped letting him sneak in to sit in on classes.
So now, he could only stay in the ninja school like everyone else.
"You're the only loser who would believe what he said."
"Maybe he died out there, so he can't write anymore."
Sasuke replied with an annoyed tone.
Usually, Sasuke didn't respond when Naruto pestered him.
But the moment he heard Hatake Satoru's name, he got irritated — he had to say something back.
"Why do you always argue with me about this? You're saying stuff like that because you don't understand Satoru at all!"
"He's super strong! And I'm sure it's not that he doesn't want to write — maybe he just can't find a place to send letters from!"
"You're just jealous that I'm closer to him than you are!"
Naruto suddenly perked up and turned to argue with Sasuke.
"Jealous of that? As if. Neither of you are even that likable."
Sasuke didn't back down and stood on his toes to match Naruto's height, frowning in disgust.
Their foreheads bumped as if they were about to start fighting.
"You were just jealous of how close Itachi and Satoru were— Ow!"
Before Naruto could finish, Sasuke punched him.
Part of it was that he didn't want Naruto shouting Itachi's name in front of everyone, but mostly, he just didn't want to admit he really was jealous of Hatake Satoru.
"Hey—if you two want to fight, do it outside. Don't cause trouble in the squad."
Iruka quickly stepped in, holding the attendance sheet, and pulled them apart—one in each hand—dragging them into the white training circle.
The two of them were often together, but their relationship was a bit different from what you'd call a typical friendship.
After the Uchiha clan was wiped out, the last survivor and the boy with the Nine-Tails inside him had this shared feeling of being alone.
Iruka glanced at the group of girls nearby cheering for Sasuke and let out a tired sigh.
The biggest difference between the two was probably that, aside from Obito, Sasuke had that natural Uchiha charm that always drew girls in.
Sasuke and Naruto quickly formed the seal of confrontation and rushed at each other.
For a second, everything around them went quiet.
In a flash, Sasuke landed a clean hit and knocked Naruto flat on the ground, standing over him and staring down.
"That guy's not a good person anyway."
After saying that, Sasuke stood up and stepped aside.
He didn't actually hate Hatake Satoru that much, but having someone call out his jealousy so directly—it was just really annoying.
"Alright, Sasuke wins. Now make the seal of reconciliation."
Naruto gave Sasuke a grumpy look, then glanced at Iruka standing nearby.
He couldn't win by talking, and he couldn't win by fighting either. Naruto shot a fierce glare at Sasuke, who just stood there looking indifferent.
"I'm not doing it! What he said isn't right!"
Naruto stuck out his tongue and made a silly face at both of them before jumping over the fence surrounding the training area.
As he walked toward the shopping street, he was fuming quietly to himself.
He hadn't gone far when the smell of ramen drifted to his nose.
Naruto's stomach growled right on cue—"gurgle~." He quickly pulled out his green wallet from his pocket and checked how much cash he had left.
"Alright, it's already this late anyway—let's eat first!"
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