Naruto: As a genin, I just want to live a normal life.

Page 160

"Twelve...twelve..."

"Hey, it can't be that bad. It's only 120,000 yen." Mikoto couldn't help but complain when she saw the way the guy was acting.

He patted his cheeks and pointed to the ramen price list on his head. The most expensive ramen set meal was only 1,000 taels, and the regular signature ramen was only 90 taels: "Look how much my bowl of ramen costs!"

"120,000... Waaah—how many ramen noodles do I have to make?"

"As expected of a ninja from the Uchiha Security Department, they really know how to put people down."

Suddenly, in the darkness of the night, a blonde woman wearing glasses walked into the shop.

"Hey bro! I'd like two bowls of tonkotsu ramen and two servings of seafood toppings."

"Yes! It'll be ready soon!!"

Seeing that customers had arrived, Shouda immediately regained his energy and continued making noodles.

"Nonou, you're here too. You're off work so early today?" Mikoto knew it was Nonou without even turning her head and casually remarked.

Then, Nonou sat down to Shirahoshi's left. "Unlike you. You're the vice-captain of the Uchiha Security Force, yet instead of on duty at the security building, you sneak off to eat ramen!"

"I bet you're planning to sneak away!"

"I would never be so despicable. We agreed on fair competition, so we'll compete fairly."

"Humph."

Stare—x2

Shirahoshi ignored the intense gazes between the two women and silently ate her noodles.

After finishing her meal, Mikoto revealed her true purpose for coming: "Teacher, we have a task to do tomorrow."

"Mission?" Nono's tone tightened. "What mission? It's not another one of those dangerous missions from before, is it?"

“No,” Mikoto shook her head. “I’m going to a place to gather intelligence. Just be careful, and everything will be fine.”

"Phew. That's more like it." Nono patted her chest.

Shirahoshi: "......"

"The place you're talking about, it wouldn't happen to be...?"

#

Early the next morning.

The entrance to Konoha Village.

Bai Xing slung her backpack over her shoulder, her eyes turning into dead fish eyes.

Damn it! I just got back from Loulan not long ago! Why do I have to go there again...? Just thinking about how everyone in the codenamed members except Rope Tree knows my identity...

He couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Furthermore, Bai Xing wore a silver ring on her hand, with an oriental dragon encircling it: it was an ultra-long-distance communication tool developed by Loulan.

But the signal was poor.

Unlike direct communication via telephone, information can only be transmitted in a way similar to physical communication methods like WeChat and QQ.

In addition, Shirahoshi has another way to instantly cross two locations and complete a face-to-face conversation.

The art of divine intervention.

It is the Lightning Release ninjutsu of Mabui, a Cloud Village ninja who will grow up in the future.

It is also a space-time ninjutsu within the Lightning Release ninjutsu.

Logically speaking, someone with the talent to use this ninjutsu should also be able to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique.

After all, without spatial talent, the Heavenly Delivery Technique cannot transmit 'things' to their destination.

The principle is the same, except that the spatial channel of the Heavenly Delivery Technique is extremely narrow, and the outside of the channel is a spatial-level super-high speed formed by spatial power.

The ultra-high-speed friction containing spatial power will cause the 'item' to become tattered and broken upon reaching the destination without any protective measures.

The Flying Thunder God Technique is equivalent to compressing the distance of the spatial channel and expanding the intermediate channel between the target and the destination to a space that can accommodate at least one person or even more, thereby increasing the speed of the technique and ensuring that the space-time transfer is unharmed.

Shirahoshi only spent about a month researching space-time ninjutsu because she had previously been researching sage techniques, so she could only develop the lightning release technique, Heavenly Delivery Technique.

Furthermore, he has secretly used it a few times, and items can be teleported from Konoha Village to his tower room.

The downside is that they all turned into fragments or powder.

In other words, the risk of teleportation is extremely high, and we haven't tried sending a shadow clone yet: we're afraid of the pain.

"Teacher~~~"

The voice interrupted Bai Xing's thoughts. She looked up slightly at the newcomer and saw that the young woman was dressed in what looked like a summer outfit for a vacation.

Jiraiya stood next to Shirahoshi, looking utterly listless. As he turned his head, he couldn't help but exhale white breath from his nostrils. Shirahoshi glanced at him speechlessly, thinking to himself, "Weren't you just looking so dejected? You really are a pervert."

Softly, she hugged Shirahoshi's arm in the next moment. Shirahoshi turned her head and saw that her arm was almost embedded in the bottomless black gap: "Mikoto, it's too close."

Thankfully, he's no longer a virgin. Shyness is simply not an option for him.

Poker face, poker face—

"Teacher, your face seems a little red. Are you shy?" Mikoto looked up and noticed that although Shirahoshi looked calm, the slight blush on her cheeks betrayed her inner turmoil.

"You're dressed like that, you're not on a mission, are you?"

"No, no, no~" Mikoto gestured with her fingers, "I'm a passenger now, you know~"

"Passengers?" x2

“That’s right.” Tsunade walked up from behind. Jiraiya and Shirahoshi looked up, and Mikoto turned her head to look. “This mission is for Mikoto to pretend to be a wealthy young lady on a trip.”

"The three of us will serve as her guards and go to Loulan to gather intelligence."

Tsunade's appearance is almost unchanged from four years ago, just like Shirahoshi's, but her eyes have a more mature and somber look. "Let me make it clear first, once you enter Loulan, you must not use ninjutsu unless you encounter danger."

"Scientific ninja tools?" Jiraiya stroked his chin.

"Yes." Tsunade nodded.

Shirahoshi knew that the scientific ninja tools they were referring to were the various chakra weapons, armor, goggles, monitors, and other gadgets he had invented, designed specifically for ninjas.

......

The closest border between Konoha and the country is the border of the Himawari River.

The distance between the two can be bridged by a ninja traveling at full speed for several hours.

However, in order not to arouse suspicion from the Sand Village ninja of the Land of Wind, they specially rented a carriage from a post station on the border of the Fire River and began their journey towards the ancient kingdom of Loulan.

As a result, the ancient kingdom of Loulan, which could originally be reached in two days and one night, now requires an extra day or two.

The wind howls, and the new "Construction Site Dust Removal" version of the Water Gate is now online.

Within the land of rivers, the combination of the scorching afternoon sun and the backbreaking labor caused the young man's forehead, arms, and body to bead with sweat.

Numbness, exhaustion, and endless emptiness.

Are these the prisoners who went to labor camps?

Minato swore that he would never cause trouble in that godforsaken place, Loulan, again in his lifetime.

After a week of hard labor, Minato had resigned himself to his fate. He figured that once their sentences were over, they could return to Konoha and be heroes again.

While Akimichi Choza was working, he secretly came to Minato's side and whispered something to him:

"Minato, tell me, what exactly are these ninja tools we wear made of? Why can we only use chakra but not ninjutsu?"

Upon hearing this, Minato glanced down at his own number sixty-six and sighed, "Who knows?"

"I've never heard of such a high-level ninja tool in all my life."

—It allows ninjas to use ninjutsu to enhance their ability to move soil and stones, while preventing them from gathering chakra to successfully use ninjutsu to resist or escape.

This completely shattered the worldview of Minato and the other Konoha ninjas!

"Hey, Minato. Look at that person walking on the road, isn't that Lord Jiraiya?!" Just as Akimichi Choza was about to continue digging stones on that mountain, he suddenly noticed a carriage traveling on a forest road not far away, with Jiraiya sitting outside driving it.

“It really is! But…” Minato picked up a rock, looked up, and halfway through his sentence, he couldn’t help but glance at Rope Tree, who was in charge of supervising the construction of the mountain, out of the corner of his eye. “It seems that the prison guards of Loulan have also discovered it.”

Click, click——

Apart from Rope Tree, the other prison guards all activated the safety switches to prevent their pistols from accidentally discharging, and their eyes all turned to look.

Jiraiya also noticed Minato, Akimichi Choza, and the other missing people, and his grip on the reins froze slightly.

"Tsunade, I think I saw Minato."

"Do you want to take action?"

Inside the carriage, Tsunade, who had been resting, suddenly opened her eyes: "Are there any people from Loulan here?"

"I saw some Loulan soldiers in uniform, about fifteen of them."

"There's also a young man with brown hair in a ponytail and wearing a cow horn mask... Could that be Rope Tree?"

Tsunade shook her head: "Nawaki doesn't like having long hair, and it's impossible for her to become that person's henchman."

Outside, Jiraiya stopped the carriage, leaned against the side, and asked, "I see. Then...?"

—The squad leader for this A-rank intelligence gathering mission is Tsunade.

The air was quiet for a while, and the people digging stones in the mountain mining area also stopped working.

Naruto Uzumaki used a shovel to support himself, looked up, and realized that everyone had stopped working.

Sai listened and looked up in one direction.

"Sai, what's wrong with you...?"

"It's Lord Jiraiya."

"What?" Naruto turned his head and realized that the young Jiraiya was working as a stable boy... but obviously, he was pretending to be a stable boy on a mission.

And the objective of the mission...

"Do it!"

At Tsunade's command, Jiraiya dismounted from the carriage and tied his horse to a tree. Then, Uchiha Mikoto, dressed in her battle uniform, Shirahoshi, her face slightly flushed, and the calm Tsunade slowly stepped out of the carriage.

I've grown up...