Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

Chapter 170 The Wise Will of Fire

The path through the woods became increasingly damp.

The sea breeze, filtering through the gaps in the trees, carried an undiminished salty tang that lashed directly at everyone's faces.

Nara Naoka, who was walking at the very front, did not change his pace at all.

He navigated the path with ease, like a local who knew it so well he could walk it with his eyes closed, effortlessly avoiding the slippery moss and tangled tree roots.

After passing through a patch of low bushes, two figures appeared at a fork in the road not far ahead.

They were two men dressed as fishermen, wearing straw hats, carrying fishing rods on their shoulders, and holding buckets full of fish, as if they were about to finish work and go home.

The two men, with dark skin and a simple, honest look typical of fishermen, were talking in hushed tones in a dialect that was difficult for outsiders to understand.

Upon seeing Nara Naoka and his group, the two stopped talking abruptly.

They paused slightly, then naturally moved aside to make way for each other.

However, Uchiha Kagami saw something completely different in his Sharingan.

The moment the two men appeared, my peripheral vision, like the most sensitive probe, quickly swept over Danzo and him, as well as the shadowy silhouettes in the woods behind them.

Their muscles were taut, and their chakra flowed smoothly and restrainedly, ready to transform from a weary fisherman into a deadly ninja at any moment.

Nara Naoka did not pause in his steps, only giving a very slight nod as he passed by them.

The two responded with a barely perceptible movement, and then, as if they were truly exhausted, they carried their buckets and slowly walked towards the village.

These are mobile sentries lurking around the perimeter of the bay.

well.

This is what the roots should look like.

They soon emerged from the dense forest, and their view opened up before them.

A soft sandy beach stretched out beneath my feet, and the sound of the waves became clear and rhythmic, crashing against the shore again and again, churning up white foam.

On the beach not far away, two middle-aged men, dressed in ordinary fishermen's clothes, were sitting on a rock, leisurely fishing.

Further away, near a group of reefs, a wisp of smoke could be faintly seen rising from a fire, and a woman was busy around it, with the aroma of roasting fish wafting through the air.

Nara Naoka didn't say anything, but just glanced at the two men fishing.

The two seemed oblivious, remaining focused on their fishing rods.

But Danzo and Kagami both knew that from the moment they stepped out of the woods, at least three pairs of eyes were fixed on them from different angles.

These are all visible sentries.

The most ordinary scenes are used to build the most stringent warning line.

Danzo's face remained expressionless, but a hint of satisfaction flickered in his hawk-like eyes.

The three continued forward, along the edge of the beach, around a patch of jagged rocks.

Soon, the entrance to a huge bay, surrounded on three sides, appeared before them.

When they finally turned past the reef and saw the entire bay, even someone as composed as Uchiha Kagami couldn't help but pause for a moment.

Before us lay a vast yet secluded body of water.

The bay is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, with its only entrance facing the vast sea. The treacherous terrain naturally forms an insurmountable barrier.

On this calm water, ten enormous ships were quietly moored.

The ships were entirely black, and in the last rays of the setting sun, instead of reflecting light, they seemed to swallow up all the surrounding light, almost blending into the dark seawater.

A cold, chilling metallic scent wafted over me.

Among them, three flagship-class warships were particularly large, with wide decks and powerful hull lines, like three steel behemoths lurking in the abyss, silently accumulating power enough to overturn everything, exuding an unspoken sense of oppression.

This is Konoha's fleet.

This is the Root organization that, during a peaceful period unknown to anyone, spent countless efforts and resources to secretly build up a naval force in the most inconspicuous corner of the Land of Fire.

"This is a coating mixed with special mineral powder."

Nara Naokaze's voice broke the silence at just the right moment, pointing to the dark hulls of the ships with pride in his voice.

"Developed by the Root Technology Team, it can absorb light to the maximum extent, making it extremely difficult to be seen with the naked eye when sailing at night."

After a brief pause, he added another sentence.

"According to the tests conducted by the technical team, this coating also has a certain interference effect on some types of sensory detection."

Danzo walked to the edge of the bay, reached out, and touched the cold hull of a warship.

That rough and hard texture.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the sleek and powerful lines of the warships.

These ships have clearly undergone special modifications, with a longer and narrower hull, sacrificing some carrying space but gaining greater speed and maneuverability.

This fleet is like a pack of wolves lurking in the darkness, ready at any moment to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy with maximum speed.

Uchiha Kagami slowly exhaled, the shock in his chest still difficult to calm down.

He looked at Nara Naokaze beside him, this seemingly ordinary middle-aged man, this Nara clansman whose deep-seated shrewdness was etched into his very bones.

"Naoka...you guys..."

"This is no longer just about being prepared."

"This was taken into consideration from the very beginning as a large-scale war spanning the entire eastern sea area."

Faced with Uchiha Kagami's praise, Nara Naofuka's face didn't show much expression, only revealing the Nara clan's signature smile, which indicated a sense of trouble.

"Yes."

"The Hokage once said that the preparations we make are never for dealing with possible dangers, but for dealing with inevitable dangers, even if that inevitability will take ten, twenty, or even a hundred years to arrive."

"Long-term, forward-looking risk management and investment are one of the reasons for the existence of the root."