Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 213 Xiao's Mission

Is the information guaranteed to be accurate?

“It’s true, I specifically asked about the east wind in the Land of Earth.”

"Then I'll believe you."

Don't you trust me to handle things?

It's no exaggeration to say that the entire southern Sichuan region is teeming with "Hui" (a group of agents). This is their main base; they've long had people lying in wait in the shadows in nearby key industries, and there are plenty of early established bases. Their rapid capture of Wande City is the result of years of accumulated experience. Therefore, once a stranger enters this area, there's no need to worry about losing them. They've already entered a vast ocean of people, and there's a comprehensive, all-encompassing perception network woven by the members of Qian Shou (a group of agents).

This is why Shisui dared to go out and investigate intelligence, instead of secretly following Itachi and Kisame.

After confirming that the two had come disguised from the Land of Earth, Shisui relaxed slightly. They were most likely not after Wande City, but rather someone else. A quick check of their entry records along their route would clearly identify their target. Were a few scholars from the Land of Earth really worth all this fuss?

Shisui couldn't be sure whether Akatsuki's mission was surveillance or murder. Onoki treated Akatsuki as his sharpest blade, and all the missions he issued were assassinations and intrusions. Would this time be the same? He decided to investigate the group himself first. Only by making real contact could he determine the real reason why they were being targeted.

Out of caution, Shisui grabbed a strongman from the Senju clan and used his Sharingan to observe the five people from a distance. At this point, he understood why Itachi had been so cautious. Four of the five were ordinary people, but one of them was glowing blue in his field of vision, and even suddenly turned his head to meet the Sharingan's gaze. Shisui reflexively closed his eyes and pretended to be chatting with the person next to him. They were indeed talking, but the conversation leaned more towards astonishment.

"My God! I only realized something was wrong when I got this close. This guy's chakra..." The Senju youth suddenly froze. He looked over again with a look of utter disbelief and rubbed his eyes, which were useless for his senses.

Shisui quickly pulled the man aside, smiling but his tone was quite anxious, "Don't look at him like that. What's wrong with his chakra?"

The young man with a thousand hands looked as if he were dreaming. After being urged several times, he slowly said, "It seems... to resemble Lord Golden Wheel... by a tiny bit..."

Now, Shisui's eyes widened as well. The other person was no longer paying attention to them, but remained at the back of the group, his entire body tense. Keep in mind, behind them weren't just the investigating Shisui, but also Itachi and Kisame! The only ninja among the five stood between the two groups, ensuring any attack had to pass through his position.

No wonder they haven't taken any action yet; it turns out there's a troublesome guy keeping them in check!

Didn't yesterday's announcement say Naruto was taking a break? Just how many shadow clones did this guy release? There's even a clone with this level of energy! To still have this level of energy even with a concealment array, that's equivalent to several of him!

"Could it be that Lord Jinlun is personally protecting them? Should we coordinate? For example, find some reason to separate them?" The Senju family member immediately got into the zone; the intelligence department personnel's reaction speed was truly exceptional, already considering a solution.

Akatsuki currently has no record of randomly killing civilians. Since they are already rogue ninja, if they were to continue indiscriminately harming ordinary people, the various countries would likely issue kill orders instead of arrest warrants. Therefore, to stop Akatsuki in their disguised state, having ordinary people handle the situation might be surprisingly effective.

Seeing that the young man from the Thousand Hands was about to establish a telepathic connection, Shisui quickly stopped him, saying, "If that really is Lord Jinlun, then he is also in a disguise. Even I, who was directly given the order, didn't know about this, which shows that Lord Jinlun doesn't want others to know."

"What should we do? We can't just pretend we didn't see them! That's Akatsuki, the Golden Wheel Lord, with four burdens. Can he handle it?" The young man was still worried and wished he could rush down to help.

“Am I not human?” Zhi Shui was not one to give up. He had already come up with a plan. “I just read their lips. They are planning to take the earliest bus to Wande City tomorrow. They might still be able to buy tickets now. As long as we keep a close eye on them tonight and make sure Xiao doesn’t have a chance to make a move, that will be fine.”

The shuttle bus was a byproduct of the previous "Transportation Construction Plan." The roads weren't fully completed, and the steam engines were still in the testing phase, so they couldn't possibly implement future technology now. However, during the raids on wealthy merchants' homes, those ornate and excessive carriages were incorporated into the transportation system. Previously, each carriage only carried one or two people, a considerable waste of resources, so Hui made some modifications to these existing carriages, adding many seats and uniformly changing the single-horse drive to two-horse drive. Important county towns already had trade routes between them; with a little repair, they could become smooth highways.

As the largest city in the region, Wande City naturally established an experimental route, increasing the number of round trips from three per day to over ten. Before the New Year, commuting pressure was immense; they even suspended commercial transport used as cover, replacing it with a flying thunder god formation, and borrowed all the horses for trade routes from the newly established Ministry of Transportation. However, after the New Year, commuting demand significantly decreased, and bus tickets went from being extremely difficult to obtain to being quite plentiful.

"Wow~ It feels so nice to see the scenery like this~" The person who had just gotten up at noon was already on the bus from Beichen to Wande City, looking around with great curiosity. He had indeed ridden trams in the future, but he hadn't ridden in carriages much, especially not this kind of semi-open carriage. This was the idea he had come up with, and today was the first time he had experienced it.

"Haha, actually the scenery from Wande City to Qifeng Town is the best, that route passes by a big waterfall!" Hashirama, who had already gone out to have fun countless times, exclaimed.

"Aunt Mikoto must have ridden in one too, right? Which one do you think is better looking?"

"Hmm... I prefer the coastal route, the one to Huichuan. You can see the sea along the whole route there, and it makes you feel more open-minded."

"Alright, I've got it all written down. I'm definitely going to ride them all on this trip!"