While the Hyuga clan was going through its internal restructuring, Naruto, Ino, and Haku were strolling through the Land of Sound or, as it was previously known as, the Land of Rice Paddies, which, considering there were Rice Paddies everywhere, was a much more fitting name.
Although Jiraiya was traveling with them, he ran off a few minutes ago to do “something important”. If it came to spotting women he could peak on, Jiraiya’s senses somehow managed to surpass Naruto’s, so he had no idea where Jiraiya currently was but wasn’t to bother about it. Sooner or later, he will reappear.
Currently, Ino was walking by Naruto’s right side and was h*lding his h*and, while Haku was doing the same on his left side. None of them said anything as a peaceful atmosphere surrounded the trio.
However, after walking like that for about half an hour, a weird expression appeared on Naruto’s face, which Ino and Haku naturally noticed.
“What’s wrong, Naruto?”
Naruto smiled weakly when he heard Haku’s question.
“It seems we are about to meet an acquaintance.”
“An acquaintance?”
“Yeah, he will be here soon.”
Ino was just about to open her mouth and ask who was coming when her head snapped in a certain direction.
“No way to think we would meet him here.”
A pout appeared on Haku’s face when she heard Ino’s words. Of the trio, her sensing capabilities were by far the weakest, so she was a little annoyed that the other two still hadn’t told her who would be coming.
Moments later, three people landed in front of the trio, and when Haku saw the person leading the group, her eye’s widened in surprise.
Black hair, black eyes, and an arrogant smirk on his face; who else could it be but Sasuke Uchiha? Following him was a man with smooth white hair, purple eyes, and pointed teeth that had a big sword strapped to his back and a large man with orange hair and red-orange eyes that was giving of a peaceful aura.
A deep sigh escaped Naruto’s mouth when he saw Sasuke’s arrogant smirk.
“Listen, Sasuke; I’m currently on a date with my girlfriends, so how about we forgot we meet each other and go our ways?”
Sasuke’s sneer grew even wider as he happily interpreted Naruto’s words as Naruto being afraid of him.
“Hehe, that’s right, you should be afraid of my power now. While you wasted your time playing around with women, I was getting more and more powerful.”
Naruto, Ino, and Haku rolled their eyes at Sasuke’s words, and Naruto continued speaking.
“Yes, yes, I’m terrified. Anyway, we’ll be leaving now.”
The trio was just about to walk away when Sasuke drew out his sword and pointed it at Naruto.
“I don’t think so. You will serve as a good stepping stone before I take my revenge on Yuna and Itachi. Jugo, Suigetsu, take out the women; I will deal with Naruto.”
“GAHAHAHA, KILL!!! I WILL KILL THEM ALL!!!”
As soon as Sasuke finished speaking, the big person with orange hair, called Jugo, started laughing like a maniac, while his facial features distorted in madness and his skin became darker.
Without a moment of hesitation, he charged at the trio and jumped toward Ino, causing an annoyed expression to appear on her face. She was not happy that her date with Naruto was interrupted.
Despite that, she took some distance from Naruto and lured Jugo away so that she could fight him without distractions. Since Sasuke wanted to be beaten up in a one-on-one fight, she didn’t mind fulfilling his wish.
Haku came to the same conclusion, so, without any further delay, she attacked the person with long white hair, Suigetsu.
Meanwhile, Naruto’s face deadpanned when he saw Sasuke’s teammate go crazy as soon as the fight started.
“It seems like you surrounded yourself with like-minded people, Sasuke. Good job.”
“Mmph, instead of speaking nonsense, you should be worried about yourself and your two little girlfriends.”
Naruto could only shake his head when he heard Sasuke’s words.
“Those two can handle themselves; as for me, sorry, but you are not my match.”
Sasuke disappeared from his position and reappeared in front of Naruto with his sword already reeled backward. Moments later, it pierced through Naruto’s shoulder while a disdainful smirk appeared on Sasuke’s face.
“Are you sure about that?”
*Boom*
A second Naruto appeared next to Sasuke, and moments later, a loud sound echoed over the clearing as fist met face, sending Sasuke flying backward, while the Naruto who was stabbed just now turned into a smoke cloud.
“Yeah, pretty sure, you know.”
Sasuke slowly got up from the ground and glared at Naruto, with his two Sharingan menacingly shining.
“I will definitely kill you, Naruto.”
“Haha, sure, bring it.”
Meanwhile, Ino was sitting on a boulder while casually humming to herself and watching Jugo fighting an enemy only he could see around 100 meters away from her.
‘How interesting; I decided to take a peek into his head to see what the mind of a crazy person is like, but his real personality is actually someone who prefers peace, and he only goes crazy due to rampaging Natural Energy.’
‘I guess I will make him waste some more energy before I get rid of him. I don’t want to be hit by any stray projectiles, after all.’
‘Mhh, now that I think about it, his transformation is somewhat similar to the way Naruto described Orochimaru’s curse seal to me. Maybe Yuna will be interested in this guy? Oh well, I guess I will just knock him out and store him in one of the scrolls Naruto gave to me.’
At the same time, Haku’s fight against Suigetsu was even more anti-climatic. Suigetsu could turn his whole body into water; Haku can use Ice Style…
Anyway, currently, every part of Suigetsu’s body was turned into an ice statue except for his head. While Suigetsu was furiously cursing Haku, she kept poking his face curiously and watched him turn into water with fascination.
‘How can someone turn entirely into water and not die? How fascinating. I will bag this one up and give him to Yuna later. She might be interested in finding out how his body works.’
