Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 174 "Calm Down"

"The ninja world has been so peaceful lately~" a pale, half-human figure remarked in the darkness.

Isn't it peaceful? Since the Konoha Crush Plan, the five nations have been at peace, with even the probing between them being extremely rare.

The honeymoon period between the Kazekage and Sunagakure was to be expected. After all, Sunagakure had foolishly chosen the wrong side. Although they eventually realized their mistake and made some amends, they still needed to show sincerity to regain trust. Furthermore, with the Fourth Kazekage killed in a sneak attack, the village couldn't find a suitable successor, forcing the elders to temporarily assume the duties of the Kage. A village without a Kage is like a village without its spiritual anchor; Sunagakure naturally declined and had to recuperate.

Although the Land of Fire lost its Third Hokage, it quickly elected a new Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. Although the First Hokage had been gone for a long time, his prestige remained, and even the Kage of other countries had to give this princess some respect.

The Land of Rock had intended to cause trouble, but a scandal on the border uncovered a huge human trafficking ring, leading to widespread public resentment. Lawsuits and protests kept the daimyo busy, leaving him with no time to cause trouble elsewhere.

The Fourth Hokage of the Land of Lightning, A, owed Tsunade a favor, and he was grateful enough not to cause trouble shortly after the Fifth Hokage took office. Furthermore, the lost Turtle Island was discovered by Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and Naruto deliberately brought Kurama out for a spin, shattering the Cloud Village's confidence that possessing a perfect Jinchuriki was an advantage. For those Cloud Village members who worshipped strength, demonstrating power was a good way to maintain peace.

The Land of Water is arguably the most pitiful. The leadership of Kirigakure was riddled with holes by Akatsuki, and having only recently ended the Blood Mist Era, they suffered the greatest loss of talent and outflow of personnel. It might not be able to recover for at least ten years. They were simply unlucky to have messed with the Uchiha.

Akatsuki did not intercept all of the above information; at least, they were unaware of the battle between Konoha and Kumogakure on Turtle Island. What they observed was that even the most restless Kumogakure was unusually quiet.

“Zetsu, ‘quiet’ isn’t good for us.” Tobi, wearing a vortex mask, stood with his arms crossed. On the wall in front of him was a three-meter-high map, meticulously marking the locations of the most famous ninjas in the ninja world. The territories of the five great nations were, of course, the worst affected areas, covered with the large heads of their respective ninjas, while the buffer zones had very few ninjas.

"Xiao's income dropped by 11 percent last year, which is very unreasonable."

"Because the Bird Country isn't at war anymore, the days of both sides sending us money are over," White Zetsu retorted without any politeness.

Afei turned his head, the only black hole on his mask glowing red. "It's not just that one country; many small countries in various regions don't fight much anymore. This situation started a few years ago, and recently ceasefires have become more and more frequent, even leading to ceasefires by regional powers like the Bird Country..."

Black Zetsu appeared out of nowhere and interrupted him with an extremely sharp question.

"Ah Fei, do you want them to keep fighting? It's simple."

Afei didn't answer immediately; he was stunned.

Does he want the war to continue? No, that's not right. What he truly desires is an end to the war! How can he possibly want the war to continue just because of the declining numbers on the financial report? Akatsuki's original intention was to bring peace to the world, and isn't the world slowly moving towards peace now? It's just that it's not Akatsuki that's making the difference, but rather an unknown change.

...That's not quite right either. The five nations are only temporarily at peace. The arms race has never stopped. Each nation is only temporarily spared from fighting due to external and internal factors. As long as their armies are strong and their ninja villages need war to alleviate the pressure brought by the population boom, they will still fight each other to the death for resources.

This is the cycle of history, and it has never changed.

He is doing something so that the next war will be the last; how can he waver?

Afei turned around and picked up a desert people's robe from the wall where clothes were hanging. He slowly put it on, then organized his weapons inventory and packed his belongings, looking as if he was about to leave.

"Where are you going?" Black Zetsu asked.

"Let's go see our old customers." The space around Afei distorted and quickly swallowed his figure completely.

Black Zetsu silently slid to the intelligence wall. In the center of the far left of the large map was a bright headshot. The silver and dark blue in the photo occupied the upper and lower halves perfectly, highlighting the person's mystery.

He knew that the kid was just making excuses. Every time this guy went on a long mission, Obito would find all sorts of excuses to put the important matters aside and try to run away. This time was no exception.

If Madara hadn't given him that specific instruction before he died, he would have already found a way to kill him. However, he had to admit that Madara did offer a good suggestion, which was probably a common sentiment among those who were also in despair.

Madara, even after faking his own death, never intended to kill that troublesome man; it was that man's own incompetence that led to his passing after only a few years. Having lost everything, Madara also lost his motivation. How long did he remain underground? Twenty years? By the time he rallied, the Third Hokage of Konoha had been in power for some time. Leaving Kakashi behind was, in a way, leaving Obito and this world with their only remaining connection. A person with something to hold onto and a goal will never lose their motivation.

He would do everything in his power to send his love and concern into that perfect world he imagined.

"You actually secretly took Sasuke to his birthday party without telling me!" Sakura's increasingly heavy punch was dodged by Naruto, but the punch slammed into a poor tree in the training ground, instantly snapping the tree in half.

Naruto said with a forced smile, "Wasn't that... in the middle of a mission?"

"Did your Flying Thunder God Technique get eaten?" Sakura asked with a terrifying smile, clearly resentful that she hadn't been able to deliver the gift in time.

It's not Sakura's fault. While working overtime at the hospital, she also had to undergo Tsunade's grueling training. Even if her ribs were broken, she could heal them quickly. For minor injuries, she even had to treat them herself despite the pain. If it were him, he would also be furious.

The human-shaped punching bag dodged left and right, finally perfectly avoiding Sakura's outburst. It was clear that Sakura's skills had improved dramatically, and each punch was a devastating blow, completely following Tsunade's style. However, Naruto felt that this kind of attack actually paired well with genjutsu; once the opponent was controlled, a punch from them would be impossible to dodge.

"I'll take the gift to Sasuke later. Sakura, are you still practicing genjutsu lately?"

Sakura gave him a long, sullen look and said, "Guess what the first hand seal I made was for."

"..." I'm really sorry I can't fall for illusions!