In Konoha, This Naruto Has Decided To Take It Easy

Chapter 328 Aren’t You Worried About Naruto?

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Land of Rivers.

A pair of reanimated parents led the way, while Naruto, disguised as Sasuke, followed behind them, feeling a bit guilty. It was truly a morally questionable move to make Sasori’s parents use their senses to find Sasori’s location after summoning them.

But when he thought that he is now using Sasuke’s appearance, his posture couldn't help but straighten a little.

"The Uchiha Clan's glory is really useful." He chuckled to himself.

A good brother is meant to be used for tricky schemes, and this dirty deed would be pinned on Sasuke. Anyway, Sasuke was already a ruthless guy, so one more bit of bad reputation wouldn’t matter.

All Naruto wanted was to live a peaceful, easy life. He really didn't want to get involved in the big trouble of digging up people's ancestral graves or other such dramas.

It is worth mentioning that the body of the Sandaime Kazekage, who was known as the strongest Kazekage, could not be found. It was likely in Sasori's hands, and already turned into a puppet.

Thus, Naruto, no, the ‘Evil Uchiha’, could only summon the Shodaime and Nidaime Kazekage, along with Sasori’s parents.

As far as he can remember, when the Akatsuki extracted Ichibi from Gaara's body, only Sasori and Deidara were actually present. The rest of the Akatsuki’s members participated remotely through Pain’s special Ninjutsu during the Biju Extraction Ritual.

The extraction of Ichibi would take three days and nights. Given that Naruto had already spent nearly a day on the journey, and factoring in the time wasted on the way from Konoha and subtracting the time Sasori and Deidara spent taking Gaara away, he estimated that the Biju Extraction Ritual had already begun and was probably halfway done.

The good news: Only Sasori and Deidara were currently in the Land of Rivers.

The bad news: Other Akatsuki’s members could remotely send in their Chakra, using Shapeshifting Technique to project about 30% of their Chakra into the battlefield. Luckily for Naruto, only two puppets would be involved this time.

On the other hand, Naruto could only rely on the four undead he summoned with Impure World Reincarnation.

Sasori’s parents were perfect tools for dealing with Sasori, and Naruto was confident that his half-baked Talk no Jutsu could make Sasori give up his grudge and reunite with his parents… permanently.

Shodaime and Nidaime Kazekage only had a fraction of their strength when they were alive, but it shouldn't be a problem for them to keep Deidara occupied. Naruto himself would handle the two puppets, but it's unclear which two people in the Akatsuki would be controlling the puppets.

If the puppets only had 30% of their original Chakra, the two combined would be roughly equivalent to half an Akatsuki’s member. After some careful calculations, Naruto figured he had the advantage.

What's more, he still has the Impure World Reincarnation at his disposal, so even mid-battle, he wouldn’t run out of reinforcements. Once he got his hands on some fragments of Sandaime Kazekage’s skin from Sasori’s hand, he could summon Sandaime Kazekage as well.

If he really can't defeat them, he could always ask his Summoned Beasts for help.

‘Well, the toads in Mount Myoboku and Katsuyu in the Shikkotsu Forest were likely not too busy.’

‘Brilliant.’

…

Meanwhile, back in the desert, Shikamaru frowned and asked, "Which way did Naruto run off to?"

Kakashi, leading the team, was guiding Team 3 and Team 10, along with Sakura, as they hurried towards their final destination in the Land of Rivers. The journey was long, and they could only push ahead as quickly as possible.

"No idea, he probably went off to investigate on his own." Choji said during a short break.

"Maybe he got lost." Kakashi said casually, leaning against a tree trunk as he pulled out his Icha Icha novel from the pouch on his waist, leisurely starting to read.

"It's been a while since I’ve had such a laid-back mission. We should be able to reach our destination by tomorrow."

"Kakashi-sensei, what kind of missions have you been doing lately?" Sakura couldn’t help but ask.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Well..." Kakashi’s smile instantly vanished, and his expression turned gray and dejected, "I haven’t had a break in a year."

"How pitiful." Choji said sympathetically, standing there as his usual large self.

"But Kakashi-sensei, aren’t you still single? Being busy doesn’t seem to be such a bad thing for single people." Sakura suddenly spoke up to comfort him.

"Is that so…" Kakashi’s face darkened even more. "I'm so sorry for existing in this world... I just want to die."

"S-Sakura! Don’t say such things!" Tenten quickly pulled Sakura away, chuckled nervously and tried her best to comfort Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, don’t take it to heart."

Ino sat on the ground with a worried look on her face. She took out a water bottle from her waist and drank a sip of water silently, listening to the noisy conversations around her without saying a word.

She knew that Naruto didn’t need anyone to worry about him. Even when Kakashi and Sakura learned about his disappearance, they were only shocked for a moment and then didn’t mention it again.

"Kakashi-sensei, aren’t you worried about Naruto?" Choji asked again.

"Worried about him?" Kakashi, with his messy white hair, glanced up at the sky. "There’s no need to be worried about him. That guy was able to slip out of the heavily guarded Sunagakure without anyone noticing. He definitely has his own plan."

"For all we know, he might already be ahead of us. So we just need to keep moving."

Hearing this, Ino felt slightly reassured, though her brow remained furrowed. Just as she was feeling down, a white and tender hand suddenly snuck up and tore off the bandage on her neck.

"Ah!" She jerked her head up, only to meet Sakura’s mischievous grin, and immediately felt a bit guilty.

"What's wrong?" Ino instinctively tried to cover her neck.

"Nothing, just checking if you still have a wound there." Sakura said, "Wounds can easily leave scars if they heal naturally. I can help you get rid of it."

"I-I don’t think there is." Ino stammered.

"Why is your face so red?"

"It’s… hot."

“You’re sweating too.”

"Yeah... it’s really hot." Ino quickly turned her head. Her heart started pounding as she recalled the embarrassing incident behind the glass door.

Fortunately, Sakura didn’t press further and turned around to continue talking to Tenten.

…

Sunagakure.

Kankuro, who had just escaped death, lay in his hospital bed, staring at the ceiling with lifeless eyes. It wasn’t until the door to his room opened that he struggled to sit up.

"Temari? What's the situation?" He asked anxiously.

"Konoha’s people went to look for Gaara. The higher-ups have instructed us to guard the borders, to prevent neighboring countries from taking advantage of the Kazekage's absence to enter the Land of Wind."

Temari said with a sigh, standing beside the hospital bed.

"You should focus on recovering. As for Gaara's matter, we can only wait for news from Konoha."

"Are you kidding me?! What are those elders doing?" Kankuro was so agitated that he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and angrily exclaimed, "Gaara is the Kazekage of this village, and now we have to rely on outsiders to save him?!"

"I get it now! Those elders never really cared about Gaara. To them, he's just a tool!"

"Kankuro, calm down." Temari said with a sorrowful expression and lowered her gaze.

"How can I calm down?! Gaara risked his life to protect this village, but in the end, they treat him like this. It's ridiculous!" Kankuro slammed his fist on the hospital bed.

"Relying solely on those people from Konoha… how can we expect them to truly do their best to save Gaara?!"

Hearing this, Temari's eyes dimmed and she remained silent. In the current situation, there was nothing she could, as the orders from the higher-ups had already been given.

Chiyo's words echoed in her mind, "The so-called allies are nothing more than a piece of paper, a show for the sake of mutual interests. If Sunagakure really takes it seriously, then it's nothing short of laughable."

After a long pause, Temari finally spoke again.

"Yesterday, the advisor, Chiyo-sama, also went there."

"What?" Kankuro was stunned. "Did she go alone?"

"Well, after those people from Konoha left." Temari said, "She’s probably after Sasori. Maybe Chiyo-sama will be able to bring Gaara back if she went there."

"Yeah." Kankuro fell silent. There were only a few who stood at the pinnacle of Puppet Technique, and Chiyo and Sasori were among them.

If even Chiyo couldn’t do it, then Kankuro going himself would be nothing but suicide.

Temari actually had another thought she didn’t share. She believed that the group from Konoha might actually have a chance of bringing Gaara back. Whether or not Sunagakure and Konoha's alliance was truly strong didn’t matter much.

At the very least, she knew that she and her brothers had good personal relationships with people in Konoha, and they had supported the Hokage and Naruto in crucial moments. Just for this reason, the Hokage wouldn’t treat this mission carelessly.

Everything has its causes and effects.

What she could do now was obey orders and lead people to guard the border. She hoped that Konoha’s group could bring Gaara back safely. And until then, she had to maintain order for Gaara’s sake.

"Kankuro, just focus on recovering."

Leaving these words, Temari gave him one last glance before turning to leave the room.