Hayato Kamihara was comfortably soaking in the hot spring.
These past few days following Ryosuke, he had earned a pot-full and bowl-full of money, but was also exhausted to the point of mental dizziness.
Tonight, he had arranged to meet a girl from the Land of Lightning. Hayato Kamihara needed to properly relax.
"Soaking in hot springs and eating girls, even the Daimyōs can't compare to me."
Hayato Kamihara softly hummed, extremely satisfied with the haiku he had written himself. The more he chanted, the more he felt it had rhythm.
He pushed his hair back behind his head, revealing rather handsome features, but his brows and expression were far too lecherous. Wrapped in a bathrobe, he staggered and lifted the curtain.
"Beauty, I'm coming...!"
He raised his tone, suddenly opened the bath curtain, hoping to hear the Land of Lightning girl's signature coquettish moan.
Silence.
There was no girl in front of him.
Ryosuke and Sasuke were each sitting on one side of the sofa.
Ryosuke didn't want to see the eye-burning scene and turned his head away, while Sasuke used his thumb and index finger to form a hand gesture that would enrage anyone.
"What the… why are you two haunting me like ghosts?!" Hayato Kamihara was truly angry now.
'Didn't they agree to go on their respective vacations?'
"Sorry, after thinking it over, I still had to come to you."
Ryosuke dragged out the unconscious Sato from behind the door, took out the encrypted intel he had retrieved earlier, and handed it to Hayato Kamihara, recounting everything that had happened.
"Please help me determine whether it's real or fake," Ryosuke said.
The lust in Hayato Kamihara's eyes faded, replaced with helplessness. He sighed lightly, "Why do I feel like you have some kind of magic that always attracts these weird, bizarre things?"
Ryosuke didn't know how to respond to Hayato's question and simply remained silent.
Hayato Kamihara shook his head, wrapped himself in the bathrobe, fetched pen and paper, and got into work mode.
He flipped through the document back and forth several times, writing and drawing as he went, spending an entire night before finally giving an answer.
"Each intel organization uses special encryption codes, which have to be decoded using the organization's internal 'core texts,' and are also updated and adjusted periodically."
"Logically, even if you gave this document to me, I shouldn't be able to understand it. But based on the intel leaked by that guy, reverse-analyzing and decoding it was much easier."
Hayato Kamihara picked up the file and patted it, "He didn't lie to you. But, he did withhold part of the intel. This lead wasn't just discovered by Root; others are watching too."
"The city recorded in the intel is Mist Village. From what I know, the place is a chaotic mess. If you head there, you'll likely provoke numerous forces and find yourselves surrounded. It's dangerous."
Hayato Kamihara knew Ryosuke's style all too well, like a long spear, charging directly toward the target, shredding all enemies in his path.
Unstoppable, certainly impressive.
But… who can remain undefeated forever?
Too rigid becomes brittle. If you always move forward, forward, eventually you'll run into a setback you can't foresee.
"I advise you not to go."
Ryosuke asked, "Is this advice from an intel merchant?"
"No."
Hayato Kamihara said seriously, "This is persuasion from a friend."
Ryosuke smiled. If possible, he wouldn't want to take the risk either.
Who wouldn't enjoy days of drunken indulgence, like Hayato Kamihara, enjoying different women's charm every day? Life like that, what more could you ask for?
But it wasn't feasible.
Naruto was a hot-blooded shōnen manga. Ryosuke hadn't read it, but he could roughly guess the story's trajectory.
The protagonist keeps getting stronger. The enemies get more powerful. From small-scale battles to national and global conflicts.
This is exactly where JoJo's Bizarre Adventure differs.
In JoJo, each part has a different protagonist.
Why?
To give the protagonist enough space to grow and draw a complete character arc.
But Naruto, Ryosuke had heard the name since he was a kid, and more than a decade later, it finally finished. And Naruto's protagonist was always just one.
Uzumaki Naruto.
To attract readers, the world will become increasingly dangerous, and the conflicts increasingly terrifying.
Right now, the strongest combatants might be the Kage of each village. But in the future… that's anyone's guess.
Danzo wants him dead.
Uchiha Itachi wants him dead.
Root's ninjas have already reached his doorstep. If Ryosuke became complacent just because he drew a new five-star Stand and stopped progressing, next time, the one knocked unconscious might be him.
"When you still have choices, don't leave yourself with regrets."
Ryosuke cherished his current right to choose.
"Let's go."
Ryosuke patted Hayato Kamihara's shoulder and stood up. Sasuke followed closely behind.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?!" Hayato Kamihara shouted after Ryosuke.
The only response was the silhouette of a tall and a short figure, waving goodbye to him.
———
The Land of Water wasn't very large, and the two had mastered Ripple Breathing. At high speed, only two shadows could be seen flashing by.
All along the way, Aerosmith hovered overhead, scanning below to help Ryosuke scout the road ahead.
By the afternoon of the next day, Ryosuke arrived at Mist Village.
Mist Village bordered the ocean. At noon, steam rose and mist coiled, bathed in the glow of the sun, dreamlike and ethereal, like a fairytale city that existed only in fantasy.
Once you got close and brushed aside the water mist, you'd see mottled, dilapidated walls.
The air was salty and fishy, the voices chaotic, the port overcrowded.
After entering the city, Ryosuke saw more than once pickpockets slashing open passersby's bags.
There were also unlucky thieves who, once caught, had their hands chopped off on the spot—blood splattering, making Sasuke's eyelids twitch nonstop.
Beneath the dreamy exterior hid chaos, gloom, and oppression, this was Ryosuke's first impression of Mist Village.
Ryosuke first found a hotel to stay at.
Daytime wasn't suitable for action, so he rested at the inn, training in Ripple Breathing.
———
By nightfall, the second-floor window opened. Ryosuke and Sasuke silently leapt out, vanishing into the night.
The night sky was covered in thick clouds, moonlight dim. Aside from the bustling lights of central entertainment venues, the rest of the city was shrouded in darkness.
Few people were on the streets. Occasionally, a couple of workers returning from their shifts, walking quickly, with one hand inside their coat.
The locals knew, the hand in their coat, was gripping a blade.
Day belonged to pickpockets. Night belonged to bandits.
Hearing the screams and curses from alleyways, Ryosuke for a moment wasn't sure if he had arrived in the Naruto world, or had found himself in the morally upright Gotham City.
"This is the place."
The two crouched atop a building, staring at a meat-processing factory a hundred meters away.
A rusted sign hung at the entrance, [Murata Sausages]
Everyone knew, the so-called meat factory was just a front.
Along the way, Ryosuke had made his action plan.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen were officially affiliated with Kirigakure. If he fought them head-on, he probably couldn't stay in the Land of Water afterward.
His idea was to first observe what business they were doing. All that sneaking around, must be some shady deal.
That would be the entry point.
He'd create chaos in Mist Village and force the hidden hands behind the curtain into the open.
The more chaos, the more opportunities for Ryosuke.
As long as he defeated a few powerful enemies, this trip wouldn't be in vain.
"Aerosmith!"
Ryosuke pointed forward. Aerosmith took off and flew into the factory.
'Begin reconnaissance.'
The carbon dioxide detection device activated.
In Ryosuke's vision, clusters of red dots appeared instantly.
His first thought was, 'Is this really a meat-processing factory?'
Because based on the size of the red dots, they were about the size of pigs.
But Ryosuke quickly realized. Why would a sausage factory raise pigs on-site? And even if they did, what kind of pigs live on two floors?
People! They were all people!
Ryosuke adjusted Aerosmith's precision, and the scan range became clearer. He saw people, one by one, locked in cages.
The cages were small, just about 1.3 meters tall, less than one meter wide.
It was an extremely uncomfortable height.
If you didn't want to sit the whole time, you had to stand, but with your head lowered and your back hunched.
Only a few "lucky ones" could stand up straight.
But how many 1.3-meter-tall adults were there?
The ones who could stand upright were all children.
Aerosmith swept around, there were over 400 red dots.
That meant more than 400 people, locked in cages like animals.
'The Land of Water… Yagura is doing human trafficking?!'
As Aerosmith continued scanning, Ryosuke noticed one person.
She was hugging her knees, breathing out CO₂ that outlined her face.
'Rei?' Ryosuke couldn't believe he'd see her in a place like this.
'Wasn't Rei here visiting relatives with her mother? Why did "visiting relatives" end up in a cage? Where is her mom?'
'Just what kind of devilish place is this factory?'
A flood of questions surged. But now wasn't the time to find answers.
Whether it was the truth or not didn't matter. What mattered was, what were they going to do?
Ryosuke and Sasuke exchanged glances, and from each other's eyes, they saw the answer.
Save them.
No overplanning, no excessive strategy.
Tonight, it is.
Aerosmith circled in the sky, marking all patrol and hidden guard positions within the factory.
Ryosuke and Sasuke were like ghosts in the night, silently taking down the guards and slipping into the factory.
The patrols rotated on shifts. There would be a chief inspector checking every few moments, ensuring no slip-ups.
Ryosuke didn't have much time.
He had to rescue Rei and leave the factory within ten minutes.
Otherwise, a head-on battle would be unavoidable.
He was confident in his power, but he wouldn't underestimate the enemy.
According to intel from Hayato Kamihara, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were elite among elites. Each one could be considered A-rank or even S-rank, and now three of them, plus numerous Kirigakure ninjas, were gathered.
If it came to a fight, it was better to pick them off one by one.
They moved quickly through the compound. Guided by Aerosmith, they found a hidden door.
Ryosuke pushed it open.
The air turned foul. It was a smell hard to put into words.
Sweat, blood, pus, rot, urine, all mixed together and fermented over time.
Sasuke instinctively covered his nose and mouth, but froze when he saw what lay before him.
Even though Ryosuke had told him beforehand, words couldn't capture the real impact of seeing it with his own eyes.
Hundreds of people locked in cages, unable to even straighten their backs, like globs of paint in an oil painting, smeared across this cruel world.
Human dignity, under the oppression of cages, had bent just like their spines.
Ryosuke found Rei in one of the cages.
Her eyes were dim and lifeless. In her hands, she held a dried-up, rotten orange.
On the orange, there was a twisted, smiling face drawn.
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