Naruto

country, the great desert of demons. Shikamaru's team climbed over a sand dune, and under the dim light of the setting sun, they saw an oasis in the sand with rich water and grass.

"Team...Captain, this time...it's definitely not a mirage, right?" Kuniyan wiped the mushy mixture of sweat and sand on his face and asked in a low voice.

Shikamaru observed carefully for a while, then looked at the map, nodded and replied: "The town of Green Valley should be right ahead."

"We have been eating sand for two days in a row! Now we can finally eat normal food!" Choji's eyes lit up and he wiped the drool that had flowed out of his mouth at some point.

"HOORAY!"

After a burst of excited shouting, everyone quickly jumped off the sand dune and rushed towards the desert oasis.

An hour later, all members of the team took a nice hot bath, dressed neatly, and reunited at the hotel's entrance.

"Is this really the largest trade hub in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Wind? It seems that the population and city size are not as large as an ordinary town in the Kingdom of Fire." Choji held the potato chips in his hand, looked around for a while, and asked curiously

.

"Actually, this is normal. The last census of the Fire Country was 467 million, while the Wind Country only had 20.23 million. The two countries have similar land areas, but the population gap is more than 20 times. Of course, they will appear to be extraordinarily sparsely populated.

La." Naruto was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt that was incompatible with the cotton-padded clothes worn by the pedestrians around him. He put his hands in his trouser pockets and explained leisurely.

"Compared with these irrelevant geographical knowledge, I care more about what we eat tonight." Kuraki Hei's sharp eyes patrolled the neon signs of the street shops, looking for traces of food.

"Then it depends on the wise leadership of our captain." Naruto teased Shikamaru with a smile, which earned him a blank look from the latter.

"It's really troublesome... Fortunately, I've been here with Mr. Asma before. I know a restaurant with very unique dishes. Do you want to give it a try?"

"How can you not try the local specialties when you come all the way? I support it!" Naruto said excitedly.

"Asuma-sensei has recommended it? Then I must try it." Ino replied with a smile.

"Tasting delicious food all over the world is my lifelong pursuit!" Ding Ci shouted with enthusiasm, his eyes burning with passion.

The three young genin communicated with each other for a while and replied together: "Since all the seniors and seniors are going, we definitely can't be absent!"

Shikamaru chuckled: "Then come with me."

He led everyone through the narrow streets, and after turning countless times, he came to the door of an inconspicuous store with no signboard.

"Uncle, let's have a piece of grilled stone lizard, hot spring beef rice, and a glass of sea buckthorn juice each." As soon as Shikamaru walked into the store, he said carelessly to the middle-aged owner.

"Hey, isn't this the young man from the Nara family? Why are you here to eat again? And you brought so many friends? Do you have any mission in the Kingdom of Wind?" The shop owner recognized Shikamaru, and his face was filled with enthusiasm.

smile.

"This time Sunagakure Village is holding the Chunin Exam, and I am one of the leading ninjas." Shikamaru responded with a smile.

"You are so young and promising! If only my children could be half as successful as you." The shop owner praised.

"Thank you, uncle." Shikamaru replied politely.

"You can take your friends and sit around for a while. The dishes will be here soon." The owner wiped his hands, said to Shikamaru with a smile, and then turned and left.

Five minutes later, a hot round stone was placed in front of everyone's dining table, as well as a plate of thin slices of meat that looked crystal clear under the light.

"This is meat cut from the tenderloin of the desert lizard, a unique animal in the Demonic Desert. The meat is very delicate. In addition to various seasonings, there is also a layer of their local herb juice.

Just stick it on the hot spring stone, and then you can eat it." Shikamaru gave a demonstration. The piece of meat was stuck on the round stone, and it quickly rolled up, and a burst of white smoke came out. Shikamaru put the piece of meat into his mouth, and gently

He chewed it lightly, with an expression of enjoyment on his face, "You guys should have a taste too."

Everyone tried to pick up the lizard tenderloin with chopsticks, placed it on the stone, scalded it, and put it into their mouths. The rough taste instantly filled the entire mouth, stimulating every cell on the taste buds. The mixture

The fragrance of green grass in the oil is like a solitary traveler deep in the desert suddenly seeing a clear and transparent spring water.

"As expected

He is a descendant of the Nara family, and his taste is excellent." Naruto closed his eyes and tasted the lingering fragrance in his mouth, and couldn't help but give Shikamaru a thumbs up.

"I don't want to think about these troublesome things. If you want to thank me, just thank Asuma-sensei." Shikamaru swallowed a piece of meat and replied lazily.

"Senior, what are your daily tasks as a chuunin?" Kunihiko raised his head from the food and asked curiously.

"Ah, most of the time I am still guarding cross-border caravans and protecting important goods. Occasionally catching bandits and rebelling against ninjas is nothing special. If I act with genin, I will automatically become the captain. If I act with jounin

If we act together, then I will obey the arrangements of the Jonin." Shikamaru answered patiently.

"Have Captain Shikamaru ever done any exciting and difficult tasks?" Anshu also joined the conversation and asked enthusiastically.

Shikamaru pressed his forehead irritably, and when he caught a glimpse of Naruto's leisurely look, he was furious: "If you want to know about exciting and difficult missions, you should ask this guy. I've seen his

According to the mission records, except for the six or seven D-level missions at the beginning and one C-level mission that was finally upgraded to A-level, the remaining more than 20 times were all S-level or super-S-level missions."

The fiery eyes of the three children were instantly focused on Naruto, causing the chopsticks that the latter was about to pick up to freeze in the air.

"Super S-level? What kind of mission is that? Is it more powerful than S-level?" This was the first time the three children heard this statement.

"That's an informal name for a small number of S-level missions. Usually S-level missions are missions related to shinobi villages and national secrets. Among them, those missions that involve the life and death of a country and a village usually have obvious rewards and difficulty.

It is higher than other S-level missions and will also be called a super S-level mission." Shikamaru patted Naruto on the shoulder and replied with a smile.

"Well, Naruto-senpai, can you tell me about the super-S-level missions you have done?" Bingwei asked expectantly.

Naruto put down his chopsticks, touched his chin and thought for a while, then said slowly: "A few days ago, Mizukage in Kirigakure Village suddenly had a fever. Everyone thought it was just a minor illness, but they didn't expect..."

Immediately afterwards, he recounted his mission experience in Kirigakure Village in detail, but omitted the key names: "...After the entire Kirigakure Village was permanently buried by the ice sheet, the surviving ninjas and villagers came

On the beach of the main island of the Kingdom of Water, they began to rebuild their homes with their own hands. This was my latest 'Super S-level mission'. In this mission, I failed to catch the culprit who released the virus, and I had to kill the deeply infected people.

The water shadow cannot be considered particularly successful." After that, he looked at the dotted lights in the dark night outside the window and sighed deeply.

"Naruto-senpai, you have done a good enough job, no one will blame you." Xingshu said softly.

"Maybe." Naruto suppressed the regret in his heart, and a cheerful smile appeared on his face again, "The samples of the virus have been sent to Konoha's medical team for testing. We should be able to do it after the Chunin Exam is over.

Got the results.”

"The 'Penn' we met today is also a member of the Akatsuki organization, right?" Shikamaru asked with a frown.

Naruto took his glass of sea buckthorn juice from the waiter and shook it gently: "Well, according to what they want, Sunagakure Village in the Kingdom of Wind is the next target."

He raised his head with a smile, his eyes locked on the back of the waiter who was about to turn around and leave: "Am I right, dear Mr. Waiter?"

"I...I don't understand what you mean, Ninja-sama..." The young waiter turned around hastily and said in fear.

"Don't you think it's a waste to use such pure botulinum toxin and chakra inhibitor on a little genin like me?" Naruto asked softly, looking at the yellow juice in his hand.

The next moment, the waiter's body was covered by a black film, and his movements came to a standstill.

There was an uproar among the diners in the restaurant, which alerted the owner who was counting the accounts backstage.

"You...what did you do to this child?" The shop owner rushed to the scene and asked loudly.

Naruto walked up to the waiter whose time flow was locked, patted the middle-aged shop owner on the shoulder, and said warmly: "It's nothing, uncle, but you may not know yet, this is not a child..."

He raised his fist and punched the waiter in the stomach with a bang. Pieces of alloy parts mixed with flesh and blood flew out of the hole and fell all over the floor.

The busy store suddenly became quiet, even the diners shouted loudly.

The suction sound is clearly audible.

"...but a human puppet made of corpses." Naruto wiped the blood on his fist and said calmly.

"What...what's going on?" The shopkeeper sat down on the ground, his face was pale, and he asked tremblingly.

"This puppet pretends to be a normal person and comes to work for you. The purpose is to poison our drinks." While explaining the situation, the blond boy walked up to the shop owner and reached out to pull the latter up. But this

This move caused the horrified shopkeeper to support his body with both hands and move back, shouting loudly at Naruto: "Devil! Disaster! Go away! You...go away quickly!"

Upon hearing this familiar title, Naruto's eyes dimmed, he silently retracted his right hand, and whispered: "I'm sorry."

In a daze, Choji and Shikamaru seemed to see in him the shadow of the child they used to be who was ridiculed by the villagers all day long.

"Go and find the ninja responsible for security here. I'll understand the situation at the scene." Shikamaru said nonchalantly.

Naruto nodded silently and rushed out of the restaurant door like the wind.

Half an hour later, the Sunagakure chunin who served as the director of the Green Valley Town Public Security Bureau bowed to Shikamaru and his party: "I would like to thank all the Konoha ninjas for assisting Green Valley Town in getting rid of this huge...

If there is a security threat, we will immediately start investigating the entire town and detain any suspicious persons."

"We will leave for Sunagakure Village tomorrow to take the Chuunin Exam, and we will report the matter to Lord Kazekage. I will leave it to you, Your Highness, the Daimyo." Shikamaru returned the gesture.

"Director, I have one more request." Naruto suddenly interjected: "Can you please post a notice to thank the shop owner for cooperating with our investigation?"

"Oh?" the director asked in surprise, "Why?"

"This murder may have a big impact on his business. I don't want his livelihood to be greatly affected because of our affairs." Naruto replied softly.

"I understand, I will meet your request." The director nodded, "I wish you a complete success in this exam."

"Thank you, Director, for your kind words. Goodbye." Shikamaru nodded slightly and led his six team members out of the gate of the security station.

After the seven people walked in silence on the street for a while, Bingwei took the lead and said: "Is this kind of thing... something we may face every day in the future?"

"This time the opponent's main target is Naruto. We are just joint targets. This is probably a side effect of doing too many super S-level missions." Seeing that Naruto had regained his energy, Shikamaru felt relieved and held up his hands.

Holding it behind his head, he said leisurely, "But if you become powerful ninjas, assassinations against you will become very frequent."

"My fellow genin Sasuke has been assassinated twenty-eight times, I have guided jounin Kakashi-sensei sixty-three times, and my master Jiraiya one hundred and nine times. Compared with them, my eleven times are already relatively small.

That's the number." Naruto shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Shikamaru was right just now. The more people you interfere with, the more people will want your life. And the most direct way is not

It's not a head-on battle, but an assassination. Food poisoning, field raids, backstabbing in dreams, spike traps, self-destruction attacks, only you can think of it, but they can't do it. Hehe, if I'm not careful enough, maybe next time

I am lucky enough to experience what it feels like to be dismembered alive, but my body is paralyzed and unable to move at all."

When he talked about these things, his tone was relaxed and his expression was calm, but it inexplicably gave everyone a chill in their hearts. Dingci rubbed his arms and whispered: "How about we change the topic to a lighter topic?

.”

"That's right." Everyone agreed.

"Well... since we haven't had enough fun with the special delicacies, how about we go to the spring in Green Valley Town to have barbecue? I'll treat you!" Naruto scratched his head, rolled his eyes, and thought of a wonderful way to spend time.

"You won't encounter any strange assassins again, right?" Kuniyan asked worriedly.

"You must be scared, right?" Heiwei raised his eyebrows and glanced at Kunihiko up and down with a scrutinizing gaze.

"I...I can't do that!" Bang Yan scratched his neck and said angrily, "Just go!"

It was night, and everyone was admiring the various colors of lights in the spring, eating cheap skewers sold by roadside stalls, and chatting about the mountains in twos and threes. It was not until the night was quiet and the lights around the spring were turned off one after another that they had all their fun.

And return.