Chapter 34 - Land of Rocks

After leaving the Land of Fire borders, Jiraya had Minato remove his forehead protector, unwilling to have any confrontation if a civilian spy from another village spot them and inform his village shinobi, not aware that his Mt Myoboku Sennin attire is an even bigger flag.

Contouring shinobi is pretty easy thanks to their rather huge chakra...Yes, chakra sensing was a thing that Minato totally forgot about. He was so concentrated on exercising his hyper intuition that he completely omitted about using other senses. Thankfully, it's a trick that the 21 years old Minato learned, so he was able to use it directly, even if it was a bit unrefined because of his lack of chakra control. Only the villages grunts were sent out this early to Amegakure, and they can't suppress their chakra enough to escape his senses.

Chakra sensing and sensors are completely different. People that have a good grasp over chakra can sense other people chakra if it isn't restrained or if they have better control over chakra than the target hiding. Sensors can even sense hidden chakra thanks to a mind eye, that works a bit like heat sensors modern technology. All things in a certain distance that possess chakra can be seen by them, only with some Fuuinjutsu work one could evade their senses, or with strange Jutsu made for hiding.

Civilian spies and normal civilians all have small chakra reserves that sustain their life, so shinobi are unable to distinguish one from another without looking at them. And Jiraya would rather run the risk to be recognized than sleeping in the wilds. Thankfully, nothing came up, nobody recognized him or rather nobody had the guts to attack him if they recognized him.

As soon as they entered the Land of Stone, Minato was relieved that the rain stopped, but was instead greeted by a mix of a bit of the harsh weather of the land of Sand with the stony environment from the land of Earth.

'I now understand why Konoha is the center of the world. The strongest, of course, have to live in a better environment. If I were from other villages, I will, of course, want to live in the Fire country rather than those harsh environments. But from my understanding, even if they conquer Konoha I doubt they will live in the Land of Fire, taking too much pride in their own land, so in the end, war happens to destroy what they don't have on their own territory...'

After traveling a bit, they arrived at a small town, the third settlement that they discovered since the two hours long journey from the border.

"I will go meet with my informant, you can go sightseeing around the town. But don't lower your guard, the Land of Stone is the main battlefield between Suna and Iwa so there should be a lot of them in hiding" Warned Jiraya, losing his casual demeanor for the first time. Here, they are completely in the enemy territory, but he was not too worried about Minato. The kid was pretty strong, and nobody will recognize him because he just now graduated from the academy, so no one strong enough to threaten him should attack him.

"Hai hai, just don't wander searching for other information" Giving Jiraya a meaningful look, Minato left him behind and enter the town by the front doors. This town is just a small one, not the Hidden village of the Land of Stone, so anybody can come and go as they want. The guards are not willing to antagonize other people in those difficult times, knowing that their settlement could be razed if they angered a disguised Iwa or Suna shinobi.

"This brat!" Meanwhile, Jiraya was fuming. Does he not inspire any confidence? He knows to distinguish between work and his research! More like the women here were not as beautiful as the Land of Fire because of the harsh environment and poverty.

Touring the town, Minato was not impressed. Not only the settlement in itself was bland, with white stone houses and stores making the most of it, but it reeked poverty, with a lot of homeless people begging on the streets. Sensing gazes from alleys, he knew that thieves had targeted him. After all, he was dressed casually by the terms of Konoha, but here where people live shabby life, even casual is a luxury.

'The war has not even started and small towns are already in this state, I understand now why Nagato so strongly wished for peace. If I grew up in such a harsh environment since childhood I would have gone mad. Only...Naruto is the one who brought peace. He did not suffer from war but he was the one to bring peace. So in the end, his goal to bring peace was not really his own, just a foolish child doing it to gain acknowledgment from his mentor.

At least if he were to become a justice man punishing the evil I would have understood because he suffered from human darkness since young' Imagining Naruto in the Justice man attire of Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Z, Minato couldn't help but chuckle.

Seeing nothing interesting to do in this small town, and sensing that the people that followed him were weak and no threat, Minato decided to vent his boredom on them. He was so excited to leave the village but in the end, he finished in such a boring place. 'Ugh, I hate to say that but Konoha truly is one of the best places in this world even if it's full of corruption. Maybe if I can one day have access to Hashirama blood I could create my own safe haven with Mokuton'

Going into an alley, he waited for a bit, and as expected, in no time at all he was surrounded by... children?

'Should I beat them?... What with this question! Of course, they followed me and planned to rob me. Eh, I truly have grown soft since I came here, I don't know if it's for the best or for the worst.'

"Hand over your belongings, if not we will take them ourselves" Threatened what appeared to be the leader of those guys, a skinny kid around his age with dark grey hair, that was waving a used kunai around to make himself more...threatening?

'Oh, why does he looks familiar?' Looking at his face, Minato was sure that he has seen this kid somewhere, maybe he was a side character of Naruto. "What's your name?"