Chapter 30 - 30. Coming Right Up!

It was 9 PM at night.

The jungle was as silent as a graveyard. The animals also quietened down, sensing a predator roaming around. ​​

Shiroken, still in his maddened state, zoomed through the forest, jumping from one tree to another, crossing hundreds of metres each second.

His mind was empty, with no emotions on his face. But internally, the real Shiroken was slowly returning. The automatic reaction of his body would slowly stop.

...

In the closest village to where Shiroken was stuck.

It was a village of humans, the first village Shiroken had noticed, the one where poverty and sickness ruled. The one where Shinobi exploited the people.

There weren't many young people left in the village as all died during the wars and some while hunting for food. The village a while ago relied on trade, but wars destroyed the economy and as there was no traffic of traders or travellers they never earned much. In fact, during the wars, because of the lack of supervision on Shinobi of all villages, small villages like these became the places to plunder and steal.

The little food and money they had were also taken away.

At the periphery of the village, mostly the poorest people lived, those that couldn't provide any value to the village. These included older parents of dead adult children and small orphans.

"Grandma, here, drink water. One uncle said that you could get better." A cute, little, 5-year-old girl in dirt rag-like clothes brought a glass of water carefully out of their small thatched hut. Her grandma sat outside, looking at the stars with her hazy eyes. While the little girl looked full of life, the old woman seemed hopeless. Because she knew, there was no better future for them. Someday, her granddaughter would grow and become just like her.

This was the fate of all those who couldn't contribute to the village. And her fate was decided the moment her son and daughter-in-law died.

She tried to keep the little girl happy. So she smiled and took the glass. She was sick. Her body ached every day. She knew her time was close, and it scared her to think what would happen to the little girl.

There were more beasts in human skin out there than real actual beasts. They would shred her little granddaughter to pieces.

"Grandma, today I learned to write my name. Big brother from the big house taught me. But for teaching me he made me carry water from the river for him the whole day." She cutely sat by her Grandma's feet tiredly.

She was talking about the son of the village leader. The whole village's wealth was collected into his family alone. Since he had money, he had hired people to protect himself. He just tried to keep the village alive, rather than happy. The village leader's son usually made the poor kids do harsh work for nothing in return.

As seen by the little girl, even just learning to write her name was a treasure to her.

"Grandma, my birthday is coming. You gave me a dumpling last year. It was very tasty, can I get one again? Please..." she innocently requested. What would a child know about poverty? All she could do was watch some other kids be happier than her and some even sadder than her, as they don't even have a grandma, she could only wonder why she could not be happier.

The old woman caressed her hair, not replying to her. She didn't want to make promises she couldn't keep.

*WOOSH*

All of a sudden moonlight stopped falling on them. She looked up, there was a man, tall and mighty. His body casting a shadow on her. His crimson shining eyes filled dread in her heart.

"W-we have nothing... Please..." She muttered feeling resigned.

Shiroken's arm slowly rose towards her. The little girl saw him and quickly stood in front of her Grandmother.

"NO... DON'T HURT MY GRANDMA!" She shouted.

The red eyes turned towards her, looking at her intently. Inside Shiroken's mind, the consciousness was returning, with the memory of all that his mind saw in all these years.

The little girl shrank herself back in fear.

"Brave Girl," Shiroken spoke in a light voice. Slowly his eyes started to turn less aggressive. His arm was frozen in its place, twitching slowly.

*PAT*

"Dumplings are indeed very tasty." He spoke, and all of a sudden a kind smile appeared on his face. He looked around to see where he was.

~That was a close one. If I killed a child today, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself. This place seems like that village.~ He looked at the old woman and put his hand on her head, "Be well, child."

Using his powers, he healed the stomach tumour that was killing her and then rejuvenated her body with a small influx of Natural Energy.

The old woman felt warmth all over her body. Her eyes teared up and she fell from her chair on her knees.

"Thank you..." She whispered.

Shiroken turned to the little girl, "Come, won't you show me where the village leader lives?" He asked her with a deadly smile.

The girl felt shy, she blushed and nodded. "I will, big brother."

She grabbed his hand and started happily leading him. Shiroken knew the real criminals, the real monsters of the village. The reason why Shinobi continued to harm the people, the reason why no Shinobi village received the complaints and the reason why only a bunch of people here were rich. He saw all of this with his Nature Vision.

Along the way, Shiroken saw many sick. This was a slum and people lived harshly. He would put his hand on each person for a second and move on. Every time the person would fall to their knees and start crying, thanking him.

Shiroken soon arrived in the centre of the village. There a few well-developed buildings stood erect. By now he had made a big enough fuss to alert all the people these rich men had hired as guards.

Shiroken without saying a word just waved his hands towards these muscular men and they fell unconscious. This was something that could only be done on normal humans as they didn't have Chakra.

~It seems all village rations went to these men's bellies~

"Who are you? No Shinobi is allowed to create a mess here." A man shouted, probably the village leader.

Shiroken sighed. Reasoning with a boulder was as good as throwing your head on it. Shiroken raised his right arm towards the man and forced him on his knees.

"Confess." He ordered, looking down into the man's eyes, as if the man was nothing but a little insect under his feet.

"W-Who are you? You shinobi think you can hurt us and we won't say a word? What are you doing everyone? Beat him up, he wants to hurt you all." The man tried to provocate the people.

But most of them did not move. As they just saw Shiroken's miracles.

"CONFESS!" A lot of people spoke at the same time.

The man, still kneeling, felt like crying. He was trying to guess who this Shinobi was. "What? What do you want me to confess? I did nothing." The man replied.

Shiroken felt frustrated and made the man fly 50 metres in the air. "Confess, or fall to your death."

"I DIDN'T D... AAAAA..." He started falling.

The ground continued to get closer to him. He would certainly not survive this fall. "I SOLD VILLAGERS TO SHINOBI!"

"I kept the money and food aid from the Daimyo, meant for all villagers."

That was all that was needed. His crimes were too heavy, and Shiroken had seen so much bloodshed for human greed that he had no sympathy for him.

"You are no better than those Shinobi who harm you. It's better if you become fertiliser for the plants.

*SLASH*"

A tree root pierced his body, spreading blood around and dragged him into the tree trunk. Unlike other times, Shiroken didn't keep him alive, instead let the plants devour him and use his body's minerals.

He looked at all the people, they had no leader now. They would be unorganised if left like this.

"I will return in a day. Those who want to go to a better village, my village, stay here, and those who want to leave, do it before then." He announced.

*WOOSH*

Slowly, his body rose into the air. An innate ability of Otsutsuki was flying, and with the use of Natural Energy, he could do the same fairly easily. Even more so after becoming so much stronger.

As he flew up, all the people on the ground started to bow to him and called him a god. Shiroken didn't reply and just flew away, ~I am no god, I am what you all were supposed to be.~

...

Shiroken arrived back at the cave, much to the happiness of Isobu. "Sorry, Isobu, I was confused for a while. It's all good now."

*Sigh* "I was worried you would do something in that state. Good, you are back. Now, let's go and find the rest. Hehe, I can't wait to once again be at home."

Shiroken nodded, "We will, but until then, I will use sealing scrolls to store all the bodies. I am very hungry and need to find a place to eat first."

"Good with me, I can talk to you even then, as we are now connected with your Natural Energy," Isobu affirmed the plan.

So he went on to store the bodies of the two boys and the girl in a sealing scroll. Next, he flew above the clouds to get a better view.

"AH! I see a big city in that direction." He exclaimed.

*DROP DROP*

"I like this rain, it refreshes me. LET'S GOOO..." Shiroken enjoyed the feeling of the wind and rain hitting his body. After so many years, he was getting to move. It felt like the best yawn of his life.

"Flying must be fun," Isobu enviously said. He could not experience all this physically. Shiroken laughed, "HAHA... IT IS! I can't wait to fly with Monari and Jin."

While talking, Shiroken soon arrived in the same village he had been to once. "This is Konohagakure. Kurama should be here somewhere."

"But you need to leave him and Shukaku for the last. I want all of us siblings to see you beat them, maybe even we can beat them a little for making such a mess." Isobu suggested.

Shiroken chuckled and accepted. "Fine with me, it won't take me too long to bring you all back anyway. Ah, look, this shop looks decent. Ichiraku Ramen? I hope they sell dumplings."

In a cheerful mood, he took a seat by the table. The man behind the counter seemed a bit shocked though, as Shiroken was still shirtless and his well-defined muscles were highly intimidating.

"Kid, will you give me your best Ramen? And do you sell dumplings?" He inquired. He was basically everyone's senior, a being more than 200 years old now.

Teuchi instinctively nodded. But his little daughter, Ayame was blushing and blurted loudly, "YES! WE HAVE DUMPLINGS!"

"Aw... such a cute little helper. Then give me 10 plates of Dumplings, also, pack 100 plates for takeout." He ordered his food.

Teuchi didn't mind being called a kid, he saw the big money now. He was pumped, "COMING RIGHT UP!"

The Ramen came first. The whole night sky with rain elevated the atmosphere and increased his appetite.

"Hmm, this looks tasty, but..." Shiroken smiled kindly and without uttering a word slid his bowl to his right, which was an empty seat. Actually, there was no customer there except him.

But Shiroken sees everything now. He saw a drooling cute little blonde boy with whiskers on his face, probably no older than 8 or 9. Who wanted to come into the shop but was short on money. So he just looked at the steaming bowl of his ramen.

"Kid, give me another bowl." He called Teuchi.

Teuchi looked at what happened to the last one. He just paused there with a big smile on his face. The little orphan boy was slowly coming towards the counter where the bowl was put. His smile was worth watching.

Teuchi looked at Shiroken's face again. Although his eyes and body seemed intimidating, his smile reminded Teuchi of a harmless, pure and kind person. He felt elated that such people still existed. Once again feeling pumped he shouted, "COMING RIGHT UP!"

[A/N: Respect to Lord Teuchi. The first person who showed Naruto kindness. And he will leave Konoha soon.]

[You can see the little girl, Ichiraku Ramen and Naruto on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

STONES MAKE ME HAPPY!

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You can read 30 advance chapters at -patreon.com/misterimmortal.

Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

Thank you for your support!