Kakuzu's face held a smile. "You're the first to get this, so you can seize the initiative. It will be distributed soon, so you'd better clear out as many camps as you can during this time."
The five of them thumped their chests. "Don't worry, we certainly will."
Jiraiya had originally thought Kakuzu was difficult to approach, but it turned out he just looked cold, yet he had a good heart.
Kakuzu waved his hand. "No matter. It was going to be distributed on a large scale anyway. It's no inconvenience to give you a head start. Just remember to mark the eliminated camps and report back to me tonight."
Despite this, Jiraiya and the others thanked him profusely. This item would undoubtedly save a lot of time, which Minato could use for training Sage Mode. If Minato could successfully learn Sage Mode, Konoha would then have four Sages.
"Alright, you all should hurry up and execute your mission. I need to get to my office. Come find me when the mission is over another day." Kakuzu had been incredibly busy recently, a pace entirely different from his original lifestyle. The large influx of people into the Central City required management, and the administrators from the other two villages, fearing the Hokage somewhat, were passing their tasks over to Kakuzu to relay. Kakuzu was a bit annoyed, but for the sake of friendly relations between the villages, he could only help. Although Kakuzu wasn't from Konoha, he belonged to Torifu's organization, so he naturally had to consider his Leader's interests.
"Okay, Kakuzu-san, we'll get going now and come find you another day."
[T/N: They're using Mr. to address him. So using -san instead of -sama.]
Kakuzu waved his hand and turned to leave. Minato and the others once again set off to complete their mission.
"Ah, something this good happening first thing in the morning really raises one's spirits!" Jiraiya stretched and exclaimed comfortably. Yesterday, they ran all over the place for an entire day and only managed to find twenty-odd camps. Today, with the plotted points, they only needed to systematically sweep the area. They could reasonably plan a route for a wave of elimination, leaving the remaining time for Minato to practice Sage Mode. This was an enormous help. Jiraiya wondered if Torifu had noticed Minato's difficulty in training and created this map so he would have more time to practice Sage Mode.
"Jiraiya-senpai, where should we go first?"
Jiraiya opened the map in his hand; it was no different from his own, except for the many red dots marked on it. "Let me take a look. We need to find a route we didn't take yesterday, and a place that's further away." Jiraiya looked around and decided the western direction was good. The camps there were denser, and the locations were far from the Central City. Given the current pace of the ninjas' exploration, they likely hadn't reached that area yet.
"Okay, we'll head west today and clear out the rogues there!"
With the destination set, the group quickly left the Central City and advanced toward the first camp. The route was littered with lakes and puddles, with barely any flat, dry land. The land area of the Land of Rain wasn't small, actually quite substantial among the minor nations. However, the perennial rain made it impossible to grow food, forcing the country to purchase it from other nations. Having their lifeblood held by others was an unpleasant feeling, and it was no wonder that Hanzō had chosen to cooperate with Blaze and declare war on the other nations back then. It was just that his intentions were good, but his methods were wrong. If he had targeted the smaller nations, the larger ones likely wouldn't have intervened. As long as he occupied some countries with fields and could produce his own grain, the nation would have nothing to worry about. Alas, he bit off a bit too much and overestimated his own strength.
"Everyone pay attention, we're almost at the first camp location. Let's finish this quickly."
Hearing Jiraiya's alert, everyone immediately entered battle readiness. A few minutes later, the five of them quietly reached a patch of bushes. Before them was a small camp, consisting of about ten people. These rogues wore straw hats, but the rain had already soaked through their clothes. They were sitting in front of a somewhat crude tent, discussing something.
"It's a small camp, so let's leave this to Kushina." Jiraiya's voice was just loud enough to be heard by the rogues.
They immediately became alert, grabbing the weapons next to them, which included both swords and blades, suggesting they possessed some skill. Seeing that the element of surprise was lost, Kushina's idea of a sneak attack went down the drain. She glared at Jiraiya, then walked out of the bushes.
The ten rogues were already on guard, but when they saw a red-haired girl step out, they froze instantly. Then, smiles appeared on their faces, and their eyes held looks of greed.
"We were just complaining about having nothing to do out here, and now we've got something to relieve the boredom. Grab her."
There seemed to be a leader among the group, but it didn't matter. Kushina swiftly formed hand signs, then clapped her hands together. Over ten golden chains shot out from her back, striking towards the group of rogues! The expressions of the rogues, who had been full of desire a moment before, quickly changed, instantly turning into looks of desperation and pleading.
But Kushina's chains were faster. They took the lives of most of them in a flash. Only the leader managed to parry the chains with his steel blade.
Kushina found this interesting. "Chakra, you're a ninja? Then you should know the difference between us." She could tell by the opponent's rough control of Chakra that his strength was only Genin level, or even weaker. The gap between them was undoubtedly vast.
"S-stop talking nonsense!" The rogue pointed his steel blade at Kushina. At this moment, he had no intention of avenging his comrades or fighting Kushina to the death. Instead, he was looking for an opportunity to escape. His eyes were fixed on Kushina, while his brain spun rapidly, trying to find a way to escape.
But before his thoughts could progress much further, his entire system instantly shut down. A three-pronged kunai had pierced through his head.
"Alright, Kushina, no need to waste time on him. Let's hurry to the next one."
Kushina spread her hands and pouted helplessly. "Fine, I was hoping to play with him a bit."
Before leaving, the group disposed of the bodies using a special ninja technique for destroying corpses. Otherwise, leaving them there could lead to a plague, which was no laughing matter.
"Alright, children, the first stop today was a success. We're moving on to the next location."
Jiraiya did not engage in combat from start to finish. He only watched from the side to prevent any attack by a Kage-level ninja on the children.