The campfire in the abandoned fishing village crackled, the flickering flames reflecting on everyone's faces.
Shin-chan plopped down on a folding stool, his whole body sprawled out in a star shape. "I'm exhausted. I walked such a long way, got into a fight, and now my stomach is completely flat from hunger."
Toru, who was organizing intelligence beside him, couldn't help laughing. He took a rice ball out of his backpack and handed it to him. "I saved this for you already."
"Toru, you're the best!" Shin-chan's eyes lit up.
Kakashi leaned against the side of the tent, holding a map in his hand, his brows slightly furrowed.
He had already interrogated the ordinary Mist ninja earlier, but the information they knew was limited.
"We couldn't get anything useful out of them." Kakashi put down the map and looked at Hōzuki Sakugetsu, who was tied to a post. "Looks like we can only pry it out of him."
Hōzuki Sakugetsu snorted coldly and turned his head away.
After Shin-chan finished the rice ball, he patted the crumbs off his hands. "If you tell us what Kirigakure is really trying to do in the Land of Waves, I'll share half of my treasured chocolate stick with you."
"Dream on!" Hōzuki Sakugetsu gnashed his teeth and said, "Even if I die, I will never betray Kirigakure, much less eat a child's snack like yours!"
Just then, a Konoha ninja in charge of patrol walked in quickly and bowed slightly to Shin-chan.
"Lord Shinnosuke, there is a boy named Kaiza outside the camp. He says he wants to thank you."
"Kaiza?" Shin-chan tapped his chin with his finger and thought for two seconds. "I think he's the person I met on the road earlier."
"He's over there. We checked him. He's just an ordinary villager."
In the open space outside the camp, Kaiza stood there uneasily, holding two large fish tied together with a straw rope.
"Kaiza." Shin-chan waved and ran over to him.
"L-Lord Shinnosuke." Kaiza's voice trembled a little. The gazes of the surrounding ninja made him feel uncomfortable all over.
"How did you know I was here?"
"Everyone in our village knows which places have ninja activity, so we usually try to avoid them. I searched along the coastline for a long time before asking that ninja lord just now to pass along a message. I wanted to thank you for saving me today."
As he spoke, he held the two large fish forward. "My family doesn't have anything valuable. These two fish were just caught today. Please don't dislike them."
"You don't have to be so polite." Shin-chan waved his hand. "I was just passing by."
Kaiza placed the fish on the ground and bit his lip. As if he had made a very difficult decision, he spoke again.
"Lord Shinnosuke, I wanted to ask... If we wanted to hire Konoha ninja for a mission, about how much would it cost?"
"What kind of mission?"
"The few places near the village that we usually use to go out to sea have recently been occupied by a group of thugs. Our village depends on fishing to survive. Without those places to launch from, everyone is going to starve."
After saying that, he quickly added, "Actually, the village chief and the others asked me to ask. They saw that I managed to speak with a Konoha ninja, so they wanted me to ask about the fee first."
Shin-chan gave an "oh." "Let's go."
"Huh? Go... go where?"
"Aren't you trying to drive away the thugs? Let's go now."
"What about the fee..."
"Didn't you already pay?" Shin-chan pointed at the two fish on the ground.
"How can that be enough? How could two fish possibly be—"
Shin-chan bent down and picked up the fish. "Did you catch these two fish yourself?"
"Y-yes... I secretly went to the river to catch them."
"Then this is the payment."
...
The village was very run-down, and many of the roofs had holes in them.
When Kaiza brought Shin-chan into the village, several children playing by the roadside saw his forehead protector and immediately ran off, shouting as they ran.
"A ninja is here!"
The village chief's house looked slightly sturdier than the others. Several people were already standing at the door, all elders from the village.
"Lord Ninja, welcome, welcome." The village chief hurried forward, his face covered in a humble smile. "This child Kaiza doesn't know better and rashly went to invite you. We..."
"It's not rash." Shin-chan waved his hand.
The village chief invited Shin-chan into the house. Several villagers brought over a few old wooden stools and carefully asked Shin-chan to sit.
"Lord Ninja, Kaiza has told you everything, hasn't he?" The village chief's voice was a little choked. "We also know that hiring ninja for a mission costs a lot of money, but our village is truly too poor. Everyone pooled money for several days, and this is all we could gather."
The other villagers all lowered their heads as well.
They had long known that ninja mission fees were frighteningly expensive. The little money they had was nowhere near enough.
"Kaiza's share of the payment has already been paid." Shin-chan looked around. "As for your own share, you need to bear it yourselves."
"You mean..."
"You also have to contribute your own strength."
"Lord Ninja." One villager gave a bitter laugh. "If we could beat them, we wouldn't have dragged things out until today."
Another villager added, "Those people may not be ninja, but they carry knives and clubs. They're especially ruthless."
"We're just ordinary fishermen. We rarely even get into fights. How could we possibly be a match for those people?"
They had been bullied by those thugs for too long and had long since lost the courage to resist.
Shin-chan waited until they had all finished speaking before he said, "I'll fight in Kaiza's place."
The villagers' gazes focused on him again, hope lighting up in their eyes once more.
"If Lord Ninja takes action, those people will definitely—"
"I'm standing in for Kaiza, not for all of you," Shin-chan interrupted.
"We can't rely on ninja forever." Kaiza, who had been standing in the corner the whole time, suddenly stepped forward. "Only if we unite will those thugs stop daring to bully us. I will definitely take part in this action."
After a long while, a young villager's voice came from the corner.
"I'll go too."
Then came a second.
"Count me in."
The village chief stood where he was. The expression on his face changed from hesitation to struggle. In the end, he still sighed.
"Lord Ninja, could you give us a little time?"
Shin-chan looked at him and did not respond.
"There are a few nearby villages that use those launch points together with us." The village chief's voice was somewhat hoarse. "If we can call more people over, our chances will be better."
Shin-chan nodded in agreement.
The village chief's shoulders relaxed a little. He turned and waved at a young man. "Ayong, you run fast. Go to the neighboring village and find their chief. Tell them that a lord ninja from Konoha has come and is willing to help us drive away those thugs. Ask them to send people over to help."
Ayong responded and immediately ran outside.
The village chief turned back and began giving instructions to the remaining villagers in the house.
"You few, go call all the young and strong people in the village. Go door to door and explain the situation clearly."
After making the arrangements, the village chief looked calm on the surface, but he was still panicking inside.
With a lord ninja here, no matter how violent those people were, they could not possibly beat a ninja.
But if they held a grudge and came back later to take revenge on just one village, no one would be able to withstand it.
If several villages acted together, then even if those thugs wanted revenge, they would have to think twice.