It was Ken's first time to visit the capital. And it was quite big and was quite populated. It was just like a city back on earth except for the fact that the tall buildings were replaced by Japanese-styled buildings and there was less of pollution and more of trees.
Shikuro had told the genins especially Ken to behave in front of the nobles residing in the city and not to disrespect them in any way.
The nobles were the ones who gave a lot of donations to shinobi villages in return for protecting them and giving them priority for missions.
Disrespecting them might result in them to start giving donations to another village instead of Konoha which would be pretty bad for the economy of the village.
The nobles too would not act arrogant against a Hokage's grandson and the Uchiha's heir so Ken would not be having his face-off with a young master just yet.
Ken saw a familiar face approaching them as they entered the capital.
"Hey, Uncle Asuma" Ken waved at Asuma who during the last year had joined the twelve guardians that protected the Damiyo.
Ken thought that his existence might have changed Asuma's decision to run away from Leaf but it seems Asuma's daddy issues were quite big.
It was quite reasonable and stupid at the same time. People expected a lot from him since he was the son of the third hokage and his elder brother being the commander of the Leaf Anbu. He wanted to let some steam off by being outside the village.
Ken looked around his uncle to see if he could find the other members of the twelve guardians. In the anime, half of them wanted to kill the Hokage and wanted the entire authority to rest with the Damiyo. Foolish. Even the Damiyo know the importance of the Hokage and the leaf village.
'That Kazuma guy even had a kid in whom he had sealed nine tails chakra that he stole or gathered during the nine tails attack in the leaf. Well, his betrayal would happen soon enough if I go by the timeline.' Ken thought
He was not worried about Asuma's safety as Asuma was much stronger than his anime counterpart thanks to Ken motivating him to become stronger if he did not want Ken to steal Kurenai from him. The guy took the warning to his heart and started training in stronger wind-style jutsus.
Heck, Hiruzen even blackmailed Danzo to give some lessons to his son about wind release jutsus otherwise he would shut down the root. As for why he should share his jutsus with Asuma, Hiruzen told Danzo that it was stated in the will of the fire to support the next generation. Hearing this shameless thing, Danzo had no choice but to give some lessons to Asuma.
Hiruzen while proficient in every chakra type was not the best in every one. And Danzo was the best wind style user in all of the shinobi world currently and not only Konoha. Even Ken admitted this fact. But Danzo was not quite powerful currently because he lacked a second hand and one of his eyes.
Anyways, Danzo taught some vacuum jutsus to Asuma who eagerly learned them and then joined the twelve guardians.
Anyways, Asuma lifted Ken up in a hug.
"How are you little Ken?"
"Stop it, Your beard is hurting me. Why did you even grow up a beard? How did you know that we were coming here?" Ken asked irritated by Asuma's beard.
"Dad, sent me a letter with a summon to introduce you to the merchant since the mission was assigned to you in a hurry. I am not sure why you were in a hurry but be careful in the land of water." Asuma said without poking much about the mission and asking about it. He was now a Jonin after all and knew there were things that should not be revealed or asked, especially when there could be ears listening to them.
"I will go and talk to the merchant while you three will go resupply and then rest. We would be leaving in two hours but it all depends on the merchant. We can't push him to hurry otherwise it would become suspicious." Shikuro said as he departed with Asuma to go and meet the merchant.
Luckily for them, The merchant was also in a hurry and wanted to leave as soon as possible. Thus, they left for the land of water after they had rested enough.
After reaching the port, They took a ship to the land of water. Ken could feel various eyes on them at the port likely from mist spies. The Konoha shinobi ignored them and kept walking.
They were not sure if the mist shinobi would attack them or not. There was a big hole in the plan that Shikaku had admitted would completely destroy their plan and put their lives in danger.
And that was if the Mist considered kidnapping or killing the Hokage's grandson a good exchange for taking the ire of their Lord Damiyo. The chances of that happening were very low since no village wanted to lose the favor of their Damiyo.
After reaching one of the islands in the Land of Water. They were on high alert after all their real mission was about to start.
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