Not long after Hinata left, Ino arrived. Naruto had just finished cleaning, ensuring there wasn't a single strand of hair left on the floor.
Though there had been a minor incident earlier, he really hadn't done anything wrong.
But women were often unreasonable, and he didn't want to gamble on her reaction.
Ino huffed and raised her chin, giving him a sidelong glance. Then she ran a finger along the top of the shoe cabinet in the entryway and found another layer of dust. Instantly, her mood soured.
"Naruto!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" He apologized with utmost sincerity, putting on a convincingly remorseful expression.
"I knew it! Honestly, Naruto, even if you live alone, you should still keep things clean." Ino grumbled as she changed her shoes at the entrance, her lips pouting in annoyance.
"Yes, yes." Naruto didn't care at all and responded with a smile.
He had practically scrubbed the entire apartment spotless, so how could he ignore such a conspicuous place as the shoe cabinet?
The truth was, he had left it dusty on purpose.
Naruto clearly remembered Ino mentioning the dust on the shoe cabinet during her last visit. When he was cleaning up, he suddenly realized that being too tidy might actually arouse suspicion.
Ino was far sharper than the airheaded Hinata, and if he made everything too clean, she might get suspicious. So he deliberately left one flaw to divert her attention.
Sure enough, Ino seemed pleased, and things proceeded smoothly. The two chatted on the couch for a while, and then went to the bathroom together to fix the showerhead.
As the sun set, Naruto drowsily woke up in bed, but he was still feeling sluggish. Glancing at Ino beside him, he hugged her and rolled over to go back to sleep.
The next morning.
Ino pinched Naruto's nose and frowned at him.
"What's wrong?"
"Didn't you say you were leaving on a mission yesterday?" She asked somewhat dissatisfiedly, gritting her teeth, "I feel like you've tricked me again!"
"No, I am going on a mission, but… delaying half a day won't hurt." Naruto said dismissively.
"You…!" Ino was a little angry, 'Why did I feel like I was falling apart, but this guy looked refreshed?'
But things still needed to be done, and after Ino left, Naruto quickly packed up and silently slipped out of Konoha.
In Konoha Forest, he activated the Gate of the Underworld.
After stepping inside and outside, he arrived at…
Naruto looked around carefully again, and suddenly found that he had messed up the coordinates.
'I must have chosen the wrong location… Instead of heading to Iwagakure, I had teleported straight to the border of the Land of Wind.'
"Huh?" Naruto was dumbfounded.
Just as he was about to reopen the Gate of the Underworld to head to Iwagakure, he suddenly remembered something: he seemed to have overlooked the Land of Wind.
Gaara was the Kazekage of Sunagakure, but he doesn't seem to be able to fully control Sunagakure, let alone the Land of Wind.
The current Kazekage's influence was limited, and the village was still struggling.
The thought flashed through his mind, but Naruto had no intention of changing his plan. With a wave of his hand, the Gate of the Underworld opened once more.
Iwagakure is nestled among towering mountains, with the village carved right into the cliffs. Almost all of the Shinobi in Iwagakure wore red headbands, worshipping stone as a symbol of their will.
The current Kage was the Sandaime Tsuchikage, Onoki, a short old man with gray hair. He has a bad temper and is stubborn. His attitude toward people and situations was unyielding.
To put it bluntly, the people in this village basically have bad tempers. This was largely due to the influence of the Shodaime Tsuchikage, who preached the 'Will of Stone'.
It symbolized an unbreakable spirit, an unwillingness to yield.
Under the influence of the Shodaime Tsuchikage, Onoki grew into a powerful but bad-tempered Shinobi, and had been holding the Tsuchikage's position for decades.
Rather than calling it a village, this place was more like a small, feudal, hereditary state. Due to its geographical isolation, the village had almost no interaction with the outside world.
If nothing unexpected happened, the Tsuchikage's position would eventually go to Onoki's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi.
Naruto was hiding somewhere high in the mountains, overlooking the whole Iwagakure. Clouds brushed past him, and the misty landscape below revealed the hive-like structures built into the mountainside.
He took a quick look and saw that Iwagakure was built into the cliffs, so it was naturally fortified. It was easy to defend and difficult to attack from a high position.
At this time, he thought to himself, 'No wonder the Shodaime Tsuchikage spoke so boldly to Hashirama.'
'If this broken village were destroyed, they could just find a mountain and copy and paste an identical version of it in a matter of minutes.'
'And what the hell is the 'Will of Stone'? It's obviously a stone from the toilet, smelly and hard. He know that Hashirama has a good temper and will not destroy their village even if he makes him angry.'
If it was Madara who was the Shodaime Hokage, Iwagakure would've been erased from the Shinobi World long ago. They wouldn't have lasted to Sandaime Tsuchikage's era, still stuck at the same level.
To put it bluntly, no one wanted to bother with this barren, rocky wasteland. As long as Onoki was around, Iwagakure would remain a major player in the Shinobi World.
"Onoki is just a stubborn old rock. There's no benefit in touching him." Naruto muttered to himself, "Everyone has weaknesses. Iwagakure is in a period of transition, and the candidate for the Yondaime Tsuchikage has basically been decided."
"Kurotsuchi… What a lame name. The future 'Legs Kage', Onoki's granddaughter. If something happened to her, Onoki wouldn't just sit back and do nothing."
At that moment, inside Iwagakure…
At a food stall, a young Shinobi was holding two portions of food with a conflicted look on his face.
"Choose?" The girl, Kurotsuchi, was biting a piece of wild grass that she had pulled from somewhere, with a look of arrogance and domineering like a rich second-generation young master, "Of course, I'm taking both!"
"But... you won't be able to finish it." The man muttered in a low voice.
"What?" Kurotsuchi's eyes gleamed dangerously, as if ready to devour him, "You said I can't do it? How could I not finish it? I'll prove it to you right now!"
After saying that, Kurotsuchi grabbed the two portions of food and stuffed them into her mouth, looking both arrogant and utterly foolish.
"Uh..."
Naruto, who had just infiltrated the village, passed by Kurotsuchi and her companion, feeling somewhat speechless, 'How did I not notice how much of an airhead she was during the Five Kage Summit? She's like some kind of village's idiot!'
It just so happens that the Jashin's followers was short on members. As long as he can control Kurotsuchi, destabilizing Iwagakure would be easy. While Iwagakure wasn't technologically advanced, its population and military strength were nothing to scoff at.
Iwagakure is a militaristic village that takes a hardline approach to warfare, and they will immediately go to war if there is any disagreement.
Even with its backward economy and poor living standards, it could still sustain its massive army.
Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Naruto wasn't sure about the others, but he knew Kumogakure and Iwagakure were the ones most eager for war. Once the war machine started rolling, gold and treasures would flow endlessly.
…
Konoha.
Choji looked at the person in front of him, scratched his head, and said with some embarrassment.
"I really don't know where Naruto went. He rarely tells me when he leaves the village."
Hearing this, Ino put her hands on her hips and said with some resentment, "Aren't you two best friends? Choji, you're always covering for him. Don't think I don't know."
Hearing this, Choji was immediately at a loss. He thought to himself, 'I had no choice. That bastard Naruto was forcing me into this! I really had no choice!'
"N-No, not at all." He said with an awkward smile.
Even though he was cursing Naruto in his heart, he still didn't dare agree with Ino. Instead, he forced a grin and stiffly suggested, "Why not ask Kakashi-sensei? He might know."
"But, Ino... why are you suddenly asking about him?"
"No reason. It's just that guy never tells the truth, and I'm worried he's off fooling around somewhere again." She replied.