Chapter 497: The Unexpected Uzumaki Clan
Unfamiliar with Hidden Grass Village, Kakashi first led his team through several key locations in the main urban district to scout the layout. If they needed to move fast later, having routes in mind would matter.
Kakashi did not share Mugetsu's approach. First, finding an ANBU base was difficult. Second, Kakashi believed there was an even simpler way to secure proof.
For better stealth, he had Obito and the others use the Transformation Technique. Now they looked like ordinary adult men from the Land of Grass, the kind you could find anywhere on the street.
"Kakashi, are you sure about this?" Obito muttered. "I feel like we've wasted so much time and gained nothing."
To Obito, this did not feel like a covert investigation. It felt like wandering.
"Talk less. Do more. I'm the team leader," Kakashi replied flatly, offering no explanation.
If he wanted Obito to understand, he would have to lay out the chain of logic and every detail. Normally, Kakashi might do that. On a mission, he could not be bothered.
Obito glared in frustration, but he truly did not argue.
Because Obito knew that if it turned into a real dispute, he would probably be the one in the wrong. And if Rin sided with Kakashi, Obito would be crushed.
Kakashi led them into a lively tavern.
He pretended to pick a table while scanning the entire room. In reality, he was searching for shinobi from Hidden Grass.
After spotting a group of Grass shinobi drinking, Kakashi guided Obito and the others to a nearby table and sat down.
By then, the Grass shinobi were already flushed and tipsy.
Kakashi, acting like a normal customer, ordered three bottles of sake and several plates of snacks.
"Hey, Kakashi," Obito whispered, "are we seriously drinking? That's forbidden."
After graduating, once a genin's protection period ended, they could accept missions that involved killing. Even so, Konoha strictly prohibited underage drinking, and selling alcohol to minors was illegal.
That only made it more exciting in Obito's mind. It felt like testing the boundary of Konoha's laws.
Kakashi shot him a cold glare. Not ordering alcohol in a tavern would look suspicious.
"Just pretend," Kakashi said quietly. "Don't actually drink."
Even on a mission, they were not going to break the rules.
Besides, for shinobi, faking a drink was easy. Ordinary civilians would never notice, and even tipsy shinobi would not catch it.
Obito nodded, full of regret. He really wanted to try it.
So many adult shinobi loved drinking. Obito had convinced himself alcohol must be delicious, and the only reason it was banned for minors was because certain ingredients were harmful.
Kakashi had everyone pour sake into their cups to strengthen the disguise.
Obito leaned in and sniffed.
"What a weird smell," he muttered. "Does this really taste good?"
In Obito's mind, delicious drinks should smell nice. If something smelled bad, it probably tasted bad too.
Bang!
"Damn Konoha and Iwagakure!" A Grass shinobi gulped down his cup, his cheeks turning even redder as he slammed it on the table. "Why don't they fight in their own lands? Why do they insist on waging war on our land?"
"Haven't the great nations always been like this?" another Grass shinobi sneered. "They rely on their military strength and never care about small countries like ours."
Hidden Grass sat between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth. Their shinobi had been caught in the open and hidden struggles between those two powers countless times. Most Grass shinobi had no good feelings toward either side.
The only reason they did not strike back was simple.
They could not win.
The gap was too large.
Otherwise, Hidden Grass would have started a fight long ago.
"It's war everywhere now," a stubble faced Grass shinobi chuckled. "Honestly, it's the same no matter where you look. And war isn't all bad. Recently, a bunch of new teas arrived, and the quality is pretty good."
The others turned to him with open disdain. Everyone was venting about national affairs, and he was thinking about tea.
"Which shop?" one of the slightly drunk shinobi asked in a low voice. "Have you tried it?"
Disdain or not, good tea was still good tea.
"I tried it once yesterday after finishing a mission," the stubble faced shinobi said. "I heard a lot of shops have new teas. It's not easy in this environment, and haven't a lot of refugees arrived recently?"
"You've got too much energy," another shinobi scoffed. "Mission intensity is high lately and you're still thinking about tea?"
"That's exactly why you need tea," the stubble faced shinobi replied, completely serious.
Kakashi frowned.
This was not the intelligence he wanted.
Still, he pulled one small thread from the mess.
"Hidden Grass shinobi complain a lot about Iwagakure," Kakashi thought. "Does that mean they aren't cooperating?"
But he quickly shook his head.
That alone meant nothing.
Villages did not break alliances over a little resentment. If there was profit, they cooperated anyway.
Seeing he would not get anything useful here, Kakashi gave his teammates a subtle look and led them out of the tavern.
"We really did waste time in there," Obito grumbled once they reached a quieter street. "Those guys kept talking about tea. Nothing useful at all."
He had been watching too, and he genuinely could not understand why a group of people would get so excited over tea.
Was Hidden Grass some village with a tea culture?
Looking at Obito's clear, innocent eyes, Kakashi decided not to tell him the truth. Being simple was not always a bad thing.
"Let's check somewhere else," Kakashi said, shifting their direction toward the outskirts.
This was an S Rank war mission. Kakashi had already prepared himself for the first day to yield nothing.
For missions like this, spending one or two months was normal.
They continued investigating, slowly approaching the area where Hidden Grass was processing refugees.
From a distance, they saw a crowd gathered in disorder, while Grass shinobi wearing Hidden Grass forehead protectors shouted loudly to maintain control.
"If you want food, register honestly!" one of the Grass shinobi shouted. "Write down any special skills or techniques you have. Shinobi can register first, and if you perform well, you can become a shinobi of Hidden Grass!"
Hidden Grass was not wealthy. They could not feed war refugees for free.
Useful people could stay and work. Useless ones would be driven out.
As for what happened to those expelled, Hidden Grass did not care. Some of them were not even from the Land of Grass.
Kakashi watched seven Grass shinobi restrain and direct over a thousand refugees and fell into thought.
Shinobi strength could maintain order, yes. But from a work efficiency standpoint, handling this many people properly would require at least fifteen to twenty shinobi.
"High mission intensity," Kakashi thought. "Few shinobi…"
He felt a spark of inspiration.
Then he forced himself to calm down.
It was still too little information to draw conclusions.
"Rin, look," Obito suddenly said, scanning the crowd. "There's a red haired person over there!"
Red hair was rare. In all the people Obito had seen, black hair was the most common. Red was the rarest.
The only person he had seen with naturally red hair was Kushina.
Rin nodded. "And it's kind of like Kushina neechan's color."
Hearing that, Kakashi turned his gaze toward the red haired figure Obito pointed out.
"A survivor of the Uzumaki clan?" Kakashi's mind immediately jumped there.
Red hair was a major trait of the Uzumaki. If someone had red hair and powerful chakra, the odds were high.
Kakashi quietly moved closer and activated the Transparent World.
Under that enhancement, the figure's body seemed to change in his sight, and the chakra within her was exposed clearly.
Kakashi's eyes widened slightly.
Not every red haired person was an Uzumaki. Some ordinary people were born with red hair.
But red hair combined with strong chakra was almost a confirmation.
"Name, age, special skill," a Grass shinobi in charge of registration said impatiently. "Speak quickly, or stand to the left."
Even work you like becomes exhausting if you do it nonstop, especially monotonous tasks like this.
If this had not been an assignment from the chief of Hidden Grass Village, the Grass shinobi would have started slacking long ago.
"Karin. Twenty," the red haired woman said cautiously. "Can sewing count as a special skill?"
"Left," the registering shinobi snapped, not answering her question.
With only that much skill, she clearly could not survive in the current Hidden Grass Village. The shinobi even suspected she was too weak to carry bricks.
Karin Uzumaki, could only step into the left line, her expression lost.
The left line was for expulsion. Several groups had already been driven out.
But if she could not stay in Hidden Grass, where could she go?
The war had made the Land of Grass chaotic and dangerous. Hidden Grass Village was already one of the safest and most prosperous places in the entire country.
The only other place comparable was the capital of the Land of Grass, but you could not survive there without money. In some ways, it was even harsher than Hidden Grass.
In truth, Karin had a way to be accepted.
Her greatest special skill was not sewing.
It was her Uzumaki constitution.
But she did not dare reveal it.
She knew the entire shinobi world now held deep malice toward the Uzumaki clan. Outside, Karin never dared to state her surname.
She wanted a stable, peaceful life. If she exposed her abilities, that peace would vanish.
That conflict was exactly why she chose to hide.
"I'll try my luck outside," Karin sighed inwardly.
She had no grand dream of restoring the Uzumaki clan.
She only wanted to live quietly until old age.
Even that simple wish was a luxury in the current shinobi world.
"Take them out," the leading Grass shinobi ordered once the left line grew large enough.
Kakashi began to withdraw, planning to create a shadow clone to follow them.
This Uzumaki survivor had nothing to do with their mission, but the Uzumaki were Konoha's closest ally. If she was in danger, Kakashi was willing to help a little.
"Wait. What's going on here?"
A calm voice cut through the noise.
Kakashi's steps halted.
Yokogawa Tsutomu, who had come to inspect, casually asked as he noticed the group heading for the village gate.
He worried his subordinates might be sloppy and that the Grass Flower faction might notice flaws. So he came personally to look.
"Chief, these are people who can't contribute to the village," the Grass shinobi explained respectfully. "We're sending them out."
Yokogawa nodded. Nothing seemed wrong.
Then he stopped again.
"Oh. That red haired one. Stop."
Yokogawa's expression turned interested.
As the chief of Hidden Grass Village, Yokogawa was not as ignorant as ordinary shinobi.
Karin's mind went blank.
She realized someone had noticed something.
But she had never undergone shinobi training. Among several shinobi, she could not escape even if she wanted to.
Karin stopped obediently.
[Karin here is Karin's mother in canon idk her name and got lazy inventing another so i just put Karin's name to her]
She felt the jealous, envious looks around her and sighed inwardly.
This was not a good sign.
She forced her face to stay calm, praying that her identity would not be uncovered.
Yokogawa stepped in front of Karin, gathered chakra, and activated a secret sensing technique to examine her chakra.
The technique had short range and was useless in combat, but it worked well for close inspection.
"You can stay," Yokogawa said after sensing her chakra, a faint smile appearing.
He had not expected such a pleasant surprise.
With the traits of an Uzumaki, sacrificing Karin to the Paradise Box would be worth a hundred ordinary shinobi.
After speaking, Yokogawa gave a few instructions to the Grass shinobi and left.
The next batch of corpses would arrive soon. He intended to handle Karin together with the shinobi corpses at that time.
Yokogawa's arrival disrupted Kakashi's plan.
To avoid impacting the mission, Kakashi did not act rashly.
He decided he would report this to Mugetsu and let Mugetsu decide whether to make contact with this Uzumaki survivor.
That evening, after completing a full day of investigation, Kakashi's team returned to the inn.
"Today we just walked around and did nothing," Obito complained. "We must be the team with the least gains. Kakashi, as team leader, you're responsible."
Kakashi looked at him as if he had no words left.
"If you talk less, people won't assume we gathered no intelligence," Kakashi said dryly.
Every time Kakashi wanted to think better of Obito, Obito would open his mouth.
Rin smiled helplessly and stepped in before it escalated.
"Alright. Teacher Mugetsu and the others seem to be back," Rin said. "Let's go quickly."
Obito immediately dropped the argument and followed them toward the room.