Chapter 40: Enemy Attack?
Sasuke really had been moved by Yoruha's words.
As he looked at Kakashi now, his eyes were full of longing for power.
He felt Kakashi truly could make him unbelievably strong.
Sakura, on the other hand, was very curious about Yoruha. Yoruha actually knew so much about Kakashi.
Just how good was Kakashi to Yoruha, exactly?
"Kakashi-sensei, were these things all told to Yoruha by you?"
Sakura looked at Kakashi sourly.
Kakashi's mouth twitched.
Seeing Yoruha's half-smiling expression, he felt utterly helpless.
"Not all of it. He probably looked up a lot of the information himself."
Sakura gave a little huff. "Hmph, you definitely told him. So in Kakashi-sensei's heart, Yoruha really is more important than the rest of us."
Naruto also caught on and looked at Kakashi in disdain. "Yeah, yeah, Sakura's right. Kakashi-sensei is way too biased. You only told Yoruha and not us."
Sasuke didn't say anything.
But inwardly, he was unhappy too.
After all, Kakashi was their teacher. Logically, they should have been more important to him than Yoruha.
Who would've thought Kakashi had told Yoruha so much, yet hadn't told them?
Kakashi had a headache. He knew Yoruha had definitely done this on purpose.
Tazuna also fanned the flames from the side. "Kakashi, looks like being a teacher isn't easy."
Kakashi could only explain, "That's because there hasn't been enough time. We haven't really gotten to know each other properly."
"And most of that information was researched by Yoruha himself. I didn't tell him."
But Sasuke and the other two didn't believe Kakashi's explanation at all.
Naruto shouted, "No way, Kakashi-sensei, you can't play favorites. You have to teach us ninjutsu too. I want to learn the ninjutsu Yoruha used to instantly kill those two ninja."
Sakura nodded in agreement. "Right, Naruto's right."
Sasuke was a little speechless.
He knew Yoruha hadn't used any ninjutsu at all just now.
Kakashi said with a bitter smile, "Yoruha didn't use any ninjutsu just now. What he used was taijutsu."
"And I've never taught him taijutsu either."
But Naruto and Sakura still didn't believe him. "How is that possible? If Kakashi-sensei didn't teach him, how could he be that strong?"
Kakashi looked at Yoruha, deeply helpless.
Yoruha said nothing.
So Kakashi could only say, "When we have time, I'll train all of you together."
With Kakashi's promise, Naruto and Sakura were both delighted.
Sasuke was looking forward to it too.
After all, Kakashi's talent had even been about on par with Itachi's back then.
Maybe he had even been a little stronger.
After walking for quite a long time,
they finally entered the Land of Waves.
It was a small country on the edge of the Land of Fire. Its population was small, and it didn't even have ninja of its own. One could easily imagine how poor the country was.
Still, the environment was actually quite nice.
There were many lakes and abundant forest resources—an excellent place for developing tourism.
And because it was by the sea, developing a fishing industry would also be a very good option.
After all, the Land of Waves was so small that tourism and fishing alone could support the country's survival.
"Mr. Tazuna, your country has pretty good conditions," Yoruha praised.
Tazuna froze for a moment, thinking Yoruha was being sarcastic.
"The Land of Waves really is weak. It can't be helped. The country's too poor."
Yoruha shook his head. "I'm serious. Your country is small and has a low population, but it has abundant tourism resources. Add fishing, and that's enough to make the country prosperous."
At present, the ninja world was generally in a time of peace.
And during peaceful times, tourism had plenty of room to grow.
Tazuna paused. "How could anyone possibly come to a backwater place like this for tourism?"
He didn't believe it.
Yoruha shook his head. "There are plenty of people like that. As long as people in other countries know a place like this exists, and you promote it properly, it'll work."
"There are still quite a lot of wealthy people in the world."
Tazuna thought about it. Though he still didn't fully believe Yoruha, the idea did seem somewhat workable.
"But first we have to finish the bridge. Otherwise, no matter how good the tourism resources are, no one will come."
Yoruha nodded. "That's true."
At the side, Kakashi looked at Yoruha with satisfaction.
Ninja belonged to a country's military apparatus.
They were a non-productive organization.
Economic issues usually weren't something they needed to think about.
Besides the fees they earned from missions, the state also allocated military funding to them.
Money was normally not something they had to worry about.
Of course, if they offended the daimyō, that was another matter entirely—for example, Sunagakure.
Under normal circumstances, a hidden village and its daimyō had a mutually beneficial relationship.
The daimyō also wanted the hidden village to be strong, so it could protect the interests of the whole country.
And Sunagakure was precisely because its relationship with the daimyō was extremely poor that the annual military funding it received was very little.
That had left Sunagakure extremely weak; even its number of ninja couldn't compare to the other four great ninja villages.
Ordinary ninja didn't need to think about economic matters, but someone in a high-level position like the Hokage did.
After all, ninja required huge amounts of money and material resources to train.
Without an economy, a ninja village would only grow weaker and weaker.
Many small hidden villages were exactly like that—their countries were too weak to provide enough economic support.
And Yoruha was able to think about economic issues, and his views were quite sound.
That was what pleased Kakashi.
But clearly, aside from Yoruha and Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura had little interest in a topic like this.
They cared much more about ninjutsu and ninja matters.
Naruto had been tense the entire way.
Not because he was scared, but because his earlier performance had been so poor.
So all along the road, he had been hoping they'd run into a ninja, so he could personally take action and defeat them, wiping away his humiliation in one go.
Just as they passed by a lake, Naruto noticed movement in the bushes nearby.
As if he had discovered treasure, Naruto excitedly threw several Kunai into the bushes.
With a few sharp whistling sounds through the air, the target in the bushes seemed to have been hit.
So overjoyed that he ignored Kakashi's attempt to stop him, Naruto rushed into the bushes.
"Hahaha, I got—"
He had just been about to brag to the others that he had hit the enemy.
But when he saw several Kunai stuck in a rabbit, with blood pouring from its body, he immediately became awkward.
Sakura came over, saw the scene, and got angry.
She punched Naruto on the head. "Idiot Naruto, what did you do!?"
Obviously, for a girl like Sakura, the sight of a rabbit being stabbed into a bloody mess by Kunai was far too shocking.
Naruto also looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't know. I thought it was an enemy."
Sasuke, Yoruha, and Kakashi didn't go over. The three of them stayed beside Tazuna.
Naruto's behavior made Kakashi press a hand to his forehead helplessly. "That kid really hasn't changed at all."
Sasuke curled his lip. "Idiot."
Yoruha merely smiled. He wasn't surprised by Naruto's behavior in the slightest.
After all, if he didn't do things like this, he wouldn't be Naruto.