Linto and his group crossed mountains and rivers, and sailed across the sea, leaving the territory of the Land of Water. They passed through the Land of Waves, but did not encounter any more drug dealing.
Linto did not believe that the other party had learned their lesson after the last time and stopped selling drugs.
The Land of Waves was rotten to the core. It couldn't be solved by overturning a few ships and killing a few crew members or samurai. Most likely, they were transporting and selling in a more hidden way.
Linto and Sasuke safely passed through the Land of Waves and returned to the Land of Fire's territory after a long time.
The location of the survivor village was in the northern part of the Land of Fire, in a dense forest. The road ahead was not easy. There were no official roads, so they could only walk through the forest.
Fortunately, the group had some skill. Even Mayuri and Haku, who had never trained, had physiques different from ordinary people due to their bloodline abilities.
This trip was much easier for Linto than the previous one. To be precise, he was constantly enjoying Mayuri's care.
From traveling to cooking to resting at night, Mayuri was like a gentle older sister, arranging everything in an orderly manner.
Linto wasn't a rich landlord. He wanted to help several times, but he couldn't keep up with Mayuri's pace and ended up making things worse. He could only shamelessly enjoy her care.
In a flash, more than two months had passed.
Because they weren't rushing, the group stopped and went, and the journey was quite leisurely. Occasionally, they would pass through towns and replenish their supplies.
"Fire Release Great Fireball Jutsu."
Linto quickly formed hand seals and used Ninjutsu on an open space.
While there were no enemies nearby, Linto tried to learn Ninjutsu with Sasuke.
It wasn't that he was planning to become a ninja, but having another way to deal with things was always a good thing, and it was better to know your enemy.
But...
A super mini version of a small flame, the size of a balloon, appeared.
"Still no good."
Linto slapped the Ninjutsu away.
The hand seals were fine, the Ninjutsu was fine, the key was Chakra.
Linto couldn't gather Chakra properly.
Chakra is a supernatural energy created by combining physical and spiritual energy. Linto's body was strong, but the problem was with his "spirit."
Sasuke stroked his chin and analyzed.
"Brother Shou, could it be because you're a Stand user, and your mental energy is all used to create your Stand, so you can't use it to create Chakra?"
That was certainly a possibility.
But there was another possibility...
Linto's soul didn't belong to the Hokage world.
Compared to the locals, Linto's soul lacked something that could generate Chakra. If he could figure out the difference in his soul, perhaps he could try to train in Ninjutsu.
Linto pondered for a moment, shook his head, and gave up on this idea.
He didn't have the knowledge to do that.
Instead of wasting time on that, he should focus on training in Ripple.
"Buzz... Buzz..."
Aerosmith hovered in the air.
Linto had arrived at his destination. The survivor village should be nearby.
After searching for nearly an hour.
"Beep beep..."
In Aerosmith's detection range, the faint breaths of the small animals became scarce, indicating that about one kilometer ahead was the range of human activity.
"We're almost there," Linto said.
The two-month journey was coming to an end. Mayuri gently hugged Haku. They would soon arrive at their new home. Both of them were nervous and excited.
Momo-chan and Sasuke smiled. They had become friends with many of the survivors on the cruise ship, and they were looking forward to seeing them again after a long time.
Seeing everyone so happy, Linto also smiled, but gradually, his smile faded.
"Brother Shou?" Sasuke asked.
Linto said, "Something's not right."
The traces of small animals had indeed disappeared, but... why couldn't Aerosmith detect any human breathing?
Even if they were out farming or hunting, surely not everyone in the village would be gone.
Linto carried the Rupture Blade at the front, with Sasuke and the others following closely behind.
They leaped through the jungle and soon came across a broken wooden sign with "Hope Village" written on it.
This was the name the survivors had given to the village.
Hope reborn after experiencing the deepest despair.
Linto put the wooden sign back on the ground, lifted the Rupture Blade with one hand, and smelled a strong stench before even entering the village.
A very familiar stench.
Linto recalled for a while, trying to remember when he had smelled it before.
The first day he arrived in the Hokage world.
The Uchiha compound.
When he opened the door of his own courtyard and walked into the street, the air was filled with this smell...
The smell of blood, organs, and corpse feces.
However, the smell in Hope Village had an added note of decay.
Collapsed houses everywhere, fields overgrown with weeds, and corpses rotting... Linto closed his eyes, and images appeared in his mind.
People full of hope, working hard for a new life, were slaughtered without reason by hunters who suddenly broke in.
Yes, without reason.
They weren't ninjas, they didn't have much money, and they weren't being captured for sale.
Just pure, unadulterated slaughter.
The group's gazes fell on Linto.
Shh...
Linto stuck his sword in the ground, rolled up his sleeves, and said calmly, "Let's take care of the bodies first."
The group carried the corpses to the center of the village. There were one hundred and three corpses, and some were dismembered and scattered everywhere, so they could only put the upper bodies together first.
Linto looked at each corpse, one by one, until the last one. He nodded to Sasuke.
"Fire Release Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A huge fireball, tens of meters high, appeared.
Local resident Sasuke, after training in Ripple, had greatly improved his body and mind. His Chakra was many times stronger than before.
The flames burned the corpses, making crackling sounds.
Linto and his group of five stood in front of the flames, silently watching until the flames went out, leaving a pile of ashes.
Star Platinum stabbed its hands into the ground and suddenly lifted it up, turning the earth over to cover the ashes, creating a simple grave.
Mayuri created an ice flower between her hands and gave it to Linto.
"Brother Shou, what do we do next?" Sasuke asked.
"One hundred and sixty survivors decided to leave the cruise ship and build Hope Village. There are only one hundred and three corpses here. More than fifty people are still alive."
These people, who chose to build a village instead of going home or seeking political asylum in Konoha Village, were the ones who truly had courage and hope.
They trusted Linto, so, following Linto's guidance, they came here to start a new life.
Linto placed the ice flower in his hand in front of the grave.
He and the villagers of Hope Village were only casual acquaintances. Linto didn't owe them anything. He simply felt that these pitiful people who held hope shouldn't have died.
At least, they shouldn't have died so unjustly.
"I want to find the survivors and ask what happened."
"But... how do we find them?" Momo-chan asked.
Judging from the degree of decay of the corpses, half a month had passed since the disaster. Even if there were survivors who escaped, their tracks would have been covered by trees and grass within that half a month.
Linto naturally knew this.
"Go to nearby cities."
"I want to buy a camera."
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