Haruto Saito had no habit of collecting the bodies of his enemies, nor did he care to destroy the evidence.
In fact, he wanted the Hidden Mist to find those corpses.
He wanted them to know that their covert operatives were dying one after another. He wanted them to understand that someone was systematically targeting their people. He even wanted them to realize that the person killing their covert operatives was the same one who had assassinated Hōzuki Rōba and Fujita Asa.
That was true revenge!
This was why Haruto had killed so many of their operatives in public, on the streets. He had even given the Hidden Mist opportunities to track him down.
Haruto left the long-haired ninja's body where it was and hurried away.
About half an hour later.
Still in the mountains of the Land of Whirlpools' northwest region, Haruto entered a valley. In the valley was a lake, and by the lakeside, he started a fire. He caught some fish from the lake and planned to grill them.
The fire burned brightly, its smoke rising straight into the sky.
This violated the ninja mission protocols, but Haruto didn't care. In fact, he hoped it would attract an enemy or two. It wasn't like starting a fire would suddenly summon an unbeatable, overwhelmingly powerful foe. That would be ridiculous!
The fish were already skewered and placed over the fire.
Haruto pulled out a thick stack of cards from his pocket—the rewards from killing four people today. He had killed dozens before but hadn't bothered to check the drops. This time was different because one of his kills today was an elite jonin!
An elite jonin with a reputation of over 10,000 points, who likely knew S-rank forbidden techniques!
Unfortunately, Haruto was disappointed. No S-rank forbidden technique cards had dropped.
This was a matter of drop rates. Just because the enemy knew an S-rank technique didn't mean the corresponding card would drop.
There were, however, two A-rank ninjutsu cards, both Water Style techniques that Haruto hadn't mastered before. Haruto quickly sorted through the cards. Nothing particularly exciting, but he absorbed the useful ones and stored the rest.
Then, he started eating the grilled fish.
After eating and drinking his fill by the lake, Haruto didn't leave. He remained seated by the fire, flipping his wrist to produce several scrolls.
These were the intelligence scrolls he had obtained from Duanhai Village earlier!
He casually opened one and began reading. It contained information about tracking members of the Uzumaki clan. The Hidden Mist was searching for Uzumaki ninja. Although Uzushiogakure had been destroyed and most of the Uzumaki clan had died in battle, some had gone into hiding, changing their names and fleeing to other lands.
"Why are they looking for Uzumaki ninja?" Haruto frowned in confusion.
This wasn't particularly unusual. The Hidden Mist was the mastermind behind Uzushiogakure's destruction, so it made sense that they would want to hunt down the remaining Uzumaki ninja and eliminate them to prevent future threats.
But the problem was, this wasn't something that required Hanzo Ryūno's personal involvement!
Hanzo Ryūno's presence indicated that there was more to this!
Haruto opened another scroll. This one contained information about the movements of a ninja named "Daifei." Nothing particularly noteworthy.
Haruto kept reading!
Once he finished with a scroll, he tossed it back into his inventory and pulled out a new one.
In the basement, he had obtained hundreds of intelligence scrolls. It would take a long time to go through all of them, but Haruto wasn't in a hurry. His curiosity had been thoroughly piqued, and he was determined to figure out what the Hidden Mist was up to!
Before he knew it, an hour had passed.
Haruto had gone through dozens of scrolls, and his confusion only deepened. All the scrolls were about tracking people. Besides the Uzumaki ninja, the Hidden Mist was also searching for individuals whose clans and identities weren't specified. However, when piecing together the information, it became clear that these people were all connected to the Uzumaki clan!
They were likely ninja from Uzushiogakure!
Uzushiogakure wasn't just home to the Uzumaki clan. The Uzumaki were the ruling class, but beneath them was a much larger population of ninja.
During the battle that destroyed Uzushiogakure, thousands of ninja had died, while the entire Uzumaki clan numbered only a few hundred.
Haruto kept reading.
He always returned the scrolls he finished to his inventory, so he only ever held a few at a time… These scrolls couldn't be discarded, even after reading them!
They were valuable!
Handing them over to the Leaf would earn him significant merit!
Of course, one thing was crucial:
Did they mention Hanzo Ryūno's true purpose for coming to the Land of Whirlpools? If not, then the value of these intelligence scrolls wouldn't be as high.
Another hour passed.
Haruto had gone through over two hundred scrolls. At first, he read them carefully, but later he started skimming, quickly scanning for important information and skipping the rest.
After finishing the last few scrolls in his hand, he returned them to his inventory.
He pulled out a new set.
Haruto opened the first one.
*According to interrogation, Uzumaki Lijiang revealed that four years ago, Uzumaki Mus, then commander of Uzushiogakure's First Regiment, personally led the First and Second Battalions—approximately three hundred ninja—on a secret mission outside the village. They escorted a shipment of supplies to the south and returned seven days later. The destination of the supplies remains unknown… It is unclear whether this shipment is related to the Uzumaki treasure.*
"Treasure? The Uzumaki treasure?!" Haruto was stunned.
The Hidden Mist was searching for the so-called Uzumaki treasure?!
"Holy crap!" Haruto jumped to his feet, still holding the scroll. "Treasure?!!"
Was there really an Uzumaki treasure?
Haruto didn't know!
There was no relevant intelligence, and in the years since Uzushiogakure's destruction, no legends about an Uzumaki treasure had spread through the shinobi world.
But that didn't mean it didn't exist!
Legends about treasures took time to form. They needed events, rumors, and stories to gradually take shape.
What was the Uzumaki treasure?
It was likely the accumulated wealth of the Land of Whirlpools over a thousand years!
Keep in mind, Uzushiogakure was different from the Five Great Shinobi Villages. The Five Great Villages were established only thirty-two years ago. Before that, the shinobi world had been in a state of constant war for a millennium.
Uzushiogakure had ruled the Land of Whirlpools long before the Five Great Villages were founded.
This powerful clan had ruled the Land of Whirlpools for a thousand years!
During the Warring States Period, the Uzumaki clan leader was referred to as a king or emperor. His daughters were princesses… Uzumaki Mito, for example, was once a princess of the Land of Whirlpools before she married Hashirama Senju, the most powerful shinobi of his time.
So, even though the Uzumaki clan had been destroyed, it was possible they had left behind vast wealth—a treasure!
Of course, this wasn't certain.
Even if the Uzumaki clan had been wealthy historically, they had lost the war that destroyed them. Wars were expensive, so it was possible they had exhausted their resources before their defeat… or maybe they hadn't.
If Hanzo Ryūno had personally come to the Land of Whirlpools for the Uzumaki treasure, it meant the Hidden Mist had obtained accurate intelligence confirming the treasure's existence!
Which meant…
The Uzumaki treasure was located in the Poison Forest in the central-western part of the Land of Whirlpools!
Because Haruto still had one unused treasure card. Back when he was in a state of heightened luck, he had randomly selected a location, and fate had told him to use the treasure card in the Poison Forest…