A bag of beans, a pack of cigarettes, and a day of control by the Otsutsuki God

She knew that Jiraiya and Naruto could not stay here any longer. Every minute they stayed here, the possibility of the truth being exposed increased.

Even if it was destined that one day they would fight to the death, they should postpone this day as much as possible.

"Master, Junior Brother, you should leave the Hidden Rain Village soon. I should also find a place to hide. Other Hanzo's men might catch up with us in a while." Konan looked anxious to hide.

"Konan..." Jiraiya was about to say something when he was stopped by Konan, who already knew his intention: "Master, I appreciate your kindness, but the Hidden Rain Village is my home. Nagato and Yahiko both gave their lives for this place. Even if I die, I will die here and will not go anywhere else."

"......Okay." Jiraiya knew the temper of his little apprentice. The three of them were very stubborn and would not change what they had determined.

"Then let's say goodbye here." Jiraiya pulled Naruto and quickly left the scene, and Konan finally breathed a sigh of relief at this time.

"Huh...finally gone." She looked at the unconscious Hanzo's men around her, her eyes showing murderous intent: "It's been so many years, and they still come back to die. Should I praise you?"

She does have a kind heart, but for these people, she can only give them a quick death.

Ninjas are also human beings. They do have rich emotions. They will fall in love with others and be loved by others. They also have compassion as human beings.

However, as a ninja, you always have to give up your feelings without hesitation when you need to, just as Jiraiya can kill anyone he loves for the village, and even if Xiaonan is grateful for the teacher-student relationship in the past, once the two sides become enemies, she will not hesitate to draw her sword with Jiraiya.

Personal feelings are indeed difficult to give up, but what does all this count for in the face of the interests of the village? This is the idea of ​​ninjas.

She watched Jiraiya and Naruto disappear at the end of the Hidden Rain Village, muttering: "The next time we meet, we will be enemies."

On the other side, after Jiraiya and Naruto left the Hidden Rain Village, this always unruly and unrestrained middle-aged man couldn't help but look back frequently, as if he was reluctant to leave.

"It feels like a daughter is left there." Jiraiya smiled helplessly.

He never married in his life, let alone having his own children, and all his feelings were poured into the village and his disciples. Minato and these three little guys are no different from his own children.

Naruto can actually understand Jiraiya's feelings, because he is also unmarried and childless in the Dragon Ball world. In the seven years after Goku died in the Cell Games, it was Naruto who used his royalties to support Chi-Chi and Gohan Goten. Whenever he was free, he would drive a small truck with a load of food to cook for the two Saiyan children. Even King Kai complained that Naruto was more like a father to the two children than Goku who had been in the underworld.

However, no matter how reluctant Jiraiya was, he could not go back to bring Konan out. He had to put it all aside and continue to move towards the Sand Village.

After leaving the border of the Rain Country, what came to them was the increasingly dry wind and sand, and the surrounding land began to desertify at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just half a day's journey, they went from a humid area with rain all year round to a dry desert.

Although he had been mentally prepared, when he really set foot on the land of the Wind Country, Naruto couldn't help but complain: "Is this place really habitable?"

Chapter 145: The Bare Wind Country

Although they are neighboring countries, the Rain Country and the Wind Country are two completely opposite appearances.

It rains all year round in the Rain Country and it is very humid, but fortunately, the Rain Country has many inland lakes and rivers that are connected in all directions. Most of the rainwater goes to other countries through these vein-like rivers, and a considerable part of it flows into the Fire Country.

The sufficient water supply, coupled with the pleasant climate of the Fire Country, has benefited the agriculture of the Fire Country a lot. In ancient times, the farmers of the Fire Country had learned to build water wheels along the rivers, either to irrigate farmland, or to connect millstones to replace livestock to pull mills, or to connect spinning wheels for weaving.

The Wind Country, which is also a neighbor, is like a place abandoned by God. There are almost no river branches from the Rain Country, and the rainfall is relatively small. As for the evaporation of water caused by sunlight and wind, it is ridiculous.

As a result, the terrain of the Wind Country can hardly be described as dangerous. Not long after Naruto and Jiraiya stepped into the territory of the Wind Country, the land under their feet changed from grassland to wind erosion landform, that is, there were dry and hard sand blocks everywhere. Wherever they looked, they could often see strangely shaped rock plates, standing like natural giant stone pillars on a scorched land.

As they gradually went deeper into the territory of the Wind Country, the environment became more and more severe.

From the Gobi Desert, it became a wind erosion landform, and then slowly became a desert. When you stepped on it, it was all fine sand. Except for some drought-resistant plants, there was almost no green.

"Is Gaara living in such a place?" Naruto suddenly understood why Luosha wanted to deal with Konoha. Living in such a broken place for generations, who wouldn't be crazy.

Although I have long known that the environment in the Wind Country is very bad, only by coming here in person can I understand how bad it is.

What did the ancestors of the Wind Country have in mind when they founded the country here?

If you insist on saying what advantages this place has, it is strong defensive capabilities.

In addition to the fact that the environment is too bad and people don't want to invade, this lifeless terrain also makes natural energy very scarce.

Except for special existences like Naruto who can use their own energy to open the Sage Mode, the normal Sage Mode in this world needs to absorb the surrounding natural energy to open.

But the natural energy in this broken place is too scarce.

If the natural energy concentration of the Fire Country is equivalent to a bowl of thick porridge, then the natural energy concentration of the Wind Country is only comparable to the northwest wind.

If you want to open the Sage Mode here, you may not be able to collect enough chakra even if you squat for a day.

The strategic depth is large enough, the geographical environment is bad enough, and the Wind Country is poor enough. These three factors make the Wind Country the country with the least number and intensity of invasions among the five major countries.

Fortunately, the land area of ​​the Wind Country is large enough, and there will always be oases in the desert. That small part of the oasis area has become the place where the people of the Wind Country live.

However, the Sand Village did not have such good conditions. As ninjas, they were fully capable of adapting to the harsh life in the desert, so they chose to build the village in a huge basin.

This place is like a huge basin, with only one exit in one direction, which is controlled by the elite troops of the Sand Village, and strict inspections are required for entry and exit.

However, because the Sand Village itself is short of talents, the so-called elite troops are actually a group of Chunin to ordinary Jonin guarding.

Naruto was too lazy to even fool the guards at the door. He directly put his hand on Jiraiya, then sensed the air inside the Sand Village, and then used instant teleportation to come to the inside of the Sand Village, completely bypassing their defense mechanism.

"If the two of us are discovered, it will become a diplomatic incident." Jiraiya joked.

This is not a joke, because if someone of Jiraiya's status is found to suddenly appear in a big country's ninja village for no reason, then things will be serious.

He appeared directly inside a ninja village of a certain big country, which was equivalent to the White House opening its doors early in the morning and finding the head of the KGB sitting in the lobby drinking vodka.

The reason why Jiraiya could come in with Naruto with confidence was entirely because no one in the Sand Village could recognize them at this time.

In the past 10 to 20 years, the Sand Village has only seen several powerful figures, such as Scorch Release Yekura, the Fourth Kazekage, and the Red Sand Scorpion, but Scorch Release Yekura was betrayed and died by the Fourth Kazekage, and the Fourth Kazekage himself played the Konoha collapse plan and ended up sending himself to prison, and the Red Sand Scorpion had rebelled long ago.

In the current Sand Village, apart from Gaara, the human pillar, I am afraid that only the two old men and women, Ebizo and Chiyo, still have some strength and vision, but these two people are likely to have retired behind the scenes and will not come out unless there is something special.

Jiraiya even dared to say that there is no one in the Sand Village who can beat him.

From a moral point of view, it is unreasonable for Jiraiya to sneak into the inner circle of his allies like this. If it was half a year ago, Jiraiya would not have come in. But the Sand Ninja had just stabbed Konoha in the back not long ago. Although the alliance was established again, it is very difficult to rebuild trust.

Jiraiya really wanted to sneak in secretly to see what the attitude of the Sand Ninja Village was now, especially towards Konoha. Was it a temporary pretense or a real decision to change its ways?

Naruto didn't have as many thoughts as Jiraiya. He came here just to see Gaara.

During the time when Gaara was imprisoned in Konoha, Naruto was basically the only one who came to the prison to chat with him. It was also during that time that Naruto discovered that Gaara, who looked like a murderer before, was actually kind by nature?

After two slaps of the gossip seal, Gaara began to sleep well, and his irritability began to drop drastically. Not only did he start to listen to others, but he could even occasionally pick up a joke and chat with you.

Combined with Gaara's previous experience, a child who had not slept well for more than ten years and was targeted by his own father and villagers, who was only irritable and would kill those who hindered him, and could still maintain the principle that if you didn't mess with him, he would not mess with you, which was considered kind by nature.

If this were replaced by a irritable brother, based on this experience, he would have to become Shukaku and do a morning run in the village every morning, eat ten people from the Sand Village for lunch, and use practice blank bullets to shoot a few rounds at the Sand Village after dinner to relieve his hatred.

Chapter 146 The Meaning of Friends

Gaara's current situation in the village is still not optimistic. Although his father, the Kazekage who loved to pit him, has died, new problems have also emerged.

Some of the high-ranking officials in the Sand Village did not want Gaara to take advantage of the opportunity to rise. They really wanted to use Gaara's power to maintain stability, but at the same time they did not want him to gain prestige because of it.

The best case scenario is that Gaara is obedient and still despised.

But this idea is obviously unrealistic, because Gaara is no longer the irritable person he used to be. Anyone with a brain in the village can feel his change.

After Luo Sha's death, many small-scale riots and other vicious incidents occurred in the Land of Wind, all of which were quelled by Gaara, including many Genin and Chunin from the Sand Village. Originally, they were worried that Gaara would go berserk when they were on a mission, and they would kill them after killing the rioters.

As a result, Gaara was very calm during the entire mission, and did not even kill those who started the riots indiscriminately. He only killed a few people who resisted stubbornly, and his methods were not very cruel. He no longer used sand waterfalls to crush people into pieces like before.

In his missions, he successfully changed the impression of many people in the village on him, and also established a certain prestige with his own strong strength.

Among his supporters, there are mostly Chunin and Genin at the bottom, and Maki and Yura at the top. Maki is his team leader. He knows Gaara's changes best and naturally supports his students.

Yura is Maki's good friend and has basically the same political views as him. The relationship and status between the two are similar to Kakashi and Might Guy in Konoha Village.

When Naruto came here according to Gaara's anger, he was participating in a high-level meeting in the hall of Sand Village.

Some high-level people did not agree with his coming, because they still felt that Gaara, a Jinchūriki who had gone berserk many times before, was not worthy of entering the hall, let alone sitting with them, the senior high-level people.

As soon as he walked into the hall, several high-level officials exchanged glances. One of them, named Dingshi, slammed the table and stood up: "It's absurd. How can anyone enter the high-level meeting of Sunagakure casually!"

He used this as an excuse to attack Gaara's teacher Maki: "Maki, you have just entered the high-level meeting, and you are planning to use your power to seek personal gain for your apprentice?"

Maki replied calmly: "Lord Dingshi, it was a well-considered decision for us to let Gaara enter the high-level meeting. Now Gaara has reached the level of being able to enter the high-level meeting and discuss with us in terms of both military strength and contribution to the village."

"Humph, have you forgotten so quickly how many times this guy has gone berserk before? If the fourth generation had not been alive and suppressed him in time every time, the damage he caused to the village would be immeasurable!"

Dingshi stared at Gaara aggressively, and his middle-aged face was full of gloom.

To his surprise, Gaara was not as angry as he had imagined. They had originally intended to irritate Gaara as much as possible, to make him lose his temper or even go berserk, so that they could take advantage of the situation and completely exclude Gaara.

But now, the situation was a little beyond their imagination. Gaara's emotions became very stable. Even if someone pointed at him and scolded him directly, he didn't care at all. Instead, he responded to the other party with a look that said, "I know what you are thinking. You won't succeed."

This annoyed them, but they couldn't get angry, so they could only continue to make a fuss about Gaara's past: "Gaara, I'm glad that you can talk like a normal person now. Then I should ask you, you have gone berserk so many times in the past, how do you plan to explain this to the village?"

Gaara showed a sneer on his calm face: "Lord Sadaishi, why I went berserk, you should know better than me."

This sentence made Sadaishi sweat coldly, because Gaara's words were really right. At the beginning, the Fourth Kazekage planned to test Gaara's ability. This idea was widely supported by their group of senior executives. They knew very well that Gaara's berserk was due to the incompetence of the Sand Village's sealing technique on the one hand, and the stimulation he received on the other hand was enough to drive a normal person crazy, let alone a Jinchūriki?

At this time, Sadaishi and many senior executives felt a chill in their backs and were a little restless.

They now feel like a fool who is often bullied by them, who suddenly wakes up one day and points at each of them and says, "I remember everything you did to me."

What's more terrifying is that this fool is really strong and can kill them all at once.

Sadaishi's heart was pounding, but he remained calm on the surface: "I don't know what you are talking about. Everything about you is the responsibility of the Fourth Generation."

"Really? It's a pity that you still remember my father." Gaara looked at him coldly: "Sadaishi, you were promoted by my father. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't be in this position today. You really didn't let him down. Even after he passed away, you still wanted to continue to implement his strategy."

After Gaara's words, many high-level officials of the Sand Village were immediately on pins and needles. They were very afraid that Gaara would liquidate them. At present, the Sand Village really lacked the power to contain Gaara.

Unless Chiyo and Ebizo, who have already retired, are invited back, as long as Gaara does not attack the Sand Village itself, these two old men will definitely not bother to care about this matter, and they will even be happy to eat this melon and have fun.

However, Gaara's subsequent performance made them feel relieved. He did not seem to intend to pursue the fight to the end, but found a seat close to Master Maki and sat down, telling them: "In the current situation, it is meaningless for us to continue to waste our energy here. The most urgent task is to revitalize the Sand Village and maintain our status as one of the five major ninja villages. I don't want to care about other things. As long as everyone cooperates happily, I can pretend that nothing happened."

Several high-level officials immediately took advantage of the situation and said: "As expected of the son of the Fourth Hokage, he really has his style! So from today on, you will become a member of the high-level meeting!"

On the surface, it seemed peaceful, but secretly, neither side intended to let the other go.

Gaara did not want to engage in internal fighting when the village was at its weakest, which might really destroy the Sand Village, and the high-level officials currently lacked the means to fight against Gaara, so they could only choose to shake hands and make peace temporarily.

In political struggle, Gaara is indeed not their opponent, after all, this group of old-timers has been in high positions for so many years. But political struggle can only be established when there is not much difference in strength between the two sides. If the other party is able to play personal annihilation at any time and eat your seat directly, then what's the point of fighting.

Under the chairmanship of Maki, the high-level meeting of the Sand Village ended in a relatively pleasant atmosphere. Gaara successfully got the admission ticket to the high-level of the Sand Village and could openly participate in the highest-level resolution of the Sand Village.

In time, as long as he is willing to spend a little time to slowly cultivate his own power and gain enough prestige, it will not be difficult to become the Kazekage.

The disadvantage of the talent shortage is great, but there are also advantages, that is, almost no one can jump out to compete with him, and his level is already top-notch.

After the meeting, Maki was very satisfied and said a lot to Gaara, which roughly meant that the teacher did not cultivate you in vain, and you really made progress. Before leaving, he also made it clear that he would be a person who firmly supports Gaara in the top management in the future.

Gaara nodded, respectfully sent Maki away, and then felt a little tired.

It was not physical exhaustion, but mental exhaustion. It was really exhausting to say so many insincere words to these old guys, and to suppress the mood of settling accounts with them and communicate with them calmly.

To some extent, Gaara had a preliminary experience of the pain of going to work.

Then he thought of Naruto, his friend far away in Konoha Village.

When Naruto first said he wanted to be his friend, he didn't take it too seriously, just thinking that the atmosphere was there and Naruto was just saying something cool.

However, during the days when he was imprisoned, Naruto really came to chat with him every day, and would bring him some homemade side dishes and drinks.

Eating refreshing side dishes with Naruto, drinking a few sips of drinks from time to time, and complaining to him about his damn father and the group of stupid high-ranking officials in the village, Gaara really felt unprecedented pleasure.

In addition to complaining, Naruto also pointed out a lot of ways for him to develop after returning to the village, especially the point of building prestige at the grassroots level, which Naruto repeatedly emphasized, which made Gaara take a lot of detours.

Sometimes Gaara even doubted, is Naruto really a child of the same age as himself? His knowledge is too broad, he can say a few words about almost everything, and what he said is quite reasonable.

Thinking of this, Gaara couldn't help but look down at his abdomen. The Eight Diagrams Seal Naruto had put on him was so useful that he could not only sleep well, but also communicate with Shukaku inside his body through chakra from time to time when he was resting.

From the perspective of the body, Shukaku was bound behind a huge wooden door. He tried his best but couldn't shake the seal, so he could only rage helplessly behind the door.

However, what surprised Gaara was that Shukaku didn't dislike the Jinchūriki very much. After finding that he couldn't shake the seal, he simply gave up and chatted with Gaara.

During the conversation, Gaara learned that Shukaku had actually reconciled with the previous Jinchūriki. If that Jinchūriki was still alive, it would be happy to contribute its strength.

At first, Shukaku didn't approve of Gaara. To some extent, the previous Jinchūriki Fenfuku, who had passed away, had become its white moonlight, and it didn't want to accept any Jinchūriki other than Fenfuku.

However, Gaara's promise made Shukaku a little moved: "If you promise not to destroy things, I can occasionally use the sleep technique to let you out to play."

When he said he could go out to play, Shukaku immediately relaxed: "Are you serious?"

"Of course."

Letting Shukaku out to play is not to let it directly restore its tailed beast body like before, but to release part of Shukaku's chakra, so that its consciousness can move through Gaara's body, and Gaara himself falls into a state similar to sleepwalking. In this state, Gaara still has control over his body and can kick Shukaku back at any time.

"Then it's a deal! You let me out to play, and if you encounter any danger, you can also use my chakra. I don't have anything else, but I have enough chakra!"

It was the first time that Gaara saw Shukaku so happy. Now it is a bit like a child.

After going through so many things, Gaara even missed Naruto a little. He didn't understand the meaning of friends before, but now he seems to gradually understand.

Happy things, sad things, angry things, all the people you want to share with are friends.

He opened the door of his home and prepared to lie on the sofa to have a good rest, but he didn't expect that there was a familiar figure sitting on his sofa at this moment.