Konoha: Naruto's abnormal life choices

The Other Side

The Large-Scale Konoha Escort Team

After Naruto returned with the corpse, Sarutobi Hazuki immediately had a team examine the body's remaining memories. It was soon confirmed that the Hidden Cloud Village was once again behind the incident.

Hazuki quickly assessed the situation. A large-scale retreat would certainly alert the enemy, and doing so would likely provoke a direct and violent counterattack from the Hidden Cloud forces.

Instead of fleeing and exposing themselves, she decided it was wiser to set a trap and wait for the enemy to walk into it.

To prepare for the coming battle, Ye Yue also ordered that the shackles on the Sand Village captives be removed. After briefing them on the situation, she recruited them into their ranks.

She then sent four messengers in different directions. Two were dispatched toward the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire to request reinforcements from the Sand Village. The other two were sent back to Konoha to inform Lady Tsunade.

Originally, Naruto was supposed to be one of the messengers heading back to Konoha, but he stubbornly refused to leave. He outright ignored Ye Yue's orders.

With no other choice, Ye Yue reassigned the mission to a young man from the Yamanaka Clan and a young woman from the Sarutobi Clan.

Even after these decisions, Hazuki couldn't shake her unease. If Kumogakure dared to provoke them, they must have come prepared. This battle would not be easy.

Inside the tent, Naruto saw Ye Yue sighing, her brows furrowed with concern. Smiling, he approached her.

"Madam, are you feeling unwell? Want me to give you a massage?" he offered playfully.

This brat...

Even now, he's still trying to take advantage of me.

Ye Yue rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, "If you went back to the village like I told you, I'd feel much better."

Naruto ignored her, pretending not to hear. He moved behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders and neck, and started massaging.

"You've been avoiding me lately, Madam," he said, sounding genuinely hurt.

Ye Yue curled her lips, silently cursing. Avoiding you? You don't know why?

It was this little troublemaker's fault for always looking for ways to get close to her—sometimes subtly, sometimes blatantly.

Still... the massage was good.

As Naruto worked his fingers into her neck, some of the tension in Ye Yue's expression faded.

"When the fighting starts, if things go south, don't even think about staying here. Run back to Konoha. Understand? With your speed, no one can catch you if you flee."

Her voice sounded tired. "One last thing... consider this my final request. Please take care of Konohamaru for me."

"No!"

Naruto refused without hesitation.

Ye Yue frowned and turned to look at him. "It's fine if you don't want to, but you must not stay here to die."

Naruto paused, then asked, "I don't get it. Why do you think we can't win? Isn't Konoha the strongest? Why are you so pessimistic?"

Ye Yue was taken aback by the question, her expression turning complicated.

Seeing Naruto's confused face, she sighed and said nothing.

Konoha had shown weakness to its enemies for years. Even when their shinobi won small conflicts, the village always made diplomatic concessions. That slow erosion had worn away their confidence.

If this were over a decade ago, when the Fourth Hokage was still alive, the Sand Village would've never dared launch the Konoha Crush Plan without a major alliance. Hidden Cloud would never have attempted a large-scale ambush on a Konoha escort unit.

Ye Yue could only hope that this time, Lady Tsunade would respond with the strength and decisiveness Konoha needed.

Noticing Ye Yue didn't want to continue the conversation, Naruto shrugged and changed the topic. "Forget Konohamaru. You take care of him. I'll take care of you."

His words were bold—openly declaring he wanted to take care of the eldest lady of the Sarutobi Clan.

Naruto was fearless.

But surprisingly, Ye Yue wasn't angry. In fact, she couldn't bring herself to be mad at him.

Even that time at the Sarutobi household, when she caught him playing with her feet under the table, she hadn't felt anything like anger.

Instead, she'd just tried to avoid him. Not that it worked—he was relentless.

"I don't need you to take care of me, brat. Take care of yourself first," she snapped, standing up to leave the tent. With no one else around, who knew what crazy thing Naruto might try?

But Naruto firmly pushed her back into her seat. "Don't go yet, Madam. I'm not done massaging you."

"???" Ye Yue glared at him. "So you're giving me a massage for your pleasure?!"

Seeing her flustered face, Naruto smiled inwardly. A notification rang in his mind:

[Friend "Sarutobi Hazuki" corruption value increased to 34%!]

"No, Madam. Of course I'm doing it for your comfort. But a treatment interrupted is a treatment ruined, right?"

His hands moved lower, slipping beneath her ninja garb to gently press the smooth skin of her shoulders.

Still, she didn't resist.

Ye Yue just continued glaring.

[Friend "Sarutobi Hazuki" corruption value increased to 35%!]

Naruto's hand continued its descent, brushing her collarbone.

Ye Yue shivered. With a sudden burst of strength, she yanked his hand away.

"That's enough. Who massages like that?! If you're not doing anything useful, go set the traps and stop bothering me."

Her voice carried a trace of anger, and her lips parted slightly as she scolded him.

"Okay, okay! I'm leaving!" Naruto darted out of the tent, thinking, Next time, take it slow. Don't be so impatient.

Not every woman was like Hinata—you couldn't rush things and expect results.

Once he left, Ye Yue slumped back in her chair and let out a long sigh.

I almost lost control… What's wrong with me?

She looked in the direction Naruto had gone, covering her cheeks with her hands, trying to hide the flicker of anticipation in her eyes.

A forbidden desire had quietly taken root.

If not for the memory of her deceased husband—and the image of Konohamaru flashing through her mind—she might not have stopped Naruto earlier.

That brat... He's so obvious. How am I supposed to pretend I don't notice?

The rain outside was gradually stopping. Naruto left Inuzuka Hana's field of view under the excuse of going to talk to Temari.

Hana had been tasked with keeping an eye on Naruto. Hazuki worried that Naruto might misbehave if left unsupervised. At first, Hana didn't take the task seriously.

In her mind, Naruto was just a talented but immature kid. But after today...

Hmm…

She realized that Lady Hazuki may have underestimated how difficult this assignment really was. Forget keeping an eye on Naruto—should she even try?

At this point, she wanted to go back and ask Ye Yue directly:

"Are you sure Naruto is someone anyone can actually keep an eye on?"

So she let him go off alone to find Temari.

But Naruto had no intention of meeting Temari.

Once he was sure Inuzuka Hana wasn't following, he slipped into the forest and used a Shadow Clone. The clone stayed behind as a decoy, while the real Naruto moved on.

Back when he had extracted the corpse's memories using a secret technique, he had sent a clone to track down the Hidden Cloud forces.

Now, that clone had returned with vital intel: the Hidden Cloud shinobi had split into three groups and were converging on the Konoha escort team. Their total number exceeded two hundred.

"We have to eliminate all two hundred to get the reward for Option Four," Naruto thought. "So we need to do some serious prep work. If even one or two escape, we'll miss out big time."

Not far away, there was a rustling in the woods.

A squad of eighty Hidden Cloud ninjas, led by Xi himself, advanced quietly toward the Konoha camp. According to their intel, besides the patrols they had already wiped out, the Konoha escort team had between seventy-two and seventy-eight active members remaining—including the recently recruited Sand Village captives.

Kumogakure had a nearly 3-to-1 advantage.

The Konoha side had only one known elite jonin—Sarutobi Hazuki—who hadn't seen real combat in years. Kumogakure had three elite jonin, including Xi himself.

It should've been a guaranteed win. But Xi wasn't overconfident.

Once they reached visual range of the camp, he turned to his subordinates and asked, "Still no word from Atsuyi's team?"

"None."

"It's been this long and still nothing?"

"Maybe they got lost?"

Xi rubbed his temples. It had been nearly an hour—how were they still lost?

Atsuyi was the younger brother of Samui, one of Kumogakure's elite jonin. She had come on this mission as well. If her brother messed up...

Xi made a mental note to have Samui teach Atsuyi a lesson when they returned.

The idea that Atsuyi's entire squad might be dead never crossed Xi's mind. After all, there were forty-five chunin in that unit. Unless a Kage-level shinobi had intervened personally, it was unthinkable that they were all dead without a single escapee.

And who would Konoha even send of that caliber right now?

The old Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was dead. Shimura Danzo had disappeared. Jiraiya was away on a mission. The new Hokage, Lady Tsunade, was buried in paperwork back in the village.

There was no way someone like that was out here.

Which meant… this mission was still a go.

Still, Xi couldn't shake a bad feeling. The Konoha camp was too quiet.

"Everyone, use your clones to approach the camp," he ordered. "I have a feeling… they've already spotted