Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Everyone Living a Better Life, That Is Peace!
Under the vast expanse of snow, one by one, peculiar houses appeared on the open ground ahead.
A look of amazement appeared in Namikaze Minato’s eyes.
"Is this Kyohiko’s creation?"
Nara Shikaku rubbed his brow.
"Yes, this is the first template that was made. It was quite troublesome. Fortunately, the Land of Snow has its own heating supply."
Then, he pointed to the glass house in front.
"This is all made of glass, allowing light to penetrate and illuminate the inside. Combined with the lights inside, some vegetables and flowers can be grown."
Yuhi Kurenai explained.
"The people here can usually only eat dried vegetables. In the future, with this kind of special glass house, they can plant and cultivate their own vegetables to supply everyone."
Namikaze Minato nodded repeatedly. Although he didn’t understand the principles, he could understand the significance of this creation for the common people. As for the cost, the Land of Snow had to spend a great deal of money to buy vegetables and fruits from other countries anyway, and their nobles and commoners also had to use heating. Based on this, the construction of the greenhouse actually didn’t cost much. If it could be further improved, the cost of this greenhouse might be reduced, but the help to the people would be huge.
He could already imagine the lives of the people of the Land of Snow in the future...
Minato couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
"How wonderful!"
Ryoho Kyohiko’s arrival had changed this country, and at the same time, changed the future lives of its people, allowing them to live better days. He was excited. After a few seconds of silence, he said.
"Does Kyohiko-kun have a follow-up improvement plan?"
Shikaku answered.
"He does. He said that if there are places with hot springs or geothermal heat, a heating system can be built relying on them, directly using the power of nature to achieve the purpose of heating the greenhouses..."
Minato nodded repeatedly.
"If some ninjutsu is used, perhaps these greenhouses can be made more sturdy. And in blizzard weather, the ninjas can also protect these facilities..."
Nara Shikaku smiled.
"Hahaha, it seems everyone thinks pretty much the same."
The Land of Snow needed ninjas; the environment here was too harsh. So the ninja village model of the Land of Snow needed a certain change. Or—
Nara Shikaku lamented.
"The Guardian Shinobi system might be more suitable for the Land of Snow."
The Guardian Shinobi. From a product of ambition, it had gradually evolved into a rather useful special system, which made him feel quite emotional. Then, he looked at Minato.
"Are you going to see the Daimyo?"
Minato closed his eyes to sense.
"No, I’ll first go find the group of ninjas Kyohiko mentioned, and then come back here."
Then, he opened his eyes.
"I sense them. They have already arrived outside this city."
"So fast?"
Shikaku was a little surprised. "I heard there was a blizzard in the south. Didn’t Gai wait a few days over there?"
"Perhaps they were in a hurry to come back, or..."
Just as Minato was speaking, his brow suddenly furrowed. Then he suddenly looked at Shikaku. "Are there other ninjas in the Land of Snow?"
"No."
"Something’s happened. I’m going to take a look."
After Namikaze Minato finished speaking, he disappeared with the Flying Thunder God.
*
Outside the city, Yazawa and the others were exhausted, but no one chose to give up. At the very front, Might Gai maintained his abundant energy, constantly observing the surrounding situation. After looking into the distance, Gai shouted.
"We’re almost there!"
"Really?"
"Are we almost there?"
"We’ve arrived! I see it too! Smoke, that’s smoke from cooking fires!"
Someone shouted.
Yazawa chewed on a mouthful of snow, stood up, and looked into the distance. Sure enough, he saw wisps of cooking smoke rising from a distance. They had found people.
Might Gai had always been clumsy with words, but at this moment, he also showed a certain eloquence.
"Yes, ahead is the capital. After we get there, we can first explain the situation to the Daimyo, and then arrange for your village step by step..."
It wasn’t that he had become smarter. It was just that... he had experienced such situations countless times in Konoha and knew very well what kind of words to say to motivate everyone.
Everyone was invigorated.
"No need to run! Everyone, follow my pace, hold onto the rope, and move forward slowly. Don’t get blown away by the snowstorm!"
Might Gai held his hand high, the other hand pulling the rope. With Gai at the front, although the people behind were struggling, it wasn’t too difficult.
However, the next second, in the snowstorm, four figures suddenly appeared. Ninjas? Gai instantly became alert.
"Be careful!"
The next second, these four people, without a word, formed hand seals. In an instant, one earth wall after another rose up, seeming to surround them.
Earth Style: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness!
"Iwa-nin?"
Might Gai’s gaze hardened. He knew that this was not the time to hesitate.
Gate of Opening, open!
In an instant, his control over his body reached the extreme. Then, his entire body’s chakra surged, and Lightning Release chakra emerged from within.
Swoosh!
Gai’s speed reached the extreme. In an instant, he appeared beside one of the jutsu users.
Thump!
Konoha Hurricane.
After kicking one person away, he successively sent two more flying. But just as he was about to attack the third person—one earth spike after another grew from the ground, trapping Might Gai like a prison. Then, the two who had been kicked away turned into a pile of mud. From below the ground, two hands reached out.
Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.
Might Gai was anxious. He knew he couldn’t hesitate any longer. Instantly, the chakra in his body erupted. Gate of Life, open! The third of the Eight Gates opened, allowing his speed to once again surpass its limits.
And then, the violent chakra, without any need for control, directly shattered the surrounding earth spike restrictions. The two hands grabbing at his feet... were sent flying in an instant. Then, with a body flicker, Might Gai was beside the other two, directly kicking at them, intending to destroy their ninjutsu.
But the next second, an earth wall appeared horizontally beside Might Gai. Although it was shattered by a single kick, at this time, Gai’s speed was also forced to slow down. The three Iwa-nin, one by one using Earth Flow Wall and Earth Return, restricted Might Gai tightly. Even if Gai kicked through all the defenses with one kick, at that instant, the three Iwa-nin stood in front. Two of them used the Hardening Jutsu, while the third was...
Earth Style: Earth Spear. Three defensive ninjutsu!
But. Boom!
With one kick, all three were sent flying. Two of them spat blood. The jonin who used the Earth Spear coughed repeatedly, but he stood his ground without being injured. He had blocked the blow. But facing this kick from Might Gai, he was clearly shaken. This kind of power was not something a ninja of this age should have! What terrifying taijutsu! A trace of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
The last person maintained the Earth Prison Dome.
The Iwa-nin who was maintaining the jutsu spoke, a grave look on his face.
"Kill him first!"
"I feel that something is not right inside. Let’s make it quick!"
"Then..."
Just as they were speaking, suddenly—Boom!
The Earth Prison Dome collapsed!
"What?"
The four were astonished. They turned their heads to look, only to see a yellow figure flash past inside the dome. In his hand... wind blades and flames raged, turning into a phantom of light and shadow. In an instant, the "flaming shuriken" flew past the ninja who had cast the Earth Spear jutsu. The Earth Spear possessed an extremely powerful defensive ability. But in the face of this flaming light stream, in almost the blink of an eye, his body was cut in two and quickly collapsed.
So... so terrifying a jutsu!
The moment he fell, a thought flashed through his mind.
In an instant, the light flashed beside the other two, directly killing the other two Iwa-nin, and then stomping the fourth under his foot. In his hand, flames accompanied a rotating Wind Style shuriken, forming four pulsing blades of wind and fire. It was this jutsu that had killed the three of them in the blink of an eye just now.
Might Gai was stunned. He had been prepared to risk opening the Sixth Gate—this was the limit he could currently open, but it was not very stable. So under Might Dai’s guidance, he was not to open the Sixth Gate easily. But just now, he believed he should protect those people.
But he hadn’t expected that the enemy he thought he needed to go all out to defeat would not last a second in front of Namikaze Minato. Gai blinked, a mix of frustration and pleasant surprise in his heart. Frustration because—the enemy he couldn’t defeat, Minato could easily solve and kill. Pleasant surprise because they were saved!
Namikaze Minato stepped on the fourth person.
"You are..."
"Dead?"
Minato sensed something was wrong. He turned the other person over and saw that he had already bitten off his tongue, and black blood was overflowing from his mouth. Poison, suicide by biting the tongue.
These four were not wearing forehead protectors and were wearing masks, but they all knew that these people were ninjas from Iwagakure. Minato carefully and slowly dissipated the chakra in his hand. Looking at the four corpses, he stood up helplessly.
"Iwagakure’s assassination squad. I didn’t expect them to have reached here..."
"Damn it!"
Minato’s pupils constricted. He looked at Might Gai, thought for a moment, then looked at the terrified group inside the Earth Prison Dome.
"Where is your village?"
"I’ll go with you!"
Yazawa swallowed.
Namikaze Minato pondered for a moment, shook his head, and created a shadow clone with hand seals. Then he looked at Might Gai.
"Can you hold on?"
"O-Of course!"
Might Gai was already very tired. But he knew that since Iwagakure’s assassination squad had appeared here, they might not be absent from the settlement of this group of wandering ninjas. We must provide support!
He pulled himself together and quickly prepared to follow. But the next second, Namikaze Minato directly grabbed his arm, and they disappeared from the spot in a body flicker. His shadow clone sealed the corpses on the ground into a scroll, then led the rest towards the capital of the Land of Snow.
***
A few hours later, Namikaze Minato saw a brightly lit canyon and let out a long sigh of relief. They’re safe!
"M-Minato-senpai! Y-Your speed is so fast!"
Might Gai was out of breath.
Namikaze Minato had been carrying Might Gai, using his Body Flicker Technique almost without rest. His speed was so fast that even Gai, who was used to high speeds, couldn’t adapt. Fortunately, the village was safe and sound.
"This is still considered slow. My chakra is limited, and I can’t keep going at top speed while carrying you. If it were Kyohiko who came..."
Speaking of which, Minato couldn’t help but smile. That kid’s constitution is really strong. His chakra is much stronger than mine!
He ate a soldier pill and rested for a short while. Then, Minato stood up.
"How’s your recovery?"
"I’m ready!"
Might Gai nodded emphatically.
Minato nodded lightly.
"Let’s go. Let’s go down and see. The people should be fine, but who knows if something was taken."
"Everything was taken away. There are no important materials here, just some daily necessities," Gai explained.
Minato followed and searched around. Sure enough, he soon found traces of a search. Iwagakure. He pondered for a moment, then turned his head and noticed Might Gai’s thoughtful expression, and immediately smiled.
"What do you think?"
"Uh, maybe they have already been here, but didn’t find anything. Then they were in a hurry to chase us, so..."
Might Gai analyzed simply.
Upon hearing this, Namikaze Minato smiled.
"Your analysis is not bad. Why aren’t you confident?"
"I, I feel very useless..."
Might Gai lowered his head, his previous high spirits gone.
Namikaze Minato smiled.
"Because you couldn’t defeat those four people?"
"If it were Kakashi, he could definitely defeat and kill them quickly. There would be no need for you to make a move."
Might Gai answered.
Minato thought for a moment.
"That’s true. But you also have that ability. It’s just that you haven’t realized it yourself."
"I also have it?"
Might Gai was taken aback.
Minato nodded.
"Your Eight Gates Release is very strong. It can achieve a very terrifying burst in a short period of time. If you can stably release it, you will also have very terrifying power."
"Secondly, your Lightning Release ability is actually also quite good. Against Earth Style ninjas, if your taijutsu is not effective, you can try using Lightning Release..."
Namikaze Minato looked at Might Gai.
"If it were Kakashi, he could immediately judge what jutsu to use. Compared to Kakashi, what you lack is this aspect of combat experience."
He didn’t just comfort and praise, but spoke the truth, pointing out what he thought were Might Gai’s shortcomings.
"So, if I use the Gate of Opening, combined with Lightning Release chakra, it would actually be simpler to deal with them with a weapon?"
"Yes."
Minato nodded lightly.
Might Gai was in deep thought. His taijutsu was completely learned from Might Dai. As for ninjutsu, Kyohiko and Kakashi’s view was that he only needed to apply ninjutsu to his own combat system. But according to Minato’s words, he had indeed not completely integrated these jutsu into his combat system.
Namikaze Minato smiled gently.
"It’s fine. We have to spend the blizzard here next, and then take the people of this village to the capital together."
"To avoid Iwagakure?"
"Mm."
Minato nodded lightly.
"Iwagakure dares to send an assassination squad to attack wandering ninjas, but they absolutely dare not attack ninjas affiliated with the Land of Snow. Of course..."
"If they want to directly start a war, they won’t care about these things."
Speaking of which, Minato couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. Small ninja villages, small countries, in the face of the great ninja villages and great nations, had absolutely no ability to resist. Just like Takigakure this time, attacked by Kakuzu and Kurosuki Raiga. They exhausted everything yet failed to stop them, and instead their leader was killed and the Jinchuriki taken away. This was the helplessness of a small ninja village.