Journey of Desires

Naruko's surprise was clearly written on her face, her interlocutors immediately noticed that something was wrong... but only the blonde herself saw the system messages, and the others had no idea what had happened.

- Something's wrong?

- Levels... I raised the levels.

- Well, of course I remember that you should get experience for unique actions, and not for fights and victories, but why are you so surprised?

Naruko looked at Ban with a look that expressed extreme disbelief and denial. Although she had not yet come to her senses, she was still able to explain the situation.

- I received the system a year ago, remember?

- Yes.

- This year I managed to raise 10 levels, when you came last time I was at 8, the day after you left I was finally able to get 9, and this month I was very lucky and quickly rose to 10, but now...

- But???

- Your one invitation to the group gave me 32 levels.

Hearing this news, even Hikari was surprised, after all, from the words of the interlocutor it was clear that she received 10 some "Levels" during the year, and now with just one phrase she increased 32 more times. Even Uchiha, who was completely unfamiliar and did not understand the concept of computer games, understood that Ban had just given at least 3 times more than Naruto was able to achieve in a year. However, she did not know that in fact each new level requires much more experience than the previous one, and in total experience to increase from 10 to 42, it is required to get 10 starting from 1 exactly 24 times.

There is nothing to say about Kiliya and Ban, the former was familiar with games before, but she did not play them herself, and Ban disappeared into them for hours every day.

- Do you know what's funniest? For each level, unlike ordinary people, I get 10 characteristic points that I can distribute wherever I want. And the name is now 420 points, I can use them all, for example, in strength and become at 12 years old half as strong as the Hokage, who trained and improved all his life.

- Well, about Hiruzen, you certainly overdid it, sand will soon start pouring out of him and he is definitely not at the peak of his strength, but in general I understand you. In 1 moment to get so much, it's quite stunning.

The next few seconds everyone sank into silence, Hikari expected what would happen next, and the rest were already immersed in thoughts about such a freebie. But then a thought came to Naruto's head.

- Ban, Kiliya listen, maybe we should leave in an epic way?

- Hm? What do you mean?

- If I was given so much experience for simply joining you, then how much can I get, for example, by sabotaging Konoha? Or attacking the Hokage himself, or as an option at least together with you under the reinforcement of your magic to fight against the Ninja of the Hidden Leaf. It is unlikely that at least someone under the reinforcement of a character who should have died at the age of 4, plus in a team with Ban from the seven deadly sins and a unique representative of the Uchiha who should have lived a hundred years ago ever attacked Konoha.

- Well, if you look at it from this point of view, then you are right. As an action in itself, it should be quite unique.

- When will we arrange an attack? I remember there were episodes in the anime where they showed some grandfather who mined Konoha for years, maybe we will use his work for its intended purpose?

- We wanted to show the village of Hikari, so we will be here for about a week, until then, prepare yourself mentally and prepare all the things you want to take. Well, regarding the explosive seals, I'm too lazy to look for this old man and then remove explosives from buildings where civilians might suffer, no, of course, if you somehow know how to find him at least an hour in advance and knock out the location of all the explosive seals in the village, then fine, I agree.

Naruko took note of the first part and decided to really prepare well for leaving Konoha, but after the second sentence she drooped right before our eyes, after all, she didn't even think about ordinary people, and she doesn't consider herself some kind of maniac to enjoy the deaths of many people.

- However, the idea itself is quite interesting, and potentially very profitable in terms of experience. Okay, now it doesn't matter, what's most important is to come up with a plan of action, where we'll start the whole mess, and so on and so forth, blah blah blah.

- Eh? Okay, but why with me and not with...

Naruko's gaze shifted to Kilia, who at that moment looked completely uninterested. As a result, Ban explained that although her sister could sometimes go out onto the battlefield, and she was interested in watching battles, she didn't like discussing them and making plans at all.

When Naruko realized this and returned her attention to Ban, they began to talk about their own, battle-maniac things. At that moment, Hikari realized that these two were not paying attention to those around them, and she turned to Kilia.

- You know, they scare me a little, literally half an hour ago you said that this girl wanted a quiet life, and now it's as if Ban had possessed her.

- Nothing surprising, she felt a slight strength and entered into courage, when you have a key to quickly get what you could not achieve before, then few can contain.

- Well, I didn't quite understand.

- Well then, let's do it this way, when you felt freedom for the first time after we dug you out, and then Ban made a scene, you desperately didn't want to repeat the weapon's past fate, right?

- Yes.

- Well, now imagine that you got the opportunity not just to gain freedom, but to forever get rid of the slightest chance of being shackled.

This example given for the Uchiha was very clear, and Hikari herself, thinking about it, felt a strange response in her soul, as if her soul itself would want to do everything possible in such a situation just to be free. But how this is connected to Naruto, she still hasn't fully understood.

- Well then, now imagine that in order to be guaranteed freedom, you need to do something, in the case of this blonde, she needs to do something unusual and rare, got it?

- It seems so, but the fact that they are scaring me a little now does not cancel out.

- Well, I can only say that you will get used to it, I got used to it quite a long time ago, back in childhood, we didn't seem to tell you this story, but when Ban was 7 years old, the first significant fight in this life happened, then the inner desire to fight awakened in him. Yes, he even challenged Zhivago thirty times, in the end he even won the last two.

Hearing that she would simply get used to such oddities, our Uchiha had rather strange emotions. On the one hand, it's good that the oddities of her comrades will eventually not bring her any discomfort, but on the other hand, it's scary to think that even the people around you who are obsessed with something can easily get used to, it creates a feeling of wrongness. However, Hikari decided to discard such thoughts, her current situation is still hundreds and thousands of times better than how she lived before.

***

From the upcoming book about the countries of the ninja world "Beautiful Cities and What's Interesting About Them"

"As a result, we decided to return to Konoha again, this time Ban decided to have fun with all his heart, and the result of his desire to have fun was visible to the naked eye. However, this story has nothing to do with the topic of this book, and in general I am writing this in order to lead you to the fact that Ban is not the only one who likes to have fun, while he and our local friend were mentally storming and preparing for the "Holiday", I, together with Hikari, decided to study Konoha in more detail.

The result of four days of our research was... Well, nothing happened, we went around all the most interesting places last time with Ban. It turns out that in this village there are a lot of territories prohibited for tourists where all the most interesting things are located. Of course, we visited various baths, shops, markets, restaurants.

And I even think that 2 establishments are worth mentioning as something unique.

The first is the open springs "Hogou", their main highlight is the presence of a ceiling, the walls that divide the male and female parts of course are there, but the ceiling is a very important part. Previously, I tried to visit the springs of this village, but literally at each of them except "Hogou", I managed to feel the presence of people somewhere nearby who clearly saw what was inside the women's half of the bathhouse. As a result, I did not even go further than the locker room, so that you understand better, I am partly a ninja and can feel people next to me, and by the way, in the establishments of the Country of Hot Springs there was no such problem.

The second establishment that we were able to find this time is a restaurant of one of the ninja clans. Honestly, I thought that all such business, which is conducted by clans, should have died out trivially under pressure from stronger clans. For example, the Akimichi clan, which is famous for its food and plump Shinobi, owns a huge number of restaurants throughout Konoha, and seeing this and the quality that I felt in these Akimichi clan establishments, the only thought that came to mind was that there were no restaurants of other clans at all.

But, we completely accidentally managed to see an establishment from the Hyuga clan. As I later found out, members of the side branch work in this establishment who do not have talent in the field of Shinobi and will either already be servants for stronger representatives of the clan and for the main branch. Working in an establishment where you need to serve customers gives ideal practice for training servants, as a result, the clan receives money from the work of the restaurant and training of staff.

Regarding why I decided to single out this establishment at all, firstly - excellent service, secondly - the prices are not as high as at Akimichi, thirdly - although the meat and meat dishes are inferior to what I tried at Akimichi, but absolutely all other types of food are either of the same level or even tastier. The same miso soup is great, as are the rice dishes, but the most incredible thing I tried there was tea, the most natural, delicious and relaxing tea that I have tried in the last five years."

***

- Mr. Hokage, here is the report you asked for.

- Okay, you can go.

A few days earlier, it was noticed that the Jinchuriki very often contacts unknown people, previously she always went home after school, but lately her course has clearly changed. As a result, Umino Iruka accidentally noticed this, and decided to follow Naruko, seeing three people who, judging by their clothes, were clearly from Konoha, he decided to make a report to the Hokage. If you think about it, in such a situation, an ordinary school teacher should not bother the kage himself, only Hiruzen was also listed as the director of the academy, therefore Iruka should go to him in case of unusual situations.

The result of this situation was a scroll report, which made Anbu ninja based on the collected information of the past operative, and his personal observations.

It just so happened that first they sent the Shinobi who was quickly noticed by Kiliya, and when it became clear that the four noticed the surveillance, it was decided to change the operative. The new ninja was more careful and observed from a much greater distance.

- Well, let's see.

Taking a drag from a tobacco stick, Hiruzen began to study the report he had just received. In general, there was nothing provocative there, a retelling of what kind of people they were, where they were from, and what they did together with Naruko.

- Hmm, okay, so it means it's that rich writer?

Having complete information about who exactly constantly communicates with the jinchuriki, it was quite easy for Hiruzen to remember the person who less than a month ago made a rather large purchase from his clan. When he finished reading the report and put it aside to do other things, an old acquaintance entered the Hokage's office.

- Hiruzen, what have you managed to gather regarding the situation with the jinchuriki?

- Nothing dangerous, from the report it became clear that she communicates mostly only with the tall man, he was in my office less than a month ago, this man is a writer who travels the world, most likely Naruko is just very interested in learning about other countries and cities, so she listens to his stories all day long, the two girls who arrived with him are just his companions, although the black-haired girl was not there during our last visit to our village. In general, you have nothing to worry about, he is an ordinary traveling writer.

- Okay, since this issue does not require attention, we must resolve the issue regarding the Kurama clan, they still have not repaid the debt to the Shimura clan.

- Not now Danzo, come in the evening, I will call the head of the Kurama clan and then we will talk.