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After speaking, the two joined hands and caught up with Yamafuji and the rest of the Intelligence Departnt’s mbers, who had set out earlier. When the group saw Naruto, they were visibly surprised and quickly ca forward to greet him.
"Naruto-kun, long ti no see." The one who said this is an old man who was fairly familiar to him. He was an old mber who had been there since Ino first joined the Intelligence Departnt, and he had also interacted with Naruto briefly in the past.
"Naruto-sama, I'm Matsuri, a new recruit in the Intelligence Departnt."
The newcor seed a little reserved. Aside from knowing that the disheveled young man before her was her superior, Ino’s boyfriend, she was also aware of various other notorious rumors about a certain blond troublemaker.
These included, but were not limited to: the dangerous forr Kyubi’s Jinchuriki, the man who separated a Tailed Beast with his bare hands, soone who went head-to-head with Konoha’s higher-ups, the disciple of Jiraiya, the student of Rokudai Hokage, and… whatever he was to Godai Hokage.
This guy had a long list of labels, each more shocking than the last. He can be said to be Konoha’s crown prince, capable of replacing Kakashi as the face of the village on missions… his roots ran deep in Konoha.
The only downside she had heard that he was rumored to have a bad personality. His mission completion rate is 100%, but his complaint rate is close to 70%.
However, the success rate of those complaints was abysmally low.
At the end of the day, it all ca down to his strong connections.
That said, what the Intelligence Departnt found amusing was that, back in Konoha, people usually felt apprehensive when encountering Naruto. Yet here, in this foreign land, seeing him actually felt oddly reassuring.
"Long ti no see. I just arrived in the capital. I wasn’t sure what everyone liked, so I brought so gifts. There is one for everyone here."
True to his word, Naruto pulled out a massive pile of presents, grinning as he distributed them one by one to the stunned Intelligence Departnt’s mbers, leaving them all dumbfounded.
Even Ino was taken aback. Then, watching Naruto’s actions, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If you called him sincere, well, he was handing out gifts like a wholesaler. But if you called him perfunctory, every gift was unique.
"Thank you Naruto-kun."
"Thanks."
"Hey, where's my share?" Ino ca over and held out her hand with a sweet smile, "Don’t tell you forgot my gift. If you didn’t prepare one… hehe."
"Yours is right here." Naruto dug around in his sealed space and pulled out an exquisite gift box from another pile of more expensive gifts.
"How could I forget? I've already picked yours out a long ti ago."
This man was a paradox, simultaneously cheap and affectionate. His gifts were expensive and carefully chosen, but they are mass-distributed. His emotions were sincere, but his words were unreliable.
"Alright then." Ino accepted the gift.
Along the way, the group chattered about the nobles of the Land of Fire’s capital.
With everyone contributing bits and pieces, Naruto quickly pieced together most of the trouble Ino had been facing… without even having to ask.
The large group made their way to the banquet venue in an imposing procession.
Walking hand in hand with Ino, Naruto listened to the lively conversations around him. The more he listened, the stranger his expression beca. He couldn't help but turn to ask her, "Did those nobles in the capital give you a hard ti?"
"Not exactly. Their goal is to siphon off the project’s profits." Ino sighed and said, "The Land of Fire isn’t a monolith. Those nobles only care about their own interests."
"What kind of terms are they proposing?" Naruto asked, "If they’re willing to invest, we can just jack up the price and squeeze so money out of them."
"They won’t invest but still want a share of the profits," Ino replied, then paused and continued, "And they have a huge appetite, practically forcing us into a loss."
"How many lives do those nobles think they have?" Naruto’s eyelid twitched. He turned to look at Ino and said, "Before the negotiations, they didn’t take any strange pills, did they?"
‘Did they get high and started daydreaming?’
"No." Ino shook her head slowly as they walked, "They don’t want to negotiate with at all. They made an outrageous demand on purpose, hoping to force my father to step in."
"And the project can’t bypass the capital, right?" Naruto asked.
"Um."
"This isn’t as difficult as it seems. There’ll be a way to handle it." Naruto reached out and patted Ino on the head, "No point stressing over it now, let’s eat first."
"Okay." Ino smiled, but she still couldn't hide the worry on her face.
In fact, Naruto wasn’t particularly concerned about the issue. He simply noted it down in his ntal list, and planned to deal with those nobles after he had eaten, drunk, bathed, and rested.
Compared to what he was currently dealing with, the nobles of the Land of Fire were just small fries. They were rich and powerful, accustod to being arrogant and overbearing.
In their minds, the role of the Konoha’s Shinobi is probably no different from a household servant. Relying on the fact that Shinobi weren’t allowed to attack civilians freely, they beca even more reckless in their behavior.
Under normal circumstances, Konoha’s shinobi and these Land of Fire’s ‘Celestial Dragons’ rarely interacted. The nobles were more like mascots, maintaining the stability of the Land of Fire’s governnt.
Konoha is Konoha, and the Land of Fire is the Land of Fire.
As for why these nobles were not cleared out? It was mainly because their political entanglents were too vast and Konoha simply didn’t have the courage to do so.
That was just how this world operated, with Five Great Shinobi Countries standing in balance.
If there is civil unrest in the Land of Fire, the other four countries would inevitably take action, which is sothing Konoha does not want to see.
Moreover, in the past few decades, both the Land of Fire and Konoha had been on a downward trend. Unless they hit rock bottom, they would continue upholding this system.
The nobles felt extrely oppressive towards the Shinobi. After all, even the rebellious and wandering son of the Sandai Hokage would choose to beco one of the Twelve Guardian Ninjas.
It was just a habitual mindset. Asuma didn’t want to live an easy life as Sandai’s son, so after he had a falling out and left to travel, he ended up as a noble’s bodyguard.
They were said to be Guardian, but in the end, so died or got injured just like any other disposable retainers.
This clearly shows that the status of nobility in the Land of Fire and even in Konoha, they still hold significant influence. Even though tis have changed, nobles remain nobles.
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