𝘉𝘖𝘕𝘋𝘚 | ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒ

twenty

+

Naruto and I parted ways after he had shown me around the busier parts of Konoha. I recognized a few of the shops, spotting the stand where Ryuu must have bought the animal masks for his little sisters. There were a lot of little shops like that one though, so I couldn't have been too sure. You couldn't turn a corner without spotting at least one food stand or one selling little nick knacks.

Konoha was definitely more of a... touristy village compared to Kumo.

Of course, it still was a shinobi village and not a vacation spot. There were probably one shinobi for every two civilians, which added up to a lot of people.

The more touristy appeal to the village probably stemmed from the fact there were so many civilians here. No civilians would want to live in a village if it was only intended for shinobi. Really, the civilians were the major component for why Konoha had such a good economy.

Notice why Kirigakure is known for having one of the absolute worst economies. That was before Sunagakure of course, but that wasn't any comparison. The hidden mist was shit, but the hidden Sand was dog shit tier.

When I arrived at the motel, Ryuu still wasn't there. Katsu wasn't there either. He was most likely in the hospital healing from his injuries, not to mention chakra exhaustion. I wasn't a sensor type by any means, but Ryuu definitely was, and he didn't hesitate to tell me Katsu was beat up more than what we could see or than what he would let on.

Chakra exhaustion wasn't something you could easily get back up from. The best thing Katsu could do was rest under the watchful eye of medical shinobi and gather his chakra naturally.

I considered visiting him in the hospital like a good little teammate, but I would probably only be met with a nasty glare and a slew of insults. Why would I waste my time when I already knew what was gonna happen?

I mean, it wasn't as though I would blame the guy for having a sour attitude. I did knock him out and force him to forfeit. But what else was I supposed to do? Let him kill himself fighting for a fucking promotion? Sasuke did seem to have worse injuries than Katsu and he fought anyway. But Sasuke was an Uchiha. The clan heritage was nothing to shrug off on its own, but someone from a noble clan with a fucking dojutsu? That was nothing to sneeze at.

But Katsu didn't have a clan heritage. Sure, his parents were shinobi, but that didn't mean they were members of a clan. Even if he was from a clan somewhere down the line, that clans talents weren't prominent enough to give him an upper hand. Initially I thought that I didn't have an upper hand either. But when I awakened that freaky dojutsu... there was no way I came from a simple civilian family.