If a person is unlucky, even their farts hit their heels.
The fleet led by Haido was targeting the Grerl Stone mineral vein located in the Land of Wind, and their number wasn't the three ships Naruto remembered, but five.
Some time ago, as the fleet passed through an unknown sea area, a dark purple, almost black orb, tinged with dark red, suddenly crushed the last two ships of the fleet.
In the blink of an eye, the ships were gone without a trace.
Fortunately, those two ships only carried some unconscious armored soldiers, otherwise, they would have suffered a huge loss.
Haido and his subordinates were stunned. What was that thing!?
The ships were gone, but there were no important materials on them, so Haido decided to find the Grerl Stone mineral vein first.
After much difficulty reaching the Land of Wind, he ordered his men to gather intelligence and seize supplies along the coast.
Just as everything was going smoothly, another orb, even larger than the previous one, with a small colorful orb atop it, flew towards his fleet.
It was harder than ascending to heaven for such a fortress-like battleship to change direction and dodge a fast-moving Tailed Beast Bomb.
However, Haido calculated that if this one also simply rolled over them like the last, his fleet wouldn't suffer any damage, which eased his mind slightly.
Yet, as the two orbs flew near his fleet, the colorful one exploded, incidentally detonating the larger one.
Their last good ship also lost power; nothing worked. Under inertia, it glided to this vicinity, then became unmoving, like a submarine tangled in seaweed, anchored in place.
While sending men ashore to find materials to repair the ship, they encountered a Sand Shinobi stronghold and Gaara, who had arrived as reinforcement.
So, this wasn't the stronghold from the original work; this was another one. The people at this stronghold were smarter, not like those simple-minded ninjas in the original work who foolishly sailed small boats into the darkness towards an unseen enemy, only to be blown to smithereens by cannon fire.
The people at this stronghold were not only smarter but also stronger. Thus, a skirmish ensued without any fatalities, only a few were bruised or cut.
A group of armored soldiers, whose combined strength couldn't even defeat the childhood Sakura in the original work, were indeed not strong. They were just so tough that ordinary people couldn't easily defeat them.
"Going?" Naruto jumped down and asked.
"Night is not suitable for a frontal assault. The enemy hasn't moved, so we can wait until dawn to act," Gaara said.
He indeed didn't want to fight at night; the opponents were at sea, which greatly restricted him, a sand user.
"Then let's wait until dawn," Naruto also didn't want to fight at night. He couldn't remember the opponents' names, but he remembered their abilities.
In the original work, besides Timusi, there were three other shapeshifting subordinates: a bat, a werewolf, and a bomber who charged through sand with a shield and used Lightning Release to give Gaara headaches.
Fighting them without visibility would be too disadvantageous.
Temari ordered, "Send men to fire flare bombs at regular intervals. Everyone, do not approach that ship easily. Tomorrow, we will go up and inspect it before making a decision."
The Sand Shinobi were poor; they couldn't afford to lose people. The three Temari siblings were quite strong, and entering first to investigate could reduce losses.
Meanwhile, on the enemy ship.
"How much longer until it's fixed?"
"The power system will be ready by tomorrow noon. The weapons system is expected to be repaired by 5 AM tomorrow."
"Alright, make sure to get some rest," Haido said, ignoring the snow ferret that was hissing warnings at Timusi's shoulder.
Timusi was a descendant of the royal family of the country that bred this snow ferret and developed the Grerl Stone. Furthermore, like the snow ferret, he possessed a Grerl Stone. When he first appeared on land, the snow ferret, with its special sensory ability, ran out of its original traveling merchant caravan and found him.
Then, the old man leading the caravan went to Konoha to post a mission to find the snow ferret.
In the original work, Tsunade gave this mission to the Crown Prince to keep him away from the village as much as possible.
But now that Naruto wasn't in the village, such missions needed to be handed over to professionals.
For example, a certain genin squad specialized in searching.
Early the next morning.
The golden-orange sun had just risen from the east, and they were woken by cannon fire.
Naruto rubbed his eyes and grumbled, "Are you insane? Is that how you wake people up?!"
Gaara and the others had already gone out to meet the enemy.
"Wait, take me with you."
He was going to find Timusi. As long as he found Timusi, the snow ferret would eventually come looking for him.
The rest depended on his abduction skills.
He didn't plan to snatch it. Snow ferrets are fierce creatures; if they don't accept you, they'll keep causing trouble.
Snow ferrets belong to the weasel family. Most weasel family creatures have one characteristic: if they're not convinced, they'll fight.
How chaotic Africa is, the Honey Badger decides.
The famous African Honey Badger is from the weasel family.
In the original work, because the snow ferret sensed a dangerous aura from the Crown Prince, it clawed at him fiercely, biting his face and not letting go. You can imagine how fierce it was.
Moreover, one couldn't treat pets the same way as people, hitting them if they didn't obey. So Naruto could only resort to abduction.
He was confident in his abduction skills.
After all, he even abducted his wife.
The ship was still firing cannons. The Sand Shinobi had found cover, and Naruto, Gaara, and the other two secretly infiltrated the ship from the side.
"Clang."
Kicking aside an armored soldier, Naruto retracted his Wolverine Claw-shaped Arm Blade.
This area was vast, filled with large ship machinery. The few armored soldiers operating the machinery had already been dealt with by Naruto.
Finally, a chance to sneak in! He had been a ninja for so long, yet he had never had an opportunity to infiltrate an enemy camp. It was truly a failure.
Kankuro pressed his ear to the wall and whispered, "Someone's coming, four of them, targeting us. Conceal yourselves."
Naruto jumped behind a large part, pulled up his hood, and popped out his arm blade.
Were they discovered?
Through the gap, Naruto could see that Timusi was among the four who entered, and the snow ferret was perched on his shoulder.
Naruto was delighted. The snow ferret was even more delighted.
After a few squeaks, it jumped off Timusi's shoulder, running and leaping along the pipes, finally jumping onto Naruto's shoulder and taking a deep breath pressed against his neck.
You little thing, did you lead the enemy here?
I haven't even tried to lure you, and you've already come over. And what's with that action? I've heard of people huffing cats, but never people huffing humans.
The Grerl Stone within the snow ferret constantly sustained its life, but centuries of time had also consumed much of it.
What was consumed needed to be replenished. Thus, driven by instinct, the little snow ferret sought out Naruto without a second thought after discovering him.
This person was radiating life force from head to toe.
Naruto was from the Uzumaki Clan and had constantly drunk Dragon Egg Cola to replenish his vitality, so his life force was naturally immense.
This was just the small part; the bulk was still on the Nine-Tails. It kept drinking, but couldn't absorb all of it. Some would still dissipate, going into Naruto's body. What happened when Naruto's body was full and couldn't contain any more?
Then it could only dissipate outwards.
Life force is an invisible power.
The Sharingan can see chakra, but it cannot see life force.
So, without anyone knowing, Naruto had been continuously emitting life force.
Life force can heal injuries.
Healing is also referred to as healer.
One could also say that, under the influence of various powers, Naruto was lactating!
The rate of this "secretion" depended on whether Naruto was injured and how much Nine-Tails drank.
Yesterday, Nine-Tails, in a good mood after beating Shukaku, drank more.
Today, Nine-Tails, in a bad mood because a certain novel's author hadn't updated for two years, drank even more.
Therefore, to the snow ferret, which possessed a Grerl Stone, this person held an immense attraction.
Just one big "huff" from him daily, and it could easily live to nine hundred and ninety.
"Oh, so you were hiding here, boy," a woman who had transformed into a bat flew into the air in front of Naruto and teased.
Naruto remained silent.
Today, he was here to abduct the only remaining treasure of their country—the snow ferret. This time, he was truly a villain.
Every villain Naruto had seen who talked incessantly during a fight ended up with their grave overgrown with weeds.
So he didn't say a single word.
He silently created three Shadow Clones. One embraced the snow ferret, and another ran towards Gaara's side.
"Oh, you poor thing, too scared to speak?" The bat woman opposite him continued to act cocky, emboldened by her ability to fly.
She had discovered in previous battles that the people on this continent generally had no anti-air capabilities.
If the opponent wanted to be cocky, Naruto couldn't stop them.
He silently pulled out a spider web, then activated Wild Lion's Mane on it.
Come on, Bat-Woman, today let me, Spider-Man Uzumaki Parker, take you on.
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