Shen, having grasped the key points, began brainstorming again. "If the Daimyo are like the Celestial Dragons, is it possible for all the shinobi villages to unite and form a world government? No—if they don't have overwhelming power, they won't just agree to it. And if we rely on war, Konoha's current strength still isn't enough to crush the four great nations."
"What about creating a powerful enemy? Still no good. Lord Madara absolutely won't negotiate reasonably. If I were to carry out the Moon's Eye Plan instead, it would be even worse. Otsutsuki Takako in this world isn't as simple as I remembered her to be."
No matter how he thought about it, Shen couldn't find a solution. He felt discouraged. It seemed that with his current level of experience, achieving peace in the shinobi world was impossible. The arrival of many future Otsutsuki extraterrestrials deepened his sense of despair.
Nayou saw Shen in this state and assumed he was disappointed over failing to establish trade relations with other countries.
She smiled gently and patted his shoulder to comfort him. "Shen, what's wrong? If this method doesn't work, we can think of others. We're still just kids after all. Maybe the answer will come to us in time."
"That's right. This definitely isn't something you can solve quickly. There must be plenty of people in the shinobi world who hope for peace. If one person alone can't do it, then maybe ten or a hundred together can."
Orochimaru also tried to comfort him, though he himself had never experienced war before.
"It's rare seeing you looking so down. Even if I can't beat you now, someday I'll defeat you myself. If you keep acting like this, you'll actually be doing me a huge favor!"
Though Nawaki sounded sarcastic, his real intention was to reignite Shen's fighting spirit—though he truly loathed the other deeply.
Strangely enough, seeing Shen lose his edge somehow unsettled him. Men's friendships sure are a curious thing.
Shen had been somewhat moved by the heartfelt concern shown by Little Iceberg and Snake Uncle. But after hearing Nawaki's words, all those feelings vanished completely. "You damn nuisance—who looks depressed? I was just upset because two months' effort would go to waste."
"Ah? Really?" Nayou started to doubt. She was almost certain he hadn't been troubled over something this trivial before.
After narrowing his eyes and studying Shen for a moment, Orochimaru decided to switch topics. "Well then, we need to complete our mission. Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Ideas? None at all." Without hesitation, Nawaki casually replied.
"..."
All three were taken aback by his brutal honesty. You don't have any ideas, yet you still speak up?
They looked at Nawaki strangely, but he remained oblivious. "I really don't have any ideas. Why don't we just wander around the shinobi world a bit before heading back to the village?"
"Wander around a bit? Do you even know how big the shinobi world is?" Seizing the opening, Shen refused to let it go.
Nawaki honestly admitted his ignorance. "I don't know. If you do, then just spit it out already!"
Shen decided to give the innocent fool in front of him a proper lesson. He pulled a small scroll from his ninja tool pouch, and with a sharp *peng* sound, a large blackboard materialized right in the middle of the desert.
With his left hand, he theatrically adjusted his imaginary glasses. Then, picking up a piece of chalk in his right hand, Professor Shen quickly sketched a simplified map of the shinobi world on the blackboard.
With a solemn expression, Professor Shen began lecturing seriously: "This is approximately the entire scope of the shinobi world. We spent two months traveling here from Konoha to the edge of the Land of Wind assuming we went directly along a straight path."
After drawing a straight line between Hidden Leaf Village's position and the edge of the Land of Wind on the blackboard, he continued: "Since we strolled all the way here, imagine if we went at full speed—that'd cut the time by ten times, which means just six days. If we never slept or rested, we could cut it down to three days."
Professor Shen, looking dignified while writing formulas onto the blackboard, sternly asked the three students: "So, can anyone tell me exactly how long this straight line is?"
"40 multiplied by 24 multiplied by 32880 kilometers!" Little Iceberg immediately raised his hand to answer.
"Excellent response! Nayou gets one point!" Professor Shen almost slipped but quickly corrected himself.
Then he pointed at the short straight line he'd just drawn across the blackboard's shinobi world map before asking another question: "Then can anyone tell me how long it would take to go all the way around the shinobi world?"
Orochimaru, being an enthusiastic scientist facing investors, raised his hand to respond: "At our previous speed, it would take twenty months, but if we maintained top speed without rest, it would only take one month."
"Correct! Snake Uncle earns one point!" Professor Shen struggled badly to suppress instinctual urges as he spoke.
"It's just one month worth of travel time though. The shinobi world isn't actually that big."
"Nawaki loses five points for disrupting class discipline!"
"Why?!"
"Doubting the professor costs another five points!"
Grumbling under his breath, Nawaki lost ten points total like that.
Seeing Nawaki's face flush with frustration visibly delighted the professor as he squatted down with a malicious gleam in his eyes: "If any reckless student wants to try traveling nonstop for an entire month without rest, I won't stop them. I just hope they don't drop dead halfway through."
"Are you looking for a beating?!"
"Threatening a professor costs ten more points!"
[Eat My Rope-Tree Ultimate Punch!]
"Attacking a professor costs fifty points!"
*Peng-Pa*
In one swift move, Professor Shen—who had now fully transformed into Bat-Lord mode—dealt with the offender, burying his entire body beneath the desert sands until only his head remained visible above ground. All the while, Nawaki kept muttering curses from his exposed head.
"Seeing your expression like this makes me incredibly happy," Shen said excitedly while trembling with joy.
"" x2
Neither Nayou nor Orochimaru could resist submitting completely to Shen's authority at this moment. Forget his creepy tone and weird vibes for a second—even just those burial techniques he showed were enough to earn him top marks in their books.
After a long while, Professor Shen seemed to lose interest in Nawaki buried in the sand and returned to the front of the blackboard to summarize. "So, if we plan to travel around the shinobi world, it'll take at least a year. If we factor in time for investigation, maybe two or three years total—and that's assuming we go straight there without detours."
Nayou quickly caught on. "So this S-rank mission is basically a black hole? Without intel, we'd just be running around like headless chickens?"
"Correct! Good catch, Nayou. Alright, no more jokes—you're truly brilliant. I think our best bet is to gather information while traveling. What do you think, Snake Uncle?" Shen, now serious, asked Orochimaru his opinion.
"I believe it's a good idea. Let's go with Shen's plan." With no better ideas, he simply agreed.
And so, the trio began wandering aimlessly through the desert.
"Shen, do you feel like we forgot something?"
"That's right! It's Nawaki!"
"That silly guy? Well, forget him. If a mere chunin can't even find his way out on his own, I'll seriously look down on the Ninja Academy's quality of education."
"That actually makes sense."
As the three walked off chatting among themselves, poor Nawaki was left behind, feeling utterly abandoned.
Nawaki muttered to himself, "I will definitely come back!"
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