Chapter 31
Town of Demons

The Next Day
Land of Earth
Oninoko

Naruto woke up blearily he was a slow starter in the mornings despite how much energy he usually had, it was a slow burn but once he was burning he could keep burning until he would collapse of exhaustion.

Yesterday he used a lot more Chakra than he was expecting then again he was not expecting to get ambushed by the Kazan Clan who were obviously looking for members of the Shiin Clan in the west, the Kazan won the battle at Kosaten Village and they were probably looking to finish them off by finding out where the Shiin was hiding out and launching a full assault to wipe them out.

Naruto had managed to make it to Oninoko in a half-delirious daze, he didn't remember getting a room at an Inn or anything else, he just woke up in an unfamiliar dingy room it was easily the most decrepit and unkempt room he ever had the unfortunate pleasure of sleeping in.

He was on a creaky wooden bed and the room was completely unkempt and had nothing except for the bed and a door which was locked so he was reassured that he at least remembered to do that.

"Urhg." He groaned and held his side, he didn't actually have any damage but he felt strained due to having to jump around like a monkey to avoid that lava clad lunatic who attacked him.

'But I used both of the Kekkei Genkai I have and even managed to use the Rasengan for this first time.' Naruto thought with glee and the dull pain from his Chakra Coils could not stop him from revelling in that victory.

He stood up and took stock of the room nothing looked out of place and he fell asleep in his clothes on top of the covers, the one window in the room had the blinds shut so only small amounts of light were peaking through the gaps making the room dark.

"I'll get the lay of the land first." Naruto decided to pat himself down.

He walked out of the room and found the hall was just as dingy as the room, there was no one around and Naruto realised why as he entered the Inn's entrance hall/dining room, it reeked of sake and smoke and pretty much everyone there were asleep men and women in various states of dress and undress.

Naruto's nose wrinkled in disgust at seeing the aftermath of what must have been a depraved party, it was probably the reason why he was able to get a room without any question since the owners of the place must have been busy with managing this place.

He exited the disgusting Inn and stepped out onto an empty dusty street, Naruto was shocked by just how bad the entire town looked. It was like the entire village was made of scraps with odd badly built buildings along with unpaved roads thought when he looked around he could see some buildings that looked actually built instead of looking thrown together.

There was a clear wealth divide in this village, he could see men sleeping in the streets while there were mansions built into the rock around them, Onikoro was similar to the first town he saw when he first arrived in the Land of Earth, but instead of being in a valley it was actually open on the eastern side with the flat rocky plains that Naruto had been running across for the last few days, but on the western side was a small mountain range that stretched far into the north and seemed to start where the town itself was. The wealthy seemed to have their homes built into the mountain and the rest of the town was built out of bad looking wood, mud and clay he could even see a few shacks made of scrap metal but there was one building that stood out the most,

It was made of marble and was a huge dome and stood directly in the centre of the town with a single kanji with only a single meaning 'Money' carved into the cardinal directions on the dome of the building so people could see it no matter where they approached it from, Naruto had heard about this building because it was the bounty exchange/Mission centre for the entire village of Onikoro who allowed anyone to come and live in though obviously it only attracted mercenaries along with the entertainment and needs of what men and women like that enjoyed which obviously was mainly bars, brothels and weapon shops.

What Naruto needed most however was information on the recent movements of the Clans in the area, he knew that the Kazan were beginning to send scouts into the west in order to find the hiding Shiin Clan who Naruto had gotten acquainted with due to saving one of their Clan, honestly to Naruto things did not look good for the Shiin Clan they were stuck in a hostile land and they were being attacked by one of the strongest Clans in the country.

'That will be the best place for me to find out what I want, the Kekkei Gekkai users here are reclusive so I might get lucky.' Naruto thought as he looked at the huge building, it was easily the biggest thing in the village apart from the huge mountain on the western side obviously.

It seemed that no one in this village woke up before noon as since Naruto had left his Inn it was the morning and him walking around getting the lay of the land checking the layout of the ramshackle village had only taken a few hours and he had seen no one and it was only when the sun was reaching it's the highest point in the sky that the streets began to fill with people.

Most of them looked rough and grizzled even the women and they started at everyone like they were about to stab each other, it seemed like everyone in the village distrusted each other and all were prepared for a fight to break out.

Naruto kept to himself and tried to be as below notice as possible as he made his way through the rapidly filling streets to the central building of Oninoko.

On his way, however, he witnessed what was apparently the norm in the town as a fight broke out between two Ninja and they started firing Doton Ninjutsu at each other while the people around them either ran or avoided them like it wasn't even happening.

"What's this one about?" A man asked drunkenly as he watched the fight, Naruto was standing just behind him listening in.

"Usual shit, one slept with a whore the other liked." Another man said with a pipe in his mouth, he was watching the proceeding with a grin.

"Always enjoy a good fight over a woman any man could have." The drunk laughed and whistled when a rock smashed into the ground making a crater.

This continued for a few more minutes but then one of their Jutsu ended up missing and went flying into the mountain creating a small crater near one of the carved buildings people began to whisper and get nervous and there were only a few words that Naruto could hear.

"Hit near them."

"Gonna get the Wolves out."

"We need to go before the wolves get here."

It seemed that people were scared about a group being called in because the fight was getting out of hand.

Then said group arrived on the scene, they were dressed in drab brown clothes but each of them had green armour on their chest, arms and legs and the moment a squad of them arrived the fighting ended instantly and the people on the street tried to get out the area as fast as they could. Each of them had a Katana sheathed at their waist like Samurai but they also had the pouches that were the signature of Ninja, to Naruto it looked like a strange fusion between Ninja and Samurai.

"The Wolves of Oninoko." Someone whispered in fear as they made their way and ended the fight with their presence alone.

The leader stepped forward and seemed to dare the two now non-fighting Ninja.

"We-we were j-just." One stuttered over his words while the other just look plain terrified.

"Leave now." The man ordered them and had a hand meaningfully placed on his katana and the message was clear to everyone: Leave or get killed.

The remaining crowd basically ran away after that and Naruto resumed his journey to the bounty station but he was playing the entire incident over his mind.

'Wolves of Oninoko? I've never heard of them before but it looks like they're a big deal here.' Naruto thought as he continued looking around curiously.

He could see people his own age around though they looked like war orphans with ragged clothes and dark looks in their eyes and it stood out all the more to Naruto since he could have ended up like that if he wasn't born into the Uzumaki Clan and trained as a Ninja, his Dad was one of the lucky few who got a sympathetic Ninja to train him despite him being an orphan with nothing but his name.

The world was not a nice place to those without a home, even children of Ninja who died were only taken care of if they were a part of a Clan but even then there would be times when a child would be stripped of their name and stricken from the family for not living up to whatever expectations that were put on their shoulders.

'In another life that could have been me.' Naruto thought and forced himself to look away, he was getting stares back at him and they did not look friendly so he decided to pick up the pace.

This town was probably the worst one he had ever been to, the only other place that was worse was the Kaguya Clan Compound and that was because it was a literal death of people who cared for nothing but fighting to the death with their enemies, this place was a den of vice he could see people openly drinking despite it being midday along with the 'women of the night' who were openly courting for the passing attention of men by showing off their bodies and it was obviously working as the passing men who take them and enter the buildings lining the roads.

'I shouldn't have come here.' Naruto thought as he kept his eyes on his destination and tried to block out everything else going on around him, this was not a nice place and he could definitely understand why it was called Oninoko.

The marble building was right in front of him now and despite everything he had seen on the way, it was this place that was the busiest parts of town as

there were rivers of people entering and exiting the building all of them looked trained for combat and there was a clear mixture of Ninja, Samurai and mercenaries all of them looked battle-hardened and did their best to ignore each other instead of concentrating on getting in and out of the building as fast as possible.

Naruto approached the building carefully and he noticed there were more of those 'Wolves' stationed around the building keeping a very careful eye on every coming and going, almost all of them had a hand on their swords showing they were alert and ready to intervene if the situation arose and Naruto was starting to get very nervous about entering but he soldiered on and joined one of the lines of people, it was a quick entrance and he soon found himself passing through the giant marble doors, they were probably 3 times the size of a normal man and more than twice as wide it was like the doors were made for giants rather than people.

Oninoko Bounty Station

The inside of the building was completely unlike the rest of the village, it was clean, well maintained and there was an order for things as the queue of people went up to a desk seemed to ask or be told some information and then they would move on to huge wooden boards that were posted at various places within the building. The entire area was circular so it was a very easy system to follow and looked to be one way.

Naruto followed the flow around and within around 10 minutes he was at a stone desk being looked down on by a female receptionist with black hair that was tied up very professionally.

"And what is your request?" She asked neutrality.

"I need information on certain Clans." Naruto answered which made the woman raise an eyebrow

"Who would this information be for." She asked another question while writing something down on paper in front of her.

"For me." Naruto said.

"What are the names of the Clans you are searching for?" She seemed a little annoyed by his answer but continued on.

"Jishaku, Yude, Haretsu and Hoseki." Naruto answered lowly so no one else could hear his answer.

That made her stoic facade crack a little as her eyebrows rose up and alarm entered her eyes.

"I see, then perhaps we should discuss this more privately." She said and stood up from her desk and gestured for Naruto to pass through the wooden gate next to her, to follow her around the desk.

Now Naruto was alarmed and on edge, which could mean anything from an actual discussion to being killed or captured and tortured.

But even so, he went through and followed the woman through marble white plain corridors until they came to a stop outside a dark oaken door which she opened but Naruto gestured for her to enter first, he was not about to be hit on the back of the head as soon as he entered the room.

She seemed to understand and then walked in first and after seeing that nothing happened to her Naruto followed her in the find a plain room with two chairs and a desk between them, there were no windows and Naruto couldn't sense any guards or Chakra for that matter, the woman sat on a chair and gestured for him to sit on the opposite one.

Naruto did so but he remained at the ready to move.

"The information you have asked for is very sensitive and has been requested before, tell me are you an agent of the White Snake?" She asked straightforwardly.

'The White Snake!?' Naruto thought about the name. It was the nickname for a legendary Ninja from the Land of Fire who appeared around 40 years ago but Naruto didn't know the man or woman's actual name since the White Snake was a very feared name and had a reputation of kidnapping Ninja with Kekkei Genkai or special abilities that were outside the norm. The only concrete thing Naruto knew was that the White Snake had helped Hiruko in the past with something related to the Chimera Jutsu.

"No, I'm not." Naruto answered honestly but he could see where she was coming from.

"I see, it is an unusual request for asking about Clans with Kekkei Genkai." She said and continued writing notes on her paper.

"Yeah well, I have different objectives." Naruto lied.

"I see." She said and continued writing.

"Information like this comes with a high price." She said meaningfully.

"How much?" Naruto asked leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed.

"If you want our current information then 20 million ryo but if you wish for brand new up to the current date information then it will come to a total of 60 million." She said and that would have floored Naruto but he was sitting down.

"That-that's a lot of money." Naruto licked his lips and took in the sheer volume of money that actually was.

"If you have trouble gaining the funds then our bounty station has plenty of jobs which pay well for Ninja." She offered politely.

"Right." Naruto nodded at her again.

"I'll think about it, thanks." Naruto said quickly standing up and walking to the door.

"We will always be here if you come up with the required funds." She said cracking a small smile at seeing Naruto fleeing the room.

"Yeah okay." Naruto said again and he opened the door and left quickly.

Later

Naruto basically ran out of the building at that point and went to find somewhere to eat which was shockingly hard in the village of Oninoko, he also noticed a lot more fighting breaking out and even two samurai who ended up cutting a ninja down then running from the 'Wolves' who came to chase him down.

The 'Wolves' seemed to be a police force for the area but they were little better than the people they policed acting like thugs and taking money from shops like Yakuza, Naruto was so confused at how a town could function like this it was chaos with the only people capable of stopping fights also eager to get into them and kill people in the street.

Oni was a very fitting name for this town and Naruto after finally finding a ramen vendor and having a very overpriced and disappointing bowl of ramen decided to find a high place and watch over the village again, he did not feel like finding a place to sleep yet.

He looked over the village from the tallest building he could find, it was to his disappointment the most popular brothel in the village but Naruto was outside on the roof there were no windows near him so no one could see him especially after he used a Jutsu that Jiraiya taught him the Toton Jutsu which made him invisible and it had a low Chakra cost as well so it was easy to maintain.

"This place is awful." Naruto complained as the sounds of fighting and revelry made their way up to Naruto.

"And expensive too." Naruto said thinking about the bowl of ramen and of course the millions of Ryo he would need to buy the information he wanted.

'Am I just better off doing the scouting myself?' He asked himself and decided to think about that.

He would be up there a long time deep into the night, alone with his thoughts.

Land of Grass
Hideout

Minato sighed as looked over the new request he had taken on, he had been stuck in the Land of Hot Water for far too long after that skirmish.

'Kakashi should be finishing up that other mission by now.' He thought reflecting on the past few days.

He was not surprised to find that when he went to the hideout that he sent Naruto to was empty, his son seemed to be a very independent young man and he had his own mysterious objective that even after a week he wouldn't breathe a word of it to him, Kakashi or Jiraiya.

'Whatever it is, it must be important since he decided it was better to complete it before trying to meet up with me despite the fact that he had no allied when he first left.' Minato ruminated on his son, he deeply wished that they could have spent more time together beyond a single week.

"Next time, I'll take him with me properly. Even if it means getting him involved in this business." Minato said aloud before tossing the scroll into the nearby fire, the scroll was reduced to ashes in seconds and Minato watched it burn.

"We're moving faster now, and with our increased trust and unity it should be easier to link up and complete objectives." Minato mused thinking on the organization.

'But there's still a long way to go.' Minato thought wearily.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

A vibrating noise got Minato's attention and he turned to the table where the small vibrating object was placed, he did not wear it usually but he always had it on him just in case.

"A meeting already." He said with a sigh but nevertheless, he picked it up and slipped it on before making a Hand Sign which made the hideout shudder and then a staircase appeared in the far corner of the room that lead down.

It was a panic room that doubled as an escape route but in this case, it could easily double as a private meeting room.

"I wonder what this one will be about." He wondered before descending into the darkness.

AN:

Here's chapter 31 hope you all enjoyed it and look forward to the next one like always.

Translations:

Toton Jutsu=Transparent Escape Technique