Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 150 Supervision

[Minister of Construction, please dispatch two members to Lianping Village in the southeastern part of the Land of Fire to provide guidance. They must be on duty before noon today.]

Hashirama, who was observing the growth of the early rice in the field, suddenly stood up straight, because Naruto would never normally address the core members who created Akatsuki by their official titles, unless he had discovered a serious problem.

"I'm here, I'll go coordinate right away." Hashirama asked cautiously, "May I ask what happened to the original person in charge of this area?"

[Unauthorized raiding of others' supplies, unauthorized engagement with Konoha ninjas, failure to report major incidents, engaging in bureaucratic formalities, trying to protect their positions… In short, all three of them need to be retrained!]

It's rare to see Naruto so emotional. Last time, he disguised himself as a civilian and entered a city effectively controlled by Hidden Light, only to receive a recommendation for a special service at a tavern. He immediately reported it to the city's patrol team, but waited a long time for a response and saw no action. They even caught someone who not only didn't care but also dared to jump in. Naruto was so angry that he visited all the Hidden Light members in the city in the middle of the night, combining everyone's testimonies with the evidence he had gathered. He dismissed most of them, and the one who frequented the red-light district had his chakra sealed and thrown into prison.

Their manpower shortage had been ongoing for some time, and their core fighting force consisted mainly of members from the Senju and Uchiha clans, most of whom were related. The veterans, who had lived through the Warring States period and countless battles, couldn't understand why Naruto was so averse to prostitution. Even in this era, brothels were still rampant and couldn't be eradicated overnight. While they urged Naruto to be lenient, his response was as sharp as ever, hitting the nail on the head.

"I'll just ask you a simple question: Do you consider prostitutes as human beings?"

Of the people in the room, some did give firm answers, but the vast majority remained silent.

This damn silence.

"Even you can't answer this question, so don't expect ordinary people to understand it."

Naruto, his expression filled with grief, slowly said, "They were also someone's daughters, someone's sisters, someone's mother. But why are they there? Did they choose to be there themselves?"

"This society has stripped them of their human dignity, leaving them with only this way to survive. They either live as commodities, bowing and scraping, or they die."

People cannot fully empathize with pain they have not experienced.

Initially, when Hui formulated the policy of banning ninjas in the liberated areas, Naruto was primarily concerned with the long-term stability of the region; addicts and gamblers were simply too dangerous. However, since that exploration of his sea of ​​consciousness, he began to dream of different lives from time to time. He walked the world, observing suffering with his own eyes, and in his dreams, he was also a traveler bearing suffering. Therefore, he felt even more eager to change and more determined to make the right choice.

He longed to rest, but whenever he stopped, he would think of those people who had nothing to do with happiness, and how nine out of ten of his dreams were about the struggle to survive. Their voices were small, drowned out by this bustling world; their voices were loud, their roars deafening beneath their bodies.

“I cannot condone such mistakes, and neither can Hui. I don’t expect every one of you to understand Hui’s ideals, but I hope you can take even just one day to be an ordinary person among the masses, experience their lives firsthand, and then imagine your descendants living in such a world, from birth to death. Then tell me, can you endure it?”

"Excuse me, just to confirm, you mean Yao stabbed your shadow clone from behind?" Tobirama's tone was full of disbelief.

"Haha...sorry, I couldn't help it." Izuna couldn't suppress his laughter. "How can they be so brave? Aren't my intelligence department's rankings clear enough?"

"...On behalf of Uchiha Yao, I apologize to you. This child has been impulsive since he was a child..." Fugaku clan chief's tone was full of shame.

"Seriously, shouldn't we be trying to figure out a way to cover this up? How are these three little guys going to escape Naruto's pursuit?" Hashirama actually came up with a reliable suggestion in the group chat.

"This problem is already being solved. My senses have guided us to capture the merchants who bought the government grain. These guys have been harassing Dongfeng for a long time, so we're taking this opportunity to clean them up openly. With these big fish blocking our way, the Land of Fire shouldn't bother investigating who robbed us." Naruto's tone was much calmer now.

He was leading his team to identify the stolen grain. After entering the city, Kiba's sense of smell was severely impaired, so he could only rely on Naruto's perception to find the stolen grain one by one. As a result, the number of people they searched increased, and the speed decreased. Eventually, the stolen grain naturally "escaped" Naruto's perception range.

The team, completely unaware that Naruto could pinpoint a single person from the entire Land of Fire, actually believed it. And they did indeed recover all the missing food supplies, and incidentally also caught a group of black market business owners – enough to complete their mission.

"You managed to come up with a solution so quickly; you must have beaten them up last night, right? If you weren't satisfied, I suggest another round." Between his clansmen and Naruto, Izuna clearly favored the latter, after all, he was truly dedicated and never slacked off when it came to achieving world peace.

"Agreed. I suggest doing this a few more times so they can see the inequality of the world." Fugaku, who had just been apologizing, cast his vote at lightning speed—his voting attitude was unprecedentedly enthusiastic.

"I agree. But be careful not to hurt yourself again." Hashirama wasn't worried about the mental state of the reanimated characters, because maintaining Naruto's physical health was truly exhausting.

[Seconded.] Tobirama didn't add anything, but he also joined in the commotion.

"...You guys aren't voting seriously, are you?"

This incident has indeed had a negative impact, and the fact that members of Hui have broken the rules is not an isolated case. Naruto has only explored less than a quarter of the liberated area and has already discovered so many problems; what will happen in the future? Can he possibly oversee the entire world?

Therefore, a regulatory system must be established immediately, even if it means shrinking the existing territory to operate!

Naruto: "I've met a lot of outstanding ordinary cadres on the road. They shouldn't be confined to their small spheres; they should be given a platform to shine."

Izuna: "You mean you want to incorporate ordinary people into the Inspection Department? You know that every base has ninjas stationed there, right?"

Naruto: "How can an inspection team composed only of ninjas gain the trust of ordinary people?"

Tobirama: "It's very dangerous to carry out inspections like this; ordinary people don't have the ability to protect themselves."

Hashirama: "Ordinary people can team up with ninjas, that way they can protect themselves, right?"

Fugaku: "That places high demands on ninjas; they have to protect themselves as well as ordinary people."

Naruto: "They have not only strength behind them, but also the power of the Radiant One."

Hashirama: "...This isn't a long-term solution. They can put on an act, but once the people leave, they'll revert to their original form."

Tobirama: "Hmm... we can 'rotate' positions. We can rotate people every few years, which will ensure the continuity of regional policies and also serve as a form of mutual supervision."

Naruto: "Yeah, how come I didn't think of that? Tobirama-san is a genius!"

Izuna: "Yeah~ He's a genius~"

Hashirama and Fugaku: "..."

It seems they desperately need to recruit some politically astute individuals, really.