Naruto: Start By Punching Trees And Shocking Kurama!

"Mm-hmm…"

"What a wonderfully relaxing day..."

Jiraiya swayed slightly as he walked through the desert, carrying a bottle of sake.

Strangely enough, his student, who is very good at making trouble, has been oddly quiet lately.

After all, he has been in Sunagakure for more than a month, but there hasn't been any explosion.

Jiraiya had been inquiring every day whether there has been a large-scale explosion in the Land of Wind.

However, no matter how much he asked, there was no bad news.

'Had the kid actually changed?'

'It seems that it was the right decision to take Naruto out of the village for training!'

Jiraiya took another swig of sake, and for the first time, he felt that the world was so beautiful.

He even started to think that Naruto being a nuisance might actually be improving.

The thought of Naruto not causing trouble back in the village in the future made him grin like an idiot.

'Guess it really took someone like me to handle him...'

'No ordinary person could keep that brat in check.'

Jiraiya hummed a little tune and skipped across the sand like a carefree child.

However, when he finally arrived at Sunagakure...

Jiraiya was dumbfounded.

"Th-this...?"

"Where the hell is Sunagakure?!"

"Where did such a big village go!?"

Jiraiya, who was slightly tipsy, sobered up instantly.

The spot where Sunagakure once stood was now just a gigantic crater, as if the entire land had been scooped up and carried away.

"DAMN IT!"

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!?"

Jiraiya clutched his head, panicking like an ant on a hot stove.

"It's over, it's over!"

"Is it really Naruto that destroyed the entire Sunagakure?!"

At this point, Jiraiya had zero expectations left for Naruto, and the worst-case scenario was the only thing that made sense.

'If that damn brat really destroys Sunagakure, Konoha would become the target of the entire Shinobi World.'

'We're finished!'

'The Fourth Shinobi World War is about to start!!'

"Hey, uncle!"

"What are you standing there for!?"

A high-pitched, childlike voice suddenly called out from nearby.

Jiraiya looked in the direction of the childlike voice, only to see a muscular man about 1.8 meters tall holding a glowing hammer in his hand.

The sheer disconnect between the voice and the body made Jiraiya's face twitch.

'How the hell does a guy this massive sound like a toddler?!'

'Is this some kind of trap to lure people in?'

'What kind of sick joke is this?!'

'But…'

'It's a good thing to see survivors.'

'At least I can find out what happened to Sunagakure.'

Jiraiya no longer cared about the absurdity and walked towards the muscular man.

Jiraiya asked when he reached him, "T-tell me...!"

"What on earth happened to Sunagakure?"

"Where did the village go?"

The muscular man scratched his face, and there was a hint of innocence on his childish expression, which made Jiraiya feel like vomiting.

"Huh? You don't know, uncle?"

"OF COURSE I DON'T KNOW, YOU FREAK!!"

"AND STOP MAKING THAT DISGUSTING FACE!!"

Jiraiya couldn't take it anymore.

'He is obviously a big guy, but he is pretending to be a child!'

'So revolting!!'

The muscular man looked at the Konoha's Shinobi in front of him, thought for a moment, and then he dug into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Ohhh, I see …"

"Fill this out, and I'll tell you."

"What's this?"

Jiraiya took the paper and glanced at it. His expression then cycled through shock, confusion, and utter bewilderment.

[Mechanicus Cult Membership Application Form.]

After looking up at the Sunagakure's forehead protector on the muscular man's wrist and confirming that he was a Sunagakure's Shinobi, Jiraiya became even more confused.

'Wait…'

'Was Sunagakure destroyed by a cult??'

'I asked you what happened to the village!'

'Why are you trying to recruit me instead?!

'Damn it!'

'What the hell is going on here?!'

"Uncle, throw yourself into the arms of our Mechanicus!"

"Shinobi have their limits!"

The muscular man raised his arms high, and his fanatical voice added a bit of weirdness to the desert night.

Jiraiya shuddered at the sight.

"Hold on…"

"Just tell me what the hell happened to Sunagakure first."

Jiraiya's face darkened. He was afraid that if he continued to listen to this guy, he would not be able to stop himself from using a Rasengan.

"Oh, you mean that..."

The young believer obviously did not have much 'missionary experience', and under the veteran Shinobi's pressure, he folded almost immediately.

"Our Sunagakure has been rebuilt on a giant puppet now."

"The Ten Thousand Crawler Puppet is out gathering resources as we speak."

"All thanks to our great Cult Leader..."

Having said that, he suddenly paused.

"Ah, no, I should say... the Kazekage now."

Jiraiya: "???"

There was so much information in the other party's words that Jiraiya's brain was unable to process it for a while.

'A village built on a puppet??'

'Gathering resources??'

'In other words, Sunagakure is now a mobile village!?'

'And what's this about a Cult Leader-turned-Kazekage?!'

'This is insane!'

Jiraiya rubbed his temples and spoke after a while, "Fine. Take me to your village."

"Uncle... but..."

The muscular man pointed at the cult application form in Jiraiya's hand, his face scrunched up in hesitation.

It seems like it's saying that if Jiraiya doesn't join the cult, he won't take him to Sunagakure.

This made Jiraiya completely furious.

"You bastard…!"

"Shouldn't you show me your base first before demanding I join?!"

"Also! Stop calling me uncle! You look just as old as I am!"

The muscular man nodded when he heard this, and felt that what the white-haired uncle said made a lot of sense.

The only thing that bothered him was the last sentence.

He puffed up his cheeks like a child and muttered, "But…"

"I'm only twelve years old."

Jiraiya: "???"

'WHAT THE HELL!!!'

'You're taller than me and built like a brick wall!'

'And you're telling me you're only 12 years old!?'

Jiraiya really didn't know what to say. He snorted coldly and let the 1.8-meter-tall 200-pounds 'child' to lead the way.

Thirty minutes later...

Jiraiya saw the moving Sunagakure and stood there in a daze.

'AAHHH!!!'

'WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN THE LAST MONTH?!'

'I had only been drinking in the neighboring Land of Rivers for a month, but why did it feel like a hundred years had passed?'

The current Sunagakure felt utterly alien to him, and there was a sense of weirdness everywhere.

'This was even worse than those muscular men from before!'

Jiraiya felt like he was going crazy.

Suppressing the urge to scream, he followed the 'child' into the so-called New Sunagakure.

The moment he stepped into the village, he immediately found an opportunity to escape from the 'child'.

After all...

There's really no way he's going to join some bullshit cult.

Right now, all he wanted was to figure out what the hell Naruto had done to this village.

As he walked through the streets, the steel statues and the bizarre mechanical prosthetics worn by the villagers made him feel like he'd stepped into another world.

Bang…

Just then, a little girl bumped into him head-on and fell to the ground on the spot.

When Jiraiya saw the little girl in front of him, he suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for some reason.

'What a sweet kid...'

'It's amazing that she can still maintain a normal appearance in such an abnormal village.'

'A rare sight indeed…'

"Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine."

The little girl smiled sweetly, which made Jiraiya's heart ache.

'Such a good child has to suffer the cruelty of this crazy village...'

'What on earth are Sunagakure's higher-ups doing?'

"Thank you, uncle."

The little girl bowed in thanks, showering him with praise.

It made Jiraiya feel a little embarrassed.

He scratched his head and laughed, "Hahahahaha!"

"Be more careful next time, kid."

"Uncle, can you tell me your name?"

"I want to thank you properly."

Hearing the little girl say this, Jiraiya waved his hands to refuse.

Although he was usually thick-skinned, he couldn't bring himself to accept gratitude from a child.

"Uncle, can you write your name here?"

The little girl smiled innocently and handed Jiraiya a pen and paper.

Jiraiya took it with a smile and was about to write his name on it, but when he saw the content above, his expression froze instantly.

Because he saw it again...

[Mechanicus Cult Membership Application Form]