Rasa and Shuang Uchiha quickly crossed that beautiful Rose Street.
Half an hour later, they arrived at the outskirts of Yugakure, the Village Hidden in Hot Water.
"It's incredibly lax—even more so than when I came here twenty years ago."
Looking at the Yugakure ninjas who were guarding the village gate but showed no sign of vigilance at all.
Instead, they were sitting cross-legged on the ground, casually playing cards and chatting.
Shuang Uchiha frowned slightly and let out a soft sigh.
Rasa glanced at the Yugakure ninjas playing cards on the ground for a few moments.
Then he turned his gaze toward the civilians and ninjas occasionally entering and exiting the village gate.
Although this place was known as the "Village That Forgot War."
But this forgetfulness was far too thorough, wasn't it?
Even in Konoha during Naruto's era in the original story, after many years of peace-induced relaxation.
They would still perform a relatively detailed inspection of the civilians coming and going.
Yet Yugakure didn't even conduct a basic search, allowing anyone to enter and exit at will.
One had to remember that it had only been six months since the end of the Third Great Ninja War.
There were still many rogue ninjas wandering through various small nations.
If a rogue Chunin were to enter and go on a rampage, what would they do?
Rasa and Shuang Uchiha exchanged a glance and continued to walk into the village openly, hand in hand.
Just as Rasa expected.
Those few Yugakure ninjas sitting at the gate, playing cards and chatting.
They only took a few extra looks at Shuang Uchiha, marveling at her lethal beauty.
Then they went back to their cards, not even bothering to ask a single superficial question.
After entering Yugakure, Rasa watched the people in various clothes casually shopping and chatting.
That bustling and peaceful atmosphere made his eyes glaze over for a moment.
It was as if he had returned to a modern society.
Even the residents of Konoha, which was hailed as the most peaceful village.
In their daily lives, they would more or less reveal a hint of vigilance toward strangers, a survival instinct honed by years of war.
Not to mention the civilians of Sunagakure, who had lived in a harsh environment for decades, practicing the law of survival of the fittest.
A Sunagakure civilian could fight a small nation's daimyo's army to a standstill with just a few days of basic training.
However, the civilians living in Yugakure.
Didn't show the slightest hint of suspicion toward strangers, nor did they have any worry about the future.
When they saw the two of them, they only smiled with overwhelming kindness.
"Rasa, something is wrong..."
Just as Rasa was lost in thought, Shuang Uchiha whispered a reminder in a voice only the two of them could hear.
Hearing Shuang's warning, Rasa ended his contemplation.
He didn't ask further, but simply continued to walk through the crowd with Shuang.
A few minutes later, the two of them walked into an ordinary-looking inn.
Amidst the overly enthusiastic greetings of the innkeeper and the surrounding guests, they booked a room and went inside.
"Alright, it's completely safe here. Tell me what's wrong with the situation."
Rasa closed the door and checked the room for traps or oddities with practiced coordination with Shuang.
After finding no hidden mechanisms or strange things.
Rasa used a Silence Barrier to envelop the entire room.
Then, he sat on the bed and spoke softly.
Shuang Uchiha's beautiful, thin eyebrows were locked tightly together as she stood by the bed, arms crossed under her heavy chest.
"This is your first time in this village, so you might not have noticed the abnormality yet."
"But I have been here before. Twenty years ago, the civilians weren't this 'passionate,' nor was it this harmonious—this harmony is simply excessive."
At this point, a flicker of doubt flashed in Shuang's eyes as she continued:
"I feel like this village exudes a sense of creepiness."
"But if you asked me to point out exactly what is strange, I wouldn't be able to put it into words."
Hearing this, Rasa stood up as well, his brow furrowing slightly.
The people in this village were indeed "enthusiastic" to a fault, and the harmony was unsettling.
And those ninjas standing guard at the gate were truly too much of a joke.
Based on their extremely lax style of conduct.
Any small ninja village in the neighboring countries with even a shred of ambition would surely target them.
Even if the villages of the nearby small nations were, by some miracle, all pacifists.
What about the rogue ninjas and wanderers?
Aside from Sunagakure, Konoha, and Kirigakure.
The other two Great Villages, during that one month of the Third War.
Had quite a few ninjas who defected.
Did none of those rogue ninjas really consider making a move on such a ridiculous place like Yugakure?
But how has Yugakure survived peacefully until now?
Don't tell me they have some powerful master guarding them.
Aside from Hidan, who is currently just a child of a few years old.
Yugakure has never produced any famous powerhouses.
Rasa thought for a while but still couldn't find an answer, so he turned his head and asked:
"Where was the location of the Evil God in your memory?"
"We can just find her and ask her directly to clear up these doubts."
Shuang Uchiha thought for a moment and shook her head, saying:
"After what happened back then, they would definitely have moved the altar to a new, more hidden location."
At this point, Shuang turned her head away somewhat embarrassedly and said:
"When I was young, I was arrogant and looked down on everything."
"I didn't have the patience to search properly, so I just slaughtered my way in until I stumbled into their altar."
Rasa nodded slightly; in that case, Shuang's old method wouldn't work as a reference.
He didn't have any specialized abilities for finding hidden objects either.
So the only option was to find the person most likely to know and perform a hypnotic interrogation.
He spoke softly:
"Let's go find the leader of Yugakure. As the village head, he must know something about this."
After saying this, Rasa opened the window and slipped out directly.
Although Shuang Uchiha was wearing high heels, she also nimbly vaulted out the window without making a sound.
A few minutes later.
Creak!
The opened window suddenly closed itself, making a faint sound that was jarringly loud in the silent room.
At the same time, the teacup Rasa had drunk from suddenly floated into mid-air.
It was as if an invisible person had picked it up, an extremely eerie sight.
The smooth bedding on the bed suddenly dipped slightly, as if someone were sitting on it, enough to make one's skin crawl.
"Hehe, the little female rat from back then has brought back a male rat with her..."
"Let's see what these two little rats are actually capable of."
A voice that was clearly a woman's—ethereal, playful, and filled with amusement—echoed through the empty room.
The ethereal voice seemed to possess an endless magic, plucking at one's heartstrings and making an inexplicable sense of peace surge within the soul.