Peichuan Harbor.
A port city located on the western side of the Land of Water. Its unique geographical proximity to the Land of Fire attracts countless merchants traveling between the two nations. Wealthy businessmen spend money like water in entertainment venues, fueling an unprecedented boom in the leisure industry and attracting massive crowds of tourists. Wealthy politicians gather here, transforming what was once a tiny fishing village into the Land of Water's most vital transportation hub.
As the saying goes, where there is light, there is shadow.
The convenience of transportation makes this a den of dragons and snakes. While the city center is stabilized by official Land of Water forces, the surrounding slums have become gathering grounds for the gokudō.
"Hey! Old hag, where's that 'good stuff' you talked about?"
Dressed in a flashy Sukajan jacket, a yellow-haired man named Kenjiro leaned back, a toothpick dangling from his mouth, hunched over to reveal the blue tattoos on his arms. Seeing the fearful looks of the pedestrians, he smugly tilted his neck, revealing a row of yellow teeth.
"Boss, she's right in my shop. Beautiful beyond words; as you say, she is absolutely top-tier goods."
An old woman in plain clothes nearby smiled flatteringly, turning a deaf ear to Kenjiro's rude tone. Kenjiro was the boss of the nearby blocks; this whole area belonged to him. Let alone cursing her, even if he slapped her, she would have to take it with a smile for the sake of her noodle stall.
Kenjiro gave a disdainful click of his tongue. These hicks from the slums were short-sighted. To them, "top-tier" might barely be mid-tier. Usually, he couldn't even find a clean girl to harass on the streets. It wasn't until he hung out with a Big Boss once that he learned what "top-tier" truly looked like. Thinking of the red-light district in the city center, Kenjiro smacked his lips on the toothpick as if he could taste a unique feminine fragrance.
A moment later.
The old woman led Kenjiro to her ramen stall. It was just past noon, the scorching sun baking the air, and there was only one figure at the stall.
"We're here, Boss. Right there!" The old woman pointed at the girl sitting at the stall, head down, eating noodles.
Without her pointing, Kenjiro had already seen her. The girl had striking silver-grey long hair draped over her shoulders. Her small frame was wrapped in a small white cloak; sitting on the stool, she stood less than 1.5 meters tall. Her palm-sized face was so white it seemed to glow, without a single blemish. Her eyes were covered by a cloth, obscuring them, but the sight of her delicate nose and pink lips was enough to judge her true beauty.
An absolute masterpiece.
"A pity she's so young and disabled," the old woman said cautiously, watching Kenjiro's face. She hadn't collected enough protection money this month; to sell this girl, she intentionally avoided mentioning too many flaws.
"What the hell do you know!" Kenjiro pushed the old woman aside and stepped forward, circling the stall to examine the girl closely.
A rare silver-grey haired beauty, a loli with a unique blindfold look. If he brought her to the Big Boss for a little "training" and then sold her to those perverted lolicon tycoons in the city center...
I'm going to fly!! Kenjiro was already fantasizing about his dream life after gaining the Big Boss's favor.
"Ma'am, another bowl."
The girl fished out the last strand of ramen, drank the soup base with a loud gulp, patted her stomach, and turned to call out to the old woman.
"Little sister, what's so good about this ramen?" Kenjiro, more satisfied the more he looked, could no longer restrain himself and rushed forward. "How about I treat you to some meat?"
"Oh? Okay." The girl smiled with delight. The corners of her mouth curved into crescents, like a ragdoll cat that had finally found a dried fish.
Kenjiro grinned and spat out his toothpick. Looking at the girl who had picked up her bag and blind cane to stand obediently before him, he felt that the heavens had personally sent him a money tree. She even brought her own bundle and a stick. Perfect. Use the stick to knock her out, put her in the bundle, and carry her away. Simple.
"Boss, about my fee for this month..." The old woman couldn't help but remind him as he was about to lead the girl away.
"I'll give you a three-day extension." Ignoring the old woman's pale face, Kenjiro dropped the cold words and impatiently grabbed the girl's cane, leading her toward a deserted alley on the east side of the stall.
Inside the alley. Seeing there was no one around, Kenjiro dropped the act and reached out to snatch the cane from the girl's hand.
One pull. It didn't budge. He gripped it with both hands and pulled again, but the cane seemed to have taken root in the girl's hand. Kenjiro used all his strength, but the cane remained motionless.
?
A question mark slowly appeared in Kenjiro's mind. Looking at the still-smiling blind girl, his face quickly shifted from impatience to a deathly pale.
Soon, the sound of clubbing and a man's screams echoed through the deserted alley. Then, silence.
Tump, tump! Hinami walked out of the alley leaning on her blood-red blind cane. Behind her, in the sewage, a mess of crimson meat was spread thin. To get information, local thugs were truly the best. Thanks to a "cooperative" Kenjiro, the maps, factions, and troubles to avoid near Peichuan Harbor were now crystal clear.
Being a newcomer, she didn't want to cause trouble in this city. After all, this was just a transit point; the final goal was to reach Konoha in the Land of Fire as quickly as possible.
"Ma'am, another bowl of ramen."
Hinami returned to the stall and put her cane and bundle back in their original places.
"Coming right... up..." The old woman, who was looking down cleaning dishes, looked up with a smile that instantly froze into terror. "You... you... he..."
The old woman peered toward the distant alley but saw no one. In front of her was an unharmed Hinami, and on the metal tip at the base of her cane was a smear of bright red meat. The old woman swallowed hard, her legs shaking like sieves.
"Could you be a bit faster? I'm in a hurry."
Facing Hinami's urge, the old woman trembled. Ignoring her panic, she quickly prepared the noodles and placed them before Hinami with shaking hands. "M-Miss, I didn't mean... please spare me!" The old woman stammered, unable to form a sentence, eventually breaking into tears and begging for mercy.
Hinami picked up the noodles and blew on them. She made no comment on the old woman's behavior. In a chaotic world, the weak must embrace cruelty to survive; she was the same, and so was this woman. Hinami had no intention of criticizing it.
"Slurp... I killed that guy. If you talk too much, it will be troublesome for me," Hinami said around a mouthful of noodles.
Hearing this, the old woman knelt directly on the ground, crying and promising, "I will never tell anyone. I swear! Please!!"
Thud, thud, thud... Hinami continued eating, ignoring the woman kowtowing on the ground. The delicious broth brought a lazy warmth, slowly washing away the fatigue from her battle with the Mist Anbu.
"Sob... sob..."
Constant muffled whimpering came from beneath her feet. Hinami put down the empty bowl and glanced to the side. The old woman was looking at her pleadingly, her face covered in tears of pain. As she opened her mouth, blood overflowed; her tongue was a bloody mess.
She had actually bitten off her own tongue.
"Mmph, mmph..." Thump, thump, thump... The old woman continued to slam her head against the ground until her forehead was bloodied.
"Cruel to others, and cruel to yourself..." Hinami packed her things and stood up. "If I ever have a chance to return to the Land of Water, I'll come here for noodles again."
With that, she didn't look back at the woman still kowtowing. Her Byakugan scanned the ragged civilians watching from a distance, and Hinami turned toward the inner city.
The Red-Light District. The first floor of the Golden Glow Casino.
Square marble pillars supported a golden hall. From the ceiling, countless chandeliers hung, making the hall glitter brilliantly. The gambling tables marked with "Sic Bo" were packed with gamblers.
"Triple! Triple! Triple!"
"It hit! It actually hit! A full 150 times payout!"
"How many times is this now?"
The onlookers roared with excitement, their eyes turning green as they watched the mountain of chips being pushed across the table.
The third time.
The dealer, wearing a white shirt and black vest with a face mask, wiped sweat from his forehead. Looking at the blind girl in the small cloak, a deep fear made him tremble. Three consecutive 150-time payouts. The chips in front of the girl had piled into a mountain; a rough calculation put it at over 200 million. Losing this much money for the casino... the Big Boss would surely throw him into the sea to feed the sharks! It was over. All over.
"Keep going! Are you going to open it or not?"
The gamblers surrounding the table shouted, clutching their chips and trying to squeeze inside. This girl had only played three times; those who wanted to follow suit hadn't even had time to exchange their chips. Now that they were ready, they urged the hesitating dealer. If the Big Boss arrived, this money-making opportunity would vanish.
"Open it!"
"Yeah, don't be a coward."
The crowd grew rowdier. The dealer, looking at the surging crowd and the blind girl sitting quietly sipping her drink, didn't dare open another round. Ignoring the shouts, he stayed silent and stopped shaking the cup, waiting for the Big Boss to arrive.
Hinami took a sip of the unknown fruit juice in her cup; the sweet and sour taste gave her a brief illusion of being back in her previous life. The dealer's uncooperative attitude didn't bother her. Everyone's a worker; they could understand each other. As a "Five-Good Youth" born under the Red Flag, she naturally possessed superior manners; it was just that the environment of the Mist and the Land of Water was too harsh for her virtues to shine.
While sipping her juice, Hinami looked at the mountain of chips, feeling satisfied. After leaving the slums, she had come straight to the casino. Before she had the power to dominate the shinobi world, she likely wouldn't return to the Land of Water; before leaving, she had to make a fortune using her Byakugan. Konoha, where she would live in the future, was a relatively peaceful place. Without invincible power, money was often more useful than violence there. Of course, in the Land of Water, violence was still quite effective.
Hinami's Byakugan, hidden under her blindfold, had been activated long ago. In her transparent vision, three faint chakra reactions entered her sight. There were only three ninjas in the entire casino. Their chakra reactions were extremely weak, almost invisible. At first, she didn't dare be careless, scanning them repeatedly until she had observed every inch, only to find they truly had nothing special about them.
Then it dawned on her. Having encountered so many "ghosts" in the Mist, her perception of ninjas was a bit skewed. In reality, there was a massive gulf between the ninjas of the Five Great Villages and rogue ninjas, and Mist ninjas were the elite of the elite. To be selected as Mist Anbu from among those elites was the pinnacle. It would be absurd if the entire ninja population consisted of experts like Kirigarasu and Ketsuken.
Tap, tap, tap... While Hinami was thinking, the sound of footsteps approached.
"Make way! Make way!"
Tall bodyguards in matching black suits pushed aside the onlookers, forming a wall and clearing a path from the door to Hinami's table. A pot-bellied Big Boss, surrounded by bodyguards, walked toward her. The crowd fell silent, watching this famous Peichuan mogul from behind the wall of guards.
He's the Big Boss? Hinami examined the mob leader through her blindfold. How to put it... he was completely different from the bosses in movies from her past life. His face wasn't fierce; his chubby face actually carried a strange sort of honesty. He looked more like a businessman than a yakuza.
"This... Miss..."
Boss Okumura looked at the blind girl whose feet didn't even touch the floor as she sat sipping juice, and the polite greetings he usually used felt stuck in his throat.
"I don't like that title," Hinami said slowly, crushing the empty metal cup in her hand into the shape of a cute crow and placing it on the table.
Boss Okumura's eyes widened as he thought, Just as I suspected. He turned back to look at his three ninja bodyguards. All three shook their heads in unison. They absolutely could not crush metal into clay without using Ninjutsu.
Useless trash! Every one of them! Boss Okumura rolled his eyes and turned back with a beaming smile. "My apologies! I am Okumura Fumio. How may I serve you?" His attitude became increasingly respectful. Having witnessed the true power of a ninja just a few days ago, he was now filled with dread toward all of them.
"Shall we talk upstairs?"
"Upstairs, please." Boss Okumura gestured with a low posture.
Hinami hopped off the chair and walked upstairs with her cane. The mountain of chips remained on the table, ignored. Outside the wall of guards, the crowd expecting a confrontation was flabbergasted. Surprised, they began to speculate wildly—that the girl was a VIP from the Land of Fire, or the youngest daughter of the Land of Water's Daimyō, and so on. Someone tried to snatch a chip while she was gone, only to be pinned to the table by a guard like a pig for slaughter.
None of this concerned Hinami. They entered a private room on the second floor. Boss Okumura sat across from Hinami with his three remaining bodyguards.
"Master Ninja, what are your orders?"
"Three things." Hinami held up three fingers.
Boss Okumura no longer treated her as a mere blind girl, assuming a posture of rapt attention.
"Exchange the chips for cash; I'll be taking it with me."
"Of course, naturally." Boss Okumura nodded. The bodyguards behind him smirked where he couldn't see; they had never seen their boss respect the rules so much.
"A boat ticket to the Land of Fire."
"Any specific requirements?"
"Safe and fast."
"Then the Hope is the only choice. It's a merchant ship that frequently travels between our two nations. The route is established, and there are ninja guards on board, so no fear of pirates."
"You handle it. Just make it fast."
Boss Okumura turned to the guard behind him. "Yuta, go now."
"Yes, sir." The guard wiped his smile and left.
Hinami was satisfied with Boss Okumura's pragmatism and efficiency.
"If you're going to the Land of Fire, should we exchange your winnings into their currency? It would be more convenient," Boss Okumura asked thoughtfully.
Looking at the round Boss Okumura, despite knowing he was likely a criminal, Hinami found him more and more agreeable. No wonder he was the boss.
"Good. Finally, a place to stay."
"The third floor of the casino is a hotel; I'll arrange the best suite for you."
"Fine. Deduct the ticket and accommodation from my winnings. Oh, and deduct an extra million."
"May I ask why?" Boss Okumura was confused.
"I killed a guy named Kenjiro under you today. Consider it his life-money."
"I... you're too generous." Boss Okumura didn't even know who Kenjiro was—he had plenty of yakuza under him—but he laughed awkwardly.
"No matter." Hinami picked up her cane and stood up, having settled the trouble. The slums were full of gossip; she never expected that decisive old woman to keep her secret forever.