Chapter 312: Reaching The Destination

Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 312: Reaching The Destination

"Hey, what the hell are you laughing about?!" the bandit shouted at Naruto.

"Hinata, how many are there?" Ino asked.

"Thirty-two. Twenty-one are wielding diverse close-range weapons, and the other eleven are archers. Four of them are situated a bit further away from the rock formation, likely to shoot at anyone who manages to escape the encirclement," Hinata answered.

"Eh?..." The bandits looked at Hinata with shock.

"Who is that girl?"

"Wait, I think the two girls are ninjas."

"The blonde guy looks like a rich fellow… this may be an escort mission."

While the bandits continued to argue among themselves about the current situation, Naruto turned to the two girls.

"They seriously want to rob us…" he said.

"Of course they do. This band of bandits has been giving us some trouble lately. I thought we had dealt with them, but apparently we missed a large part of the band," Ino explained.

"Naruto, don't you have clones running around everywhere? How come you haven't eliminated all the criminals in the area?" Hinata asked.

"My clones are only meant to gather information that could interest me. They won't engage in combat unless it seems necessary. If my clones start hunting down every lawbreaker in the country, there would be little to do for the ninjas of our village."

Ino frowned. "That's true… Naruto's clones could make the rest of us basically useless."

"Then you better don't do anything… I like things the way they are." Hinata didn't want her clan to become obsolete.

An arrow came flying and landed next to their feet.

"That was a warning shot!" the leader of the bandits yelled. "Surrender immediately and we will spare your lives."

"I'll handle this," Naruto said.

"Are you sure? I could eliminate them in a moment if you want me to," Hinata suggested.

Naruto's golden Rinnegan began to shine as he made a gesture with his hand.

The ground shook violently, and the bandits began to scream.

All the boulders and rocks in the entire area floated in the air like helium balloons, along with the bandits themselves.

"Oh… you can also decrease the gravity," Hinata said.

"This is the opposite of what you did the last time to that army, right?" Ino asked.

"Indeed. A decrease in gravity can also be used as a weapon, as you can see." Naruto looked at the bandits as they struggled against their situation.

But there was little they could do. As far as their bodies were concerned, there was no gravity keeping them on the ground, so they just continued flying higher and higher into the sky.

"How far can you send them?" Ino asked.

"Mmm… never really tested this all that much. But I suppose that in theory, they could continue to rise until they leave the atmosphere.

However, that would take an awful amount of time at that speed, and I would need to maintain my concentration for the whole duration," Naruto said.

"You're just going to let them down after a while," Hinata could guess what he intended to do. It was the least strenuous way to kill them. And she knew that Naruto was not going to put much effort into some random bandits.

"That's the idea." Naruto began to walk again.

Ino and Hinata followed at his side, and once they were far away, Naruto canceled his technique.

By this point, the mass of boulders, rocks, and bandits was over five hundred feet in the air, more than enough to kill a group of humans with no special abilities.

"Kinda makes you feel sorry for them. They couldn't even fight back," Hinata commented.

"Don't feel too bad for them. Those guys were quite nasty as bandits go. That's why Lady Tsunade hurried to send a team to eliminate the band the first time," Ino said. "I should write a report as soon as we reach the town."

"You can send it back with one of my clones. That would be faster than any bird," Naruto suggested.

"Right, I didn't think about that." Ino seemed to have something on her mind. "Say, Naruto. Couldn't Hinata and I learn that teleporting jutsu? That would be really handy."

"You want to learn the Flying Thunder God?" Naruto seemed to be considering for a moment. "I suppose I could try to teach you the basic version, the one that requires the formula kunais. But you need to have a high comprehension of seals first."

"That's no problem. I have been studying seals for years already," Ino responded.

"I'm going to pass," Hinata said. "I'm not good with seals. And I have too much on my plate already to spend time trying to improve on that."

It wasn't like Hinata didn't see the benefits of learning that jutsu, but she would have to divert her attention from many important things for years to even have a chance. It just wasn't worth it for her.

"Right… I suppose you have little free time now that you are a mom and the leader of the clan," Ino said.

The group continued to follow the road, and since they didn't encounter any more trouble on the way, they were able to reach the small town with the hot springs by the time the sun was starting to come down.

"We did have to run a bit at the end, but we made it!" Ino said with excitement. She enjoyed the journey but was glad to finally have arrived.

"The hotel where I booked the room is at the end of this road, I believe," Hinata commented.

"You didn't tell me that you booked a room for us," Ino pointed out.

"This town is in the middle of nowhere… I doubt they would have that many people," Naruto said.

"Right." Ino looked around. There were several shops and houses on the sides of the main street, but overall, it appeared to be a very quiet place.

The locals looked at them as they passed, with eyes filled with curiosity.

"Maybe. But I wanted to make sure we had enough intimacy," Hinata said. "So I booked the whole hotel for us."

"Hold on, what?!" Ino exclaimed. "How much did you spend?!"

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