Pearlescent

It has been five days now. Five days of constant, steady travel. The time travelling trio’s physical condition has improved a lot during that time, although they are still not back at their peak performance and Kurama is still deep asleep.

As they finally reach the northeastern border of the Land of Fire, the terrain begins to change. The thick forests are starting to thin out and the view of the mountainous geography characteristic of the northern area of the continent can be seen at the horizon.

As they move forward, Naruto speaks. “Ume, how long ‘till we get there?”

Sakura thinks for a short while before answering. “At least another day, at our current pace.”

Hinata looks curious. “Um… How exactly are we going to find the target?”

The pink-haired woman answers. “The only piece of information we have is that he is somewhere between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, so we will look around Hot Water and Frost. He will hopefully be in one of those two countries. Naruto can use his shadow clones to look for information while we stick together. We need to be fast. I’m sure we’re not the only ones seeking the bounty.”

The scenery continues to ever so slightly change. Hot springs of varying sizes can occasionally be seen. The air is warm and humid during the peak of the Sun, but considerably cold during the night and early morning. Many tourist towns can be found in quick succession along the road. The trio has finally reached the Land of Hot Water.

Hinata looks at he sky. “It’s getting late…”

Sakura nods. “We should find somewhere safe and rest. Tomorrow, we will see if we can find any leads on the target.”

Naruto agrees. “Sounds good to me.”

The three find a rather large inn. It’s on the slightly more expensive side, so it’s definitely meant for tourists, but they can afford its prices with their budget. They’re not staying very long anyways. Besides, it’s certainly better than freezing to death. The Land of Hot Water's temperature is, ironically, unforgivingly cold at night, and even during the day, it’s not really warm as much as it is pleasantly chilly. As Naruto finishes setting up some privacy seals around the room, Sakura stares at her clothing. “We need some clothes for low temperatures…”

Naruto places down the last privacy tag on the wall and sits down on the floor. “So, tomorrow I have to make two hundred clones and let them see if they can find any leads?”

Sakura nods. “Yes, preferably have them use transformation jutsu, so they will look more like regular civilians. Also, I thought you could make over a thousand clones…”

Naruto thinks for a second before replying. “Usually, yeah. It would take way over three thousand shadow clones to empty my chakra reserves, and that’s not counting Kurama’s chakra. But I’m still weak from our jump in time.”

Sakura sounds somewhat bewildered that Naruto thinks he still is weak. Weakened, yes. But definitely not weak. She decides to not vocalize her mild annoyance too much. “Well, two hundred clones is still an obscenely high amount, so we should be fine.”

Hinata, who has been silent throughout the entire conversation, speaks up. “What should we do if my clan comes after me? I remember reading some old reports of the Hyuuga clan privately sending out hunting squads to find and eliminate rogue Hyuuga.”

The pink-haired woman simply shrugs. “All of us know non-lethal techniques and you did help us find ways to fight against the byakugan. We are stronger than most ninja at the Hidden Leaf. As long as we don’t lower our guard, we should be fine.”

Naruto yawns. “We should get some sleep.” He moves towards one of the beds. “G’night.” He throws himself on the bed and instantly falls asleep.

It’s morning and the trio is just waking up. They quickly eat breakfast before going to a more secluded location. away from the city and hidden behind quite a few trees. Naruto does the multi shadow clones handsign and creates around two hundred clones, all of which use a transformation jutsu to not look like clones. Now, the small shadow clone army is comprised of individuals completely different from each other. After that, they all go to different directions, hoping to find anything on Black-Blood Dokumu, leaving only the original Naruto, Hinata and Sakura behind.

Naruto speaks up. “So, what should we do?”

Sakura begins to walk away. “Let’s see if we can find anything in the town we’re at. We should also buy some extra clothing for cold weather.”

The three quickly make their way back to the tourist town.

The time travellers walk around the tourist trap of a town they are currently at, trying to find out anything about the target while Naruto’s clones go around the Land of Hot Water trying to find information on their own. Either the target himself or a lead on him.

However, they aren’t really looking around as much as they are simply exploring the town, as they already investigated it as much as they could in just an hour and half. Now, they can only wait to see if Naruto’s clones find something out. Hopefully, it will all be done within the Land of Hot Water.

Sakura sighs. They aren’t used to the extreme cold of the Land of Frost, so if they have to go there, it has to be because they already know where the target is. “If only the shadow clone jutsu didn’t have such an absurdly high chakra requirement, it would be extremely useful for information-gathering… I really don’t want to spend too much time at the Land of Frost…” She internally shivers from just thinking about the cold.

She then proceeds to reevaluate her thoughts on the shadow clones. “…Then again, it’s for the best that not just anyone is able to summon a small army at will.” Even if the clones poof out of existence after a single somewhat weak hit, it’s best to not underestimate them when they’re capable of also hurting you back and when a thousand of them can be summoned to do so. There aren’t many shinobi that can deal with a thousand enemies at once, even if said enemies can’t handle a single punch.

As she walks down the main road of the town, with Naruto and Hinata following her closely behind, it doesn’t take long for them to find a seemingly nice restaurant that immediately catches a certain blond’s attention. He stops and reads a sign right by the front.

Hinata and Sakura approach the sign. The latter reads the large bold words. “Super Ramen Challenge?” She then proceeds to read the small paragraph below them. “If you are a ramen enthusiast, feel free to challenge our restaurant for twenty thousand ryo. Ten bowls of special ramen, each a different experience. If you manage to finish all the bowls within an hour, you gain forty thousand ryo, if you don’t, we keep the twenty thousand ryo. No refunds or repeat challenges.”

Naruto smiles widely. “Sounds like my kinda game!”

Sakura immediately shoots the idea down. “Na- Nozomi, that is not wise.”

The blond man slumps forward and begins to beg. “Come on! It’s just ramen! And it’s a chance to get an easy twenty thousand ryo!”

Sakura simply continues to coldly shoot down Naruto’s idea. “I don’t doubt your ability to eat ten large bowls of ramen. Far from it, actually. The problem is that we need to be able to be on the move the moment we receive the information we want. If that ’s to happen while you’re eating, we lose money.”

Naruto points his thumb towards himself and smiles, clearly trying to persuade her otherwise. “I can finish it all off quickly, believe it!”

Sakura pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. “Ugh… Okay. Fine. But if we end up losing the ten thousand ryo, I will find a way to make you pay it back. ” She looks rather intimidating, reminding Naruto and Hinata of the fact that Sakura did study under Tsunade herself.

Naruto gulps before going inside the building. It’s rather full, but most people seem to not be eating or drinking much, if anything. Actually, most people are gathered around fourteen different individuals attempting the Super Ramen Challenge. None of the challengers are even in their fifth bowl and they already look like they do not want to see a single ramen noodle again for the rest of their lives.

Naruto, however, isn’t afraid. These people are simply too weak to properly handle somewhat decent amounts of the gods’ gift to mankind that is ramen. The blond walks up to an empty table and sits down, noticing the small metal gong with “Challenge Restaurant” engraved on it. Just as Hinata and Sakura sit down, he beats the gong with the hammer tied to it.

The effect is immediate. All eyes are on them, with whispers ranging from “another fool” to “maybe this one will win” . A waiter comes to the table to confirm the challenge request and then takes the twenty thousand ryo from Naruto. Now, it’s just a matter of waiting.

After not very long, the first bowl finally arrives. It’s definitely larger than an average bowl, but Naruto wasn’t known as someone who ate average-sized bowls back in the day. He smiles widely in excitement. “Alright! This is what I’m talking about!” The other people in the restaurant besides Sakura and Hinata stare at Naruto’s excited expression with disbelief. It seems like the other challengers weren’t as eager as him once they saw the size of the bowls.

As soon as he gets his hands on the chopsticks, the ramen begins to be fiercely devoured by him. It’s a rather standard ramen with rather standard toppings, nothing new or unique to it, but it’s still a classic, timeless flavour.

In, at most , three minutes, the bowl that is about the size of an oversized helmet is completely emptied as Naruto finishes to drink the last few drops of the broth. He doesn ’t look even a little bit phased, as if he hadn’t just ate an amount of ramen that would normally be served to three or four different people. “Not as good as Ichiraku’s, but it’s not bad at all…” The moment he sets down the bowl, another one promptly arrives.

The new arrival is a different ramen than before. While the first was a very standard, but well-prepared, tonkotsu ramen, this one has more red undertones, along with a distinct smell of strong peppers. “Seems like it’s just the previous one but with a lot more heat…”

Fortunately, when it comes to ramen, no spice is enough to stop Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf. He unceremoniously begins to slurp it all down, and after a minute, the ramen was gone, broth and all. The waiter watched it happen with wide eyes. “Was the first bowl just a warm-up?!” He then proceeds quickly break out of his stupor and takes the third bowl to Naruto.

The process repeated for all the next ramen bowls. They all had something different about them. One had an abundance of seafood while another one didn’t have broth but had extra noodles to compensate, all with some different toppings. It certainly kept the game from becoming repetitive and boring.

Now, Naruto has reached the final bowl. “Alright! One more to go!” He doesn’t look even a little bit phased, and everyone, even Hinata and Sakura, stare at him with a “where does all of that go?!” look to their faces. Naruto, however, doesn’t seem to even notice, and simply goes on to start eating the last bowl of ramen.

In a minute and a half, Naruto ends the bowl. The waiter checks his timer and his eyes widen, but he quickly breaks out of his daze and clears his throat before he begins to announce the blond man’s victory. “La- Ladies and gentlemen, this man is the newest winner of the Super Ramen Challenger! He not only finished it within the time limit, but he set a whole new record! Twenty seven minutes and thirty two seconds! Congratulations, young man!”

The trio walks out of the restaurant after managing to convince the manager of the place to not take a picture of him. Naruto has a wide smile on his face. “So, I did do it, didn’t I?”

Sakura looks extremely astonished, still not quite believing what she saw. “How? How are you able to consume so much ramen?”

Naruto doesn’t even register the question. “And I got us an extra twenty thousand ryo! I wasn’t even going at it quickly! I was taking my time.”

Sakura does a double take. “That… That was you taking your time ?!”

Naruto shrugs. “Well, yeah. I wanted to enjoy it. If I just wanted to win the prize without really enjoying the food, I’m pretty sure I could finish each bowl in less than a minute. I really-” Naruto feels the familiar feeling of a shadow clone’s memories being transferred to him. His eyes widen. “Oh, crap…”

Hinata looks concerned at the sudden shift in mood. “What happened?”

He replies. “I know the exact town the target was last seen at.”

Sakura tilts her head in mild confusion. “And? Shouldn’t we be happy that we now know?”

Naruto sighs. “Well, for the past two weeks, he has been reported to be right at the middle of the Land of Frost…”

Sakura then adopts a very similar expression to the one Naruto had a few seconds ago. “Oh, crap…”

Hinata looks rather uneasy. “Yeah. We should get some extra clothing for the cold.”