Chapter 5

A few days after Sasuke left Hargeon, he arrived at the second town.

It's a place with no station, so anyone who boarded a train to travel would have easily missed it.

And it's not like Sasuke had anything against the train, in fact, he never rode one before, the Elemental Nation didn't have it.

Nowadays, he spent most of his time in nature, wandering from one place to place, camping when it's time to rest, and hunting when he's hungry. So, even when there was a convenient meant to travel, he still preferred to walk; if he required to arrive at a certain location promptly, he would just summon his eagle and fly.

Besides, staying away from the crowds and having a lot of solitude moments in nature gave him a peaceful mind, making it easier to study and practice, it gave him a lot of time to ponder too.

Of course, Sasuke would have visited a village, a town, and sometimes even a city once a while, whether he had a business or he was simply strolling.

It's been several months since he left Konoha, back when he defected to Orochimaru, he didn't miss it a single bit, now he's kinda feeling homesick.

What did he miss though? There was nothing left in Konoha for him except memories, maybe a few friends like Naruto and Sakura, but other than that, he didn't have other reasons to get back.

As long as that dumbass still around, Konoha would always have its protector, and he wouldn't easily die anyway, Sasuke knew it at best.

Sasuke looked for an inn as he arrived at the town by night, it's a small area; they only have two inns.

"Welcome~"

As he entered the building, he was greeted by a middle-aged man, standing behind the brownish counter, he had this big mustache with a little curl on the side.

"For how many nights?"

"1"

"Five jewels."

Sasuke wrinkled his eyebrows, not because it was expensive but actually cheap, most hotels in Hargeon were around 10-12 jewels regular, the cheapest was 7-8 jewels.

Sasuke discarded his thought and paid the middle-aged man, then he was delivered to his room. While on the way, Sasuke noticed the inn was mostly empty.

Before going to the inn, he also saw a couple of buildings and houses seemingly were abandoned, he wondered what happened?

As for the room he stayed, it was not anything fancy, but clean and tidy, the smell of the room was also nice, however, the wall and floor felt cold, it looked like it's been a while since anyone had slept in the room.

"There will be free breakfast, however, lunch or dinner requires an extra charge," the man said.

Looking at the condition of the business, which didn't look promising, this middle-aged man still offered free breakfast? However, Sasuke thought it probably would be nothing more than a single piece of bread and a glass of water, it was already enough for him, more than enough in fact.

But he was wrong, by the morning, a young lady knocked on his door and delivered not just a basket full of bread, but also sausage, egg, vegetable, and fruit. As for the drink, it was milk, one big glass of milk, enough for two.

"Are you guys running a business or a charity?" Sasuke couldn't help but ask.

"What do you mean, sir?" the young lady tilted her head.

"Aren't this a bit too much for a free while there are only a few customers around? Or maybe this a special day?"

"Nothing special, sir, this is how it just looks like," she smiled.

"How much these foods cost you?"

"None, sir, the bread, fruits, and vegetables are from our garden, while the milk, sausage, and egg are from our ranch..."

"I see..." Sasuke thought, then he said, "then you must have profited a lot from there."

"It's a small garden and ranch, sir, specifically built to serve the customers of the inn."

"How much for it for lunch and dinner?"

The young lady stated the price, which shockingly, even cheaper than the regular hotel in the Elemental Nation, they basically took no profit from the food's service.

"Why you are doing this? Especially when there is no much customer?" Sasuke complicatedly looked at the young lady.

The lady simply smiled, she said, "We are running an inn sir, not a restaurant, so we only take profit from the people who used our beds and rooms, the money from the food is used to maintain our garden and ranch."

After that, the lady excused herself and when to the next room, greeting another guest to give the free luxurious breakfast.

Sasuke brought inside his breakfast and started eating them, his mind couldn't take off the behavior of the young lady.

"So nice..." he mumbled as he sipped on a big glass of milk, felt fresh and tasteful.

...

A few hours later, Sasuke went out and strolled around the town, there were a few more abandoned buildings and homes, it felt like a dying place.

"Thank you for the cooperation, I hope this compensation can bring your business more luck in the future..."

As Sasuke drew near a clothing shop, a man dressed in a neat shirt walked out, accompanied by another man with weird pointy hair.

"Of course, this is even a bit too much to open my shop in other places, and I hope your project will be smooth..." the pointy hair said, and the two men shook hands, their faces were gleaming with soothing aura.

After the neat man separated from the pointy hair, he walked past Sasuke's side, and said, "Cheap fool."

Sasuke turned his face to look at him, however, the man had been two steps away from him, so he could only look at his back and the man didn't notice him.

Sasuke's eyebrows knitted a little, but he didn't think much of it and went to the forest.

Even at the height of his current ability, Sasuke never stopped training; he widened his variety of lightning techniques, fire techniques, the utilization of genjutsu, the prowess of taijutsu, the efficiency of using Sharingan, especially the Rinnegan, which required a surmount of chakra to use.

Thankfully, he hadn't met any enemy that required him to use Rinnegan since Kaguya, there were so many secret abilities of Rinnegan that Sasuke hadn't yet mastered.

For example, he knew with Rinnegan, he could actually distort space and performed space-shift, changing his position with his target whether it was human, projectile, even energy, as long as they crossed the space, Sasuke could shift his position with them.

With Rinnegan, he could also control the gravity, but it spends too much chakra, however, if he could master it, he could do much with it.

His current Taijutsu had been stagnant, there were no people with enough speed and skill to ask for a sparing, at least not within his journey these days.

In any case, it didn't change the fact he would still train his Taijutsu, with the best method currently available, that was using clone.

By the time he had done training, it was afternoon, he went out of the forest and intended to return to the inn.

"Get out!"

As soon as he arrived, he heard the owner of the inn, the man with a mustache, standing in front of his building with someone in front of him, the previous neat guy.

"Mr. Bardock, please think carefully, your neighbors and fellow townfolks have sold their building to me, there are few people left, including you," the neat guy calmly said, "look, I am willing to pay whatever price you offer, just name it."

"Even with your life, I won't sell my place, now leave my establishment before I hit you!" the owner actually had a broom in his hand.

"Tch!" the neat guy twitched his lips, said while sneering, "no one in this world can resist temptation, sooner or later, you will sell your place, one way or another."

After that, the neat guy left.

The owner which called Mr. Bardock sighed, he leaned exhaustedly on his broom, then shifting his gaze to the inn, full of longing and reminiscent.

"Your friend?" Sasuke walked toward him, the corner of his lips curled a little.

"More like an ex-girlfriend," Mr. Bardock laughed, "how about it, mister? Do you want lunch? I will tell my daughter to cook some."

"That will be a good idea, however, I am paying this time."

Mr. Bardock's laughter even more boisterous, he repeatedly said 'sure', 'sure' while escorting Sasuke back inside the building.

...

Sasuke didn't eat in his room but decided to eat at the lounge, there were few customers with him.

"Mister, you seem like a tough guy, you're a mage?" Mr. Bardock said.

"No."

"But you do know a little bit about something, right?"

Sasuke simply nodded.

"Well, my friend from the next town seemingly had trouble, there was a rampaging monster suddenly cause trouble, he said the monster was big and it came out of nowhere, destroying houses and farms, wouldn't you have a look? I promise you free lunch."

"Slaying monster for a lunch? That sounds like a deal..." Sasuke chuckled.

"I bet their mayor would also willing to pay for the trouble," Mr, Bardock shrugged.

"Shouldn't they be requesting help from Magic Guild or something?"

"I think they had, but who knows, maybe they haven't, or maybe they did, but if you can slay the monster first, the reward ought for you to reap, right? First come first serve."

Sasuke thought for a while, a reward wasn't interesting to him, but if the town was indeed in a trouble, then maybe his help was needed.

"Alright, tell me about the town..."

As Sasuke conversed with Mr. Bardock, somewhere far, a red-haired girl clad in armor just stepped down from the train.