"Those salt smugglers will be back in an instant, If I were you I would bolt the door right away." A rough but concerned voice spoke from behind. Naruto turned around only to see an imposing man with most of his face covered by bandages and a large saber tied behind his back.

Oh boy! That definitely brought back some memories.

"They can bring all the reinforcements they want to, result will be same." Naruto snorted in laughter.

"Your skills are truly great young brother, May I know the good name of your teacher?"

Naruto let out a sigh. From the reaction he got when he told worldly knowledgeable adults about his actual factual home, he knew better to not talk about it.

"Actually...he never bothered to tell me and it has been a long time since he left me here."

"That's a shame." The man nodded in disapproval.

"Sir, aren't you going to follow code of brotherhood and help him out?" Xiaobao decided to jump into the conversation.

Both the man and Naruto burst out in a fit of laughter , mixed with several coughs on the man's side, He said with a laugh , "Me and him must hold code of brotherhood?"

"Why not?" the little boy replied, "Good friends enjoy blessings and endure misfortune together."

"Don't mind him, he is a huge fan of the Ming Dynasty's 'Legend of Heroic Deeds', and all kinds of heroic tales." Naruto chuckled, slightly tapping onto the younger boy's shoulders.

The man laughed aloud and said, "Those words are well said. In Jiang hu I have heard it mentioned a thousand times, the fellows who enjoying blessing together seem to be many, but I haven't seen too many of those who endure difficulties together. Let's go!"

Naruto and Xiaobao looked at each other with a wide grin before walking towards the man and opening the door for him. When the people saw the trio walking together, they were startled and scrambled away from them.

"Xiaobao, Huli" Their mother called out, "Where are you going?"

"Just for a little sightseeing with this friend," Naruto replied, " we will be back soon "

"This friend! Ha ha … now I have become your friend!" the man said with a laugh.

"Don't go," their mother called out once again, "You must quickly hide." Both of them laughed and walked away from the hall in big strides.

...xxxxxx...xxxxxx...xxxxxx...

Unbeknownst to both his adopted brother and new friend, Naruto had already send a few shadow clones to scout for trouble and protect his aunt if those hooligans ever tried to harm her. Thankfully no one really knew about his ability of creating solid dopplegangers, not even his family, Rasengan was the only thing he mostly used in fights and even that was enough to make him some sort of legend in his own town. A few salt smugglers were indeed waiting for them outside but his shadow clones made a quick work of them, those weakling weren't even strong enough to be Gatou's thugs. When the bandaged man introduced himself as Mao Shiba, Naruto could see that his brother was half tempted to report him and claim the prize money, which was arguably more than enough for all three of them to last a lifetime. But decided against this as that would leave them no one to travel with. And he also sort of thought this as his chance of becoming a hero. Which meant a lot for someone born and brought up in a brothel.

One day they reached Beijing, by the time they entered the city, it was already afternoon. Mao Shiba warned Wei brothers to be careful in everything they say or do, it was the capital, government's eyes and ears were numerous, they should not expose any mistake.

"What mistake?" Wei Xiaobao said, "You are the one who should not expose any mistake. Aren't you here to challenge Oboi to a duel? Just go out and find him."

Mao Shiba let out a forced laugh , unable to answer right away. When he said he was going to find Oboi and challenge him the other day, he wasn't exactly in a right state of mind. Despite being a hot-headed and crude warrior, he had been wandering the Martial world for more than twenty years, how could he not know that Oboi was an important official who commanded no less than tens of thousands of men? How could he agree to have a martial art competition with an ordinary fugitive like him? His own martial art skill was barely around second class and he couldn't use his inner strength well due to the injuries he received while breaking out of the prison , if Oboi was indeed the Qin emperor's number one warrior, most likely Mao Shiba was not Oboi's match. However he simply wanted to boast in front of these kids, hopefully taking the whiskered one as his disciple cause undoubtedly he had limitless potential and could turn out to be a great hero in the future. And as far as his brother was concerned, he was simply going to take him strolling around the capital for half a month, then send him back to his mother.

"I remember hearing some rumors about him while running some errands for a good uncle who used to deliver meat in the palace" Naruto replied in a serious tone " This person Obai has reached the highest rank of officialdom. In Beijing, he is inferior only to the Emperor and Empress Dowager. that he is able to kill a wild bull with a simple palm strike , that he is able to kick tigers and leopard , some even he can stop bunch of rampaging rhinos with a mere fraction of his strength."

"People always exaggerate things. But I refuse to accept without seeing those feats myself." Mao scoffed haughtily.

"Even if we wait in capital for ten years, we might not necessarily be able to see him, how can you have a duel with him?" Naruto let out a sigh

"In a very slim chance he agreed to have a duel, I would definitely stake his old life to fight him." Mao responded in a firm tone

"Ha! finally a fight between two men from martial world, I have been dying to see that for the longest time." Xiaobao jumped in excitement , while Naruto just let out a mild chuckle as their new friend led them towards a small wine shop in the western part of the city.

It seems that many people don't know about Jin Young's Duke of Mt Deer which is kind of a shame. I have more than 10 favs and follows but I dunno if even the only one who reviewed about this fic knows about source material. While I don't care that much about reviews I am not sure about continuing the story if people don't know what the hell I am talking about.

I will wait and watch what happens after this chapter.

Ta da, take care and stay healthy