"This one's just between us, alright? Don't go spreading it."Natsume Yō scratched the back of his head, narrowing his eyes with a crooked grin.
He didn't even know why he'd answered Mizuki Chinatsu's question so honestly. If it had been Chiba instead, he probably wouldn't have said a word.
"Mhm! Got it. Our little secret—just you and me."Chinatsu nodded sweetly, eyes bright with the faintest trace of happiness.
"C'mon. We don't have much time left to hunt down that scroll.""Right!"
She followed behind him as they made their way toward the Forest of Death's exit.
Ten minutes later.
"Hand over the scroll, and I'll let you keep your life."Yō's voice was glacial, his eyes dead cold as they locked onto the Sand ninja in front of him. Just hearing that tone was enough to make anyone's spine shiver.
They were barely seven hundred meters from the exit when the ambush happened. The Sand shinobi had been lying in wait among the trees, ready to strike and steal their scroll. But instead, Yō had turned the tables—now it was the Sand ninja whose life hung by a thread.
"Damn it…"And as it happened, the unlucky Sand shinobi was the very same one who'd mocked Yō back before the written exam.
"Well, what do you know? Tables turn fast, don't they? Looks like you're the one caught in my hands now."Yō rifled through his pouch, pulling out the stolen scroll—exactly the one Mizuki Chinatsu needed. With that, her Heaven and Earth set was complete. She now had her ticket to pass.
The Sand ninja's face twisted with fury. He wanted nothing more than to slap that smug grin off Yō's face, but with his life dangling in Yō's grasp, he didn't dare make a move.
"Pray you're luckier next time."Without giving him a chance to reply, Yō chopped the side of his neck with a clean strike, knocking him unconscious.
"Let's go. Who knows—maybe we'll meet him again as allies on the battlefield someday."Yō tossed the scroll to Chinatsu, already walking toward the exit without a backward glance.
Then he paused. "…Ah, almost forgot. Mind if I ask your name?"
"I'm Mizuki Chinatsu. Easy enough to remember, right?"She smiled wide, eyes curving into crescents, hands clasped behind her back. A breeze lifted her hair, strands dancing freely. For a moment, the whole forest dimmed, leaving only her figure illuminated—like a spirit of the wind.
That image burned itself into Yō's memory, never to fade.
Strictly speaking, Chinatsu wasn't the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Among the ones he'd met, her looks were only average. But there was something different about her—an aura that made people relax around her, that drew the eyes back again and again.
"Got it."Yō waved lightly, then spun on his heel and slipped away in a rush, vanishing from sight as if afraid to linger.
"…I wish this moment could've lasted forever. But, it's just a dream."Chinatsu sighed softly, then tightened her fists and whispered to herself:
"Mizuki Chinatsu, you've got this. One day, you'll become a kunoichi as great as Lady Tsunade, and your name will shine across the shinobi world!"