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Yamada and Watanabe looked at each other, sympathetic expressions appearing on their faces.
Shinji did not speak.
He just looked at those eyes.
"Fine, you can follow."
The girl's eyes lit up.
"Thank you!"
She ran to his side and sat down next to him:
"What is your name?"
"Shinji."
"Shinji-kun!"
She repeated it, then tilted her head to look at him: "You look so impressive. You knocked down that Otogakure Ninja with just one punch earlier."
Shinji didn't respond.
Hinata stood to the side, watching this little girl who had appeared so suddenly.
For some reason, she had a very strange feeling in her heart.
It wasn't wariness, but something else.
But she didn't say anything.
The five of them continued forward.
The little girl was very talkative, chattering non-stop along the way.
"Are you Konoha Ninjas all very united?"
"Hmm... If you encounter danger, will you protect your teammates?"
"I heard Konoha has something called the Will of Fire, what is that?"
Questions were thrown out one after another. Yamada and Watanabe answered casually, and Hinata occasionally replied as well.
"I am from the Hidden Mist Village.
Do you know, our village used to be so scary, called something like the Village Hidden in the Bloody Mist.
But it's better now; Lord Mizukage cleared out all those bad people."
"Yeah."
"Have you seen Lord Mizukage? She is so beautiful. Everyone in our village likes her."
"I have." Shinji said indifferently.
"Really?"
The girl leaned in, her eyes sparkling: "Where did you see her?"
Shinji opened his eyes and looked at her.
Those large eyes were right in front of him. Clear, innocent, untainted by dust.
But he saw what was hidden beneath them.
This was definitely "her."
"In a dream." He said.
The girl said "Oh" and shrank back.
"Then what do you think of her?"
Shinji did not answer.
His mind began to rapidly calculate an escape route.
After walking for about two hours, the sun had already begun to set, and the light was fading.
They found an open space, preparing to rest for the night.
Yamada went to gather firewood, and Watanabe set up a few simple traps nearby. Hinata sat on a rock, rubbing her legs that were sore from walking.
The little girl Ryoko sat next to Shinji, resting her chin in her hands as she looked at him.
"Shinji-kun, you haven't said a word, do you not like me?"
Shinji looked at her.
Those large eyes were right in front of him.
Clear, innocent, untainted by dust.
"No."
He said that, but in his heart, he thought: What is this situation? This is truly lethal.
"Then why do you keep avoiding me?"
She tilted her head: "Since just now, you have been keeping your distance from me."
Shinji didn't speak, but his body tensed up.
The little girl watched him and suddenly smiled.
That smile was different from before.
"You are very wary."
She said: "In the Forest of Death, staying alert is correct."
She paused.
"Especially towards people you don't know."
Hinata was listening from the side, and that uncomfortable feeling in her heart grew stronger.
She stood up and walked to Shinji's side.
"Shinji-kun, she..."
Before she could finish, the little girl turned her head and looked at Hinata.
Those eyes had changed.
Beneath the clear surface, something was surging up.
Very deep. Very heavy.
"Are you his teammate?" She asked.
Hinata was stunned by that gaze and subconsciously took half a step back.
"I, I am from Team 8..."
"You ran here to find him yourself, didn't you."
The little girl interrupted her, her tone carrying something strange:
"Alone, walking in the Forest of Death for a day, just to find him."
Hinata blushed.
"You really like him."
Hinata's face turned even redder, so red it was almost steaming.
"I, I didn't..."
The little girl watched her.
That gaze was very deep. It was like she was appraising an object.
"I understand." She said.
She stood up.
She was small, about the same height as Hinata, but standing there, she gave off an overwhelming feeling that made it hard to breathe.
"Liking someone, wanting to stay by their side, wanting to watch them all the time. Even if there is danger, you still want to find them."
She took two steps forward.
"I understand."
For some reason, Hinata felt a chill down her spine.
Shinji stood up and blocked in front of Hinata.
"Hinata and I are friends."
"Friends?"
The little girl looked at him.
Those eyes changed again.
After a while, the girl spoke again.
"Friends from Konoha Village."
She tilted her head to look at him, her eyes sparkling, her tone carrying a naive curiosity.
"Do the Ninjas of your village use any means necessary to complete a mission? Including... deceiving others' feelings?"
Yamada and Watanabe stopped what they were doing.
This question was too strange, too abrupt.
In a place like this, asking such a question?
Shinji's gaze landed on her face.
At this moment, he could be completely certain.
The next second, his brain spun rapidly.
"I don't know. If such a situation really exists, then there must be unspeakable hardships and immense grievances."
The girl said "Oh," lowered her head, and played with her fingers.
After a while, she looked up again.
"If it were you."
She tilted her head to look at him, and there was a strange light in those large eyes.
Not innocence, but something else, something deeper.
"If you were to go undercover, would you deceive someone's feelings?"
Before the words had even faded.
Shinji moved.
His hands clasped together in front of his chest, the speed of his hand signs so fast only afterimages remained.
Body Replacement Technique.
Poof.
White smoke exploded, and his figure disappeared from the spot.
A piece of wood replaced his position, landed on the ground, and rolled twice.
At the same instant, a cold light stabbed out from the girl's hand.
A ninja sword, sharpened.
The blade shimmered with a cold light, carrying a piercing whistle through the air, stabbing from behind toward the spot where Shinji had just been sitting.
Pfft.
The ninja sword pierced into the wood, embedding deeply, the tip protruding from the other side, wood chips splattering.
If it weren't for the Body Replacement Technique, this blade would have pierced his heart.
"Shinji (Shinji-kun)!"
Hinata, Yamada, and Watanabe exclaimed, jumping up simultaneously to draw their ninja swords. But before they could rush over.
Mist.
Grayish-white mist surged from the "girl's" body, instantly swallowing the surrounding three-zhang radius.
Yamada and Watanabe's footsteps halted, their eyes unfocused, and then they collapsed to the ground, falling unconscious.
Shinji landed on a tree trunk three zhang away.
He watched that patch of mist.
Inside the mist, the "girl's" figure began to change.
The dark blue short hair grew longer, turning tea-brown.
The eyes grew larger, deeper, turning into the beautiful eyes he had looked at for fifteen years.
The figure elongated, grew taller, turning into that appearance he was all too familiar with.
Mei Terumī.
She walked out of the mist.
She was wearing the tight-fitting uniform of the Hidden Mist Anbu, not wearing that formal robe of the Mizukage.
She was still holding that ninja sword, with wood chips sticking to the blade. There was no expression on her face, only those eyes.
There was something burning in those eyes.
Very deep, very heavy, like fire sealed beneath a layer of ice.
"Water Clone." Shinji said.
"Yeah."
Mei Terumī looked at him: "Do you have nothing you want to say?"
Shinji didn't speak; he had a lot he wanted to say, but he also knew that if he said one thing wrong, he would likely die miserably right here.
He jumped down from the tree trunk, landed, and steadied himself.
There was a distance of five zhang between them, and the mist flowed between them, filtering the sunlight into a hazy grayish-white.
Mei Terumī took a step forward, "Shinji."
Shinji took a step back.
"What are you trying to do?"
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