[Hokage] Summer Festival

The atmosphere in the tent was so serious that even Ah Liang, who often laughed without seriousness, hid his smile.

A map was spread out on the table, and some symbols were sketched out. After taking the wind to analyze the current situation, the topic turned to the leader of the sand ninja special warfare team who was said to be dead.

That puppet master... is still dead after all.

"Has he been confirmed dead?"

"Could it be a scam?"

Jiraiya said, standing next to Tsunade with his arms folded.

Hatake Sakumo pondered for a moment, raised his eyes and said in deliberation:

"If the opponent doesn't have a medical ninja of the same level as Tsunade, they probably won't be able to survive."

"Since the old lady Chiyo is not on the front line, there should be nothing wrong."

Tsunade also continued.His eyes stayed on Hatake Sakumo for a while, and then turned to Chifeng.

"After all, the captain of our third team almost lost half his life."

The death of the puppet master has indeed weakened a lot of the combat power of Hidden Sand Village.But if it is said that the death of the puppet master caused the opponent to quickly withdraw all the ninjas, that would be unreasonable.

As one of the Five Great Nations, the Ninja Village's strength does not depend on just one puppet master.

What's more, the captain of Sand Ninja this time is a ninja named Ebizo, who is said to be well-known in the ninja world of the older generation, and his strength is no less than his sister Chiyo.

Sand Shinobi suddenly made this surprising move, there must be another reason.

"Xia Zi, you have been lurking in the Land of Wind for two years, you must know the situation there better than us, what do you think?"

I was suddenly asked by Fengfeng's name, and my heart skipped a beat.

What to answer, I have no idea at all.Everything Xia Zi has experienced and known is just another person's strange past to me.

I have always been worried about being asked directly about my opinion, etc., because I was afraid that I would make up things to take advantage of the moment, and I would not know how to exhaust myself to lie in the future.

Even the dullest know that lies are a bottomless pit in which a ravenous devil dwells.

I lowered my head and thought for a while, only to feel a faint pain in my temple, then slowly said:

"Sorry. When I was in the Kingdom of Wind, I didn't find anything abnormal."

"But it's been nearly a year now, and it's hard to say anything."

This kind of words with no flaws and no exact value is more and more smooth for me, but I don’t know if they will think that this is a performance of perfunctory and shirk responsibility, but I am really powerless to improve this situation.

Do not seek meritorious service, but seek no faults.For me, being able to do that is enough.

Although it is said that war is the best furnace to breed heroes, if Xia Zi is still alive, maybe after hard work, he can really become a legend that does not give way to women.But I'm an outsider, so I don't want to have any grand plans and great achievements in this world full of killing and blood.

I am self-aware of this.

Qufeng and the others didn't change their expressions, and they didn't seem to think that my words were inappropriate or inaccurate.Fortunately, I breathed a sigh of relief silently, and gathered my scattered thoughts to listen carefully to their continued analysis of the battle situation.

If he is always so tense and always walks on thin ice, I am afraid that Xia Zi's body will fade away before he gets old.

After the meeting was over, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Hatake Sakumo stayed behind. I followed the others out of the tent, only to realize that it was dusk before I knew it.

I didn't eat lunch or dinner, and the previous battle consumed a lot of energy, so it's no wonder that there was a feeling of chest against back.

Just as he was about to put the Bingliang Wan taken out of the ninja bag into his mouth, a laugh suddenly came from beside him:

"You're going to have something like this for dinner?"

I paused, turned around and asked:

"Is there anything wrong?"

Speaking of it, eating Bingliang pills is also the basic of doing as the Romans do, although this thing is much more unpalatable than compressed biscuits.

He smiled again, as if casually saying:

"Xiazi, you used to hate Bingliangwan very much."

The tiny pill was almost crushed between my thumb and forefinger.

The bottom of my heart is like a calm lake disturbed by stones, surprised and uneasy.

Even Ah Duan and Shinichi rarely talked about Xia Zi's likes and dislikes, let alone other people.Hui once said that Xia Zi likes to draw, but there is nothing else.

The Xia Zi I know from the mouths of the people around me is well-behaved and flat, with no favorites or dislikes, not stubborn, not self-willed, and I can't tell that she is a teenager with the most beautiful personality. A young and energetic girl.

But now the person next to him can say something like "Xia Zi hates Bing Liang Wan" so naturally, even blurting it out without even thinking about it.

I know that he knew Xia Zi from the beginning, but how much did he know about Xia Zi?

It would be fine if it was a casual acquaintance. If he just accidentally discovered one of Xia Zi's likes and dislikes, I would be at ease.

It might be a bit selfish and cruel to say that, but I do sincerely hope that, apart from relatives like Ajuan and Shinichi, and dead friends like Koji and Zongsuke, there is no one who is close to Natsuko who knows each other well.

I was about to speak when the young man's sprinting footsteps came from far to near, and when he was about to reach us, he yelled:

"Brother Ah Zhen."

"What's wrong, Fugaku?" Uchiha asked with his head down.

Fu Yue stretched out his finger to point in the direction when he came, and there was an old-fashioned expression on his young face:

"There is something wrong with the tent where the medical medicine is placed."

Uchiha really looked over, the tent was thousands of meters away from here, surrounded by trees, with layers of branches and leaves, you couldn't even see the shadow of the tent.

He nodded to Fuyue and said:

"Understood, I'll go over with you to have a look."

Before he left, his eyes passed me for a while, and he stayed behind me somewhere for a short time, and then he didn't know whether to say to himself or me:

"There should be results tomorrow."

There should be results tomorrow.

If only it was what he said it would be.

The sky in the distance showed a continuous pink, and the sunset was like fire.

The rustling of insects on the surrounding treetops and in the grass was mixed with the sound of the ninja's talking and walking, which was unexpectedly harmonious.

I walked to the big rock extending out from the mountainside, and the evening wind was blowing. Although it was early summer, I felt a chill creeping up my back, clamoring to spread to the bottom of my heart.

Under the eyes are the rugged mountain walls, and the endless yellow sand in the distance.

It's really strange to say that this end of Mingming Mountain is full of lush forests on the hillside. The trees are full of branches and leaves, and the pavilions are like covers. Insects and birds can be seen everywhere, full of vitality.

But the other end is a lifeless desert with no grass, the sand and stones are rolled by the wind, like the blue sky, it is endless and does not know where to go, just looking at it makes me feel sad.

Such a battlefield, even if blood flows into rivers, will soon be covered by yellow sand.

I am afraid no one can count how many bones are hidden under the desert.

While I was thinking about some miscellaneous things, someone also jumped up the rock and walked to me.

I turned my head to look, it was Haruna.

She didn't speak, and stood upright, looking at the distance where the sky and the desert meet like me.

Within sight, the wind and sand swirled in arcs in mid-air, and the entire desert seemed to have no signs of life.

Walking tens of kilometers in this direction is the place where Xia Zi's Chunin, except Miki, died.Natsuko was also one of the victims.

A little later, the sun gradually sank into the horizon, leaving only half of the head staring blankly at the empty and lonely blue sky and yellow sand, and the orange-red light gradually faded from the horizon.

Haruna and I walked back to our team's tent, only to see a girl with short brown hair pacing back and forth in front of the curtain.

The girl looked three or four years younger than Xia Zi, she pursed her lips tightly, and held a bowl of black liquid in both hands.

"what are you doing there?"

Haruna asked out of nowhere.

The girl seemed to be taken aback, almost staggered and knocked over the liquid in the bowl, looked up at us in a panic, then lowered her head and bit her lower lip, an inexplicable blush appeared on her cheek, she was really cute.

I stretched out my hand to support her shoulder, and let her go after she stood still and said:

"Do you need help?"

She repeated the movement of raising her head and lowering her head again, with the shyness that a thirteen-year-old girl should have in her eyes, but suddenly she stuffed the bowl containing the black liquid into my hand, and said in a soft voice:

"This is senior Shuo Mao's medicine."

Then he ran away in a hurry, that slender figure looked like a timid and shy little rabbit.

I looked at the bowl of black medicinal soup in my hand that was about to splash out due to the girl's actions, and turned my head to look at Haruna a little bit unable to react.I saw that she was also taken aback for a moment, and then laughed silently.

At this time, Ah Liang's voice came from behind with a smile:

"Oh, it's really enviable. That guy Shuo Mao is always so lucky."

Ok?

I looked at Haruna, she suppressed a smile and winked in the direction of the tent, and said in a low voice:

"That child is also Captain Shuo Mao's admirer."

……also.

Judging by their looks, this sort of thing probably wasn't uncommon in the past.

I understood, looked down at the medicinal soup in my hand, smiled and said:

"I seem to have done something superfluous."

Ah Liang laughed, opened the curtain and walked into the tent, waved his hands and said:

"It's okay."

"Anyway, Sakumo is a piece of wood, he's always insensitive to girls."

There were already people in the tent, it was Hatake Sakumo and Shinya, who turned their heads to look over at the same time after hearing the sound.

"Why am I a log again?"

There was helplessness in the eyes of the parties involved.

Ah Liang shrugged, still teasing him relentlessly and said:

"A man who doesn't notice a girl's heart is a piece of wood."

This time, not only Haruna, but even Shinya put his clenched hand to his mouth to hide his smile.

Hatake Sakumo frowned slightly, coughed weakly, and wondered if there was any embarrassment on the handsome face under the mask.

"Stop talking nonsense."

He said in a serious tone.

"It's better to think about how not to delay your practice during the gap between missions if you have such leisure time."

Ah Liang knew that he would stop when he saw it, and immediately shut up and stopped teasing him, but turned around and mouthed to us from an angle that he couldn't see:

"What a boring man."

I smiled and said this sentence myself.

Stretching out the medicinal soup in his hand in front of him, seeing doubts in his eyes, he explained:

"A girl's heart."

He froze for a moment, and looked at me a little embarrassedly amidst Ah Liang's muffled laughter.When I reached out to take it, my fingertips brushed the back of my hand inadvertently, and there was a slightly cool touch.

It is one of the basic practices of a ninja to deliberately not make a sound when eating, but Hatake Sakumo quickly poured down a large bowl of medicinal soup in one breath, and it turned out to be silent.

The mask was pulled down under the chin, and Qingjun's face was lacking in blood due to exhaustion.

Although he is used to wearing a mask, he doesn't seem to mind others seeing his face.

I remembered that on the way back to the main army, Zilai, who helped him walk, complained jokingly:

"Obviously not many people have seen what you look like, even the rumors are not flattering, why are there so many girls admiring you?"

As he spoke, he shook his head and pretended to sigh:

"It's really hard to guess what a girl's mind is."

"Would it be better for me to learn from this guy in the future and wear a mask to increase the sense of mystery?"

Jiraiya's words, even if they are jokes, are actually not without reason.

Strong strength and a sense of mystery are indeed important factors for easily winning the favor of girls.

Moreover, in the growth of every girl, there will always be a period of youth that worships and admires heroes.

Just thinking about this, Hatake Sakumo had already put the empty bowl on the table, and when I met his gaze, I realized that I had been staring at his face unconsciously.

He quickly looked away in embarrassment, and turned his head to see that Shinya and Haruna were also staring at his face curiously.

Ah Liang covered his mouth and smiled, not afraid of death, and teased him again:

"How about it, is the girl's heart sweet to your heart?"

A few chuckles suddenly sounded in the tent.

As if he had never heard of it, he put on his mask calmly.

Seeing that our eyes were still resting on his face with ridicule, he hesitated for a moment, turned his head away, and spoke in a slightly higher tone than usual:

"Okay, you guys."

Talking to Ah Liang and the others like this, it didn't take long for the night to cover the sky and the earth tightly, the dark sky was lifeless, and the stars and the moon could not be seen.

Because they still don't know the purpose of the move in Shayin Village, Chifeng increased the number of night watch ninjas, but the mountains and forests are still so quiet that only the chirping of insects can be heard.

The candles in the tent were blown out, and I sat next to Haruna and closed my eyes to rest.

Although my body was exhausted, my mind was extremely clear. After sorting out what happened today from beginning to end, I felt that this day was the longest day I have lived since I came to this world.

It was so long that it seemed as if after today was over, I was already an old woman covered with silver frost.

Tomorrow... I hope there will be a good result.