[Hokage] Holly

All the B-level missions, you can pick whatever you want. "

My expression was tangled, and Captain Tianzang pondered for a moment: "How about A-level? It's not impossible, you can go and report to Six Daime later."

Seeing that I didn't speak, he took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and took out a stack of documents and put them on: "S-level is S-level, don't tell the outside world, I will write the mission report later."

You know shit.

I pushed away the unsigned task book on the table, and put the vase in my hand on his table.The bottom of the bottle hit the table, and two more leaves fell off. I touched the almost dry branches with reluctance, and turned my head to look at Captain Tianzang.

"Do me a favor, Captain."

Originally, after I retired from Anbu, I shouldn't call him the captain anymore, but because of the rarity of the wood escape ninjutsu, which is so rare that he is the only one, I still called out cheekily: "Let me feed you to death soon!" I haven't seen rooting yet, help me find a way."

Seeing that I didn't have to take part in the S-level ultra-secret mission, Captain Tianzang immediately felt relieved.He doesn't have any opinion on my coveting wood escape ninjutsu. Anyway, in the past ten years or so, it's not the first time I've thought of acting as a demon once out of nowhere. I didn't bother to let him save a tree branch with wood escape. .

"What is this?" Captain Tianzang heaved a sigh of relief, picked up the vase I put down and took a closer look at the holly branch: "You don't take any tasks recently, just keep this at home?"

"Isn't this the gift that Sasuke asked Naruto to bring back some time ago..." I said vaguely, "I wanted to ask Ino for help, but looking at it like this, it seems that ordinary methods can't save you."

"I think so. You don't have much talent for gardening. You might as well go back to Anbu. At least in terms of assassination tracking, your talent is approved by Senior Kakashi."

Tianzang said so to the upper lip, but his body was still very frank and injected chakra of wood escape attribute into the holly branch.

The nearly withered holly branches instantly glowed with vigorous vitality, the branches stretched out, and the old yellowed leaves fell and took root and sprouted again in Captain Tianzang's hands.

Captain Tianzang smiled, and handed back the thin-rooted holly branch to me: "Okay, let's take it back and grow it."

【fifteen】

I planted the rooted holly branches in the pot at will, and after leaving the vase, it is really easy to raise as Ino said, and it can thrive by itself without much care.I have made sure that the holly branch Sasuke folded back for me will not wither, and I have fulfilled one of my thoughts.

Shikamaru came to visit me before, and in the dialogue, he tried to test me why I didn't go to Hokage Tower to accept the task.I think this smart guy who was appointed as the next Hokage staff officer might have seen something, but smart people have one thing better, as long as I hinted to him that I don't want to mention this matter to others, he will never Will not tell the public.

In the blink of an eye, winter is coming, and the temperature is even colder and unbearable. It is already difficult for my body to go out, which is getting weaker every day. In the following days, I will basically stay at home to recuperate, trying to live a few more days for myself.

As soon as Konoha had the second snowfall, Sasuke's psychic beast sent me the news that he was coming back soon.

The ninja who sent the letter knocked on the window of my house with a chill in his body. The ninja shook off the unmelted snow foam on its feathers, and obediently raised its claws and let me remove the letter box tied to its ankle. .

There was only a small piece of paper in the mailbox, which simply said 'come back in a few days, wait for me. 'Such a sentence with no more than ten characters including punctuation marks is especially Sasuke-like.

"He's coming back."

I put away the letter paper, squinted my eyes and smiled, rubbing the cold and smooth feathers on Ninjahawk's head with my fingers: "I haven't seen him for so long, and I don't know what he has become now."

【Sixteen】

[Originally, I have never regretted it in my not too long life.But when I was about to die, I was thinking again, it would be fine if I hadn't opened my eyes all the time. ]

[If I didn't open my eyes, then I'm just an ordinary Hoden ninja with Uchiha's surname.Maybe he is not as strong as he is now, but he will not die of illness in his early twenties. ]

[I'm an orphan, and I don't have deep feelings for the Uchiha clan. Only Sasuke, who has been with each other for six years, makes me feel unable to let go. ]

[I don’t know who you are who read the letter, but don’t tell Sasuke these words, let’s keep it as a secret between us. ]

【Seventeen】

Sasuke came back in the evening a few days after I received the letter.

When Naruto hammered open the door of my house to tell me that Sasuke was back, I had just wiped off my nosebleed and was suffering from a dying headache.

His usually full-bodied voice is now so loud that my ears are buzzing. I want to make him quiet, but I am afraid that Naruto, an intuitive creature, will see something, so I just endure the rush My dull pain of wanting to vomit was dragged by him all the way from home to Hokage downstairs.

The winter wind blew my mind almost numb, and Naruto seemed to be aware of it and turned his head to look at me: "Why do you look so bad? Are you sick?"

"It's a cold, don't make trouble with me."

Naruto, who had never had a cold, believed my words without any doubt.

Not long after, the person who had finished reporting to Kakashi walked out of Hokage Building briskly.

"holly."

he said to me.

"haven't seen you for a long time."

【XVIII】

Saying goodbye to Naruto, I accompanied Sasuke around the village where he had not returned for many years.

In late autumn, I felt so cold that it was unbearable, but now I am so cold that my hands and feet can't do anything, and I have to accompany him step by step through the snow-covered streets, pretending to be nothing.In the pain I endured, I felt a little lucky for no reason. Fortunately, the nosebleed was stopped before going out, and Sasuke would not find anything.

We walked from the bustling street to the end of the deserted street. He, who hadn't seen him for a long time, seemed to have changed little, but at the same time he seemed to have changed a lot.The dim, warm light of the street lamp fell on him gently, and it seemed to soften his aura of sharpness like a Kusanagi sword. After the paranoid sharpness faded away, Sasuke still looked like the old boy.

"I received the holly branch you asked Naruto to send back some time ago."

I let out a long breath of cold air from the bottom of my lungs, resisted the tingling pain, and only smiled at him: "I haven't fed him for a long time, and finally let Captain Tianzang rescue him with a wooden escape."

Sasuke didn't mention the specific meaning of that branch of holly to me, but just nodded to me silently.

He didn't mention it, and I didn't want to ask more questions. The two of us continued walking like this, and the world became very quiet for a while.

It seems that there are only my and his breathing sound left in the world, Sasuke's breathing sound is softer and shallower, while my breathing sound is long and heavy because of the suppressed heart and lung pain.Sasuke himself is not a very talkative person, and we didn't hear him say a word to me until we finished walking around the streets of Konoha.

"By the way, I didn't tell you, I retired from Anbu."

He didn't speak, so I had to speak first again: "Kakashi intends to recruit you into Anbu, but the position of sub-captain has already been taken up. I'm retiring this time, and I can just make room for you. "

Sasuke looked at me quietly, and after a long time he said: "No need, I have no plans to join Anbe."

I staggered Sasuke's gaze, and pretended to be casual: "Then where do you want to go? With your qualifications, it's fine to go straight to Jōnin after returning to Konoha."

"I won't be coming back just yet."

"Is that so...then how long can you stay in Konoha this time?"

"Not necessarily."

During the conversation, we had already walked downstairs to the apartment where I lived. Sasuke's footsteps gradually slowed down, and finally stood still in the snow.Although I didn't know what he meant, I stopped with him.

"holly."

Sasuke called again.

His pale lips moved, and after calling my name, he couldn't make any sound at first.As if thinking about words, Sasuke frowned and pondered, and said in a slow and deep voice: "I have thought a lot during the years outside. From the six years we lived together to the time when Itachi passed away. Yes As far as I'm concerned, you..."

Sasuke's voice froze for a moment, and he gave a rather annoyed "tsk", and then simply gave up what he hadn't said, and started the follow-up unnaturally.

"...I used to think that I was an avenger who risked my life, and I was not qualified to talk to you about the future. Over the years, I tried to follow Itachi's advice and chose to put down my hatred and live seriously."

He frowned tightly, and the young man who was not good at words could not see the usual sharpness at all when he narrated his heart, he only looked clumsy and jerky: "Now... Dongqing, would you like to come with me?"

One second, two seconds.

Five seconds, ten seconds.

The third snow that had lasted as long as Konoha finally fell from the sky, and I kept silent.

I just hate why time can't stay longer, and a little longer, leaving me with a good dream that I don't have to wake up.Sasuke is my invincible courage and my fear. I am not afraid of the imminent death. I am only afraid that after I die in the future, he will be trapped in this dream forever.

"...I'm sorry."

I walked up to him, stretched out my fingers and gently touched the ends of his eyes that were not covered by the hair, and he didn't hide.

In his eyes are the sunrise and moonset, the sky full of stars, the snowstorm of this winter, and me.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke."

【nineteen】

As if he never came back, Sasuke left Konoha early the next morning.

Forcibly holding on to walk with him exhausted all my last strength,