Ino kept calling him an "idiot," cursing the "bald donkey" right to Mitsui Hisashi's face. Only after venting her anger did she turn to leave. Nana and Kana hurried to keep up, apologizing as they walked, "We're sorry, Princess Ino, we didn't know it would be like this..."
"What does that have to do with you? Look, there's a performance over there. Let's go watch the singing and dancing!" Ino pointed to a stage in the middle of the main road.
On stage, three women wearing light pink kimonos and holding floral umbrellas were dancing gracefully... though the accompanying tune was a bit grating.
The two adults and one child squeezed to the front of the stage just as a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old black-haired girl took the stage. Wearing coffee-colored hot pants and a grey top with loose sleeves, she began by singing a passionate line: "Oh, Blue Bird, let's fly toward the sky together!" Only then did the music start to follow.
The title of the song was unknown, but it felt very stirring and uplifting, giving off a vibe full of vitality.
Meanwhile, Mitsui Hisashi's mask stall ran into trouble—
For the Summer Festival, he had meticulously prepared for several months, and all two hundred masks... were shattered!
The masks were made using porcelain-firing techniques. Once the ceramic masks were glazed, they looked exquisite, possessing a warm, jade-like texture. This was his family's ancestral craft, and it was very popular every year at the Summer Festival—two hundred masks were enough to keep him well-fed for a year. Every single mask was the result of his hard work.
But... his hard work was ruined. When a customer chose a mask and reached out to take it from the shelf, their finger had only just brushed against it.
"Crack..."
That mask shattered into uniform small pieces, which scattered all over the ground.
"What's wrong with your mask?"
The customer was utterly shocked.
Mitsui Hisashi pointed at the customer and shouted, "You're clearly here to cause trouble! My masks can't just break; you must have used some kind of trick."
"I used your..." The customer let out a string of profanities, and the two began a heated argument. The surrounding onlookers pointed and whispered, making the quarrel even more intense... After a while, a group of "Black Dogs" wearing Public Security Division uniforms rushed onto the scene, swinging their batons with vigor: "Make way, everyone move aside—what's going on here?"
Two Uchiha "Black Dogs" pushed through the crowd, each grabbing one person to separate the brawlers. Three more followed behind to control the situation.
"Speak, what exactly is the situation? Why are you fighting in the street?" The Uchiha looked at the two, then told Mitsui Hisashi to shut up and let the customer speak: "You, shut up. You speak first."
These five Uchiha were very intimidating—their uniforms exuded a sense of coldness, and because of the Sharingan, their Chakra itself gave off an eerie, chilly feeling. Coupled with their naturally arrogant personalities and their pride as Konoha's number one clan, they were quite supercilious. Ordinary people would usually hide in fear upon seeing them, let alone when being caught by them.
The customer behaved and spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.
When it was Mitsui Hisashi's turn, he still firmly believed there was nothing wrong with his masks. Then, one of the Uchiha reached out to pick up a mask... and the same scene repeated.
The moment his finger touched it, the mask instantly shattered into small pieces and fell to the ground.
That Uchiha said, "Your mask... as you can see, it's not this person's fault. Tell me, what exactly is going on?"
Mitsui Hisashi didn't even care what the Uchiha was saying; he hurriedly reached for the masks on the shelf himself. He watched helplessly as every mask he touched shattered. Except for the ones already sold, not a single mask remaining on the shelf was spared. One Uchiha knelt down, picked up a fragment, and a crimson glow flickered in his eyes.
A single, black Tomoe shape, like an acute-angled isosceles triangle with its base against the pupil, rotated around the pupil.
The Tomoe spun rapidly. Under these eyes, every detail of the mask fragment was magnified, and the cause of the shattering became clear.
"It's an extremely sophisticated Wind Release Ninjutsu—and someone capable of mastering Wind Release to this level... must be a long-renowned Ninja."
The others also picked up fragments to examine the details—
The cuts on the fragments were far too neat.
Every angle of the cut looked as if it had been sliced by an extremely thin blade. Yet, before being touched, they had actually remained intact... "To be able to cut through these ceramic masks while keeping them whole shows that the Wind Blades were compressed to the extreme, pushing the sharpness attribute to its limit—ordinary Wind Release Ninjas could hardly achieve this. Someone of this level... who could it be?"
No matter how much these five Uchiha racked their brains, they couldn't think of anyone in Konoha at the moment who could do such a thing!
Even less could they imagine why such a sophisticated Ninja would target a small vendor.
One Uchiha remarked, "It's even smoother than a wire cut... But judging by the marks, that expert's goal was likely just a punishment. It seems this fellow upset the expert; he must have done something truly offensive..."
Then, the Uchiha began to divide the work and collaborate, recording everything to prepare a report. Some started questioning the bystanders about what had happened... The crowd spoke all at once, describing how a child and two young women had come to buy masks... One Uchiha double-checked: "You're saying all three had pale blonde hair, almost silvery? The two women were dressed like Ninjas in tight-fitting clothes and masks... Anything else? The child... the hair color was..."
"Oh, right, those two girls seemed very respectful to the child. They called her Princess Ino, with the same respect as they would call Princess Tsunade."
"Princess"... The Uchiha were already starting to feel a headache coming on.
A child addressed with the title "Princess," accompanied by two Ninja-like maids—no matter how you looked at it, she seemed extraordinary.
Just hearing the description of the hair and eye color, why did it sound like someone from the Yamanaka Clan?
But if it were the Yamanaka Clan... was there anyone in Konoha Village who didn't recognize them?
Therefore, based on the clues provided by the villagers, they ruled out the "correct answer" in the very first step—treating Ino, Nana, and Kana as princesses from some small country. They thought they were just visiting Konoha for fun. As for that old Wind Release monster... who said royalty couldn't have a few powerful Ninjas as guardians?
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