Damn it. The wind and sand in the Land of Wind never seemed to end.
Even though she had been born in Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village), Temari still felt a weary sort of irritation toward an environment filled with blowing yellow sand from morning to night. Her loyalty to her village and to her father, the Kazekage, was unquestioned, but that personal dislike had never gone away.
"Ugh~ I'm exhausted. Seriously, why do we still have to take escort missions like this? We already did something like that before."
Walking beside Temari, Kankuro complained while pounding his aching shoulder. This kind of exhausting escort work had clearly worn him down as well.
"This is the final escort mission for this month's shipment of Fox's Tale publications. There won't be any more after this."
The Jonin leading Temari and Kankuro's team was Baki, the Jonin most valued and trusted by Rasa (Fourth Kazekage). That was precisely why he was qualified to serve as Instructor to all three of the Fourth Kazekage's children.
"Right... after that plan, even Konoha will disappear..."
Almost unconsciously, Temari pulled a brand-new copy of Fox's Tale from the ninja pouch at her waist. She could not help feeling reluctant. As a teenage girl, she naturally had an interest in romance and similar matters. Otherwise, she would not have been attracted to Uchiha Sasuke's handsome appearance in the original story.
"...But is cooperating with those Sound ninja really going to work? Otogakure is only a small hidden village that was founded recently. Can they really provide useful support?"
Kankuro also seemed somewhat gloomy, but he quickly pulled himself together and turned to Baki, clearly hoping for an answer.
"The Sound ninja's own fighting strength is secondary. Their leader is one of the Legendary Sannin and understands Konoha's defenses and geography extremely well. So when the time comes, our task..."
Baki paused. His gaze settled on the small red-haired figure walking at the front of the group. Though he was nominally that boy's Mentor, the deep wariness in his voice was unmistakable.
"...is simply to ensure that Gaara can release his power inside Konohagakure."
Both Temari and Kankuro shuddered at those words. They knew exactly what the figure at the front of the group represented: the legendary ruler of wind and sand, an evil existence possessing unimaginable power.
There was supposedly more than one monster like that in the world. What they all had in common was that they embodied evil and despair. Anyone possessed by such a thing had to be the same kind of bloodthirsty, wicked demon!
•••
"Deep within that distant forest, even now, that forgotten heart must still be hidden... achoo~!!"
Wearing a blood-red Junihitoe, Uzumaki Naruto sneezed at the worst possible moment, abruptly destroying what had been a perfect melody. Rubbing at the string of mucus threatening to escape his nose, Naruto complained pitifully, "Seriously... who's talking bad about me behind my back...?"
"Sigh... could you come up with an even lamer reason for messing up?"
Behind the Video Camera, Nara Shikamaru yawned in irritation. As Genin, Team 7 and Team 10 had been given the following mission today: assist the Fox's Tale Film Crew in filming the new special-effects music video for Fukai Mori. If everything went smoothly, the song would become the ending theme for Fox's Tale.
The mission time limit was ten hours, the location was the Uchiha Compound in Konohagakure, and the mission rank was C-rank.
Since Fox's Tale already had a song like Blue Bird as its opening theme, the ending naturally needed a song with an equally timeless quality. And because the anime culture of the Naruto world still favored serious, solemn material at this stage, something overly cute and sugary clearly would not fit.
"I wasn't lying! And... I'm the one who has to dress like a girl and sing in a girl's voice every single time~! I'm doing the hardest job here, so don't I get to complain a little? Hmph!"
Uzumaki Naruto folded his arms and turned his head away with exaggerated pride, wearing an expression that clearly said, I'm tired, and I'm taking a break. Nara Shikamaru, serving as cameraman, pressed a hand to his forehead listlessly. "Fine... we've still got plenty of time today. As long as we finish before sunset, it's enough. Let's take a short break."
"Sigh... does this really count as the life of a shinobi?"
Yamanaka Ino emerged from a nearby tearoom carrying a tray full of teacups, sighing as she went. Since she could not compete with Naruto and Shikamaru in feminine charm at all, she had no filming role today, which naturally left her handling logistics. The blonde girl spoke irritably. "All right, the tea's ready. Everyone take a break."
"Yay thanks, Ino"
At a game board on the veranda, Hatake Kakashi and Sarutobi Asuma, seated opposite each other, raised their hands at the same time with cheerful smiles. "Two cups over here too~ we're a little tired as well~~"
"You're tired from playing games?! What kind of teachers are you?!"
Several veins bulged on Ino's forehead as she barely resisted the urge to throw the teacups at them. Nearby, Akimichi Choji sat on a tree stump eating from a large bag of snacks. He too raised one hand with a smile. "Hey~ over here, Ino. I'm getting thirsty too~~"
"You fat pig, just die of thirst!"
"I'm not fat! I'm just pleasantly plump!"
"Now, now~ don't fight~~ You're all very cute students~"
"Hehe~ you mean very convenient students, right?"
The 'sweet' argument in the courtyard was impossible to miss. Lying on the roof, Hinata lazily twitched one ear, raised a hand, and yawned. "Yawn~~ so noisy. What are they doing?"
"A bunch of idiots being idiots together."
Seated about five meters away on the roof, Uchiha Sasuke summed up the commotion below with a single cutting remark. The black-haired boy frowned slightly and glanced toward the girl with the Byakugan lying there. Confusion and conflict were obvious in his expression.
"Heh~ what is it? Do peaceful days like this make you uneasy instead, Sasuke?"
Hinata had clearly been in an excellent mood lately. After obtaining the powerful Sage Body that was Suigintou, she finally felt the tension that had kept her nerves taut begin to loosen. She could even take a short nap now. People needed time to unwind, after all; nothing could stay wound tight forever.
"You're the one who's been slacking off a little lately, aren't you?"
Uchiha Sasuke looked sideways at Hinata. He genuinely disliked seeing her this relaxed, but not because of the 'slacking off' he had mentioned. It was another feeling entirely, as though Hinata had become confident that she now possessed enough power to guarantee that he and Naruto could no longer catch up, and had therefore allowed herself to lie down and rest.
"A lot of things can't be achieved just by being anxious. Besides, we only just became Genin and we've already completed an A-rank mission and killed an elite Jonin. We're practically legendary Genin. Isn't an achievement like that enough to bring glory to the Uchiha Clan?"
Hinata could naturally sense Sasuke's mood, but she certainly was not foolish enough to tell him the truth. He was a specialist in late-game power-ups anyway. Putting him under a little more pressure now would do no harm.
"Hmph~ of course. Even in the old Uchiha Clan, only a handful of people ever completed an A-rank mission while still Genin."
But Sasuke was still only a child. Hinata's words immediately pulled his thoughts back toward the Uchiha Clan. As an idealistic boy who still hoped to restore his clan, he naturally carried enormous expectations for it.
"So there's no need to rush. Besides, I'll tell you something. The annual Chunin Exams are about to begin. I don't know what form they'll take this year, but I doubt you intend to miss them, right?"
Hinata naturally knew about the Chunin Exams. They were essentially an annual routine event, though they were not always held jointly with other hidden villages. As the foremost of the Five Great Hidden Villages, Konohagakure's Chunin Exams were widely regarded as the most prestigious.
Every year, some smaller hidden villages therefore sent their Genin to Konoha to take the exams, hoping to improve their own reputation and public standing. If their shinobi could achieve a strong result in the largest hidden village, their home village's perceived strength would rise along with it.
"Chunin... huh?"
Uchiha Sasuke's dark eyes abruptly narrowed. A moment later, his figure flickered and vanished from the roof. He had clearly remembered something.
Sasuke was twelve years old now. But within the Uchiha Clan, there had once been a genius shinobi who became a Chunin at only ten.
That shinobi's name was... Uchiha Itachi.
"Hmph~ what an impatient little brat. So easy to manipulate."
Hinata knew perfectly well that Sasuke had run off to continue training, and she could not be bothered stopping that intense boy. The upcoming Chunin Exams would be far more dangerous than the Land of Waves mission. Every bit of additional strength meant better odds when the time came.
So perhaps she should do some training as well?
Closing her eyes slightly, Hinata felt the chakra flowing through her original body. Compared with Suigintou's Sage Body, the speed of her chakra circulation and recovery here was vastly weaker. It was like growing accustomed to walking in water, then suddenly returning to land and feeling the discomfort of gravity binding the body again.
Mm. Once you got used to luxury, it really was hard to go back. She had used Suigintou's body only once, yet already her original body felt inadequate. But precisely because of that comparison, weaknesses she had never noticed before now stood out as clearly as the bed of a dried-up river.
Although Hinata had no intention of learning the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist, the style clearly contained many principles worth borrowing. For example, its wide-area techniques could release chakra from the chakra points across the entire body. That was an ability unique to the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan Kekkei Genkai, yet Hinata still had not mastered it.
"Looks like I need some special training. Anything I learn with this body can be displayed in an even stronger form through Suigintou's body anyway."
"Maybe this exam will let me surprise quite a few people."