Early in the morning, Hinata got up early. After washing up, she began training.
Today was the fifth day since her father ordered her not to go out, and also the fifth day of her serious training.
But today's Hinata could not train with as much full concentration as in the previous few days.
It was not because Hinata had already gotten tired of training. It was not to that extent. She was still full of motivation.
It was just that Hinata was a little worried inside. Since she had not shown up for so many days, would Naruto be worried about her and think something had happened to her?
Hinata was even more afraid that Naruto would think she did not want to play with them anymore, and that was why she had not gone. If after a month passed, Naruto and the others had almost forgotten her, then that would really make Hinata want to cry but have no tears.
It was precisely because she was worrying about these problems in her heart that Hinata could not concentrate on training.
She was an emotional person, very easily thought too much, then frightened herself.
Hinata thought about it and felt that disappearing without a word for a month like this was still too bad. She had to let Naruto and the others know that she could not go out this month and had to train seriously.
Hinata placed her gaze on Neji, who was training.
Although she had been grounded, Neji had not.
Neji could freely enter and leave the Hyuga Clan grounds. Going out was no problem.
Although it was a little regretful that she could not personally go and tell Naruto, having Neji say it was still better than disappearing silently for a month.
Sensing Hinata's gaze, Neji glanced at Hinata, then continued training.
Hinata's diligence these past few days did make him regard Hinata a little more highly. He felt that this cousin of his could still be considered hardworking.
After training ended, Hinata found Neji. In the Hyuga Clan, she could only still exchange a few words with Neji, and there was no one else she could entrust this to.
Looking at Hinata in front of him, Neji asked calmly, "Is something the matter?"
"Um, Brother Neji, can you help me do something?" Hinata placed her two hands together and pinched them, somewhat shy. She still was not used to this kind of initiative in troubling others, although as the main family, she had the right to have the branch family do things.
"What is it?" Neji did not directly agree, but asked Hinata what it was.
"I have a few friends outside. I'm afraid that if they don't see me for too long, they will worry. I want you to explain to them that I will only have time to play with them after one month," Hinata said honestly.
Neji was somewhat surprised when he heard Hinata's words. He had not expected that Hinata actually had several friends outside.
It was not that he looked down on Hinata, but Hinata had always acted extremely introverted and shy. Even greeting someone from the same clan looked like it would cost her life. It was very hard to imagine that someone like this would actually have friends outside, and several of them at that.
"No problem. I will help you pass it on at noon," Neji agreed. It was only bringing one message and would not waste much of his time. Neji felt there was no problem.
"Thank you." Hinata instantly felt relieved and seriously thanked Neji.
In that case, there was no need to worry about Naruto and the others misunderstanding anything. Next, she only needed to train seriously for a month and meet Father's requirements, and she could return to how things were before.
"It's nothing. It is only bringing one message," Neji said calmly.
After communicating with Hinata again, he was even more able to face his own heart directly. He did not want to envy Hinata's main family status, but wanted to use his branch family identity to make a change.
"Naruto's house is located..." Hinata happily told Neji where Naruto's house was. Afraid that Neji would not be able to find Naruto, Hinata also told him about the park Naruto and the others often went to.
Neji was a person who did what he said. After agreeing to Hinata, after eating lunch at home at noon, he followed the address Hinata mentioned and searched his way over.
Hinata explained it in great detail. Afraid that Neji would not know the road, she told Neji about the more iconic buildings along the way to prevent Neji from being unable to find it.
Hinata knew the pain of getting lost. Alone, looking around blankly on a big street, surrounded by unfamiliar people. If one's luck was bad and it even rained, that was even more tormenting.
But it was also precisely that time she got lost that allowed her to meet Naruto. It could only be said that a blessing in disguise was hard to know.
But if Neji got lost, whether Neji would encounter something good or not, Hinata did not know.
Although Neji was only a four-year-old child, at this time, he had already shown his difference from ordinary children. He did not like playing around like other children. He would work hard for his dream, and when he encountered matters, he would think calmly.
Relying on Hinata's detailed introduction and his own observation far beyond those of his age, Neji quickly found Naruto's house.
Neji politely knocked on the door.
Hearing the sound of knocking, Kushina quickly opened the door.
After opening the door, Kushina did not see anyone familiar, only a black-haired child.
"Little friend, is something the matter? Are you looking for Naruto?" Kushina asked with a smile. Toward children, she was still very friendly.
As for why he was here to look for Naruto, it could not possibly be to look for Minato or her.
Neji nodded, but Kushina shook her head.
"What bad timing. Naruto just went out a few minutes ago. He should be playing with his friends," Kushina said.
Neji fell into thought. A few minutes? Then his luck really was a little bad.
"Where did he go to play?" Neji asked.
If it was that park Hinata had mentioned, he could go over and look for Naruto, then pass on what Hinata wanted to say to Naruto.
If it was not, then Neji could only tell Naruto's family and have his family pass it on.
"It seems to be some park. Probably in that direction." Kushina pointed in a direction.
"Thank you." After learning where Naruto was going, Neji thanked Kushina, then prepared to leave and go look for Naruto.
Although telling Kushina the message and having Kushina pass it on to Naruto would be easier, it was not impossible that Kushina might forget.
Since he had agreed to Hinata, Neji would still try his best to do it well and not allow mistakes.
So Neji set off again. This time, he also found the park Hinata mentioned very smoothly.
Neji looked around, and finally locked onto a group playing with sand castles on the sandy ground.
Neji saw the Naruto that Hinata had mentioned at a glance. Short blond hair, plus the three pairs of slender whiskers on his face. His features were extremely obvious.
"Gaara, using your ability to pile sand castles is really too amazing. You completed such a complicated building in an instant. Even Yurika was surpassed by you," Naruto said excitedly as he watched Gaara wave his hand and create a palace-like building.
Yurika also glanced at the sand castle Gaara had made with his ability, and had to admit that in terms of piling sand castles, someone had appeared who surpassed her.
Gaara's sand castle was not merely impressive on the outside. Even the details inside were present.
If one used only both hands, completing this level of detail would be too difficult.
"This is basically cheating, right?" Ino complained. They were all still just a pile of sand, while Gaara had already made a palace. How were they supposed to play?
Gaara thought about it, then stretched out his hand again and circulated Chakra. In an instant, the palace turned into a pile of sand, then under Gaara's control, it became a string of small dumplings.
"He can actually make food too." Choji looked at Gaara's performance with great interest.
"Gaara, can you make a fish?" Naruto asked curiously.
Gaara shook his head and said, "Sorry, I have never seen a fish, so I cannot make one."
"It's fine. Then can you make takoyaki?" Naruto was curious whether Gaara could make anything.
Gaara thought about it, then controlled the sand again. A takoyaki made of sand appeared.
"It really looks like it. Amazing." Naruto praised him.
Then everyone else began noisily saying what they wanted to see. Gaara, who had been performing precise operations the whole time, was a little tired, but seeing the happy smiles of his friends, he felt everything was worth it.
"Hello, may I ask if you are Namikaze Naruto?"
At this time, Neji walked forward and spoke.
So Naruto's group all stopped and looked toward Neji.
Facing everyone's gazes, Neji's expression remained unchanged, maintaining his expressionless appearance.
"That's me. Is there something?" Naruto patted his butt and stood up, asking in confusion.
He confirmed that he did not know this boy, who was a little taller than him.
However, after seeing Neji's pure white eyes that were the same as Hinata's, Naruto guessed that he might be someone related to Hinata.
Speaking of which, it seemed like he had not seen Hinata for several days.
"Hinata asked me to pass some things on to you. This month, she has to complete her family's training tasks and cannot come out, so she will not come out for a month," Neji said calmly.
"So that's how it is. No wonder it felt like I hadn't seen her for several days." Naruto struck his left hand with his right hand, looking suddenly enlightened.
"Thank you," Naruto thanked him.
Neji nodded slightly, then directly turned and left. He still had to go back to train.
Seeing Neji leave just like that, Naruto scratched his head and continued discussing Gaara's ability with him.
...
At night, in a certain forest in the Land of Fire, Itachi sat alone on a thick branch of a large tree, gazing at the bright moon in the distance.
This was the sixth month of his travels through the Land of Fire. During this period, Itachi had also celebrated his birthday once. This was the first time he had spent his birthday alone.
In six months, Itachi had already wandered through about half of the Land of Fire, because every time he arrived at a town, he would stop and observe, so his movements were not fast.
Logically speaking, after such a long time, Itachi should have gained many things.
But at this moment, Itachi was strangely confused, because he had seen too many things that were difficult for him to understand.
For example, at the very beginning, it was clearly a false rumor, but by the time it spread to the end, almost everyone regarded it as fact. Even Itachi almost believed it.
Why did the first person not question it, then go and confirm it? This was not too troublesome a matter.
Even now, Itachi still remembered the scene from that time vividly. A large crowd surrounded him, begging him to eliminate harm for the people.
Aside from this matter, Itachi later encountered many other things.
For example, when he was in the capital of the Land of Fire, he encountered a twisted and abnormal noble. Relying on his status as a noble, he secretly did some things that made even Itachi unable to resist wanting to give him one slash.
In the end, Itachi really did give him one slash. This time, Itachi did not worry about the consequences and directly killed that abnormal noble.
After all, Itachi was not some wandering ninja. He was a Konoha ninja, and a famous genius boy of Konoha. He was Nagasawa's disciple and had once taken first place in the Chunin Exam jointly held by the Four Great Ninja Villages.
As long as he had sufficient evidence, controlling one noble was very simple, although it was acting first and reporting later.
That abnormal noble's deep malice made Itachi feel extremely puzzled.
As a noble, he had good educational resources since childhood, dressed in fine clothes and ate fine food since childhood, living a life others envied.
Why would such a person develop into such an insane abnormal person, using a gentle offensive to deceive those country people who came to the capital to struggle, then finally torturing those country people to death?
And those country people already had no one to rely on in the capital and no status. If they disappeared, no one would notice at all.
When Itachi saw those corpses in the basement that had been tortured to death, Itachi was greatly stimulated. The two-tomoe Sharingan that had not been awakened for long directly evolved into three tomoe.
At that time, Itachi only felt a chill rise straight from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, feeling his whole body turn cold.
That noble usually acted very kind. When he saw beggars, he would give alms. When he saw poor people, he would also reveal a kind smile.
At first, Itachi had not expected that noble to actually do such a thing.
Itachi was very unable to understand. Torturing those country people and poor people could not bring that noble the slightest bit of benefit, so why did he do such an abnormal thing?
Torturing people could not increase his family property, nor could it raise his noble rank. Why do something like that?
Even when he was killed by Itachi, that noble still did not repent. His mouth spoke words like the lives of those country people were not lives at all.
Because of this noble, Itachi once had an extremely poor impression of the nobles in the capital, until later, when he met several genuinely kind-hearted nobles and his opinion changed somewhat.
However, he still discovered that those nobles were more or less arrogant. The kind-hearted ones were only a minority. Some nobles even regarded themselves and commoners as two different species, and they even did not really look up to Itachi, this Konoha ninja.
He had encountered too many things. Even though Itachi's mind far surpassed those of his age, it was still somewhat insufficient.
Every time he stayed in a new area for some time, Itachi could always encounter things that he could not encounter in Konoha.
Itachi even felt that to completely put an end to those things would probably not be much simpler than bringing peace to the world.
"I wonder how Kabuto's training progress is. Is Sasuke's growth going smoothly? How are Father and Mother? Is Teacher Nagasawa still as busy as ever..." Itachi looked at the bright moon and thought of everyone in Konoha who was close to him.
Although traveling around the Land of Fire was his own decision, Itachi was still a child under ten years old after all. He would also miss home, and occasionally sigh that the food outside was not as delicious as the food at home.