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Several more days passed.
The weather grew increasingly hot, but the streets remained deserted.
Konoha Village was as peaceful as ever.
The only fortunate thing was that the clothing of the occasional female Ninja passing by on the streets became increasingly cool with the changing weather.
The healthy figures sculpted by their childhood training allowed ordinary people to easily distinguish their identity in the crowd.
In these times of economic decline and with the flower district closed for nearly half a year, the Ninja's exposed legs had become a unique and beautiful sight for idle old men on the streets.
However, today was somewhat ill-timed.
"Tsk."
A not-so-ladylike click of the tongue sounded in their ears, and several middle-aged men gathered in front of a teahouse in the corner, playing cards and glancing at legs, instinctively looked over in the direction of the sound.
They happened to catch a glimpse of the Uchiha Police Force armband on the girl's shoulder.
Her crimson Sharingan swept over them, and the Yin Release Chakra deep within her eyes instinctively emitted a powerful mental pressure.
Even without actively casting a Ninjutsu, the passive oppressive feeling alone instantly tightened their sphincters.
Their bodies stiffened for just a moment, and the old men who had been laughing wantonly and secretly peeking out just moments before immediately threw down their cards and scrambled into the teahouse.
Ninja and ordinary people were two different kinds of beings.
Uchiha Megumi retracted her gaze, and the crimson eyes in her eye sockets silently reverted to black.
As if afraid of angering the person beside her, she cautiously glanced at Sawara Kiri, who was reading a book with his head down.
"Good job."
Unexpectedly, Sawara Kiri merely chuckled indifferently, inexplicably looking up and praising her.
"No, I… I was… huh?"
Uchiha Megumi, whose small action had been discovered, subconsciously wanted to explain, but when she realized his words, she suddenly let out a cute, drawn-out sound.
"What's wrong?" Sawara Kiri was still looking at the scroll in his hand, but his tone was matter-of-fact, with the attitude of an openly petty person, "I don't like others looking at you either."
"Also, your pants are a bit short today; this mole is showing."
He said, turning his head slightly and tapping his fingertip on the outside of Miss Megumi's left leg.
There was a very small, round mole there.
"Hmm."
The boy's slightly rough fingertips rubbed against the girl's fair, sensitive skin, feeling a little ticklish.
Uchiha Megumi's face immediately flushed with a rosy blush, and she mumbled, unable to speak.
Perhaps she was embarrassed by Sawara Kiri's overly blatant possessiveness, or perhaps she dared not admit that she had spent a long time before leaving, deliberately choosing this tight outfit to 'seduce' him, or maybe she was simply very shy because of his direct action.
She was like a completely different person from her fierce appearance a second ago.
Indeed.
A girl's blush surpasses all sweet words in the world.
After a long while, she finally heard her softly mumble, "Sister Reina said boys all like this—I thought Kiri would like it too."
Sawara Kiri was silent for a moment, then confessed as if in repentance:
"My apologies."
"Actually, I'm more of the short skirt and stockings type."
"Hey!"
"What Ninja wears a short skirt…"
Miss Megumi gave him a light, exasperated punch, her small face still a bit tense, pretending to be angry, but a smile inadvertently tugged at the corners of her lips.
The possessiveness revealed by the person you like, when they are unaware, always brings such satisfaction.
Sawara Kiri also smiled, said nothing more, and continued to look down at the basics of Sealing Technique in his hand.
In the past few days, he had been shuttling back and forth between his home, Tsunade's residence, and the training ground, like a shriveled sponge, absorbing everything related to Sealing Technique as much as possible.
Due to the existence of his Six Eyes and the brain development carried out by the Limitless Void, he was now several times stronger in his learning ability than before; in terms of learning basic content, he was invincible.
Aside from a small portion of relatively difficult Sealing Technique character combinations, he had mostly absorbed the content of this basic scroll.
However, because Tsunade had been either organizing documents at Konoha Hospital or attending meetings at the Hokage Building these past few days, he could only research the remaining difficult points by himself, making his progress quite slow.
But, he had already gained some insight into breaking the Sealing Technique on his tongue.
Besides that—
Sawara Kiri looked down at the scroll.
Within his 360-degree vision, he glanced at the girl beside him.
Miss Megumi was still her carefree, wandering self, seemingly completely shedding the heavy burden of a cool and aloof girl whenever she was by his side.
During this time, Mr. Sawara had been very careful to look after Miss Megumi's mental health.
His displayed possessiveness towards her was, of course, intentional.
After all, it was different from the simple mode of his yandere sister and the mature Hime Tsunade.
In front of the former two, even if he took the worst path, at most he would just die, perhaps with a few extra stabs when he died.
However, Miss Megumi was different.
If he accidentally took the wrong path, or suddenly disappeared, who knew what kind of Mangekyo Sharingan ability Uchiha Megumi might suddenly awaken?
Like "a room you can't leave until you die," "a dreamscape with only the two of us," "a world of gravity distortion that can pull you back no matter where you are."
Die?
You wish!
Anyway, Sawara Kiri felt he couldn't gamble.
"Kiri, did Lord Sakumo tell you what he wanted us for?"
After only pretending to be angry for a short while, Miss Megumi couldn't help but continue speaking, her hands behind her back: "A team of all Jonin usually can't be formed, can it?"
"Probably, it's about the Land of Wind front."
Sawara Kiri was quite sensitive to intelligence: "Sunagakure and Iwagakure have gradually withdrawn from the Land of Rain, and both sides have freed up their hands, which is unequivocally bad news for us."
"Who knows when this war will end."
"Who knows?"
Uchiha Megumi mumbled, inadvertently glancing at the young man's profile, and sighed softly.
How wonderful would it be if there could be more peaceful times like this with Kiri?
Even if she was just watching him from the side.
A girl in her first love, even her wishes were conservative and cautious, as if an overly extravagant wish would make her own heart pound uncontrollably.
So, just a little bit was enough.
Just as she was thinking this, her arm was suddenly grabbed by Sawara Kiri.
"Slow down."
"Swish—"
No sooner had he spoken than a Kunai swept past not far in front of them, and two figures, one white and one yellow, rapidly crisscrossed, engaging in a high-speed battle that was difficult for ordinary eyes to follow.
Uchiha Megumi instinctively paused.
Only then did she realize that, without knowing it, they had already arrived at the third training ground their team had agreed upon.
Hatake Sakumo and Namikaze Minato had probably arrived early and were now warming up while no one else was around.
"Clink!"
"Zing—"
The sound of metal clashing continuously echoed in this empty clearing, occasionally catching glimpses of sparks flying in mid-air.
The footprints left on the ground, tree trunks, and branches were deep and forceful, and from time to time, one or two dull thuds of combat could be heard.
However, even though he was also a Jonin, and a genius Ninja recognized by Lord Third, the current Namikaze Minato was still too young compared to Hatake Sakumo.
In just over three minutes, Minato, who was about to crash into a steel wire trap set between the branches while in a Wind Release Body Flicker state, was kicked down from the tree by Hatake Sakumo.
"Thud."
He landed on the ground, looking somewhat disheveled.
"Huff, huff."
He was breathing heavily.
When he turned his head, he suddenly noticed Sawara Kiri and Uchiha Megumi standing on the sidelines, and he awkwardly raised his hand to greet them.
"Hi?"
"Oh, you're already here."
"Come sit."
Hatake Sakumo also descended from the tree, and incidentally reached out to pull Minato, who was on the ground, up.
In the realm of high-speed combat, Minato, at fifteen years old, was still a junior to him.
However, Minato possessed the talent and potential to surpass him in this area, and he was not suited for his teacher Jiraiya's Ninjutsu-based fighting style.
When he had free time, he always couldn't help but want to teach this kid a little more.
After greeting the two, Hatake Sakumo found a tree stump, patted his backside, and sat down.
He then pulled out an apple from his pocket, which he had picked at some unknown time, and took large bites, chewing as he spoke:
"There's a small matter I need to consult you about."
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