As his thoughts flowed, Mamoru's gaze swept across the quiet woods.
This was a forest outside Nagakawa City. The reason they weren't training at Hiroki's mansion was that the previous sparring sessions had already left the courtyard ground in a mess.
Although the host hadn't said anything and Mamoru was even more unconcerned, Hinata felt uneasy about it. At her strong request, they moved outside the city.
Mamoru patted the dust off his hands and said, "Let's stop today's training here. We're going back to Konoha tomorrow, so we should have a good rest today."
"Mm." Hinata responded softly, nervously withdrawing her hands, her fingertips unconsciously tapping against each other.
Mamoru had long since become accustomed to her always timid attitude.
"Let's go."
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned to walk toward a sparser part of the woods.
"I still need to see what local specialties the Land of Grass has and buy some to take back."
Hinata quickly followed Mamoru's back, the two of them walking one after the other through the quiet woods.
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, casting mottled spots of light on the flowers and grass swaying in the wind.
The boy casually led the way in front, while the girl followed closely behind.
Hinata's gaze always followed that lazy back ahead. Occasionally, crisp bird calls sounded in her ears, and sometimes Mamoru's clear voice drifted over. "I'm telling you. If I don't bring gifts back, Sasuke might not say it, but he'll definitely be unhappy. I don't want to come home and face that sour face of his."
As Mamoru spoke, he stepped on the lush grass ahead, carefully clearing a slightly easier path for Hinata behind him.
He added casually, "Speaking of which, Sasuke and I look exactly the same. Well... we are twins after all. But every time he pulls a sour face, I can't help but want to punch him."
"It's different..." A weak response came from Hinata behind him.
"Hmm?" Mamoru didn't stop, but turned his head with a curious look and a smile on his face. "You can tell us apart? If it's just based on hairstyle, anyone should be able to tell, right?"
Sasuke had medium-long hair, while he had neat short hair, similar to Sasori's hairstyle.
Seeing Mamoru look back, Hinata shyly turned her gaze to her toes and explained softly, "No... it's not because of the hairstyle."
"Is that so?"
Mamoru became interested. He turned around and started walking backward, his bright eyes looking at Hinata with a bit of anticipation in his tone. "Sasuke and I can't even tell ourselves apart when we look in the mirror. So tell me, where are we different? If you get it right, there's a reward."
He really had been bored enough to drag Sasuke to the mirror for a comparison, but the two of them couldn't find any difference in the end. Perhaps when they grew up a bit more, some slight differences would show.
"The eyes are different."
Hearing this, Mamoru was slightly stunned. Of course the eyes were different. One was a vast, boundless sky, and the other was a sea of blood burning with fire. But he didn't interrupt Hinata, quietly waiting for her to continue.
He understood that Hinata was talking about how they looked when they hadn't activated their dojutsu.
"Mamoru-kun's eyes are very calm and make people feel at peace but Sasuke-kun's eyes are very scary." Hinata's intermittent voice continued.
He hadn't expected Hinata to observe so closely. Mamoru didn't know what his own gaze was like, but Sasuke had the hatred of the Uchiha clan buried in his heart, and the emotions in his eyes were difficult to hide completely.
Hinata added, "Also... Mamoru-kun looks a bit softer than Sasuke-kun."
"Softer?"
Mamoru couldn't help but laugh and teased, "Why do I feel like you're finding ways to praise me?"
"Wu—!"
Hinata let out a small exclamation, her face turning red as she hurriedly covered it with her hands, her feet in a bit of a fluster.
The corners of Mamoru's lips curled up slightly as he turned back forward, no longer teasing her. His gaze passed through the layers of tree shadows, bright light was already showing through the gaps in the trees ahead.
Mamoru squinted his eyes, which were stung by the sunlight, knowing that passing through that thicket ahead would lead them out of these quiet woods and onto the flat main road.
Swish...
The bushes shook gently, and a pair of young teenagers emerged from the forest one after another.
"We're out!"
Mamoru squinted up at the sky, raising his clenched fists high and cheering loudly as he stretched.
Then, he naturally reached out to pluck a fallen leaf from Hinata's hair and patted the grass clippings off his own clothes.
At that moment, a peculiar sound of footsteps came from this quiet road, approaching from afar and finally stopping not far away.
The breeze brought the crisp sound of wind chimes.
Mamoru's heart tightened for some reason, keenly sensing an abnormality in the surrounding atmosphere and aura.
His gaze subconsciously turned toward the source of the sound—
The two figures that came into view caused his pupils to shrink instantly.
Clad in black trench coats embroidered with red clouds and wearing bamboo hats with crisp wind chimes attached, their entire faces were completely obscured by the high collars and the shadows of the hats.
The Akatsuki?
I can even run into them?
Is my luck really this bad?
To run into opponents of this level on my first mission outside?
Could it be the damn butterfly effect?
Mamoru snapped back to his senses, realizing that now was definitely not the time to be distracted.
He quickly moved to protect Hinata behind him, facing the newcomers, and lowered his voice. "Hinata, absolutely do not leave my side."
Hinata heard the crisis in Mamoru's rare serious tone. Although she was nervous, she didn't panic.
She quietly moved half a step closer to Mamoru and responded softly, "I understand."
Mamoru solemnly scrutinized the two figures in front of him, trying to judge their identities from the details of their attire. However, there was no need to look closely.
The giant sword wrapped in bandages on the back of one of them already proclaimed the owner's identity: Kisame!
Since Kisame was here, the one traveling with him was inevitably Itachi.
The simultaneous appearance of these two meant some Jinchuriki was about to suffer, or had already suffered.
Deducing from this timeline, it was likely the Four-Tails Jinchuriki—Roshi.