I found myself relaxing upon the sight of three familiar faces, Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato.
Nagato, who was lying on a bed, seemed to be much more relaxed than when I saw him a week or so ago.
Dismissing the spiky white-haired man who was standing at some distance away from them, I let out the breath that I didn't know I was holding.
'With this, the immediate issue has been dealt with.'
And what now? Go back to the battlefield?
'...Absolutely not.' Hiding my nervousness, I faced the spiky white-haired man who stood right in front.
Along with the blonde woman by my side, I felt pressured by their stern faces.
"So, what's your name?" Finally, the white-haired man opened his mouth.
"Akashi." I didn't bother to lie or hide the truth. All was a useless attempt against ninjas anyway.
Hearing my response, the man's eyes narrowed. Unfolding his crossed arms, he extended his right hand toward me.
My heart beated faster and faster, reflecting my anxiousness from the man's approach. This stranger, just what is he going to do to me—
Tap. The man's hand was placed on my head softly. I raised my head up in surprise, and found that the man's eyes were expressing worry.
"You've come a long way with a lot of burden on your shoulder."
I froze. The man's words felt as if they were piercing my soul. The words of kindness—it hasn't been something that I experienced since the Amegakure ninja's sacrifice.
"Well done, Akashi."
I placed my hands on my back, trying to hide the fact that they were shaking. I forced a smile on myself, and replied,
"I-it's..."
Come on, Akashi. Don't show your weakness. They are ninjas from Konohagakure. By all means, being children is the only reason we've survived up until now. They are our enemies. Feign confidence, and,
...I couldn't.
"...yeah."
I lowered my head and fastened my blinking, trying to cover my tears. I don't know why I've become soft like this. Was it that the presence of adults changed me?
"Uh..." Then, Konan groaned while opening her eyes from her seat. Well, she always was the sensitive one when it came to sleeping.
Then, she seemed to have sighted me, for her eyes widened in surprise.
"Akashi!"
With a wide smile on her face, she, ignoring the two adults, jumped on me.
"Oof!" Along with a yelp, I fell down on the dry ground with Konan hugging me tight, having lost my balance.
With a thud, the two of us were on the ground. However, Konan didn't seem to care, and she instead exclaimed,
"You did it! You saved Nagato! You really kept your promise!"
It was the most excited Konan that I've ever seen in my life.
"We..." Konan, then, whose eyes moistened and lips quivered, said as her tears dropped, "we are saved!"
'...Konan.' Upon hearing her words, I found my tears drying up. I felt a chill down my spine.
The sound of heavy rain from the outside of the tent. Yes. I was reminded once again, that this was no safe haven for us. Konan's naivety helped me to realize how relaxed I currently was.
Bringing Konan close, I hugged her.
"...Yes, we are."
'No, we aren't.' Gone was the warmth, and returned was the coldness.
I've tasted the harsh life far too much to trust others immediately like Konan. Yes, they helped us because we were pitiful children. However, the longer we stay here, the more likely will we become a nuisance to them, especially during the war.
Or perhaps, we already are. After all, we are from Amegakure, and they are from Konohagakure. By nationalities, we are enemies. Even if these two adults here were to think otherwise, it won't be the same case for all the others.
Looking up at the two adults, who were expressing gentle smiles, I couldn't help but bicker from the inside,
'Those smiles of yours... how true are they?'
With a replicated smile on my face, I suppressed the nervousness that began to emerge once again. Supporting Konan's weight, I slowly stood up from the position where I was lying down.
Walking up to where Yahiko and Nagato were sleeping, I checked Nagato once again briefly. Then, stopping in front of Yahiko, I slammed my fist weakly on top of the sleeping orange boy's head.
"Ow!" Yahiko exclaimed as he was instantly awakened from his slumber.
"Sup, Yahiko." I grinned heartily in front of him, to which he responded with an eagerness of his own.
"Akashi." Yahiko muttered while holding his chest from the sudden surprise that I gave him, "You really did it. Heh, Nagato is safe—"
Then he momentarily paused. Though I was grinning, he saw my eyes, which held nothing but seriousness.
"—now." He slowly stood up, looking around the tent while doing so.
Flipping my overgrown hair so that it didn't impair my vision, I turned around and finally gazed at the two adults once again,
and to my surprise, they were looking at the two of us with nothing but amusement.
'...Well,' I guess we've been read already.
"Huh?" Konan looked back and forth between the adults and me, unsure of what exactly was going on.
Though I've been trying my best to hide my emotion, I couldn't prevent the millions of thoughts from entering my head.
They found out that Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato required help, without me giving out the information. How? I doubted that they bothered themselves to track down my pathway for the past week, and even if they did so, they wouldn't have been able to finish this early—especially in the land of rain where all traces disappear within a short period of time.
If so, although it was a scary thought, there remained only one answer: they somehow read through my memory while I was unconscious. Maybe it's me being paranoid, but I found that there's no other way that they could've learnt that the three little kids have hidden themselves inside the cold and wet cave.
Immediately after such a conclusion has been made, I unconsciously placed my hand in the pocket to grip a kunai that I was always carrying around, only to remember that I didn't bring any prior to my departure from the cave.
The white-haired man let out a chuckle upon seeing my caution. The blonde woman, on the other hand, snorted, "Why so frightened? It's not like we are going to benefit from killing you."
Yahiko tensed up after hearing the word 'killing.' Konan, whose face turned pale, ran to where Yahiko and I were standing.
'They are lying,' I thought. Nagato, his eyes are special, special enough to kill two ninjas in one go.
"Haha! This kid is pretty funny, isn't it, Tsunade?" The white-haired man laughed boisterously, unable to suppress his laughter any longer.
"Tch, annoying, more like." The blonde woman, now named Tsunade, clicked her tongue with a frown, "A kid trying to act as if he's mature... it's not even funny."
"Aw come on! You never agree with me, not even once!"
"Listen, Akashi or whatever you may be." Ignoring the white-haired man's words, Tsunade said to me impassively, "Believe it or not, we are not interested in you or your friends. We are freaking tired from this war already, and I f****** don't want to get nightmares in my sleep due to killing little children like you."
She then pointed her finger at Nagato, "His eyes? look cool. Special, maybe. But I don't feel like pulling them out like some power-hungry bas****s that I know."
However, us three, who were in a panic, didn't hear her words.
Yahiko and Konan gulped unconsciously. I placed my palms away from the vision of two adults, and lit up the small fire, ready to use whatever I have to retaliate.
Then came, a burst of some sort. All of a sudden, I found myself suffocating. A fear. The world turned red, and my whole body trembled. The woman, Tsunade, in front of me looked like a demon with red eyes. I was sweating profusely. I felt dizzy. I—
"Haa... haa... haa..."
I found myself breathing heavily as everything returned back to normal. My legs lost their weights, and I fell down to the ground.
"A-Akashi!" Yahiko said with widened eyes, unaware of what just happened. Konan too expressed confusion and worry, with this being the first time she's seen me terrified.
"Uh... isn't that a little too much, Tsunade—"
"Shut up, Jiraiya!" Tsunade barked at the man, whose name was now known to be Jiraiya, and turned back at me.
"See?! If I wanted, I could've killed you already, like whenever! So stop thinking that we are going to do something to you, and act like a damn kid that you are!"
I, still sweating profusely from the aftermath of the sudden burst from Tsunade, finally opened my mouth,
"...Googoogaga."
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I like this kid!!" Jiraiya fell to the ground while laughing tears out.
Tsunade looked at me in disbelief.