"Seimei, over here!"
In a street within Konoha Village, Ryosuke waved at Seimei from a distance, with Mizutani Shizuko standing beside him.
Upon hearing this, Seimei walked over at a leisurely pace.
When Seimei got closer, Ryosuke complained, "Seimei, you're too slow! We agreed to hang out together; couldn't you have arrived earlier?"
Seimei knew that Ryosuke wasn't genuinely unhappy; he was just habitually complaining, so he didn't bother to explain. Instead, he asked, "Where are we headed first?"
Normally, given Seimei's personality, he wouldn't waste time shopping.
Konoha doesn't have much to offer for shopping.
However, considering that he had been too tense during this period, Seimei hesitated for a moment before agreeing to Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko's invitation to relax a bit.
Half a month had passed since the effectiveness of the 'Heart Reflection Jutsu' diminished.
During this time, Furukawa had taken them on a C-Rank Mission again.
This time, instead of dealing with bandits, they were escorting a merchant caravan.
Although they encountered some troubles along the way, everything stayed within the scope of the mission, and they didn't face any real danger.
This made Seimei once again sigh in relief; not having the protagonist's halo was indeed a good thing.
"Let's go over there! There's a new dumpling shop that just opened, and it's really delicious," Ryosuke said, pointing ahead.
Upon hearing this, Seimei looked in the direction Ryosuke was pointing, and indeed, there was a newly opened shop with quite a line in front of it, which indicated that the food must be good.
Just as he was thinking this, Seimei suddenly heard a few "familiar" names.
"Kakashi, hurry up! We need to make up for Rin's missed birthday today."
"Ah, Obito, you don't have to…"
"No way! We have to make it up! I heard there's a new dumpling shop that just opened, and it's really delicious. I'll treat you later, Kakashi, so don't compete with me."
'Kakashi, Obito, Rin.'
Muttering these names in his mind, Seimei looked in the direction of the voices.
He saw three small figures at the other end of the street, walking together in a line.
The person in front had their back to him, wearing a shirt that bore the Uchiha Clan emblem, so it should be Uchiha Obito.
Obito was excitedly saying something, seemingly unaware of the gazes from those around him.
The two people behind him, a male and a female, were facing Seimei, allowing him to see their faces clearly.
Um…
Actually, one of them was hard to see clearly.
The person looked about eleven or twelve years old, had silver hair, carried a tanto on their back, wore a mask, and had an indifferent expression—this was none other than Hatake Kakashi, who had yet to emerge from the shadow of his father's death.
With the mask covering his face, even when facing each other, Seimei couldn't see Kakashi's full appearance.
As Seimei observed him, Kakashi also looked over.
'What sharp sensing!'
Seimei was still amazed, but the moment their gazes met, a chill surged into his heart.
It was a strange feeling, as if he were being targeted by some ferocious beast, causing his heart to tremble.
Seimei quickly averted his gaze.
"Seimei, what's wrong?"
Noticing Seimei suddenly stop in his tracks with a somewhat pale expression, Mizutani Shizuko asked with concern.
Whew—
Seimei exhaled a breath of air and slowly replied, "It's nothing."
After speaking, he shifted his steps and continued forward, his gaze inevitably meeting Kakashi's once again.
However, this time, he no longer felt the fear he had moments ago.
Indeed, he had killed before, but those were merely bandits and robbers who were "as defenseless as a chick." Kakashi was different.
Kakashi was someone who had truly been on the battlefield, crawling through mountains of corpses and seas of blood; they were simply not on the same level.
Thus, feeling fear was nothing to be ashamed of, as long as he could overcome it.
On the other side, Uchiha Obito noticed Kakashi looking behind him and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
As he spoke, he turned to look as well.
With just one glance, he recognized Seimei's identity.
There was no way to miss it; that "Uchiha Logo" was too eye-catching.
'A junior from the clan?'
Thinking this, Obito looked away and asked Kakashi, "What's up with him?"
From Seimei's appearance and age, it could be inferred that he was most likely a graduate this year.
Obito couldn't understand what made someone like him worthy of Kakashi's attention.
Hearing Obito's question, Kakashi simply shook his head and didn't say much.
Before long, they all arrived in front of the dumpling shop.
Kakashi, Obito, and Rin stood in front, while Seimei and his two companions stood behind.
In the group, Obito and Ryosuke were chatting non-stop, while Rin and Mizutani Shizuko chimed in. Kakashi and Seimei, on the other hand, remained silent.
A few minutes later, after Kakashi and the others bought their dumplings, they left together.
Seimei stood in the group, watching the three of them walk away, muttering to himself, "They must be back for the Chunin exam."
That's right; after some thought, he had roughly guessed why Kakashi and the others were in the village.
Konoha holds the Chunin exam twice a year, once at the beginning of January and once at the beginning of July.
Now it was the end of November, and the time for the Chunin exam was approaching. Coupled with their ages, it was not difficult to guess the purpose of their return.
A month's time could feel long or short.
In peacetime, it wouldn't be an issue; a month would be plenty of time to return. However, during wartime, that time felt a bit short.
Although the vast majority of Genin acted as cannon fodder on the battlefield, that certainly did not include those recommended by the Jonin to participate in the Chunin exam.
And this kind of Genin usually undertakes certain tasks on the battlefield.
To gather these people together, it certainly wouldn't be as simple as issuing a command like for the cannon fodder Genin; at the very least, someone would need to be arranged to take over their work.
Moreover, for the safety of these individuals, special personnel would need to be assigned to escort them.
In a way, these Genin represent the future of the village, and if something were to happen to them on the way, the village might face a crisis.
Therefore, for safety reasons, they wouldn't return all at once.
With that in mind, seeing them a month in advance wouldn't be surprising.
If he was not mistaken, the three of them should be the first batch of Genin returning to the village, and it was likely that more would come back over the next month.
As for whether this speculation was accurate, it could be determined by observing the number of young Genin in the village over the coming month.
However,
"Chunin exam"
Seimei had a gut feeling that after the Chunin exam, this group of rookies would likely be sent to the battlefield.
In other words, he didn't have much time left.
As soon as he thought of this, Seimei wished he could go home and train right away.
But after glancing at his two teammates in front of him, he ultimately suppressed the restlessness in his heart.
Since he had decided to relax a bit, he couldn't give up halfway.
As the saying goes, "Sharpening the axe doesn't delay the work of chopping wood."
This brief rest was for the sake of more diligent training later on.
"Seimei, what flavor do you want?"
Just as Seimei was deep in thought, Ryosuke turned around to ask.
"Spicy," Seimei replied casually.
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