Chapter 9 - Mysterious Quest?

"Yo," said the two boys, raising their right hands to their faces with wide grins, catching Ayumu completely off guard as he hadn't expected to see them at all. Their sudden appearance was both surprising and inexplicable.

"Taro, Kenji! What are you guys doing here?" Ayumu asked, his voice a mix of surprise and happiness. He was genuinely glad to see his friends but couldn't help wondering what had brought them to this place at this particular moment.

"It's been a few days," Kenji responded casually but with some warmth.

Ayumu quickly stepped aside and gestured for his friends to come in. "Come on in, guys! It's too cold to stand out here."

Taro and Kenji exchanged smiles and walked inside, immediately feeling the warmth of the house. "Thanks, Ayumu," Taro said, rubbing his hands together. "It's freezing out there."

Kenji nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's much better in here. So, what have you been up to these past few days?"

Ayumu closed the door behind them and led them into the living room. "I've been practicing something around chakra," he said, pointing to the scrolls and papers scattered on the floor. "It's been pretty challenging, but I think I'm getting the hang of it."

Taro and Kenji looked at the scrolls with interest. "Wow, that sounds intense," Kenji remarked.

"Yeah," Ayumu replied with a determined smile. "But enough about me—what brings you guys here?"

Taro grinned. "We need your help with something."

Ayumu's curiosity was piqued. "What do you need help with?" he asked, his eyes lighting up with interest.

Taro responded with a mischievous grin, "An adventure, to help us look for something."

Kenji then chimed in, trying to look enigmatic, "You see, we're looking for something..." continuing with an almost righteous look, "It's an important task only we could take."

Ayumu cut him off, knowing Kenji could sometimes be playful. "Alright, alright, just tell me what you need," he said, looking at Kenji with a slightly weirded-out expression, urging him to get to the point.

"You see, it's a serious topic," Kenji said, pacing across Ayumu's home. He took a seat on the couch, intertwining his hands and staring deeply at Ayumu. Then he proceeded to say, "Hana's birthday present."

His words caused rain to pour, thunder to rumble, and the heavens to weep, or something like that. Instead, he got a questioning response from Ayumu, "Hana's birthday?"

"Yes."

"So how exactly does this tie into this adventure of yours?" questioned Ayumu, trying to entice Kenji to explain the whole situation.

"You see, we've thought of the perfect gift. It's just difficult getting it," he exclaimed.

"You see there's a certain flower, it said to almost always stay bloomed throughout Sleet and snow, it supposed rare to find" he explained the so called, treasure they were looking to fine.

"So why a flower?" interjected Ayumu.

"Because girls love flowers, at least that's what my mother said," replied Kenji.

Taro then added, "It's mainly because the flower is the Hana flower. We thought Hana would be interested, plus Kenji heard where we might find it."

.

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That's how Ayumu found himself donning his robe, which somewhat insulated him against the biting cold, and grabbing a bag in which he stored his kunai, just in case anything went awry.

As they walked past numerous buildings toward the outskirts of the village, the silhouette of a giant wall loomed ever closer.

"So, how exactly do we find this flower?" Ayumu inquired, his wariness growing with each step further from the village center. The whole endeavor felt increasingly surreal.

Kenji's eyes sparkled with a mix of excitement and determination. "In a medical book, it mentioned that some grow on the east side of the village," he said. "It's supposed to be pink," he added, describing the flower and mentioning he made a drawing.

Taro, raising an eyebrow in surprise and curiosity, interrupted, "You want to be a medical ninja?" focusing more on the first part about looking in medical books.

Kenji shrugged slightly, a sheepish smile forming on his face. "I was mainly reading to find out about poison, and books like that included a lot about different plants and things," he explained, his expression softening as he spoke.

As they drew closer to the wall, Ayumu couldn't help but notice the towering barrier surrounding the hidden sand village, which was created in a ravine. It was far taller than any building in the village and looked incredibly challenging for kids like them to scale.

'Although it's tilted at an angle where we could possibly crawl up, that would take forever. Are we actually supposed to climb this wall? There has to be some type of shortcut, right?' Ayumu thought, anxiety bubbling within him as he stood at the base of what felt more like a cliff.

"We won't get into trouble climbing up, right?" Ayumu voiced one of his worries, especially considering this was part of the village's core defense. They would most likely encounter patrolling ninja on the lookout for enemy infiltrators.

"That shouldn't be a problem; some of the older academy kids practice here all the time," Taro reassured him, trying to alleviate his concerns. This made Ayumu worry a bit less for now.

"So how do we get up there? If we're unlucky, it could get dark before we make it to the top," he voiced another concern.

Kenji, staring around as if looking for something, then said, "There should be some stairs." Not finding anything, he added, "We just have to move along the wall."

Thus, they began moving along the wall, staring at every piece of rock and sand, looking for the steps that could take them to the top.