Intermission 『4』A pity

At the border between the land of fire and the land of wind, a man wearing a dark cloak could be seen speeding towards the direction of Miyazawa village. His face was hidden underneath a mask, so his identity remained a mystery.

A child seemed to be following him. She had long, red spiky hair, but her face was also covered with a mask.

They both seemed to be in a hurry and reached their destination in no time. Once there, they stopped for a second, and the child pointed towards the center of town.

Not wasting any time, they quickly and easily reached the abandoned building, which had been destroyed due to the previous battle. In fact, the whole area was in shambles.

Multiple buildings were destroyed, and the ground was full of debris. There was even a relatively big crater.

They both looked over the area, and soon found Hanae's body. Although she had huge holes going through her body, she seemed alive. Even her organs were slowly starting to regenerate.

"Sigh… Her vitality is incredible no matter how many times I see it. She's exceptional even amongst her peers."

'It's a great shame that she didn't turn out as we had planned…'

Listening to the mysterious man talk, the little girl helped him pick Hanae up and asked a question that she had on her mind.

"Who could've taken down Hanae-san? I thought she was the strongest among us…"

Hearing her, the man looked around and saw a child laying down close by. Taking a good look, he quickly recognized him as the Kazekage's son. The picture started getting clearer and clearer in his head.

'Was it Shukaku? How the hell did she manage to find Shukaku of all things…'

"This kid's chakra… It's scary."

The man looked at the trembling little girl and sighed once again. All of this was too much to handle. How could she have escaped the hideout? Although he had hundreds of questions in his head, he'd rather just leave them for later.

With a flick of his wrist, he left the four ninja and departed along with the little girl.