Chapter 24: Chance Encounter

"Seimei, over here!"

On a street in Konoha Village, Ryosuke waved to Seimei from afar, with Mizutani Shizuko standing beside him.

Hearing this, Seimei walked over unhurriedly.

As Seimei approached, Ryosuke said with dissatisfaction, "Seimei, you're too slow. We agreed to go shopping together, can't you arrive earlier?"

Seimei knew that Ryosuke wasn't really dissatisfied, just habitually complaining, so he didn't explain anything and just asked, "Where should we go first?"

Originally, with Seimei's personality, it was impossible for him to waste time shopping.

There wasn't much to see in Konoha anyway.

But considering that he had been too tense lately, after some hesitation, he agreed to Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko's invitation to come and relax.

It had been half a month since the 'Reflecting Heart Technique's' effectiveness had decreased.

During this half month, Furukawa had taken them on another C-rank mission.

However, it wasn't bandit suppression, but escorting a merchant caravan.

Although they encountered some trouble along the way, it was all within the scope of the mission, and they didn't encounter any real danger.

This made Seimei once again sigh with relief that it was good not to have the protagonist's halo.

"Let's go over there. There's a newly opened dango shop there. It's very delicious."

Ryosuke pointed and said.

Hearing this, Seimei looked in the direction Ryosuke was pointing. There was indeed a newly opened shop with a long queue in front of it. The food should be good.

Just as he was thinking this, Seimei suddenly heard a few 'familiar' names.

"Kakashi, walk faster. We need to make up for Rin's missed birthday today."

"Ah, Obito, let it go..."

"No, we must make it up. I know there's a newly opened dango shop ahead. It's very delicious. I'll treat you later, Kakashi. Don't fight with me for it..."

'Kakashi... Obito... Rin...'

Reciting these names in his heart, Seimei looked in the direction the voices came from.

He saw three figures, not very tall, walking together on the other side of the street.

The person in front had their back to him, and on the back of their clothes, like him, was the Uchiha clan symbol. If nothing unexpected happened, it should be Uchiha Obito.

He was excitedly saying something, seemingly not caring about the gazes of the people around him.

The two people behind, a boy and a girl, were facing him, allowing him to easily see their faces.

Well...

No, one of them couldn't be seen clearly.

He was about eleven or twelve years old, with silver hair, carrying a short sword, wearing a mask, and had an indifferent expression. It was Hatake Kakashi, who hadn't yet come out of the shadow of his father's death.

With the mask covering his face, even face-to-face, Seimei couldn't see his full appearance.

Just as Seimei was observing him, the other party also looked over.

'Such sharp perception!'

Seimei was still amazed, but the moment their eyes met, a chill surged into his heart.

It was a strange feeling, as if he was being stared at by some ferocious beast, making his heart tremble.

Seimei quickly looked away.

"Seimei, what's wrong?"

Seeing Seimei suddenly stop and his face turn a bit pale, Mizutani Shizuko asked with concern.

*Exhale*

Seimei let out a breath and slowly said, "It's nothing."

With that, he moved his feet and continued walking forward, his gaze inevitably meeting Kakashi's again.

However, this time, he didn't have the fear from before.

That's right, he had been afraid during their previous eye contact.

It was true that he had killed people, but those were just some 'defenseless' bandits and robbers. Kakashi was different.

He had truly been on the battlefield, crawling and fighting in mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They were not on the same level at all.

Therefore, it was no big deal to feel fear, as long as he could overcome it.

On the other side.

Uchiha Obito saw Kakashi looking behind him and asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

As he spoke, he also turned his head to look.

With just a glance, he recognized Seimei's identity.

There was no way, that 'ping pong paddle' was too conspicuous.

'A junior from the clan, huh?'

Thinking this in his heart, Obito withdrew his gaze and asked Kakashi, "What's wrong with him?"

From Seimei's attire and age, it could be inferred that he was most likely a graduate from this year.

Uchiha Obito couldn't understand why such a person was worthy of Kakashi's attention.

Hearing Obito's question, Kakashi just shook his head without saying much.

Soon, both groups arrived in front of the dango shop.

Kakashi, Obito, and Rin were in front, while Seimei and his two teammates were behind.

In the queue, Obito and Ryosuke kept talking, Rin and Mizutani Shizuko echoed each other, while Kakashi and Seimei remained silent.

A few minutes later, Kakashi and the others bought their dango and left together.

Seimei stood in the queue, looking at the backs of the three as they left, and muttered to himself, "They should be back to participate in the Chunin Exams."

That's right, after some thought, he had roughly guessed why Kakashi and the others appeared in the village.

Konoha held the Chunin Exams twice a year, once in early January and once in early July.

It was now the end of November, and the time for the new Chunin Exams was approaching. Combined with their ages, it wasn't difficult to guess the purpose of their return at this time.

One month's time was both long and short.

In peacetime, it was naturally nothing. One month was definitely enough to rush back. But in wartime, this time was a bit tight.

Although most Genin were cannon fodder on the battlefield, it definitely didn't include those recommended by their Jonin leaders to participate in the Chunin Exams.

And this kind of Genin usually had certain tasks on the battlefield.

To gather these people, it naturally couldn't be done with just a casual order like mobilizing those cannon fodder Genin. At the very least, someone had to be arranged to take over their work.

In addition, for the safety of these people, someone had to be specifically sent to escort them.

To some extent, these Genin were the future of the village. If anything happened to them on the way, the village might face a generational gap.

Therefore, for safety reasons, they definitely wouldn't all return at the same time.

In that case, it wasn't surprising to see them a month in advance.

If he wasn't mistaken, these three were probably the first batch of Genin to return to the village, and there would probably be more returning in the next month.

As for whether his guess was accurate, he just needed to observe the number of young Genin in the village in the next month.

However...

'Chunin Exams...'

Seimei had a feeling that after the Chunin Exams, their batch of newbies might be sent to the battlefield.

In other words, he didn't have much time left.

Thinking of this, Seimei couldn't wait to go home and train immediately.

But looking at his two teammates in front, he finally suppressed the restlessness in his heart.

Since he had decided to relax, he couldn't give up halfway.

As the saying went, sharpening the knife wouldn't delay the woodcutting.

The short rest now was for the sake of even harder training later.

"Seimei, what flavor do you want?"

While Seimei was lost in thought, Ryosuke turned around and asked.

"Spicy."

Seimei replied casually.

(End of Chapter)