Chapter 45 - End of Conflict

"His strength is really remarkable. I don't believe even Hashirama or Madara had this strength at his age."

In Konoha, news of Kagami and Mira wiping out a large group of Kumogakure shinobi was released a few weeks after it happened. Which also soon went around the entire elemental continent. Not to mention that Kagami bounty has increased, surpassing most, including the Hokage son who just received a thirty million bounty on his head.

"It means they will be coming back soon." Maru smiled before coughing a bit. "Man, I'm getting old."

"Well you're no spring duck." Taiyō sarcastically jokes.

"Haha, you got that right." Maru laughed as he mumbled the last part to himself. 'It's just that I feel it's nearing time for me to reunite with my wife and children.'

"Checkmate." Taiyō said moments later.

"Huh, you cheated." Maru shouted after a second of looking at the board.

"Which eye saw me cheat?" Taiyō retorted.

--

Unlike what most Konoha residents thought, Hiruzen didn't give the order to withdraw yet. The negotiations between both villages have yet to take place. Hence, the various camps along the border are still on full alert in case of a large siege attack by Kumogakure.

"Is that book really that interesting?" Mira asked as she took a seat next to Kagami.

Currently while on guard duty for the camp, Kagami was reading Jiraiya's Make Out book he recently released. Which he found very similar to a sappy romance novel with a bit of ecchi moments mixed in. Hence he felt a bit let down as many fan fictions and even the series itself made it sound worse than it actually is.

"It's ok, nothing amazing, but better than most on the market." Kagami answered. "I can lend it to you to read if you want."

"Ok." Mira agreed.

Then Kagami thought about it some more and wondered if he just jumped headfirst into the doghouse. Unlike him who was a reincarnation and saw more graphic and smut heavier books in his last life. Hence a slight immunity to this light ecchi novel and why he felt it was lacking, but unlike him Mira is a twelve year old girl. Who hasn't read anything like this, so a weird feeling welled up in himself as he wondered what expression she would make while reading it.

Hence, after passing her the book, he watched as her face turned red and then threw the book into his face. Then a hard glare appeared in her eyes as if she looked down on him or more so the book.

"How can you read such trash? I could write a better one." Mira said coldly.

"Really? I look forward to reading it." Kagami smiled.

"That depends if you can live until then. Now accept Mira's Divine Punishment for making me read such trash!" Mira replied as she pulled out her weapons.

A small bit of sweat appeared on Kagami's back as he began to scoot away from her.

"Father, I think it best if you run." Asura's voice trembled slightly.

"Mmm," Kagami agreed and bolted while leaving a shadow clone to keep watch.

For the next few hours, Kagami ran around the camp much to a few amusement. Until Mira felt embarrassed as many eyes watched them. Then she just stomped her feet and returned to her tent for a while to cool off.

--

A few weeks went by as the negotiations were held in Konoha a week ago. However, judging by the news that he received, Kagami felt strange at how Kumogakure still attempted to obtain the Byakugan. However, besides a small mention of this, there were no words on what followed beside a treaty was signed. So Kagami didn't know if Hizashi Hyūga still sacrificed himself or not.

"What are you thinking about?" Mira appeared.

"Nothing important." Kagami replied as he leaned back to cloud watch.

As he watched the clouds above, his view was soon blocked as Mira stood above his head. Confused why she did this, he just stared up into her dark eyes. Where a staring contest occurred to see who would say something first.

After a few minutes, Mira finally gave in and spoke first. "Rumor in camp is, most of us will be able to go home in a few days."

"Is that so?" Kagami said not surprised.

It didn't come as a surprise as the conflict basically died down for weeks now. It is now news if a squad gets into a battle, which shows this conflict is over.

"Hopefully with this, we can get a long awaited break." Mira nodded.

"Maybe." Kagami said with little hope of that happening.

If anything, for the next period of time will be like a few months ago where they will be sent on mission once in a while with a bit of time for themselves to do whatever. So he guessed it could count as a long awaited break Mira talked about.

Much like Mira predicted, the orders came down and most were relieved and sent back to the village. This naturally included Kagami and Mira, which made both relieved.

--

"The village changed so much in a few months." Mira said as they walked through the main gates of Konoha.

Inside the village, they could see some large machines working throughout the village. Cranes lifting up beams, trucks hauling supplies and roads where various chakra vehicles were moving about. Granted there weren't that many vehicles moving about and in Kagami eyes. Most of the vehicles varied in different decades in his last life with some being from the 1920s to modern times of the time he passed over.

"It seems the Hokage has been busy." Mira commented.

"I will say, I'm surprised they could set up production so fast." Kagami commented.

While it wasn't complicated, the batteries themselves are quite tricky to manufacture at a decent pace for the time being. Kagami guessed that it was done with a lot of manpower instead of machines doing most of the work. Which gave Kagami a small project for the time being as he prepares his next big one.

A project to create virtual reality training pods.