"?"
While Furina was still marveling at Uchiha Hikari's three-tomoe Mangekyo Sharingan, she suddenly noticed that the streaming screen in the system, which had remained unchanged for a long time, was starting to change again, leaving her full of question marks.
This doesn't seem right. It's only been a month or two since Naruto left the village for training. How could the plot update already? Could it be some original storyline or something?
Full of doubt, Furina immediately started multitasking: one part of her continued chatting with Uchiha Hikari, while the other focused on watching the streaming footage.
After watching for a while, Furina found it increasingly familiar, until subtitles suddenly popped up and she realized what the current stream was.
Damn it, isn't this the time I went to the Land of Snow on that mission? But the only ones who participated in that mission were me and Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke, the two main protagonists, weren't involved at all. Can this really be used as streaming content?
Since it wasn't live, Furina could also see the duration of this stream: just over an hour in total. It was probably only showing some key moments.
For example, the battles with the snow ninja, or Zabuza teaming up with Kakashi to defeat Kazahana Doto, or activating the geothermal reactor and drastically changing the Land of Snow's environment, things like that.
Wait, over an hour, plus those character cameos earlier... Could this be some kind of theatrical movie? But a movie without the main protagonists involved... is that really okay?
Although she couldn't quite figure it out, the rising Affection Value couldn't lie. The originally slow-growing Affection Value exploded in speed after this apparent theatrical movie appeared.
In just a short while, the original Affection Value had doubled, and it continued increasing without any sign of slowing down.
Since she couldn't figure out what was going on, she might as well just enjoy it. Following her "lie flat" philosophy, Furina stopped bothering to think about this stream and turned her attention to the constantly scrolling barrage comments.
No choice really—only when reading these silly netizen comments did Furina feel a bit of her past-life vibe, that joy of surfing the internet.
"I didn't see it wrong, right? The first Naruto movie actually has no scenes with the protagonists? Or are Naruto and Sasuke going to show up later?"
"What do you mean no protagonists? Isn't Fufu the protagonist? You think the tragic-backstory kid with a powerful sealed force inside him, Naruto, is the protagonist,
but actually you've been tricked. Fufu is the real protagonist—the genius-type, never-takes-a-loss refreshing-protagonist kind, while Naruto is the dumb junior type."
"But if we're talking about tragic backstories, Fufu seems pretty similar to Naruto. No, wait—Furina, Naruto, and Sasuke are all pretty much the same. Put them together and you still can't scrape up a single set of parents."
"The guy above, I have no grudge against you, so why are you randomly hurting my feelings? Compensate me for my eyes that didn't see your text!"
[Affection Value +1 +1 +1... +1 +1]
"Ahem." After seeing this rather hellish comment, Furina felt as though some divine beast had stampeded through her heart. It wasn't that she had deep feelings for her cheap parents; it was just a bit too brutal, and she was one of the main figures in it.
Furina really wanted to know how the person who posted that comment managed to type such ice-cold words with 37°C fingers. Hurting her young heart across dimensions like that was just too much.
"Hey, are you thinking about something? If you're tired, we can head back first."
Suddenly, Furina felt something white waving in front of her eyes, like some delicious food, snapping her—whose attention had been caught by the barrage—back to reality.
"Ahem ahem, I'm not that tired, but let's call it a day for today. I'm starting to feel a bit hungry."
After realizing that what had been waving in front of her was Uchiha Hikari's hand, Furina suddenly felt too embarrassed to meet the other's eyes for some reason.
Not only that, her dodging gaze made Uchiha Hikari feel a bit strange, unconsciously wondering if she had done something wrong just now.
"We should think about what to eat later. That way we can save some time when we get there."
Although Uchiha Hikari was still puzzled, the extremely embarrassed Furina didn't want to recall what had just happened, so she bluntly changed the subject without caring if it felt forced.
"That, I..."
...
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and soon it was the agreed-upon time with Fujita Kazu. But for some reason, even though today was supposed to be a happy occasion, the sky was covered in dark clouds, carrying a slight oppressive feeling.
Still, Furina didn't believe in metaphysics or anything. Whether it was clear skies or overcast clouds didn't matter; it wouldn't affect her mood.
"Let's go. By my calculations, it's about time. We should go see how the weapon our number-one swordsmith in the Land of Iron forged for me turned out."
After finishing her daily training for the day and resting a bit, Furina headed to Fujita Kazu's residence together with Uchiha Hikari. As expected, this would also be their last visit here.
After all, during their time here, they had already explored the entire Land of Iron. There really wasn't anything left to attract them. The only reason they were still here was Fujita Kazu's forged blade.
While waiting for her weapon, Furina naturally hadn't forgotten about Uchiha Hikari. However, Uchiha Hikari had no particular need for a weapon; for her, basic kunai and shuriken were already sufficient.
After confirming that this was truly the other's honest opinion and not just her refusing out of embarrassment, Furina gave up on the idea of finding a suitable weapon for her as well.
After all, it wasn't something essential. It wouldn't be too late to look for one when the other felt like it. No need to rush.
On the way, while Furina was lost in thought about what to name the weapon once she got it, two samurai wearing straw hats suddenly approached from the opposite direction.
Furina paid them no mind. In the Land of Samurai, samurai on the streets were far too common; it wasn't worth paying attention to.
But just as they passed each other, the samurai closer to Furina suddenly struck. He drew the sword at his waist and swung it down toward Furina in a powerful cleaving strike.