Pfft!
Chinatsu completely immersed herself in the warm hot spring. She knew the letter outside was from Hidan and Kakuzu, and she could roughly guess what it contained, but nothing was more important than taking a bath right now!
She truly admired the residents of the Land of Water. Ever since returning from tracking Isobu and intercepting Deidara and Sasori, she had been unable to forget that humid climate. How could people live normally in such an environment?
Chinatsu closed her eyes and relaxed in the hot spring. The fatigue accumulated from traveling between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water visibly faded. In this private bathhouse within the Uchiha compound, there was no one around, so she no longer bothered maintaining her usual image. Tilting her head back, she let out a long, comfortable sigh.
Outside the bathhouse, the white carrier pigeon pecked at the window with a troubled expression. It could not return until its mission was completed, and waiting around was incredibly boring.
White Dove: Fine, I'll wait a little longer.
Ten minutes passed.
Half an hour passed.
An hour passed…
The white dove was no longer standing. Instead, it lay lazily on a protruding section of the wall outside the window. Inside the bathhouse, Chinatsu remained in the hot spring, leisurely drinking bottle after bottle of fresh milk.
"Burp~ Almost done~"
Chinatsu let out a satisfied burp and placed the empty bottle beside seven or eight other empty bottles before finally climbing out of the hot spring.
After drying herself and changing into clean clothes, the energetic Chinatsu had officially returned!
"That felt amazing, that felt amazing. If I can sleep for twelve hours afterward, life will be perfect."
Stretching her body, Chinatsu walked out of the bathhouse, opened the window, picked up the carrier pigeon with two fingers, and removed the envelope tied to its leg.
She quickly read through the letter.
Just as expected.
Hidan and Kakuzu had already arrived in the Land of Lightning. Since Pain had ordered them to target the Two-Tails and Seven-Tails, the two had no idea what they should do next and were waiting for instructions.
Chinatsu originally intended to write a reply. She returned to her room, took out paper and a brush, and wrote a single word.
Then she crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into the trash.
"Forget it. Carrier pigeons are too slow. Besides, I have a bad feeling about this. I'd better go personally."
Chinatsu sighed helplessly.
Fortunately, unlike the Land of Water, the climate of the Land of Lightning was relatively dry. More importantly, she had already been there several times in the past while carrying out intelligence-gathering missions for Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"The Land of Lightning… Kumogakure… Yugito Nii…" Chinatsu muttered.
As memories surfaced, she unconsciously reached for her lower back.
That was where she had once been stabbed during her mission years ago.
The Land of Lightning.
Hidan and Kakuzu were currently eating inside a restaurant.
Neither of them was particularly hungry. They simply had absolutely nothing else to do.
Kakuzu had already counted the money in his wallet dozens of times.
Meanwhile, Hidan had even used his scythe to draw strange pictures in the dirt nearby. Kakuzu stared at them for a long time but still couldn't understand what they represented.
"Eat slower. This restaurant is expensive. I'm the one paying."
Kakuzu frowned.
"And you're immortal. Why do you even need to eat so much?"
"Immortal doesn't mean I don't get hungry."
Hidan shoved food into his mouth.
"Besides, even Lord Jashin wouldn't expect believers to starve themselves. Weapons can't kill me, but hunger still feels terrible."
Normally, Hidan would never casually reveal the weaknesses of his immortality. However, Kakuzu was already working for the same boss, so he didn't care much.
Hidan continued eating noisily.
Kakuzu's eyebrow twitched.
He wanted to complain but eventually gave up and silently continued eating.
"Next time I see the boss, I'm definitely requesting a salary increase…"
At that moment, several Kumogakure shinobi happened to pass through the nearby forest.
"Everyone, good work. Let's take a short break. After that, we'll head back to Kumogakure."
The woman giving the order possessed long blonde hair tied into a ponytail that reached her waist.
It was none other than Yugito Nii, the jinchūriki of the Two-Tails, Matatabi.
The accompanying Kumogakure shinobi immediately sat down in relief.
"Captain Yugito, aren't you resting?"
"No. You all rest."
Yugito lightly leaped onto a nearby tree branch.
"Even after a mission ends, a shinobi must remain vigilant."
The ninja who had spoken could only smile helplessly.
"See? I told you. Captain Yugito never changes."
Another ninja laughed bitterly.
"Ever since that mission years ago, she's become even stricter with herself. She trains constantly and treats every mission like a battlefield."
"As a shinobi, she's nearly perfect."
"Only as a shinobi, though."
Hearing this, the first ninja lowered his hand.
Rumors were one thing.
Actually serving under Yugito was another.
Only those who had accompanied her on missions truly understood her strength.
Even without drawing upon Matatabi's chakra, Yugito was already one of Kumogakure's strongest shinobi. If she fully transformed into the Two-Tails, many believed only the Fourth Raikage and Killer B could compete with her.
Standing atop the tree branch, Yugito carefully observed the surroundings.
The memory of Chinatsu's apparent death years ago still lingered in her heart.
A teammate dying during a mission was common in the shinobi world.
Yet Yugito always felt that if she had been stronger and more vigilant, perhaps she could have changed the outcome.
For a shinobi, that was an unforgivable failure.
After returning to Kumogakure, Yugito threw herself into increasingly brutal training. Her current strength had long surpassed what it had been back then.
"What is this?"
Yugito suddenly frowned.
She landed lightly on a patch of dirt some distance away.
Looking down, she saw crooked drawings scratched into the ground.
Clearly, someone had created them using a sharp weapon.
Yugito crouched down and examined the bizarre artwork.
The drawings were so abstract that ordinary people would never understand them.
Unfortunately…
Her thought process happened to perfectly match Hidan's.
"This person…"
Yugito's eyes widened slightly.
"Why does this look so familiar?"
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