Chapter Seventy-four The Young Master Descends

  The kid then revealed a rich and interesting smile, as if he had discovered something fun, and looked at himself with a strange gaze, saying: "Do you want to know? Is it just wanting to know? Or gathering intelligence?"

  "What's wrong, little friend?" The young man felt that he didn't know how to respond to this sentence, saying more would be wrong and also increase the chances of making a mistake, but not answering would make it even more problematic, so he quickly passed it over with an ambiguous tone.

  The young man found that his usual fluent eloquence was almost useless when facing this person.

  "You're really cute, I didn't expect you'd make this face too, such a troubled expression."

  The child laughed softly, and the laughter was pleasant, completely different from "his".

  The young man analyzed the message in the child's words, and that "you also", was it indicating that this child had known him before? He always felt that this child seemed very familiar to himself, but a person with such a striking appearance, if he had seen him before, would not have forgotten.

  Right, I will never forget!

  "You... you know me? We met before in Konoha?" The young man quickly corrected his unusual speech.

  What the child said was "born in Konoha", not "living in Konoha". Is it to say that he hasn't been in Konoha for long, or even less than his experiences outside of Konoha? This child may have left here at a young age, and Konoha is just a birthplace.

  The boy summed it up, but felt that "child" and "early years" were a bit strange.

  Moreover, he is so young, can it be that he went out alone? If he was following someone, but Konoha hasn't had a ninja return in years, could it be that he came back alone?

  But why didn't he return to the village, but instead ran into the forest? Was there a conflict with the people of Moku Village?

  If he just came back recently, doesn't that mean his past is in conflict with the people of Konohagakure? That's why he appears here at this time. In a place where no one else exists.

  "This is the first time I've seen you." The child paused for a moment before answering, but the young man felt that the child's pause was not to think about how to answer him, but rather to give himself time to think.

  Moreover, young people always feel that children seem to put stress on the two words "see".

  "See you"... rather than "know you"? When ordinary people meet a stranger for the first time, it's normal to say "see you", but this kid emphasizes "see you" so much, it means that apart from "seeing", he must have known himself through other means!

  I shouldn't have shown any weaknesses, with mediocre grades, an ordinary personality, decent treatment of others, and a low-key daily life. I shouldn't be noticed by anyone.

  It seems like I've paused for too long, and I must quickly think of another topic to shift the focus. However, in order to avoid stirring up trouble, I shouldn't continue with this topic. This kid, his mental state feels even more profound and mysterious than his appearance suggests.

  "Right, didn't you say someone was looking for me? Who is it?" The young man quickly recalled his conversation with the child and picked up on an easy topic to continue, but only now did he think of how he knew someone was looking for him. He hadn't noticed anyone around, even if there was, how did he know they were "looking" for him?

  Having abilities close to those of a high-ranking ninja, and yet you haven't discovered any signs of people other than yourself nearby?

  But does that conversation indicate that this six-year-old child has a perceptual range far beyond his own, or may have some special ninja skills to detect distant visitors?

  And yet, the moment I close my eyes, it's as if the child in front of me doesn't exist, just like before when I didn't notice that there was someone on that tree. Is it some kind of secret hiding technique or a special bloodline limit? Do those people searching for him have the same ability? But I've never heard of any family with such abilities in the Hidden Leaf Village, and no new families have joined in recent years...

  But at this child's age, he should be in school already. Those Mu Ye "noble families" seem to have many children of the right age as well, and then there's that genius younger brother...

  It seems that this year's new students at the Ninja School are quite interesting, and I might be able to find an opportunity to go back and "care" for my junior brothers and sisters more.

  "Actually, what you want to know, I don't mind telling you directly, as long as I can answer it. So please don't ask me questions that make me think about what you really want to ask... Can we just do this? The little kid yawned slightly at this time, and his whole body exuded a lazy atmosphere. "Thinking too much, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep later!"

  The child's personality has been changing all along, almost without rules, is it nature or intentional? No matter which one, the mystery on his body is still elusive. Every time I thought I had reached the bottom, I found that there was another deeper layer.

  The young man fell silent for a moment, just as he was about to ask again. The child's slightly lazy expression had completely disappeared, replaced by raised eyebrows, a slightly lifted chin, and eyes that were narrowed slightly, looking at himself.

  Although he was obviously taller than the child, at this moment, the young man had a feeling that the child was looking down on him from a higher place.

  "I won't bother you, actually, my... tool is looking for me, hehehe." The child finished speaking and burst into another fit of light laughter, and the oppressive feeling just now seemed like his own illusion.

  However, the boy found that the child's laughter didn't have much humor in it, and this laughter felt like a grammatical particle.

  "Tool?" What did he mean by "tool"? And what about the pause before saying "tool"?

  "My sole tool, a promise between each other not to betray or abandon."

  Although "tool" is a very cold word, when spoken from the mouth of a child, a young man can discover the child's concern and faint attachment to "tools".

  Maybe becoming a "tool" in a child's mouth would be happier than being a "subordinate" or even a "friend"!

  The boy suddenly came up with a strange conclusion.

  The little boy stood there, facing him, smiling faintly, only six or seven years old. The morning sunlight filtered through the sparse leaves and spilled onto the ground, casting mottled shadows.

  He stood there with his hands empty, the moonlight casting a long shadow of hair down, covering the top half of his face, but not hiding the sharp chin and the slightly raised, smiling corners of his mouth.

  He stood with his back to the light, but the dawn's rays still gave his clothes a layer of faint golden color, echoing with his long hair that was glowing red.

  It can't be a spirit, right? The young man doubted the conclusion he had just drawn.

  Have you ever had this feeling towards anyone?

  Just being alone with him, without any further action, can also feel a kind of joy called happiness.

  A cold smile spread across the young man's heart as he thought to himself that he still had the audacity to think of something as hypocritical as "happiness".

  However, just chatting like this, there was no expectation on his face, looking at his own eyes, as if he were an equal existence, not a subordinate, not a classmate, nothing, what he saw was just simple, himself.

  A faint and silent joy seeped into the young man's heart, like raindrops dissolving on the water's surface, creating transparent ripples that slowly spread out.

  "Hehe, I really have to go, or else it won't be fun if I get found out, hehe cough." The child's words seemed urgent, but seeing the child's calm expression made the young man wonder if he had misheard.

  "You... wait." The young man felt that the child's last laugh seemed a bit unusual.

  "Huh?" The child immediately turned his gaze towards himself as soon as he heard his own voice.

  The young man walked up to the child and stretched out his hand. The child's eyes showed a hint of doubt, but he didn't back away.

  Does he really believe I won't hurt him? Believe a good deceiver?

  The boy suddenly reached out to touch the child's cheek, and he thought that if the child realized he was trying to test his body temperature, he would definitely back away, so this move was already the boy's fastest.

  I just felt that the temperature on my forehead was a bit higher than usual, and it wasn't an illusion after all!

  "You have a fever." The young man was unaware of the anger in his voice.

  "Why are you so angry?" The child didn't mind that the boy mentioned his fever, but instead was more concerned about the reason for the boy's anger.

  "You have a fever!"

  "What's wrong with you, why say it again?"

  "How did you get a fever? It rained all night last night, and you slept in the forest wearing wet clothes for the whole night!" The young man immediately analyzed the cause from the child's words.

  All I saw was a strange glint in the kid's eyes, "What are you so tense about?"

  "Why am I so nervous about this? This kid has nothing to do with me, why should I care?" The youth kept asking himself.

  "This is really unlike you!" The child suddenly exclaimed.

  Doesn't this really look like me? "What makes you think I look like someone else?" Anger appeared in the young man's words.

  What does he think of himself? Is it also a disguise of his own?

  The boy didn't expect the child to apologize immediately, and also...

  "Sorry, it's my fault." The child took a slight step back and bowed slightly in apology.

  The young man heard the sincerity in the child's tone and suddenly felt that his anger just now was unnecessary.

  The young man found himself analyzing this little kid more and more with each passing day, only to have his analysis overturned time and again.

  "Still analyzing me, huh? This can't be your true nature!" The kid said in a soft voice, with a hint of amusement, but the young man didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

  Of course not... Wait, it seems like I've been led astray from the original topic. What was I originally going to say? "You have a fever now, you need to take medicine, and your wet clothes are still on, they need to be changed too. Come back with me." The young man had never before actively invited someone to his home on his own initiative, when usually he would make every excuse to avoid it, but today... he couldn't wait for him to come over.

  This is not like his usual self, the young man found that in front of this child, he has become somewhat abnormal, but he doesn't mind this abnormality at all, which is what the young man fears most... or rather, where he panics.

  "You're afraid of me." The child said calmly, using a declarative sentence.

  "Even you are afraid of me, should I be proud of that? Hehe." The child muttered to himself in a low voice.

  "Whatever, why would I say so much to you? It's not like me. Maybe it has something to do with your sharp eyes that are full of calculation and hypocrisy! Those are a pair of eyes that I miss, 'he' always looked at others with those eyes, but his level is far higher than yours, haha." The kid seemed to have burst out laughing again.

  "But ordinary people probably wouldn't like this kind of gaze, right? And it would reveal your true thoughts, wouldn't it? If you're going to deceive someone, do a good job or else what if others find out? If the internal conditions aren't good enough to change, then start with external conditions and find something to cover it up! For example, wear glasses?"

  "Are glasses okay?" The young man had already taken the child's opinion into consideration. It was the first time he so simply and directly accepted someone else's suggestion.

  "I'll leave then, as for visiting your home, we can talk about it another time! Otherwise, this is also a great place to meet secretly."

  "(Secret meeting?) “…………your burn…….” The child's thinking is obviously not on the same level as a teenager's. When a teenager encounters this kind of person for the first time, they don't know how to react. Normal responses can't keep up with the child's rhythm."

  "Besides, don't worry, my burn is fine, you don't need to mind it, this kind of thing happens all the time, haha."

  "Your laughter is unpleasant!" To deal with such an unconventional person, only an unconventional response can be effective.

  Finally, a more genuine expression appeared on the child's face, first a slight astonishment, followed by a smile, this time the smile was much more sincere than the previous faint smile.

  "My laughter sounds bad, right? Then I'll take it as a compliment, thank you."

  "...the young man suddenly felt that his level of eloquence and comprehension were originally so severely inadequate."

  The young man was always confident in everything, but this "person" ... ... just like "him", unpredictable, same ... ... crazy, only his craziness is exposed on the outside, and this kid... although every move he makes seems normal, but overall, it's as if the young man feels that his words and actions have a kind of unconscious underlying madness, a feeling of "meaninglessness"? The young man wasn't quite sure about this strange feeling either.

  "Finally, I'll give you a sentence... If you can't make the fake look real, then make the real look fake. And I don't mind, but I hope next time your technique will be more elegant. You've made it like this, and now I think I'd rather pretend I didn't see it." As soon as the child finished speaking, he vanished right before the young man's eyes.

  What's going on! This isn't teleportation, nor does it seem like instant movement. The little kid just touched him, and it's not a clone technique... so what is it? I don't have any information about this kind of ninjutsu, what exactly is that kid's identity?

  The young man found that when he was with this kid, he couldn't concentrate on thinking about anything!

  Also, that last sentence, "I don't mind, but I hope next time the technique can be a bit more elegant. You've done it like this, and I think even if I pretend not to see it, it's still not okay."

  It turns out he had noticed all along! When his little actions were discovered, he should have felt regretful, remorseful or tried again more carefully, but instead, he was filled with the thought "I knew I'd be found out".

  It wasn't that I hadn't thought of silencing him, but twice when I quietly reached for the sword in my hand, it seemed as if something was holding back my right hand. And when both hands showed signs of being tied up, the child revealed a strange expression, as if... disdainful and faintly mocking!

  Is it shameful to laugh at one's own obvious actions? The young man looked at his hands and couldn't help but think that he should study more hand seals that are faster, more covert, easier to cast, and more practical in effect! The attack-oriented medical ninjutsu is a good direction! Perhaps he didn't pay enough attention to it before!

  Next time I see him, I absolutely won't let him leave so easily. The young man didn't notice that he was already looking forward to the next meeting with that little kid.