Chapter 108 Leaving, The Bathhouse Incident

  Under Ida's leadership, everyone came to the foot of the mountain behind the house. This is a ring-shaped mountain, and the mountain road surrounds the edge of the mountain all the way up, and there is only one road in the entire back mountain.

  "It's here, I've placed the items for this round at the top of the mountain. The competition is simple, whoever retrieves the item from the top of the mountain and returns to the foot of the mountain first will be the winner. Do you understand? If there are no questions, then we can begin." Ida said to Meng.

  "Uh, no problem." After Meng Ling made an OK gesture, she stood at the starting line with Ida. At the same time, Minato also came to the side with a spare flag.

  "On your mark... Get set!" With a wave of the preparatory flag, Date charged out, still running while looking back at his own back and shouting loudly: "Hmph, it seems that this time I have won for sure."

  "Is that so?" Ming Leng's voice came over coldly from in front of Ida.

  "What?" After hearing Meng Ling's voice, Ida was suddenly startled and reflexively looked forward, only to find that Meng Ling was running in front of him about a hundred meters away, but at this time, white smoke was constantly rising from his body.

  "Second Gear - Red Hawk!" As soon as the match began, Meringue immediately used the Gum-Gum Fruit to turn her body into rubber and also activated Luffy's original skill - Second Gear. Red Hawk is a technique that allows for extremely fast movement speed, and under the amplification of Second Gear, Meringue only needed to stomp on the ground dozens of times in an instant to activate Red Hawk and move. Before long, she had already arrived at the top of the mountain, took a look at the two small crystal pendants placed on a large tree at the summit, and after taking one of them down, Meringue was ready to head back.

  "But it's really tiring to keep up this pace, but we've already reached the top of the mountain. In that case, let's just end this match quickly, Shin'ei - Yata no Kagami." Having already obtained the crystal pendant, Mugen directly transformed his body and used the Flash Fruit's instant movement method - Yata no Kagami. The next moment, he appeared at the foot of the mountain, and Naruto and the others saw Mugen appear so quickly without any surprise, as if it was only natural.

  "Alright, the match is over. Now we just have to wait for Ida's arrival. Meanwhile, I can also think about what kind of request I should make to Ida later." After handing the crystal pendant to Naru, Mugen came to a big tree by the road and sat down in its shade.

  About half an hour later

  Iida walked down with her crystal pendant, looking depressed. It seemed that the reason it took about half an hour was probably because Iida already knew she would lose, so she just slowly walked down.

  "You're really laid-back, don't you have any intention of making an effort in this match?" asked Meng Ling coldly as Ida arrived in front of him.

  "What's the point? We're going to lose anyway, so why bother trying so hard? It's all just futile effort." Ida said calmly.

  "Is that so? If you know you're going to lose, then don't even try? What kind of talk is that? I've never heard anything like it. And what's the point in beating someone who doesn't even know how to struggle? Forget it, I'm just wasting my time." Meng Ling said with some indignation, snatching the crystal pendant from Minato's hand and casually tossing it to Iruka, who was still in a daze.

  "Wait until you know what a real match is, then come to Konohagakure and challenge me. Otherwise, continuing like this would be a complete waste of time. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, let's go back." With that, Mei Terumi took the three of them back to Tsunade-sama's mansion, bid farewell, and left immediately that night.

  ————I am that gorgeous dividing line————

  "Meng Ling, why did you speak so heavily earlier? It's not like your usual style." The four of Meng Ling had already left the residence of Cilang and arrived at another village. At this time, Xiaoying brought up what happened that afternoon.

  "Iida is Ibiki's younger brother, and to be honest, I also found out some things while investigating the intelligence. At that time, Iida was used by a traitor named Aogiri from Konohagakure and escaped here. Today, I just told him not to know the enemy, but only knew how to escape. Although what I said today may be a bit heavy, it will help him in his future life. You see, persistence is also an important key to victory." said Mugen.

  "Is that so? I didn't understand why you suddenly got so angry, Meng Lin." Little Sakura said with a sigh.

  "But that's no longer something we can control, and I've already given him a requirement. Let's just settle down here for today. We can also soak in the hot springs." Meng Ling pointed to an inn by the side of the road.

  "Hmm, it's fine this way. It's not suitable to rush on the road at night anyway, and I didn't even get a chance to take a bath today." Sakura said with a smile. Everyone then arrived at the inn one after another, and after arranging their rooms, Meng Leng went to soak in the hot spring with Sakura, of course, without being able to 'sneak a peek' at her.

  "So, that's it, Xiaoying, you go wash yourself, I'll just sit over there for a bit." After entering the hot spring, Mengling directly said to Xiaoying and then sat alone in a corner, starting her own "peeping" session. However, recently there was something that made Mengling feel a bit puzzled - when she was peeping now, she didn't feel as shy as before. Although she still felt disgusted with this body of hers, Mengling somehow already knew why the Dragon God had given her a female body in the first place.

  "It's probably... so that I won't have any expectations, only with this mindset can I cultivate properly. Once I have expectations, not to mention finding all the powers to merge into the true Chaos Godforce and cultivating the Star Lotus Heaven Ruler, even my current Half-Chaos Godforce will be difficult to cultivate."

  "Uh, that, Meng Ling, why do you like to sit alone in the corner every time you soak in the hot spring?" At this time, Xiao Ying walked over, lowering her head and asking with some doubt.

  "Uh, nothing. Say, can you not stand so close to me? I'm really not used to it." Meng Ling hastily turned her head to one side and said.

  "Hmm? Meng Ling, you look really strange. Are you uncomfortable?" As she looked at Meng Ling's 'extremely abnormal' expression, Xiao Ying leaned in closer.

  "It's nothing, it's just that I'm not too fond of taking baths with too many people around! (I don't even believe myself.)" Meng Ling felt a bit helpless, after all, she hadn't fully "melted into" the world of the women's bathhouse yet.

  "Oh, is that so? Well... um, I have a question for you." Sakura said with some embarrassment.

  "Hm? Go ahead and ask if you have something on your mind. I don't have anything to say anyway." Meng Ling said, spreading her hands out.

  "This, I heard from Kakashi-sensei before, in the past few years, Mei Terumi was serving as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, right?" Sakura asked.

  "Uh-huh, yeah, it's been five years." Meng Ling said nonchalantly.

  "What kind of life is it there?" Sakura asked.

  "Uh... that!" As soon as Sakura said this, Meng Leng immediately felt a chill run down his spine. Because Sakura's words directly reminded him of the five years he spent in the Daimyo's mansion, where he was forced to sing because of an accidental singing incident, which was overheard by the wife of that old man. As a result, the Daimyo used the excuse of having a "songstress" to order the Twelve Guardians to protect him, allowing Meng Leng to stay by his side under the pretext of protection. But as a result, Meng Leng now has to learn from Kakashi's example and cover his face wherever he goes, just like the saying "people fear fame, pigs fear strength". Thinking back to those five years in the Daimyo's mansion, Meng Leng felt...

  "What's wrong? Isn't it convenient to say?" Seeing Meng Rong didn't answer her, Xiaoyan asked somewhat awkwardly.

  "Ah, no, it's nothing, actually. As one of the twelve elite guards at Daimyo's mansion, at first, there would be some trouble every now and then, sometimes even assassins would come to try and take out the Daimyo. The battles back then were on a completely different level than they are now." Meng Ling said, adding in her mind: "What's the big deal about fighting? It was exhausting having to put on an act and sing songs in front of everyone like that."

  "What's with the different levels of fighting?" Sakura asked.

  "Who knows, but at that time in the Daimyo's mansion, there were quite a few people who got caught up in our battles. Every time we finished fighting, everyone would say 'Ninjas are such a hassle, always breaking things', and whatnot, until finally we had to go apologize to them." "And every time I had to sing (uuuh~~~)" added Murei in her heart.

  "Hehe, it seems like your life back then was quite interesting, Meng Ling." Xiaoyan said with a smile, covering her mouth.

  "How is that possible? The profession of a ninja is originally very dangerous, and the Twelve Guardians are even more so. Every day, they have to worry about being killed, but what worries them most is the daimyo being killed. After all, if that happens, the entire Fire Country will be thrown into chaos." said Meng Ling.

  "So it was like that, then why did you have the title of Guardian Angel, Meng Ling?" Sakura asked.

  "I don't know!" After hearing Sakura's words, Meng Leng seemed to have been electrocuted and jumped up, disappearing into the hot spring the next moment.