"Bruu—bru—bru—"
"Bruu—bru—bru—bru—"
The strange ringing echoed through the meeting room, and the chatter gradually died down.
Everyone turned toward the source of the sound and finally noticed it.
It was coming from the shinobi who had just returned to report their victory.
"What's ringing?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned slightly as he looked over at the messenger.
The other elders and clan heads also shifted their gazes, focusing on the man who had brought the good news.
"I… I don't know either."
Being stared at by so many high-ranking figures, the messenger broke out in a cold sweat.
He hurriedly shrugged off the backpack from his shoulders and began rummaging through it.
After a moment, he finally found the thing that was making the noise.
It was that strange little snail Lord Yagami had asked him to deliver to Mikoto before he left.
"Look, I found it!!"
Soaked in nervous sweat, the messenger pulled the snail out of his pack.
All eyes in the room immediately locked onto his hands.
"What is that?"
"Why is it making such a weird sound?"
The Third Hokage frowned again as he asked.
Everyone else looked just as confused.
They had lived most of their lives and had never seen such a bizarre snail.
"I'm not sure either. Lord Yagami just told me to bring it back."
The messenger wiped the sweat from his forehead and quickly explained.
Being watched by all the top brass of the village made him feel like he was being crushed under a mountain.
"Yagami? He told you to bring it back?"
Hearing Yagami's name, everyone in the conference room looked even more intrigued.
Right now, any news related to Yagami was enough to spark their curiosity.
"Yes. Lord Yagami asked me to deliver this thing to Uchiha Mikoto of the Uchiha clan."
The messenger glanced at the still-ringing snail in his hands and answered honestly.
For Uchiha Mikoto?
At those words, everyone's line of sight shifted again—
—and landed on the beautiful figure standing behind the Uchiha clan grand elder.
"Eh? For me?"
Hearing that it was something Yagami had specifically sent to her, Mikoto blinked in confusion and stepped out from behind the elder.
"You're Uchiha Mikoto?"
The messenger was a little stunned.
He hadn't expected that the person he was planning to look for later was actually right here in this room.
"Yes, I'm Uchiha Mikoto."
Mikoto nodded, then turned her gaze to the snail in his hands.
She was full of doubt. She couldn't understand why Yagami would have someone bring her such a strange snail.
"Since it's you, then I'll hand it over to you."
Without daring to make any mistakes, the messenger hurriedly held the snail out to her.
"What exactly is this…?"
As soon as she took the still-ringing snail, Mikoto couldn't help but ask the same question the Third Hokage had just asked.
"I don't know either," the messenger admitted. "But Lord Yagami told me to explain one thing to you: whenever this snail starts ringing, you just have to lift the lid on its back."
He shook his head, then carefully repeated Yagami's instructions to Mikoto.
Bruu—bru—bru—
Hearing that, Mikoto lowered her eyes and examined the snail again.
Then, very carefully, she lifted what looked like a tiny lid on its back.
"Bruu—bru—bru—click."
"Moshi moshi—Mikoto, is that you?"
The moment Mikoto flipped open the snail's shell, the ringing stopped.
Then the snail suddenly opened its mouth and spoke.
And both its expression and tone were exactly like Yagami's.
The entire conference room fell into a strange silence.
"Moshi moshi—Mikoto, is that you?"
When he didn't hear anyone answer, Yagami's voice came out of the snail's mouth a second time.
"Um… Yagami-kun, is that you?"
Mikoto held the larger snail in one hand, and in the other she gripped a smaller Den Den Mushi she had just picked up, a thin wire linking it to the bigger snail.
"Hahahaha, yeah, it's me. I didn't think this would actually work."
The moment Mikoto spoke, the Den Den Mushi on Yagami's side mimicked her expression perfectly.
Seeing her flustered little look copied onto the snail's face, Yagami couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"You really are Yagami-kun!?"
Watching the snail's expressions change, Mikoto let out a soft cry of disbelief.
In the meeting room, everyone glanced at one another.
At this point, they more or less understood what the snail in Mikoto's hands was for.
"It's me, Mikoto. I've really missed you. I haven't seen you for a few days… have you missed me too?"
Yagami had no idea there was a whole room full of people standing around Mikoto.
So he spoke his thoughts without the slightest reservation.
"Y–Yagami-kun…"
As soon as his words fell, Mikoto's cheeks instantly turned bright red.
The Den Den Mushi on Yagami's side once again copied her expression, its little face going shy and flustered.
Yagami was stunned.
He hadn't expected Mikoto to be this shy just talking over a Den Den Mushi.
"Cough, cough… Ahem."
"Is that you, Yagami?"
Just as Yagami was still enjoying Mikoto's reaction, the Den Den Mushi suddenly cleared its throat.
An old, steady voice came out of its mouth next.
"Lord Third…?"
Yagami's smile froze.
There was no way he could fail to recognize that voice. It was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Yagami, you know…"
"Right now, us old geezers are holding a council in the Hokage Building—so unfortunately for you, we heard everything you just confessed."
While Yagami was still half-confused, the Den Den Mushi suddenly switched again, imitating another elderly voice.
This time, it was the Uchiha Grand Elder—the one who had just been laughing loudly in the conference room.
"E-Eh?!"
Yagami's expression twisted in pure embarrassment.
The Den Den Mushi in Mikoto's hands faithfully reproduced that expression too, which only made it worse.
The entire conference room erupted into laughter.
Yagami wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.
He had just realized he'd basically been sprinkling dog food right in front of a whole room of people.
No wonder Mikoto had suddenly gotten so shy.
So there were outsiders there.
"Yagami, what exactly is this thing?"
After the laughter finally died down, Hiruzen walked over to stand beside Mikoto and spoke into the Den Den Mushi with a puzzled look.
At the same time, everyone else in the conference room perked up, ears practically twitching.
Something that allowed two people so far apart to talk in real time like this—
This was practically the ultimate intelligence weapon in times of war.
Hearing the Third Hokage's question, Yagami calmly made up a story without so much as a twitch in his tone.
He said that while he had been practicing the Summoning Technique, he made a mistake and ended up being reverse-summoned to some unknown place.
These two snails were what he had brought back from there.
He'd decided to name them Den Den Mushi.
"There really is no limit to the wonders of this world…"
After listening to Yagami's explanation, the Third Hokage nodded with a sigh.
There wasn't a single obvious flaw in Yagami's story, so Hiruzen didn't doubt him.
After all, Jiraiya had once botched the Summoning Technique as well and had been reverse-summoned to Mount Myōboku by mistake.
Because of that stroke of 'misfortune,' he had his own great adventure—
Rising from dead-last to a hero of the Second Great Ninja War.
So, the Third Hokage believed that Yagami had likely encountered a similar kind of miracle.
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