The weather in the Land of Rain resembled poetic classification—in theory, divided into the graceful school and the bold school, but in reality, there was only 'always graceful' and 'occasionally less graceful.'
Braving the fine increasingly rain, Hii Kōri openly approached Suna's base. Before he reached the gate, two figures holding kunai emerged from the rain curtain, blocking his path.
"Halt. Please present identification."
In fact, without extremely familiar chakra traces, most sensor ninjas couldn't exactly determine who they were sensing based on chakra alone—this was the uniqueness of the Uzumaki clan's Mind's Eye of the Kagura.
Even the sensor ninjas at the front lines couldn't memorize every chakra trace in the entire army. At such times, they needed to verify identities against action records.
For someone like Hii Kōri, who made no attempt to conceal himself and deliberately left reaction time, they wouldn't immediately apprehend him, but proofreading identity documents was still necessary.
Hii Kōri's hand emerged from beneath his cloak, properly holding an clearly never-worn Suna forehead protector. He recited a short string of seemingly meaningless syllables in a calm tone.
That was an identification code, specially compiled and reorganized from his ninja code, corresponding one-to-one with the number on his forehead protector. Almost every moderately sized ninja village had similar secret writing systems.
He then slightly pushed up his conical hat, revealing his face to the two guards.
"Huh? Hii-dono? Weren't you recuperating in the village?"
Seeing that signature white-streaked red hair, the two guards paused, somewhat puzzled.
Though much older than Hii Kōri, they had no hesitation in addressing him as 'dono.' The ninja world was always ruled by strength, and Hii Kōri's feat of single-handedly taking out an entire Konoha base was completely devoid of moisture.
Even disregarding his achievements and strength, though he'd withdrawn from the front due to exhaustion from that battle, the many tools and equipment he'd created continued to play huge roles on the front lines.
This 'dono' was heartily used by Suna's ninjas.
"Couldn't stop worrying about things here. Has the old... has Chiyo returned from the front?"
Not bothering to explain that he hadn't returned to the village, Hii Kōri casually took out two conical hats from his scroll and handed them to the guards, asking about Chiyo's whereabouts.
He remembered Tsunade had rushed to another battlefield specifically to deal with the old hag's poison, then been captured and refined by him. Hard to say whether Chiyo was still at the base.
"Chiyo-dono has returned, but we're not sure exactly where she is."
The guard with a striking scar on his face responded thus. After all, they were responsible for guarding the city gates; not knowing such things was normal.
"Alright. Won't keep you."
Patting the guard's shoulder, Hii Kōri entered the town and hurried toward Chiyo's office.
Pushing open the door, Chiyo sat behind a desk, pen in hand, recording something.
The desk, mostly occupied by a sandbox model, now held two or three wooden racks filled with bottles, leaving somewhat cramped space for her scrolls.
Knowing his foster mother, those porcelain bottles contained various poisons.
"Back, brat."
Closing the door, he casually placed several markers on the sand table. Chiyo, having long sensed her foster son's chakra, showed no surprise.
Chiyo's mental state was significantly improved compared to months ago. Though showing some age-appropriate signs of aging, she was far from the nearly withered state right after hearing of Mataza and Shūko's deaths.
"Not going to rest? Karura's here too."
"Forget it. Had to see you first, report on my work progress."
Ignoring his foster mother's 'reminder,' Hii Kōri continued arranging flags on the sand table.
"...Results?"
She put down her pen and looked up, fingers interlaced before her, thumbs unconsciously twisting. After much hesitation, she tentatively asked.
Chiyo could guess that the disturbances during Konoha's final large-scale operation a few days ago were mostly her foster son's doing.
Lurking for months, again thwarting a Konoha collective attack—by mission rewards, this deserved S-rank. But apparently, that wasn't what Chiyo wanted to ask.
"Fortunately, I did not disgrace my life."
Pulling up a beside chair Chiyo, Hii Kōri lightly tapped his temple: "Spirit Transformation. Really brought it back."
"Ha..."
After long silence, Chiyo let out a sigh so faint it could almost be mistaken for hallucination, as if letting all her anguish and stress dissipate.
"It must have been hard."
"Not really. Rather, thanks to this operation, I encountered quite a fortunate fate. Ah, dealing with that Katō Dan guy did take considerable scheming though."
Hearing no trace of reluctance in his tone, Hii Kōri was always quite frank in this regard. Looking up at the slightly moldy ceiling, his tone even carried pleasant uplift.
"Come see the disciples I took in. All good children."
Tapping the floor with his heel, Nagato and the others slowly rose from his shadow.
Having been instructed in advance by his shadow clone, the three children showed no particular surprise. Chiyo, however, was quite unexpected at Hii Kōri's skill: "Brat, you mastered the Nara clan's secret technique already?"
"These don't look remotely similar. Ultimately, anyone who could learn the original technique from that drunken rambling 'material' would be a monster."
Pinching his now-empty nose bridge, Hii Kōri responded irritably.
He ignored his foster mother's complaint—'You're the last person who should call anyone a monster, developing this technique from that!'—stood, patted his disciples' shoulders, and introduced them to Chiyo: "Yahiko, Nagato, Konan. Children I picked up in the Land of Rain. Quite talented. After the war, when I take on a team, let Sasori train under me with them."
"..."
Chiyo's gaze swept over the three children's slightly cramped faces, then looked at Hii Kōri's calm and serious expression. She sighed softly: "Truly... this has been too hard on you..."
"Whether it's the resurrection technique or Sasori, I've been so derelict as a grandmother..."
"Not at all. Consider it family tradition~ You took me in as a foster son, and I took in three disciples."
"Get out of here, brat."
***
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