July 5th, 3:18 a.m.
Chen gently lowered Hikari, whom he had held suspended in the air.
Still savoring the afterglow of descending from the clouds, Hikari shivered intermittently.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Chen tucked her beneath the covers.
Hikari covered half her face with the blanket, turned over, and gazed hazily at Chen as he dressed to go out. "You're going out again? Aren't you tired, honey?"
Chen donned his God Robe, his chest and abdomen exposed as he sat in the entryway pulling on his boots.
"I don't know what's going on either. I was exhausted after a whole day, but after fooling around for a while, I suddenly feel strangely energized again."
"Maybe it has something to do with absorbing Senju Hashirama's Chakra when I awakened the Rinnegan?"
Standing up, Chen picked up the shoehorn and slipped his heel into place.
"The plan has begun, and there will be more things to deal with from now on. I may have to go out in the middle of the night quite often."
Hikari said lazily, "You have things you need to do. I understand. I don't ask much of you—just come home for meals on time~."
Chen walked over with a smile and lightly tapped Hikari on the forehead.
Then Hikari suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right, Chen. When you went out yesterday, Konan came to see me during the day. She said the children—Yuki, Feng, and Hana—were qualified to graduate from the ninja academy."
"She asked whether our Shadow Hidden Village would attend this year's Chunin Ninja Exams."
"She felt it wasn't exactly a trivial matter, but it wasn't huge either. In the end, you still had to make the call."
"The Chunin Ninja Exams?" Chen zipped up his God Robe and adjusted his collar as he fell