"Chiba... you're still not asleep?"
As he gazed at the round moon sinking westward, watching it drift bit by bit toward the horizon beneath a sky full of stars, Chiba's troubled thoughts were quickly interrupted by a familiar voice tinged with sleepiness.
It was Kakashi's voice.
"Yeah, I'm going to sleep soon."
With that, Chiba shifted his gaze from the moon to the white-haired youth rubbing his bleary eyes as he looked at him.
"Mm... did you run into some kind of problem?"
Hearing this, Kakashi finished rubbing his eyes, and the drowsiness in them gradually faded, replaced by clarity. He then crawled out from beneath the desk, glanced at Chiba again, and could not help asking.
At this moment, the usually inscrutable fellow could not hide the worry on his face. The words "problem" might as well have been written all over it.
"Uh..."
Chiba did not know how to answer for a moment and froze.
"Can't tell me?"
Seeing Chiba like this, Kakashi furrowed his brow slightly before asking.
"Mm."
Hearing Kakashi's words, Chiba simply nodded. Things like his impending death, the Nine-Tails' Rampage, and dying before the Nine-Tails' Rampage were indeed not things he could tell Kakashi.
"Heh..."
Kakashi looked as though he had known it all along and could not help sighing. Then, as if he had noticed something, he asked, "Did Teacher Minato give you another new mission?"
"Mm?"
Chiba paused slightly. Then, following the direction of Kakashi's earlier glance, he immediately understood and said, "Uh... more or less."
Following Kakashi's glance, Chiba saw the scroll that had just arrived, sitting off to one side on the desk. He instantly understood why Kakashi had asked that question.
Apparently, Kakashi had seen the new scroll, which was why he had asked.
"Oh..."
Kakashi nodded and did