"Th-This... can you tell me what happened?"
His half-smile fading, Chiba glanced at the two unfamiliar ninjas on the ground, covered in injuries, then turned his gaze to Chise Hibiki, whose face had clearly stiffened slightly. Then, smiling again, he asked.
"N-Nothing."
The moment Chise Hibiki met Chiba's smile, his heart inexplicably tightened again. For some reason, he nearly stumbled over his words.
W-What was going on?
Why? I had a feeling that this matter, something that should have been so simple, might turn into something quite troublesome.
What was this ominous premonition?
Why did I have that thought just now? It was as if admitting that, before this Taki Chiba, I was somehow beneath him, that I couldn't handle him... Th-That was...
Wasn't that admitting defeat? As those words left his mouth, that thought flashed through Chise Hibiki's mind.
A thought that left him feeling stifled, even somewhat angry.
"You still don't know what this is about? Don't you know that everyone entering the camp must undergo password verification? You didn't even know that, and you failed to voluntarily identify yourself with the password. You're already highly suspicious—suspicious of being a spy."
At the same time, Iwaki Taisuke's voice came from where he sat on the ground.
W-Wait a minute? This must be the Young Miss of the Hyuga Clan. In other words, the only Hyuga member in the village to hold a post in a village institution like the Defense Force—Miss Hyuga Yukina.
And Miss Hyuga Yukina was said to be very difficult to approach. The only person who could make her stand so intimately at his side like this was probably that hero who had saved the entire village, Taki Chiba, whom the enemy called the "Little Monster."
Could this young man...
Be Taki Chiba?
At that