"Slap... slap... slap..."
The gradually calming waves lapped against the lakeshore, sending sprays of droplets flying. As the sudden splashing sounds faded away, wisps of mist slowly spread across the surface of the lake.
The deserted lake grew even quieter.
"Splash!"
Just as the sounds of water gradually died away, the waves settled, and mist blanketed the lake in a hazy blur, a hand suddenly thrust out from beneath the water near the shore facing Konoha, far from both the center of the lake and the spot where Uchiha Nobuhiko had left. Its five fingers spread wide, like someone on the verge of drowning who had finally broken the surface.
"Splash! Splash!"
A string of splashing sounds followed.
"Hah... hah... cough... cough cough... cough cough cough cough!"
Then, as the repeated splashes turned into the patter of dripping water, harsh breaths and the sound of coughing up water followed in succession.
"Clatter..."
At the same time, amid the gasping and coughing, something hard, round, and wooden rolled across the ground.
"Cough cough... cough cough... cough cough..."
As the lake slowly quieted, ripples spread across its surface alongside the repeated coughing, colliding with the settling waves from the lake's center with soft slaps.
At this moment, a boy had crawled up from the lakebed onto the shore near Konoha. He lay limp at the boundary between water and land, nearly sprawled flat on the ground as he gasped and coughed violently.
Beside him lay a thumb-length, test-tube-shaped wooden tube with a faint wooden sheen.
It was Chiba, who should have been burned into charcoal and sunk to the bottom of the lake! Yet at this moment, there was no relief at having escaped certain death, nor any satisfaction at seeing his scheme succeed. Instead, he looked toward the center of the