The Files Secured, the Traces Erased: Advance or Retreat, a Difficult Choice

Along the way, Nohara Nao talked a lot, but then fell silent.

She didn't know if she liked him or not, but she knew she was definitely somewhat infatuated. If Naruto suddenly went to the front lines one day, she figured she wouldn't be able to sleep well.

Perhaps in Nohara Nao's heart, the idea of possession was growing stronger. But Naruto seemed to just chat and never showed any desire to possess.

This made her feel somewhat anxious and uncertain, and she looked up at Naruto.

Naruto suddenly stopped, turned and stared at her, then kissed her without saying a word. He pinned her down and started kissing her repeatedly; how could a little girl from twenty years ago compare to this skilled scumbag?

After kissing for a while, Nohara Nao's eyes were so delicate they seemed to stretch into silk. Her mind was hazy, she didn't know how to refuse, her heart was pounding wildly, and her ears were filled with echoes.

For the first time in her life, she was a little dazed. Before the silly girl could react, she was pulled behind a tree on the side of the street, her fingers intertwined, and she was lifted high above her head and pressed against the tree.

Naruto kissed her, and Nohara Nao didn't think about how to resist; her thoughts were just lukewarm and not very clear.

Her mind went completely blank. She had never thought about kissing before, let alone kissing someone as ordinary as Beihiko.

She thought there must have been a mistake somewhere. Logically speaking, she would never fall in love with someone like him, so it was impossible for her to have these feelings.

But her body was honest, responding with incredible fervor. Nohara Nao felt like her brain was about to explode; things were completely out of her control. She was slowly succumbing to Naruto's various advances, wanting to push him away but finding herself utterly unable to.

This man showed no sign of stopping; it was as if he intended to devour her completely. She was afraid of being discovered, yet also somewhat unwilling, half-heartedly resisting but unable to push him away.

Nohara Nao blushed and her heart pounded. When it was time to part, she felt a little reluctant. Clutching his clothes, she paused for a while before looking up at him and saying...

"What to do?"

When asked what to do, Naruto was already playing with it; what else could be done?

Nohara Nao every day, and today, with her mood so disrupted, her rationality began to waver. Realizing she couldn't refuse Naruto, she simply let go.

"Why don't you come back with me?" she whispered in Naruto's ear.

She didn't really understand those kinds of things, but after hearing about them so often, she didn't think much of it. During this special period, the girls in the Medical Unit were having even more fun.

Everyone was suppressing their emotions, burdened by heavy daily labor and complicated interpersonal relationships. Pursuers relentlessly harassed them, and those ninjas had only so many thoughts running through their minds each day.

It seems everyone wants to express something, to vent emotional stress. When they find themselves speechless, only feeling frustrated, reversing into a parking space becomes an outlet.

In times of global chaos, when ninjas could get enough to eat but didn't know when they would be sent to the battlefield, their hearts were naturally filled with anxiety. This wasn't something that could be avoided by personal inner strength, but rather by the influence of the overall environment.

The Five Great Nations were equally formidable; this was a barbaric era where ninja wars raged for resources. The First Hokage had maintained peace for far too long; the established order had long since been shattered.

In just a few decades, there have been dozens of large-scale wars. Those incredibly powerful figures have all fallen, and geniuses have emerged, only to perish in the meat grinder of war.

So-called prodigies of their time are nothing more than fleeting meteors. To truly leave a mark, one must be like Itachi Uchiha, who slaughtered his entire clan.

"Go to your place? What for?" Naruto asked, supporting Nohara Nao, though his eyes were full of seductive smiles.

Nohara Nao, her heart overflowing. She had never imagined she could glean so much meaning from someone's eyes, and her face flushed crimson.

She couldn't bring herself to say "go."

"Parking in the side parking space?" Naruto smiled and said something she couldn't understand.

As darkness fell, the two strolled along, chatting idly. No matter what, Nohara Nao couldn't calm down. Although they had agreed to go to her place, she felt strangely nervous.

She glanced furtively to the side and saw Naruto still talking about trivial things; her expression immediately fell. Her heart pounded, and she felt somewhat lost.

Naruto didn't seem to care. He was already quite adept at this kind of thing, and the two of them relaxed as soon as they entered the house. They did everything they were afraid of doing, from the entryway to the bathroom.

Naruto, somewhat listless, lay on the bed, which was a hundred times better than his own shabby little house. He stared blankly at the sleeping Nohara Nao beside him, lost in thought.

Before her voice completely died, she told Naruto that the Medical Unit did indeed have a lot of information about top-secret research. However, those documents were usually kept in abandoned archives, inaccessible to the average person.

Even Nohara Nao only stumbled upon it by chance, which is somewhat funny. Konoha Hospital's resources are too strained, and those top-secret documents are difficult to handle once they exceed the time limit.

Much of the material was found to be worthless, so a simple screening was conducted. Some important documents were selected and the rest were simply piled up in the abandoned archives.

Nohara Nao knew that Naruto was after the top-secret documents, but she didn't react much. Firstly, she really didn't have time to care about that, and secondly, Naruto had directly stated what he wanted.

It's just a top-secret document about Dual Personality, and its authenticity isn't guaranteed. She promised to take a look, and finding an opportunity to go in and search for it shouldn't be a problem.

The Dual Personality is top secret and not particularly significant. If such a thing exists, it should definitely be found in that abandoned archive. If not, then we'll have to make other plans.

The next day.

For the first time ever, Naruto didn't go to work at the Konoha Hospital. Nohara Nao, on the other hand, was fine; he was unemployed to begin with. His main goal was to live a carefree life, and he became even more relaxed after succeeding.

He hadn't expected Nohara Nao to find the information; it was safer to handle it himself. But he didn't intend to tell Nohara Nao directly, since to her, Naruto was still just a Chunin.

In the morning, Naruto went into the kitchen wearing shorts and made two breakfasts, mentioning the clothes issue to Nohara Nao as he did so. She leaned against the bed, covering her mouth and laughing, saying...

"The clothes really are this price now, and you'll find the same price elsewhere."

"Sigh." Naruto sighed, then glanced at Nohara Nao, whose blush hadn't faded. "Do you believe it? I'll be very rich in twenty years."

"Is that so?" Nohara Nao spat at him and said, "It's not like I'm after your money. What does it matter if I have money or not? At times like these, staying safe and sound is the most important thing."

Her voice was still a little hoarse, but she was certainly beautiful. Her face shape resembled Rin Nohara's, but her figure was even better. Konohagakure was never short of beautiful women; the genes of ninjas were never lacking.

Her ten fingers were like scallion roots, her lips were red and her teeth were white, and her steps were delicate and graceful.

"Is she alright?" Naruto had already gone to wash up, and he picked her up and carried her with him.

In front of the mirror, the two washed up side by side. Naruto wasn't easily moved, but Nohara Nao, being inexperienced, became quite delicate after just one night.

They are quick to be satisfied with some things, even if they still have some doubts, they don't show it. Who cares about tomorrow? Why worry about today's problems?

After resting for about a day, Naruto also spent the day with her, suppressing his emotions. Although he didn't have much feeling for her, he still had to do what he had to do.

Another day passed, Nohara Nao almost couldn't go to work at Konoha Hospital the next day. It was only because she called a halt halfway there that an accident was averted.

Two or three days passed like this, Naruto went into the archives room several times. He searched through a huge pile of documents, secretly flipping through them for a long time, but Nohara Nao found the information before he could.

"What do you need this for?" She slammed the file down on the table. "You don't need it, do you? Dual Personality?"

"Don't worry about that, it's definitely not me." Naruto pushed her aside and went to open the file himself.

"Hmph." Nohara Nao has been much more cheerful these past few days. Naruto has been living with her all this time, openly living off her, and she doesn't care.

Anyway, she's not short of money, and she's come to respect Naruto these past few days. She's not like before, putting herself in a dominant position and thinking Naruto is nothing more than her possession.

The more she spent time with him, the more Nohara Nao felt she couldn't quite understand him. At the very least, she didn't feel she could control him, and even began to feel a little insecure.

Naruto glanced at the file; it detailed Konohagakure's research on Dual Personality. So he sat down and began to read it carefully.

After a while, he noticed something was wrong and looked down.

What are you doing?

"Hey-hey."

With a clatter, the file was set aside. When Naruto picked it up again, it was already late at night. Naruto read through it line by line, Nohara Nao woke up groggily in the middle of the night.

Looking at Naruto studying documents under the lamp, I felt a sense of unreality. Thinking about the crazy experiences of the past few days, it felt as if he might disappear at any moment.

Shaking her head, she got out of bed, her clothes disheveled, and walked barefoot to Naruto, still half asleep, before hugging him tightly.

"I encountered a strange patient yesterday."

"Hmm, what's strange?" Naruto continued looking at the documents, giving her a perfunctory reply. The old files under the lamp had some blurry handwriting.

"When the sisters in the Medical Unit were joking around, they mentioned you, and he got very excited and said he knew you."

Upon hearing this, Naruto paused, his gaze fixed on the documents. Under the bright light, he looked up and slowly glanced at Nohara Nao, then spoke.

"Then what?"

"He talked a lot about you, and asked me where you were, saying he wanted to see you," Nohara Nao said with a smile, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Of course I refused him. My husband isn't someone anyone can just see whenever they want."

Naruto didn't say anything, continuing to scan the page line by line, though his reading speed had noticeably increased. Nohara Nao lowered her head to try and kiss him, but he turned his head away to avoid it.

"Are you angry?" she asked.

"No, I have important business to attend to." He said without looking up, "I have a mission tomorrow. This afternoon, Yamashiro specifically told me about it."

"But don't worry, you're not on the list. You're probably going to be promoted to the Medical Unit instead of being sent to the Cannon Fodder Unit to be a dangerous medical-nin."

Nohara Nao stopped what she was doing, bit her lower lip, and said.

"I want to go too."

"What are you going to do?" Naruto paused, looked up and said in a bad tone, "Was I not clear enough? The Cannon Fodder Unit, it's lucky if even one of them comes back alive."

"I'm not afraid of you. I can let you live." She clung to him, her lips pressed against Naruto's face. "Anyway, I've lived enough. Let's either die together."

"Are you sick?" Naruto shoved her aside. "If this were your first time on the battlefield, I wouldn't be trying to persuade you; I'd just tie you up."

"Everyone here has escaped death by a hair's breadth. Who would believe you if you said you've had enough of living?"

"Okay, I haven't lived enough." Nohara Nao said hesitantly, "Of course I want to live, and I've thought about bringing you into the Medical Unit too, even if it's not easy, you can still learn."

"That way, we can both survive, raise a dog, and live a peaceful life until we grow old. Didn't you say you'd have a lot of money in twenty years? I want to live until then, so we'll both be rich."

"But you're lying to me, or rather, you're not Beihiko at all." She stared at Naruto. "I don't know what your purpose is, and I haven't told anyone."

"You'll leave, won't you? Anyway, I can't live without you, so let's go on a mission together. You don't need to worry, too many ninjas die on missions in Konohagakure every day."

Naruto turned his head and saw Nohara Nao kneeling on the sofa, her eyes also filled with tears.

"Don't tell these things to anyone else."

"No." Nohara Nao sobbed, gently shaking her head. "I won't tell anyone but you. It's fine if I don't want to reveal my true self."

"You can lie to me if you want, but there's one thing I want to know. Have you been with me these past few days just for that file I gave you?"

"No." Naruto didn't need to hesitate at all when lying. "The information was just a side thing. I would have found it myself even without you."

Such statements are actually hard to justify, but if the other party believes them, they become as real as iron.

"Really?"

"Hmm." Naruto pulled her over and gave the sofa a quality inspection.

The next day.

Naruto made breakfast and was about to leave when he noticed Nohara Nao standing at the doorway, leaning against it and looking at him. She seemed hesitant to speak, her fingers gripping the doorframe.

Will you come back safely?

"Um."

He didn't say much, and the old, blood-stained green vest he wore on the bed went out. He already had the data; whether he did the task or not was irrelevant.

They might as well pretend to have died on the battlefield and throw the real Beihiko out with him. That way, all traces would be completely erased. They'd get the information, Beihiko would live a few more days.

Great, it's a win-win situation.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then turned and rushed out the door.