Useless Except for Being Handsome

Under the hazy night sky, several furtive figures gathered.

"Hagyi, what's going on over there? Why are there still people at your place so late?"

"Yeah, it forced us to change our meeting point at the last minute."

Hearing his companion's complaint, Hagyi's nose twitched, and he almost teared up.

After being pestered by those two brats all day, he had almost switched professions from ninja to chef. It was only after the two kids left that he found the signal left by his companions at the back door of a shop. He rushed to the new rendezvous point without stopping, not even having time to grab a bite to eat.

Was it easy for him?

Trying to calm the turmoil within him, Hagyi explained, "Sorry, I didn't expect to be entangled by two troublesome kids."

"Entangled?" The others were startled and quickly asked, "Were you discovered?"

"How is that possible?" Hagyi waved his hand. "If I were exposed, a whole bunch of Konoha Anbu would be here to arrest us right now... Mmph, what are you doing?"

"Don't talk nonsense," one of them released his right hand that was covering Hagyi's mouth and glared at him fiercely. "I had a comrade once who always jinxed himself after saying similar things."

Hagyi's mouth twitched, and he muttered in a low voice, "How could something like that happen? It's not very ninja-like."

"Alright," the leader of the ninja interjected, then asked, "What exactly happened?"

"Two Konoha brats wanted to deliberately provoke me to lure out the patrolling ninja..." Seeing the shocked expressions of the others, Hagyi quickly explained, "Don't misunderstand, those two brats don't know my identity. They did this just to stir up trouble and avenge the Second Hokage."

Upon hearing this, the others chuckled. "I didn't expect the higher-ups in Konoha to be such cowards. Among those brats, there are actually a few hardliners."

Hagyi also laughed along, "Haha, one of the brats even claimed to be the Third Hokage's son..."

"Huh? Why did you guys stop laughing?" Seeing the smiles on the others' faces suddenly disappear, Hagyi was confused at first, but then quickly "realized" and regretted it immensely. "I get it, I should have just captured that brat right then and there. Since we're capturing people anyway, that brat's value is clearly higher than the target..."

"Idiot!" The leader of the ninja cursed in a low voice. "Haven't you heard that the Third Hokage loves to use the Telescope Technique to spy?"

Hagyi's eyes widened. "Spy?"

A ninja beside him replied, "Lord Hyakumi said that Konoha's Third Hokage is a very controlling person, which is why he specifically improved this surveillance technique."

Hagyi exclaimed, "Then what do we do?"

"It's a good thing you idiot didn't make a move, otherwise we'd all be finished now." The leader of the ninja suppressed his anger and asked, "Quickly recall, did you show any weakness before?"

"Probably... not?" The more Hagyi recalled, the less confident he felt.

"Probably?"

At this moment, a ninja beside him raised a question. "Wait, that son of the Hokage didn't even make it to dinner. Wouldn't the Third Hokage send someone to look for him?"

The leader of the ninja pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "You mentioned two Konoha brats earlier, who was the other one?"

Hagyi thought about it. That brat had no presence at all except for being good-looking. "I don't know, besides being handsome..."

However, the leader of the ninja was overjoyed. "I know! That brat must be Shimizu Soseki, whom I've been investigating these past few days. I heard the Third Hokage thinks highly of him. Perhaps the Third Hokage discovered them together using the Telescope Technique, and that's why he felt at ease and didn't look further."

"Is that so?" Hagyi looked bewildered. He was clearly a brat who was useless except for being handsome. Has Konoha really degenerated to the point of selecting people based on their looks?

"Captain, what do we do now?"

The leader of the ninja pondered for a moment, then exhaled heavily. "Regardless, our risk of exposure has greatly increased. Therefore, we must take action tonight!"

Fearing discovery, the two of them tracked from a considerable distance, but the drawback was that they couldn't overhear the enemy's conversations.

"Haa~ Why aren't they making a move yet? Could they have fallen asleep?" Asuma yawned and whispered, "Soseki, why don't we get a little closer?"

Soseki shook his head slightly. "These ninjas might not be stronger than us, but their experience in carrying out missions is definitely superior to ours. Getting any closer would be too risky of being discovered!"

"Alright," Asuma sighed helplessly, then clenched his fist fiercely. "When I catch these bastards, I'll make sure they know what happens when they make me lose sleep."

"They're coming out!"

"What's coming out... Are they finally going to act?"

Soseki nodded and whispered, "Prepare to follow."

They were far from the enemy. While this was safe, a single slip-up could lead to losing their target.

Therefore, the two dared not be negligent. Seeing the enemy move, they quickly followed.

After tracking for a while, Asuma exclaimed softly, "Huh, that direction?"

Soseki pretended not to know and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"There aren't many houses in that direction, only a very fierce big sister lives there," Asuma said, then asked, "Soseki, do you know the Land of Whirlpools?"

Soseki nodded as he leaped and tracked, "The Land of Whirlpools was originally a friendly ally of our Konoha, but it was destroyed in a war a few years ago."

"Mm, this big sister is a survivor of the Land of Whirlpools," Asuma said, sharing the "truth" he knew. "To protect the orphans of the Land of Whirlpools, the old man and the others let that big sister settle in the village. However, because she's an outsider, her relationship with the other villagers doesn't seem to be very good."

"But why would these Cloud Ninjas want to capture her?"

Soseki chuckled inwardly upon hearing this.

According to his memories from his previous life, only the Third Hokage and a few elders knew about Uzumaki Kushina becoming the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Even the Sannin were unaware of it.

This led to an awkward situation: if they sent people to monitor her, spies from other villages would surely notice something was amiss. But if they didn't send anyone to monitor her, they, the important figures, couldn't keep an eye on a young girl all the time.

In the end, they could only choose to trust Konoha's security guards.

On the other hand, the Cloud Village never intended to capture the Nine-Tails. If they had, they wouldn't have sent these low-level ninjas. They were genuinely only interested in her special chakra, but who knew they'd accidentally caught a super big fish.

PS: According to the setting in the Jin no Sho, this event occurred twenty-seven years before the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War. Following the timeline I mentioned at the beginning, this would be in Konoha Year 41. My original outline was to set the event at the end of the previous year, but a few days ago, on impulse, I inexplicably wrote it into the second year. Now I can only set it so that the event spans the end of Konoha Year 41 and the beginning of Konoha Year 42. This was my mistake; I made an error even with a set outline. Please, you can all scold me (;`). Also, many people think this plot takes place during Namikaze Minato's school days because the preceding section was about his school days. However, in reality, when Namikaze Minato saved the beauty, both of them were wearing Konoha forehead protectors, meaning they had already graduated.