Konoha's School Year Began

Konoha, on the other side.

At last, the Ninja Academy opened its doors. The newest batch of ninja cheered happily after the Third Hokage finished speaking. Sasuke stole a glance at his father and saw that he wore no expression, which made him a little sad. He looked around and, sure enough, Hui Youling was nowhere to be seen.

He had asked his older brother about her, but his brother hadn't given him an answer. Besides, he'd been busy these past few days.

Uchiha Fugaku spotted the Third Hokage, narrowed his eyes, and walked over to him. When Sasuke turned the other way, he saw the blond kid looking dejected. He seemed to be Hui Youling's younger brother, so Sasuke walked over.

Naruto noticed a figure come down beside him and looked up. It was that Uchiha.

"What do you want?" he said irritably.

"Hmph, you're that idiot little brother Hui mentioned, aren't you?" Sasuke taunted.

Naruto bristled at once. "You're the idiot!"

"I heard you were a moron. Guess it's true," Sasuke said with a chuckle.

"You're so annoying!" Naruto snapped unhappily, then ran off.

Sasuke furrowed his brows, unsure what he'd said wrong. The kid couldn't be that fragile.

Naruto sniffed hard. Hui had said she would come to the entrance ceremony with him. She would be his guardian. They'd had such a good time talking back then; he'd thought he wouldn't be alone anymore.

He looked up at the sky. "Hui, where are you?"

It had been more than half a year since Hui left Konoha. He'd gone to see the Third Hokage many times, but never got an answer. He was afraid Hui would leave again for another two or three years.

But he refused to believe that. He stayed up late every night, in case Hui suddenly came back and he missed her.

But the Ninja Academy had opened, and he still hadn't seen her. He couldn't help feeling disappointed when he thought of their promise. But Hui had left to grow stronger, and he couldn't stop her. He could only hope she wouldn't abandon him.

He kept training hard, but he was too stupid to make much progress. Suddenly, he felt lost, as if he couldn't see his future anymore.

Hui had thought she would keep training like that forever, until one day Orochimaru appeared and said, "Hui, it's time for us to go."

Hui stopped sparring with Anko and turned to look at Orochimaru in surprise. She noticed his smile was different from usual. He wasn't talking about going to train in Wind Release.

"Teacher Orochimaru? Where are we going?" Hui asked with a frown.

Orochimaru only gave a mysterious smile and didn't answer Hui Youling's question.

Anko looked at Orochimaru in confusion. "Teacher, where are you taking Hui?"

Orochimaru chuckled, his voice hoarse. "Anko, Hui needs to go somewhere more suited to her."

A flicker passed through Hui's eyes. She pulled her lips into a wry, self-mocking smile. Remembering the experiments she'd taken part in, she lowered her eyes slightly. Her turbulent emotions settled into indifference.

Noticing Anko turn toward her, Hui said calmly, "I understand, Teacher Orochimaru."

Anko furrowed her brows and looked at Hui Youling, utterly confused. "What do you understand? Where are you going?"

Hui looked up at Anko, raised her brows without a word, then smiled at her smugly.

Already confused, Anko saw Hui Youling's boastful grin and angrily reached over to pinch her cheek. "Stop keeping me in suspense and just tell me. Where are you going?"

"Ow, ow... Sister Anko... I'll tell you... I'll tell you..." Hui gave in and begged for mercy, her innocent eyes blinking at Anko.

Anko snorted and let go of Hui Youling's cheek. "Go on, then!"

Hui giggled. "I'm going on a trip to study! Don't you remember? I told you that before I came here, I traveled around studying."

Anko thought for a moment and remembered Hui had said she'd traveled around studying before. But that only confused her more. She turned to Orochimaru. "But, Teacher, you said Hui and I would be in charge of things on this island."

Orochimaru chuckled and said slowly, "From now on, you'll be in charge of everything on this island, Anko."

His casual tone concealed another meaning.

Hearing Orochimaru, Hui Youling's eyes widened. She looked at him in disapproval. "Teacher?!"

Orochimaru's lips curved faintly as his cool, serpentine eyes turned to Hui Youling. His smile was both dangerous and dazzling.

Hui furrowed her brows, her thoughts in turmoil. She glanced at Anko, who looked perfectly calm.

Tsk...

A glint appeared in Anko's eyes. She turned to Hui with a mischievous smile. "Then go study abroad. This island is mine now!"

Hui's brows lowered, but she didn't let Anko see how she felt. She smiled helplessly. "Fine... I'll go study abroad, and the island will be yours."

Orochimaru's eyes moved between the two of them. Not wanting to waste any more time, he said coolly, "Come on, Hui."

Hui nodded and followed Orochimaru. Looking back, she waved to Anko. "See you next time, Sister Anko!"

Anko raised a hand and waved back. "Come back soon!"

Hui smiled, her eyes crinkling, then turned and followed Orochimaru. She looked up at him again, her eyes dark and inscrutable.

Anko didn't know where Hui Youling had gone, but she wasn't jealous. She had already learned many ninjutsu from Orochimaru, and Hui still had room to grow. She had always felt that Hui's future would be extraordinary.

But when Anko parted ways with Hui Youling, she never imagined it would be years before they met again. By then, everything would have changed, and her teacher would have shattered every belief she held.

Hui had already guessed whether this was really about training. Orochimaru had been conducting experiments at other bases all along, probably involving the Cursed Seal. Her task had once again become capturing people for Orochimaru's Cursed Seal experiments.

Perhaps to keep too much from being exposed, he rotated one member of the Sound Four to work with her on each mission. She still hadn't run into Kimimaro during that time. She suddenly realized it had been a long while since she'd seen him and wondered where he'd gone.

Although the experiment with Kimimaro's Earth Cursed Seal had succeeded, the Sound Four still hadn't received their Cursed Seals. Fortunately, the people they had to capture were all ordinary, and the two-person teams worked efficiently.

Hui Youling wasn't sure how she felt, but she was growing more and more uninterested in this sort of thing. Most of the time, she only sensed where the targets were, leaving the Sound Four to handle the captures.

Because of these missions to do bad things together, the members of the Sound Four had grown resentful of her. Tayuya in particular looked ready to start a fight every time they met.

If Orochimaru hadn't kept them in check, Hui had no doubt the two of them would have come to blows.

"What's the point of bringing this useless person along? We're the ones who capture them every time!" Tayuya glared fiercely at Hui Youling in the distance, as if she wanted to rush over and kill her.

Hui watched Tayuya with a cool expression, unwilling to say much.

Seeing Hui Youling act as if none of this concerned her, Tayuya grew even angrier. "Hui Youling, you useless piece of trash! Do you really think you can pretend you weren't involved just because you don't capture those people yourself?"

Hui Youling lowered her eyes to look at Tayuya. Her dark gaze was icy, and her expression was so cold it seemed she looked down on everything.

Tayuya finally lost control and swung a fist at Hui Youling. Jirobo hurriedly stopped her, his expression grave. "Tayuya, have you forgotten what I told you?!"

Sakon looked over at them and chuckled mockingly. "You should know she's different from us."

Kidomaru laughed coldly too. "That's right. She's Lord Orochimaru's disciple, not some underling like us."

Hui's gaze swept over them. Without saying a word, she turned and left, heading to the mission site ahead of them.

"Damn it!" Tayuya cursed angrily and protested again that she didn't want to go on missions with Hui Youling. Ukon tried to talk her down, but was really only fanning the flames.