The Hot Spring

A hotspring is a type of spring water. Strictly speaking, it refers to natural groundwater that emerges from underground, with the spring mouth temperature significantly higher than the local annual average temperature but lower than or equal to 45 degrees Celsius, and containing trace minerals beneficial to human health. Nowadays, many regions also drill artificial wells, generally 600-2000 meters deep, pumping groundwater with deep water pumps. These are rich in various beneficial minerals and have water temperatures generally above 20 degrees, also called hotspring wells.

A group of boys and girls entered their respective open-air baths. Under Adou's instigation, the two young male dogs followed a crowd of girls with zero shame.

Kiba nagged Kamizuki about it for half the day. Kamizuki grew annoyed at the nagging and snapped at Kiba.

Cut the BB already. I bet if you could follow them in, you'd be just like those two heartless little beasts.

Hearing Kamizuki say that, Kiba thought it over briefly. He felt Kamizuki's words made perfect sense and found himself speechless.

After the boys entered the bath, Shikamaru and Shino leaned comfortably against the edge, lazily enjoying the soothing hot spring water.

Ever since Kamizuki first met the real-life version of Choji, the little fatty had never once appeared without snacks in hand or something crunching in his mouth. Kamizuki would have thought this little fatty was someone else using the Transformation Technique.

This time the little fatty who came along was clearly the real one, because right now he had a towel tied on his head, a bag of chips in his hands, and kept crunching away nonstop.

Kamizuki saw this little fatty unable to stop his mouth even while soaking in a hot spring and felt drunk on the absurdity. He tried to stay as far away as possible to avoid getting splashed by the food crumbs.

Inuzuka Kiba followed Kamizuki like a shadow. When Kamizuki showed disgust, Kiba said.

Who told your Adou to lure away my Akamaru? Without Akamaru, I'll just stick with you until my Akamaru comes back to me.

Seeing Kiba turn so shamelessly clingy, Kamizuki was defeated and let him follow.

On the girls' side, when they first entered the water they all acted like proper ladies, quiet and gentle with every movement.

But this ladylike state didn't last long. Whether it was Sakura Mangetsu or Ino Yamanaka, one of them mischievously reached out and gave Mai Shiranui's pair of bouncy, elastic white rabbits a squeeze.

The group of girls immediately started splashing and playing in the water. The two young male dogs lying at the edge without entering watched with appreciative eyes as the lively, radiant girls frolicked naked in the water.

It was hard to tell whether canine quadrupeds like dogs could truly appreciate the beauty of human body lines.

While the girls were having fun, the boys in the neighboring bath heard the commotion from next door and showed various expressions.

Shikamaru, who had been growing drowsy from the hot water and was about to find a comfortable spot for a nap, suddenly heard the girls' racket chase away his sleepiness. His face turned darkly intimidating.

Shino's presence had always been low, so no one needed to worry about him.

Kamizuki and Kiba stared at the fence blocking their view, faces full of resentment, lost in thought.

Just then, several wild monkeys that had come from the mountain forest climbed onto the fence.

Kiba watched one monkey flaunting its bright red butt right at him, swaying provocatively left and right on the fence.

Seeing the monkey so arrogant, Kiba felt a surge of evil fire rush to his head. From somewhere he grabbed a pebble the size of a fingernail and hurled it at the wild monkey's rear.

Inuzuka Kiba was a proper graduate of Konoha's academy who had passed every rigorous exam to become a genin. Though his strength wasn't great, his throwing accuracy in the ninja tools class was quite good.

With a sharp "whoosh," the small stone shot from Kiba's hand toward the monkey still wiggling its red butt.

The wild monkey let out a piercing shriek, clutched its rear, and leaped straight into the girls' bath.

As the monkey splashed into the girls' bath, an even louder wave of screams erupted. The girls had been startled by the sudden intruder.

When the screams died down, Mai Shiranui grabbed the paper fan she had left at the edge of the bath and shouted, "Ninjutsu: Flower Butterfly Fan!"

The paper fan flew from Mai Shiranui's hand, spinning rapidly through the air toward the monkey in the water.

In the blink of an eye the fan struck the monkey's head with perfect accuracy, then returned like a boomerang straight back into Mai Shiranui's hand.

A huge lump instantly rose on the drenched monkey's head.

The other monkeys still on the fence saw their companion being bullied by humans and began screeching louder and louder.

Before long Kamizuki and the others saw many more wild monkeys pouring out of the mountains and charging toward the baths.

In an instant a huge troop of monkeys surrounded the entire open-air hot spring, making everyone feel uneasy.

After surrounding the baths, the monkey troop split into two groups at the howl of what seemed to be their leader and launched a fierce attack on the boys and girls in both baths.

Faced with the monkey assault, the young ninja boys and girls each unleashed their own skills and fought back.

Roughly ten minutes later the monkeys were driven off by the Konoha genin. The fleeing ones rolled away while the unconscious were dragged off by their companions.

After the young ninja chased away the troublemaking monkeys and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they realized the fence between the baths had been completely smashed during the fight.

The boys and girls stared blankly at the naked figures of the opposite gender.

After about a minute, Ino Yamanaka's scream loud enough to rupture eardrums jolted the dazed boys and girls into realizing their naked bodies had been fully seen by the other side.

Hinata, already extremely shy, turned as red as the setting sun the moment she understood and fainted on the spot.

Chaos followed. The boys and girls had never faced such an awkward and embarrassing scene and panicked in confusion.

In the end, under Mai Shiranui's direction, all the boys submerged themselves and turned their backs while the girls got out first and entered the changing rooms. Only then did the boys leave the bath to change.

This hot spring trip had been ruined by a bunch of wild monkeys. The boys and girls returned to the village with faces full of displeasure mixed with embarrassment.

There was no helping it. Being a newcomer with limited education, trying to write a novel of at least six hundred thousand words could only be described as "heh."

So if the writing isn't good, at least the attitude can be better.

I can't act like those great authors who announce breaks whenever they want and ignore reader comments. Up to now I've read every single comment carefully and replied to each one.

Heh, an author like me who replies to every reader's comment one by one is something I've never seen in all the years I've read novels.

Alright, I've said too much. I said all this hoping everyone can understand a little. These past two days I've really been stuck, barely squeezing out a few words a day.

I'm not Jehovah. No, even Jehovah couldn't make everyone like him. So to those friends who still hold expectations for this book, please keep expecting. I'll write with all my heart. If you don't like it, you can drop it. It's my fault for failing to keep you.