This negotiation—or perhaps this bluffing—might very well become something extremely important.
Tsunade pondered this inwardly.
Then she followed Mifune to the room specially arranged for them.
Kakashi could see that Tsunade was clearly deep in thought, so he had no intention of disturbing her. He simply excused himself and went to rest.
To be honest, Konoha Village was not actually as far from Hinata's headquarters as one might imagine.
And on that very day, Neji Hyuga, who had fought his way through countless hardships to get here, arrived in this somewhat desolate-looking region.
Doubt rose in his heart. Would Hinata really be here?
Neji Hyuga thought to himself.
After giving it some thought, however, he followed the arrangement Hyuga Hiashi had made through their secret channels and left an inconspicuous signal on a road where people were relatively likely to pass.
As for himself, he walked some distance away and sat down cross-legged to meditate.
He did not know when someone would come to receive him, but the one thing he did know was—
At a time like this, all he could do was wait in silence.
Though he had some doubts about whether Hinata was here, considering that no one had been able to pinpoint her whereabouts for so long, it did not seem strange to imagine that she had some special hiding place.
Time passed second by second, but he was not anxious. Perhaps his former self would have found it hard to wait.
But now, he was at least a jonin. Setting everything else aside, anyone capable of becoming a Konoha jonin naturally possessed excellent composure.
After waiting for a long time without results, he simply closed his eyes.
In this environment, he seemed to have completely merged with nature.
But this somewhat pleasant state did not