A Chance Encounter

"Qian, over here!"

On a street inside Konoha, Ryosuke waved to Qian from afar, with Mizutani Shizuko standing beside him.

Qian heard him and walked over at an unhurried pace.

When Qian came closer, Ryosuke said unhappily, "Qian, you're way too slow. We agreed to go shopping together, so couldn't you have arrived a little earlier?"

Qian knew Ryosuke was not truly upset and was only complaining out of habit, so he did not explain. He merely asked, "Where are we going first?"

Originally, given Qian's personality, there was no way he would waste time shopping.

There was not much to shop for in Konoha anyway.

But considering he had been wound too tight recently, after some hesitation, he still accepted Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko's invitation and came out to relax.

By now, half a month had passed since the effects of the Mind Reflection Technique had weakened.

During this half month, Furukawa had led them on another C-Rank Mission.

However, it was not bandit suppression, but escorting a merchant caravan.

Along the way, although they ran into some trouble, it was all within the scope of the mission, and they did not encounter any real danger.

This made Qian sigh once again. Not having the protagonist's halo really was nice.

"Let's go over there. A new dumpling shop opened there, and it's really good."

Ryosuke pointed as he spoke.

Hearing this, Qian looked in the direction of his finger. Sure enough, there was a newly opened shop there, with quite a few people lined up outside. The taste was probably not bad.

Just as he was thinking this, Qian suddenly heard several "familiar" names.

"Kakashi, hurry up. Today we're going to make up for Rin's birthday that we missed."

"Ah, Obito, there's no need..."

"No way. We definitely have to make up for it. I know a new dumpling shop opened up ahead, and it's really good. I'll treat you later. Kakashi, don't fight me for it."

"Kakashi... Obito... Rin."

Muttering inwardly, Qian looked toward the direction the voices came from.

At the other end of the street, three small figures were walking together, one in front and two behind.

The person in front had his back to him. On the back of his clothes, like Qian's, was the crest of the Uchiha clan. If nothing unexpected, it should be Obito Uchiha.

At this moment, he was saying something excitedly, seemingly not caring about the gazes of the people around him.

The two people behind him were a boy and a girl, both facing Qian, allowing him to see their appearances easily.

Uh.

No, there was one person he could not see clearly.

He looked about eleven or twelve years old, with a head of silver hair, a short sword on his back, a mask over his face, and an indifferent expression. It was Hatake Kakashi, who had yet to walk out of the shadow of his father's death.

With the mask blocking him, even face-to-face, Qian could not see his full appearance.

Just as Qian was observing him, Kakashi also looked over.

What sharp perception!

Qian was still sighing in admiration, but the instant their gazes met, a chill surged into his heart.

It was a strange feeling, as if he had been targeted by some ferocious beast, making his heart tremble.

Qian quickly moved his gaze away.

"Qian, what's wrong?"

Seeing Qian suddenly stop in his tracks, his expression somewhat ugly, Mizutani Shizuko asked with concern.

Huff—

Qian let out a breath of stale air and slowly said, "It's nothing."

After saying that, he moved his feet and continued walking forward. Inevitably, his gaze met Kakashi's once more.

Only this time, he no longer had the fear from before.

That was right. During that exchange of gazes just now, he had felt fear.

It was true that he had killed before, but those he killed were only bandits and robbers who were "too weak to truss a chicken," while Kakashi was different.

The other party had truly been on the battlefield, had crawled through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The two of them were simply not on the same level.

Therefore, there was nothing shameful about feeling fear, as long as he could overcome it.

On the other side.

Seeing Kakashi look behind him, Obito Uchiha asked in confusion, "What is it?"

As he spoke, he also turned back to look.

With just one glance, he recognized Qian's identity.

There was no helping it. That "table tennis paddle" was far too conspicuous.

"A junior from the clan?"

Thinking that, Obito Uchiha withdrew his gaze and asked Kakashi, "What's up with him?"

Judging from Qian's clothing and age, there was a high chance he was one of this year's graduates.

Obito Uchiha couldn't understand what there was about someone like that worth Kakashi's attention.

Hearing Obito's question, Kakashi merely shook his head and said nothing more.

Soon, both groups arrived in front of the Dumpling shop.

Kakashi, Obito, and Rin lined up in front, while Qian and his two companions lined up behind them.

In the line, Obito and Ryosuke kept talking about something, with Rin and Mizutani Shizuko chiming in now and then, while Kakashi and Qian said nothing at all.

A few minutes later, Kakashi and the others bought their dumplings and left together.

Standing in the line, Qian watched the three of them leave and muttered to himself, "They probably came back to take part in the Chunin Exams."

That was right. After thinking it over for a while, he had roughly guessed why Kakashi and the others had appeared in the village.

Konoha held the Chunin Exams twice a year, once in early January and once in early July.

It was now late November, and the next round of Chunin Exams was about to begin. Combined with their ages, it wasn't hard to guess why they had returned at this time.

A month could be considered both long and short.

In peacetime, it naturally wouldn't matter. A month would be enough to make it back no matter what, but in wartime, that amount of time was a little short.

Although the vast majority of Genin were cannon fodder on the battlefield, that absolutely did not include the ones recommended by their Jonin squad leaders to take part in the Chunin Exams.

And Genin like that usually bore certain responsibilities on the battlefield.

Gathering these people naturally couldn't be handled like transferring cannon-fodder Genin, where a single casual order would do. At the very least, people had to be arranged to take over their duties.

In addition, for their safety, people had to be specially assigned to escort them.

To a certain extent, these Genin were the village's future. If anything happened to them on the road, the village might end up with a broken generation.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, they definitely wouldn't all return at the same time.

With that in mind, seeing them a month in advance wasn't strange.

If his guess was right, the three of them should be the first batch of Genin to return to the village. Over the next month, even more would probably come back.

As for whether his guess was accurate, he only had to look at the number of young Genin in the village over the next month.

However...

"The Chunin Exams..."

Qian had a feeling that after the Chunin Exams, their batch of newbies might be sent to the battlefield.

In other words, he didn't have much time left.

The moment he thought of that, Qian wanted nothing more than to go home and train right away.

But after looking at the two teammates in front of him, he ultimately suppressed the restlessness in his heart.

Since he had decided to relax a little, he couldn't give up halfway.

As the saying went, sharpening the axe wouldn't delay the chopping of wood.

This brief rest now was for the sake of training even harder afterward.

"Qian, what flavor do you want?"

Just as Qian was deep in thought, Ryosuke turned back and asked.

"Spicy."

Qian answered casually.