Wind Caress Dawn Technique

An hour had passed since Third assigned Team 7 a C-rank Mission to protect the bridge-building expert Tazuna.

They had left the Hidden Leaf Village at exactly ten in the morning. They would probably reach the Land of Fire ferry crossing around noon, then take a boat to the Land of Waves.

Barring any surprises, Team 7 would be able to escort Tazuna back to the Land of Waves that afternoon.

Afterward, they would stay in the Land of Waves for roughly half a month, carrying out the protection mission for Tazuna while he built the bridge.

The mission rank Tazuna had reported to Konoha as the client was a C-rank Mission that would not involve fighting ninja.

Even if combat did occur, the enemies in a C-rank Mission would merely be gangs or armed groups made up of ordinary people. Dealing with such people was exceedingly easy for ninja.

Therefore, Kakashi, as the team's Jōnin leader, had not forced the three members of Team 7 into a protective formation around their client.

Aside from Kakashi and Tazuna walking side by side while secretly remaining alert to their surroundings,

Naruto and the others strolled leisurely through Konoha Forest outside the village.

Their relaxed state of mind made this seem more like an outing than a mission.

However, Tazuna, who had given Konoha false information, knew very well how dire his true situation was.

He could not help worrying that these Konoha ninja who had accepted the mission might not be able to protect him at all.

"Are they really going to be okay like this?"

Tazuna questioned Kakashi beside him, making no effort to hide his dissatisfaction.

Sasuke was as usual, both hands tucked into the pockets of his white shorts. Faced with Sakura, who clung to him and chatted endlessly, he responded with silent indifference.

Tazuna took all this in. To him, Sasuke was just a kid trying to look cool, while Sakura was a lovestruck girl with romance on the brain.

As for Naruto...

Tazuna thought Naruto was short and dull-looking, without even the slightest air of a "ninja." He was simply an ordinary brat one could find anywhere.

"What does it matter? If anything happens, there's still me, a Jōnin, here."

Kakashi smiled and reassured Tazuna.

"Mm..."

With Kakashi blocking his questioning, Tazuna found himself unable to say much more for the moment.

After all, on the surface, this was merely a C-rank Mission without much danger.

"It had better be. I paid for this!"

But before long, Tazuna was once again glaring and grumbling at Kakashi.

Kakashi could only keep smiling as he patiently assured Tazuna.

Naruto first looked toward Sasuke and Sakura, then glanced at Tazuna and Kakashi.

He chose not to join either of the two groups, instead focusing his attention on the forest.

Ever since leaving Konoha, Naruto had been continuously using a sensory ninjutsu.

It was a sensory ninjutsu Naruto had created after mastering Sage Mode, by imitating the powerful sensory ability he possessed while Sage Mode was active.

He had firmly memorized the sensation of sensing while in Sage Mode and created this sensory ninjutsu based on that feeling—

—Wind Caress Dawn Technique.

It was an environmental sensory ninjutsu much like the Rain Tiger at Will Technique.

The principle behind Pain's Rain Tiger at Will Technique was to infuse chakra into rainwater, allowing him to clearly sense everything beneath the curtain of rain.

Naruto's Wind Caress Dawn Technique, meanwhile, infused chakra into the air, causing the airflow to produce invisible wind.

Using "wind" as its medium, it "caressed" and "learned" everything within the ninjutsu's range.

Compared to tangible rain, invisible wind was far more difficult to guard against.

Although activating Sage Mode itself gave Naruto considerable sensory abilities, creating another sensory ninjutsu seemed somewhat unnecessary.

But Sage Mode had a time limit, and in a village where Danzo and Third were watching him, Naruto—who had "never been taught Sage Mode by a master"—could not openly use Sage Mode at all.

Since Naruto himself possessed Wind-nature chakra, the Wind Caress Dawn Technique, which used wind as its medium, could be said to be the sensory ninjutsu best suited to him when he was not using Sage Mode.

Sage Mode, Flying Thunder God... these were all hidden trump cards Naruto kept concealed.

Setting Sage Mode aside for the moment, Naruto had already more or less mastered it while he was still at the Ninja Academy.

More importantly, it had only been a little over two months since he learned Flying Thunder God. Naruto needed plenty of time to practice and solidify the Flying Thunder God Technique.

During private training, preventing exposure was an essential part of the process, and the Wind Caress Dawn Technique played a role too important to ignore.

After learning the Wind Caress Dawn Technique, Naruto used it to counter-surveil the Root ninja watching him from the shadows around the village.

On the night of the Scroll of Seals incident, Naruto had also used the Wind Caress Dawn Technique to sense someone following Mizuki. That was why he had ultimately allowed Mizuki to capture him.

Just as he had guessed at the time, he successfully forced Kakashi out of hiding.

Under such "dangerous" circumstances, Third had believed even more firmly in the "Will of Fire" Naruto displayed.

At that moment, the Demon Brothers, rogue ninja from Hidden Mist, were not within Naruto's sensing range.

But Naruto had not been trying to sense those two Hidden Mist rogue ninja in the first place. He was sensing members of Root.

To this point, Naruto was surprised to discover that Root was not monitoring him at all.

After confirming several times that he was not being watched, Naruto stopped using the Wind Caress Dawn Technique.

Naruto was puzzled by the fact that no one was monitoring him.

A Jinchūriki leaving the village should have been something Danzo himself found unacceptable...

But Naruto quickly understood.

The main reason Root members were not monitoring Naruto outside the village was probably Kakashi.

Naruto carefully recalled the two months of life since becoming a ninja. There was no doubt that Danzo was still watching him.

But the frequency had indeed dropped significantly, and the number of people monitoring him had also decreased.

Whenever Team 7 carried out missions, that surveillance simply vanished altogether.

After some brief thought, Naruto sorted out the reasoning behind it.

It seemed that after the Scroll of Seals incident, Third had finally forcefully intervened in Danzo's long-standing "little schemes" concerning Naruto.

Kakashi himself was a ninja of the Hokage faction and a pillar of the village.

Kakashi's appointment as Team 7's Jōnin leader was itself an expression of Third's stance, as well as a compromise by Danzo.

A compromise not only toward Naruto, the Jinchūriki, but also toward the last surviving orphan of the Uchiha Clan.

In the political struggle between Third and Danzo, Third currently held a slight advantage.

This was a good thing!

Naruto immediately reached that conclusion.

According to the original storyline, Danzo's current compromise would continue until Orochimaru invaded Konoha and killed Third.

That happened to coincide with the timing of the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Danzo being forced to loosen his surveillance of Naruto now would greatly increase Naruto's chances of successfully defecting from Konoha after the Chunin Ninja Exams!

So what if Danzo wanted to regain control of the Nine-Tails after Third died?

By then, Naruto would have long since escaped from Konoha!

Thinking about how Third had inadvertently eased the pressure Danzo placed on him, Naruto could not stop the corner of his mouth from curling upward.

"Naruto, what are you smiling about?"

However, before he could rejoice for long, Sakura's voice suddenly rang out beside him.

Only then did Naruto snap out of his deep thoughts. He hurriedly suppressed the wild joy in his heart and looked at Sakura, who was staring at him in confusion.

Splash—

Naruto was just about to come up with an excuse.

The sound of someone stepping into water rang out at that moment.

Naruto's gaze immediately sharpened!

While looking at Naruto, Sakura had failed to watch the road beneath her feet and stepped into a puddle on the path.

It had not rained these past few days, and today was clear and sunny. There should not have been any puddles on the road at all.

Before he could warn her, Naruto immediately reached out and lunged toward Sakura.

He pulled Sakura tightly into his arms!