The Envoy's Shock

The envoy finally came to his senses and barked at the accompanying civil official beside him, "Make the hand signs. Confirm what's going on here."

The civil official was also a sensory ninja. He formed the sensing seal with both hands, and a faint glow of Chakra shimmered from his fingertips.

Sweat trickled down the bridge of his nose. He sensed the area three times, and his face grew paler each time.

"My lord... this isn't Genjutsu. The temperature is real."

The envoy stood beside the carriage shaft without moving for a long while.

He stared at several children in the distance, running all over the ground with popsicles in their mouths. Melted snow splashed mud over their trouser legs, yet not one of them wore a padded coat.

When he turned to look at the withered trees by the roadside, rings of tender green buds had sprouted from their trunks, beaded with water droplets. In the depths of the first lunar month's winter, they were green enough to sting his eyes.

Heavy snow still fell across the entire Land of Fire, yet Konoha was so hot that his snow-fox-fur coat was practically steaming him alive.

His inner garments clung to his back, and a clammy sweat had broken out all over him.

The document in his hand, listing the military budget cuts he had intended to use to keep Konoha in check, had somehow been crumpled into a useless ball of paper.

Paper scraps stuck to his sweat and turned to pulp. Those lofty phrases demanding cuts now seemed incomparably ridiculous.

"Turn around. Hide the carriage in the woods outside the village immediately."

The envoy grabbed the civil official by the sleeve and dragged him back.

He had served as an envoy for twenty years. He could not make