Yahiko perked up at once. His hard journey hadn't been for nothing after all.
Overjoyed, Yahiko rushed toward the sound.
He found the little girl standing in the corner of a crumbling wall, crying her heart out.
She was only about three hundred meters away.
"Don't worry! Don't move! I'm coming to get you!" Yahiko called to her excitedly.
Then he glanced up and saw a huge boulder slowly forming above the little girl.
Panic seized him. He pushed his Body Flicker Technique to its absolute limit.
In a few bursts, he reached the girl.
The boulder was now barely half a meter above her head.
Yahiko wrapped an arm around her waist and yanked her clear.
He held her against him and rolled before coming to a stop.
The boulder crashed down just behind him, pinning a small corner of his clothes.
Yahiko stared at it, his heart still pounding.
He had come within a hair's breadth of death, and his face had gone pale.
The girl was remarkably well behaved. Once Yahiko rescued her, she rested her head against his shoulder.
She neither cried nor fussed, simply staying quiet in his arms.
Seeing how calm she was, Yahiko's expression finally softened a little.
"It's all right now. I'll take you back to your mother."
The little girl timidly raised her head, her eyes wet with tears. "Okay. Thank you, mister!"
Then she buried her face in Yahiko's shoulder again.
Relieved, Yahiko held her close and started to leave.
But things didn't go as he hoped.
He had barely taken a step when he heard a crackling sound.
It sounded unmistakably like Lightning Nature Ninjutsu.
And it was coming from directly behind him.
With the girl's head still on his shoulder, Yahiko hastily turned her head away.
He held