The Kirigakure Envoy Was Actually...

Sasuke watched Naruto jump up like an idiot.

Then Naruto stared at him with a strange look.

Sasuke snapped, "Forget it if you don't want to! I don't want to be friends with a commoner like you anyway!"

"Ah! Sorry, Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto immediately pressed his palms together. "My fault! I was just so surprised, so happy! You know, no one's ever wanted to be my friend before!"

Sasuke turned away, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. "Oh... Is it that bad? You really don't get along with people, do you?"

"Maybe not."

Naruto looked troubled for a moment, then brightened. "Sasuke, did you mean it?! You really want to be friends with me?"

"Hmph! Idiot." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Naruto threw his arms toward the sky and shouted, "I, Naruto Uzumaki, finally have a friend! His name is Sasuke Uchiha—!"

"Hey! Idiot! That's enough! You're embarrassing me!"

"Come on! Why? This is something to be happy about! Of course I want everyone to know!"

"...I-I take it back!"

"Huh?! You can't!!!"

At the Konoha Gate.

Kotetsu Hagane leaned against the wall, chewing on a stalk of dry grass.

He gazed up at the sky, bored out of his mind. "Wasn't Kirigakure sending envoys to visit? And the Hokage Building sent you?"

Izumo Kamizuki crouched on the ground, drawing circles. He laughed. "Yeah. Think they're taking this a bit too lightly?"

Beside them, Gekko Hayate pressed a hand to his forehead. "You two... I'm a Special Jōnin now! Stop making snide remarks!"

"Besides... you're no different. You made a few minor contributions in the last Shinobi World War, and you still ended up guarding the gate!"

Kotetsu and Izumo exchanged a glance.

"Hey! We're not just guarding a gate. Lord Hokage gave us this post because he values us..."

All three were elite ninja from ordinary families, close in age and old classmates who had met again years after graduation. Like most people, they fell into a pointless contest over who had it better.

Until...

All three were hoarse and realized there was no point.

Was there any real difference between guarding a gate and scraping by on B- and C-rank missions?

No.

It was all work. Just life.

A long silence passed.

Kotetsu suddenly leaned in, eager for gossip. "Say, Hayate... how are things with that childhood friend of yours? Uzumaki something..."

Izumo quietly edged closer and pricked up his ears.

"Ah..."

Hayate scratched his head. "She wasn't really my childhood sweetheart. Our families were close, so we grew up together. I haven't seen her in a long time."

"Oh?"

Kotetsu rubbed his chin. "That doesn't sound right. Weren't you always following her around as a kid? You were shorter than a little girl, and everyone teased you for it!"

"Hey! Enough! Stop bringing up embarrassing stuff!"

Izumo looked puzzled too. "I thought you two were dating back in school. You weren't?"

Hayate leaned against a pillar, his expression hard to read. "No. She told me ages ago that she liked an older student. She said it to me like I was her brother..."

"Oh..."

Kotetsu and Izumo exchanged a glance and tactfully stopped pressing him.

But...

After a moment of silence, Kotetsu couldn't hold back. "Wait, who was it?! You're good-looking too, Hayate. Which older student? Win her back!"

"He was... an Uchiha, I think."

"...An Uchiha?!"

The two gatekeepers looked at each other. "Hold on. We're just ordinary ninja. Isn't that... Anyway, who was it? What year was he in? Do we know him?"

Hayate glanced around. "Only two Uchiha enrolled at the Ninja Academy during our school years. One was Obito Uchiha... He died at the Battle of Kannabi Bridge."

"The other was Shinji Uchiha."

"Shinji... Uchiha?!"

Izumo and Kotetsu stared at each other. For a moment, the place went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Both men looked as though someone had hit pause.

"..."

All three fell silent and looked up at the sky.

"What a shame..."

"Yeah. I saw her the other day, just back from a mission. She's grown into a real beauty..."

"Hey! That's enough!"

Hayate's face darkened. Then he looked away and froze. "On your feet! They're here!"

The three peered into the distance.

On the road.

A group of ten ninja approached together.

"A woman?" Hayate stared at the woman leading them. "Why does she look familiar?"

Kotetsu frowned. "She does..."

"Where have I seen her?"

The Kirigakure envoys were led by a beautiful woman with auburn hair tied in a high ponytail, leaving her smooth forehead bare.

She wore light makeup and a Mist Ninja uniform. Her waist was slender, her legs long and well proportioned. She looked tall and capable, yet still had a shapely figure.

A trace of menace in her eyes gave her an even sharper edge.

Her name was Mei Terumi.

She hadn't always worn her hair this way, but...

Some damned brat had spent half a year on the battlefield laughing at her without mercy.

He said her hairstyle made her look like an old lady!

Mei was strong-willed and ambitious.

She normally paid little attention to her appearance, but being mocked again and again by a brat four or five years younger than her was too much to bear.

She couldn't live it down.

So Mei found time in her busy schedule to have the best stylist in the Land of Water design a hairstyle just for her.

The key was her bangs!

She had to admit it.

When the stylist tied back her hair and revealed her smooth forehead, she had stared at herself in a daze.

It was like looking at a stranger.

On that count alone, she might even have owed that wretched brat a thank-you!

But...

After leaving the Kirigakure battlefield, that filthy little pest had told everyone who would listen that she had "sexually" harassed him.

The "scandal" had spread across nearly half the Shinobi World.

Just thinking about him made her grind her teeth.

She had only been a teenager then!

She was Mei Terumi, wielder of two Kekkei Genkai. Did she look like a woman so desperate for love that she couldn't wait to find a man to marry?

Did he think she had no self-respect?

"Stop!"

Mei halted with one hand on her hip.

She gazed at the Konoha Gate, conflicted.

That wretched brat... He should be in the village. She'd heard he had spent the past few years making trouble for Kumogakure along the Land of Lightning Border.

After all these years, he was...

Eighteen?

No! Mei froze and shook her head in disbelief.

Why am I thinking about him?!

She collected herself and swept a sharp gaze over her companions. "Remember, leave everything to me! Don't speak out of turn!"

"Yes!"

The other nine answered in unison, but beneath their lowered heads, their eyes gleamed red with bloodlust.

Mei frowned.

They certainly carried the bloodthirst and scent of blood peculiar to the Bloody Mist Village.

But...

She still felt uneasy.

Near the end of the last war, she had realized that the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, was under Genjutsu. She had been investigating in secret ever since...

Unfortunately, without those two pairs of eyes in Konoha, her chances of breaking it were vanishingly small.

Yagura himself had appointed the people before her.

In any case...

This trip to Konoha would not go smoothly!

Whoosh!

Hayate landed in front of her, a sword strapped to his back. "Hello. I'm Konoha Jonin Gekko Hayate. The Third Hokage sent me to welcome the Kirigakure envoys!"

"Gekko Hayate?"

Mei's fine brows drew together.

Her war with Konoha years ago had taught her that Gekko was no prestigious Konoha clan. Nor was Hayate some powerful ninja...

Was Konoha taking Kirigakure's visit this lightly?

Tch...

Then again, Kirigakure was known as the "Bloody Mist Village" now.

"Mei Terumi, Kirigakure."

Hayate gave her another look. "Please follow me!"