Root Ninja

The four of them arrived at Liuli Street, and Hatake Sakumo flickered onto a utility pole. "From here on, you decide how to search. This is your first mission, so I hope you do a good job."

Seeing this, Qingyun and the other two huddled together and discussed things quietly before heading in three different directions, weaving through Liuli Street as their eyes swept every corner.

Yet the orange kitten seemed to have vanished. The three searched for a long time without finding it.

Suddenly, Kushina ran up to Qingyun with an excited look, holding a cat in her arms. Qingyun's face lit up. "Did you find it?"

"Here, look!"

Kushina held the kitten up as if presenting a treasure, her proud expression practically begging him to praise her.

Qingyun took a closer look, and his face darkened. This wasn't an orange cat at all—it had orange and yellow markings, and there was no yellow bell around its neck.

Qingyun shot Kushina an exasperated glare, shoved the photograph from the mission brief into her hand, and resumed searching for the orange kitten.

Kushina froze under his glare, then looked at the photograph in her hand and smiled sheepishly. She stroked the cat's head before gently setting it down.

Freed at last, the cat gave Kushina a terrified look, let out a shriek, and bolted. Heaven only knew what agony it had endured when Kushina caught it. All it wanted now was to get away from this red-haired demon.

Elsewhere, Qingyun met up with Minato Namikaze. After comparing their findings, they parted again, both disappointed.

Time slowly slipped by. The three turned Liuli Street upside down but still found no sign of the orange kitten. When they gathered again, all three hung their heads, clearly having found nothing.

"Qingyun, do you