Early the next morning.
Ōnoki shivered after spending the night in the wine cellar beneath the toilet on Konoha's backstreet.
"Father, have you caught a cold?" Kitsuchi asked with concern, looking down at Ōnoki, who was curled up in his arms.
"Just a little chill in my heart. Nothing serious. Let's go sort out our accommodations today." Ōnoki sneezed hard and held his chest, looking rather forlorn.
"Oh? Father, can we really get our accommodations sorted out today?" Kitsuchi asked happily. Spending a night in the wine cellar had been anything but pleasant.
Although Kitsuchi considered himself blessed with the resilience and willingness to endure hardship passed down through Iwagakure's will of stone, hardship was still best avoided whenever possible.
"Yes. I'll trust my teacher one more time." Ōnoki sighed, looked up at the layer of earth overhead that kept dripping water, and shook his head helplessly.
Sometimes, physical cold wasn't the final straw that broke a person. The chill in their heart was.
"All right, everyone, get ready to get up and head out!" Ōnoki wriggled out of Kitsuchi's arms, and Kitsuchi stood up, clapping his hands as he called to everyone.
The Iwagakure group groggily rose in fits and starts, some yawning, others bleary-eyed as they spat out mouthfuls of dirt that had fallen into their mouths during the night.
As everyone slowly got to their feet, Kitsuchi climbed the stairs beneath the cellar entrance and gently pushed open the wooden lid above.
As an ever-widening shaft of sunlight shone into the wine cellar, everyone greedily breathed in the fresh air that came with it.
Ōnoki also slowly floated toward the stairs, closing his eyes and greedily sucking in the air from above.
Splash!
"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey! Urgh!" Just as Ōnoki was really getting into it, a splashing