The day after they dealt with the three Snow Ninja, the journey continued. Kazahana Koyuki seemed a little calmer, but lingering sorrow and resolve still clouded her face.
After much hesitation, she finally asked Asama Sandayu to pass along a message: she wanted to see Naruto Uzumaki.
Sandayu, in turn, asked a member of the production crew to deliver it.
However, the crew member returned with a blunt reply: "Mr. Naruto said he's busy and doesn't have time."
"Busy?"
Kazahana Koyuki froze, her gaze drifting toward the front of the convoy.
Naruto was crouched behind a snow-covered slope sheltered from the wind, utterly absorbed in tinkering with something. He was wearing the white Chakra Armor with blue markings that he had stripped off Nadare Rōga.
The armor was still a little too small for Naruto. It stretched tight across his shoulders, chest, and abdomen, making faint scraping noises whenever he moved. He paid that no mind, carefully feeding his wind release chakra into its core, trying to activate its Ice Release conversion function.
Kazahana Koyuki? Sorry, but you'll have to take a back seat to Ice Release for now.
Asama Sandayu watched from the side, his brow deeply furrowed.
The princess herself had summoned him. What an honor!
How dare this wandering swordsman refuse so rudely!
Instinctively, he started forward, intending to admonish Naruto with the authority of a veteran retainer. But the moment he moved, his mind replayed that breathtaking sword stroke that had cut apart the ice whale yesterday-and the horrifying sight of Fubuki Kakuyoku's severed head and body.
He forcibly swallowed the rebuke on the tip of his tongue, letting it become a heavy, helpless sigh instead.
Forget it...
Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures.
*This young warrior might be hotheaded and careless about propriety, but his