"One of the Kazekage's ninja...?"
No wonder he had never seen him in Konoha before. He was a ninja from another country who had come during the Chunin Ninja Exams.
At the sight, his grip on the vegetables relaxed a little, and he backed into the shadows at the alley entrance, intending to turn around and leave.
But the turbulent feeling inside him kept surging.
Forget it. I'll go take a look. If they aren't discussing anything else, I'll just give them the vegetables.
With that thought, Gekko Hayate quietly crept back beside the Kazekage Tower.
He crouched down and listened in silence.
But the voices inside the tower were almost impossible to make out.
Cold gusts blew in through the alley entrance, chilling the back of his neck.
He could only hold his breath and concentrate, keeping his breathing as faint as possible as he leaned a little closer to the wall and pressed his ear against it.
The wall panels were icy cold; he could feel it even through his clothes.
The lamplight inside flickered, casting two figures' shadows onto the paper window.
"The plan is still proceeding normally, isn't it?"
"Yes, everything is still proceeding normally."
Soon, the voices in the room reached Hayate's ears.
He couldn't help wondering:
A plan? What plan?
The Kazekage had a plan for coming to Konoha?
But the conversation inside quickly continued.
"That fellow, what's his name, Uzumaki Hayashi. Have you found anything out about him?"
"Nothing yet. All we know is that he used to be a wandering orphan. Nothing else."
"Very well..."
"But leaving him alive will always be an obstacle."
"Then... do you need me to assassinate..."
The voice paused, then added something else, but the evening wind scattered the latter half, leaving him unable to hear it