At the Tsuchikage Building, the cloudless sky made the day especially hot.
Zou Hyuga stood in the shade, gazing out in boredom and yawning repeatedly.
Often, ninja could not truly empathize with one another or understand each other's feelings.
Just then, for instance, Zou Hyuga watched comfortably from the shade as a group of Iwagakure ninja stood in the sun, trying to provoke them.
They resented these Konoha ANBU. What had begun as displays of hostility had escalated into outright verbal taunts, stopping just short of a physical confrontation.
Zou Hyuga paid their taunts no mind. He knew only one thing.
He was cooling off in the shade, while those Iwagakure ninja could only endure the scorching sunlight outside. That was the difference between them.
Beside him, Kakashi and Oto Uchiha were equally unbothered. The former wore his usual dead-eyed, mission-first expression, while the latter cared nothing for their verbal provocations.
What did accusations that the Konoha Envoy Group was cowardly and afraid to accept a friendly sparring challenge have to do with their ANBU squad?
Even if it had something to do with ANBU, what did it have to do with him, Zou Hyuga? They were the covert corps, not the overt corps.
By noon, the sun had grown even fiercer. Zou Hyuga began sweating slightly beneath his mask, while the Iwagakure ninja below had long since fallen silent.
People needed to eat, after all. Only with full stomachs would they have the energy to keep trading insults.
The Iwagakure ninja squatted outside the venue and took out the food and drinking water they had prepared. They cast a provocative glance toward the ANBU squad, then began eating lunch, deliberately chewing as loudly as possible.
Zou Hyuga glanced at them. He had always been a mild-mannered ninja, a veritable