At 1:23 in the afternoon, Shuo leaned sideways against the wall outside the mission hall, half a rice ball Rin had stuffed into his mouth dangling between his teeth. He looked so languid he could not even stand up straight.
Obito paced in circles beside him, practically wearing sparks off his soles, muttering, "Why isn't he here yet? Why isn't he here yet-this is killing me!"
"Keep spinning and I'm going to throw up my rice ball."
Kakashi leaned against the other side, still clutching Icha Icha Paradise, his tone disgusted.
"You didn't even eat lunch! What the hell are you going to throw up?"
"Watching you spin makes me sick."
Rin stood between them, smiling with her lips pressed together, carrying the waterskins she had prepared for everyone.
Before Obito could argue again, Minato emerged from the hall, a mission scroll clutched in his hand and a spring in his step. "Sorry for the wait. The mission's confirmed-escort a sealing scroll to Kikyo Castle. Three days there and back. Not far."
"A sealing scroll?"
Obito immediately crowded closer, eyes shining. "It must be really important, right? Don't worry, Minato-sensei. I'll definitely keep it safe!"
Shuo chewed his rice ball without even lifting his eyelids. His attention was nowhere near the scroll-on the second floor across the street, the curtains were half drawn. Sunlight struck the glass, refracting the faint outline of a person. Without a close look, it was indistinguishable from a reflection, but light did not lie. Someone stood there, motionless as a wooden post.
He slowly finished his last mouthful of rice, wiped his mouth, and said nothing, tacitly agreeing to join the mission.
The entire mission went without a hitch, absurdly smoothly.
The team left through the east gate and took the main road. Obito thumped his chest and volunteered to lead the way, running back and forth like a Shiba Inu let loose, practically determined to trample every blade of grass nearby.
Rin stayed beside the two brown horses hauling the cargo, gently stroking their coats now and then.
Kakashi walked on the flank, his pages rustling away. It was hard to tell whether he was actually reading or just pretending. Minato led from the front, occasionally glancing back at the team. Whenever his gaze fell on Shuo, he gave a small smile.
Shuo trailed at the very back, dragging his feet. He was not pretending to be lazy; he genuinely had no energy-he had slept poorly last night, eaten only half a rice ball at noon, and the sun was fierce, baking him into drowsiness. His eyelids felt as heavy as though they had been glued together.
He squinted, shuffling along to the rhythm of the horse's swaying tail, swaying with every step as though he were about to fall apart.
After two hours of walking, Minato called a halt at a roadside tea stall. Obito rushed over and gulped down half a pot of water, panting as he cried, "I'm alive again! I'm alive! This sun is brutal!"
Rin crouched beside the horses to give them water. Kakashi and Minato huddled in a corner of the tea stall, discussing something in low voices, probably the mission details.
Shuo found a bench beside a pillar and sat down. With his back against it and his eyes half closed, he slowly spread Light Perception like a slack net.
The stall owner brewed tea, steam curling upward. Light passed through the mist, refracting into tiny flecks of gold;
birds fluttered their wings in the distant woods, light flashing off their feathers. Farther away, in the crown of a dead tree at the bend in the main road-there was a faint ripple in the patterns of light. The chakra was suppressed extremely low, but body heat had warmed the surrounding air. With the change in air density, the path of the light bent, like a feather falling onto still water. Subtle, but it could not escape his perception.
Shuo lifted his eyelids for a glance, then slowly closed them again.
Tch. Minato must have noticed ages ago. If he wasn't saying anything, there was no need for me to meddle. Too much effort.
Once they had rested enough, the team set off again. Shuo still trailed at the back, but quietly shifted position, moving from behind the horses' rumps to the right side of the cart. From this angle, he could just block the line of fire from the dead tree. It was not that he wanted to protect anything. He just thought that if a fight really broke out and blood splashed onto him, washing it off would be a pain.
Toward evening, the team reached the relay station outside Kikyo Castle.
"We'll rest here tonight, head into the city for the handover tomorrow morning, and start back at noon."
By the time Minato finished making arrangements, Obito had already collapsed stiffly onto the communal sleeping platform. Within two seconds, he was snoring so loudly the roof practically hummed.
Rin quietly sorted their luggage. Kakashi sat by the window, his book open to the same page, but his eyes were fixed outside, his expression placid.
Shuo sat on the steps at the entrance, watching the evening clouds blaze red on the horizon. The station owner brought dinner-miso soup, brown rice, and pickled radish. He accepted it and slowly picked at the food, with little appetite.
Halfway through his meal, that "featherlike ripple" vanished from his perception-it had followed them all the way from the dead tree, then stopped three hundred meters outside the station without coming any closer.
Shuo chewed his pickled radish without turning his head. Whatever. As long as he leaves me alone, he can stay as long as he likes.
Once darkness had fully fallen, Obito's snores grew even louder. Rin slept deeply, breathing evenly. Kakashi had his eyes closed; whether he was asleep or keeping watch was unclear. Minato stood watch in the outer room, his footsteps light.
Shuo lay on his bedding, staring at the ceiling. He narrowed his perception into a thin beam of light and extended it three hundred meters beyond the station. The man was still there, having moved to a spot below a slope. His body temperature was lower than an ordinary person's, and his breaths came at long intervals. Clearly a tough customer with professional training in concealment.
He withdrew his perception, rolled over, and turned his back to the window. With Minato here, worrying was not his job. Sleep first.
In the middle of the night, with the moon high overhead, Shuo suddenly opened his eyes-not because he had sensed danger, but because the man had moved. He was as slow as a snail, taking several minutes to cover a few meters. He was not heading toward the station, but toward Kikyo Castle.
Too lazy to get up, Shuo spread his perception along the moonlight, following the man into the city. He watched him stop before a residence with a courtyard. An even fainter figure waited on the roof. After barely exchanging a few words, the man who had followed them all the way turned and headed toward Konoha.
Shuo withdrew his perception, rolled over, and went back to sleep without so much as furrowing his brow.
The next day's handover went ridiculously smoothly.
The head of Kikyo Castle's Sealing Squad was a middle-aged man with round glasses. After checking the scroll and signing, he asked with a smile, "No trouble on the road, I hope?"
"It was quite peaceful," Minato replied with a smile.
Shuo yawned beside them, desperately wishing he could find somewhere to lie down immediately. He was sleepy as hell.
On the return journey, the concealed figure did not appear again.
Shuo ambled along, knowing full well that this was not the end, but only the beginning. The trouble was still to come.
They returned to Konoha toward evening, and the team disbanded at the mission hall.
Obito dragged his half-dead body toward home, calling out that he wanted barbecue; Rin carried her things and said she needed to report to the medical team; Kakashi closed his book, said he was going to the training ground, and vanished as soon as he turned away.
Minato patted Shuo's shoulder. "Thanks for your work on the road. Go back and get some rest."
"Mm."
Shuo answered, but instead of returning to the dormitory, his feet carried him toward the river-the same rock as always. He was used to sitting there and too lazy to find somewhere else.
The sunset dyed the river gold and red, its surface shimmering.
He fished a candy out of his pocket, a freebie from buying cake a few days earlier. It was his last one. He peeled off the wrapper and popped it into his mouth. Its sweetness pressed down the little bit of irritation inside him.
The system interface popped up:
[Mission completed: Escort the sealing scroll] [Evaluation: Standard procedure, no effort required] [Imitation points +0.2%] [Current imitation points: 47.1%] [System note: The host's style is consistent as hell-sense things without stirring up trouble, lend a tiny hand only when intervention is unavoidable. Lazy to the bone, and shrewd to the bone]
Shuo glanced at it and curled his lip. Tch. Cheapskate. Only 0.2%. He casually closed the interface and chewed his candy, watching the setting sun sink bit by bit.
At some point, someone had appeared beneath the willow across the river. Silver-gray hair, leaning against the trunk, staring straight toward him-it was Sai.
Shuo did not move, and neither did Sai. With a river between them, with the sinking golden light between them, with the broken light dancing on the water between them, they simply waited each other out.
In the end, Sai turned first, taking two steps back into the trees' shadows. Without looking back, he spoke so softly it sounded like the wind, his voice just carrying across the river. "Root received new orders today. About you."
Shuo said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
"I don't know the details." Sai paused, his tone growing a little heavier. "But the people sent out specialize in assassination."
With that, he disappeared fully into the trees' shadows, leaving no trace.
Shuo sat for another five minutes. Once he finished the candy, he folded the wrapper, tucked it into his pocket, and slowly stood.
Only a thread of orange-red remained on the horizon, hanging lonely in the sky like the last unwanted slice of chestnut cake in the dessert shop.
He headed toward the dormitory, his steps still slow, but a little steadier than usual. A faint golden light gathered at his fingertips, then vanished in an instant-not vigilance, but habit. With light in his hand, he felt a little more at ease.
When he reached the foot of the building, the streetlights had just come on, spilling warm yellow light over him.
He lowered his head to look at his hand and spread his fingers. Light leaked through the gaps, casting several long, thin shadows on the ground. He clenched his fist, and the shadows vanished again.
He pushed open the door and entered the corridor. Not all the lights were on, leaving alternating stretches of light and darkness. His footsteps sounded in the bright stretches and softened in the dark, like light, unhurried and silent.
Reaching his door, he took out his key, slipped it into the lock, turned it, went inside, and shut the door, all in one smooth sequence, too lazy to waste even a little extra effort.
Outside the window, the last ray of light sank below the horizon, and the sky went completely dark.
The system interface flashed up again:
[Current imitation points: 47.1%] [Until the next ability stage unlocks: 2.9%]
Shuo glanced at it, tossed his jacket onto the coat rack, flopped onto the bed, and closed his eyes.
Tomorrow's problems could wait until tomorrow. Tonight, first figure out how to live until tomorrow-of course, if I could make it to tomorrow while staying lazy, all the better.
Before you continue