Xin walked straight over with his hands in his pockets and blocked the person's path.
"Miss Fujikaze Yukie, filming is about to start. What are you doing running around out here?"
Xin's tone was flat.
The disguised Kazahana Koyuki suddenly stiffened.
She warily studied the boy before her through her sunglasses. He looked only twelve or thirteen.
She deliberately lowered her voice, making it sound rough and hoarse.
"You've got the wrong person. I don't know any Fujikaze Yukie."
As she spoke, Koyuki tried to walk around Xin.
Xin stepped across her path, blocking her again.
"Stop pretending, Kazahana Koyuki."
Xin bluntly revealed her real name.
Koyuki froze as though struck by lightning, her eyes wide behind her sunglasses, her face full of shock.
A boy from Konoha had exposed the true identity she had hidden for ten years.
"You... who exactly are you?!"
Koyuki's voice trembled slightly, and she unconsciously took two steps back.
"I'm a Konoha ninja, responsible for protecting you on your trip to the Land of Snow for filming."
Xin couldn't be bothered to waste words with her.
"Now, come back to the crew with me."
"I'm not going! I'm never going to the Land of Snow!"
Koyuki suddenly grew extremely agitated. She tore the bamboo hat off her head and turned to flee.
Xin watched her retreating back, his brows drawing together slightly in impatience.
His figure flickered, and he instantly appeared behind Koyuki.
A precise knife-hand strike landed on the back of her neck.
Before Koyuki could even grunt, her eyes rolled back, and she went limp.
Xin caught her around the waist and slung her over his shoulder like a sack.
He swaggered back toward the crew's lodgings.
Over the next few days, filming proceeded in fits and starts.
Kazahana Koyuki pushed her escape skills to their limits.
On the first day, she took advantage of a bathroom break.
She crawled out through a narrow ventilation opening, but had run less than a hundred meters.
Xin was sitting in a large tree, holding a skewer of tricolor dango and watching her quietly.
Then Koyuki was knocked out and carried back.
On the second day, she bribed a worker delivering boxed lunches.
She changed into his clothes and pushed the food cart, trying to slip out through the gates.
Xin leaned against the gate and reached out to stop the cart.
Without a single unnecessary word, Koyuki was knocked out and carried back again.
On the third day, she even tied bedsheets into a rope in the middle of the night, trying to lower herself from a second-floor window.
The moment she landed, she saw Xin standing below, yawning.
"Are you ever going to stop?"
Xin looked at Koyuki's despairing face.
After one failure after another, Koyuki finally recognized a cruel reality.
This thirteen-year-old boy before her, who stood 1.7 meters tall and still looked boyish, was extremely powerful.
No matter what method she used, she could never escape him.
That evening, the crew wrapped up work.
The lighting was dim inside a small tavern beside their lodgings.
Koyuki sat at a corner table with several bottles of liquor before her. She had already drunk enough to turn her cheeks slightly red.
Xin sat across from her, holding a glass of plain boiled water and gazing out the window in boredom.
"Have a drink with me."
Koyuki pushed a full glass of liquor toward Xin, staring straight at him.
"I'm underage. I don't drink."
Xin refused without even glancing at the liquor.
Koyuki didn't get angry. She picked up her own glass, drained it, and slammed it hard onto the table.
"You called me by my real name before."
Koyuki's expression grew more serious than ever as she stared fixedly at Xin.
"Since you know who I am, you should understand what going to the Land of Snow means for me."
"I know."
Xin took a sip of his water and replied casually.
"Former princess of the Land of Snow. Your father, Kazahana Sōsetsu, was killed by your uncle, Kazahana Dōtō."
"Kazahana Dōtō seized power and became the current daimyo of the Land of Snow."
Xin looked at Koyuki.
"Asama Sandayu is taking you back because he wants you to reclaim your country."
At those words, Koyuki clenched her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Xin's affected nonchalance angered her.
"If you know all that, why did you accept this mission?! Do you have any idea how strong Kazahana Dōtō is?!"
Koyuki lowered her voice, her tone filled with deep fear and anger.
"He has plenty of ruthless Snow ninja under him. If you follow me to the Land of Snow, you'll definitely lose your life!"
Watching Koyuki's furious, flustered expression, Xin suddenly laughed.
"Are you worried about me?"
Xin leaned forward slightly, propping his chin on his clasped hands, and gave her a teasing smile.
"Lady, you're already sixteen. I'm only thirteen."
"Don't tell me you've fallen for me and want to rob the cradle?"
The moment he said that, the tavern fell silent.
Koyuki froze for two seconds, then her entire face flushed crimson, the redness spreading down her slender neck.
"You... what nonsense are you talking about?!"
Trembling with anger, Koyuki abruptly stood up.
She snatched the glass off the table and drained the liquor left inside.
"Suit yourself! If you want to go get yourself killed, go ahead!"
Koyuki spat out those words, turned away in a huff, and left with heavy, stomping footsteps.
Xin watched her furious retreat and shrugged indifferently.
After their conversation in the tavern, Kazahana Koyuki changed completely.
She became much more compliant, no longer racking her brains to escape or drowning her sorrows in alcohol all day.
She devoted herself to filming, displaying an extremely high level of professionalism before the camera.
However, she never again initiated a single conversation with Xin, and whenever she saw him, she deliberately put on a cold expression and walked around him.
A few days later.
The crew's filming within the Land of Fire finally neared its end.
The remaining scenes had to be filmed on location in the Land of Snow, a country covered in ice and snow year-round.
Everyone packed their belongings and set off for the port.
A huge passenger ship was already moored by the shore, waiting.
This time, Kazahana Koyuki was surprisingly cooperative, obediently following the crew aboard without a word.
The passenger ship sounded its whistle and slowly left the harbor, heading out toward the boundless sea.
Night fell, and the sea wind howled.
By midnight, the entire ship had fallen silent, with the crew and sailors fast asleep in their cabins.
Kazahana Koyuki's door quietly opened a crack.
Wearing a thick windproof coat and carrying a small pack, she poked her head out like a thief and looked both ways.
The corridor was deserted.
Koyuki slipped quietly out of her room and made her way down the stairs to the passenger ship's lowest deck.
Waves battered the hull with a tremendous roar, conveniently masking her footsteps.
She walked to the stern and found a spare boat hanging outside the railing.
Koyuki deftly untied the ropes securing the boat and quietly lowered it.
She planned to slip away under cover of darkness in the little rowboat, escaping this death voyage to the Land of Snow for good.