Chapter 19
After receiving her Chunin qualification certificate and Chunin vest from the Third Hokage, Yuki had just stepped out of the Hokage Building when she saw her two teammates surrounding Kakashi, who was half a head shorter than her, talking about something.
Xue then noticed that Kakashi was also holding the same Chunin qualification certificate as her, along with that green Chunin vest—it turned out that Kakashi had also been promoted to Chunin.
"What are you two doing?" Xue asked curiously as she stepped forward.
Lu Liang raised an eyebrow and smiled, "It's nothing, I just think this guy will probably be on missions with you a lot in the future, so I'm trying to get closer to him beforehand. After all, he's the genius ninja Kakashi."
Xue squinted suspiciously. Seeing this, Lu Liang quickly raised his hands and took two steps back, looking like he knew he was wrong.
Just then, two people jogged over from a distance; it was Rin and Obito.
"Sister Xue! You've been promoted to Chunin too? Congratulations!" Rin smiled sweetly. Xue liked this child very much. She felt that with Rin by Obito's side, Obito would gradually become a good child like Rin.
When Obito saw Yuki, his first instinct was to rush over and hug her, but Yuki gently pushed him away with one hand. Obito had no choice but to settle for second best, taking Yuki's hand and then taking the Chunin qualification certificate from her hand, examining it carefully.
"Eh? Sister, you and Kakashi came from the same competition!" Obito exclaimed in surprise.
Rin also moved closer to Obito, and together they looked at the qualification certificate. Then she smiled and congratulated Kakashi: "Congratulations, Kakashi!"
"Um, thank you," Kakashi replied politely. However, Obito couldn't escape his teasing, "So, the perennial loser at least doesn't arrive late when others are promoted to Chunin, huh?"
Obito had originally intended to put on a show in front of Yuki, like Rin did, and offer a few words of congratulations to Kakashi. Now, however, he completely lost his composure. Rin could only restrain the impotently furious Obito with both hands, revealing a helpless smile and an expression that said, "Please forgive the blunder, seniors."
Xue stood smiling beside Xuanjian, while Lu Liang stood beside her.
-
Snow began to fall in the sky above Konoha, initially just very small snowflakes.
Xue held the magnolia flowers she had carefully selected from the flower shop in the mountains in both hands, and in the other hand she carried freshly roasted chestnuts that were still steaming hot.
She arrived at Orochimaru's mansion and gently pressed the doorbell. However, no one seemed to be home, and after waiting for a long time, there was no response. Just as Yuki was about to climb over the wall, suddenly, with a creak, the door slowly opened.
Orochimaru, with his gloomy appearance, was unusually dressed in casual clothes—the kind of comfortable and simple men's kimono he usually wore. He stood quietly by the door, his voice a mixture of amusement and sarcasm as he spoke: "What, you Uchiha clan members, trying to force your way into a private residence?"
Xue's tone was somewhat embarrassed. She subconsciously touched her head and quickly explained, "I'm sorry, teacher, I thought you weren't home..."
Orochimaru snorted coldly, and seeing this, Yuki consciously followed in his footsteps. Entering Orochimaru's house, Yuki found it sparsely populated and unusually desolate. She busied herself, first replacing the nearly withered magnolia flower with a newly bought one, then placing some sweet chestnuts on the table.
"Teacher, do you not usually eat at home?" Xue asked curiously as she arranged the magnolia flowers she had just placed in the vase.
Orochimaru, holding the scroll in his hand, glanced at the girl wearing a dark blue scarf, and replied with a slight, enigmatic smile, "Almost none."
However, he still answered Xue's question.
Xue gently fiddled with the petals between her fingers, her thoughts drifting. After the war, Jiraiya-sama traveled to the surrounding countries; Tsunade-sama suffered from hemophobia due to the loss of her loved ones and was unable to continue her missions, so she also left the village; now, of the three legendary Sannin, only Orochimaru-sama remains to serve in the village.
"Then, teacher, I'll be going now."
The black-haired girl smiled and waved goodbye to Orochimaru. As her figure gradually disappeared into the distance, the once quiet mansion returned to its tranquility.
-
Today's task is a solo mission. Yuki goes to the Hokage Building alone and receives the mission scroll from the Third Hokage.
This is a D-level mission. The mission objective is to help the village's first patriarch's wife clear the snow from the eaves and roads.
Yuki had some recollection of the first clan chief's wife. She lived in the Senju clan's territory, existing like a forgotten idol. At the Ninja Academy, Yuki had heard her teacher mention that most of the Senju clan members had perished in the war, while a small number had long since dispersed and integrated into Konoha Village, marrying and settling down.
Nowadays, aside from Lady Tsunade, people with the surname Senju are extremely rare in the village...
The land of the Thousand Hands tribe has long lost all traces of the lives of the Thousand Hands people in the past.
However, the reward for this task was unexpectedly generous.
Xue prepared her tools at home and went to the front of the Whirlpool Mansion, gently ringing the doorbell.
As the doorbell rang, Kushina opened the door to find a black-haired girl with a single ponytail and a Konoha headband. She wore the green vest typical of Chunin, over a navy blue long-sleeved shirt embroidered with the Uchiha clan crest on the shoulder, and black joggers with white bandages wrapped around her calves. She wore thick gloves and held a snow broom, with other snow-shoveling tools neatly arranged beside her.
When the girl saw that it was Kushina who opened the door, she subconsciously took a step back, looked at the doorplate carefully, and tentatively asked, "Kushina-senpai?"
Kushina then remembered that Grandma Mito had said last night that hired ninjas would come to help her shovel snow today.
“Uchiha clan… I think I’ve seen you before,” Kushina said.
Kushina picked up the tools she had left on the ground, led her to the yard, and reminisced as they walked.
"Mikoto, who was in the same class as Kushina-senpai, is my neighbor," Yuki reminded her.
Kushina recalled her time at the Ninja Academy, where a quiet Uchiha girl stood beside a blond boy who always smiled and looked at her.
"Oh...it's her." Kushina and Mikoto didn't have much interaction. She watched as Yuki quickly got to work and started clearing the snow, and then reminded her, "Grandma Mito is still sleeping. You can finish before sunset."
Xue paused slightly, then nodded and obediently continued sweeping the floor.
"Hey, you still haven't told me your name!"
Kushina stepped barefoot into the snow and pressed her for answers.
"Yuki, Uchiha Yuki." Yuki frowned upon seeing her like this. Before Kushina could react, she was scooped up in her arms. The black-haired girl's embrace exuded a faint scent of lilacs, and her tone carried a hint of reproach: "Senpai, don't walk barefoot in the snow, you'll catch a cold."
For some reason, Kushina felt her heartbeat become erratic. She responded softly, "Mmm..."
Yuki placed her on the wooden steps in the courtyard. Only then did Kushina realize that the girl in front of her was not only a level higher than her in ninja rank, but also half a head taller. She had always considered herself tall among girls her age, and even the short boys thought she was tall.
They're clearly younger than me, so how come... they're taller than me? That's one thing, but they're actually taller.
Can't she even keep up with the speed of promotion?
Kushina returned to her room, found her shoes, and obediently put them on. She then took out her snow shovel and followed behind Yuki to help.
"I heard that Mikoto Uchiha and Fugaku Uchiha are engaged?" Kushina asked while shoveling snow.
“Misaka-nee? Yes, it is,” Yuki replied.
"Hey, do you remember that blond guy next to your sister?" Kushina asked again.
"...Minato-senpai?" Yuki asked in return.
"Hmm, don't you think he's annoying?" Kushina said, frowning.
Yuki paused, her hands stopping their movements: "...Why would Kushina-senpai think that way?"
"Well... when I came here for the start of the semester, I wanted to fit in quickly, so I lied and said I wanted to become the village's first female Hokage." Kushina Uzumaki bluntly stated the truth. Thinking of Minato Namikaze, her brows furrowed again: "That guy also said he wanted to become a Hokage who helps everyone, but when I was bullied, he didn't come to my aid. He just watched from the sidelines, which was annoying."
Xue stopped what she was doing. For some reason, she also wondered why Minato Namikaze wasn't helping her.
Shouldn't we help her? After all... Kushina will become his wife in the future. Regardless of whether Minato Namikaze becomes the Fourth Hokage, Kushina will be the next Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Yuki looked at Kushina, her gaze lingering on the headband on her forehead. Kushina-senpai graduated normally, and her daily missions rarely took her outside the village.
If someone becomes a Jinchūriki, their range of movement will probably be limited to within the barrier...
Kushina Uzumaki seemed to realize something, then waved her hand, scratched her face, and said somewhat awkwardly, "I didn't mean to belittle him... I just..."
"Kushina-senpai, you don't need to explain." Yuki's bright black eyes stared straight at her. Kushina, somewhat embarrassed, grabbed her red hair with one hand, trying to cover her blushing cheeks.
"Although I don't know much about what happened back then," Xue said earnestly, watching her small movements, "but from now on, senpai."
"If you can, please let me protect you."
Kushina could even see the white breath that escaped from Yuki's small, rosy lips as she spoke those words. It was as if the world had frozen, as if only the two of them remained.
Her heart felt like it had been turned upside down, a jumble of emotions swirling within her. Kushina couldn't remember how she had responded.
Looking back, I only vaguely remember the world being a blanket of white, with only the black-haired girl present.
Under the warm winter sun, in her response, Xue's smile was as fiery and warm as a flame.
“Okay,” Kushina replied softly.
When Mito Uzumaki woke up, it was already noon. She saw that the ninja she had asked for had not only swept the yard and eaves spotlessly, but also cleared the path leading outside the house so that it was clear for pedestrians to pass through.
Inside the hall, two girls lay beside the burning closet, covered with soft quilts, fast asleep together.
First, the black-haired girl vaguely sensed someone watching her, and her eyelashes fluttered slightly. She slowly opened her eyes and saw it was Mito Uzumaki, so she quietly got up so as not to disturb the sleeping Kushina. She greeted Mito Uzumaki, and the two went to the courtyard, where Yuki thoughtfully closed the partition door.
“You are a child of the Uchiha clan.” Mito Uzumaki looked at Yuki with her aged yet very clear eyes, as if she could see into Yuki’s heart.
"Yes, Mito-senpai." Yuki lowered her eyes slightly; she didn't have much interaction with Mito Uzumaki.
“I visited you at the Ninja Academy before. At that time, I felt that you didn’t look like a child of that age, but rather like a teenager.” Mito Uzumaki said slowly. Perhaps it was because she was old, or perhaps she had no worries, but she saw everything more clearly than others: “You look like you are not much different from your age now.”
Yuki paused, then looked up at Mito Uzumaki. Time had left its mark on her face, the deep and shallow wrinkles giving her a kind and gentle appearance. Yuki could sense the boundless chakra within her gradually diminishing; Mito-senpai's chakra was similar to Kushina's, equally warm.
However, Kushina's chakra was so full of life that it was overly active.
"So, was the ninja for this mission chosen by Mito-senpai?" Yuki asked.
Mito Uzumaki laughed, and Yuki felt she could vaguely see what Mito looked like when she was young.
She said in an old voice, "Can I ask you for a favor?"
"The matter that you asked me to do... I don't know if I'm capable of doing it." Yuki hesitated for a moment, but after Mito Uzumaki explained what she was asking, she finally nodded: "I promised you, it's what I should do as a Konoha ninja."
Mito Uzumaki sighed. You think you are an Uchiha of Konoha, but Konoha doesn't think the Uchiha clan behind you is willing to submit to Konoha.
She gave a faint smile: "You are very kind, and I hope that in the future... even knowing everything, you will still be the same."
Before Yuki could ask anything more, the door behind her was opened by Kushina, who had just woken up.
"Grandma, what are you talking about?"
The conversation was interrupted, and Yuki looked at Mito, who seemed unwilling to continue the topic.
She frowned, her gaze falling on Kushina Uzumaki's bright smile, and Yuki stopped what she was thinking.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
