Shuimu is not sure exactly what month the sunflowers bloom.

However, generally speaking, when the weather is warm, they can be seen everywhere in the Fire Kingdom. They are considered a relatively common flower.

There are many colors of sunflowers, with red being the most common, but pink and white are also common. Mizuki's flower shop has some rare varieties that have undergone mutations.

This kind of flower is quite popular among some flower arrangement beginners.

The sunflower, which symbolizes positive, warm and silent love, sells very well when the flowering season comes.

When Mizuki found out that sunflowers were back on the market, he knew that Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto would be back at any moment.

The village is still quite busy now, but most of the noisy people are new Genin who have just graduated one or two years ago.

It is always so lively at this time every year, which reminds Mizuki of the time when the Sandaime was still there three years ago.

Apart from these, there are also a number of low-level tasks that are too numerous to be daunting, which have also given a large group of team leaders a lot of headaches. Fortunately, they have been able to take some time off recently.

In addition, there is the task of assisting the Hidden Mist Village in finding the three-tailed Isozaki. Mizuki's three students and disciple Sakura, Hyuga Neji, and other ninjas all take turns to go out.

Although Mizuki did not pay attention to the details, he was aware of the progress of the mission.

Overall, the gains were not great. Without any intelligence, it was too difficult to find clues about the Three Tails.

However, the actions taken in recent days have not been in vain.

Creatures as big as the tailed beasts must live in places where there are few people. Given their size, if they were to migrate, it would definitely cause a stir.

A large number of personnel were dispatched to conduct indiscriminate carpet searches, constantly eliminating possible locations where Sanwei might have resurrected, and they gradually approached the mission goal.

Now, the countries close to the south, including the Wave Country, the Water Country, the Tea Country, the Bird Country and the southern part of the Fire Country, have basically been ruled out. The search range has begun to gradually move northward, and naturally there will be more intersections with the Akatsuki organization and Orochimaru's forces. Mizuki has also heard of sporadic conflicts, but these are not the point.

"Is Orochimaru still in the Land of Rice?"

Although the specific hiding place was not found, it was mainly because Orochimaru had too many secret bases. The description of "a cunning rabbit has three burrows" really underestimated Orochimaru's caution.

In the Land of Rice alone, the Anbu destroyed several underground nests, but still failed to catch Orochimaru.

Orochimaru should not be the kind of person who has the leisure time to play hide-and-seek with the Konoha Anbu, so he must have some things to deal with in the Land of Rice and cannot leave for the time being, which led to this situation.

Mizuki and Orochimaru both think that the other is somewhat similar to themselves, but in fact, Mizuki does not really agree with Orochimaru's path.

Since the choices made are different, it is naturally impossible to guess what Orochimaru really wants to do.

The body Orochimaru took over last time using the Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique was not very good. Even if it was maintained using biological means, there would not be much improvement. It depends on whether Orochimaru has prepared the next soul container.

Of course, it is not necessarily Orochimaru and the Three-Tails who kick off Shippuden. The One-Tails Jinchuriki Gaara is also in great danger and may be ambushed when the Sand Village is weak. The Six-Tails Jinchuriki Yudaka is also in danger. Uchiha Obito, who has controlled the Mist Village for many years, definitely cannot be without a backup plan and must know that Yudaka has returned to the Mist Village.

"Where should I start? Where should I defend?"

Mizuki was also having a headache, as the only ones he could take care of now were the three-tailed Isogai and Orochimaru.

The other two, one is the Fifth Kazekage, and the other is the only remaining Jinchūriki of the long-weakened Mist Village. There is no way they would allow outsiders to interfere.

Shuimu has not been idle these days. Although there is not much work to do in the Security Department, he still has to go and take care of it.

There is also Xiao Meixing who needs to be taken care of, and Xiaochun's practice also needs to be supervised, so these things cannot be neglected.

"He is a person who can practice and fuse blood limit, but he has no talent for fine chakra control. This is too strange."

"Your requirements are too high, aren't they? My ability to control chakra is pretty good, but it's just not up to your standards."

Being able to skillfully use most sealing techniques and having decent intelligence, Xiaochun's control over chakra is definitely above average.

"Well, you have a point. I was just complaining casually."

The difference between the two is like the difference between a football player and a sprinter.

For football players, being able to run within eleven seconds is absolutely amazing, but in the field of sprinting, anyone who can't run under ten seconds is just a loser.

A fast sprinter is not necessarily a good football player, and vice versa. If you let a football player race against a sprinter, he will basically lose, and in most cases no matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to make up the difference.

Mizuki had to admit that Sakura did have superior talents in some areas.

There were some Mizuki-specific ninjutsu and methods that had basically no obstacles when used by oneself. Although Sakura had a hard time learning them, she was able to master them barely. But when she taught them to Tsubaki, she discovered the difference.

"There is still a gap in qualifications between a righteous partner and a character with passerby attributes!"

Just as Mizuki was sighing, a strange chakra wave came from Konoha Village. It was so familiar that even Mizuki in the training ground could feel it.

"Nine-Tails? He's finally back!"

Through the mental connection with Nobumasa who was monitoring the village, the figure of the blond energetic boy appeared in Mizuki's eyes.

"While growing, my height has increased a lot!"

The awkward and uncommon-sense kid disappeared, and he finally looked like a ninja.

"Xiaochun, let's stop here for today!"

"good!"

Xiao Chun, who was sweating profusely, wiped the sweat from his forehead. The weather was already quite hot, and as long as he moved properly, the sweat would flow down uncontrollably.

…

In Konoha Village, Uzumaki Naruto, who had just returned, had just shown off his harem skills in front of Konohamaru's army when he was knocked down by Sakura with one punch. If he had not used the Sage Mode, it might not have been a matter of injury.

Jiraiya, who was hiding nearby, looked at the grooves Naruto made on the ground when he walked backwards, as well as the raised road surface, and couldn't help but sigh.

When someone was injured in public, generally speaking, the security department on duty should come to investigate, but the strange thing is that this time no one came to take care of the matter, and instead everyone stayed away.

"The noisy troublemaker is back. Now, it's time to watch another good show!"