Naruto: Echoes of a Distant Home

She slowly closed her mouth, and after a moment of silence, she finally asked what she most wanted to know: "How did you get hurt? Does it hurt?"

The bandages covering his entire body indicated that his injuries were not light. How could it not hurt?

Ye Zi's cold gaze showed a hint of change. He recalled how, in the past, he would fight for even a piece of moldy bread, and sometimes finding stinky seafood was like discovering a treasure. Every time he returned to his humble home covered in wounds, someone would look at his injuries with pity and always say something like this.

A barely perceptible sadness crossed his pitch-black pupils. He stared silently at Kushina. After a moment, he slightly lifted the food container and said coldly, "Is there anything else?"

Kushina was taken aback, then slowly lowered her head and said softly, "Nothing else."

Ye Zi watched Kushina lower her head. In that instant, his cold eyes seemed to soften as if an iceberg had melted, becoming extraordinarily gentle. That gaze was frighteningly tender, as if the person before him were an extremely precious relative, but soon, the tenderness returned to coldness.

Minato, hiding in the shadows, caught the fleeting gentleness in Ye Zi's eyes. His expression was slightly surprised, and then he thoughtfully watched Ye Zi disappear from view.

On the silent street, Kushina gazed at the silver-covered ground with a sorrowful expression. After a moment, she raised her head, still maintaining her strong demeanor. She looked at the road ahead, took a firm first step, then a second.

Minato walked on the rooftops, watching the girl in the moonlight as she walked alongside him.

They walked the same path, in the same direction, while in another direction, on another road, was the boy who seemed to retain a trace of gentleness within his icy shell.

In the following days, Ye Zi continued to receive the blood-replenishing food cooked by that medical ninja. He silently appreciated the girl. Thanks to these meals, his body recovered faster than usual. Occasionally, they would encounter each other unintentionally, but there was an unspoken understanding between them. They never exchanged more than a glance, not even a nod.

Ye Zi didn't want to be too involved with the world. He could thank her when he was treated because it was her job. He didn't feel the need to thank her for the food that sped up his recovery, even though saying thanks was so simple.

He had his reasons, but what about the girl?

Sometimes he wondered why she did this, but each time he quickly suppressed that curiosity and buried himself in books.

Two weeks later, after his injuries healed, he was soon assigned a new mission: to assassinate a spy hidden within Konoha.

After narrowly escaping death last time, he had obtained confidential information about the spy's identity from the Rock Ninja. Root immediately carried out a covert purge of Konoha. However, truly exceptional spies would not leave behind identity information within the ninja village. They possessed outstanding disguise techniques and terrifying intelligence-gathering abilities. No one knew their informants or how they transmitted information.

These elite Rock Ninja spies were hidden within Konoha, with no contact between them. Each spy had a specific contact person, and only the main intelligence officials knew the identities of all the spies.

Spies were a troublesome existence.

Although the information he had gathered had led to a purge of spies, it didn't uncover the crucial points.

However, Konoha's Root was not idle. In just two weeks, they had identified three suspects, and his task was to observe and confirm the true identities of these three suspects and then… eliminate them!

Among the three suspects, there was an old man named Takuyoshi Kimura who Ye Zi knew. The old man lived alone. According to the intelligence, he was an old Konoha resident from the first batch of villagers since the village was founded. Aside from being unmarried, his life experiences seemed ordinary. It was hard to imagine such an old man being one of the suspects.

"Takuyoshi Kimura."

Ye Zi quietly looked at the information and thought back to one of his earlier missions after graduating from the ninja school, which was to help this elderly man clear weeds. He vaguely remembered the old man's aged face and the occasional kind smile. It was hard to believe such a person was one of the suspects.

His cold gaze fell on the photograph of the man, whose wrinkled skin resembled dying tree bark, and whose age spots highlighted a senescent appearance. Only his eyes, still not entirely clouded, showed clarity.

At dusk, Ye Zi, dressed in casual clothes and holding a box of sweets bought from a local shop, walked towards Takuyoshi Kimura's home.

Kimura lived in the outskirts, surrounded by fields. He had a large plot of land where he grew vegetables.

As the sun set, Ye Zi could see the wooden house bathed in orange light and Kimura sitting on the wooden veranda with a cup of tea.

Ye Zi walked naturally towards the house and paused at the fence gate. He called out to Kimura, "Grandpa Kimura, I've come to see you."

"Oh?"

Kimura squinted his left eye while raising his right eye, which was struggling to open. He looked at the boy at the fence gate with a confused expression, trying to remember who he was. Then he looked at the sweets next to the teapot and suddenly realized, "Oh, it's you. Come in, haha."

Ye Zi smiled slightly, opened the gate, and walked in.

Kimura patted the space next to him, signaling Ye Zi to sit. Ye Zi obediently sat down and was about to hand the box of sweets to the old man when he noticed the sweets in the dish next to the teapot. He was taken aback, as the faint aroma indicated they were from the same shop.

Kimura looked at the box of sweets Ye Zi brought and chuckled, saying, "This afternoon, the girl who used to visit me also brought sweets and visited me. You all are so thoughtful, remembering that I like sweets from the local shop."

Hearing that Kushina had visited that afternoon, Ye Zi's expression didn't change. He smiled slightly and handed the sweets to Kimura, saying, "How are you?"

"I'm old and fragile. What could be wrong? I can't live much longer, but seeing young people like you always makes me feel like I can live a few more years." The old man squinted his eyes, looking at the last rays of the setting sun, sighing deeply.

Ye Zi smiled and said, "You're still in good health and will surely live for many more years."

The old man's eyes crinkled at the corners as he said, "The sun is setting. If you're not in a hurry, stay for dinner."

Ye Zi's gaze changed slightly, and he readily agreed.

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