Mai lowered her head, wrapping bandages around her calf in circles.
The soft fabric touching the wound still caused a noticeable pain, but she paid it no mind. Her eyes were fixed on the edge between her calf and the air, as if she were daydreaming.
She had handled these tasks many times before, so many that it had become routine. Her calves were already somewhat different from those of ordinary girls. Though still fair, faint, twisted scars crawled all over them.
Wounds treated with Medical Ninjutsu would heal much better, but it was impossible for the skin to become as good as new.
Because of this, Mai could rarely wear cool, short skirts like she did in her younger days.
More often than not, she had grown accustomed to the long pants and shirts worn by Ninjas on missions.
It wasn't just her calves, many other parts of her body were the same. Of course, it might not just be her… many Ninjas were like this.
Each additional faint, raised mark meant she had walked a little further on the path of a Ninja. As she thought about the experiences she had been through, bit by bit, she gradually stopped disliking them and began to see their value.
Besides, in the evening, these unsightly places weren't very noticeable anyway…
"How do you feel?" A clear, gentle voice suddenly spoke up in front of her, asking.
"Huh? Oh!" In the deep, dim night, the girl started like a frightened deer. She lifted her head and nodded hurriedly, instinctively speeding up the movement of her hands, "It's nothing serious."
Logan looked at Mai sitting on the ground. Most of her injuries had been dealt with, and the bandages applied by a professionally trained Ninja were even neater than those of an ordinary person.
'But why was her reaction so intense?'
'Had I startled her? I had just walked over normally. Perhaps it was because of the assassination attempt by Root that her emotions were still unsettled.'
Logan sighed. He bore a large part of the responsibility for this unexpected incident, "I've taken care of all the enemies. Are you really not seriously hurt? If there's anything wrong, you have to tell me…"
"Yeah." Mai finished wrapping the last circle and tied it off. A hand reached out in front of her.
After a pause, she expressionlessly took the offered hand and pulled herself up, "Really, it's fine."
Her movements seemed a bit stiff, but there was indeed nothing wrong. Logan watched her and glanced into the distance.
The air suddenly grew somewhat quiet.
The night was about to pass its darkest hours. The endless black clouds on the horizon seemed to have been blown away by the constant wind throughout the night, revealing the underlying color. A faint blue light thinly emerged, heralding the approach of dawn.
The wilderness in the early morning was inherently very quiet.
"I interrogated those three strange guys with masks." Logan said, unwilling to linger in this awkward atmosphere between a man and a woman alone. He quickly brought up a serious topic, "They were tight-lipped, as expected of professionally trained individuals. But although I managed to extract very little information…"
He gave a brief analysis of today's incident to the person involved. It was almost certain, ninety percent, that the opponents were from Root, and they had dispatched highly elite experts. This indicated that their preparations were not just a small-scale operation.
"Have you encountered anything unusual in the village recently?"
"No…"
Usually hidden from sight, they had appeared precisely when Mai slipped out of the village.
Moreover, they had acted without giving her any time to react. It was clear they had been monitoring her in secret, and this was a meticulously planned operation.
After asking a few more questions and understanding the sequence of events, Logan shared his thoughts. He revealed to the girl the unknown situation regarding Root and Danzo in Konoha, as well as his past interactions with them.
"So such things exist…"
"Yeah, I understand."
The exchange about the attack was indeed serious and tense, but for some reason, a barrier seemed to exist between their conversation.
Mai responded earnestly, but her tone was somewhat detached, and her gaze occasionally drifted away. The girl's thoughts seemed not to be here.
Logan noticed this, but he himself wasn't fully focused on Root either. Indeed, the malicious forces that had suddenly revealed their claws were troubling and demanded attention, but the night wasn't over yet.
The main thoughts preoccupying both their minds had not been addressed.
After a few final reminders, he truly ran out of things to say.
The sound of feet stepping on soil and crushing dry grass seemed particularly clear in the deserted winter.
At a certain moment, the girl clenched her fist and turned her gaze toward him.
"Let's get to the place first." Logan said, looking into her bright eyes, "Let's go to the Valley of the End as agreed… It's not very safe here. If this assassination squad from Root doesn't return, more troublesome tails might come after us."
Mai closed her mouth and nodded, "Okay."
In an awkward situation, this was a good excuse. But Logan couldn't relax. This place wasn't far from the northern border of the Land of Fire. Although he was moving at a slow pace with Mai, who had just had her wounds treated, they would eventually have to stop when the time came.
Walking through the quiet wilderness, it wasn't long before the tall statues of the Valley of the End cast faint shadows against the pale blue, dim skyline.
Logan was thinking about how to broach the subject with Mai. He had specifically arranged for today, even letting Sakura and the others know, albeit reluctantly. Setting aside the unexpected process, she was now right in front of him.
He needed to explain the situation and make things clear. Some stories had to come to an end… Indeed, no matter how smoothly and handsomely he had spoken beforehand, no matter how much he had considered, when it came time to face it, the situation was completely different.
He wanted to tell Mai that this gradually growing affection was wrong, that the relationship between them shouldn't develop in the way the girl imagined, that the flutterings of a young heart might not be correct. But how could he convey his thoughts to her?
Bluntly like 'There's no future for us', 'You're a good person', 'I have a girlfriend'?
Logan realized it was difficult to articulate. Internet memes weren't suitable here. Not only did he lack experience dealing with similar situations, but Mai, who had gone from a passerby in the Land of the Moon to a companion, had also genuinely occupied a significant place in his heart.
The sound of the waterfall reached their ears. The deep blue and pale white sky illuminated the winding streams. The result was that even after standing atop the statues, Logan still hadn't thought of a suitable strategy or approach.
"We're here."
Gazing at the rushing torrent below, the white foam splashing against the stone walls, Mai unexpectedly took the initiative to speak.
The girl's gaze once again fell on Logan, almost clearly conveying the question, "What was the purpose of meeting here tonight?"
The intense, unconcealed inquiry made Logan avert his eyes slightly. Hesitating, he said, "Yeah, we're here."
Mai looked at the two towering, magnificently carved statues dozens of meters high in the Valley of the End. The sound of water echoed around them repeatedly. Her keen perception swept over the gradually brightening sky, grasping the long-lingering dryness in the air… Suddenly, ripples of panic stirred in her heart.
She looked at the silent man, at the pitch-black path they had taken to get here, and suddenly realized that the silence in the air was more complicated than she had imagined.
The strange silence along the way wasn't just due to the increasing awareness of their relationship as members of the opposite sex, it also seemed to carry the premonition of another outcome she was unwilling to see.
It was a cautious, almost reluctant hesitation, as if trying not to hurt something.
Logan breathed steadily. He couldn't hesitate any longer; it wouldn't be good for either of them. He shifted his footing, and a sound came from beside him. But it was the girl who first stepped to a position facing him.
"Hattori-nii, what did you want to talk to me about?"
She asked this question with a curious expression, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth… a familiar, simple smile.
In response, the girl's large eyes beneath her lovely eyebrows curved into crescents. Logan mustered his words and said slowly, "There is something. Well, it's about an aspect you might not have paid much attention to, Mai."
"What is it?" Mai maintained her slight smile, though her underlying mood was the opposite of her bright expression, tinged with gray.
"About today… I'm really sorry for making you violate the village rules to come out here, and it even led to a very dangerous situation. You'll probably be scolded when you go back… As for Root, I'll find a way to handle the aftermath later." Logan rambled on, still feeling his way as he preluded.
Mai watched the man's every move, every changing expression. Her smile remained.
"So… well, there really is something I want to tell you." Logan scratched his head and forced a smile, "Mai, we've known each other for a long time, right? Many years ago, in that shabby salted fish village, your brother was so stupid he almost starved the two of you… Luckily, he went to move packages to earn some money… You were very mischievous back then, always disturbing my training. Oh, and I told you I was from a special department, but you didn't believe me, right…"
He started talking about the beginning of their acquaintance without any clear direction, picking out trivial, scattered memories, jumping from one thing to another, which instead made him seem rambling.
"…" Mai listened very seriously. Sometimes, Logan would genuinely show a warm, nostalgic expression when mentioning something particularly memorable. They were all small things from the past, and she would also be affected, as if warm noon sunshine was shining from a distant place.
Unfortunately, those weren't the main point. She looked at the forced smile hidden beneath his pretense, and then her own smile became forced as well.
"Not recently… I feel, well, of course, I might be wrong, Mai, you…" Logan's speech became increasingly halting, "I just mentioned it casually. If I'm wrong, don't be angry. It's just to be safe, with all these recent events…"
The premonition was indeed step by step coming true, but the final outcome wasn't what she had hoped for.
Perhaps there had been a slight deviation somewhere in the long process, or perhaps there never had been.
She already understood the ending.
"Well, Mai, are you…"
"Hattori-nii."
Mai took a tight step forward, closing the distance. She spoke before he could finish his sentence.
Her heart was pounding.
Though only a second, it felt incredibly long, as if time had stopped.
Her palms were sweaty, and her nerves were infinitely tense at this moment. Mai already felt a tremendous panic from the premonition that was about to become reality. She felt she had to do something, had to beat him to it.
This feeling was so strong that it quickly surpassed the fear of failure, surpassed the panic. It was as if… if she didn't say something, do something now, she would never have another chance.
The girl's unusual behavior interrupted his train of thought. Logan raised his eyelids.
"What is it?"
"I like you."
…
The girl's extraordinary move left Logan completely stunned. He froze for a long moment before finally managing to open his mouth with difficulty.
'What was going on? Had she figured it out in advance…'
Particularly noteworthy was that her solemn declaration directly conflicted with what he had been about to say. Such a sudden attack, like a disrupted rhythm, actually left him momentarily speechless.
"This…" Logan raised his hand meaninglessly.
The girl's next move once again surprised him, going beyond his prepared rejection and explanation.
Slap.
A fair, small hand reached out and upward, grabbing the clothes on Logan's chest.
Mai suddenly leaned her head in. The distance between them went from face-to-face to cheek-to-cheek.
Their breathing was audible, their skin pores discernible. Her breath tickled his face. Mai's face visibly reddened, like an apple overloaded with emotion.
But she still persisted in maintaining eye contact at such close range, her eyes shimmering as she looked at Logan, as if demonstrating her strong resolve.
Her knuckles turned white from gripping. She clutched his clothes with both hands, her petite body leaning against his chest as if for support.
To be honest, Logan was shocked.
It was the first time he had been in such an intimate posture, with the change happening as fast as lightning and the atmosphere suffocating.
The girl's eyes seemed to fix on something, then moved downward… She licked her lips.
The next moment, Mai exerted force with her hands, slowly bringing her already close head even closer…
"Hello, Hattori! Found the person you were supposed to meet? Come on, come on, let's play a round of cards first…"
Deidara's loud, boisterous voice harshly pierced the ambiguous quiet of the night, then abruptly stopped.
Mai, who had been about to press her soft lips against his, stiffened all over upon hearing this voice that crashed through the scene like a mudslide.
It wasn't just her who froze, Logan did too. Immediately after, without even glancing at each other, the center of the event, they turned their heads in unison with tacit agreement.
"…"
Deidara was holding that simple deck of paper playing cards, happily shuffling them around. Next to him was Sasori, carefully studying the cool shuffling technique. Then they saw the scene on the statue.
The cards fell to the ground.
"My apologies." Deidara said, the satisfied expression on his face vanishing. He paused for a moment, then quickly regained his composure, "Carry on."
Sasori, on the other hand, remained relatively calm, watching quietly for a while.
"…"
Picking up the scattered playing cards and waving his hand, the card-playing duo silently left. Neither side exchanged another word after that.
But even without any further words, the previous scene had already collapsed. Logan, coming back to his senses, couldn't help but find it amusing, "Hey, what was that?"
The awkwardness was probably alleviated, though it might just have been a wishful illusion.
He looked down at Mai. The girl's hands were still gripping tightly, but her neck had retracted due to the interrupted momentum.
A complex thought flashed through Logan's mind. He smiled tolerantly and hadn't yet spoken.
Mai's eyes, once again brimming with moisture, showed determination and calmness.
There was no trace of the usual retreat in her gaze. Instead, her crimson, almost dripping lips came forward faster than before, too fast for him to react, and covered his.