The owner of the vegetable stall in the distance saw Hinoki standing there blankly, raised his arms and shouted to him.
"Ah... I haven't decided yet..."
He forced a smile to the vegetable stall uncle and looked left and right at a loss, trying to find Yuhe's cart that had been with him for a long time.
but none.
He didn't even know where they went.
"Speaking of which, the cart just placed here looks very similar to the one you have, but there is a child on it. I thought it was someone you knew, but just a few minutes ago, a person pushed the child and the cart away - —”
"Where did that man go?"
After hearing this, Hui immediately came back to his senses and ran to the vegetable stall uncle in a hurry.
"Uh, from the north corner——"
The uncle leaned back, scratched his head and pointed him in the direction. As soon as he finished speaking, Hui had already ran towards that direction.
...I hope nothing happens to him.
Hui was very regretful.
Even though Yu's thinking is very mature, "he" is still just a child.
It's not always safe to leave such a young child alone in one place waiting for someone...
What's more, Yu is still on a tool that can be pushed away by just anyone.
It's like walking with a battery-powered car without the key removed. If a passerby grabs the handlebar and rides away in front of you, you won't be able to catch up.
...It would be better if the cart was locked aside. At least others would not be able to take away all the things and people without disturbing other people.
-
"elder brother--!!"
Hinoki ran around the corner for half a minute when he heard Yu's voice.
When his eyes turned to the direction of the sound source, what caught his eye at the same time as Yu was a stranger lying on the ground with his body curled up and wailing.
Yu was afraid that the cart would be taken away again, so he struggled to drag the cart towards Hinoki.
But she couldn't pull the thing at all. She tried hard for a while but couldn't move it even half a step.
"Are you okay?" Hinoki's heartbeat was still beating fast. He first ran over and carefully checked whether Yu's appearance was injured, and then looked at the person on the ground, "This... uh …”
The man's posture made him suddenly feel the same pain.
"This man looked at me over there for a long time and walked around several times. I thought he was embarrassed to confess his feelings to others, so he was walking around near the house of his crush. I didn't expect the target. It’s me, the kid.”
Yu was very unhappy and kicked the person who had his back turned.
Facts have proved that she really thought too much.
Even dog food cannot be eaten anytime and anywhere.
People who eat it often can only mean that person's life is a bit miserable.
"I was a little confused when he pushed him away with the cart, and I didn't call people in time, so I thought about finding an opportunity later. After he got here, he became less nervous and pushed slower, so I just Aiming at him...jumped over, and then stepped on him a few more times when he fell to the ground...Brother, it wasn't me who was wrong, right?"
Yu suddenly looked overly frightened. He held onto Hinoki's thigh, raised his face and groaned, speaking in a very aggrieved voice.
"Well, you're right..." Hui patted her shoulder, "It's okay now."
"Actually, I'm still worried. Do you think I took your things and ran away?"
Yu grinned with an innocent look on his face.
"...How is that possible? You can't even push this little car."
Hinoki pressed her shoulders and turned her around, then lifted her arms and put her back in the stroller.
To be honest, he really thought so for a moment.
When I met Yu before, Yu was carrying a large baggage, but most of it was relatively light food. Overall, it looked heavy, but in fact it only weighed less than half a box of Hongbaolai. The things I brought were dozens of times heavier than those.
...He felt embarrassed that he had doubted Yu.
"This man won't be able to get up for a while. Some kind-hearted people have already gone to find the patrollers. Let's set off quickly——...Brother."
Yu probably knows what Hinoki is thinking.
If my position were interchanged with Hinoki's, I would definitely think the same way.
After all, they are not familiar with each other at all.
Although he took me in for more than half a day, and although the other party left with him, they were not familiar with each other, and their relationship was not yet to the point where they could entrust their family property to each other.
"……Um."
Hino was feeling ashamed for doubting a child. When he heard Yu calling him brother as before, he felt even more ashamed. He pushed the trolley containing Yu and ran away as if running away.
-
Hino knows which direction the Fire Country is.
The Country of Sichuan is not big, and having lived here for more than ten years, he has long memorized all the surrounding places and their corresponding directions.
-
"Um, brother, are you hungry?"
Yu has been pushed around for about half a day since he was found.
The people pushing the carts behind didn't even bother to chat to liven up the atmosphere, and just drove on in silence.
The atmosphere is a bit awkward.
For real children, this is the kind of depressing feeling that can make them feel uncomfortable and nervous to the point of crying.
"——I'm fine. Are you hungry? Then let's eat something."
Hino parked the cart in front of him and rummaged through his packed luggage.
"I'm not hungry either, just asking..."
Yu made gestures with his hands, not knowing what to do, but finally raised his head and scratched his hair.
"Is that so... But it's almost time to eat, how about something to eat? There's still a lot of food here, so there's no need to save too much - it sounds like you're a little underdressed, so you'll put on this thinner quilt later, bal …”
Hinoki seems to be the type who likes to take care of others, but maybe because he usually lives alone there and there are no people around him who can be taken care of, he doesn't show this attribute to others.
When Yu listened to the whispers of the people around him during his investigation, everyone commented on Hinoki after saying goodbye to him as a well-behaved, sensible, independent, and self-reliant child.
At this time, he finally found a character who could be taken care of. Slowly, Hui became more and more like a nagging parent.
Yu also felt a little bit regretful.
Her ideal family is the kind of...well...the kind of person who usually doesn't talk much, is more serious, but can really feel that the other person cares about her.
People who are too gentle and easily show their care will only make her feel stupid.
...not very adaptable.
-
Hinoki once said that it would take about a day and a half to get there, but now they were carrying so many things and Hinoki was walking alone, so there was no way they could walk that fast.
Yu slept on the stroller that night.
When she woke up naturally, the sky gradually began to light up.
But the surrounding area seems to be no longer within the Kawanoguni area.
"How long...how long have I been asleep?"
She yawned loudly, and then rubbed her eyes vigorously in confusion. When she opened them again, the place was still the same, unchanged.
"It's only less than half a day, right? It's not easy to calculate the time... If you feel sleepy, you can continue to sleep. It will take about a day or two to reach... the place you want to go."
The tone of the second half of the sentence is like 'your life is coming to an end soon'.
Like a person who harvests souls.
Hinoki couldn't help but yawn when he saw her yawning, but he didn't yawn as carelessly as Yu, and instead covered it a little with his sleeves.
She looks more ladylike than Yuto.
But maybe it's more appropriate to say it's polite?
In fact, we have walked less than a quarter of the distance.
"Brother, didn't you sleep at night?"
Yu is now calling me brother more and more smoothly.
She really couldn't call the same person a second time with words like 'brother'. In contrast, she preferred to call him eldest brother or old brother.
...Why is this? She doesn’t quite know.
"It's not very safe if everyone sleeps outside overnight. Besides, it doesn't matter if you don't sleep for a day or two. It's not too late to have a good rest after arriving in Konoha."
Hinoki smiled and let go of the handle of the trolley, parked the trolley in front, leaned forward and rummaged through the previously packed luggage again, found food and water, and stuffed them into Yu's arms.
In essence, Yu didn't care about him very much, so she didn't say anything. However, if she was about to die while on the road, she felt that she would still stop Hinoki at that time and let him have a good rest.
After finishing his meal, Yu jumped out of the cart, ran behind a big tree to solve his daily problems, and walked to a nearby river with Hinoki, who would come around to join him five minutes later, intending to simply wash up.
...Well, as long as the cypress doesn't reach the verge of death, it won't be a problem.
The river water is very clear. The shallowest water surface is about as high as a child's small arm. The stones at the bottom of the river are densely packed together. The smooth surface washed and smoothed by the running water shows an appearance that is not uncomfortable for human feet. It seems to be It's like inviting them into the water.
Yu saw a few small fish swimming in the distance, and suddenly wanted to eat grilled fish.
"Brother, do you want to eat fish? Let's grill the fish. Although we have just eaten, these fish are not big. If we only eat two or three, we won't be able to hold them..."
Like a little fly, she squatted on the edge of the river bank, rubbing her little hands together.
"..."
Hui glanced at the pitifully small river fish over there and didn't know what to say.
With that kind of size, you won’t be full even if you eat ten of them...
However, larger fish are very sensitive to the movement in the river, so only small fish like this will appear in human sight without any hesitation... and they will chase and fight as if they are still playing there.
"Well, I think it will take more time for us to find firewood to make a fire..." Hinoki expressed her idea of 'goodbye' tactfully.
The trees around are not small, and it is not autumn now. Although it is not that cold, strictly speaking, it has already entered winter.
Even though it may snow a few times a year or even not at all in winter here, there won’t be that kind of scene in winter where branches and leaves are scattered all over the ground.
He didn't bring an ax or anything like that, so he couldn't chop down the tree.
"..."
Yu stopped the small circular movements of his hands, sighed, and punched the palm of his left hand with his right hand.
[If I had known, I would have eaten well all these years, why am I so weak now!]
Why beat your hands? Because everyone’s own hands have a place where they can be beaten hard without feeling excessive pain.
Even if you are dissatisfied with yourself, hurting yourself is still an incorrect behavior.
[If the body were stronger, extracting chakra would be no problem at all. It would just be a mere tree or a mere firewood...! How could it be difficult for myself!]
...But in that case, there would be no need for tool people to disguise themselves.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
19.12.16.
In fact, Hinoki's name used to be written with two Chinese characters (Japanese also has three characters), and the protagonist's name is not this. It was not set in the previous draft. It was thought of in September, but it was only officially written until now. Ten In the last few days of late January and early December, I accidentally saw a character with the same name as Hinoki's previously set (which is also the name of a plant), so I immediately spent an afternoon thinking about what to change, and I read the Japanese and Japanese tones. After thinking about it for a long time, I finally decided to change it to juniper (also a plant).
The surname previously set by the protagonist is not common, but the name is very simple. After seeing a surname similar to the name, I changed the name (previously, it could be used as a surname or a first name), and I also found it. I have been reading Japanese materials for a long time... I also changed my last name because the previous names were very smooth to pronounce. After changing them, I felt that they were not so smooth, so I changed them...
I really hate referring to other people’s ideas and using things that are similar to others (.) So I also really hate it when people take what I think and use it directly from me (it’s okay if it’s a coincidence, but a few things I discovered before All of them really had evidence to prove that they had plagiarized me. As soon as they were posted, they panicked and admitted that they would eventually delete the post, but some of them continued to ignore it.) Although the ones before my setting were all those I had thought about for a long time. I came to the conclusion (the Japanese information at the time was still in the document), but when I saw the same thing, I became extremely unhappy. I was so unhappy that if I couldn’t think of a new name for this person that wouldn’t be bad for the public, I would This character and plot will be killed and deleted.