Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

Chapter 517 The Wind Rises in Changlin

Sakumo stretched his shoulders.

It wasn't any deliberate stretching; I simply rotated my left shoulder half a circle back, making a very slight, soft popping sound as if the joint was loosening.

This action was something he had even when he was still in the shadows—a habitual adjustment after maintaining the same posture for a long time, as precise as a timer.

"Okay. Let's go."

The three started afresh.

The frequency with which my toes touched the branches returned to a stable rhythm, like three calibrated clocks running on the same frequency.

The moon had moved a little further west.

The silver light that had been shining directly on the treetops began to tilt, dragging the three people's shadows from directly below to the east.

The temperature in the forest dropped a few degrees without anyone noticing. The night wind blew in from the west, carrying a cool, refreshing scent mixed with dew and decaying leaves.

This time, it was Jing who spoke first.

The sound wasn't loud, half of it was cut off by the wind blowing overhead, but it was just enough for the two people in front and behind to hear clearly.

"Sakumo, did you make all the arrangements at the farm before you left?"

Shuo Mao's toes touched a horizontal, withered branch, his body tracing a smooth arc in the air. His gaze didn't turn back, but landed on the fork of the third cedar tree ahead—his next landing point.

"The antlers are watching."

"Is Deer Antlers alone?"

There was a hint of hesitation in Uchiha Kagami's tone.

Having spent so many years with these people, he knew all too well what Shikano meant to him—it meant that all reports would be written in the last half hour before the deadline, and that he would sleep on his desk until the next day when the Hokage would drag him out and beat him.

"And there's wind."

This time, Jing truly fell silent.

Moonlight filtered through the sparse needles overhead, casting varying shades of light and shadow on his sharply defined face.

His lips moved slightly, as if he was choosing his words carefully. In the end, he chose the most tactful approach.

"...Won't the wind eat everything in the field?"

Sakumo Hatake's steps did not stop.

But the rhythm was about half a beat slower.

It was a very subtle change; Danzo and Kagami probably wouldn't have noticed it if they hadn't been with him for so many years.

In that half-beat, Sakumo Hatake's gaze shifted an inch to the lower right.

This was his habit when he thought—like unfolding the farm's master plan in his mind, which he had examined so thoroughly, to pinpoint the state of a particular area.

"Before I left, I put electronic locks on some of the sheds and gave the communication cards to Elder Yan and the training staff."

"That's good."

Uchiha Kagami's shoulder line loosened.

In the gaps where it moves at high speed between the tree canopies, this movement is almost imperceptible, but it is indeed loosened.

A night breeze carried the low cry of some bird through the woods. The three of them then fell silent, the only sound the soft rustling of fabric against branches.

An unidentified night bird called out again in the distance, its long, drawn-out cry fading into the increasingly thick darkness.

---

The terrain began to change.

As they advanced southwest from the heart of the Land of Fire, the density of vegetation visibly decreased.

The towering cedar trees gradually thinned out, replaced by low shrubs and exposed rock surfaces.

The humidity in the air is also gradually being stripped away.

This is already the southern border of the Land of Grass.

The three of them slowed down simultaneously, not because of physical strength—at their level, they could run for three days and three nights straight and only break a light sweat.

Rather, the terrain is more complex, there are more unknown factors, and more attention needs to be paid to the surrounding environment.

Sakumo suddenly paused.

It is not a gesture signal.

There was no raising of the hand or pressing of the palm; it simply stopped.

Danzo and Kagami reacted almost simultaneously.

Danzo's right hand was already on the kunai bag at his waist, his five fingers loosely clenched, his thumb pressing against the metal buckle at the opening of the bag—at this angle, he could complete the entire action from pulling it out to throwing it in 0.3 seconds.

Uchiha Kagami's pupils turned a faint red for a moment, his Sharingan was half-open and half-closed, and the fluctuation of chakra was suppressed to the critical point.

"What's wrong?"

Danzo Shimura's voice was very low, as if it were squeezed out from deep in his throat.