Chapter 117 Late Pork Buns

Bohai was walking along the port railing, arms stretched out to his sides, staggering with each step and giggling all the while.

"Bo Hai!"

Before Jin Hai could rush across the deck, a strong hand grabbed his arm.

"Calm down, he's not in danger," Kakashi tried to reassure him, but Kinkai was already starting to panic.

"How can you say he's not in danger!? He's in--Bohai!"

But it was too late. Bo Hai was stumbling too far, his chubby little arms flailing in the air, trying to grab onto something for balance. He was already too far gone, and Jin Hai was too late—

This time, as Kinkai rushed forward, Hatake Kakashi let him go and ran across the deck and over the railing as fast as he could, trying to grab Bokai's blue gown.

But he saw nothing, only the sparkling turquoise water, without a hint of sapphire blue or gold.

For a moment, he couldn't even move, couldn't breathe, and then, he suddenly saw a flash of gold - not in the water, but in the corner of his eye, and then -

"Hmm, it seems like someone dropped something?" A voice came out from nowhere, followed by a giggle that Jin Hai was very familiar with.

He turned around and found a young man sitting on the railing, soaking wet, sitting there leisurely.

He had golden hair and sapphire eyes, and Bohai was sitting casually on his shoulder, laughing crazily.

The boy pushed Bohai forward, causing him to fall face down.

Bohai obviously thought this was a new and interesting game and screamed with excitement as he was hung upside down.

"Is this yours?" the boy asked expressionlessly.

What embarrassed Jin Hai was that the first thing he blurted out was not to ask about his brother's safety, nor even to express surprise, but - "How on earth did you get here when the ship was sailing at full speed?"

"We walked," the boy answered, as if it was an obvious answer. "Or ran, I guess. We're a little late. Did you see our teammate? The grumpy one with pink hair?"

"She's helping the sailors... I think." Jin Hai replied blankly, just then, Bo Hai shouted enthusiastically "Brother!"

Jin Hai clumsily took his baby brother from the young man, just then another boy landed next to the blond boy.

Compared with the first boy, the new boy had dark skin, black hair and eyes, and a gloomy expression. He pushed his companion and almost pushed him into the sea. He had much less water on him than his friend, and he was holding several bags filled with delicious food. Jinhai could smell the fragrance even if he stood here.

"Come on, idiot," the dark-haired boy growled. "There's no room for the two of us here."

“No one made you fall next to me,” the blond boy retorted.

"You two idiots!"

The two boys froze for a moment, their eyes all looking above Jin Hai's head.

When he turned around, he saw the pink-haired girl shaking with rage. Jin Hai could swear that she was about to smoke. Before he could react, she climbed over the railing and kicked the two boys into the sea again.

******************

“I hope we can all learn valuable lessons from this experience.”

"Teacher, if you want to say nonsense like 'don't be late', then I can only say that you are hypocritical."

"Of course not. I'm just saying, leaving your teammates to starve while you go shopping."

"We bought six extra pork buns, and we apologized and bought dango too," Naruto retorted.

Despite this, Sakura hadn't spoken a word to them since they'd returned, in fact, she hadn't stopped eating her buns since they'd sat down.

She had already eaten half of Naruto's portion, but he wasn't stupid and would never say anything more until she was done.

Kakashi-sensei had already finished his portion as usual, and when everyone turned away or was busy with their own things, he asked:

"What the hell are you two doing?"

"It's a secret." Sasuke said seriously, and Kakashi raised his hands to show that he meant no harm.

Naruto walked around behind Sasuke and gave Sakura a fawning smile.

"Please, don't be mad at us anymore."

She took another sharp bite of Naruto's bun and glared at him.

"Three hours! Three whole hours!"

"We've apologized. And we brought you four flavors of dango."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and looked hesitantly at the bag that lay on Naruto's lap.

"Did you buy the ones with red bean filling?"

******************

About 12 minutes later, they were attacked by pirates.

Luckily, Sakura was still mad at Baozi, so she took apart the pirates' ship with her bare hands.

Kakashi-sensei said that it would be better for her to smash the enemy's ship with a chakra-filled right hook than to smash the ship they were standing on.

******************

Shikamaru sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, his hands clasped in front of him, his index finger against his lips, concentrating on his thoughts.

The construction of the Black Temple seemed to have been completed, and the walls were covered with traces of seals left by Naruto. These were improvements based on the chakra flow and regulation system that existed before the Second Ninja World War.

Shikamaru had learned a lot from being in this room in just the past few weeks.

It was actually made up of five rooms, the main room he was now in, and four smaller rooms running towards each of the four cardinal directions, each named after one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhism.

The first room, next to the eastern entrance, is the Dhritarashtra House, which they used to call the "White Room." It is a place of purification, a sauna-like room designed to clear the mind, body, and chakras of pollutants and impurities.

The second room, the South-facing House of Growth, also known as the "Blue Room," is used to promote growth and regulation.

The third is the House of Hiromu Deva, also known as the "Red Room", located to the west, which is used to enhance the five senses.

The fourth is the House of Vaisravana located in the north, also known as the "Green Room", which is used to enhance spatial and chakra perception.

The main room he was sitting in was called the Golden Room, a large circular space with twelve deep oval basins embedded in the floor, arranged in a lotus pattern in two circles. Each basin had a specific function, and so far Shikamaru had only figured out five of them, all in the outer circle.

Just as he was pondering the function of the sixth basin, a voice interrupted his thoughts, and steady footsteps passed through the entrance, accompanied by a wave of chakra that was very familiar and reassuring to Shikamaru.

"Are you still worried about that puzzle?" asked Shikamaru with a smile, walking around the outer circle of basins and towards him.

Shikamaru let out a long sigh and placed his hands on his legs.

"This room makes me feel a little uneasy," he admitted to his friend. "I feel like I'm missing something."