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

Chapter 372 The Snow Has Arrived

As the night wind subsided, the first glistening white frost quietly condensed on the branch of the withered ancient tree on Fire Shadow Rock.

Immediately afterwards, tiny white dots peeked out from the leaden-gray clouds.

Madara Uchiha, who had been standing in the shadows of the shrine, reached out and caught a falling white piece of snow.

The slight coolness vanished instantly from his fingertips, leaving only a barely perceptible dampness.

Madara Uchiha tucked his hands into the wide sleeves of his kimono and looked down at the brightly lit Konoha village at the foot of the mountain.

A few laughs still drifted on the wind, clear to the ear, yet carrying the weight of time.

"Oh."

Ban uttered a low voice, turned around, and disappeared into the deep night.

Meanwhile, in the heart of Konoha Village.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window in the Hokage's office, his hands behind his back, his shoulders slightly slumped. He had maintained the imposing image of the ninja professor all day, and at this moment he could finally relax a little.

"This snow could have fallen at just the right time."

Hiruzen exhaled a long puff of white breath, which clung to the cool glass window, forming a hazy mist. He extended a finger and casually drew a "¥" symbol on the mist, a symbol only modern people could understand.

As a time traveler, he saw more than just the romantic first snow.

That's the cost of maintaining the winter festival grounds, the heating and supply costs of the constant-temperature barrier farm, and the extra expenses incurred by the delicate instruments in Orochimaru's laboratory for maintaining a constant-temperature environment.

"That antler fellow can run faster than a rabbit."

He glanced down at the stack of documents on his desk that almost reached the ceiling.

Just half an hour ago, Nara Shikanobu was patting his chest with great enthusiasm, promising that everything was for Konoha. The next second, he made an excuse that his deer herd had been frightened and ran away.

Even the shoe prints were left on the floor and hadn't been wiped off.

[Future Simulator's friendly reminder: The temperature will drop significantly tomorrow morning. Please note that Akimichi Torifu's planned giant outdoor barbecue grill may require extra anti-slip mats, otherwise thirty ninjas will be simultaneously performing a sliding tackle into the pit.]

The system's voice suddenly popped up in my mind.

"Okay, okay."

Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his sore eyes. He drew the curtains, shutting all the financial deficit and expo plans inside the room.

The next morning, Konoha had completely changed.

The entire village was covered in a thick blanket of white snow. On the Hokage Avenue, the newly paved concrete slabs creaked underfoot.

Ninja Academy.

Because it was the first snow of winter and the heating pipes were still undergoing final testing, Hiruzen Sarutobi granted special permission for students to leave school early.

School's out!

With that piercing howl, a group of little kids wrapped up like rice balls poured out of the school gate.

far away.

Kakashi Hatake was bending over, carefully adjusting his specially made little mask. The mask was knitted overnight by his mother, Miko, using warm cashmere.

With his head down, his big, dark eyes were fixed on the snow at his feet.

He's calculating.

They calculated the thickness of the snow, the viscosity of the snowflakes, and even the points of stress.

Asma was breathing out warm air, holding a crooked snowball in his hand.

"Kakashi! Behold my ultimate weapon!"

Asma let out a strange cry, took two running steps, and because he was wearing too many layers, he ran like a clumsy penguin.

He mustered all his strength and threw the snowball in his hand.

Kakashi didn't even look up.

He simply shifted his body three centimeters to the side with a slight push of his left foot.

The snowball grazed the tip of his hair and landed with a thud on a telephone pole.

"Unbalanced, exerting force too early, Asma, you couldn't even hit a stray cat outside the goal with that shot."

Kakashi spoke in a tone so calm it was almost infuriating, remarkably similar to his father's.

He crouched down and precisely inserted his two small hands into the snowdrift.

The boy's movements were slow, but extremely steady.

He gathered the snow together and then repeatedly rubbed and squeezed it with his palms.

In no time, a nearly perfectly round snowball core was formed.

"Kakashi, what are you dawdling about here?"

Asma leaned closer, a few glistening drops of clear snot still clinging to the tip of her nose, swaying precariously in the breeze.

"I'm stacking Otosan."

Kakashi said seriously, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Uncle Tui Shuo Mao? I'll help too!"

Asma rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a handful of loose snow without saying a word, and started slapping it onto the ball.

"Stop! You're damaging the structure!"

Kakashi panicked and desperately tried to protect his project with his two little hands.

"The snowman has to be built tall! Look how imposing Uncle Sakumo looks holding that knife!"

Ignoring everything else, the two little ones wrestled together in the snow at the school gate, rolling around in irregular circles.

On the other side of the school gate.

The trio from the ninja academy were standing under a crooked pine tree.

Yahiko was wearing an ill-fitting gray cotton coat. He stood with his hands on his hips, chest puffed out, and eyes shining.

"This is Konoha's first snow! It's so much more pleasant than the freezing rain in the Land of Rain!"

Yahiko stomped his foot hard, sending up a cloud of fine snow dust.

"I want to make the biggest ice sculpture ever during the Winter Festival! It will be a likeness of Jiraiya-sensei! The pose he strikes when summoning the giant toad!"

"..."

Xiao Nan stood quietly beside her.

She reached her fair little hand into her pocket and pulled out a piece of patterned colored paper.

With incredibly nimble fingers, the paper rustled crisply in the cold wind as it was turned.

She kept her head down and didn't respond to Yahiko's words.

A minute later, a crystal-clear paper crane, which looked like it had been sculpted from ice, landed on her fingertip.

Xiao Nan breathed on the paper crane.

The paper crane seemed to come alive, trembling slightly in her palm.

"It's so beautiful."

Nagato, who had been silent until now, muttered something under his breath.

He had his hands tucked into his sleeves, his neck hunched. Without the Rinnegan, his pure black eyes were now filled with tranquility.

He looked at the school buildings not far away, and at the Fire Shadow Rocks that still stood majestically in the heavy snow.

"Ms. Mito said that snow can mask the rusty smell of the soil."

Nagato's voice was very soft, only the two people beside him could hear it.

"I wish this kind of snow could keep falling in everyone's homes."

"That won't do, the crops in the field will freeze, and Uncle Sakumo will cry."

Yahiko retorted seriously, then, as if remembering something, he suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Oh! I almost forgot, vegetables can be grown in the village even in winter!"

"Let's go! Let's build a snowman, a huge one!"

Nagato was pulled forward by Yahiko by the collar, and almost stumbled and fell face-first into the snow.

Looking at the series of footprints under his feet, he suddenly felt that this feeling of being down-to-earth was more real than any dream.

"Help—!"

A piercing scream, a high-pitched scream unique to young girls, shattered the silence.

That's Kushina Uzumaki.

The girl was in a state of extreme agitation at this moment.

Her signature long, fiery red hair stood out starkly against the white snow.

"Minato Namikaze! You're not allowed to run away!"

Kushina roared angrily.

She was sticking her butt out, her hands like a wound-up harvester, frantically making snowballs in the snow in front of her.