Kurosaki Ichigo in Konoha

After noticing Kurosaki Ichigo approaching, Nariko raised her head buried in her knees and glanced at Kurosaki Ichigo, then cried out loudly and threw away the kunai that was still dripping with blood. He stood up and rushed toward Kurosaki Ichigo, who was half squatting down, as if he was a frightened pet that saw its owner.

Kurosaki Ichigo was stunned. He was a little confused and quickly moved the weapon in his hand to prevent hurting Nariko. Then a soft female body rushed over and jumped into his arms. Kurosaki Ichigo hesitated. He raised his free left hand and gently patted Nariko's weak shoulder and asked, "What happened?"

Nari did not answer, but buried her head in Kurosaki Ichigo's arms, her shoulders shaking constantly. A feeling of moisture came from Kurosaki Ichigo's chest. It must have been the girl's tears that soaked him. Pretty thick clothes.

Kurosaki Ichigo had no choice but to let Nariko sob in his arms. The only thing he could do was to constantly pat the girl's back to express comfort.

After a while, the shaking of Nariko's shoulders subsided. Kurosaki Ichigo felt that her mood should have stabilized a lot, so he put his left hand on the girl's shoulder and asked softly: "What's going on?"

"I...I..." Nariko raised her little face from Kurosaki Ichigo's arms, twitched her nose twice, and said with a hint of crying, "There...there..."

"Where?" Kurosaki Ichigo frowned, raised the tip of Zhen Heng's knife, and looked around the cave with the firelight above. Only then did he realize that there was something not far from the corner where Nariko was before. There was a small green snake lying there. Kurosaki Ichigo had not noticed it because he was worried about Nariko.

The little snake has been cut into two pieces. There is a large pool of snake blood under the snake's body. The upper half of the snake's body is struggling to keep crawling towards the corner where Nariko was just now, but now it has frozen. , it looks like it should be dead.

"It seems that this snake scared Nariko. I thought there were some bad guys." Thinking of this, Ichigo Kurosaki breathed a sigh of relief, because people here are more of a threat than wild beasts.

As expected, Nariko then raised her finger and pointed tremblingly at the green snake that Kurosaki Ichigo found and said: "There... there... there is a snake."

Kurosaki Ichigo smiled and comforted softly: "It's okay, it's okay, that snake is already dead, there is no need to be afraid."

It seemed that Kurosaki Ichigo's words gave her courage. Naliko trembled and turned around to look at the snake that she had cut off. After seeing the hideous death of the snake, the girl couldn't help being shocked and said: "That's really true." ...Really"

"Of course it's true," Kurosaki Ichigo said with certainty, and then asked with concern as if he remembered something, "By the way, has this snake bit you?"

"No." Kurosaki Ichigo's relaxed tone also affected Nariko. She shook her head and replied, although her voice was much softer, but there was no trembling or crying sound, "The snake just got in suddenly, I was startled, and then it crawled towards me. I took the kunai and chopped it down as soon as I closed my eyes. Then I opened my eyes and found that although the snake was cut into two pieces by me, its upper body was still alive and continued. Crawled towards me, I couldn't hold it back and screamed, and then you came back."

Having said this, Nariko's face turned a little rosy and she felt very embarrassed, so she raised her head and secretly observed Kurosaki Ichigo's reaction.

However, Kurosaki Ichigo didn't have the slightest look of ridicule on his face but nodded clearly. This is a mountainous area, so it's not surprising that snakes exist, and Naliko is only a teenager. She was only a [-]-year-old girl. It was good to be able to muster up the courage to kill such a snake without making her legs and feet weak from fear.

After seeing that Kurosaki Ichigo had no special reaction, Nariko's shame subsided a little, but then she suddenly noticed that her and Kurosaki Ichigo's current actions were very ambiguous, so her face became even more rosy. Breaking free from Kurosaki Ichigo's arms.

Nariko's movement made Kurosaki Ichigo come back to his senses. He patted his head and said, "By the way, I just shot two pheasants over there. I have to go get them back quickly."

Saying that, Kurosaki Ichigo stood up and was about to turn around and walk out. Seeing this, Nariko quickly grabbed the corner of his clothes. Kurosaki Ichigo turned back to look at Nariko in confusion, and the girl looked like With a weak look, he looked at Kurosaki Ichigo pitifully and said, "Are you still going out? I want to go with you too."

Kurosaki Ichigo was stunned at first, and then realized that Nariko was probably afraid that another snake would come in, so he didn't want to be separated from him, so he nodded and took Nariko's hand and said, "Okay, then let's Just leave.”

Just like that, Kurosaki Ichigo took Naliko's still slightly trembling hand and came outside the cave. Not far away, he came to the pool where Kurosaki Ichigo found.

Looking at the clear water about a palm deep, Nariko felt much better, and a long-lost smile appeared on her face. Although it was just an imperceptible smile, it was enough to show the excitement in her heart.

Compared to Nariko who was intoxicated by the scenery, Kurosaki Ichigo seemed much more pragmatic. He first picked up the bamboo tube he had thrown away before and filled it with water and gave it to Nariko.

Naliko gently took the bamboo tube handed by Kurosaki Ichigo, then drank it in one gulp regardless of her manners, and then returned the bamboo tube to Kurosaki Ichigo. It wasn't that she didn't want to pay attention to her image, it was just that she was too I was thirsty, and as soon as the panic disappeared, the dryness in my throat swept over me.

Kurosaki Ichigo had no interest in observing Nariko's demeanor. He casually put the bamboo tube back into the wooden box beside him, walked a few steps to the boulder beside the pond, and pulled out the two bullets nailed to the rock. After putting the kunai back into the ninja bag on his waist, Kurosaki Ichigo came back holding two pheasants by their necks.

"Eh, are they pheasants?" Naliko asked excitedly as she looked at the two pheasants with colorful feathers. This meant that she didn't have to eat the disgusting and extremely unpalatable Bingliang Pills.

"That's right," Kurosaki Ichigo nodded and replied, "But the pheasant meat is older and has poorer meat quality, and we don't have much seasoning, so the final product is probably only a little stronger than the Bingliangwan. Don’t get your hopes up.”

The excitement in Nariko's heart was extinguished by Kurosaki Ichigo's cold water. She sat down disappointedly and said, "Why, it took a lot of effort for someone to get excited and you just say such depressing words?"

Kurosaki Ichigo shrugged and said, "Just a reminder. The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. It's better not to have any hopes in the first place."

"Isn't it the same for you?" Naliko said unhappily while sitting on the ground.

"I" Kurosaki Ichigo asked knowing why his nose was funny, "Why do you say that?"

Naliko curled her lips: "Huh, the reason why you are willing to risk betraying the village and take me away is because you have great expectations for using the cave of time and space to travel through time and space. It should be because I told you not to come. In the end, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.”

Kurosaki Ichigo's face froze, and the joking smile on his face disappeared. He thought back carefully and found that he was actually the most ridiculous one. A trace of regret arose in his heart, and he began to doubt his behavior. is it right or not.

"Did I do something wrong?" Kurosaki Ichigo asked himself, "I just... just want to return to my own world. Even if there is only a glimmer of opportunity, I don't want to miss it... But I"

Nari obviously didn't expect that her retort would actually cause huge waves in Kurosaki Ichigo's heart. Seeing Kurosaki Ichigo stunned on the spot, she asked with some confusion: "What's wrong with you?" Then Naliko thought about what she called Ichigo Kurosaki for a moment before continuing, "Kurosaki"

"Ah" Kurosaki Ichigo looked at Nariko blankly.

"What are you doing? I'm almost starving to death." Nari waved her hand at Kurosaki Ichigo impatiently, "Anyway, no matter what you make, it's better than those military food pills, right?" Don’t ask for anything more.”

"Okay." Kurosaki Ichigo nodded mechanically.

"What's wrong with you?" Naliko felt that something was wrong with Kurosaki Ichigo. She stood up strangely and took a few steps forward to look at him and asked, "I just said something casually, why did you react so bigly?"

"It's okay." Kurosaki Ichigo forced a smile, but to Naliko, he seemed even more abnormal.

Ichigo Kurosaki also realized that his cover-up was a little fake, so he retracted the forced smile on his face, bent down and put the wooden box on the ground on his back, then he said coldly, carrying two pheasants: "Let's go back and get them. ,I'm hungry too."

"Oh..." No matter how stupid Nariko was, she could still tell that Kurosaki Ichigo's appearance was closely related to what she just said. She felt guilty and pouted in response, and followed aggrievedly. Kurosaki Ichigo returned to the cave.

Although he temporarily escaped the pursuit of Shimura Danzo, Kurosaki Ichigo was not stupid enough to start a fire in the wild for fear that his position would not be exposed. He just lit a small flame for Naliko in the cave, while he Come to the entrance of the cave and take advantage of the faint light at dusk to process the ingredients.

Naliko sat by the fire and watched Kurosaki Ichigo busy at the entrance of the cave. She unconsciously reached out into her arms and held the Grell Stone that she had hidden close to her body. She felt her whole body warm. Not only because of the heat of the flames in front of her, but also because of the boy who she had only known for less than a day but who gave her an inexplicable sense of security.