Blood!

"I'm sorry, Shun-kun!"

In the corner of a deserted street, Haku bowed his head and apologized to Dōmeki in fear and trepidation.

In response, that warm hand rubbed Haku's head. When the boy looked up at Dōmeki in surprise, he saw Dōmeki gazing at him seriously.

"Haku, I never thought you were wrong to save them, but I'm curious!" Dōmeki's gaze was deep.

"What do you plan to do with this poor mother and daughter afterward?"

Following Dōmeki's gaze, Haku saw the mother and daughter trembling beneath their chains. Though the mother, whose aged face showed that she had suffered much, was terrified, she still struggled to shield her daughter.

Suddenly, Haku remembered that snowy day.

A child controlling snowflakes

A father with a face full of fear

A mother lying in a pool of blood, still telling him to run

Villagers brandishing weapons with savage looks

Haku had never experienced a colder day than that one. After that day, he had come to fear his own power.

"What do you plan to do with this mother and daughter?"

Dōmeki's words surfaced in his mind again. He knew that although he had saved them for the moment, they could no longer survive in the Land of Grass. What else could he do?

Haku shook his head, pained and lost, and looked to the red-haired boy for help.

Dōmeki's expression remained stern. "Haku, I know you've always hated ninja, hated the power you possess, and hated everything that brings conflict!"

"But remember, power is never wrong!"

"Like you, I don't know how to change the cruel things that happen in this world."

"But at least having power can let you save the people in front of you."

"If a day comes when you're still lost and don't know how to move forward, then look up at my back."

"Watch me and follow in my footsteps!"

Haku stared blankly at Dōmeki. For the first time, something called a goal appeared in his lost eyes. Before he could say anything, he felt a bundle placed in his arms.

"Inside are instructions for training in Wind Release and Water Release, along with a few Explosive Tags and Kunai."

"Go. Take this mother and daughter to the Land of Rice Fields on your own. This is a test!"

"If you die on the way, I'll only think that's all you amounted to!"

Haku looked timidly at the bundle, but in the next moment, his gaze grew resolute. He nodded to the red-haired boy, went over to unbind the mother and daughter, and explained the plan to them.

The mother and daughter evidently knew what awaited them if they stayed in a country where ninja and nobles treated human lives like grass. Though afraid, they obediently followed the boy who had saved them.

A long while later, a Shadow Clone identical to Dōmeki stepped forward. He narrowed his eyes at Dōmeki and muttered under his breath.

"You say you don't care whether the boy lives or dies, but your body honestly made me to protect him in secret. Who would've thought my original was such a tsundere, saying one thing and doing another? How disgusting."

"You talk too much!"

Dōmeki punched the Shadow Clone into dispersing, speechless. As he wondered why his Shadow Clones were different from other people's and always had so much personality, he made another.

When the Shadow Clone appeared, Dōmeki fixed his piercing gaze on him as he opened his mouth to speak. Fortunately, this Shadow Clone knew what was good for him. He shut his mouth and silently slipped away after Haku.

Only then did Dōmeki nod in satisfaction. He then turned his gaze to the captured Grass Ninja.

The Grass Ninja stared at the red-haired boy in fear, but a glaring light from somewhere dazzled his eyes, leaving him unable to see clearly. He only heard a voice dimly.

"Name?"

"J-Jirō!"

The Grass Ninja answered with a tremble.

"Age?"

"Twenty-four!"

"Occupation?"

"A Genin specially assigned by Kusagakure to the left gate of the Castle of Grass's royal palace!"

Dōmeki stroked his chin and continued, "Do you know where the red-haired Uzumaki clanspeople taken in by the Grass Ninja are?"

The Grass Ninja's trembling body went still. Suddenly remembering that the boy had red hair too, he cried out in surprise.

"You're from the Uzumaki Clan too?"

Electricity surged through Dōmeki's palm as he pressed it against the Grass Ninja. The smell of scorching flesh instantly spread, accompanied by the Grass Ninja's agonized screams.

The boy withdrew his hand and continued asking about the Uzumaki Clan.

Several quarters of an hour later, Dōmeki dropped the corpse with its twisted neck. A large pit suddenly opened in the ground and swallowed it.

"The royal palace in the Castle of Grass!"

Ever since ninja came into existence, they had been blades wielded by nobles and daimyō. Even the Five Great Shinobi Villages could only maintain a state of semi-independence, escaping the control of their countries' daimyō to a certain extent, but they were still constrained in many ways, including funding and missions.

But in a small country like the Land of Grass, ninja were the private soldiers and guards of the daimyō and nobles, with a status like that of the samurai class of old. For that reason, Kusagakure was, in fact, the Land of Grass's royal palace.

In the royal palace, banquets were held without cease, day and night. The leader of the Grass Ninja, the daimyō, and his ministers drank through the night. Countless young and beautiful women from the country were brought into the palace to serve these lords, waiting at any moment to be chosen for their pleasure.

On this ordinary night, the daimyō drained the wine in his cup and complained to his favorite general, Horii Tarō, the leader of Kusagakure, through bleary, drunken eyes.

"Tarō, my body is getting worse and worse. In the past, I could enjoy myself all night without getting tired, but now just a little extra wine wears me out!"

Horii Tarō was forcefully pinching the tender skin of the young woman in his arms and pouring wine into her mouth, paying no heed to her cries of pain. Hearing the daimyō's words, he flung her away, unconcerned when she struck a stone pillar and began bleeding profusely.

The attending servants, accustomed to such things, dragged the badly injured woman away, quickly wiped up the blood, and sprinkled perfume, as if nothing had happened.

"Lord Daimyō!" Horii Tarō laughed heartily. "For ordinary people, that would indeed be a problem, but our Kusagakure has a secret treasure!"

The daimyō clapped his hands in agreement. "Quite right, quite right! I'd forgotten about that!"

"Someone, bring that woman up here!"

Before long, a Grass Ninja pushed a frail woman into the palace. Her skin was as pale as a corpse, and her red hair was withered like dry grass. A chain covered in runes hung around her neck, and she was pulled into the room one step at a time.

"The bloodline of an Uzumaki woman is naturally filled with life energy. Just one suck, and even someone without Chakra will feel invigorated! Why, this is a privilege even the First Hokage and the daimyō of the Land of Fire never had back then!"

Horii Tarō seized a lock of the woman's hair and sniffed it with a rapt expression.

"Exactly, exactly! Even that old fellow from the Land of Fire never got to enjoy this!"

The daimyō of the Land of Grass laughed heartily and eagerly moved to take a bite of the woman.

But when he saw the bite marks and scars covering her nearly naked body, he frowned in disgust and pushed her toward the ministers, who were also eyeing her hungrily.

"This woman's already broken, isn't she?"

Horii Tarō understood what the daimyō wanted and said with a laugh, "It doesn't matter. This woman has a daughter!"

The woman, whose eyes had been as numb as a walking corpse's, dropped to her knees as if she had gone mad when she heard him. Paying no heed to the blood streaming from her, she said:

"I'm begging you. I'll do anything, just, just Karin..."

But Horii Tarō grabbed the woman by the hair as though she were an object and dragged her up. He reached out, touched the blood on her forehead, and licked it.

"What a waste!"