A Life Treading on Thin Ice

Kikyo Mountain, halfway up the slope, a hunter's mountain village.

The wooden houses were simple.

The lamplight was dim.

In a moment, the hall was packed with more than a dozen people. Beside the round table lay a "mummy" of an injured man.

"Ha ha ha, Yinyue Captain, please sit!

It's already been five years since you saved us.

Time really flies!"

Jaeger looked excited as he held a teapot, turned over the cups, poured tea for the Uchihas seated around the table, and invited Ingetsu to take the seat of honor.

Ingetsu sat down. Mikoto, seated beside him, studied his profile with a strange look.

Mikoto assessed Ingetsu inwardly.

Back in the woods.

The Uchiha Squad could have dealt with those five missing-nin, but because Ingetsu knew them, he had not struck.

On the run, exposing their whereabouts was essentially the same as inviting enormous trouble.

The best solution.

Would have been to kill the group, dispose of the bodies, and leave without a sound.

A man with principles, at least.

Mikoto noticed Ingetsu suddenly turn to look at her. She calmly withdrew her gaze, confident and composed, maintaining the air of a noblewoman as she picked up her teacup and drank.

"Hiss... hot!"

Mikoto's jade fingers touched the teacup before quickly pulling back. In Ingetsu's eyes, most of her noblewoman's poise vanished.

Ever since Ingetsu had forced food into her mouth.

The last of her dignity had been trampled.

Mikoto seemed to have returned to the youthful, green days after graduating from the Ninja Academy. She did not know what sort of mindset or attitude she should use when dealing with a man who ignored her pride and whose aloof personality even overrode her own.

He was clearly younger than her.

Yet under the misunderstanding and strange attitudes of the other Uchihas, Mikoto could not control herself and subconsciously paid attention to this man.

Fugaku had only just died.

Mikoto lowered her willow brows, her expression darkening. Her slender fingers tugged at her skirt, and she once again fell into confusion.

Ingetsu withdrew his gaze, only then realizing that the other Uchihas were all staring at him.

The Uchihas hurriedly looked away. They were also curious about what sort of story lay between Yinyue Captain and the clan head's wife... and the Kirigakure missing-nin.

"Heh heh heh!"

Jaeger bared his teeth in a simple-minded grin.

Ingetsu looked at Jaeger with a calm gaze.

Memories surfaced.

This group of "missing-nin" were actually ordinary refugees who had fled Frost Country during the Third Shinobi World War.

Their homes had been destroyed by the war that erupted among the Five Great Nations, and their food had been forcibly confiscated by the Konoha Ninja Village after it conquered Frost Country.

Their farmlands had been trampled by squads of ninjas from the various ninja villages in turn. When autumn came, they harvested not a single grain. Of Jaeger's family of five, he was the only one who survived.

Five years ago, in winter.

He had wandered to the border of the Land of Fire.

He gathered more than a dozen people.

Led by Jaeger, these people had been unable to survive amid the war and wanted to band together to rob other refugees.

That year, the border of the Land of Fire was plagued by gathering missing-nin. Even the Military Police Force captain had been dispatched to the border by Konoha's higher-ups to carry out a mission to exterminate them.

By coincidence.

That was also the first time Jaeger had committed a crime by disguising ordinary refugees as "missing-nin." He encountered Ingetsu, who was dressed in plain clothes but was actually the Military Police Force captain.

Ingetsu had not killed them. Instead, he patiently listened to the stories of what had happened to them.

Take Jaeger, for example.

When the man first fled, he had money on him, but as soon as he left home, the big brother next door tricked him into investing in financial products issued by Kirigakure's bank. He had hoped to profit from the war, only to find that it was a shinobi-world financial scam.

The big brother fled with the money.

Jaeger, meanwhile, completely became a refugee. At the time, resentful of the rich, he had planned to rob wealthy merchants and become a bandit.

But when he truly hardened his heart, took a cleaver, and charged into a store, he saw a dirty, frail mother breastfeeding a baby the size of a monkey.

Jaeger gritted his teeth, cleaver in hand, and painfully caught a rat. He stewed a pot of rat-meat soup for the mother and child before ruthlessly leaving.

After that.

Jaeger fled to the border of the Land of Fire. He thought that robbing people from other countries would not burden him psychologically. Just as he was preparing to expand and build up his enterprise, he ran into Ingetsu and his group.

"Are you still the same as before?"

Ingetsu was silent for a long time before asking.

Jaeger placed the Kirigakure missing-nin forehead protector on the table and laughed heartily.

"How could we be, Yinyue Captain?

Ever since you changed our ways.

We did as you told us, came to these mountains, and became hunters, making a living by hunting every day.

This place is extremely rich.

There are plenty of animals in the mountains.

So we're living very comfortably now!

It's all thanks to your guidance.

You saved us!"

"Wait, Mr. Jaeger, you should tell us what happened back then first. We can't understand what you two are talking about!"

Izumi mumbled, wanting to speak but stopping herself.

The other Uchihas nodded one after another.

First there were the Kirigakure missing-nin forehead protectors.

Then there were the mountain hunters.

It was all far too convoluted.

Izumi did not dare ask Ingetsu, but she knew that he would not mind her asking Jaeger.

"Fine, then I'll start from the beginning!"

Jaeger became interested. After recalling things for a moment, he worked out an opening and began recounting the story to everyone in detail.

During this, Ingetsu instructed Nanfeng to take two team members into Kikyo Castle and "invite" a doctor over before it grew too late at night.

They were also to purchase some medicine, nonperishable food, the necessities everyone would need on the run, and a map of the mountains along the border of the Land of Fire.

Nanfeng had originally wanted to hear the story, but with a mission to complete, he could only leave reluctantly with the two team members.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Jaeger finished telling the story, looking smug and feeling that he had quite a talent for directing movies and writing screenplays.

Only then did the Uchihas understand the impoverished, arduous, thin-ice, tragic, and unlucky life of this "Jaeger."

Mikoto glanced at Ingetsu's profile from the corner of her eye, adding another item to her assessment of him.

Kind?

The other Uchihas also felt that Jaeger had truly been lucky to meet Ingetsu.

If it had been them or some other Konoha Ninja, they would not have cared about Jaeger's past. They would have killed the group as missing-nin long ago.

Completing a mission could earn them a mission payment.

Therefore.

Yinyue Captain really was gentle and kind.

"So your Kirigakure forehead protectors were all picked up from the battlefield?

No, you're already this unlucky. What were you so proud about?"

Izumi raised her willow brows slightly, feeling that this man was a worthy rival when it came to getting multiple-choice questions wrong!

He always managed to.

Make the worst possible choice at the critical moment.

Until he met Ingetsu.

"Yinyue Captain, are you leaving later?" Jaeger looked at Ingetsu, restrained his expression, and said sincerely, "It's already so dark. Stay here tonight. I'll make dinner for you all, and you can continue on your way tomorrow morning!"

Ingetsu swept his gaze over everyone around the table.

The Uchihas were travel-worn. They had fled continuously for nearly three days without sleep or rest, and fatigue showed in all their eyes. They seemed eager to rest here for one night.

"Thanks, but we have to leave at once."

Ingetsu looked at Jaeger and spoke in an even tone.

The longing in the Uchihas' eyes immediately went out, but not one of them said anything.

They were on the run.

They were not out on a picnic.

If they did not leave, trouble would come here and implicate the refugees and hunters living here.

Besides, these people were already unlucky enough!

Ingetsu also hated bringing trouble to others. Back in the forest, he had originally planned to lead the team away from Jaeger directly.

But he could not withstand Jaeger's enthusiastic invitation.

Moreover.

They really did need a place to rest their feet.

"Rest as quickly as you can. Once Nanfeng and the others return, we'll continue on our way!"

Ingetsu spoke indifferently.

"All right, then. I'll prepare some food for everyone."

Jaeger smiled in relief and planned to head for the kitchen at the back of the wooden house.

Izumi suddenly asked:

"Mr. Jaeger, when you go out hunting, why do you wear the forehead protectors of Kirigakure missing-nin?"

At that moment, Tamao, who was lying on the floor, said weakly, "What else could it be for? Obviously, it's to intimidate enemies!"

Hearing this, all the Uchihas turned their heads and looked in unison at Tamao, who had been lying on the floor and ignored. They had nearly forgotten about him.

Jaeger laughed heartily.

"This gentleman is right. There are still many vicious war refugees nearby. If we don't disguise ourselves as missing-nin, we can't intimidate them when we encounter them on the road."

After speaking, Jaeger entered the inner room.

"Waaah, waaah, waaah—"

Suddenly, a high-pitched, sonorous baby's cry shattered the tranquility of the night and echoed through the wooden house.

The Uchihas were startled.

When Mikoto heard the baby's cry, some memory seemed to flip a switch. She abruptly looked toward the bedroom. In her daze, the sorrow on her face grew even heavier.

She missed Sasuke.

Izumi knitted her brows tightly.

Ingetsu remained unmoving as a mountain, quietly drinking his tea. From the moment he entered, he had judged from the shoes, their styles, the furniture, and the baby cushion in the wooden house that this was the home of a family of three.

"Sorry, sorry."

Afraid that he had frightened the guests, Jaeger immediately led a woman from the bedroom into the hall.

The woman had delicate features and wore a red scarf. Her waist-length black hair covered her clean cheeks as she anxiously soothed the tiny baby wrapped in her arms.

"Yinyue Captain, this is Sanli, the wife I married last year. We haven't chosen a name for the child yet. He's a boy!"

Jaeger introduced his family with a blissful expression.

Ingetsu smiled at the family of three.

"Heh... you're so unlucky and miserable, yet you still managed to get married and have a child.

I proposed to a young lady from the Hyuga Clan, a nurse at Konoha Hospital. She didn't even bother to respond and told me to get lost.

Is it just because I'm mentally ill?

Who are you looking down on!"