In a forest somewhere in the Land of Grass, smoke curled up from one of two abandoned hunters' cabins.
What am I even doing...
Inside the cabin, He Yin fed dry, thin branches into the bonfire burning in the center of the stone floor. The branches were swiftly swallowed by the licking flames, crackling as they turned into firelight that illuminated her face.
"Bloop, bloop, bloop..."
Porridge churned in the battered iron pot, steam rising from it. When she was not with the children, this oldest girl among the orphaned group—though she herself was only a girl in her early teens—wore a frown, her distress and self-reproach utterly undisguised.
Although Chiba was a ninja, far more capable than us, he couldn't walk with both legs injured, and he had been unconscious for so long. He must be feeling lost too. Under those circumstances, it was already wonderful that he could help us save Yu Ze.
What right did I have to ask him to teach me medicine?! How could I be so overbearing, making demands without considering him at all? We hadn't even fed him yet, and we were already begging him for this and that, without considering his feelings in the slightest. I was only thinking of myself...
Chiba was a good person, but that did not mean he had to help us unconditionally. Even if he was willing to help us without conditions, we could not simply think of ourselves! The self-reproach and irritation in her heart were even stronger than what showed on her face.
"Ugh..."
As she watched the porridge begin to boil, a shadow of sorrow crossed He Yin's face after her bout of self-reproach.
But judging from Chiba's attitude, he probably won't teach me medicine.
I heard that every ninja village had things they