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The most tedious and grueling training was also the best test of a person's willpower. Jiang Ye had concluded objectively that Ye Zi could not complete the training within the limited time. He had no idea how strong Ye Zi's will truly was.

"Root doesn't need someone like that." He said this to Danzo.

What was Root?

Konoha's dark side.

The roots beneath a great tree, drawing up its nutrients.

Those nutrients were the absolutely loyal killing machines known as operatives.

Danzo sat in his chair and looked at him calmly. "I don't want him as a person."

Jiang Ye remained expressionless and silent. He was the sort of man who squeezed every last bit of value from everyone, maximizing each person's usefulness. That was why Danzo had placed him in this position.

Danzo shifted his gaze away from Jiang Ye's face, showing no concern for his disrespect. He spread open the scroll on the table and said indifferently, "From the first time I saw him, I never expected his loyalty. I told you, he's a blade. He'll tear apart every obstacle in my path. He'll only ever be a blade, not a person."

"Aren't you afraid it might be a double-edged sword?" Jiang Ye suddenly asked.

Danzo's eyes narrowed slightly. He said coldly, "Naturally, I have my concerns. But now that I know what he wants, I'm confident I can control him."

After a pause, a sharp glint flickered in his eyes, and he laughed coldly. "I just didn't expect him to resemble Orochimaru to this extent. If even Orochimaru could compromise for those conditions, how could he possibly refuse?"

"I understand, sir." Now that things had reached this point, Jiang Ye understood Danzo's plan. He also understood how much weight Ye Zi carried in Danzo's heart.

After taking his leave, he did not go to the training room to check Ye Zi's progress. From beginning to end, he had never believed Ye Zi could complete three times the usual training load. Yet six hours later, the subordinate supervising him reported that Ye Zi had finished it. After delivering the report, the subordinate immediately left, while Jiang Ye stared into the air in silence.

From that day onward, Ye Zi spent nearly all his time inside Root. Aside from training, he read scroll after scroll detailing the fundamentals of ninjutsu. Like a sponge, he absorbed knowledge without pause and grew at astonishing speed.

At the same time, Minato and Kushina became increasingly prominent among their peers. They could be called the most dazzling rising stars in Konoha.

Ye Zi continued growing in Root's darkness, while Minato and Kushina flourished beneath the sunlight.

Time passed quickly. Before he knew it, another year had gone by.

The clashes between the Stone ninja and Konoha grew increasingly fierce. Their conflicts had already resulted in casualties, and whether in the open or in secret, the situation was visibly growing unstable.

On this day, Ye Zi returned to Root from the Land of Earth after completing a covert mission, his body covered in injuries. He had only taken out the scroll containing the classified intelligence before collapsing unconscious. He was immediately sent to Root's private medical room for treatment.

Outside the room, Jiang Ye gripped the scroll stained with large patches of blood, his expression slightly complicated. Over the past year, Ye Zi's performance had brought about a drastic change in his attitude.

"Danzo, you were right." His gaze shifted away from the tightly closed door. Thinking of how the boy he had initially disliked had truly become a blade—or perhaps a terrifying set of fangs—he could not help feeling conflicted.

In one year, Ye Zi had completed nearly a hundred missions of all sizes without a single failure. He had repeatedly survived situations that should have killed him, always making people think he was about to die, only for him to open his eyes again.

This was a terrifying boy.

This was a terrifying junior.

This was a terrifying peer.

No one in Root could deny Ye Zi's fearsome nature.

Inside the medical room, several medical ninja were wholly focused on treating Ye Zi's battered body. Although Ye Zi's breathing on the operating table was so weak that it seemed he might die the next second, not one of the medical ninja showed the slightest hint of urgency.

The tense emergency treatment appeared so calm and effortless that anyone watching would believe it was certain to end in success.

Two hours later, the operation ended.

Ye Zi's faint breathing began to strengthen again and gradually steadied. Then, under the effects of a massive dose of anesthetic, he inexplicably opened his eyes. His brow furrowed deeply at first, apparently because of the pain coming from his body.

He looked toward the nearest medical ninja. Though the mask covering her face was broad, her delicate brows and eyes revealed that she was a woman.

"Thank you." The pain from his body reminded him that he was still alive. He looked at the woman and thanked her solemnly.

Hearing Ye Zi's familiar, hoarse thanks, the woman turned back to look at him as he awoke. A trace of astonishment flashed through her eyes before she turned toward the colleague responsible for injecting the sedative and anesthetic. "I told you to inject five times the usual amount."

That person also seemed surprised and nodded. "It really was five times the usual amount."

The woman's delicate brows curved slightly. She tilted her head toward Ye Zi, whose expression remained calm, and said sincerely, "If possible, please don't get so badly hurt next time."

Ye Zi looked quietly at her and responded, "I'm afraid I can't."

After saying this, he endured the pain and climbed directly off the operating table. He walked like an old man, stubbornly taking one step after another toward the door, as though he meant to reach that world unknown to everyone.

No one in the room went to support him. They all knew the boy would coldly refuse assistance. Nor did they tell him not to move around, because they all knew his healing ability was extraordinary.

After Ye Zi left, the person responsible for injecting the anesthetic said worriedly, "Next time, even five times the usual amount might not work."

"Mm." The woman answered and lowered her head to begin putting away the instruments.

After being injured, he naturally could not continue carrying out missions. Yet even while wounded, Ye Zi spent the entire day in the library, examining the scrolls piled across the shelves.

No one knew why he persisted so fiercely and obsessively.

Danzo did not want to know, and neither did Jiang Ye. They only needed to know what he wanted, and then make use of his value to the fullest.

Ye Zi kept reading until midnight was near. His body's constant protests finally reached their limit, and only then did he convince himself to put down the scroll in his hands. He wearily rubbed his temples, his brows creasing slightly when the motion tugged at his injuries.

He reached for the loose, oversized robe resting nearby and draped it over himself. Then he slowly rose, extinguished the candle, and made his way toward the door.

After stepping outside, Ye Zi instinctively looked at the ground to the right of the doorway. A square lunchbox wrapped in an orange-yellow cloth lay there quietly. He stood and stared at it for a while, thinking as well. In the end, he bent down and laboriously picked it up. Every dish inside had been made from blood-replenishing ingredients. Because of the limitations of those ingredients, the texture and flavor were far from ideal—one could even say they were awful—but they were the best nutritional supplement for someone injured and suffering from severe blood loss.

Carrying the lunchbox, Ye Zi slowly left like an old man in his twilight years. He knew who had left it there. He did not reject the terrible-tasting food. Perhaps it was because he had rarely been able to eat his fill as a child. Perhaps it was because the food benefited his blood-depleted body. Or perhaps it was because the lunchbox contained someone's kindness.

He felt grateful to the nameless girl in his heart, just as he had solemnly thanked her upon opening his eyes. Yet he did not want to know that girl's name.

He did not want to, and he could not.

The night was as dark as ink, while silver radiance fell upon the earth.

The streets of Konoha were quiet at this hour, their roads covered in silver light. Carrying the lunchbox and bathed in the silvery glow, Ye Zi slowly headed toward the house.

After rounding a corner, he stopped, because someone stood ahead. He silently looked at the girl, and his mood turned terrible.

He had always deliberately avoided the beautiful red-haired girl. Even when they clearly headed in opposite directions, she would somehow end up blocking his path.

Under the bright moonlight, Kushina's gaze slowly wandered over the places where Ye Zi's body was bound in white bandages. She bit her lip unconsciously, her eyes filled with complicated emotions, just as before.