Bread, Ham Sausage, Instant Coffee

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Yuhara followed behind that Konoha Ninja, step by step up the stairs, and when the other finally pushed open the door at the top, fresh, crisp air instantly rushed in.

After more than a month in this world, Yuhara had finally seen the light of day again.

Unfortunately, it was nighttime outside now, pitch black.

Above his head hung a bright full moon and a river of stars dotting the ink-black sky, while the curtain of night concealed a town lit with scattered points of lamplight. The continuous chirping of insects at night mingled with the occasional faint sound of human voices, making everything here seem so peaceful and tranquil... This was indeed the Land of Fire Village.

Well, he had to admit that Yuhara was viewing all of this through a biased lens right now. Konoha during wartime was hardly "peaceful and tranquil"; in truth, the village had always been on edge.

But no matter what, a town above ground felt far better than a prison cell underground.

Yuhara couldn't help but take a deep breath, then kept his head tilted back, staring at the moonlight in the sky.

Only at this moment did the feeling of being reborn finally become more real.

"Just like your name, isn't it?"

Seeing Yuhara fixated on the night sky, the Konoha Ninja didn't urge him to hurry up but waited a moment before speaking.

Yuhara was startled, and after figuring out what the other meant, he slowly nodded... Yuhara was his surname, and naturally, there was a given name to follow.

Seeing him come back to his senses, the ninja began walking again, saying as he moved forward, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Rindou, and I'm a Chunin. If nothing unexpected happens, you'll be following my orders from now on... meaning you'll become my subordinate."

From Orochimaru's test subject to a Konoha Ninja's subordinate? This change caught Yuhara off guard, and he asked directly, "I shouldn't be a Konoha Ninja, so..."

"You are now. You've officially become a Konoha Genin." Rindou interrupted Yuhara's words, then explained, "According to our investigation, you were previously a Rogue Ninja who never clashed with Konoha, and you were even rescued by Orochimaru before this, so there's no issue with your identity."

This explanation... it was hard to believe any of it. "Rescued" by Orochimaru?

And based on Yuhara's preconceptions, ninja villages were highly exclusive organizations that maintained a considerable distrust of all outsiders. How could a Rogue Ninja be allowed to join Konoha so easily?

Rindou continued, "But unfortunately, there's not much time for you to adapt to the environment. We'll soon be heading to the front lines to carry out missions."

Hearing this, the "reasonableness" of Yuhara becoming a Konoha Ninja without strict vetting seemed to appear. A word popped into his mind—one that might sound festive to others but felt especially ominous to him...

Cannon fodder.

In the later stages of the Ninja World War, every ninja village faced the same problem: a shortage of combat power. When even five- or six-year-old children were being sent to the battlefield, it made sense to use other unconventional methods to expand their ranks.

In war, human life was a kind of consumable.

And since he was "cannon fodder," there was theoretically no need to talk about whether he was trustworthy.

Although this ninja named Rindou seemed gentle and friendly in personality, just as Yuhara couldn't refuse to be Orochimaru's test subject, he now couldn't refuse to become this man's subordinate. He could only go with the flow.

Besides, leaving Konoha might not be a bad thing for Yuhara.

"You're a Kekkei Genkai Ninja with Magnet Release, right?" Rindou asked again. As the team leader, he needed to grasp certain information as quickly as possible.

"Yes, I... basically don't use regular ninjutsu." Yuhara explained along with the other's words, and this statement was practically an understatement—it wasn't that he didn't use them much, but that he couldn't use them at all.

Not to mention "techniques," he hadn't even mastered the hand seals.

In the midst of this conversation, the two arrived at Konoha's main gate. After verifying some procedures, they left the town area and eventually reached a small camp not far outside the wall.

"I've got a general picture of your situation. You'll be assigned to a reserve squad, and I'll introduce your teammates to you next."

In essence, verbal descriptions of combat ability meant nothing; performance on the battlefield was what truly mattered. The specifics couldn't be known until the fighting started.

Then Rindou led Yuhara to a tent in the camp, lifted the flap with one hand, and stepped inside.

Yuhara followed closely behind him.

There were three people in the tent. When they saw that the person entering was Rindou, they each quickly stood up.

"Let me introduce you. These three are the squad leader, Jian Dong, and squad members Tigo and Xinliang," Rindou said, pointing to each of them in turn as he gave their names. Then he gestured at Yuhara and said to the three, "Your squad's new member, Yuhara."

Yuhara observed the three individuals:

The squad leader, Jian Dong, appeared to be a woman around twenty years old. From the look in her eyes and the similarity of their names, he judged that she was related to Rindou... She seemed like a serious and composed person.

Tigo was a little girl of only twelve or thirteen. When she saw Yuhara looking at her, she gave him a sincere smile. She seemed to have a friendly, sociable personality.

Xinliang's age fell between Yuhara and Jian Dong. During the introductions, he didn't even lift his head to glance at Yuhara... This was likely a gloomy, withdrawn, and hard-to-get-along-with youth.

Aside from Rindou, the age progression among the four people in this tent was quite noticeable... Tigo (13), Yuhara (15), Xinliang (17), Jian Dong (19).

From a normal perspective, these four were all child soldiers who shouldn't have been on the battlefield, but by this world's standards, even a little girl like Tigo was supposed to be a qualified warrior.

Once Rindou finished the introductions, he quickly left.

The tent fell silent instantly.

Silence stretched into a long quiet, and the long quiet brewed an awkward atmosphere.

At that moment, it was the youngest, Tigo, who spoke first. She said to Yuhara:

"Your eyes are really pretty..."

"..."

The gray of Yuhara's pupils had a metallic sheen, so when he looked at others, it often came across as sharp, pointed, even aggressive—unrelated to his subjective emotions. Others easily saw him as someone hard to approach.

But if you described his eyes as clear and beautiful, that was also true.

Faced with his young teammate's compliment, Yuhara smiled and said jokingly, "If you wanted a more precise way to describe my eyes, you could say... they have a liquid helium kind of look."

With this as the starting point, Yuhara began simple exchanges with his three teammates.

However, a day later, he discovered a serious problem with the camp's unit:

Simply put, the camp's unit was a ninja platoon of twenty-four people, composed of six standard four-man squads—a formation that could even be called a company—yet the overall commander of this unit was Rindou.

For a ninja unit of this scale, the commander should by all rights be a Jonin.

But Rindou was merely a Konoha Chunin.

PS:

New book setting sail, begging for collections and all kinds of votes.

I've seen many familiar IDs, and also some familiar IDs that appear whenever I write about Naruto. A thousand thanks to all my friends for your support.