Wandering Miko

The setting sun cast its afterglow over Konoha's ruins. Yakushi Nonō wandered alone through the familiar streets, an indescribable heaviness weighing on her heart.

She had once been an outstanding member of Root, entrusted with the crucial task of infiltrating enemy villages. For years, she had endured wind, rain, frost, and snow in Iwagakure, all to gather intelligence.

Yet this game of deception had long since drained away all her passion.

She did not like such missions, nor did she like such a life.

When she finally escaped Root's shadow and became the head of an orphanage, she seemed to find the meaning of her life—caring for children who had lost their parents to war.

Those innocent smiles and trusting gazes allowed her to experience genuine warmth and fulfillment for the first time.

But reality was always cruel.

The orphanage's funding was unreliable, and it could barely survive on Root's meager subsidies.

Whenever war broke out, she could still earn enough to scrape by by taking the children to help with medical work behind the lines. But once peace arrived, even that faint source of income dried up completely.

And after the Nine-Tails Incident, Shimura Danzō came to her again. He wanted her to return to her old work, believing that Konoha was still recovering from devastation and that other villages might have ideas. He wanted her to infiltrate Iwagakure.

Naturally, she wanted to refuse. She no longer wished to face that kind of life. But in the end, he used the orphanage's operating funds to threaten her, leaving her no choice but to accept Shimura Danzō's coercion.

She once again set foot on the path of infiltrating Iwagakure in exchange for the orphanage's continued existence.

At the time, her heart felt as though it were being cut apart, yet