Moving House

So, the Butterfly Seed I raised has developed this kind of thinking now?

"Will you remain in this cocoon state forever? Don't you have any desire to break out of it?"

"I have said that everything I am comes from you. If you were to die, I would inherit everything you possess."

"What if I never die?"

"Then I will remain here forever."

"And if I don't want you to inherit everything I have?"

"That wouldn't be possible. Although you raised me, survival is the basic instinct of every species. If you tried to do that, my instincts would guide me."

Shiraishi Yoshijo sighed. So it was really like that, huh?

He had intended to leave, but before departing, he asked one final, superfluous question.

"Are you male or female?"

"We have no distinction between male and female."

"Impossible. Even butterflies have genders."

"It is true. We lack reproductive functions, or rather, that function was discarded."

"After all, without you, I would just be a butterfly without consciousness. Even if I could reproduce, the offspring would only be ordinary butterflies."

"We are evolving, and those mindless, ordinary butterflies are not something we identify with."

Evolution. Shiraishi Yoshijo heard this word and fell into deep thought, then asked, "What will your next stage of evolution look like?"

"Forming my own consciousness body, just like the body you are using to appear here. That is my next direction."

"What will your consciousness body look like? A butterfly or a human? And how long will this process take?"

"If calculated by your time, five years is the minimum duration. As for my consciousness body, it will naturally look like you."

"Why like me? It feels strange. Can't you change your appearance?"

"I have said that everything I am comes from you. In a sense, we are a shared life form. Changing my appearance is something I cannot do."

Fine. Shiraishi Yoshijo lost interest upon hearing this and exited the Consciousness Space.

Once he withdrew from the Consciousness Space, Shiraishi Eizawa asked, "How does it feel?"

Shiraishi Yoshijo scratched his head and replied, "Very strange and magical. In short, it's hard to describe. Uncle, if I summon butterflies in the future and communicate with it directly, can it help me summon them?"

"Yes, you should have seen the Space-Time Transfer Jutsu on its body."

Mentioning this, Shiraishi Yoshijo wore a strange expression: "Space-Time Transfer Jutsu? Uncle, our clan actually managed to research something like this?"

Shiraishi Eizawa sighed: "It wasn't researched by us; it was Lady Mei. In fact, no one in our clan can understand the principles of this jutsu."

Mei. Thinking of that strange silver-haired woman, Shiraishi Yoshijo couldn't help but ask, "Is that Mei a human or something else?"

"I don't know either. In any case, she must have lived for a very long time. Be respectful to her in the future, after all..."

Shiraishi Eizawa stopped mid-sentence, picked up his wine cup, and downed another drink.

Seeing that he was unwilling to speak, Shiraishi Yoshijo could only keep his doubts to himself.

They began to move house.

The new home was very luxurious, featuring not only an independent courtyard but also a large warehouse.

The location was also good; stepping out and turning down one alleyway led straight to the main street.

However, there was one thing that bothered Shiraishi Yoshijo.

He watched Takemoto Anna directing workers to move various pieces of furniture into the house and said helplessly, "Why are you here?"

Takemoto Anna shot him a glare and retorted, "Why do you think I'm here? If I didn't come to help when we're this close, my grandfather would beat me to death."

Thinking of that old man Takemoto Shuichi, Shiraishi Yoshijo began to sigh.

Their new home was only separated from Takemoto Anna's house by a small alley; it took less than three minutes to walk there.

What was Shiraishi Eizawa's intention in moving the house here? To make him interact more with the Takemoto family?

He used to say that even if they were separate branches, they were two different families, but now it seemed that was all a lie.

Nowadays, even if they claimed they weren't the same family, no one would believe it.

The die was cast, and overthinking was useless, so Shiraishi Yoshijo pushed the problem to the back of his mind.

"Are you really prepared to follow me into the hospital?"

"Yes, Kawarumi will be joining too. We'll be colleagues from now on, so you aren't allowed to bully her anymore."

Mentioning Kawarumi, Shiraishi Yoshijo couldn't help but show a sullen expression.

Yesterday, he had met the girl who was supposed to be his teammate.

Two sentences into their conversation, they ended up at the training grounds having a fight.

As for the reason...

Kawaigawa Rumi was a petite ten-year-old girl who insisted on keeping her hair short and wearing boy's clothing.

In some ways, she was very similar to him.

At the time, he had genuinely mistaken Kawaigawa Rumi for a boy and called out to her as "brother," and well...

Taking advantage of the fact that she didn't know the secret of his Lightning Body Flicker, he had stunned her in an instant.

She cried.

If Takemoto Anna hadn't grabbed him and beaten him up, the two of them would likely have become enemies from that day on.

In short, she was a real headache.

"I really don't know what you guys are thinking. Is it really necessary for you to follow me into the hospital?"

"This was Grandfather's arrangement."

"What about your own thoughts?"

"That's not important. Besides, fighting and killing isn't suitable for girls, and the hospital is quite nice."

"Fine, take care of me from now on."

"Likewise."

Three days later, Shiraishi Yoshijo, Takemoto Anna, and Kawaigawa Rumi officially entered the hospital, becoming glorious Konoha orderlies.

It just felt like something was wrong.

Shiraishi Yoshijo walked down the hospital corridor, lost in thought.

In his left hand, he carried a bag of trash, and in his right, he held a bottle of "yellowish" liquid.

This isn't what I imagined a doctor to be like at all!

Doctors are supposed to be the ones holding syringes and giving injections; what am I, an errand boy or a janitor?

Regarding this, Shiraishi Eizawa's explanation was that he was too young, and being allowed into the hospital at all was already a good thing.

Shiraishi Yoshijo had complained to him about how boring and annoying his work was.

Shiraishi Eizawa's face had darkened immediately: "You were the one who said you wanted to enter the hospital, and now you're complaining? Do you think it's that easy to become a doctor?"

"Even if an eight-year-old child like you truly had superb medical skills, no one would dare let you treat them."

"I've already done everything I could to secure this for you. The hospital isn't holding anything back, and I even got you access to the library. What more do you want?"

Shiraishi Yoshijo had been left speechless by the scolding.

But looking at the bottle of mysterious liquid in his right hand, his feelings were quite complicated.

He finally understood why the nurses in his past life used to look at him so strangely; it turned out they were all feeling the same way.

In short, his hospital life began just like that.

Every morning, he would arrive at the hospital with Takemoto Anna and then meet up with Kawaigawa Rumi.

After that, it was off to run errands and do chores for the doctors, learning from experience while taking care of the patients.

He was assigned several patients, among them Aburame Ryoma.

The boy he had defeated in the underground training ground.

Every time Shiraishi Yoshijo entered his room, the boy would stare at him intently without saying a word.

At first, Shiraishi Yoshijo was not used to it and disliked that gaze; Aburame Ryoma wouldn't even respond when he spoke, which made Shiraishi Yoshijo quite furious.

However, after coming by enough times, he got used to it. Besides, the Aburame clan were all weirdos, and he was only going to be taking care of him for a few days anyway.

That was what he thought.

Little did he know that in Aburame Ryoma's eyes, he was the weirdo.

To possess that kind of strength, to come from a prestigious ninja family, and to have such outstanding talent, yet choose to run around the hospital as an orderly.

To someone like him, it was like seeing gold dropped into a toilet—it was disgusting to pick it up, but it pained him to leave it behind.

That was the strange state of mind Aburame Ryoma was in.

On the day he was discharged, he felt it was necessary to pick up the gold, even if it was disgusting.

So, he challenged Shiraishi Yoshijo to another duel.

Shiraishi Yoshijo glanced at him and left the room after dropping three words.

"Psychopath."

In the corridor, Aburame Ryoma blocked his path with his Kikaichū.

"Why would someone with your strength choose to debase yourself? Konoha needs talent like yours."

Hearing such words, Shiraishi Yoshijo could hardly believe his ears.

He hadn't known who the boy was at the underground training ground, but after getting his hands on Aburame Ryoma's medical chart, he knew exactly who he was.

Aburame Ryoma, a member of Root—to think that a man loyal to Shimura Danzō could be such a person?

Shiraishi Yoshijo secretly mocked Danzō for failing to indoctrinate his subordinates properly; this guy didn't look like he came from Root at all, he looked more like the Third Hokage's own son.

"People have different ideals, so their choices will differ. You cannot impose your own thoughts onto me."

"Furthermore, our clans should be in opposing positions. Is it really okay for you to do this?"

Aburame Ryoma pushed up his sunglasses.

"Clan opposition? I don't understand what you are talking about."

Shiraishi Yoshijo felt insulted.

Just a few days ago, Shiraishi Eizawa had told him that the Aburame were their natural enemies, yet Aburame Ryoma was actually refusing to acknowledge it.

Or was it that the Aburame simply didn't hold the Shide in any regard at all?

Thinking of Shiraishi Eizawa's claim that one should abandon a mission immediately upon encountering an Aburame, Shiraishi Yoshijo fell silent.

Aburame Ryoma continued, "We are both Konoha ninja, so naturally, we must contribute to Konoha. My actions are precisely out of that consideration."

"I am very certain that you possess the aptitude to become a great tree, which is why I cannot tolerate Konoha suffering such a loss."

Great trees, losses—the Third Hokage certainly does his job well!

Shiraishi Yoshijo shook his head; he had nothing to say to a person like this.

The Will of Fire—that boring concept was truly naively laughable in the face of reality.

Ultimately, he did not trust Aburame Ryoma, and he trusted Danzo even less.

What if Aburame Ryoma was acting under Danzo's instigation, deliberately using that Will of Fire rhetoric to hoodwink him?

It was not as if such a possibility didn't exist.

On the contrary, the moment Aburame Ryoma spoke those words, that possibility was infinitely magnified in Shiraishi Yoshijo's mind.

This is reality.