Moving House

So, had the Butterfly Seed he'd raised developed this kind of intelligence?

"Will you stay in this cocoon-like state forever? Don't you want to emerge from it?"

"I told you, everything I have comes from you. If you die, I'll inherit everything you have."

"What if I never die?"

"Then I'll stay here forever."

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

"That won't do. You raised me, but survival is every species' basic instinct. If you did that, my instincts would guide me."

Shiraishi Yoshijo sighed. So it really was as he'd thought.

He'd planned to leave, but before he did, he asked one more unnecessary question.

"Are you male or female?"

"We have no distinction between male and female."

"That's impossible. Butterflies have males and females."

"Really, we can't reproduce. Or rather, we've discarded that function."

"After all, without you, I'd just be a butterfly with no consciousness. Even if I could reproduce, the offspring would only be ordinary butterflies."

"We're evolving, and we don't recognize those ordinary butterflies without consciousness as one of us."

Evolving. Yoshijo pondered the word, then asked, "What will your next evolution look like?"

"Forming my own Consciousness Entity, like the body you have here. That's the direction I'm heading in."

"What will your Consciousness Entity look like, a butterfly or a person? And how long will the process take?"

"By your reckoning, five years is the minimum. As for what my Consciousness Entity will look like, of course it'll look like you."

"Why do you have to look like me? It feels weird. Can't you look different?"

"I told you, everything I have comes from you. In a way, we're one life shared between us. I can't change how I look."

All right. By that point, Yoshijo had lost interest, so he left Consciousness Space.

After he came out, Shiraishi Eizawa asked, "How was it?"

Yoshijo scratched his head. "Strange and amazing. It's hard to describe. Uncle, if I summon a butterfly from now on and talk to it, can it help me summon one?"

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

At that, Yoshijo's expression turned strange. "The Space-Time Transfer Jutsu? Our clan came up with something like that?"

Eizawa sighed. "We didn't. It was Lady Mei. In fact, no one in our clan can understand how the jutsu works."

Mei. Thinking of that strange silver-haired woman, Yoshijo couldn't help asking, "What exactly is that Mei? Is she a person or something else?"

"I don't know either. All I can say is that she's probably been alive for a very long time. You should show her some respect from now on. After all..."

Eizawa trailed off, then raised his glass and drained it.

Seeing that he didn't want to say more, Yoshijo could only keep his questions to himself.

They began moving.

The new house was luxurious, with its own courtyard and a large storeroom.

It was also in a good location. A short walk down the lane brought them straight to the main street.

There was just one thing that bothered Yoshijo.

Watching Takemoto Anna direct the workers as they carried furniture inside, he asked helplessly, "Why are you here?"

Anna shot him an irritated look. "Why do you think I'm here? We live so close. If I didn't come help, my grandpa would kill me."

Thinking of the old man, Takemoto Shuichi, Yoshijo sighed.

Their new house was separated from the Takemoto Clan's by only a narrow lane. It took less than three minutes to walk there.

What was Shiraishi Eizawa's intention in moving them here? Was he trying to get Yoshijo to spend more time with the Takemoto Clan?

Eizawa had once said they were two separate clans now that they'd split off. It had all been a lie.

At this point, no one would believe them if they said they weren't one clan.

What was done was done. There was no point dwelling on it, so Yoshijo pushed the thought aside.

"Are you really planning to go into the hospital with me?"

"Yes. Kawadome will be going in too. We'll be colleagues from now on, so you're not allowed to bully her anymore."

At the mention of Kawadome, Yoshijo couldn't help looking sheepish.

He'd met the girl who was supposed to become his teammate yesterday.

They'd exchanged a couple of words, then run off to the training ground and fought.

The reason was...

Kawadome was a petite ten-year-old girl, but she kept her hair short and dressed like a boy.

In some ways, she reminded him of himself.

He'd genuinely thought she was a boy at the time, and blurted out, "Hey, buddy!" Then...

Well, knowing she didn't know the secret of Lightning Body Flicker, he'd caught her completely off guard.

She cried.

If Takemoto Anna hadn't grabbed him and beaten him up, the two of them would probably have become enemies for life.

It was a real headache.

"I really don't understand what you're thinking. Do you have to go into the hospital just because I am?"

"Grandpa arranged it."

"What do you think?"

"That doesn't matter. Besides, fighting isn't really suitable for girls. Working at the hospital is pretty good."

"Fine. I'll be counting on you from now on."

"Likewise."

Three days later, Shiraishi Yoshijo, Takemoto Anna, and Kawaigawa Rumi officially started at the hospital, becoming proud Konoha orderlies.

Still, something felt off.

As he walked down the hospital corridor, Yoshijo pondered the matter.

He held a bag of garbage in his left hand and a bottle of "yellowish" liquid in his right.

This wasn't what he'd imagined being a doctor would be like!

Doctors were supposed to give people injections with syringes. What was he doing? Running errands or doing odd jobs?

Eizawa's explanation was that Yoshijo was too young, and getting into the hospital at all was already an achievement.

Yoshijo complained to him about how boring and unpleasant his work was.

Eizawa's face darkened at once. "You said you wanted to work at the hospital, and now you're complaining? Do you think becoming a doctor is easy?"

"You're eight years old. Even if your medical skills are excellent, no one would dare let you treat patients."

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

Yoshijo had been left speechless by the scolding.

But when he looked at the bottle of mysterious liquid in his right hand, his feelings were complicated.

Now he understood why the nurses in his past life had always looked at him strangely. So that was how it felt.

In any case, his hospital life had begun.

Every morning, he went to the hospital with Takemoto Anna, then met up with Kawadome.

After that, he followed the doctors from ward to ward, running errands and doing odd jobs, learning from experience and taking care of patients.

He was assigned several patients, including Aburame Ryoma.

The boy he'd beaten at the underground training ground.

Whenever Yoshijo entered his room, Ryoma stared at him without saying a word.

At first, Yoshijo found that stare uncomfortable and unpleasant. Ryoma ignored him whenever he tried to talk, which made Yoshijo furious.

But after enough visits, he got used to it. Aburame were all weirdos, anyway, and he only had to take care of Ryoma for a few days.

That was what he thought.

He had no idea that, in Ryoma's eyes, he was a weirdo too.

He had that kind of strength, came from a prestigious family, and had outstanding talent as a ninja—yet he'd run off to the hospital to work as an orderly.

To someone like Ryoma, it was like watching gold fall into a toilet. It was disgusting to pick it up, but painful to leave it there.

That was the strange feeling Ryoma had.

On the day he was discharged, he decided he had to pick up that gold, even if it was disgusting.

So he challenged Yoshijo to another fight.

Yoshijo glanced at him, tossed out three words, and left the room.

"You're insane."

In the corridor, Ryoma blocked his way with Kikaichū.

"Why do you have that kind of strength, only to throw it away? Konoha needs someone like you."

At those words, Yoshijo could hardly believe his ears.

He hadn't known the boy from the underground training ground, but once he'd seen Ryoma's patient file, he'd learned who he was.

Aburame Ryoma, a member of Root and a man loyal to Shimura Danzō—could he really be like this?

Yoshijo silently mocked Danzō for failing to instill the right ideas in his subordinates. Ryoma sounded less like someone from Root and more like Hiruzen Sarutobi's own son.

"People make different choices because they have different ideals. You can't force your ideas on me."

"Besides, our clans are supposed to be on opposing sides. Is this really all right?"

Ryoma pushed up his sunglasses.

"Opposing clans? I don't know what you're talking about."

Yoshijo felt insulted.

Just a few days ago, Eizawa had told him the Aburame were their natural enemies. Yet Ryoma refused to admit it.

Or did the Aburame simply not take Shi-Die seriously?

Thinking of Eizawa's warning that they should abandon a mission if they encountered the Aburame, Yoshijo fell silent.

Ryoma continued, "We're all Konoha Ninja, so naturally we should contribute to Konoha. That's why I'm doing this."

"I'm certain you have what it takes to become a great tree, so I can't stand by and let Konoha suffer such a loss."

A great tree, a loss—Hiruzen had certainly done a good job of spreading his ideas!

Yoshijo shook his head. He had nothing to say to someone like that.

The Will of Fire. In the face of reality, that sort of nonsense was laughably naive.

When it came down to it, he didn't trust Ryoma, and he trusted Danzō even less.

What if Ryoma had been prompted by Danzō to deliberately use the Will of Fire to fool him?

It wasn't impossible.

On the contrary, the moment Ryoma said those words, Yoshijo's suspicion had grown unchecked.

That was reality.