Drizzle fell steadily from the sky into the forest, while dark clouds stretched away into the distance. The autumn rain had begun so gradually that no one could tell when it would stop.
"It's cold."
The rain-washed leaves gleamed a brilliant green, and the drops falling through layer upon layer of foliage were especially icy.
Even more so when one landed on the back of the boy's neck.
The chill against his skin made him bend his elbow quickly and wipe the water from his nape. Deep in the rarely visited forest, he crouched quietly beneath a large tree... Like the weather, he had a name connected to rain. More precisely, he was called Hanyu Yu.
Drizzle, forest, and people were all ordinary things, nothing to be surprised by. Yet there was something here that should have been shocking...
"What a gruesome way to die."
Apart from the patter of rain, the only sound in the forest was Hanyu's soft murmur.
The faint, noisy rain and the distinctive whisper of a human voice were little more than tiny accents in the profound silence... The scene had nothing to do with the rain itself. Not long ago, an unimaginable crash had erupted in this area, scattering all the animals nearby.
The louder the commotion had been, the quieter everything was now. The two things confirmed each other... This was a battlefield where the fighting had ended, which explained why a horribly mutilated corpse lay before Hanyu.
The rain was doing its best to wash away the blood, but it couldn't clean everything up in such a short time.
Hanyu wasn't afraid of corpses. It had nothing to do with courage or bravery; he was simply used to them. The world was at war, and the dead were a common sight.
If the person had been alive, Hanyu would never have gone near someone who practically had the word "danger" written all over him. But the dead were another matter. They posed no threat and couldn't bring even the slightest danger.
There were three bodies around him. Judging by their clothing, they belonged to two different sides. The battle had been two against one, and he didn't know how it had unfolded, but the result was plain to see: both sides had perished.
The three bodies lay in different directions, each roughly ten meters from the others.
Hanyu quickly rummaged through the corpses, hoping to gather anything valuable or useful. This was more or less how he survived on his own. He had just recovered a gourd-shaped container and a broad-bladed sword that didn't look particularly useful.
He slung the gourd over his back, gripped the sword in both hands, and started toward the third body. The two items were a bit too heavy, so he moved slowly.
Still, he didn't have far to go, and soon he reached the third man.
Well, at least this one looked better in death than the other two. Half his face was a bloody mess, and the other half was caked in mud, but at least his body still looked human. No one would have called him a pile of flesh or a heap of meat.
To Hanyu, the difference between this man and the other two was that his belongings were easier to collect... It was far simpler to take things off a body than to fish them out of a bloody mess.
But just as Hanyu bent down and reached toward the man, the eyes in that bloodless, dead-looking face suddenly opened.
They were as still as a deep pool, resolute and filled with killing intent. In that instant, those eyes alone were enough to show exactly what kind of person their owner was.
The fierce emotions in the man's gaze froze Hanyu in place. When he quickly came back to his senses, he knew he was in trouble... As he'd already realized, he should never have approached someone this dangerous.
An indescribable sense of danger came crashing over him. At the last moment, Hanyu managed to raise his other hand and hold the broad-bladed sword in front of himself like a shield.
He had no time to feel relieved. The next instant, a sharp arrow of water shot toward him, moving too fast for him to do anything else.
But the "shield" in front of him was useless. The water arrow shattered it with ease, pierced through his body, then smashed the gourd on his back like a hammer.
An unbearable stab of pain, the deadly water arrow, the shards of the shattered weapon flying through the air—all of it collided with Hanyu's flesh in an instant.
Something shifted in the unruffled gaze of the "dead man" before him, but Hanyu couldn't notice or care. The impact knocked him unconscious at once.
When Hanyu finally woke, still dazed, he struggled to open his eyes. The space above him was pitch-black, so he turned his head to the other side, where more light reached his pupils... He found himself lying inside a huge hollow tree.
Outside the tree hollow, the drizzle continued.
The pain in his shoulder and across his upper body came in pulses, relentlessly jolting Hanyu's mind and making him realize that what he'd just experienced hadn't been a dream.
By the light from outside, he checked his injuries. The little cuts all over his body were nothing; his left shoulder, on the other hand, had been pierced clean through.
It was fortunate that the wound was only in his shoulder. If the attack had landed just a little higher, it would have gone through his neck... Seen that way, his current injuries weren't so bad after all.
Someone had already tended to his wounds, so he hadn't bled to death while unconscious.
"I... wasn't out for long, was I?" Hanyu asked as calmly as he could.
Of course, he wasn't alone in the hollow. The man who had just "died" was there too, seated in the opposite corner with his face toward the entrance... His bloodstained brown armor and the numerous wounds covering him stood out sharply.
He had injured Hanyu, and now he had treated him.
"Mm. Just a few hours."
Even though he was speaking, the man still looked almost as good as dead. His voice was low and hoarse, and his breathing was nearly inaudible. The faint rain outside seemed capable of drowning it all out.
"That's good..." Hanyu said.
The man before him radiated danger, but the good news was that he could talk. Still... Hanyu clearly had no idea what to say to someone like him.
Everything that had happened was a misfortune for Hanyu, but he could understand the man's actions... He'd just come out of a battle, was on the verge of death, and was dazed. Anyone would have attacked without hesitation when a stranger approached. If anything, Hanyu had only himself to blame for being careless.
"In any case, thank you for treating my wounds." He clutched his shoulder and struggled to sit up. Even that simple movement tugged at the injury and brought a sheen of cold sweat to his forehead.
He thanked the man because he could have simply left him alone.
But the man didn't respond. After a moment, Hanyu couldn't help asking, "Shouldn't you treat your own wounds?"
The man's injuries looked far worse than Hanyu's. It was a miracle he was still alive.
This time, the man finally spoke. His words were brief but said it all: "There's no need."
As he spoke, he lifted his shoulder slightly, revealing a gaping wound beneath his ribs... It wasn't just flesh; his internal organs had also been so badly damaged that they'd stopped functioning.
Yes, it was a miracle the man was still alive, but miracles couldn't last forever. He knew he was going to die, so there was no point in treating his wounds.
"If you hadn't disturbed me, I think I would already be dead," he added.
Then he shook his head with difficulty. There was no need to say more about himself.
"Anyway, why is someone your age in a place like this?"
There wasn't a soul for miles in this dense forest. Even if people did happen to show up, they shouldn't have been children like Hanyu.
"To... stay alive, I guess. Let me introduce myself. I'm Hanyu Yu, an orphan." Hanyu said.
In such a chaotic era, it wasn't strange for an orphan to appear somewhere, or to disappear without a trace. Everything was just a matter of survival.
Then Hanyu looked at the man, who quickly understood what he meant...
"Me? Is it my turn?"
He had no need to introduce himself. In fact, his position was important enough, and this was enemy territory, that he couldn't possibly give his name. Yet in the end, he managed a faint smile and turned his gaze toward the depths of the rain:
"I'm Senju Tobirama...
A shinobi."
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