You Catch My Eye

Chiba spun around quickly, casting a wary gaze behind him.

It was indeed Scarface; the guy wasn't dead yet.

Scarface looked wretched; his entire abdomen had been sliced open, with his viscera spilling out in a chaotic mess. Chiba could hardly believe anyone could still be alive with such a wound.

Yet, facts were facts—the guy was definitely still breathing.

Silently tightening his grip on his kunai, Chiba wondered if the man still possessed any combat strength.

As if sensing his thoughts, Scarface threw a shuriken with clean, sharp precision, the blade whistling past the top of Chiba's head.

In the simplest way possible, Scarface told Chiba: Don't think that just because I'm wounded like this, I can't still kill you.

Chiba stood frozen in place, not daring to move a muscle.

It's over!

That was the first thought that flashed through Chiba's mind.

Since he had already killed his teammate, there was naturally no room for reconciliation. It seemed he was destined to die here today.

A deep sense of unwillingness welled up inside Chiba.

Though he didn't know why he had been granted a second life, he had cherished the opportunity from the bottom of his heart. But now, it seemed it would have to end here.

Chiba's mind raced with a thousand thoughts—memories of the past and strange, inexplicable notions flickered through his consciousness. He didn't even know what he was thinking; images just kept flashing by.

Watching Chiba's vacant eyes, Scarface suddenly burst into laughter.

"How interesting. You haven't been scared witless, have you?"

"Huh?"

Chiba snapped out of his wandering thoughts and looked at Scarface in confusion.

Scarface shook his head slightly. "Don't worry, I won't kill you."

Chiba grew even more confused, though a moment later, that confusion shifted into wariness.

The only reason this guy wouldn't kill him was if he were useful. Aside from risking his life to loot corpses for medicine, Chiba couldn't think of any other possibility.

Chiba tentatively asked, "What do you want me to do? Do you want me to find medicine for you?"

Scarface shook his head. "No need for that. My wounds are beyond saving. The only reason I'm still alive is that my vitals haven't been hit yet."

"Then what do you want from me?" Chiba asked, even more bewildered.

Scarface shook his head again. "There's nothing I need you to do. I just wanted to tell you that the direction you're heading is a dead end."

"Huh?"

"That direction leads to the heart of the battlefield. The further you go, the more dangerous it gets. It's crawling with traps and mechanisms. A brat like you wouldn't last long enough to die a hundred times over."

Chiba fell silent. He couldn't find a reason for Scarface to lie to him, but he also couldn't find a reason for him to help.

"Why help me?"

Scarface was silent for a moment. He didn't answer directly, instead turning his gaze toward the distance.

"Too many people have already died in this war."

Unconsciously, a trace of sorrow flickered in Scarface's eyes.

A moment later, seeing Chiba's blank expression, Scarface offered a faint smile, though it looked exceptionally ferocious against the scar on his face.

"You can just take it that I suddenly find you agreeable and want you to live."

Glancing back at Heichen's corpse, Scarface continued, "I don't intend to avenge him. In fact, I never liked the guy. If it weren't for orders from above, I wouldn't have wanted to be with him at all. Now that he's dead, there's no point in me killing you—after all, you aren't a ninja. Truth be told, we're the ones who owe you an apology for dragging you into this mess for no reason."

Vaguely, Chiba grasped the point in Scarface's words: he wasn't a ninja.

Precisely because he wasn't a ninja and had no chance of becoming one, this guy chose to let him go. He would never pose a threat to the Rock Ninja in the future, so to him, it didn't matter whether he killed him or not.

Bowing respectfully, Chiba thanked Scarface sincerely.

Even if he looked fierce, and even if he had likely killed countless people, the essence of this man could still be considered good.

In his past life, Chiba had heard a saying: the simplest way to tell if someone is a good person or a bad one is to push them into a desperate situation and see how they react when facing death.

Bad people want to drag as many people as possible down with them, while good people choose to help others, allowing as many as possible to survive.

From that perspective, this guy was definitely a good person among good people. Recalling the events of the past few days, Chiba reaffirmed his judgment.

The initial talk of wanting to kill him must have been because he knew his own end would be tragic—the "poison puppet" Heichen mentioned didn't sound like a fun thing to deal with.

And during their journey, this guy had actually looked after him quite a bit, even nearly falling out with the blond guy. Though that might have been due to their own internal conflicts, he had indeed saved him.

Chiba's gaze toward Scarface grew complex.

"Come here, kid."

Just as Chiba was deep in thought, Scarface called out to him.

Chiba hesitated for a moment, then walked over to Scarface's side. After all, if the man wanted to kill him, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble.

Grabbing Chiba's wrist and turning it over, Scarface let out a low chuckle.

"Heh, as I thought."

Chiba clearly saw a faint black line on his artery and his expression changed instantly.

"This is!"

"Heh, kid, did you think ninjas were that easy to kill? In the end, Heichen may have lacked the strength to resist, but that doesn't mean he couldn't kill you. There are trace amounts of poison in his blood. While it might not have much effect on a ninja, it is more than enough to kill you."

Chiba truly hadn't expected that guy Heichen to have such a trick up his sleeve. Thinking back carefully, the amount of blood that guy sprayed was indeed excessive. As expected, there are far too many ways for a ninja to kill an ordinary person.

"Then, what should I do?"

Chiba asked with some panic, his eyes filled with a hint of desperation as he looked at Scarface.

However, Scarface did not let Chiba down; he took a black pill out of his ninja tool pouch and signaled for Chiba to eat it.

Soon, after swallowing the pill, Chiba clearly saw the black line on his artery gradually fade until it disappeared completely.

"Thank you."

Chiba could only offer his thanks again; other than that, he didn't know what else to say.

Scarface grinned hideously: "No need to thank me. I already told you, I just find you agreeable."

As he spoke, Scarface suddenly picked up his ninja tool pouch, pressed it a few times, and shook out everything inside.

"This money isn't much, but it should be enough for you to live on for a while. Also, this steel wire—if you try to use it for fishing, you should be able to get something. And this thing can start a fire. When you can't find clean water, you can use this gas mask to filter it."

In just one minute, Scarface introduced a whole pile of miscellaneous items to Chiba all at once.

"This is all I can do to help you. As for whether you can actually survive, that depends on your own luck."

Scarface pointed in a direction: "If you walk in that direction for a while, you should be able to get out of this forest. Follow the river and there should be a town. Before the smell of blood here attracts wild beasts or other ninjas, get out of here quickly."

"You..."

Chiba looked at Scarface, whose face had turned deathly pale, and hesitated.

"Get lost already, or maybe I'll suddenly feel like killing you again if I'm in a bad mood."

Gritting his teeth, Chiba thanked him once more, picked up Scar's ninja tool pouch and slung it across his waist, then turned and ran into the distance.

It wasn't until Chiba had gone quite far that he suddenly heard Scarface's voice again from afar.

"Heh, live on, kid! Do everything you can to survive! Hahahaha!"

Stunned for a moment, Chiba looked back once more in the direction of Scar, falling into silence.

"Thank you."

Turning around and looking at the pitch-black forest, Chiba felt a moment of bewilderment.

Today is his third day since arriving in this world. During this time, he has been in mortal danger several times, witnessed a cruel battle between ninjas, and luckily survived.

He even killed a Jonin with his own hands, someone who would be considered a high-end combatant even in the entire Ninja World.

And what kind of fate awaits him after this?

For a moment, looking at the pitch-black forest, Chiba felt an inexplicable fear.

One update today; I found the following chapters unsatisfactory and need to do a major revision.