The village gradually prospered, and some of the villagers who had once wanted to flee gave up on the idea.
It wasn't that they no longer wanted to get away from the war. They just thought they could stay in the village for a few more years and save up more money. That way, even if they moved somewhere else in the future, they wouldn't have to struggle to make ends meet.
But with each year's harvest better than the last, they could never bring themselves to leave. The wealth accumulating in the village kept growing, too.
Several years passed, and the many merchant caravans and travelers who passed through gradually spread word of the village.
Before long, many people knew of a village that was peaceful and tranquil, far from the war, where its residents lived in comfort.
This attracted quite a few refugees, making it much easier to find people than before, when they had to rely entirely on luck.
So the villagers let those people spread the word. Of course, some were opposed, but most were in favor.
Those who disagreed had no choice but to pack up their belongings and leave. Before going, some even visited a number of households, hoping they could persuade them to leave together.
But no one took their advice. Instead, seeing how much the dissenters' fortunes dwindled after they left the village only made the others even more reluctant to go.
Of course, their efforts to persuade people weren't entirely fruitless. A few took their words to heart, including the couple mentioned earlier.
Unlike the villagers who had lived there from the start, however, these refugees had no savings to speak of. Everything they had came from the hard work they'd put in after arriving in the village.
Having witnessed the horrors of war, the couple truly didn't want to go through it again. But they had little saved, and with the autumn harvest just around the corner, they decided they would pack their bags and leave once it was over.
But things didn't go as they'd hoped. That year, the Uzumaki Clan officially entered the conflict, intervening in the war of their own accord.
Wars had winners and losers. Relying on their formidable strength, the Uzumaki Clan fought on every front and won almost every battle.
The village gained no tangible benefits, but when the villagers heard the news, they were filled with joy all the same.
After all, it was always a good thing to have a powerful protector.
But if the Uzumaki Clan had won, that meant at least one other clan had lost. The Kaguya Clan was among those that suffered heavy losses.
During the Warring States period, there was an unwritten rule to avoid attacking ordinary people as much as possible.
But once a war began, who could really hold back?
What's more, the Kaguya Clan had been seeking revenge from the start. As the harvest season approached, this warlike clan launched an attack on the Uzumaki Clan from the sea.
Coastal settlements like the village bore the brunt of it. They had come by ship, bent only on revenge, and went around pillaging and slaughtering.
Anything they could take, they loaded onto their ships. Everything else, they destroyed.
They hadn't deliberately targeted civilians, but even the collateral damage from a skirmish between small units was enough to destroy a village with no one to defend it.
And so the young couple lost their home once again. Fortunately, they managed to survive once more.
But unlike the last time they'd fled to the village, they now had a son, making the journey even harder.
Luckily, this time they had a destination in mind: they headed toward the Uzumaki Clan.
The family of three stumbled along, one step at a time.
Having a child made traveling more difficult, but when they sought help along the way, people tended to show them some sympathy for the sake of their young son.
So although the journey should have taken only a little over ten days, the three of them traveled with the flow of refugees for more than a month.
After all, they had to avoid the fighting along the way and find enough food to survive.
Fortunately, they finally reached their destination alive. But with so many refugees, the Uzumaki Clan couldn't take them all in, and they also had to guard against the possibility of spies among them.
To give their son a chance to survive, the young couple entrusted him to the Uzumaki Clan. They went with the other refugees who couldn't join the clan to seek a way to make a living elsewhere.
The Uzumaki Clan took in quite a few children this time. And after their many victories in previous battles, they had seized a great deal of supplies.
Those supplies were more than enough to train all the newcomers.
After a simple assessment and sorting process, they assigned everyone to different duties and trained them in various fields.
The little boy and nine other children his age were placed under the supervision of a middle-aged man. The Uzumaki Clan's settlement was built along the coast, and newcomers who hadn't yet earned their trust could only live on the outskirts.
The land around the settlement wasn't suitable for farming, so most of their food came from the sea.
The children helped carry food every day. The only difference was that their workloads varied according to their ages.
Outside their assigned work hours, each group's supervisor also taught them how to read and other basic knowledge.
As for combat, to be honest, the Uzumaki Clan didn't consider the strength of ordinary civilians worth bothering with.
And so the boy spent his days hard at work. Although he had to labor every day, at least he never went hungry or lacked clothing. The Uzumaki Clan wasn't strict with them about those things.
The little boy gradually grew up. By the time he was sixteen, the Uzumaki Clan and its ally, the Senju Clan, launched an attack on the Uchiha Clan.
With manpower in short supply, they had no choice but to recruit civilians to transport supplies and provide logistical support.
Of course, they weren't sending the civilians to their deaths. They only needed their labor, and powerful members of the Uzumaki Clan escorted the supplies.
Their squad wasn't very lucky. On only their second delivery, they ran into an ambush and a blockade.
Three men stood brazenly in the middle of the road. Their hostile intent was plain to see.
The Uzumaki Clan leader at the head of the group ordered everyone to stop, then told them to retreat at once and flee the way they'd come.
They weren't fools. They immediately turned around and ran as fast and as far as they could.
But since the enemy had come to intercept them, they weren't about to let the supplies escape.
They might have disdained attacking civilians, but they had no qualms about doing so if necessary.
The last thing he heard was, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
Then everything went black, and the dream ended.
His consciousness returned, and Bai Sui woke up once more.
He was leaning against a tree, with no one else around.
He blinked and gradually took in his surroundings.