A Sick World

Heavy snow was falling from the sky, covering the earth in a blanket of white.

Two people arrived outside the remote village.

A man shrouded in a black robe and wearing a white Uzumaki mask, and a beautiful woman in the dead of winter wearing a backless dress that exposed large expanses of her snow-white skin.

It was Shiraha and Pakura.

After Shiraha rescued Pakura and suggested that she join the organization, Pakura joined the ' Infinite Ring ' with almost no hesitation.

Even if Pakura is naive, she understands the reason for this incident.

On the surface, she was sent as an envoy from Sunagakure to form an alliance with Kirigakure, but in reality, she was only sent to Kirigakure to vent their anger and Kirigakure the rage generated by the previous battle.

As for whether he made great contributions to Sunagakure, who would care?

Just recently, Pakura learned from Sunagakure that Sunagakure had officially allied with Kirigakure. After the alliance was formed, she bravely sacrificed herself to help Kirigakure Ninja were attacked by an unknown force.

Everything was planned!

The ninjas and villagers of Sunagakure all called her a 'hero'.

Everyone benefited from the whole affair. The Fourth Kazekage eliminated this threat and could make all the decisions in Sunagakure alone; the ninjas no longer needed to worry about continuing the war with Kirigakure; and the villagers could live in peace.

Why is she the only one who's 'injured'?!

At this moment, Pakura, who was always kind and gentle, was now only cold and numb. Looking at the masked man beside her, she calmly said, "Kodama, if we can't find any survivors with the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, shouldn't we leave this place?"

After the Yuki Clan was wiped out, the surviving members scattered and fled, all hiding their identities. Shiraha only found two survivors, but unfortunately, neither of them had awakened their Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

Therefore, Shiraha could only resort to a clumsy method: traveling throughout the Land of Water and searching in some remote mountain villages.

Along the way, they found three more survivors, but unfortunately, none of them had awakened their Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

These people were unwilling to leave with Shiraha, so Shiraha gave them some money in exchange for some of their blood.

"Hmm, let's look again. If we still can't find it, we'll take Kimimaro with us and prepare to leave. Speaking of which, you have an acquaintance in the organization who is also from Sunagakure."

Shiraha nodded.

The plan did not go as smoothly as he had imagined. The Kaguya Clan was found, but they had no intention of leaving the Land of Water and even declared their intention to overthrow the corrupt regime of Kirigakure, preparing to launch an attack on Kirigakure in the near future.

Shiraha couldn't comment on this behavior.

For the Kaguya Clan, which was already on its last legs and had few ninjas who could even awaken the Shikotsumyaku, to attack Kirigakure would be tantamount to suicide.

In particular, they made no attempt to hide anything, not only telling Shiraha directly, but also making a big show of their plan to attack Kirigakure.

Of course, Shiraha wasn't very interested in those Kaguya clan members who hadn't awakened their Shikotsumyaku.

However, since Kaguya Kimimaro still needs to stay with her clan, Shiraha plans to collect some of the Kaguya clan's body parts when they attack Kirigakure Kaguya Clan, and then take Kimimaro away.

This child, at the age of seven or eight, had already awakened the Shikotsumyaku, and Shiraha was determined to obtain him.

In the first part of the story, both Kimimaro and Yakushi Kabuto were Orochimaru's subordinates.

Orochimaru certainly had a lot of talented people under his command, but since Shiraha made the first move, these people naturally belonged to him.

Anyway, he's quite familiar with Orochimaru, so Orochimaru probably won't have any objections.

By bringing these talents who originally belonged to Orochimaru back in advance, especially since Yakushi Kabuto, a genius in Medical Ninjutsu, Orochimaru reincarnation experiments will definitely be affected.

What Shiraha wanted was for Orochimaru to come to him on his own initiative, preferably to join the Uzumaki Clan directly. Only in this way would Orochimaru be willing to work for him.

"Also from Sunagakure?" Pakura was taken aback. She remembered that Sunagakure had not produced missing-nin in recent years, and she couldn't imagine who would join the ' Infinite Ring ', an organization she had never heard of before.

However, just because there was a strong person like Kodama in the organization, Pakura had full confidence in the organization.

She wants to take revenge on Sunagakure, or at the very least on the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, and expose his hypocritical and treacherous true nature.

"You'll know when you meet him," Shiraha said with a smile, maintaining an air of mystery.

"Then let's go in quickly!" Pakura nodded and walked into the village.

The village was small, and Shiraha and Pakura had already passed half of the houses in just a few minutes.

Just as they were about to reach the end, they suddenly heard a scream, "Ah—!"

"Let's go take a look." Shiraha's expression changed, and he quickly rushed towards the source of the sound.

Outside a thatched hut piled high with snow, stood a dozen or so villagers holding hoes and sickles. From inside the hut came a pungent smell of blood and the sounds of crying and screaming.

Who are you people?!

The villagers looked at the two people who had suddenly appeared with wary expressions.

Shiraha sensed the unusual Chakra fluctuations inside the thatched hut. His expression behind his mask shifted slightly, and he glanced coldly at the group, saying indifferently, "The Kirigakure Hunter Squad."

"Ah?!"

"Oh my god!"

"The ninja master of Kirigakure!"

The villagers' expressions changed drastically, and some of them were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground.

The Kirigakure Hunter Squad specializes in hunting down bloodline ninjas within the Land of Water. Any village or force that fails to report a bloodline ninja or harbors one will be subjected to bloody suppression, and it is very likely that everyone will be implicated because of one bloodline ninja.

Only Ninja Clan like the Kaguya Clan, which live together as a single clan, are not currently the target of Kirigakure's direct assault.

The main reason why the Yuki Clan was wiped out was that their clan members did not live together in a community, and they initially trusted Kirigakure too much, which led to their extermination in the sudden attack by Kirigakure.

"Master Ninja, we really didn't mean to protect these monsters!"

"Please let us go!"

The villagers all knelt down. They had no doubt about Shiraha's identity, because only those damned ninjas from Kirigakure would have such a cold and ruthless look in their eyes.

Shiraha walked through the villagers and entered the house. Inside, he saw a young man holding a blood-stained hoe, and in front of him lay a woman whose clothes were soaked in blood. She was struggling to hold onto the man's trouser leg and crying, "Husband, please! Let Bai go, he's innocent."

In the corner of the room, a boy with messy hair and delicate features, who looked like a girl, was curled up. His face showed a look of terror, a mixture of fear and grief, and tears fell uncontrollably.

His father killed his mother with his own hands in front of him.

The reason was simply that he was able to control the water flow and float in the air while playing in the snow.

Bai didn't understand what he had done wrong.

Shiraha could clearly sense that the young man was just an ordinary person, while the injured woman on the ground possessed considerable Chakra, at least at the Chunin level. With her abilities, she could easily defeat dozens of these ordinary people, even if they were armed, but she didn't seem to put up any resistance.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The young man wept bitterly, repeatedly apologizing, but the hoe in his hand swung down once more towards the woman who was already seriously injured and dying.

Before Shiraha could make a move, Pakura had already acted. She flashed to the young man's side, dodged the hoe in his hand, and shoved him to the ground.

"Who are you people?" the young man asked in a panic.

"Shut up! They are adults from Kirigakure, kneel down!" The villagers outside the room quickly crawled in, pressed the young man down, and made him kneel.

"I have already killed my wife. If I kill my son as well, you will not be able to lay a hand on the villagers!"

The young man suddenly mustered his courage and said.

Pakura glared fiercely at the young man, then helped up the woman covered in blood and looked at Shiraha.

Shiraha glanced at the woman, shook his head slightly, and said that she was beyond saving.

He was able to use Senjutsu Chakra to prolong Nohara Rin's life when her heart was pierced, because she still had the will to live.

This woman was already determined to die; such a person was beyond saving, especially since her internal organs had been smashed by the hoe.

The reason she was able to speak just now was probably because of her mother's love.

"You, come with us." Shiraha looked at Bai, who was huddled in the corner, and said.

Pakura picked up the woman's gradually cooling body.

"Quick! Go with Lord Kirigakure!" the villagers shouted anxiously.

"Bai, you... you run!"

The young man also spoke up.

Bai trembled, but still managed to stand up unsteadily. He understood that if he didn't go with these people, everyone would die.

As Shiraha and Pakura led the woman and Bai away, the villagers hurriedly shouted, "Thank you, sir!"

Once they were out of the village, the woman in Pakura's arms suddenly spoke, "Please, please."

"What?" Pakura stopped abruptly.

Shiraha sent a ball of Yang Release Chakra into her body, and the woman seemed to have a final burst of energy before death. Her originally pale face regained its rosy color, and she regained the strength to speak, "Please, please take care of... take care of Bai."

After saying this, the woman's eyes remained fixed on Shiraha and Pakura: "I... I know you... are not Kirigakure ninjas. If they were, they would... kill... us directly, so... please..."

"Don't worry, we will," Shiraha said solemnly.

"Thank you." The woman, having received Shiraha's affirmative answer, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had instantly lost all her strength.

"Bai, don't blame your father, he wasn't wrong."

The woman turned to look at Bai, wanting to say a few more words, but after suddenly relaxing, she lost all her energy and closed her eyes forever.

Shiraha never imagined that he could obtain such intense Emotional Power from a ninja whose strength was only at the Chunin level.

"Despair" and "hope," two opposing emotions, are perfectly embodied in one person.

"Mom!" Bai, who had been expressionless, suddenly burst into tears and hugged his mother tightly in her final moments.

"I'm going to kill that man!" Pakura said angrily, turning to leave.

"Wait!" Shiraha called out to her.

Pakura paused, looking somewhat displeased.

"Let's settle this child down first," Shiraha explained. He could sense a rich Chakra within Bai's body, truly an outstanding talent. It was a pity he was born in the Land of Water; otherwise, he would have had a happy childhood.

Bai is a kind-hearted child in the story. Even after experiencing such a thing, he is still able to remain kind, like a white lotus flower, rising from the mud unsullied.

"You can call me Kodama, and her name is Pakura. From now on, you'll be with us." Shiraha gently patted Bai's back, comforting him.

Bai held his mother's cold body, looking completely bewildered.

"Let's bury your mother first," Shiraha continued.

Bai then wiped away her tears and nodded.

Shiraha and Pakura buried the woman's body not far outside the village, and then used Wood Release to carve a tombstone for her.

Bai knelt silently before the tombstone, tears streaming down his face.

Afterwards, Shiraha and Pakura took Bai to a makeshift cave, lit a fire to warm him up, and then took out food and money from their Storage Scroll and placed them beside Bai.

"Here is food and money. We have to go out for a while. If you want to come with us, wait here for us to come back. If you don't want to, take the money and food and leave with us."

After saying that, Shiraha winked at Pakura, signaling her to leave with him.

Although Pakura was somewhat confused, she still followed Shiraha out of the cave. As soon as she stepped out, she couldn't help but ask, "Do you really need to test a child who has just lost his mother?"

"I just made up an excuse to come out. Come with me." Shiraha shook his head slightly, offering no further explanation, and headed towards the village they had just visited.

"Are you going to go back outside the village?" Pakura asked in surprise. Was he going to take him to avenge that woman?

With the two deliberately hiding, the villagers didn't notice them at all.

When they returned to the outside of the thatched hut, the villagers had already left, and the previously open door of the hut was now tightly shut.

Shiraha stood at the door and said to Pakura beside him, "Go in."

Although Pakura was somewhat puzzled, she still pushed open the door, only to be met with a soft gasp of surprise at the scene inside. "What is this?!"

The young man was found with a fallen stool at his feet, his body hanging from the roof beam, already dead.

"The eyes don't lie; he probably planned this outcome from the beginning."

Shiraha sighed.

"If that's the case, why not rebel?" Pakura's emotions were somewhat agitated, but she suddenly stopped. What could an ordinary person do to resist ninjas? Even she couldn't control her own destiny.

Whoosh!

Shiraha shot out Kunai, cutting the rope wrapped around the man's neck, and carried his body away from the thatched hut.

Soon, he arrived at the woman's tombstone, reopened the grave, and buried the man and woman together.

"What kind of world is this?"

Pakura looked at the first additional tombstone and uttered this sigh.

"This world is sick, very sick. Our organization will heal this world." Shiraha said, "From today onwards, your code name will be 'Doctor'."

"Doctor?" Pakura murmured to herself. She didn't know any Medical Ninjutsu. She joined this organization because Kodama saved her. She wanted revenge, so she needed the organization's power. That was all.

Based on her own experiences and what she had just encountered, she suddenly felt a strange sense of responsibility; she wanted to do something for this ailing world.