A Change of Heart

Since being reborn, Yuehua Ai had rarely known a moment's peace.

Though he had been cared for by an old man as a child, the precariousness of their lives had left him without any sense of security. He had been born beneath the shadow of war, with battle and death always at his side.

His feelings toward this world were less an uncontrollable aversion and loathing than a deep-seated unease and fear.

In his previous life, society had been safe and stable. Although he had been terminally ill, he knew he still had plenty of time. He had even had the chance to fight against his fate and pursue his studies.

But the Naruto World was different. He was a child in an age of chaos, where human life was worth less than grass. So young that he couldn't even care for himself, he could only drift with the tide. Though he had been lucky enough to be found and cared for by an old man, even an ordinary old man was no more than a tiny wave in a turbulent age, liable to vanish without warning. His life was never secure, and he could see no hope in his future. Their endless flight had no end in sight, and death could descend at any moment. Even as a baby in swaddling clothes, Yuehua Ai had lived in constant dread. He had no time to grow, and no strength to fight for his own fate.

Wherever there were people, there would be oppression and resistance. Even among the refugees fleeing the war, people schemed against one another. Taking, killing, and fighting remained the unchanging themes.

The old man died without warning. The others left his body by the roadside. No one buried him, and no one but Yuehua Ai was willing to look at him again.

The others wouldn't stop for a dead man and a child. By the time Yuehua Ai had clawed away the mud and buried the old man, they had long since disappeared, leaving behind only a few footprints filled with rainwater.

Why, after the old man died and the others abandoned him, did Yuehua Ai still stubbornly follow the group's tracks? It wasn't because he was pathetic or spineless. It was the only thing a four-year-old child could do to survive.

The will to live was instinctive. For even the slimmest chance of survival, whether faced with a raging river or a sheer cliff, he had no choice but to press on, even if he might be smashed to pieces.

He had to live on, bearing his loneliness and helplessness, and the name the old man had left him.

Yuehua Ai was the name Lu Beichen had in this life. Yuehua wasn't his surname. In this world, commoners weren't allowed surnames; surnames belonged exclusively to the nobles.

The old man had told him that in their village, people always added either Yuehua or Mingri to their names.

"Moonlight shines, and tomorrow dawns clear"—those eight characters were why the villagers habitually added Yuehua or Mingri to their names.

The meaning of those eight characters was simple, just as they read: when the moonlight shone, the next day was sure to be clear.

According to legend, the Land of Rivers had once been rainy, but it hadn't rained without end as it did now. Their loathing of the rain and longing for clear skies had become an obsession among the villagers a hundred years ago. The words Yuehua and Mingri carried their hopes and longing for a better tomorrow.

The old man had weathered countless storms in his life and experienced the warmth and coldness of human nature. He had seen through people's greed and desires.

War and tragedy seemed endless, yet the old man still hoped and longed for a peaceful, stable era in which people understood one another. He believed that only love could restrain people's desires, only love could help them understand one another, and only love could make peace possible.

Love embodied the old man's lifelong convictions and aspirations. He had practiced love and pursued it, so he had taken in an orphan of war and, in his final moments, given him a name that meant love.

For a long time, Yuehua Ai had felt that his name didn't suit him. Yuehua Ai—he should have been Yuehua Ai, with the character for sorrow instead.

But later, after meeting a group of young people and going through so much together, he had gained a new perspective on his name just half a month ago.

By chance, Yuehua Ai had met Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato, all orphans of war like himself.

Drawing on what he knew from his previous life, he had gained a glimpse of hope for his future as he began to understand this world. Nagato, the Child of Prophecy who possessed the supreme Rinnegan, was one of the ultimate villains in the Naruto World. He was a pure and steadfast boy, willing to give everything to carry on his companions' will.

The light of dawn had appeared unexpectedly. After joining Yahiko and the others, Yuehua Ai had felt secure for the first time since being reborn—not because his life had become stable or because he had gained companions, but simply because he had met Nagato.

The Rinnegan's existence had given Yuehua Ai immense peace of mind. Nagato couldn't yet control its power, but Yuehua Ai knew from his previous life how it reacted to danger.

In his mind, if they ever faced an irresistible threat, Nagato's Rinnegan would surely erupt. After all, Madara Uchiha was a cunning old schemer. Having arranged for Nagato to serve as such an important piece on the board, he could never have failed to consider how to keep him safe.

The others didn't understand Nagato's eyes, so they couldn't understand how much Yuehua Ai envied the Rinnegan.

Unfortunately, Yuehua Ai was just an ordinary person. Transplanting the Rinnegan was nothing but a fantasy.

He had been born in an unknown village in the Land of Rivers. He wasn't the reincarnation of Indra or Asura, and he had neither a Sage Body nor the Sage's eyes. He had no special Kekkei Genkai, either. For all he knew, none of his ancestors going back eight generations had even been a ninja.

Given his current circumstances, he was just a little kid with no abilities anyone could rely on. Though he knew something about the future, that knowledge was useless to him. At least Nagato was by his side. He didn't have the Rinnegan himself, but simply staying close to Nagato and benefiting from his protection was enough to keep him alive.

That was why Yuehua Ai always felt especially safe with the others, and had even made all sorts of plans for the future. After all, with an ultimate weapon like Nagato at his side, it would be a waste not to get something out of it.

Yes, a weapon. At first, Nagato was nothing more than a weapon to protect Yuehua Ai. As he planned out his own future, he had even considered whether he could use what he'd learned in his previous life to take the Rinnegan for himself.

Companions? Sorry, but whether in his previous life or this one, companions had never meant much to him. His only friend in his previous life had given him childhood memories and friendship. But as time passed, their experiences and lives had grown more and more different. They had nothing left to talk about, and no shared interests to bind them together. Like two lines that crossed once, they were destined to go their separate ways after that brief intersection.

Even after joining Yahiko and the others, Yuehua Ai rarely spoke with them. To him, they were just clueless children—naive and innocent.

Yahiko cared for his companions and was optimistic and energetic. His ambitions were great, but for now, he was still just a kid who couldn't resist playing ninja after finding a Kunai. And in the future, he would become a pitiful sacrifice. In the script already laid out for him, his only purpose was to become the Deva Path among Nagato's Six Paths.

Then there was Konan. Yuehua Ai had special feelings for her.

Though his experiences had made him somewhat aloof, Yuehua Ai wasn't heartless. Konan had not only saved his life, but had also opened the door to his destiny.

No one could help liking beautiful things. As for girls, Yuehua Ai had never had a real girlfriend in his previous life, but he had known plenty of women, and there had been several he liked.

Though he had liked them—could even say he had loved them—he couldn't offer them a future, so he could only watch from afar. His simple view of love had changed under years of repression, shifting from devotion to detachment. The one thing that had never changed was his love and appreciation for beauty.

Konan was only a girl in her early teens, but she was pretty and charming, with a winsome appearance. Yuehua Ai had always been drawn to cute girls, and all the more so when she was the angel who had saved him.

Yuehua Ai's affection for Konan was complicated: he liked her as a friend, admired her youthful beauty, felt grateful to the person who had saved his life, and even doted on her like a little sister. There were many other tangled emotions, too. In the end, he couldn't describe what he felt for her.

Though he couldn't put it into words, Yuehua Ai knew he liked being with her. And when he had the chance to spend time with a girl, who would choose to hang around Yahiko and Nagato, those rough-and-tumble guys—or rather, rough-and-tumble boys...