"Right, a dream!" Yahiko gazed at everyone, his eyes shining. His whole body brimmed with boundless enthusiasm, like a fiercely burning flame.
"Do you have a dream, Nagato?" Yahiko turned to Nagato and asked.
Of the four of them, Konan was a girl and Yuehua Ai was still too young, so when it came to certain questions, Yahiko thought first of Nagato, who was about his age.
"A dream..." Nagato murmured. To be honest, he hadn't really thought much about dreams or the future.
Yahiko didn't seem to mind Nagato's reaction. He continued on his own, "I don't want to just live an ordinary life and then die! I have a great dream!"
Yahiko glanced at Nagato, then turned his gaze away and lifted his head. After a brief silence, he looked at the distant sky, brought his arm up before his chest, clenched his fist tightly, and declared, "I want to conquer the world!"
Nagato stared blankly at Yahiko. "Conquer... the world..."
Noticing Nagato's gaze, Yahiko nodded firmly. "That's right!"
The boy spread his arms wide, as if embracing the heavens and the earth. "If I can stand at the pinnacle of the world, we won't have to suffer like this anymore."
"Maybe," Nagato replied uncertainly.
"Things are a lot better now, but I don't want to go on living like this. If I can't achieve something great, I'll have no face to meet the parents who gave birth to me."
"If I can stand at the pinnacle of the world, we'll be able to do whatever we want!"
Nagato considered Yahiko's words for a moment, then nodded. "If that were the case... we'd be just like gods... Maybe... we could put an end to war that way."
"Of course!" Yahiko said with conviction. Then he turned to Konan and asked, "Right, Konan?"
"Mm." Konan nodded with a smile, her gentle, bright eyes narrowing into crescents.
"What do you think, Ai?" Yahiko continued.
"Me?" Yuehua Ai wasn't particularly interested in the boys' questions. At that moment, he was admiring Konan's lovely smile. To him, Yahiko and Nagato's conversation was little more than an immature, childish fantasy. Rule the world? That sounded just like something an evil mastermind would say! Dreams were one thing, reality another. In an era when they could barely be sure they'd live to see the next day, how could they hope to make their dreams come true?
Still, something about Yahiko's words on dreams felt oddly familiar to Yuehua Ai. The boys had seemed to have this conversation in the anime, too. Though he'd been especially fond of Naruto in his previous life, his illness had kept him from spending much time on it. All he could remember was the broad strokes of the story. Though he was now traveling alongside the characters from it, including the legendary Child of Prophecy, who was also the third of the Six Paths, Yuehua Ai suspected his presence might cause a butterfly effect. As for what would happen to the boys in the future, he truly had no idea.
As for dreams, Yuehua Ai certainly wanted to stand at the pinnacle of the world and possess the power to rule the Ninja World. He also wanted to achieve immortality. In a world with miraculous powers like ninjutsu, immortality might really be possible.
"My dream—"
Yuehua Ai gathered his thoughts and was just about to speak when a sudden whistle cut through the air. A kunai trailing flames shot down and embedded itself in the ground beside them.
Yuehua Ai's pupils contracted. When he saw the kunai, he noticed that a piece of paper covered in complex markings attached to it had already burned halfway. Then a blinding white light filled his vision. The instant he shut his eyes, Yuehua Ai realized what the burning paper was: an explosive tag. It was the same kind of thing that had fallen from the sky shortly after he was born, taking the lives of his parents in this life.
Boom! A tremendous explosion rang out. The group barely had time to cry out before the blast wave hurled them far away.
"Ah..." The boys curled up on the ground one after another. The explosive tag's blast and their impact with the ground had left them badly shaken and injured. Pain coursed through their bodies, and they couldn't help groaning.
Yuehua Ai was hurled nearly three meters by the blast wave and slammed hard into the ground. His throat burned, and his mouth was filled with the metallic taste of blood. For a moment, his head buzzed and the world spun around him. His face felt searing hot. He raised a trembling hand to touch it, then saw that his hand was covered in blood.
When the kunai shattered from the explosive tag, one of the flying fragments sliced across Yuehua Ai's face, leaving a three-centimeter gash on his tender cheek. It was bleeding heavily, but the wound wasn't too serious. All in all, Yuehua Ai considered himself lucky. If a fragment had hit him in the head during the explosion, who knew if he could have transmigrated again?
The group had only just regained consciousness and hadn't yet managed to get up when several more kunai trailing flames came down among the nearby rocks.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Explosions roared one after another. Huge boulders burst apart, and thick stone pillars in the rocky forest snapped. Rocks flew through the air, and the boys didn't dare get up. They could only curl into themselves and tuck their heads as far beneath their arms as possible.
When the explosions finally stopped and the smoke cleared, they slowly dared to get up. Looking around, they saw nothing but wreckage.
Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan had been knocked away by the initial blast wave, then struck only a few times by falling rocks. They were all right. Of the four, Yuehua Ai was the most badly hurt. His bloodied face looked quite frightening.
Though the sudden danger had been terrifying, it hadn't caused the four of them much harm overall. If they had suffered any real loss, it was Nagato's dog, Little One. It had been closest to the explosive tag's blast, and when the group saw it again after the danger passed, it was lying lifeless on the ground in the distance.
"Little One..." Nagato held Little One in his arms, biting his lip. Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face. He called to it again and again, but even his tear-choked cries couldn't wake it.
Little One's name had long since stopped fitting it. When it first met Nagato, it had been a puppy, still so tiny that the name suited it. But after following Nagato all this time, it had grown almost as big as Yuehua Ai.
It had been more than two years since Nagato had found Little One—longer than he'd known Yahiko and Konan. He had always regarded Little One as a member of the family. But now...
Konan sat curled up on the ground, with a small figure still standing in front of her. It was Yuehua Ai. As she used a strip of cloth to wipe the blood from his face, she fought back tears, her heart aching for him.
Yuehua Ai managed to form a smile with the uninjured side of his face and gently patted Konan on the head, as if to comfort her. "I'm fine."
Konan nodded, but tears slipped down despite her efforts. Yuehua Ai didn't realize how heartbreaking it was to see his bloodstained, innocent smile.
"To think a battle would break out so close to us. Damn it... Hmm—th-that's Hanzo!" After making sure everyone was out of danger, Yahiko was the first to get up. He cautiously crawled toward the direction from which the kunai had come.
He went around a boulder and saw a basin-like area before him. He was at the edge of the basin, on the highest point of the surrounding terrain.
Yahiko hid himself, then secretly looked toward the two sides fighting in the center of the basin. One side consisted of three young Konoha Ninja. On the other stood a Rain Ninja wearing a gas mask and riding atop a giant salamander summoned beast.
Yahiko didn't know who the three Konoha Ninja were. But the other man, the powerful ninja in the distinctive gas mask—though Yahiko had never seen him before, his identity was obvious. He was the ruler of Amegakure, the ninja known as the Demigod: Hanzo!
The battle between the two sides was fierce. Gray-green poison gas filled the sky, and the earth was torn apart by the ninjas' attacks. The area affected by the fighting kept expanding, so Yahiko didn't dare watch for long. After a few quick glances, he retreated.
The boys were still within the battlefield, in grave danger. Once he had returned, Yahiko looked at Konan tending to Yuehua Ai's wound, then at Nagato weeping over Little One. He quickly motioned for them to leave.
"But... but Little One..." Tears and rain blurred Nagato's face.
"We don't have time to worry about Little One. We need to get out of here!" Yahiko frowned and spoke to Nagato in a low voice. Then he pulled him along and followed Yuehua Ai and Konan as they ran into the distance.
Before you continue