Preparations Before Departure

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Yahiko gritted his teeth and slammed his fist against the cave wall again and again, paying no attention to the blood gradually streaming down his hand. The wounds laid bare in his heart hurt far more deeply than any physical pain.

It was already late at night. Yuehua Ai and the others had returned to their base near the village some time ago. In the dim cave, a small oil lamp flickered.

"Why? Why does it always end like this? We're always losing people, and I'm still so powerless..." Yahiko clenched his fists, his whole body trembling.

Yuehua Ai's injuries, Little One's death, Nagato's tears, Konan's helplessness, the fear of war—all of it gnawed at Yahiko's heart like a venomous snake. He remembered that night from several years ago. The rain had been especially heavy. He had stood motionless beneath it, the ground stained crimson with blood. His village had been massacred by wandering ninja. Blood and fire were everywhere, and bodies lay scattered all around. His parents were among them, along with his neighbors and his friends. When war came, everything beautiful he had known, everything he cherished, was torn to pieces as easily as flowers in a storm.

Back then, all he could do was tremble in a dark corner. All he could do was pray, and pray again. All he could feel was helplessness. And today, that unbearable scene had almost played out before his eyes once more.

He had come to hate his own weakness. How could he keep scraping by in the village when his dream was to conquer the world and change it? Although he had faced danger and nearly died today, witnessing that battle and seeing the two sides fight had stirred a bold idea within him. Perhaps this was their only chance to gain strength, change their lives, and take control of their own destinies!

Yahiko walked to the mouth of the cave. A breeze stirred his hair, while the damp, mist-laden air felt unpleasant against his face. He gazed through the rain toward the gloomy sky, and a sense of insignificance rose within him. His expression grew composed, his face more resolute than ever before, and his determination firmer than ever.

"Nagato, stop crying. You always cry after you've suffered, but crying won't change anything!" Hearing Nagato's faint sobs, Yahiko stood motionless at the cave entrance, his eyes still fixed on the distance. He didn't turn around as he spoke to Nagato.

"Crying is like this country..." Yahiko held out his hand and let the rain fall into his palm. "...It won't stop, and it's meaningless!"

"If the wars in this world can't be brought to an end, then I'll become the god of this world! I'll become the one who rules over war!"

"I'm going to change this country and change its destiny of weeping. Saying it won't do any good. We need power!"

Konan's mouth hung slightly open, while Yuehua Ai lowered his head beside her, deep in thought. The course of fate was unfolding just as he knew it would. First, they had stumbled upon the battle between Hanzo and the three Sannin. Now, Yahiko had resolved to seek power.

Given their shared experiences, Yuehua Ai understood the boys' feelings perfectly. But war and family ties didn't affect him as deeply as they did the others. Having lived two lives, Yuehua Ai had faced a difficult struggle to survive from the moment he was born in this one. Combined with his extraordinary experiences in his previous life, he had grown rather indifferent to life and death. What mattered most to him was his bond with the others. Bonds kept loneliness at bay, and loneliness was more frightening than death.

Yuehua Ai couldn't possibly oppose Yahiko's decision. In the original course of events, this was a crucial turning point in what lay ahead. Besides, he had his own ambitions when it came to power. Yahiko's impending decision was an opportunity he had been waiting for, too.

"Power..." Nagato stopped crying. He looked up at Yahiko's back and murmured.

Yahiko turned around and shook the rain from his hand. "That's right. Power... I'm going to learn ninjutsu!"

"Ninjutsu?... Who are we going to learn from?" Nagato asked, puzzled.

"The Konoha ninja who fought Hanzo."

"Eh?!" Konan gasped.

Just as I thought... Yuehua Ai murmured to himself.

"I went to where they fought. Their bodies weren't there..."

"...If they could fight Hanzo and survive, they must be really strong!"

Yuehua Ai silently agreed with Yahiko's reasoning. They were the Sannin, after all. How could they not be strong? In a few years, people would even add the word "Legendary" before their title.

Then again, the Sannin were so powerful, yet in this world, if events unfolded as they were supposed to, even the strongest of them, Jiraiya, would eventually be killed by his own student, Nagato. It was...

Thinking about it, Yuehua Ai shot Nagato a strange look. It's not that Jiraiya wasn't strong enough. The Rinnegan's abilities were just too absurd.

Nagato didn't notice Yuehua Ai's peculiar gaze. His body trembled slightly, though not from the cold. The thought of Konoha ninja brought back the night his parents had been killed by them. The Forehead Protector and Konoha symbol, clearly imprinted in his mind amid the alternating lamplight and shadows, remained a nightmare he would never forget.

"But—"

Nagato had just started to speak when Yahiko cut him off with a firm declaration. "I hate Hanzo..."

"...It's because he's incompetent that Amegakure has become a battlefield for the great nations. It's because Hanzo is weak that so many tragedies have happened..."

Yahiko clenched his fists until the veins stood out. He had always held a grudge against Hanzo. As the leader of Amegakure, he had not only failed to protect his own village but had allowed it to become a battlefield through his weak policies. Yahiko could never understand or forgive Hanzo for that.

Yahiko went over to the others. "Anyway, I'm going to become a student of those powerful ninja. I've decided to go find them."

"B-but what if we catch up to them and they kill us?" Although she agreed with Yahiko, Konan couldn't ignore the possibility that they might follow the ninja only to be killed by them. Reality was often cruel.

Yahiko smiled unconcernedly. "If we get killed, then that's fate. After all, isn't death a kind of release? Either way, I've made up my mind."

Yuehua Ai was speechless at Yahiko's irresponsible words. You've already made up your mind, and as your friends, how could we—never mind me—let you go alone? Nagato and Konan certainly wouldn't.

What a roundabout way of forcing our hand, Yuehua Ai thought. Then he saw Yahiko hold out his hand to the others.

Nagato glanced at Yahiko, said nothing, and placed his hand on top of Yahiko's. Konan smiled softly and placed hers on top as well.

"Uh..." Feeling everyone's eyes turn toward him, Yuehua Ai groaned. You bunch of troublemakers. Is this really how you ask for my opinion? Though he grumbled inwardly, he figured that following the child of destiny was probably a good idea.

Yuehua Ai reluctantly reached out and placed his little hand on top of Konan's. Hmm, warm and so soft, so smooth. This really wasn't bad at all ╮(￣▽￣")╭!

Yahiko looked around at the others' approving expressions and felt their support. A knowing smile spread across his face. This was wonderful—truly wonderful. As he relaxed, he secretly glanced at Yuehua Ai. Uh, am I imagining things? What was that strange look on Ai's face just now? He seemed kind of lecherous, and really smug...

Once they had made their decision, they naturally had to act on it. The next morning, they spent the whole morning clearing out their base. They kept only some food that wouldn't spoil easily, while Yahiko took the other items of some value to town and traded them for the supplies they needed for their journey.

Acting blindly was unwise. Searching for a few ninja across a vast battlefield would be like looking for a needle in a haystack—not only dangerous, but near impossible. Yuehua Ai was more mature in his thinking than the boys and wasn't as naive as they were. Although he had learned some of the world's likely course from the anime, he wasn't the sort of person who liked entrusting the future to fate.

There was a lot to prepare before they went looking for the Sannin. To avoid wandering around the dangerous battlefield like headless flies, they first needed to make a plan and map out their route for the journey ahead.

After Yuehua Ai shared his thoughts, the others considered them briefly and agreed. Yuehua Ai might look like a child, but at critical moments, his actions and ideas were always unexpectedly mature and effective.

Since they might venture deep into the battlefield, Yuehua Ai felt he needed to understand the war's current developments. He also needed a general grasp of the locations of the different battlefields.

That afternoon, after careful consideration, Yuehua Ai assigned everyone their tasks. Given their different personalities, he decided to go to town with the sociable Yahiko to gather information about the war, while Konan and Nagato prepared the other supplies they still needed for the journey.

After an afternoon of hectic preparations, everyone regrouped at the base that evening. This might well be their last night here.

Everyone had done a good job with their tasks. Nagato and Konan had managed to get four sets of protective clothing. Much of the Land of Rivers had a harsh environment. Besides the incessant rain, the wilderness was often filled with miasma. So unless ordinary people spent their entire lives in settled areas, protective clothing was every bit as important as food when traveling in the wild.

Just how difficult it had been for Nagato and Konan to obtain four sets of protective clothing was clear without a word. It was easy to imagine how hard they must have worked. The boys had nothing of equal value to trade, so in the end, they had resorted to some less-than-honest methods. For example, stealing—er, borrowing...

Ai and Yahiko had also had some success. While asking refugees about the war, they had luckily found a map of the Land of Rivers in one refugee's possession.

After a great deal of effort and talking until their mouths went dry, they had finally managed to copy the map. It wasn't very detailed, but to Yuehua Ai, it was already an incredible find. At least, by combining the information they had gathered from the refugees with the map in front of them, he now had a clear picture of how the war was developing. He was no longer in the awkward position of trying to figure things out like a blind man feeling an elephant. Comparing their information against the map had clarified many unclear and ambiguous details, while numerous hidden aspects gradually came into focus. It was far more useful than trying to guess everything from scratch.

Once he had organized his thoughts, Yuehua Ai spread the copied map out in front of everyone. They looked down at it, and Yahiko noticed that many markings had been added since it was first copied. Besides the basic terrain, villages, and routes, there were many red arrows drawn on it, as well as crosses scattered across the map. Most of the red crosses had notes beside them, each of varying length.

"The main participants in this war are the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, the Land of Wind, and our Land of Rivers, with Amegakure in the Land of Rivers serving as the main battlefield. From the information we've gathered, when the war first broke out, the fighting was concentrated near the borders between us and the three great nations. Mainly here, here, and here. These were the three biggest battlefields at the beginning, and it's easy to confirm that from the refugees who fled earliest." Yuehua Ai pointed to the three circled areas along the edge of the map and explained.

The boys nodded like chicks pecking at rice. Yuehua Ai continued, "Since we're relatively weak, the three great nations fought among themselves at first. After a year of war, once Konoha had gained a decisive advantage, Amegakure gradually joined the fighting. The battlefront then began shifting east from these three locations."

The three areas Yuehua Ai was pointing to now were far from the three major battlefields he had indicated earlier. They were near the borders where the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth met. The Land of Fire lay east of Amegakure, so when Yuehua Ai said the battlefield had shifted east, he meant its center was gradually moving closer to the Land of Fire.

"Although it looked for a while as if the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind were joining forces to oppose Konoha, some sort of problem seems to have arisen within the Land of Earth. At the height of the fighting, they suddenly withdrew most of their forces. That caused their alliance with the Land of Wind to fall apart, and Konoha's side won decisively against the Land of Wind alone. Later, with the victor decided, large-scale battles gradually became less frequent, and the fighting shifted to local engagements. That's why the situation feels relatively calm where we're living now."

Based on his memories from his previous life, Yuehua Ai had some recollection of the trouble within the Land of Earth. He thought the Land of Lightning had suddenly invaded deep into its territory, forcing the Land of Earth to withdraw most of its forces from the battlefield against Amegakure to defend its homeland. So, during the Second Shinobi World War, the reason Konoha had been able to defeat the Land of Wind so easily was, in short, that Kumogakure had kept the Land of Earth occupied. Otherwise, Konoha might have paid a much heavier price to win the war.

Yuehua Ai glanced at the others and noticed their strange looks, but he didn't really care. This plan concerned their lives and their futures, so he couldn't afford to hold anything back now.

At last, Yuehua Ai decided not to go into further detail. He pointed straight at a large red cross and several red lines on the map. "This is the battlefield closest to us, and it's also near where we saw Hanzo fighting the Konoha ninja."

"These lines mark the routes to the other battlefields. Although Konoha has won the war overall, they're still likely to send reinforcements to those local battles. The three ninja we're looking for were strong enough to fight Hanzo, so they're likely to be assigned to reinforce the battlefields. They may travel from one battlefield to another, which makes them hard to find. If we follow these routes, we'll have the best chance of running into them."

"Finally, there's this route. It's the main road leading from Amegakure back to the Land of Fire. The war is now in its later stages, and from what we've learned, it's only a matter of time before Konoha wins completely. If we don't find them on these battlefields, our last hope will be to wait for them here."

As he finished speaking, Yuehua Ai pointed to a spot on the map that had been marked prominently.

"Uh, does anyone have any questions..." Yuehua Ai asked, seeing everyone staring fixedly at him. Even he was starting to find it hard to bear.

Yahiko let out a long breath. "I really want to see how your little head works. That analysis was incredible!"

Nagato nodded in deep agreement. Sometimes, he really wondered whether a monster's soul was hidden inside Yuehua Ai's small body.

"Ai, you're amazing!" Konan didn't think too deeply about it. She just thought Ai was incredibly cute and clever.

Yuehua Ai acted as if he hadn't heard Yahiko's remark and paid no mind to Nagato's astonishment. But when Konan praised him, he nodded proudly.