A Flesh Wound

The teacher dropped down from the tree and glanced over the scene.

Three children. One leaned against a tree root, pale-faced. Another could barely stand and was being supported by a girl.

A little farther away, an adult lay facedown on the ground, most of his clothes burned away. He didn't look like a student.

The teacher frowned and hurried toward the fallen man.

Tsunade supported Kitahara Kaede.

Her hand rested lightly on his right arm, carefully avoiding his left ribs.

"Once the teacher confirms—"

Her words broke off.

Just as the teacher was about to reach the rogue ninja, the man pulled his right hand out from beneath himself.

He was clutching a piece of paper.

An Explosive Tag. Its markings were already glowing.

He didn't throw it toward the two children. Instead, he flung it at the approaching teacher.

The teacher reacted on instinct. As he leaned his upper body back, his hands were already forming Hand Seals.

"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"

The ground surged upward, raising a wall of earth just in time to block the Explosive Tag.

The blast boomed dully, sending clods of dirt flying over the top of the wall.

The shockwave shoved the teacher back two steps. His ears rang, and the wall and dust completely blocked his view.

He immediately moved around the wall—

On the other side, the rogue ninja had already sprung to his feet.

A Kunai in hand, he charged straight toward Kitahara Kaede and Tsunade.

Kitahara Kaede's chakra was nearly gone. His limbs were weak, and his head was spinning, but his vision was still clear.

He saw the man's move.

Tsunade's hand was still on his arm.

Kitahara Kaede shoved her hard.

Tsunade stumbled backward into the bushes, her back hitting a low branch. She let out a muffled groan of pain.

She scrambled up and brushed the leaves away from her face—

And saw Kitahara Kaede holding out his right palm, facing the blade rushing toward him.

The Kunai pierced through his palm and came out the back of his hand.

Blood ran down the metal handle.

Kitahara Kaede clenched his fingers, gripping both the Kunai and the rogue ninja's hand in a vise.

The man couldn't pull free or break loose.

Kitahara Kaede raised his leg and kicked him in the throat.

His windpipe had already been scorched by Fire Release. The kick struck a vital spot.

The rogue ninja fell and didn't get back up.

When the teacher came around the earth wall, this was what he saw.

Kitahara Kaede stood where he was.

His right hand hung at his side, the Kunai still pierced through his palm. Blood dripped onto the dirt, one drop at a time.

A seven-year-old child.

The teacher paused, then hurried over.

Kitahara Kaede didn't look at the teacher. He turned toward the bushes.

Tsunade was sitting on the ground.

A branch had left a faint red scratch on her cheek, but she hadn't noticed.

All her attention was fixed on his right hand, on the Kunai that had pierced through it.

Kitahara Kaede raised his left hand and waved it at her.

"Just a flesh wound."

Tsunade's tears spilled at once.

She made no sound. Her lips were bitten pale, and she didn't let out even a single sob, but she couldn't stop the tears.

Seeing her like that, Kitahara Kaede felt the tension inside him ease a little.

His hand actually hurt a lot.

The pain of a Kunai piercing his palm was dull and heavy. Each heartbeat sent it grinding along his bones, but he could bear it.

With Tsunade reacting like this, I should get a decent score.

Thinking that, the pain in his hand seemed less important.

The teacher pressed two fingers to the rogue ninja's carotid artery.

Only after confirming there was no pulse did he withdraw his hand.

He turned and looked at the Kunai in Kitahara Kaede's hand, falling silent for a moment.

He didn't speak first. He took a bandage and a tube of hemostatic ointment from the inner pocket of his vest.

"...Come here."

Kitahara Kaede walked over and laid his hand in the teacher's palm.

The teacher steadied his wrist with one hand and gripped the Kunai's handle with the other.

"Bear with it."

He pulled out the Kunai.

Blood welled from both the palm and the back of Kitahara Kaede's hand, more than expected.

Kitahara Kaede didn't make a sound. His face turned even paler, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

The teacher squeezed hemostatic ointment into the wound, pressed it in, then wrapped the bandage around three times and tied it tight.

His movements were quick and practiced.

When he finished, the teacher looked up at him.

He seemed to want to say something, but stopped himself.

In the end, he said only, "You've got guts."

It was hard to tell whether he meant it as praise or a scolding.

Tsunade came over and stood beside Kitahara Kaede. She didn't reach out or say anything.

She just stood there.

She was so close that Kitahara Kaede could hear her controlling her breathing, trying not to cry again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kitahara Kaede caught sight of another figure.

Jiraiya.

The white-haired boy walked over from beside the tree root, one step at a time.

One hand was still pressed to his stomach. His face was pale, and his steps were unsteady.

He had seen the rogue ninja spring up just now. He'd seen everything.

He had wanted to move.

To get up and charge over, to do something.

But his legs wouldn't obey him, and his knees wouldn't hold his weight. He slid down from the tree root and struggled back up. By the time he was on his feet, it was already over.

Jiraiya's gaze rested on Kitahara Kaede's bandaged right hand for several seconds.

A dark red stain was seeping through the bandage.

Jiraiya didn't speak.

Kitahara Kaede glanced at him, but didn't think much of it.

Jiraiya's feelings didn't matter. He wasn't one of Kitahara Kaede's targets.

"We're heading back." The teacher stood up and picked up the rogue ninja. "The exercise is over. Come with me."

The three children followed him down the mountain.

Kitahara Kaede walked in the middle.

As they walked, Tsunade occasionally turned her head to look at his hanging right hand.

She only looked away when the dark red stain on the bandage stopped spreading.

After a while, she looked again.

Jiraiya didn't say a word the whole way back.

He was usually the loudest one.

No matter the occasion, he could always find something to say. During breaks, he could chase after Tsunade and talk for ages. Even when she snapped at him, he just laughed it off.

Now he was completely silent.

He walked with his head down, staring at the path. Every so often, he kicked a pebble, then didn't even look to see where it rolled.

They were almost at the school gates when Jiraiya suddenly spoke.

"Hey."

His voice was quiet, a far cry from his usual volume.

Kitahara Kaede turned his head.

"Teach me."

Two words, with no context.

Kitahara Kaede looked at him for two seconds, then thought it over.

Jiraiya.

One of the future Konoha Sannin, the Toad Sage, and the teacher of the Fourth Mizukage.

Right now, he was just a seven-year-old boy.

One kick had sent him flying into a tree, and he'd slid down it, watching someone else protect the person he wanted to protect.

But there was something in his eyes.

Not talent. Something rarer than talent.

"First pass the Taijutsu class."

Kitahara Kaede turned forward and kept walking.

"...So that's a yes?"

"I didn't say no."

At the school gates, the three of them stopped. After giving them a few instructions, the teacher took the rogue ninja to report what had happened.

Tsunade reached out and tugged at the sleeve of Kitahara Kaede's left arm.

"Don't use your hand to catch a blade again."

Her voice was even, as if she were saying, "The weather's nice today," or maybe, "Do that again, and I won't talk to you."

Kitahara Kaede looked down at the corner of his sleeve in her fingers.

"Okay."

Tsunade let go and stood there for two seconds before turning to leave.

After three steps, she stopped and looked back at him.

"Come on. We're going to the hospital to get that wound treated."

Kitahara Kaede followed her.