The Wheel of Heaven Turns

"Wha—"

The ninja could not finish his sentence, because Old Zhou had aimed straight for his neck. With every syllable he uttered, blood burst from his throat like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate. Yet Old Zhou did not stop. He stabbed wildly into the ninja's chest until the ninja fell completely silent.

The sudden scene caused the girl, who had only just regained consciousness, to freeze up again. But after what had happened before, she recovered much faster this time. Of course, perhaps it was also because the ninja being killed in return was a good thing.

Part of the reason she came to her senses was Old Zhou. Of course, it was not because Old Zhou had hit her awake, but because his screams had startled her awake.

That was right. Zhou was currently rolling around on the ground, left and right, up and down, while letting out miserable cries. One moment he slammed his body into trees, the next he pounded the ground with his fists, as if fighting pain with pain would somehow help. The girl beside him did not know whether she should go help, but simply listening to his screams did not feel right either.

Suddenly, as though remembering something, she picked up a kunai and headed toward the bushes on the other side. As she walked, she looked back several times and muttered, "God will surely bless you."

Though Old Zhou was in agonizing pain, his eyes were not blind. He naturally saw the girl leaving. Seeing this, he could not help but laugh bitterly inwardly. Yeah, no one would want to stay with someone who could go crazy at any moment. Even if that person is a child... Sigh, she wanted to save me before, and later I saved her. I guess we're even. With that thought, he resumed his journey of wailing.

Several hours later, whether because his spine had taken pity on him or for some other reason, the pain throughout Old Zhou's body gradually weakened. Then his stomach began to growl.

Just then, a fragrant smell drifted over. With his entire body weak and sore, Old Zhou closed his eyes, followed the scent, and wriggled toward it.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a campfire, more than a dozen mushroom skewers over the flames, and that familiar face. At the sight, Old Zhou could not help but shed tears.

"Hello, my name is Nan. What's yours?" The girl's body trembled slightly. The person before her looked rather frightening, but she still resolutely held out her hand.

Seeing this, Old Zhou knew he must look terrible right now. He hurriedly wiped his face, rubbed his right hand against his clothes, and shook hers. "Hello, my name is Zhou Yang." At the same time, he scratched his head sheepishly with his other hand.

Nan smiled, showing her teeth. It seemed that this reaction was more fitting for a child.

Though Zhou Yang looked harmless and extremely shy, that was not what he was thinking. Nan? That hair color, and that name... Could she be that person?

To confirm his suspicion, Zhou Yang casually said, "Amegakure really is unstable."

"Yeah. I don't know why, but ninja from other countries always show up in Amegakure, and that keeps the village unstable." Young Nan did not yet understand Amegakure's awkward position; she merely found it puzzling.

She did not know, but Zhou Yang understood it very well. After all, he had been an otaku in his past life, so he knew such information by heart: Amegakure lay at the border between several great nations and suffered constant bullying from surrounding countries. Its leader was Hanzo, known as the Demi-God. It was precisely because of him that Amegakure could struggle to survive in the cracks between them.

After recalling what he knew of Amegakure, he cast those thoughts aside. His attention was now entirely on the girl before him. Sure enough, this girl is the terrifying existence who would later be called the Angel, the one who used six hundred billion Explosive Tags to blow up a single person.

Noticing the boy younger than herself staring at her like that, Nan lowered her head shyly to avoid Zhou Yang's gaze.

Zhou Yang also realized that staring at her like that was inappropriate, but he simply could not control himself! This was a character from an anime, turned into a real person! Did anyone know how devastating that was to a hardcore otaku?

After escaping danger, Old Zhou's otaku soul burned once more. Looking at Nan before him, he felt as if she were gradually overlapping with the Angel in his memories. "You are darkness. In days without light, flowers can only wither." Then he recalled the scene of Sister Nan using six hundred billion Explosive Tags. Back then, he had only wanted to say, Rich Woman, do you need leg hair? Can you take me with you? Just when he thought she had this win in the bag, the reversal came: Obito survived at the cost of one Sharingan and landed a fatal blow. Yet even though Sister Nan knew she had no power left to turn things around, she still used every last bit of strength she had, because she wanted to become the pillar supporting the bridge to peace!

He then shook his head. The grown woman before him, arms raised high as she declared she would become a pillar, turned back into a little girl. "Wrong show, wrong show."

Then he picked up a mushroom skewer from the fire in front of him and started wolfing it down without even asking Nan whether he could eat it, because he was simply too hungry.

He swallowed one with every bite, three bites per skewer, forming a sharp contrast with Nan across from him, who kept her head lowered and chewed slowly. When Nan raised her head to take another skewer, she found that they were both holding the same one, because it was the last skewer.

After their hands touched, neither reacted as they had when shaking hands earlier. Both immediately pulled their hands back. Nan did so out of instinct, while Zhou Yang was simply embarrassed. She had found all this food, yet most of it had gone into his stomach. Naturally, he was too embarrassed to fight her over the last skewer.

Seeing Zhou Yang's hungry but hesitant expression, Nan knew he was still not full. She picked up the last skewer, placed it in Zhou Yang's hand, and said, "It's okay, you eat it. I have a small appetite. I'm already full." In truth, this was Nan's first time seeing someone who could eat so much, especially a child, so she had never considered that there might not be enough food.

Full? Full after one skewer? I'm not really some little brat. How could I possibly be fooled that easily?

Zhou Yang knew she only said that so he could eat without worry. He also knew she was kind-hearted, so he would not refuse her good intentions. He ate the last skewer, and while eating, he heard her swallow.

Nan watched him finish the last skewer and swallowed. Sigh, I'll have to go hungry for a while again.

"Ah! Saved!" Zhou Yang patted his stomach, then sprang to his feet. "Come on, let's see if we can find some game!"

"Huh?" Nan froze for a moment.

"What do you mean, huh? Keep up! It's not like I don't know you're hungry. Let's go." With that, he pulled Nan up from the ground and headed into the bushes.

Zhou Yang had not been testing her character just now; he already knew enough about that. He had simply been truly starving. Besides, for a quasi-Saiyan like him, food was unquestionably fighting power. Was it not true that when Goku was hungry, he could not even transform into Super Saiyan One? So his lack of restraint earlier had merely been to increase their chances of catching more prey.