Don't Live Here Anymore

A gentle yet slightly hoarse voice interrupted Hyuga Qingchuan's thoughts.

He came back to himself and saw Keiko's hands paused over the knot at his collar, her eyes filled with concern.

"Your wound... has opened up again."

Keiko explained softly, her tone tinged with guilt and heartache.

Hyuga Qingchuan looked down and realized that the bandages around his body had already been stained through with fresh blood.

The fighting and exertion just now had worsened his injuries.

"Sorry to trouble you."

He nodded, relaxing his body and allowing Keiko to tend to him.

Keiko's movements were gentle and practiced as she carefully untied his bloodstained clothing and removed the old bandages.

"I still don't know your name, sir ninja."

Keiko kept working as she struck up a conversation.

"Hyuga Qingchuan. Just call me Qingchuan."

"Yes, Lord Qingchuan."

Keiko readily complied, though she still kept the honorific. Then she asked with concern,

"How did you end up facing that beast and get hurt so badly?"

"There was an accident during a mission."

Hyuga Qingchuan brushed it off vaguely, then asked,

"Why are you living alone at the foot of this mountain? And how do you know how to treat injuries?"

Watching how skillfully she applied the medicine, Hyuga Qingchuan found it rather strange.

Keiko's hands paused slightly at his words, and she let out a sigh.

"My husband and I... originally practiced medicine in a nearby village. We had been living quite well."

"But over the past two years, for some reason, the bandits around here have become more and more rampant."

"A few months ago, the small village where we lived was massacred by bandits. The entire village was wiped out."

"Eri and I escaped only because we had gone out to gather herbs, but my husband..."

At that point, Keiko's expression turned sorrowful. Her eyes misted over, and tears silently slid from the corners of them.

"I had no choice but to bring Eri into these mountains to hide. At least... it's safe here for now."

After hearing that, Hyuga Qingchuan understood as well, his heart turning cold. Rampant bandits along the border... this was clearly a sign that war was about to break out.

Judging by the timeline, the prelude to the Third Shinobi World War was likely about to begin.

In that war, the Land of Fire had fought one against four and had nearly been driven back to its own doorstep. The new generation had suffered severe casualties.

At this point, every nation was probably already stirring. Once war began, the border would become a meat grinder.

"You can't live here anymore."

Hyuga Qingchuan suddenly said with absolute certainty.

Keiko froze for a moment and instinctively looked at the ruined house. "Y-yes... the house is already like this. It needs repairs before it can..."

"I mean you should move to the central region of the Land of Fire."

Hyuga Qingchuan cut her off, his expression serious.

"M-move? To the central region?"

Keiko looked bewildered. "B-but we don't know anyone there..."

Hyuga Qingchuan looked at her. "You know medicine. You shouldn't have any trouble making a living anywhere."

"As long as you don't live too close to Konoha Village..."

"Huh?" Keiko was completely confused.

"Isn't Konoha supposed to be the safest place? There are so many ninja there."

"That's exactly what makes it the most dangerous place," Hyuga Qingchuan said.

During the Third Shinobi World War alone, enemies had attacked its doorstep twice.

Then there would be the Nine-Tails, Orochimaru, Pain, the Otsutsuki Clan...

And that wasn't even counting the incidents never explained in the main story but mentioned in other side stories.

Over the next mere twenty or thirty years, Konoha Village would be destroyed more than ten times.

It could truly be called a place plagued by disaster.

Being the protagonist wasn't easy either!

But there was no need to tell Keiko any of that.

Fortunately, she did not ask further. She merely nodded, half understanding and half confused.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A series of somewhat dull impacts drew both their attention.

The two of them looked toward the sound.

Little Eri was sticking out her tiny bottom, laboriously swinging a kunai much larger than her small hand.

Again and again, she struck the bald man's forehead where he lay on the ground.

All the while, she muttered, "Bad guy... bad guy, making Mommy suffer."

"Beat you to death..."

The little girl's fierce, earnest expression was truly adorable.

Hyuga Qingchuan couldn't help but chuckle softly.

Keiko, meanwhile, held her forehead in helplessness, both irritated and amused.

"Eri, come here. Why do you play with everything?"

"Eri isn't playing." The little girl raised her head, her small face utterly serious as she said in a childish voice, "Eri is helping Mommy vent her anger."

"Alright, alright. Then thank you for your hard work, Eri. Once you're done venting, come over here quickly, okay?"

"Just two more hits, then I'll be done..."

Thirty kilometers outside Konoha Village, in a dense forest.

"Still not here?"

A shrill voice sounded from the bushes.

"I can't sense him, Big Brother! Why don't we come out first? My stomach hurts from lying down." Another honest-sounding voice replied.

"Shut up! Endure it!" the shrill voice snapped in a low tone.

"But Big Brother, there are so many bugs in the grass. My butt itches... they're crawling everywhere."

The slow, honest voice answered, accompanied by rustling scratching sounds.

The shrill voice fell silent for a while before saying, "Then... then let's come out first."

The bushes shook for a moment, and then two dull-looking figures emerged.

One was short and squat, with several pockmarks scattered across his round face. His eyes held nothing but confusion and ignorance.

The other was tall and skinny, with tiny eyes, high cheekbones, and several scrolls tucked at his waist.

The tall, skinny one was Yi Zhongren, while the short, fat one was Yi Zhongwu. The two brothers made their living through robbery and bounty missions.

The moment he emerged from the bushes, Yi Zhongwu saw his elder brother holding a mission scroll and checking something with a grave expression.

He cautiously moved closer. "Big Brother, we haven't been scammed, have we?"

Yi Zhongren waved a hand.

"Don't worry. I paid one hundred thousand ryo for this academy student's whereabouts. The black market wouldn't risk its reputation over something like this."

"One hundred thousand ryo?"

Yi Zhongwu cried out, "You paid one hundred thousand ryo just for information on an academy student? How much could he even be worth?"

"Look at you, so short-sighted."

Yi Zhongren glared at him irritably and stuffed the scroll into his arms.

"Read it yourself. Capturing a student with the Byakugan will net us a clean profit of nine hundred thousand ryo. Isn't that far better than selling a few orphans?"

Yi Zhongwu clumsily unrolled the scroll. His eyes instantly widened, and his breathing quickened. "Big Brother, we're rich..."

"Of course!" Yi Zhongren said smugly. "Listen up. When the fighting starts, kill everyone except the one with the Byakugan."

"The one with white eyes?" Yi Zhongwu looked completely confused.

"That's right. The Hyuga Clan's eyes are different from ordinary people's. They're white. Don't kill him. If he dies, he won't be worth anything."

"Oh!" Yi Zhongwu nodded honestly.

Then he suddenly blinked his confused little eyes and stared blankly in a certain direction through the forest.

"Big Brother, I think there really was someone with white eyes. He went whoosh... running past over there."

"What ran past?" Yi Zhongren frowned, not quite catching his brother's muttering.

Yi Zhongwu scratched his head honestly. "In my senses, that white-eyed kid you mentioned seemed to have just run down the little path over there."

"A... little path?" The surprise on Yi Zhongren's face instantly froze, turning into stunned disbelief.

"Where the hell did a little path come from?"