The Boy's Arc: Massacre

Early the next morning, I slowly opened my eyes and felt a faint warmth coming from my left hand.

Turning my head, I saw Furan tightly clutching my left hand as she slept.

When I first met her, she had been as ferocious as a wild beast, but her sleeping face now looked as adorable as an angel's.

So defenseless... she had completely let down her guard around me, hadn't she?

After all, my strength completely surpassed hers. If I wanted to capture her, there was no need to go through the trouble of deceiving her.

Carefully prying her fingers away, I got up, splashed cold water on my face to clear my head, and headed out of the cave.

The sky was still rather dark. It was probably only four or five in the morning.

[Teacher Hill, can you tell where I am right now?]

[My apologies, Lord Qingyue. I cannot disclose that, but I can tell you the direction back to Konoha.]

[Then I'll leave it to you.]

At this hour, I might as well let Furan sleep a little longer. I could use the time for some basic daily training as well.

It was not until sunlight began to fall that I returned to the cave and started preparing breakfast.

Furan woke up at the same time.

"Good morning, Furan. Breakfast will be ready soon, so go wash up first."

"Got it."

After I had subdued Furan several times in a row, she became especially obedient. It felt like a vicious dog had arrived at home—one that guarded its food and stole food too—but after being properly taught a lesson, it turned into an adorable little dog that clung to people.

After breakfast, I erased all traces of anyone having lived in the cave, then Furan and I set out on the road back to Konoha.

Along the way, I confidently gave Furan my spare ninja sword for combat.

She could not beat me even barehanded, much less with a sword. Besides, I did not need to worry about her betraying me.

"When you swing your sword, don't focus all your attention on your hands. Pay more attention to your footwork!"

"Too immature. Don't keep exposing openings whenever you attack!"

"There are too many unnecessary movements. Make your movements cleaner."

"Not enough force. Cast aside distractions. Don't let thought override the instinct of swinging your sword and limit your strength."

Every night, I taught Furan some swordsmanship.

After all, we might encounter danger on the road. I could not count on being able to protect Furan while fighting.

Although Furan was not particularly talented in the North God Style or Water God Style, she learned straightforward swordsmanship like the Sword God Style very quickly.

After only a few nights, her movements had improved considerably. Judging solely by her talent in the Sword God Style, she might have even surpassed me by far.

We traveled at a relatively leisurely pace for three days without seeing a single person along the way.

Even after a week had passed, and we had gone from one dense forest to another, there was still no sign of anyone.

Finally, on the eighth day, we saw people.

However, they were not companions from Konoha, but ninjas from the Cloud Village. Their dark skin was highly distinctive.

"Don't make any noise from now on. They're ninjas from the Cloud Village, and they're at war with Konoha Village right now."

Unable to control her volume well, Furan merely covered her mouth with both hands, nodded obediently, and stopped making any sound.

Come to think of it, the Cloud Village had definitely been among those who attacked Whirlpool Village. That village relied on plundering the bloodline limits of other nations for research, constantly expanding its military strength.

In the later arms race, the only village capable of competing with Konoha was the Cloud Village.

I secretly observed this Cloud Village squad while moving forward without making a sound.

Since people from the Cloud Village were in this area during wartime, either they had a combat camp nearby, or there were companions from Konoha here.

If I was lucky, I could find Konoha's people, send Furan to the combat camp first, then go end the battle here ahead of time.

If I was unlucky, I would see if I could find an opportunity to destroy their combat camp. If that did not work, I could take a detour and escape.

Unfortunately, none of those assumptions held true.

The Cloud Village squad suddenly rushed toward us. It seemed they had a sensory ninja who had detected Furan's chakra.

"We've been exposed. Find somewhere to hide and don't show yourself, understand?"

Furan nodded again without making a sound. Perhaps she was still following my previous order.

After drawing my ninja sword, I reinforced myself with Dragon Saint Battle Aura in one burst, preparing to use Silent Sword to deal with one of them first.

Patiently waiting until the Cloud Village leader entered my attack range, I gripped my ninja sword with both hands and kicked off with both legs.

In an instant, the leading Cloud Village ninja's head fell to the ground, crimson blood splattering across the faces of the remaining few.

"What..."

"Still looking around? You bandits."

Before the momentum of my charge faded, I twisted my body and swung again, smoothly cutting off another person's head. Then I followed with a kick, sending the remaining men flying into tree trunks.

I drew a short blade at extreme speed and threw it, striking the head protected by a forehead guard with perfect accuracy.

The short blade, coated in Armament Haki and thrown with Battle Aura, easily pierced through the forehead guard, impaling his head and killing him on the spot.

Those three were all at the level of Chunin. Before, they might have taken me a few more seconds, but my strength had now risen by an entire tier.

If I grew for another year, perhaps I could compete with Sakumo.

But in that brief moment, Observation Haki suddenly warned me. I whipped around, only to discover that Furan, still covering her mouth, had already been carried away by a Cloud Village ninja.

"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"

Only Furan's cries for help remained. At the moment I threw my short blade and killed the last man, she had been abducted...

Heh. They had used the lives of their own ninjas as bait, making Chunin sacrifice themselves to hold me back while a Jonin abducted the precious bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan.

The Cloud Village... come to think of it, this Third Shinobi World War had also begun because they instigated Hidden Sand to join them in attacking us.

Were they really that eager to throw this world into chaos?

Furan had lived a miserable life of constant wandering. Since that day, I had become her only support.

If she still had to live in fear even by my side, then there would be no place left for her in this world.

This time, I was truly angry.

Following the trail left by the Cloud Village ninja, Qingyue ran forward like a madman, his right hand tightly gripping his ninja sword as veins bulged across it.

Crack—

A faint sound of breaking came from the sword hilt, but Qingyue paid no attention to it at this moment and simply charged forward.

In a concealed area within the dense forest stood a hidden combat camp of the Cloud Village.

After entering the camp, the Jonin who had abducted Furan roughly threw her to the ground, his eyes carrying a disgusting, nauseating look.

"We finally found this one. An Uzumaki Clan member who's been running for so long."

"You've rendered great service this time. The Uzumaki Clan bloodline was personally requested by Lord Raikage, so the reward will definitely be substantial!"

"Hahahaha, but why isn't this little girl screaming? Last time we caught her, she was like a wild beast, scratching anyone she saw. This time, she hasn't made a sound at all."

"Yeah, and she seems much cleaner now. Looking closely, this little girl is quite tender, isn't she? How about we have some fun with her before handing her over to Lord Raikage?"

"Wouldn't that be bad? She'll probably be handed over to someone else for breeding."

"Who would know that we played with her? Our bloodlines aren't bad either. It would be the same if we got her pregnant ourselves."

"That's true. Shall we do it together? Let's see who can make this little girl cry out first!"

After the two Cloud Village ninjas finished discussing it, they both wore disgusting expressions that made one want to vomit as they rubbed their hands and approached Furan.

Even so, Furan kept both hands tightly over her mouth, though she could no longer hide the tears glimmering at the corners of her eyes.

At the same time, Qingyue had already determined the number of people in the camp. He gripped his ninja sword with both hands, and there was no emotion in his emerald-green eyes.

It was as though everyone in the camp was nothing more than a corpse.

"Still discussing something like that when she's just a child. Well, whatever. They're from the Cloud Village. Nothing they do would be surprising."

After those quiet words, Qingyue transformed without hesitation into the Fenrir form of the Wolf-Wolf Fruit's Mythical Zoan.

A white tail with a faint azure tint grew from his tailbone. As the muscles on his back tore and broadened, the muscles across his entire body swelled.

His golden-brown hair slowly lengthened and turned snow-white. Wolf ears emerged from the top of his head, and finally, his limbs became wolf claws while his eyes turned into wolf eyes.

The instant he fixed his gaze on the camp, a sonic boom erupted, and blood burst within the camp in less than a blink.

There was not a single scream. Only the sounds of ninja swords cutting through heads and blood spraying forth remained.

The camp contained two Jonin, four Chunin, and three Genin. In only a few seconds, the white figure flashed through them repeatedly, and the Light Blade coated in Armament Haki cut off every enemy's head as easily as snapping twigs.

After being captured, I wanted to scream and fight back, but I had promised Qingyue that I absolutely could not make a sound, or else...

He would abandon me.

They brought me into a tent? What were they going to do to me? Why had Qingyue still not come to save me...

Had he abandoned me? Qingyue, where are you...

These people seemed to be discussing something. Breeding? Did that mean having children? Were they going to do something to me that would make me have children?

Was I going to be captured...

Just as I was about to give up, a very loud sound suddenly rang out, and my ears could no longer hear clearly.

Then I saw only a white shadow flash past, and everyone in front of me fell down.

Had someone come to save me... What a fast sword. How cool. I admired it so much.

That pale figure was like an embodiment of justice sent by heaven to punish evil and reward good, using an incredibly fast sword technique to deal with every bad person who wanted to bully me.

Just like the stories Mother used to tell.

Was that... Qingyue?

I had still been blinded by anger... Well, as long as all the enemies were dead, my information would not be exposed.

After killing all the Cloud Village ninjas, I checked again to make sure there were no survivors before undoing the Mythical Zoan transformation.

When I turned around, Furan's black eyes seemed to be shining as she stared at me without blinking. Was she crying because she was scared?

It was all my fault. I had still been too careless and let her go through something like this again.

"Furan, I came to save you. I'm sorry you had to go through this. Are you all right?"

For a long time, Furan did not answer. She only kept covering her mouth as tears continuously fell from the corners of her eyes, her face seemingly red from crying.

"Furan, you can make noise now. Are you okay?"

Without answering, Furan suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her face in my shoulder as she burst into loud sobs.

For a moment, I did not know what to do. Only after quite a while did I come to my senses, gently patting her back with my left hand while using my right hand to stroke her head as softly as possible.

"It's okay now, it's okay. I'm here."