After the Battle

The official road that had been intact moments ago now looked as though it had been bombarded by cannon fire, its surface covered in craters and scars.

After a few leaps, Samu Kokaze arrived beside Guy. Seeing steam rise from Guy's body in the biting cold wind, he felt a faint trace of envy.

Putting aside what he might achieve in the future, at least for now, in terms of combat strength alone, he was definitely no match for Guy.

"Big Brother Guy, you're really strong!"

He glanced at the shattered ground within a hundred-meter radius and could not help sighing in admiration.

Huff...

Guy let out a long breath of hot air. Excited fighting spirit still lingered in his eyes as he looked down at Samu Kokaze, who had approached him. "It's been a long time since I've had such a satisfying fight!"

As he spoke, he flashed his gleaming teeth and gave a thumbs-up toward the three corpses Samu Kokaze had fought. "Feng, you're strong too! At your age, only my eternal rival Kakashi had this kind of strength!"

"I'm still far behind you, Big Brother Guy!" Hearing the praise, Samu Kokaze's handsome little face reddened slightly, and he looked embarrassed.

"Oh, right!" Samu Kokaze suddenly called out, pointing toward the woods ahead. "Is that monk named Genichi dead?"

In truth, Samu Kokaze had known before anyone else that the man's life force had already vanished. He asked only to make the next step more convenient.

As long as he had the Nanobugs devour Genichi's brain completely, while the brain activity had not yet entirely disappeared, Samu Kokaze would have enough time to extract sufficient information from it.

Guy's expression turned serious. "I kicked him in the head. His skull has already shattered. There's no way he survived."

"I see." Samu Kokaze replied softly, looking somewhat distracted.

"What's wrong? Is something the matter?" Guy asked, noticing that something seemed off about him.

Samu Kokaze put on a deliberate bitter smile. "I'm just not used to killing someone for the first time."

Guy blinked, then patted him on the shoulder, unsure what to say.

Although Samu Kokaze was young, he had always appeared exceptionally mature. This sort of burden could only be untangled by oneself; others could do very little.

"Big Brother Guy! Let's bury their bodies. After all, they were the first people I killed with my own hands. Maybe that'll make me feel a little better."

Bitterness showed on his face as he looked at the corpses beside him and sighed softly.

Guy gave Samu Kokaze a deep look, then nodded. "Don't overthink it. That's just how the ninja world is."

As Guy walked toward the corpses, he suddenly chuckled and shook his head. "I forgot you don't want to be a ninja!"

Boom...

A loud crash came from the woods on either side of the road. Guy calmly tossed the bodies into a pit a meter deep that he had stomped into the ground.

Facing the unmarked grave before him, Samu Kokaze looked lost, but the Nanobugs inside his body surged toward the soles of his feet.

After the silver-white Nanobugs gnawed a tiny gap through the sole of his shoe, they flowed out as liquid silver, transformed into a wormlike form best suited for burrowing, and rushed toward Genichi, who had already been buried underground.

"Master Zuo Mu?" Tanaka Keishi, having straightened his disheveled clothes, softly called out when he saw Samu Kokaze's bewildered expression.

"I'm fine!"

As if he had only just been startled awake, Samu Kokaze shook his head dazedly.

This time, the expression on his face was not an act. After the Nanobugs devoured Genichi's brain clean, an immense flood of information surged directly into Samu Kokaze's mind.

Though he hurriedly deleted all the useless information about daily life, merely loading the knowledge of ninjutsu, training, combat experience, and the like into his mind gave Samu Kokaze splitting headaches. After all, the Nano Core's computing power was far from impressive at the moment.

He rubbed his head and looked toward the shattered carriage on the road, letting out a sigh.

"Looks like we can only walk the rest of the way," Samu Kokaze said with a headache, then added with a relieved expression, "Luckily, we're not too far from our destination."

Whoosh, whoosh...

The bitter gale raced wildly through the wilderness, its howls ringing in their ears. Yet in the face of their predicament, Guy's eyes instead flashed with excitement.

"Feng! Let's have a chase of youth together!"

"No." He refused coldly, picked up the bundle on the ground and tossed it onto the horse's back, then ignored the white horse's dissatisfied snort and strode forward.

"Rejected again!" Guy's face was full of disappointment, but he immediately shouted with renewed vigor, "Youth must not be missed!"

As he spoke, Guy abruptly flipped into a handstand and chased after Samu Kokaze ahead on his hands.

"My lord ninja, is there something wrong with his head?" Tanaka Keishi, walking half a step behind Samu Kokaze, looked at Guy chasing them while upside down and pointed at his own head.

"He's fine. You'll get used to it!"

Samu Kokaze's cheek twitched as he gritted his teeth and said those words.

Time slowly passed as they continued walking. The sun had already tilted westward, and the afterglow of sunset fell upon them.

The sky darkened as the howling gale swept recklessly across the wilderness.

Samu Kokaze, walking at the front, looked somewhat pale. From time to time, he could be seen clenching his teeth and shivering.

Following close behind him, Tanaka Keishi led the horse. The hand holding the reins had been frozen red, and he had to switch hands every minute.

Guy, bringing up the rear, did not seem affected in the slightest. He was still following behind the two of them while walking on his hands.

Yet faint bloodstains had already appeared on the hands supporting him against the ground. His expression did not change at all, and he even chatted with the two walking ahead from time to time, as though pain had nothing to do with him.

Samu Kokaze looked back.

He had known of Guy's willpower from watching anime in his previous life, but nothing compared to seeing it firsthand now.

Tanaka Keishi, following behind Samu Kokaze, also looked back from time to time.

The way he looked at Guy had changed again and again—from initially seeing him as a freak, to appreciation later on, and now to admiration.

"Uncle... Keishi... how much... farther?"

Samu Kokaze turned back and asked through chattering teeth.

"Once we cross the hill ahead, we'll be able to see it. I'm truly sorry that Master Zuo Mu had to suffer like this because of the Tanaka Clan's affairs. From now on, whatever Master Zuo Mu needs, the Tanaka Clan will always be your support."

Tanaka Keishi's face was full of guilt.

It was clear that he sincerely felt sorry for troubling Samu Kokaze, who was not yet seven years old, and making him risk his life to help.

"It's nothing."

Samu Kokaze, walking ahead, shook his head. "Big Brother Yoshikado has helped me a lot too. When he's in trouble, if I can help, I won't stand by and do nothing."

As he spoke, his body shuddered. "Since we're almost there, let's hurry up. It's really cold today. I'm desperately missing a tub of hot water right now."

"How can youth be defeated by mere cold, Feng? Your training is still not enough!"

Guy, walking on his hands in a handstand, spoke in an impassioned tone upon hearing that.

"Then later, you can stand outside and watch me soak in the bath." Samu Kokaze looked back at him and replied faintly.