"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
An immense pressure surged behind Xue Ge, forcing his body down whether he wanted to duck or not.
An invisible shock wave swept over his head, clearing away all the flames rushing toward him. Without losing any momentum, it blasted a ninja a short distance ahead of him into pieces.
Seeing a living person torn apart before his eyes left Xue Ge stunned.
"Whoosh!" A middle-aged man flashed past him.
Xue Ge turned to look. The middle-aged man was the one who had just spat out that Wind Release attack, and crossed scars marked his chin. He did not seem to have noticed Xue Ge; saving him had merely been incidental.
The middle-aged man stopped after only a few strides. Following his gaze, Xue Ge saw an aging woman blocking his path.
"Danzo..." The woman narrowed her eyes, her voice heavy. "We haven't seen each other since the last Shinobi World War ended. I never thought our first reunion would be under circumstances like these."
"It has indeed been a long time, Chiyo." The man called Danzo snorted. Without another word, he flicked a kunai out of his sleeve and lunged at her.
Xue Ge saw Chiyo sweep both hands through the air a few times. Two puppets, plainly inhuman at a glance, attacked Danzo from either side.
What kind of world have I ended up in?
Xue Ge had never watched Naruto in his previous life. At most, he knew it was one of those hugely popular mainstream anime. Everything happening now was clearly beyond the comprehension of an ordinary person from a world governed by material reality.
Of course, Xue Ge had no time to marvel at this world's wonders. He was no longer merely dizzy; layers of darkness were creeping across his vision.
Setting aside the battle between those two obvious heavyweights, Xue Ge looked left and right but could not find anything to stop the bleeding. There were not even any bandages. Tearing strips of cloth on the spot was asking rather too much of someone missing a hand.
"No other choice..." Xue Ge gritted his teeth and looked toward the flames blazing on a corpse nearby.
He cautiously checked his surroundings. Once he was sure no one's fighting would reach him for the moment, he struggled over to the flames and pressed the two gaping wounds at his shoulder and hip into the fire.
"Urgh-urghhh-aaah!!"
His whole body shook with pain. He bit through his lip, his forehead deathly pale as great beads of sweat rolled down it.
"...Hah..."
After a long while, he finally burned the exposed surfaces of his wounds black. It was agonizing, but at least the bleeding had stopped. Still, with nothing more than this, a later infection could kill him anyway...
"Urgh..."
Xue Ge swayed and fell to the ground. The flames seemed to be spreading toward him, leaving his lips dry.
No... I can't hold on...
Xue Ge's eyes slowly closed.
"..."
Watching Chiyo disappear into the distance, Danzo silently touched his cheek. As expected, his hand came away covered in blood.
Good thing Chiyo didn't have time to poison those two makeshift puppets.
Danzo's gaze darkened, and he wiped the blood from his face without betraying any emotion.
"Lord Danzo, the Rain Ninja and Sand ninja have withdrawn. As for the prisoners..." A masked ANBU approached Danzo and bent down slightly to ask.
"Take them all back to Konoha and lock them in the dungeon. Be careful. There may be people with talents we need among them."
Danzo waved a hand casually. The ANBU nodded and quickly withdrew.
Danzo sighed and surveyed his surroundings. The once-vast reed beds had been ravaged beyond recognition. Corpses and flames were everywhere, while Konoha's ninja methodically cleared the battlefield.
This isn't good. To think the Rain Ninja would be so tenacious. If we keep fighting in the Land of Rain, the pressure on Konoha will only grow.
Danzo considered the current state of the war with a deep frown. Iwagakure and Kirigakure were itching to make a move. Kumogakure had shown no signs of activity yet, but he did not believe the Raikage had no designs on the present situation.
...Forget it. Why should an old man like me worry about all this? Monkey became the Hokage, so let him deal with these headaches.
Danzo curled his lip and glanced at Jiraiya and his two companions resting in the distance, supporting one another. Hanzō's words still seemed to echo in his ears.
"The 'Sannin,' is it? Hiruzen, you really are a lucky man..."
Danzo shook his head wistfully, brushed off his filthy hands, and headed toward the broad river nearby.
At the riverbank, he bent down to wash his hands. Just then, he noticed something crawling upright beside a headless corpse in the distance.
"Hmm?"
He raised an eyebrow, shook the water from his hands, and turned to walk over.
Xue Ge jolted awake from the darkness.
He felt nauseated. His body was icy cold, his head throbbed, and his vision was still dark.
Panicking, he groped around and unexpectedly touched the corpse beside him. Its cold, slick feel made him stiffen. Only after a long while did he silently withdraw his hand and struggle to prop himself upright.
The dull pain at his severed limbs had not entirely faded. As Xue Ge shifted his body, he could even hear the crisp cracking of charred flesh beside his ear.
This person...
The corpse beside him was burned beyond recognition, but what remained of its clothes looked somewhat familiar.
Was this the person who was holding me at the start?
"Shing-"
The clear ring of a blade being drawn reached him. Xue Ge looked toward the sound. Danzo was already standing before him, drawing a short sword from behind his back.
He studied Xue Ge from head to toe, narrowing his eyes. After a long pause, he raised the short sword and laid it across Xue Ge's neck. The slightest pull would have been enough for its sharp edge to slit his throat.
"..." Xue Ge stared at the blade for a moment, then looked at Danzo.
"...Save me..."
"..."
Danzo fell silent for a moment before asking coldly, "Boy, your hand and leg... and your eye. What happened to them?"
Xue Ge stared blankly for a while, then shook his head.
"...Which village are you from? Are you from the Land of Rain?" Danzo continued.
The Land of Rain? What's that...?
Xue Ge shook his head again.
Danzo lifted his chin slightly, shifted the short sword in his hand, and lowered its tip a little. Seeing this, Xue Ge cautiously reached out and touched the back of the blade.
"Then do you know your name, boy?"
My what...?
"Xue Ge..." Xue Ge could barely make out what Danzo was saying. He murmured the words through his foggy consciousness.
"Xue Ge?... Do you have a surname? Hmm, you're a commoner's child. You probably don't." Danzo spoke to himself. Then he pressed the sword against Xue Ge's chest, its tip aimed at his heart.
After a long silence, he said slowly:
"Boy, one last question."
"..."
"Do you want to live?"
Xue Ge nodded.
"Good." Danzo abruptly pulled the short sword away, gave it a quick wipe, and returned it to its sheath. Xue Ge collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.
Danzo crouched and picked Xue Ge up somewhat awkwardly. He glanced at the charred stumps at Xue Ge's shoulder and hip, his eyebrows lifting slightly.
...If I want to take control of Root, I need trusted confidants whom I've trained entirely myself. This boy has turned up at quite an opportune time.
A war orphan with no ties, utterly alone, maimed, and with no one to rely on...
If he has decent talent, he couldn't be a better candidate.
I was just envying Hiruzen's fine students, and now I've come across this boy. It almost seems as though fate is guiding me.
Perhaps it was his instincts as a ninja, but Danzo vaguely sensed that this filthy, disabled boy possessed a certain talent.
A talent for killing.
"Whoosh! Rustle!"
The wind rustled through the reeds. Danzo looked up and saw a waterbird take fright and soar into the sky.
"...Waterbird River. From now on, your name will be Waterbird River Xue Ge."