Gathering in Kirigakure

Good companionship did not mean offering comfort as though one possessed the truth.

The best way to respond to tears was silence.

Quiet companionship.

Liumu did not know how to comfort people. All he could do was sit shoulder to shoulder with Tsunade without making a sound.

Tsunade looked at the tissues in front of her, then raised her eyes to Liumu beside her. His clear gaze was as limpid as the bright moon.

The world was bitterly cold, and all things lay silent. Candlelight dotted Kirigakure not far away. Only Liumu and the others bathed together in the moonlight, thinking over their next move amid the cold and their vigilance.

"Could you tell me about your little brother?"

Liumu propped himself up with both hands and tilted his head toward the sky.

"Nawaki?"

Liumu nodded.

Seeing Liumu nod, Tsunade seemed to sink into her memories, a faint smile appearing on her face.

"He wasn't like a genius such as you. He was pretty dumb." Tsunade pulled her cloak tighter around herself and rested her hands on her knees. "When we were little, I used to bully him and make him my little follower. Whenever the elders caught me causing trouble, I'd make him take the blame."

"The thing he said most often every day was that he wanted to be like Grandpa and become the Hokage of Konoha when he grew up, so I was always knocking his confidence."

As Tsunade spoke, her eyes grew wet again. Two trails of clear tears slipped down her cheeks, and even her voice began to tremble.

"Then he was gone, in the war. When I heard the news, I thought he was joking with me like he used to. It wasn't until I saw his body that my sky completely... collapsed."

Her words faltered, and silence settled around them again. Liumu glanced at Tsunade beside him, slowly stood up, took off his cloak, and draped it over her back.

Feeling the added weight on her, Tsunade looked blankly at Liumu.

The six-year-old Liumu stood beside her, a trace of languor and resolve showing in his grown-up expression.

"Someone once told me something. He said the sky is vast, and if you want to hold it up, you have to put in more strength than other people."

"But if you grow up and feel tired or worn out, that's all right too. Just lower your raised hands whenever you like, because there are plenty of other people around holding it up."

"Even if the sky really does collapse, there'll be tall people to hold it up. Insignificant little people like us only need to keep our heads down and cheer them on."

As Liumu spoke, he looked toward the distant bushes, a faint smile on his lips. He lowered his head toward Tsunade, and their eyes met.

"I'll definitely be taller than you when I grow up, so I'll hold up your patch of sky."

With that, Liumu leaped up and shot like a meteor straight into the distant darkness.

"That little brat..."

Tsunade smiled toward the direction Liumu had left, a faint flutter stirring in her heart.

"It's you lot!"

"It's you!"

Liumu looked at Yugito Nii and the group of Kumogakure ninja before him. Even A and Killer B were crouching among them.

"Lightning Release:..."

"Stop!"

The Kumogakure ninja immediately moved to unleash ninjutsu at the sight of Liumu, but A stopped them.

A bent down in front of Liumu, his mustache lifted as he looked him up and down. "Your people from Konoha are here too, aren't they?"

Liumu smiled faintly at that.

As for why Kumogakure's ninja were here, Liumu figured their reason was probably exactly the same as his own.

Everyone knew perfectly well. Why bother probing each other?

Killer B looked at Liumu's silhouette in the darkness and found it unusually familiar. Only after Liumu spoke did he confirm who he was.

"So it really was you that night."

As Killer B spoke, he had already assumed a battle-ready stance.

A glanced at Killer B in confusion, then turned back to Liumu. After thinking it over, he too realized what Killer B meant.

Yugito Nii had not had much contact with Liumu. Although they had all been opponents in the Chunin Exams, the two had never fought.

But from Liumu's ability to subdue Han in an instant alone, Yugito Nii could imagine what he was capable of.

Kumogakure had summoned both of the village's Jinchūriki to Kirigakure, and even the A-B brothers, A and Killer B, were among its ninja. It seemed they valued the Three-Tails enough to commit almost everything they had.

"Relax."

Liumu waved to Killer B. "I won't beat you up this time. Besides, we're all on Kirigakure territory now. There's no need for infighting, is there?"

Liumu had barely finished speaking when another faint disturbance came from the distant grove of bare trees.

Liumu focused his gaze in that direction. A snorted coldly. "It should be that bunch from Iwagakure. We saw them before coming onto the island too."

Liumu smiled faintly at his words. "So the people from the Chunin Exams have all gathered here again?"

With the Three-Tails appearing, almost no faction would pass up such an opportunity.

There was no need to explain how important Jinchūriki were to a village. Otherwise, they would not all have appeared here together.

Although Liumu was only a six-year-old child, none of these Kumogakure ninja treated him as one.

Besides, Killer B's beating had long since ceased to be a secret among Kumogakure's higher-ups. Who would dare treat someone who could clash head-on with a Jinchūriki using Tailed Beast Transformation as an ordinary child?

Liumu returned to Konoha's base and promptly told everyone that ninja from Kumogakure and Iwagakure had appeared here.

Orochimaru said cryptically, "Their presence here might not be a bad thing for us."

They had yet to find any trace of the Three-Tails. If ninja from every village searched for it, the odds of it appearing would increase accordingly.

That was better than Orochimaru and Liumu searching for a needle in a haystack.

"Then what if it's found?" Yuhi Shinku asked in a low voice, looking at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smiled faintly, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes.

"We take it!"

As members of the Sannin, Orochimaru and Tsunade certainly knew of A and Killer B's partnership.

Moreover, Killer B and Yugito Nii were both Jinchūriki who could skillfully control their Tailed Beasts. With only the Konoha personnel currently present, taking on Kumogakure was truly unlikely to be possible.

During the Chunin Exams, Yugito Nii's strength had not been limited to what she had shown. Only after Tailed Beast Transformation was she a complete Jinchūriki.

"Go get some rest. I'll take another look at their underground prison tonight."

Orochimaru stood after speaking and said gravely, "Minato, keep a close watch."

Inside the cave, Konoha's group concealed their tracks with white snow, then began taking turns resting.

Minato paired up with Yuhi Shinku, while Liumu paired up with Tsunade.

The cave was not large. Minato used wooden boards to divide it down the middle into two makeshift rooms.

Tsunade watched in astonishment as Liumu brazenly crawled under her covers, then grabbed him by the ear and hauled him out.

"Go sleep over there!"

"No!" Hugging a pillow made from rolled-up clothes, Liumu said with a "terrified" expression, "I'm scared to sleep alone."

"Scared?"

Tsunade frowned at the young child standing before her, her eyes full of insistence.

After a long while, Tsunade sighed. Finally seeming to let it go, she lifted a corner of her blanket and said to Liumu, "Only at times like this do you really act your age."