The moment she saw the Stone ninja stand before her and look at her with murderous eyes.
Knowing she had lost all hope of escape, Shiina Kō suddenly began thinking wildly.
After she died, would Orochimaru-sensei, who looked so cold, feel sad? Would he be angry?
Would her parents in Konoha miss her?
Would that boy Yūichi on her team miss her?
What a shame. She had only just graduated and been assigned to such a capable, powerful teacher, and there was Shin'un, too. She had finally managed to get on the same team as him, only to die like this?
Thinking of Shin'un, Shiina Kō recalled something from several years ago, and her feelings grew even more complicated.
I was such a mess back then. He probably didn't recognize me at all.
That must be why he so often can't understand why I like him. He was so handsome the day he saved me, though.
When she was little, Shiina Kō's eldest uncle had run up gambling debts, and people from the casino had pursued him to Konoha.
Before the Uchiha Military Police Force strung them up and beat them, they had tried to abduct Shiina Kō and told her parents that unless they paid, they would sell her to a brothel to settle the debt.
Hounded by casinos and wandering bandits since she was little, the eight-year-old Shiina Kō had held an extremely pessimistic view of life and had never spent a single day training seriously. On top of that, those people had used a drug obtained through a trade with ninja that could leave a person's limbs weak.
On her way home from the Ninja Academy, Shiina Kō had fallen victim to it in a dark alley. Too weak even to speak, she could only watch as the casino men bound her tightly and stuffed her into a sack.
She listened to them discuss what to do with her: either take her back to the casino and raise her for their future enjoyment, or sell her straight to a brothel for money.
Shiina Kō had been utterly terrified, but the drug left her unable to move a single muscle. There was no way she could save herself, which terrified her even more.
Fortunately, with a person stuffed inside their sack, the group could not pass the security inspection at the Konoha Gate.
They could only find somewhere secluded in Konoha to hide first, then find a merchant caravan's wagon or a freight convoy the next day and slip out among them.
And so, while searching Konoha for somewhere secluded, they happened to run into Shin'un, who had headed to a secluded training ground in the village to train.
Both sides were clearly surprised. Someone actually trained at-or came to-this little training ground in a corner of Konoha?
Shiina Kō did not know what the two sides had said to each other.
She only felt the sack holding her begin swaying again after a brief pause.
Clearly, after finding someone at this secluded training ground, the kidnappers intended to leave with the sack holding Shiina Kō and find another deserted place to hide.
Inside the sack, Shiina Kō knew this might be her last chance to call for help.
Unfortunately, even with all her strength, the drugged Shiina Kō could not make her body move an inch.
Thud!
Shiina Kō had already sunk into despair when she suddenly heard the dull sound of a blow striking flesh nearby.
After several more strange sounds in quick succession, Shiina Kō felt the kidnapper carrying her suddenly let go.
"Ngh..."
The fall made Shiina Kō let out an involuntary grunt, and she grew curious about what was happening outside the sack.
Several seconds passed.
The sack around Shiina Kō was opened, and a shaft of sunlight shone in, lighting up her eyes.
A pair of rough, dusty hands reached into the sack and lifted Shiina Kō out.
The first thing Shiina Kō saw was Shin'un's silvery-white hair shining in the golden evening sunlight. The warm smile on his face was something she still could not forget.
In a dense forest in the Land of Rain, amid a torrential downpour.
Shiina Kō watched the Stone ninja before her raise his kunai and thrust it neatly toward her eye socket, and she instinctively closed her eyes.
Self-mockery filled her thoughts.
What was that? Memories before death?
The life flashing before your eyes that people always talk about?
Thinking of Shin'un, who had saved her several years ago, Shiina Kō smiled and waited for death.
Several seconds later.
"Hm?"
"What's going on?"
With the pain still not coming, Shiina Kō felt a little puzzled.
Were Stone ninja this slow now?
Bzzzt!
The familiar crackle of electricity sounded beside her, filling Shiina Kō with delighted surprise.
Opening her eyes, she saw that Shin'un had appeared beside her at some point. His right hand, wreathed in blue-violet electricity, gripped the Stone ninja's hand, stopping the kunai aimed at Shiina Kō's eye socket from advancing any farther.
Though the downpour had soaked Shin'un through and left him looking somewhat bedraggled, Shiina Kō saw a change in the gaze she remembered as always calm. His eyes were filled with anger as he looked at the Stone ninja.
As though sensing their master's emotions, the fine currents of electricity surrounding Shin'un grew wilder and stronger, roaring with ever greater force. With Shin'un at its center, a whole area around him was engulfed in fierce electrical currents.
Watching the currents rage outside yet turn especially docile beside her, unable to harm her in the slightest, Shiina Kō felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and touch them.
"Shiina Kō, what are you doing?"
Yūichi's loud question interrupted Shiina Kō's movement and snapped her out of her reverie.
Looking at the electricity that Shin'un's control kept especially docile around her, but which was still dangerous ninjutsu, she swallowed and wisely withdrew her outstretched hand.
Turning her head, Shiina Kō looked at Yūichi, who had crouched beside her at some point and was questioning her with concern all over his face, yet held kunai in both hands as though ready to slash someone.
Suppressing the pain, Shiina Kō shifted a little farther away before speaking.
"When did you get here?"
Yūichi froze, then tilted his head in confusion.
"I got here with Shin'un. Didn't you see me?"
Hearing that, Shiina Kō wisely skipped over the subject, concealing the fact that she had had eyes only for Shin'un.
"I'm fine. The wound on my thigh looks frightening, but luckily, the artery in my thigh hasn't ruptured. My life isn't in danger for now."
"But... with my thighbone broken like this, I can't move at all anymore."
After speaking, Shiina Kō took another look at the ghastly white shard of bone protruding from her thigh.
The series of events just now had left her no time to feel the pain. Only now, with her teammates beside her and feeling safe, did Shiina Kō feel waves of scalp-prickling pain wash over her.
In an instant, a sheen of sweat appeared on Shiina Kō's forehead. Only by holding back with all her strength did she keep from screaming.
"You damned brat!"
Hearing this, Shin'un looked up and saw the remaining two Stone ninja in the treetops overhead.
They held their kunai with savage expressions, itching to rush down from the treetops and slaughter Shin'un and the others. But the Stone ninja whose hand Shin'un gripped in his right hand, paralyzed by electricity and unable to resist, was effectively a hostage, keeping them from moving.
Shin'un ignored them and instead looked at Shiina Kō behind him, his gaze softening for a moment.
"Don't worry. Leave the remaining two to Yūichi and me."
With that, Shin'un immediately released his grip on the Stone ninja's hand, and the man fell stiffly to the ground, twitching.
Shin'un paid him no further attention. Under the effects of Shin'un's powerful electrical current, the Stone ninja had actually died long before.
It was only the twitching caused by the electricity stimulating his muscles that had misled the two Stone ninja in the trees into thinking their companion was still alive.
Watching the two Stone ninja in the trees, Shin'un spoke.
"Yūichi, one each!"
With that, Shin'un leaped straight up and charged toward the Special Jōnin among the two remaining Stone ninja.