"I understand. We'll be careful," Kiyohara said.
After that, he went out together with Kurenai and Genma to set up vigilance traps around the area.
For shinobi, traps were a compulsory subject.
They could greatly increase alertness and effectively prevent sudden enemy attacks.
By the time they finished all the preparations, night had completely fallen.
Lights lit up inside the orphanage, and faint laughter from the children could be heard, forming a stark contrast with the dull, distant rumbling coming from the front lines.
Kiyohara stood on the hillside, looking down at the orphanage below.
"Kiyohara, are you done setting up your area?" Kurenai asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," Kiyohara replied.
"That's good then…"
Kurenai stood beside him, also gazing at the lights of the orphanage.
"These children are really pitiful. Losing their parents at such a young age."
Kiyohara was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked,
"Kurenai, do you fear war?"
Kurenai froze briefly, then thought about it seriously.
"I'm afraid of it. But precisely because I'm afraid, I have to become stronger, so I can protect the people I want to protect."
"Would you protect me?" Kiyohara asked casually.
Kurenai widened her eyes, her crimson pupils staring straight at him.
"You're… my teammate. Of course I would."
Her hand clenched the hem of her skirt, looking a little shy and awkward.
"Just a teammate?" Kiyohara continued.
"Y-you… you…"
As Kiyohara suddenly leaned closer, his face approaching hers, she could even feel the warmth of his breath.
With that question, Kurenai stammered for a long time, unable to say anything coherent.
Although she tried her best to remain calm, her face visibly flushed, the redness slowly spreading all the way to the tips of her ears.
Every time Kiyohara saw that faint blush appear on Kurenai's slightly baby-faced cheeks, he felt a strange sense of contrast and anticipation.
Who would have thought that a woman like this would grow into such a cool, aloof, mature beauty in the future?
"Then why didn't you give me… give…"
Kurenai placed her hand on her wrist, as if she wanted to say something.
"I'm done setting things up over there."
At that moment, Genma walked over from the distance.
He glanced at the two of them and couldn't help scratching his head.
What did Kiyohara do to her this time? Why did she look so embarrassed?
"I… I'll go check again. I'm leaving first."
Seeing Genma arrive, Kurenai hurriedly left behind that sentence and fled almost as if she were escaping.
"What's wrong with her?" Genma asked.
He felt that something about their three-man team had become a little strange.
They had always been good teammates before, but now he felt oddly like a third wheel.
"It's nothing. Let's go check the rooms that were prepared for us," Kiyohara said.
He guessed that Kurenai had probably noticed the bracelet on Rin's wrist.
But her birthday was still some time away.
Hearing Kiyohara's words, Genma nodded.
The two of them returned to the orphanage, where Yakushi Nonō had already prepared simple rooms for the three of them.
Although the rooms were very small and were clearly makeshift spaces cleared out from storage, they were already quite decent under the circumstances.
Tonight, it was still Kiyohara's turn to keep watch.
This time, they adopted an all-night rotation system, meaning Kiyohara would be on guard for the entire night.
He summoned the invisible chameleon and tested his Lightning Release cell-stimulation technique on it.
This time, he experimented for an even longer period, putting many of his ideas into actual practice.
Under the guidance of Uchiha Kiyohara's spiritual form, he gradually began to grasp certain patterns.
The key to stimulating cells lay in frequency and intensity.
If the frequency was too high, it would cause muscle spasms; too low, and there would be no effect.
The intensity also had to be just right—too strong would damage nerves, too weak would be useless.
While Kiyohara was training and controlling his Lightning Release chakra, Yakushi Nonō stood by the window of her office, quietly watching in his direction from afar.
A thoughtful glint passed through her eyes.
"That child… his chakra control is terrifyingly precise," Yakushi Nonō murmured softly.
"If I were Lord Danzo, he would definitely take an interest in someone like this."
She shook her head, casting the thought aside.
Now, she was merely the head of an orphanage, a normal woman who just wanted to protect the children and see them grow up safely.
As for the things of the past, she would let them remain in the past.
The next day.
Yakushi Nonō woke up early and began checking the donation box.
Just like religious organizations placing donation boxes in buildings, the orphanage also had one.
It accepted help from kind villagers.
Sometimes it was money; other times it was goods—grain, oil, rice, flour, and the like.
Back when she was in Konoha, Nonō had never worried about money, even viewing it as worthless.
But after running an orphanage, especially one of a charitable nature she finally understood just how important money truly was.
"Because of the war, everyone is having a hard time," Nonō said quietly.
She noticed that fewer and fewer people had been coming to donate recently.
A shinobi world war was not merely a battle between shinobi.
It affected the entire world's situation, impacting everyone to some degree.
When it came to donations, people naturally had to ensure their own survival first.
Yet, because of the war, the number of orphans continued to increase.
This widening gap meant the orphanage was now facing the reality of an impending financial deficit.
"Headmistress, don't worry. I'll go check a few nearby towns later," the plump nun said, comforting Yakushi Nonō when she saw the worry on her face.
She, the bespectacled man, and Yakushi Nonō were all people who genuinely wanted the orphanage to become better.
"Thank you for your hard work," Nonō said.
After counting everything, she recorded the figures in the ledger.
When she looked back, she noticed that Kiyohara was still training.
"This has already gone on all night… even with breaks in between…"
With her experience, Yakushi Nonō silently marveled at Kiyohara's chakra reserves.
Even an average jonin wouldn't have that much chakra.
She looked at Kiyohara's age.
He was only about fourteen or fifteen.
Most shinobi enrolled at the age of six, and after six years of study, graduated at around twelve.
In other words, twelve years old was the starting point for most genin.
And yet, in just a few short years, Kiyohara already possessed such an enormous amount of chakra?
Nonō observed him carefully but didn't find any clan crest or symbol on him.
Then she shook her head again.
Even among clans with secret techniques or kekkei genkai, someone like Kiyohara was exceedingly rare.
"Good morning, Headmistress Nonō," Kiyohara said to her.
His shift had ended, and he planned to go sleep for a few hours.
"Good morning, Kiyohara-kun," Nonō nodded slightly, her eyes reflecting the face of this young shinobi.
For personal reasons, she always had more patience with children under eighteen.
"Were you just counting the donated items?" Kiyohara asked.
Behind Yakushi Nonō, the plump nun and the bespectacled man were sorting the contents of the donation box.
"Yes," Nonō nodded.
"Then may I offer a bit of goodwill?" Kiyohara asked.
"Of course," Nonō said, stepping aside.
Kiyohara then took out a portion of money from his shinobi pouch.
The donation amounted to eighty thousand ryō.
For ordinary civilians, that was already a considerable sum.
And given that this was during wartime, it was even more precious.
"This…"
Nonō's mouth fell slightly open.
She had thought that Kiyohara would donate just a few hundred or a few thousand ryō as a symbolic gesture, but instead, he directly put out eighty thousand ryō.
Seeing Nonō's expression, Kiyohara knew exactly what she was thinking.
According to the official databook's settings, one ryō was equivalent to ten yen.
Converted into the world of his previous life, this sum was close to forty thousand in cash…
The amount was indeed not small.
That was why shinobis, overall, actually had fairly strong money-making capabilities—only, the disparity was extreme: the strong grew richer, while the weak barely scraped by.
Shinobis without sufficient strength could only earn hard, dangerous money.
And they also had to calculate the battle loss ratio. After a single fight, it was entirely possible that the reward wouldn't even cover the cost of the battle, forcing them to pay out of pocket instead.
"This… this is far too much, Kiyohara-kun,"
Yakushi Nonō said as she walked over.
"No, this is just a small bit of kindness within my means,"
Kiyohara replied with a faint smile.
He could now be considered someone with a modest fortune of his own, all of it earned through diligent effort.
After all, the valuable equipment carried by the ANBU and jonin of Kirigakure had fetched quite a bit of money when sold.
With the dark and bloody system of the so-called "Bloody Mist Village," they never dared to skimp on their gear—otherwise, if they died, everything would be lost for nothing.
"By the way, when you're treating the injured, Headmistress, would it be alright if I came to observe during my free time? I'm personally very interested in medical ninjutsu, and I do know a bit about it myself,"
Kiyohara added, voicing a small request of his own.
After all, when you accept something from someone, it's hard to refuse them afterward.
Someone like Yakushi Nonō, a spy by nature, would inevitably be extremely adept at social dealings; otherwise, she would never have been able to deeply infiltrate various nations and obtain intelligence.
"This… of course that won't be a problem,"
Yakushi Nonō nodded slightly.
Medical ninjutsu was the art of saving lives and healing the wounded.
It seemed that Kiyohara wasn't just extraordinarily talented—deep down, he was likely a kind person as well.
"Then I'll be in your care from now on, Headmistress,"
Kiyohara said with a gentle smile.
Yakushi Nonō was far easier to talk to than he had imagined.
Was it because the orphanage had already reached such a severe financial deficit?
With the Sharingan, continuous close-range observation meant that he could essentially learn by watching.
It was just a matter of how many different medical ninjutsu Yakushi Nonō would end up displaying.
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Kiyohara went to find Kurenai and Genma. After having a simple breakfast there, the other two shinobi squads also arrived.
Following a brief discussion, each team chose a route and began their patrols.
…
In a cave within the nearby mountain range.
A red-haired shinobi with delicate features was processing a human body.
He removed the organs from the corpse, coated them with a specially prepared substance, and then installed mechanical mechanisms.
"No, this still isn't right. This is a desecration of art."
Sasori frowned. Despite his refined appearance, there was a fierce, violent aura about him.
He directly flung the half-finished puppet beside him away.
Bang!
Blood and mechanical components spilled out of the body.
"If I want to completely remodel my entire body, I'll need far more experimentation,"
Sasori muttered coldly to himself.
Ever since poisoning and killing the Third Kazekage, Sasori had left Suna.
By now, he had already modified a large portion of his body.
Among the puppet masters of Sunagakure, the degree of modification he had undergone was already considered extremely high.
Most puppet masters only modified their arms, making it easier to ambush enemies and better manipulate puppets using chakra threads.
But Sasori was different, his true ambition was to turn his entire body into a puppet.
Flesh was suffering; only the way of puppets could be eternal.
So-called flesh would eventually age and wither, ugly things destined for decay.
Only "eternal beauty" was true art!
"Bring me five new bodies. Preferably children,"
Sasori said to the other shinobis in the cave.
A child's flesh was more fragile than that of an adult.
But the parts he planned to modify next required extreme caution, and he needed to accumulate more experience in advance.
Only when success was absolutely guaranteed would Sasori make his move.
"Yes."
As his words fell, several Sand shinobi quickly departed.
Their eyes briefly flashed with emptiness. If someone with the Byakugan were present, they would be able to see something like a needle embedded deep within their brains.
That needle continuously released Sasori's chakra into them.
...
Night fell, and several more days passed.
Time ticked by second by second, and the darkness grew deeper.
It was now the dead of night.
At the orphanage, the lights were turned off at nine o'clock.
Aside from the plump nun who occasionally woke up to check on the children, and the shinobi responsible for external vigilance, there were no other sounds.
Soft, rustling footsteps began to sound faintly.
"This time, the objective is to collect five orphans."
Wearing a white headscarf that covered his forehead and temples, Yura looked toward the orphanage ahead.
The orphanage lights were already out.
But he knew that there were definitely other shinobis lurking here.
The reason was simple: not far away was a shinobi residential area, so there would inevitably be shinobi on guard.
They had secretly made their way here.
While resting, Kiyohara quietly opened his eyes.
He sensed the intruders earlier than both Genma and Kurenai.
Kiyohara untied the iron sand thread wrapped around his fingers and observed the figures outside the window from the shadows.
Several indistinct silhouettes were silently approaching from the mountain forest.
Their movements were light, making almost no sound—clearly all of them were seasoned shinobi.
The leader wore the standard Sand shinobi uniform, but had a dark cloak draped over it.
A mask covered his face. There was a small tuft of beard on his chin, and long hair obscured the right side of his face.
This peculiar appearance made Kiyohara think of someone.
Yura of Sunagakure?
One of Sasori of the Red Sand's secret subordinates?
In the original story, Yura was a spy planted by Sasori in Sunagakure, controlled using the "Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique".
This technique involved inserting an extremely tiny needle through the brain's memory center, sealing the target's memories.
Of course, once the technique was released, the needle would disappear and the memories could be restored.
However, a technique capable of selectively sealing memories could easily be manipulated to brainwash the target, implanting false memories for one's own use.
So, was this operation Sasori's personal decision, or was it ordered by Suna?
Kiyohara rubbed his chin. Sasori likely had more than just Yura as a spy within Sunagakure.
Under a technique like the Memory-Concealing Manipulative Sand Technique, without something like the Byakugan to see through it, it was extremely difficult to detect spies.
Several figures silently approached the orphanage and stopped when they were about twenty meters from the outer traps.
Yura, at the front, made a few hand signals. The puppet master immediately unrolled scrolls and summoned several puppets.
These puppets were intricately structured, with flexible joints, resembling finely crafted wooden figures.
At that moment, Kiyohara transmitted a signal through the Magnet Release iron sand threads.
This was the alarm method they had agreed upon beforehand where slight vibrations would be transmitted to the other two.
Almost simultaneously, Genma and Kurenai received the warning.
"When did they get here?"
Genma, who was guarding outside, looked shocked.
It was his turn on night watch today, yet he hadn't detected anything at all.
Meanwhile, Kiyohara, who was supposed to be resting, had already triggered the alert.
Such sensory ability made Genma suck in a cold breath.
Had Kiyohara's perception grown even stronger again?
At the same time, Kurenai came out of her room and went to notify the orphanage headmistress, Yakushi Nonō.
"Headmistress Nonō, it seems shinobis are attacking. Please be extremely careful."
Kurenai stressed that the children needed to be evacuated as quickly as possible.
After that, she turned and headed outside. Since the enemies had arrived, they would have to face them.
Their mission was to protect this place.
…
The orphanage remained unlit, everything eerily silent, as if nothing had happened at all.
Yet Yura sensed something amiss. He raised his arm, signaling the team to halt.
Those eyes swept across the surroundings, eventually settling on the direction of the orphanage.
"Have we been discovered?"
Kiyohara frowned slightly.
Looks like he's got some real skill.
Yura did not act immediately, instead nodding to the puppet master.
Several puppets advanced at once, preparing to trigger the traps and scout the way.
At that moment, Kiyohara moved.
Standing by a second-floor window of the orphanage, he pulled both hands sharply.
On the left side of the window was a narrow gap concealed by a curtain.
In an instant, the pre-laid iron sand threads snapped tight.
Dozens of iron sand threads as thin as hair shot out from the ground, tree trunks, and grass, spreading like a massive net toward the Sunagakure squad.
"Trap!"
A shinobi wielding twin curved blades shouted in alarm, swinging both weapons and severing several iron sand threads.
The puppet master controlled his puppets to block the attack, but the threads were far too fine, and the puppets' movements weren't agile enough. Two puppets had their joints entangled, their motions immediately slowing.
Only Yura neither dodged nor retreated. With a swing of a puppet's arm, he precisely caught all the iron sand threads shooting toward him and yanked hard!
The iron sand threads connected through Magnet Release instantly snapped apart.
Genma quickly moved in to provide support.
"Shinobi Art: Thousand-Needle Rain!"
Genma's shout tore through the night sky. The senbon clenched in his mouth multiplied instantly, transforming into hundreds of cold flashes that poured down toward the Sand squad!
These specially made senbon let out sharp whistling sounds as they cut through the air, covering an enormous area and nearly sealing off all avenues of evasion.
"Scatter!"
Yura ordered in a deep voice, and several figures retreated simultaneously.
The puppet master controlled three puppets to form a barrier in front. Dull impacts echoed as the wooden surfaces were struck, senbon embedding deeply into them.
The shinobi wielding curved blades swung both weapons without pause, the clang of metal ringing out as he knocked every senbon aimed at him out of the air.
Kurenai's figure emerged from within the orphanage.
(End of Chapter)