Kirigakure, a corner no one cared about.
A boy and a girl, two teens, were fighting each other.
Two wine cups were thrown on the ground, clearly showing they had each drunk a toast before starting.
Both of them were graduates who had appeared in the intelligence records.
The boy was named Chojuro, an S-ranked "prodigy," only two years older than Sasuke, and the youngest student in this year's graduating class.
The girl was named Ryuna, an ordinary B-ranked graduate.
The two had grown up together as childhood friends. Ryuna was three years older than Chojuro and usually took care of him like a big sister. With Kirigakure's twisted sense of humor, they were naturally put in the same group to fight a duel as their graduation ceremony.
They didn't want to be like fighting cocks in an underground gambling den, being watched by a crowd of gamblers. So, they chose to fight in a deserted corner to choose the final survivor.
This was a fight with no suspense.
Although Chojuro was three years younger than Ryuna, his swordsmanship was excellent. He didn't even use Ninjutsu and had already gained complete control.
Chojuro's blade stopped an inch from Ryuna's chest, unable to stab any further.
"Ryuna, let's run away, let's become rogue ninja, and wander."
Ryuna looked at the blade and slowly shook her head.
"We can't escape. Other ninja villages mostly turn a blind eye to rogue ninja, but Kirigakure will hunt us down to the death. If we escape, we'll both die."
As she spoke, she took a step forward, letting the blade tear her clothes and touch her chest.
Chojuro stood there blankly, tears streaming from his eyes.
A touch of red bled out, but Ryuna smiled, as she always did, cupping Chojuro's face and wiping away his tears.
"That's good. Kill me and live on better for me."
Ryuna was about to take another step when a strange voice came from behind:
"Excuse me, little kids, please stop for a moment."
They looked in the direction of the voice. A man with a cold face walked out of the dark corner, holding an intelligence record in his hand. He looked them up and down with a cold gaze, more like inspecting goods than looking at people.
"Who are you?"
Chojuro raised his sword at him.
The cold man glanced at Chojuro and suddenly grinned widely.
"Chojuro, right? Sorry, my boss, Mr. Gato, bet that this Miss Ryuna would win."
The cold man slowly pulled out a scythe from behind him.
"I don't want to kill you, but it's a subordinate's duty to help his boss, right? I was wondering how to kill an S-ranked prodigy, but now it seems—"
He raised his eyebrows at Chojuro:
"If you want this woman to live, then stand still and don't move. Killing you is indirectly saving her, right?"
Chojuro was silent, then slowly lowered the sword in his hand.
The man in front of him was right.
This was the only way to save Ryuna.
He threw away the sword, closed his eyes, and no matter how Ryuna shouted for him to run, Chojuro didn't move.
He was ready to die.
The cold man waved the scythe and rushed over, laughing.
This is such an easy job!
Zzzzt—
A faint golden lightning flashed. Before the cold man could react, he instinctively swung the scythe in his hand. But halfway through the swing, he froze in the air. Then, a huge force came, and the cold man's wrist hurt sharply, causing him to kneel on the ground.
A shadow covered him.
Linto looked down at him, "You just said, who is your boss?"
"M-Mr. Gato."
"The one from the Land of Waves?" Linto asked.
The cold man felt the urge to suck up, and instinctively wanted to rebuke him, asking "Besides Mr. Gato from the Land of Waves, who else deserves to be called 'Mr.'", but after meeting Linto's eyes, his fierce gaze immediately became clear:
"Yes, sir, it's Mr. Gato from the Land of Waves. Are you and Mr. Gato acquaintances?"
"You could say we have some history."
Linto thought of the bags of D-grade items he had thrown off the transport ship, helped the cold man up, and patted the dust off his pants, asking gently:
"Gato is in Kirigakure?"
"Yes, sir. Do you need me to lead the way—"
The cold man stopped in place.
Zzzzt... Click!
Two discs popped out, one memory and one Ninjutsu. Linto glanced at the contents of the memory and came to a four-word conclusion:
Not worth saving.
Linto said calmly, "No need to trouble you, I'll go by myself."
He gave him a gentle push. The cold man fell heavily to the ground like a log, staring at the sky with wide eyes, like a walking corpse.
Even though Chojuro was a prodigy, his view was limited to Kirigakure. He had never seen such strange methods as Linto's, and only felt that the man's back view was like a night sky, blocking out the sun and making it hard to breathe.
He grabbed Ryuna's hand and carefully retreated, planning to escape from here first.
But just as Chojuro lifted one leg, he heard Linto say, "Where do you think you're going? To find another place to kill yourselves?"
Chojuro stopped running away.
Yes, what was the point of running?
The problem wasn't solved. One of them would die, and the one left would live in regret, feeling worse than dead.
"Suicide... what's wrong with that?"
Chojuro held the sword tightly with both hands, and said with his head down, "I just want to end the pain."
Linto chuckled.
"What are you laughing at?" Chojuro looked up.
He wore black-rimmed glasses, looking more like a bookworm than a ninja.
"I'm laughing at you. You know everything, so why do you still choose to do the wrong thing?"
Linto said, "What you want to end is the pain, not the life.
Your life has just begun, and there will be countless complex fates waiting for you in the future. Once you choose death, your future will disappear, and your fate will be reduced to a single line—
Which is your incredibly painful life right now."
Linto reached out a finger and pointed to Ryuna.
She instinctively wanted to back away, but found that her body was fixed by an invisible force. She could only watch Linto's finger point to her shoulder.
A faint warmth came.
Ryuna felt a tingle in her chest. When she came back to her senses, the wound had already scabbed over and healed.
"Go back."
Linto waved his hand, "Go back and get a good night's sleep. Maybe a miracle will happen tomorrow, and none of you will have to die."
Chojuro and Ryuna stared blankly at Linto.
If someone else said the above words, they would only think that person was crazy. But for some reason, when they came from the man in front of them, they had an indescribable magic, as if…
A miracle really would happen.
Chojuro and Ryuna ran away hand in hand.
Linto didn't know if they would give up on suicide. This was their life, and Linto couldn't interfere too much.
He picked up the disc and, according to the cold man's memories, walked towards Kabuki Street, intending to chat with the merchant from the Land of Waves.
The afterglow of the setting sun gradually faded, and Linto walked in the street, his figure gradually swallowed by the thick fog.
Suddenly, he felt he was being watched, and he abruptly turned his head to look.
The distance was empty. There were only buildings looming in the mist.
At the same time, Obito pulled the curtain, blocking Linto's gaze.
"He's really sharp."
Pain's Rinnegan stared coldly at Obito: "Now that you've found him, why not kill him?"
"Don't worry, the actors aren't in position yet. There are too many rustling cockroaches hidden in Kirigakure. We have to kill them all in one go to clean everything up."
Obito stood up, and the Sharingan behind the mask's hole slowly turned:
"Let's go, first cut off their 'retreat'."
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