"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."
The rooster crowed, and morning arrived...
Tsunade sprang energetically out of bed, but when she turned around, she saw Aoi Ren lying there, looking utterly drained, with dark circles under his eyes as big as Gaara's.
"Little Ren, what's wrong with you?" Instinctively, Tsunade pulled him into her embrace—making his expression drop even further.
He could smell it, feel it, even nuzzle against it... but stuck in a three-year-old's body, all that softness and warmth was nothing more than pure torture, with zero satisfaction...
"Are you sick, little Ren?"
She held him even tighter out of sympathy, and Aoi Ren could only stare upward in despair. Heavens! Why are you doing this to me? I'm supposed to be just a child!
Right as Aoi Ren was caught between bliss and agony, Orochimaru's cold voice drifted in from outside the tent.
"Tsunade, scouts report that the main forces of Kirigakure have arrived!"
Hearing this, Tsunade's expression instantly turned serious. She set Aoi Ren down and had her ANBU armor fully equipped in barely two seconds flat.
"Wait here for me, little Ren. I'll be back soon." She gently placed him back on the bed, her tone laced with worry. "Don't wander off, okay? I'll be really upset if you do..."
With that, she lifted the tent flap and strode straight out...
"Finally... freedom!" Aoi Ren breathed a huge sigh of relief. He stood up, ready to sneak after her and catch a glimpse of the legendary demigod himself. But just then...
A pale, slender arm suddenly pulled back the curtain, and Orochimaru's ashen face poked right in—meeting Aoi Ren just as he was looking completely relaxed and carefree.
After a long, awkward silence, Aoi Ren stretched out his arms with a cheeky grin. "Big brother... pick me up?"
"..."
Another long pause. Then, just as abruptly as he'd come, Orochimaru cracked a cold, sharp smile, turned, and slipped back out of the tent.
"..."
"Orochimaru... honestly, he was way cuter when he was little," Aoi Ren muttered, shaking his head helplessly, while his eyes glinted sharply. But I wonder... did he see through me just now?
If he hadn't been confused or curious, Orochimaru would never have let him go so easily.
He knew perfectly well Tsunade had left, and he'd come in alone for exactly one reason: to kill Aoi Ren.
No special reason. Just: You exist, so you die.
That was Orochimaru's twisted logic. But strangely... for some reason, he had changed his mind halfway through.
"How interesting... that little brat."
Outside the tent, Orochimaru walked away, flicking his tongue out with a wet, slithering sound.
"That look in his eyes... the way he moved... there's no way that was just a child!"
"Could it be... some kind of reverse aging technique?" Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.
He slightly lowered his sleeve, and several grey snakes slipped out silently, slithering quickly back toward Aoi Ren's tent.
Meanwhile, in a forest hundreds of kilometers away...
"Aaaaaah!!"
The dying scream of a man always sounded especially miserable. A terrifying figure wearing a gas mask slowly pulled a massive black scythe out from the chest of a Konoha ninja.
"It seems these Konoha shinobi discovered your movements long ago."
"Lord Hanzō! We were careless in our search—please forgive us!"
Nearly a hundred Amegakure ninja immediately fell to their knees, begging for mercy.
Seeing this, Hanzō shook his head slowly. He wasn't upset that their plans had been found out—he was disappointed by the cowardice and incompetence of his subordinates.
Even standing at the very peak of the ninja world, hailed as a demigod... it was impossible to survive and thrive in this chaotic era while leading a pack of useless fools like these.
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