Kirigakure, the village once known as the Village of the Bloody Mist, now carried a faint trace of life.
The streets had clearly been repaired.
The stone roads, once full of cracks and potholes, had been paved smooth.
More shops had opened along both sides.
There were vegetable stalls, shops selling daily goods, and even a newly opened dessert shop with a pink sign hanging above its entrance.
In the mist, it looked hazy and soft, like a flower blooming out of a swamp.
Every now and then, adults could be seen bringing children out to play.
The laughter of children drifted through the fog, completely different from the suffocating atmosphere of the past.
The adults still rarely smiled, but that was not because of fear.
It was habit.
People from Kirigakure had never been very good at smiling.
Even so, there was already something in their expressions that had not been there before.
Life.
The certainty that tomorrow would still come.
That should have been the most natural thing in the world.
But in this village, it was nothing short of a miracle.
And the man who had made that miracle possible was walking through the streets of Kirigakure at this very moment.
Uchiha Kurō.
No.
One of the most powerful figures in Kirigakure, the man who pushed forward the village’s reforms, the first Assistant to the Mizukage in Kirigakure’s history.
Shiina Sora had returned to his loyal Kirigakure!
“T-That’s… Sora-sama?!” A fishmonger who was closing up his stall was the first to notice him.
The wooden bucket in his hands nearly fell to the ground.
“Sora-sama, who almost never leaves his office, is actually… Are you taking a break today, sir?” The woman selling vegetables beside him quickly set down the scale in her hands.
“Sora-sama!
Sora-sama!
If you do not mind, please come rest in my shop!” The owner of a teahouse had already rushed to the doorway, still clutching the rag he used to wipe tables.
The smile on his face was so bright he hardly looked like someone from Kirigakure.
Kurō looked at the villagers of Kirigakure staring at him with blazing eyes, looking as if they were one step away from raising both hands and singing a hymn of welcome, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
He raised a hand, signaling for everyone to calm down, like an old leader inspecting the people.
After seeing “Sora’s” gesture, the villagers displayed a level of discipline that was the complete opposite of Konoha’s troublemaking civilians.
Not a single person spoke out of turn.
Not a single person stepped forward to get close.
Even the people watching consciously backed away to a distance of three meters.
Kurō could not help comparing them in his heart with those idle Konoha civilians who loved bullying people for no reason, and his mood immediately relaxed quite a bit.
Look at the villagers of Kirigakure.
Now this was emotional support!
Compared with them, the people of Konoha were simply unbearable to look at!
As someone who had personally witnessed the entire process of Konoha’s civilians coldly ostracizing Kakashi’s father, the hero of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo, Kurō found it very difficult to have a good impression of Konoha’s so-called villagers.
His gaze swept over the villagers as they returned to their work.
Looking at this village, which had changed so much compared with when he first arrived, Kurō could not help feeling somewhat moved.
“It has already been four years…” Seven years had passed since the Nine-Tails’ attack.
It had also been five years since he left Konoha.
Not counting the year he had spent following Obito around, squeezing experience points out of the inheritance left behind by old Madara, he had already been in Kirigakure for four years.
Four years was enough time for a dying village to grow flesh and blood again.
At first, Kurō had actually proposed coming to Kirigakure to take over management from Obito mostly because he wanted to stay away from that constantly heavy-breathing Obito and, “incidentally,” buy himself some time to quietly grow stronger.
He had even prepared his reasons.
Things like, “Kirigakure is an important piece in the Eye of the Moon Plan,” and, “Let me watch over this place for you while you focus on collecting the other tailed beasts.” But before he could even say all the arguments he had prepared to convince Obito, Obito immediately agreed.
Kurō: “???” No, that was wrong!
You were supposed to suspect why I made this proposal, say it was unnecessary, and then let me present a series of development strategies about how to use Kirigakure’s growth to advance the Infinite Tsukuyomi Plan.
Then you were supposed to exclaim, “With your aid, it is as if I have gained a great strategist,” and only then reluctantly agree to my plan!
Why did you agree so quickly?!
The dating-sim version of the ninja world should not work like this!
You are making me panic here.
Give me back the cold-blooded Uchiha Obito who did not recognize his own relatives!
Remembering those exhausting days when he had first taken office in Kirigakure, constantly keeping his nerves stretched tight and checking whether Obito was secretly peeping on him from nearby, Kurō could not help shaking his head inwardly.
After discovering that Obito really was not secretly monitoring him, Kurō had felt puzzled, but at the same time, a faint hope had risen in his heart.
What if Kenji could still be saved?
What if… Uchiha Obito was still a good Uchiha?
Somewhere, Tobirama was holding back laughter.
The Uchiha clansmen who had been wiped out: “You bastard!” “Sigh…” Kurō could not help sighing, silently letting go of that fantasy that should never have appeared in the first place.
I originally thought that guy might still be saveable, but now it seems I was the one who got too invested… A leopard can’t change its spots.
A rotten orange is still a rotten orange.
I need to prepare countermeasures as soon as possible.
Fortunately, over the years, he had also taken plenty of action in secret and left himself a few ways out.
A cold glint flashed through his eyes.
It was very faint, gone in an instant, as quick as mist being blown apart for one moment before closing again.
Looks like I need to make plans for the Mangekyō in Kakashi’s left eye sooner rather than later.
He calculated seriously in his heart.
Just as Kurō was about to head toward his base in Kirigakure, he seemed to sense something.
His gaze passed over the crowd and focused on two familiar figures up ahead.
On the street, a “girl” with long black hair and fair skin was staring at a snow-white rabbit inside a shop’s cage with a pair of large black eyes.
The rabbit huddled in the corner of the cage, its ruby-like eyes warily observing its surroundings as its long ears trembled slightly.
The child looked less than ten years old.
His features were so delicate it was almost unreasonable.
If not for his boyish clothes, anyone would have mistaken him for a girl.
The reflection of the rabbit appeared in the boy’s large eyes, and his gaze was so gentle it seemed it could melt into water.
Beside him, a tall figure spoke impatiently.
“If you like it, take it.
We still have training to do after this.
Don’t keep wasting time here, Haku.” Haku listened, then carefully looked up at the tall figure beside him and asked softly, “Zabuza-sensei, is… is it really okay?” Tch.
What a troublesome brat.
Zabuza, wearing a Kirigakure flak jacket, looked at the child staring at him with a face full of longing.
A trace of frustration flashed through his eyes as he complained inwardly.
He, the Demon of the Mist, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, an elite counted among Kirigakure’s best, had actually fallen so far that he was stuck babysitting here.
His gaze landed on Haku’s delicate face and those damp, pleading eyes.
That gaze was too clean.
So clean it made someone like him, whose hands were covered in blood, feel uncomfortable.
Why do I have to be the teacher of a brat like this in the first place?
What exactly was that lord thinking… Just as he was irritably preparing to answer, a teasing voice sounded beside his ear.
“Don’t always walk around with that corpse face.
You clearly like this kid, don’t you, Zabuza?” “Hah?!
What kind of joke is that?
I don’t…” Zabuza instinctively started to deny it.
A moment later, his body stiffened instantly.
Wait.
That voice!
He turned his head at once.
What entered his sight was a familiar figure with a gentle smile.
Looking at the person before him, Zabuza’s expression instantly changed from irritation to shock, and he could not help blurting out, “S-Sora sama!” Kurō looked at Zabuza and Haku in front of him, then smiled and waved at them.