The teacher dropped from the tree and scanned the scene.
Three children; one was leaning against a tree root, pale-faced, while another was barely holding on, supported by the girl.
A little further away, an adult lay prone on the ground, clothes mostly burnt, clearly not a student.
The teacher’s brow furrowed, and he walked quickly toward the fallen man.
Tsunade was supporting Kitahara Kaede.
Her hand rested on his right arm, very lightly, deliberately avoiding the area of his left ribs.
“After the teacher finishes confirming, we—”
Her words cut off midway.
Just as the teacher was about to reach the Rogue Ninja—the Rogue Ninja pulled his right hand out from beneath him.
He was clutching a piece of paper.
A Paper Bomb, the seal already lit.
He didn’t throw it toward the two children, but instead flung it at the approaching teacher.
The teacher’s reaction was instinctual; he leaned his upper body back while his hands were already forming seals.
“Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!”
A wall of earth rose from the ground, just barely blocking the space between the teacher and the Paper Bomb.
A muffled explosion sounded, and fragments of earth splattered from the top of the wall.
The teacher was pushed back two steps by the shockwave, his ears ringing, his vision completely obscured by the wall and dust.
He immediately moved to the side of the wall—
On the other side of the wall.
The Rogue Ninja had already sprung up from the ground.
He had a Kunai in his hand, charging straight toward Kitahara Kaede and Tsunade’s direction.
Kitahara Kaede’s Chakra was bottomed out, his limbs felt weak, and he was a bit dizzy, but his vision was clear.
He had already seen the opponent’s movements.
Tsunade’s hand was still resting on his arm.
Kitahara Kaede gave her a hard push.
Tsunade stumbled backward, falling into the bushes, her back hitting low branches, and she let out a muffled groan of pain.
She scrambled back up, brushing aside the leaves blocking her face—and saw Kitahara Kaede open his right palm, directly facing the incoming blade.
The Kunai pierced through his palm and came out the back of his hand.
Blood dripped down the iron handle.
Kitahara Kaede tightened his fingers, gripping both the Kunai and the Rogue Ninja’s hand firmly.
The Rogue Ninja couldn’t pull it out, couldn’t break free.
Kitahara Kaede raised his leg and kicked him in the Adam’s apple.
His windpipe had already been scorched by Fire Release, and this kick hit the vital spot.
The Rogue Ninja collapsed, and this time, he didn’t get back up.
When the teacher came around from behind the earth wall, this was the scene he saw.
Kitahara Kaede stood in place.
His right hand hung down, the Kunai still piercing through his palm, blood dripping onto the muddy ground drop by drop.
A seven-year-old child.
The teacher’s footsteps faltered for a moment, then he walked over faster.
Kitahara Kaede didn’t look at the teacher, turning his head to look at the bushes.
Tsunade was sitting on the ground.
All her attention was on his right hand, on the Kunai that had pierced through it.
Kitahara Kaede raised his left hand and waved it at her.
“Superficial wound.”
Tsunade’s tears fell immediately.
There was no sound; she bit her lip until it turned white, refusing to let out a single sob, but she couldn’t stop the tears.
Kitahara Kaede watched her like this, and the tension in his heart eased slightly.
Actually, his hand hurt a lot.
The pain of the Kunai piercing his palm was dull and heavy, pulsing through his bones with every heartbeat, but he could endure it.
—Tsunade’s reaction like this, the score should be enough.
Thinking this, the pain in his hand didn’t seem so important anymore.
The teacher pressed two fingers against the Rogue Ninja’s carotid artery.
He only pulled back after confirming there was no pulse.
He turned around, his gaze falling on the Kunai in Kitahara Kaede’s hand, and he was silent for a breath.
He didn’t speak first.
He took a bandage and a tube of hemostatic ointment from his vest pocket.
“…Come here.”
Kitahara Kaede walked over and placed his hand in the teacher’s palm.
The teacher held his wrist steady with one hand and gripped the handle of the Kunai with the other.
“Bear with it.”
The Kunai was pulled out.
Blood gushed from both his palm and the back of his hand, more than expected.
Kitahara Kaede didn’t make a sound; his face turned another shade of pale, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
The teacher squeezed the hemostatic ointment into the wound, then wrapped it tightly with three layers of bandage.
The movements were fast, the technique seasoned.
After wrapping it, the teacher looked up at him.
He seemed to want to say something but stopped.
Finally, he only said one sentence: “You have a lot of guts.”
The tone was indistinguishable between praise or scolding.
Tsunade walked over and stood next to Kitahara Kaede, neither reaching out nor speaking.
She just stood there.
She was very close, so close that Kitahara Kaede could hear her forcing herself to control her breathing, preventing herself from crying again.
Kitahara Kaede’s peripheral vision caught another figure.
Jiraiya.
The white-haired child walked over step by step from the tree roots.
One of his hands was still clutching his stomach, his face pale, his steps unsteady.
He had seen it when the Rogue Ninja suddenly attacked; he had seen it all.
He wanted to move.
He wanted to stand up and rush over, to do something.
But his legs wouldn’t listen, his knees lacked strength, and he slid down from the tree roots and scrambled back up, but by the time he got up, it was already over.
Jiraiya’s gaze landed on Kitahara Kaede’s bandaged right hand, lingering for a few seconds.
Dark red seeped out from under the bandage.
Jiraiya didn’t speak.
Kitahara Kaede glanced at him without overthinking it.
Jiraiya’s emotions weren’t important; he wasn’t the target of his conquest. Get faster updates on g.com.
“Let’s go back.”
The teacher stood up, picked up the Rogue Ninja, “The exercise is over, follow me.”
The three children followed behind him down the mountain.
Kitahara Kaede walked in the middle.
Tsunade would occasionally turn her head while walking, glancing at his hanging right hand.
Only when the dark red on the bandage didn’t spread further did she look away.
After a while, she would look again.
Jiraiya didn’t speak the whole way.
He was usually the most talkative.
No matter the occasion, he could always find something to say, could chase after Tsunade to chat for half a day during breaks, and even if he was rebuffed, he would just laugh it off.
Now, he didn’t say a word.
He walked with his head down, staring at the road under his feet, occasionally kicking a pebble, not even looking where it rolled after kicking it.
As they neared the school gate, Jiraiya suddenly spoke up.
“Hey.”
His voice was very soft, a huge difference from his usual volume.
Kitahara Kaede turned his head.
“Teach me.”
Two words, abrupt and without context.
Kitahara Kaede looked at him for two seconds and thought about it.
Jiraiya.
One of the future “Sannin of Konoha,” the Toad Sage, the teacher of the Fourth Hokage.
Right now, he was just a seven-year-old child.
He had been kicked away by a Rogue Ninja, slammed into a tree and slid down, watching others protect the people he wanted to protect.
But there was something in his eyes.
It wasn’t talent; it was something rarer than talent.
“Pass the passing grade for the Taijutsu class first.”
Kitahara Kaede turned his head back and kept walking.
“…Does that mean you agreed?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t.”
At the school gate.
The three stopped, and after the teacher gave some instructions, he took the Rogue Ninja to report.
Tsunade reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Kitahara Kaede’s left hand.
“Don’t use your hand to catch a blade again.”
Her voice was flat, like she was saying “The weather is nice today,” or perhaps like she was saying “If you do that again, I won’t talk to you.”
Kitahara Kaede looked down at the sleeve she was clutching.
“Okay.”
Tsunade let go, stood there for two seconds, then turned and walked away.
She walked three steps, stopped, and looked back at him.
“Let’s go, to the hospital to treat the wound.”
Kitahara Kaede followed her.