“I want to have your children!”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, I’m a little nervous!
What I meant to say is: please have my children!”
“I didn’t hear that clearly.
Could you say it again?”
“Please have my chil—”
Bang!
A gigantic iron fan slammed sideways.
A figure flew backward, rolled across the ground for more than twenty meters, and only stopped after crashing through an abandoned mud wall.
The blonde girl left behind nothing but her furious retreating figure.
As the dust settled, a ninja with distinctive face paint and a bandaged puppet strapped to his back slowly walked out from behind the ruins.
“Hey, are you dead?”
A large hand pushed away the bricks piled on top of him, and the battered young man staggered back to his feet.
“Thanks to you, I’m still alive for the moment, Kankuro.
I really owe you this time…”
“You’re really an idiot!
If I’d known you were going to say such insane things to Temari, I never would’ve helped you call her out!”
“You don’t understand, little brother-in-law—”
“Who the hell is your brother-in-law?
Stay away from me.
I don’t want your stupidity to be contagious!”
Kankuro wore a look of utter disgust.
He had no desire to keep breathing the same air as this fool who claimed to be Temari’s childhood friend.
“With how sincere I am toward your sister, isn’t it only a matter of time?”
“You’re still not giving up?
You’re lucky you survived this time.
Temari already held back.
Next time, you might not be so fortunate.”
“There definitely won’t be a next time.
I’ve already conveyed my feelings to Temari.
Once she overcomes her embarrassment, she’ll surely accept my love!”
“You’re overthinking it.
Knowing Temari, she’ll only assume you’ve come up with a new way to mess with her.”
“Eh?
That can’t be true…”
“Good luck.
And don’t drag me into this ever again.”
With those words, the proud puppet master slowly walked away, leaving behind a petrified figure standing alone in the wind.
…
Night had fallen.
The howling winds sweeping across the deserts of the Land of Wind sounded like enraged beasts roaring in the darkness.
Out in the open wilderness, with nothing to obstruct it, the endless sandstorm blocked all prying eyes.
Within Sunagakure, the powerful gusts racing through streets and alleyways passed around corners shaped like whistles, producing sharp screeches and low, mournful howls like ghosts crying in the night.
Newcomers from distant lands might find themselves unable to sleep from fright, but the villagers here had long grown accustomed to nights like these.
For most of the year, Sunagakure was this noisy.
Amid the unchanging sound of the wind, a miserable scream suddenly rang out, accompanied by the crashing noise of something heavy smashing into a building.
Another unfortunate soul has been killed tonight.
Gaara’s becoming increasingly unstable lately, especially on nights like this.
The sandstorm grew even thicker, concealing the dim sky above, as though even the bright full moon could not bear to witness such bloody tragedies.
Quite a few households nearby had heard the scream.
Some instinctively turned on their lights to investigate, but once they realized the One-Tail’s Jinchūriki had lost control again, they hurriedly extinguished them, afraid of drawing Gaara’s attention.
Tonight, many families once again trembled in the cold darkness, praying for the terrifying night to pass as quickly as possible.
Inside an apartment building prepared for young unmarried shinobi, the young man whose confession had ended in disaster earlier that day was currently training inside his cramped bedroom after applying medicine to his bruises.
Heavy dumbbells rose and fell as his trembling arm muscles strained under the weight.
After a long while, the sweat-soaked youth finally reached his limit and collapsed onto the floor.
One of the dumbbells slipped from his hand with a loud clang and rolled across the smooth floor until it reached the corner of the room.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Idiot Daimaru, making this much noise so late at night?
Want to try dying once?”
A crisp female voice came from next door, delivering what she considered her most vicious curse, completely unaware that her own pounding on the wall was even more annoying.
“Sayo, I refuse to listen to a woman whose heart has dried up…”
“What did you say?
You worthless trash!
You fuckin—”
“Hmph.
Shallow.”
The boy named Daimaru ignored the neighboring girl’s supposedly vicious insults, which in reality carried no sting at all, and walked into the bathroom for a comfortable hot shower.
Being a shinobi really is nice.
Ordinary villagers of Sunagakure could never waste water so casually.
Clear warm water flowed from the showerhead, washing over Daimaru’s sharply defined face.
His powerful body, covered in dust and sweat, radiated a sense of explosive strength that even the faint mist of steam could not conceal.
“Damn it.
I thought I had completely mastered this body already.
Who would’ve thought something like this could still happen?”
His clenched fist slammed into the bathroom wall.
The disturbance only caused his female neighbor next door to curse even more enthusiastically.
“What should I do?
The Chunin Exams aren’t far away.”
Having transmigrated so many years ago, the ten months spent in the womb in a hazy state hardly counted.
It was only after birth that he discovered he had arrived in Sunagakure, just in time for the final stages of the Third Shinobi World War.
And Sunagakure had already been destined for defeat.
His father had been an ordinary, diligent shinobi.
He had returned heavily wounded from the final battle at Kikyo Castle, only to succumb to his old injuries before Daimaru was even old enough to speak.
His mother survived safely and struggled to support the family alongside his elderly grandfather and young son.
After becoming a shinobi himself, Daimaru had moved into the communal apartments for the sake of convenience in handling certain personal matters.
He returned home from time to time, using his mission rewards to help support the household.
Life wasn’t particularly easy, but it wasn’t unbearably difficult either.
However, in impoverished Sunagakure, many of the resources necessary for shinobi training were simply beyond the means of Daimaru’s family.
Although this body’s physical condition was decent, it was ultimately only average.
Trying to achieve anything remarkable was exceedingly difficult.
Extract chakra at the age of one.
Climb trees at three.
Practice water walking at four.
Master chakra nature transformation at five.
Earn the title of genius at six.
Become a Jonin at seven.
What ridiculous fantasy was that?
Children’s nervous systems were still underdeveloped.
Being able to avoid wetting the bed was already an accomplishment.
Despite possessing mature, calm, and efficient thinking, he had been constrained by a weak body and an immature nervous system.
He had been unable to accurately control his actions and was instead influenced by ridiculous instincts.
It felt like trying to play a game with a malfunctioning controller.
Driven by immature possessiveness and jealousy, he could never stand seeing Temari interact with other boys.
He wanted to attract the attention of the girl he liked, yet had no idea how to do so.
All he knew was using brute force to bully her in hopes of leaving a deeper impression, completely unaware of how annoying his behavior actually was.
As he grew older, many of those bad habits gradually improved.
Of course, that was also because he could no longer beat Temari in a fight.
By the time the opportunity had finally arrived and it was time to confess his feelings, he had somehow blurted out something so shameless.
How embarrassing.
Before long, Lord “Red Sandstorm” will gain yet another laughable story to his name.
A sixteen-year-old’s body should already be fully developed.
There shouldn’t have been any more major problems.
The only explanation was that his original soul had already undergone a fundamental transformation under the influence of this body.
After completely merging together, the calm and cautious adult he had once been before transmigration had, after more than ten years, become a hot-blooded shinobi who acted first and thought later, all while carrying a reputation filled with strange quirks and bad habits.
(End of Chapter)