"Chen! Chen! What's wrong with you?!"
Hiru didn't care that his clothes were soaked, stumbling and pouncing on Akachen, his small hands desperately shaking his shoulders.
But Akachen's eyes were tightly shut, his breathing weak, and he looked as if all strength had been drained from him, limp and sprawled on the broken stones by the stream.
"Wake up! Don't scare me!"
Hiru's voice was tearful, and tears mixed with the water droplets on his face rolled down.
He didn't understand what had just happened, why Akachen had become like this, or why those Sand Shinobi had vanished in an instant.
All he knew now was that the only person he could rely on had also collapsed.
"There's movement over there!"
The shouts of Stone Shinobi came from a distance, followed by hurried footsteps. This was, after all, within the Stone Village's territory. Originally, the Sand Village's intention to strike quickly and decisively would have been fine, but now it had alerted the Stone Shinobi Defense Force.
Hiru suddenly looked up and saw several ninja wearing Stone Village headbands rushing over. Leading them was a Jōnin with a stern face.
"Kid, what happened?"
The Jōnin crouched down, his gaze sweeping between Akachen and Hiru, finally resting on the smooth rock walls around them.
It looked a bit like Dust Release.
"Ninja attacked us!" Hiru stammered, his fingers tightly clutching Akachen's clothes, afraid they would be left behind.
"Chen suddenly emitted a blue light, and those ninja disappeared!"
The Jōnin frowned, reaching out to check Akachen's pulse, then let out a sigh of relief.
"It seems like chakra exhaustion," he muttered to himself, then suddenly looked up and ordered his subordinates, "Take them back to the village immediately! Inform Lord Tsuchikage that an emergency has occurred."
Hiru was carried by a Chūnin, while Akachen was personally carried on the Jōnin's back.
"Hold on, kid," the Jōnin whispered.
~~~~~~~~~~
Akachen lay on the hospital bed by the window, his silver-gray hair spread across the pristine white pillowcase, making his face appear even paler.
Morning light filtered through the sheer curtains, casting shadows from his eyelashes onto his cheeks, and his chest rose and fell gently with his faint breaths.
The medical team had just completed a round of examinations, conversing in low voices as they retreated to a corner of the ward.
"Severe chakra exhaustion, but the residual energy in his body is somewhat unstable," the female medical ninja with round glasses said, flipping through the examination report, her brows tightly furrowed.
"What flows through his circulatory system isn't ordinary chakra—it's too violent, even more so than those Explosion Release chakras. Regular medical ninjutsu is completely ineffective."
"We can only inject him with some nutrients and let him fight it off himself. He'll be fine once his chakra returns to normal," the older medical squad leader instructed in a low voice. "This child's situation is special, but there's nothing seriously wrong."
~~~~~~~~~~
The ward door was suddenly pushed open with a bang, hitting the wall with a dull thud.
"Chen—!!"
A fiery red figure rushed in like the wind.
Hiru had vibrant red hair, like a burning sunset, with slightly upturned ends that shimmered like silk in the morning light.
His skin was almost transparently fair, his features as delicate as a doll's, and his amber cat-like eyes were now filled with anxiety.
He rushed to the bedside, reaching out to grab Akachen's wrist—
"Stop!" The Chūnin guarding the ward grabbed his shoulder. "Hiru, don't move him. Chen needs to rest right now."
Hiru sharply turned his head, his red hair flaring like flames, his amber pupils narrowed into thin slits. "What exactly happened to Chen? He's been asleep for hours."
Hiru was taken home by the Chūnin. Aunt Harui had also visited but was told that there was nothing seriously wrong. She ultimately left Akachen there and went to work, planning for him to recover well after waking up.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tsuchikage's Office · Early Morning
Onoki hovered half a foot off the ground, his aged fingers pinching a border report, his brows tightly furrowed.
The tea on the table had already cooled, and the wisps of steam had long dissipated.
He had just finished approving a stack of documents regarding Sand Village border disturbances and was about to take a short break.
The office door was suddenly flung open.
"Lord Tsuchikage!!"
Yamashiro's loud voice made the documents on the table tremble slightly.
A vein instantly popped out on Onoki's forehead, and the pen in his hand "snapped," poking a hole in the scroll.
"Yamashiro!!!" Onoki spun around, his hovering height increasing by a few inches due to his anger.
"How many times have I told you! Knock before entering!"
Yamashiro was panting, his forehead protector slightly askew, clearly having run all the way there.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but his voice still held a rare urgency: "Lord Tsuchikage, never mind that now, something important has happened."
"The patrol team brought back two children, and one of them showed some strange behavior."
Onoki's eyebrows rose high: "Strange how?"
Yamashiro swallowed, saying word by word: "The behavior is somewhat similar to Dust Release."
The similarity was noted because Dust Release requires training. To see it performed unconsciously like this was unprecedented.
The air instantly solidified.
Onoki slowly descended from mid-air. The moment his feet touched the ground, the temperature in the entire office seemed to drop a few degrees.
The wrinkles on his somewhat aged face deepened, but his eyes were terrifyingly sharp.
"Explain more clearly."
Yamashiro immediately handed over a combat record stained with mud and blood: "Yesterday in the Outer Stream Valley, the patrol team found two children who claimed they encountered twelve ninja. Some partial remains of people were also found at the scene."
His tone was somewhat strained, "They weren't killed by ordinary ninjutsu, but instantly dissipated. Some didn't even leave bodies, and the surrounding rock walls were very smooth, very similar to Dust Release."
Onoki took the report, his gaze sweeping over the description: "What were the on-site test results?"
"High-purity Dust Release chakra residue."
Yamashiro said in a low voice, "And the perpetrator," he paused, his voice almost squeezed through his teeth, "is a four-year-old orphan."
Onoki's beard curled slightly.
He silently floated to the window, his back to Yamashiro, overlooking the Stone Village in the morning light.
Onoki's fingertips unconsciously tapped the window frame. After a long moment, he suddenly spoke: "Investigate his background more thoroughly."
Yamashiro was stunned: "We already did. His parents were both ordinary Chūnin, sacrificed in a border conflict three years ago. There's no record of a special bloodline in his family history. His best friend is named…"
"Investigate again," Onoki turned to Yamashiro and said.
"Starting today, place this child on the highest-level protection list."
~~~~~~~~~~
Akachen slowly opened his eyes, his silver-gray pupils contracting in the light.
The blurry white ceiling in his vision gradually became clear, and the smell of disinfectant stung his nostrils.
He tried to move his fingers but found his whole body as heavy as if filled with lead.
"Chen!!"
A familiar voice pierced through the buzzing in his ears.
Akachen turned his head with difficulty, seeing Hiru's almost tearful face through the glass window. The red-haired boy was desperately banging on the window, being dragged back by two Chūnin holding his arms, looking like a startled cat.
"Hi…ru…" Akachen's lips were cracked, his voice so weak it was almost inaudible.
The medical squad leader leaned over. "Child, don't rush to speak. You are currently very weak. You extracted a large amount of chakra at once, causing your body to be unable to withstand it, which is why you're like this."
Akachen's brows furrowed. Fragments of memory flashed in his mind: the ferocious faces of the Sand Shinobi, Hiru's screams as he was entangled by puppet strings, the sudden burst of scorching energy within his own body… "Those… Sand Shinobi…" He squeezed out a few words with difficulty.
"They've all been dealt with," the medical squad leader patted his hand. "You protected your friend, very brave."