A gentle, slightly husky voice broke Aokawa's train of thought.
He snapped back to reality, realizing Keiko's hands were hovering over the knot of his robe, her eyes filled with concern, not lust.
"Your wounds... they've opened up again."
Keiko explained softly, her tone a mix of guilt and professional worry.
Aokawa looked down. The bandages across his chest were soaked through, dark crimson stains blooming on the fabric. The exertion of the fight and the recoil of the Heilig Bogen had torn his stitches.
"My apologies. Please."
He nodded, relaxing his posture to let her work.
Keiko moved with practiced, gentle efficiency, peeling away the blood-stiffened cloth.
"I still don't know your name, Ninja-sama."
Her hands didn't stop moving as she made conversation to distract him from the pain.
"Hyuga Aokawa. Just Aokawa is fine."
"Yes, Aokawa-sama."
She accepted the name but kept the honorific. "How did you end up meeting that beast... and getting hurt so badly?"
"A mission gone wrong. An accident."
Aokawa gave a vague, standard answer before turning the question around.
"Why are you living alone at the foot of a mountain like this? And your medical skills... they're professional."
The way she cleaned the wound and applied the salve wasn't the clumsy work of a peasant; it was the muscle memory of a healer.
Keiko's hands paused for a fraction of a second. She sighed.
"My husband and I... we were village doctors in a settlement nearby. Life was good, peaceful."
She resumed wrapping the bandage, her voice dropping.
"But in the last two years, the bandit raids have gotten worse. A few months ago, they didn't just raid our village. They erased it."
"Eri and I only survived because we were out gathering herbs. But my husband..."
Her expression crumbled, eyes dulling as silent tears tracked down her cheeks.
"I had no choice. I brought Eri here, into the deep woods. It's lonely, but I thought... at least it would be safe from the roads."
A chill ran down Aokawa's spine. Bandits rampant on the borders... whole villages wiped out.
It was a sign. The prelude to the Third Great Ninja War.
The Land of Fire was about to become a slaughterhouse. Konoha would soon be fighting on four fronts, pushed to the brink of collapse, feeding a generation of children into the meat grinder.
"This place isn't safe anymore," Aokawa said, his voice hard with certainty.
Keiko blinked, startled, looking around the dilapidated shack. "Yes... yes, the house is a mess. We need to repair it..."
"I mean you need to leave. Move to the interior of the Land of Fire. Go to the capital."
He interrupted her, his expression grave.
"Move? To the interior?" Keiko looked lost. "But... we don't know anyone there."
"You have medical skills. You can make a living anywhere," Aokawa pressed. "Just... don't go too close to Konoha."
"Eh?" Keiko was baffled. "Isn't Konoha the safest place? It's full of ninjas."
"That's exactly why it's the most dangerous place on earth," Aokawa muttered.
Twice in this war alone, enemies will push to the village gates. Then the Nine-Tails attack. Then Orochimaru. Then Pain. Then the Otsutsuki.
In the next twenty years, that village gets flattened more often than it gets paved.
"Just trust me. The capital is safer."
He didn't explain further. Thankfully, Keiko didn't push, nodding as if accepting his mysterious ninja wisdom.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
A dull, rhythmic pounding drew their attention.
They looked over to see little Eri, bottom sticking up in the air, struggling to wield a kunai that was clearly too big for her hand.
She was stabbing the forehead of the dead bald bandit. Again. And again.
"Bad guy... bad guy! You bullied Mama!"
Stab. Grunt. Stab.
"Kill you..."
The juxtaposition of her round, innocent face and the gruesome act was so absurdly dark that Aokawa couldn't help but chuckle.
Keiko, however, slapped her forehead, torn between horror and amusement.
"Eri-chan! Come here! Why are you playing with dirty things?"
"Eri isn't playing." The girl looked up, dead serious. "Eri is helping Mama stay mad."
"Okay, okay. Thank you for your hard work, Eri-chan. Come here now, okay?"
"Two more hits. Then I'm done."
30 Kilometers from Konoha. Deep Forest.
"Are we there yet?"
A whine cut through the underbrush.
"Big Brother, I don't feel anything! Can we go out now? Lying here is uncomfortable."
"Shut up! Endure it!" A sharp, raspy voice hissed back.
"But Big Bro, there are so many bugs. My butt itches... they're crawling everywhere."
A slow, simple voice complained, accompanied by the sound of vigorous scratching.
The raspy voice stayed silent for a moment, then sighed. "Fine... fine. Let's get out."
The bushes shook, and two comical figures emerged.
One was short and stout, with a round face dusted with freckles and eyes that looked perpetually confused.
The other was tall and gaunt, with beady eyes, high cheekbones, and several scrolls strapped to his waist.
The Ichu Brothers.
Ichu Kin (Gold) and Ichu Gin (Silver).
Occupation: Bounty Hunters / Human Traffickers.
As soon as they stood up, Ichu Kin pulled out a mission scroll, checking it obsessively.
"Big Bro, we didn't get scammed, did we?" The stout brother, Ichu Gin, asked, leaning in.
Kin waved him off.
"Don't worry. I paid 100,000 ryo for the intel on this Academy kid's route. The Black Market doesn't screw up high-value targets."
"100,000 ryo?!"
Gin gasped. "Just for info? How much is this kid worth?"
"Look at you, so short-sighted." Kin glared at him, tucking the scroll away. "Read the bounty. Capturing a live Byakugan user nets us 900,000 ryo. That's worth more than selling ten orphans."
Gin's jaw dropped. He unfurled the scroll clumsily, breathing heavily. "Big Bro... we're gonna be rich."
"Damn right," Kin smirked. "Listen. Once the fight starts, kill everyone except the Byakugan user."
"Byakugan?" Gin looked blank.
"The white eyes! The Hyuga kid! Don't kill him, or he's worthless!"
"Oh!" Gin nodded, processing the information.
Then, he blinked his small, confused eyes, staring off into the forest in a seemingly random direction.
"Big Bro... I think there really is a Byakugan person. Whoosh... they just ran past over there."
"What ran past?" Kin frowned, not catching the mumble.
Gin scratched his head. "I mean... that white-eyed kid you talked about? I think he just ran down that small path over there."
"Small... path?"
Kin's surprise froze, turning into bewilderment.
"Where the hell do you see a path?"