Ashes in the Rain
Kyro didn't stop running for three days.
He avoided roads. Avoided rivers where trackers might read disturbances.
Avoided villages that flew Cloud banners.
The baby dragon, still unnamed, clung to him constantly, small claws hooking into cloth, wings wrapped tight whenever Kyro's breathing grew erratic.
Miku fainted halfway through the first night.
Illusion overuse.
Twenty minutes pushed into nearly an hour under stress.
She reappeared briefly, flickering like a candle in wind.
"I'm sorry master …" she whispered weakly crying before vanishing into forced hibernation for the next three days.
He reached an abandoned storage shed near a forgotten farming settlement outside Cloud's current patrol radius..
War had stretched the borders thin.
Remote villages slipped through the cracks. The abandoned settlements looked like a ghost town after artillery bombing..
Kyro collapsed inside.
He didn't cry immediately he just sat there staring at the damaged wall.
The dragon nudged his hand.
Elektra's last expression replayed in his mind on a loop.
Kyro slammed his fist into the dirt floor.*thud*thud*thud*
Again and again and again.
His knuckles split open from the force..
The dragon squeaked, startled, then crawled into his lap and pressed its warm body against his chest.
That broke him out of his angry trance.
Kyro folded forward and sobbed, silently at first, then shaking, then gasping like something was tearing loose from his lungs.
"I told her to stay behind."
The words came fractured
The bond with the dragon pulsed gently, confused but comforting.
When Miku finally reappeared three days later, weak and embarrassed,
She saw him sitting in the dark, eyes hollow.
And she started crying too.
Not loud.
Just tiny, hiccuping sobs as she hid in his collar.
"I'm sorry couldn't help," she whispered. "I couldn't.. "
Kyro closed his hand around her gently.
"It wasn't you, don't cry....
you did your best."
But it also wasn't anyone else.
And that was worse.
____
Grief lasts days.
Hunger lasts l
Reality lasts forever.
Cloud would hunt him.
They would label him missing-nin, enemy agent, rogue asset, all of the above..
If he stayed weak, Elektra's death meant nothing.
So the boy who once hunted for survival began hunting for for revenge..
For seven Months he was a menacing death wraith..
He avoided shinobi.
Too risky.
Too unpredictable.
Instead he hunted the war's parasites.
Bandit groups thriving in destabilized trade routes. Slavers operating near border villages. Deserters who preyed on farmers for resources and small time thugs he'd come across..
He didn't attack large villages.
He didn't attack extremely civilians either.
He chose targets that would not be investigated heavily.
At first, it was messy.
The first bandit he killed after Elektra's death made him vomit, he still suffered from lose of his summons and a person he grew to care about..
The fifth kill didn't bother him as much anymore,
The twentieth felt procedural.
Miku struggled on the other hand...
She disliked extended illusion use. After twenty minutes, dizziness crept in. After thirty, her wings trembled. Once, she pushed too far and fainted mid-mission, forcing Kyro to retreat.
Each time, she hid in his clothes afterward, embarrassed.
"I'm supposed to be helpful…"
"You are miku, don't feel bad about your limits, they change in the future... ," he said every time she doubted herself... .
The dragon grew.
Slowly, especially since kyro let him eat some of the dead bodies they'd find, as long as it wasn't too rotten the little guy would chomp down with enthusiastic movements..
Its wings strengthened over time . Flame breath extended from a spark to a short, controlled cone strong enough to burn a body to as in minutes. Its scales hardened from soft crimson to metallic ember.
Kyro began borrowing its heat resistance during winter raids and borrowed lung strength during long sprints.
The system recorded everything.
System Accumulation – Seven Months
Small bandit camps: 3–6 members each
Larger caravan raiders: 8–12 members
Points accumulated steadily, numbers rising in the corner of his vision.
By the end of seven months:
[Total Summoning Points: 312 SP]
Kyro stared at the number for a long time.
It wasn't survival anymore.
It was preparation for something greater and more dangerous...
He opened the summoning catalogue and filtered:
Strength Augmentation. Combat Superiority. Durable Frontline Assets.
He no longer searched for stealth mentors.
He searched for power.
Meanwhile, The Underground Market
In a dimly lit tavern carved into the side of a neutral territory canyon, information changed hands more fluidly than currency.
A broker unfolded a small scroll.
"Cloud has posted a shadow bounty on some kid."
Across from him sat a masked intermediary from the Land of Earth.
"On who?"
"An Unknown rogue operative. Possibly foreign-trained or something. He Killed one chūnin unit and a reinforcement squad's scout."
"That doesn't warrant a shadow bounty."
The broker leaned closer.
"They suspect he's got unique and strong summons."
Silence fell.
"like an Animal contract?"
"Unconfirmed. Witness reports mention heat damage inconsistent with Fire Release as there wasn't Chakra residue left behind."
Another figure at the table, cloaked, quiet... spoke for the first time.
"How much is it ?"
"Alive? High reward at about 100000 Ryo and Dead is 50000 Ryo ."
The cloaked figure's eyes sharpened.
Summoners were valuable , and a powerful one was even more valuable, especially if you could get their summoning technique.
And if Cloud was worried..
Others should be too.
Back to Kyro
Kyro stood on a cliff overlooking a forest valley.
The dragon was larger now, nearly wolf-sized as It sat proudly beside him, smoke curling lazily from its nostrils.
Miku rested against his collar, big eyes watching him quietly.
"You've changed a lot, my master ," she said softly.
Kyro didn't deny it.
"I won't lose another summon again."
..
He opened the system again.
312 SP.
Enough for something significant.
Not ultimate.
But transformative.
The boy who once ran from chūnin now stood calculating how to surpass them permanently.
The war was still raging.
Cloud was searching for him and elsewhere the underground market was whispering.
And somewhere in the system's deeper tiers
Bigger entities waited fir him to grow strong enough to summon them...