Kikyo Mountain, midway up the slope.
A hunter's mountain lodge stood tucked among the trees.
The wooden house was simple.
The light inside was dim.
Before long, the main room was packed tight with over a dozen people. Beside the round table, a "mummy" of a wounded man lay wrapped in bandages.
"Ha—ha—ha! Captain Kazuki, please sit!"
Jaeger looked excited, holding a teapot as he flipped cups upright and poured tea for the Uchiha seated around the table. Then he ushered Kazuki toward the seat of honor.
"It's been five years since you saved us. Time really flies!"
Kazuki sat down.
Beside him, Mikoto studied the side of his face with an unfamiliar, complicated look.
She was evaluating him.
Back in the forest, the Uchiha squad could have eliminated those five so-called rogue shinobi.
Yet because Kazuki recognized them, he hadn't struck.
On the road while fleeing, exposing their trail was practically inviting disaster.
The best solution—
would have been to kill them, dispose of the bodies, and slip away without a sound.
Still…
"He has a bottom line," Mikoto judged silently.
Sensing Kazuki turning to look her way, she calmly withdrew her gaze. Poised and composed, she maintained the dignity of a noblewoman and lifted her teacup.
"Ss—hot!"
The moment her fingers touched the cup, she jerked her hand back.
In Kazuki's eyes, a large portion of her refined aura vanished in an instant.
Ever since Kazuki had forced her to eat—
the last of her remaining dignity had been trampled.
It was as if Mikoto had been thrown back into the awkward youth of her early shinobi years, when she didn't know what mindset to adopt toward a man who ignored her pride—and whose cold authority pressed down over her without effort.
He was younger than her.
And yet, under the others' misunderstandings and strange treatment, Mikoto couldn't help herself.
Her attention kept drifting back to him.
Even though Fugaku had only just died.
Mikoto lowered her brows, her expression dim. Her slender hand tugged lightly at the hem of her skirt, and a hollow confusion returned.
Kazuki withdrew his gaze and only then noticed—
The other Uchiha were all watching him.
They quickly looked away.
They were curious too—about what kind of past Captain Kazuki shared with the Mist "rogue shinobi."
"Heh-heh-heh!"
Jaeger grinned with simple honesty.
Kazuki's expression was calm as he looked at him.
Memories surfaced.
This band of "rogue shinobi" were not shinobi at all.
In truth, they were ordinary refugees who had fled the Land of Frost during the Third Shinobi World War.
Their homeland had been destroyed by the warfare between the Five Great Nations. The food supplies they depended on were forcibly seized by the Konoha shinobi who had conquered the Land of Frost.
Their farmland was trampled again and again by shinobi units from various villages.
When autumn came, not a single grain remained.
Jaeger's family of five…
Only Jaeger survived.
Five winters ago, he drifted to the border of the Land of Fire and gathered more than a dozen desperate people. With Jaeger as their leader, they couldn't survive under the chaos of war, so they planned to band together and rob other refugees.
That year, the Land of Fire border was plagued by rogue shinobi.
So badly that even the captain of the Uchiha Police Force had been dispatched there by Konoha's higher-ups to suppress them.
Unfortunately—
that was also the first time Jaeger and his group of refugees, disguising themselves as "rogue shinobi," tried to commit a robbery.
And they ran into Kazuki, who wore plain clothes but was, in truth, the Police Force captain.
Kazuki didn't kill them.
Instead, he listened patiently to their story.
As for Jaeger…
When he first fled, he still had some money.
But the moment he stepped out, a "big brother" next door swindled him into investing in a so-called Mist Village bank financial product—promising war profits.
It was shinobi-world financial fraud.
The scammer ran off with the money.
Jaeger fell completely into destitution.
Bitter and resentful, he decided he would rob wealthy merchants and become a mountain bandit.
But when he truly forced himself into a shop with a kitchen knife, he saw a filthy, frail mother nursing an infant no bigger than a monkey.
Jaeger gritted his teeth.
Knife in hand, he caught a rat instead—boiled it into soup for the mother and child—and left with a heavy heart.
After that, he fled to the Land of Fire border again. He told himself that if he only robbed foreigners, it wouldn't weigh on his conscience.
Just as he was ready to expand and grow stronger…
He encountered Kazuki's group.
"You're still the same as before?" Kazuki asked after a long silence.
Jaeger placed the Mist rogue-shinobi forehead protector on the table and laughed openly.
"How could we be, Captain Kazuki?"
"After you changed us, we did exactly what you told us to do. We came to this mountain and became hunters. We live by hunting every day."
"This place is rich. There are animals everywhere in the mountains."
"So we live pretty well now!"
"It's all thanks to your guidance."
"You saved us!"
"Wait—Mr. Jaeger," Izumi spoke up timidly, hesitating. "You should explain what happened back then first. You two are chatting, and we can't follow any of it."
The other Uchiha nodded as well.
Mist rogue-shinobi forehead protectors.
Hunters in the mountains.
It was all too tangled.
Izumi didn't dare question Kazuki directly, but she knew he wouldn't care if she questioned Jaeger.
"Alright. Then I'll start from the beginning!"
Jaeger perked up, took a moment to gather his thoughts, then began telling the story from the top.
During the telling, Kazuki gave Nanpū an instruction:
Take two teammates into Kikyo Castle.
Before it got too late, "invite" a doctor to come.
Also purchase medicine, long-lasting food, essentials the squad would need on the run—
and a mountain map of the Land of Fire border.
Nanpū clearly wanted to hear the rest too, but duty came first. He left reluctantly with the two others.
By the time a cup of tea could cool—
Jaeger finished his story, looking pleased with himself, as if he believed he had the talent to direct films and write scripts.
Only then did the Uchiha fully understand:
Jaeger's poverty-stricken, disaster-ridden life—
a life of struggling to survive on thin ice.
Mikoto glanced at Kazuki's profile from the corner of her eye and added one more line to her judgment:
"Kind…?"
The other Uchiha felt the same.
Jaeger was truly lucky to have met Kazuki.
If it had been them—or any other Konoha shinobi—
No one would care about his past.
They would have killed them as rogue shinobi and collected the mission reward.
So…
Captain Kazuki really was gentle.
Really was kind.
"So your Mist forehead protectors were all just picked up from the battlefield?"
Izumi raised a brow, unimpressed.
"And you're that unlucky, but you're still proud of yourself for it?"
She felt Jaeger's decision-making was on the same level as hers when she answered multiple-choice questions—
Always, at the most critical moment, choosing the worst possible option.
Right up until he met Kazuki.
"Captain Kazuki," Jaeger asked, looking at him seriously now. "Are you leaving right away?"
"It's already so dark. Stay here tonight. I'll make dinner for everyone, and you can travel again in the morning."
Kazuki swept his gaze over the people around the table.
They were dusty, exhausted.
They hadn't slept—hadn't truly rested—in nearly three days of nonstop flight.
Fatigue was visible in every eye, and it was clear they wanted nothing more than a night of proper rest.
"Thank you. But we have to leave as soon as Nanpū returns."
Kazuki looked straight at Jaeger, his tone calm.
The hunger for rest in the others' eyes died down instantly.
But not a single person complained.
They were fugitives.
Not tourists.
If they stayed, trouble would come.
And it would drag these refugees down with them.
Besides…
Jaeger had already suffered enough.
Kazuki also hated bringing trouble to others.
Back in the forest, he had planned to separate immediately.
But Jaeger's insistence had been too sincere.
And—
they truly did need a place to pause.
"Rest while you can," Kazuki said evenly.
"When Nanpū returns, we move."
"Understood. I'll prepare some food for everyone."
Jaeger smiled with relief and headed toward the kitchen area deeper inside the wooden house.
Izumi suddenly asked, "Mr. Jaeger, when you go out hunting, why do you wear Mist rogue-shinobi forehead protectors?"
From the floor, Tamayo spoke weakly.
"What else could it be for? Obviously to scare off enemies!"
Hearing that, the Uchiha turned as one, staring at Tamayo lying there, ignored for so long that some of them had nearly forgotten he existed.
Jaeger laughed loudly.
"That lord is right. There are still plenty of vicious war refugees nearby."
"If we don't pretend to be rogue shinobi, we can't intimidate them if we run into them on the road."
With that, Jaeger went into the inner room.
"Waaah—waaah—waaah!"
A sharp, piercing infant's cry suddenly tore through the quiet night, echoing through the wooden house.
The Uchiha were startled.
Mikoto heard the crying and something inside her clicked—like a switch being thrown.
She looked up toward the bedroom.
Her expression went distant, her sorrow deepening.
She missed Sasuke.
Izumi frowned.
Kazuki remained unmoved, calmly drinking tea. From the moment he entered, he had already judged this was a home for a family of three—based on the shoes by the door, the furniture, and the infant seat.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Afraid he had frightened the guests, Jaeger hurried out from the bedroom, leading a woman into the main room.
The woman's features were delicate. A red scarf circled her neck. Long black hair fell to her waist, partially veiling her clean, fair face as she anxiously soothed the infant bundled in her arms.
"Captain Kazuki, this is my wife. Her name is Sanli. I married her last year."
Jaeger looked blissful as he introduced them.
"We haven't decided on a name yet—he's a boy!"
Kazuki returned a faint smile to the family.
"Heh… you're this unlucky and miserable, and you still managed to marry and have a kid."
Tamayo cursed under his breath.
"I proposed to a Hyūga nurse at Konoha Hospital. She didn't even look at me—she told me to get lost."
"Is it just because I'm mentally ill?"
"Who's looking down on who?!"
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