Chapter 194: Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan
The perpetually weeping skies of Amegakure bore witness to a fractured nation, a land ruthlessly torn to pieces by the grinding machinery of the Second Great Ninja War.
Following the death of the Fourth Hokage, Hanzo of the Salamander—who had spent years quietly consolidating his power while maintaining a strict facade of neutrality—finally made his move. Lured by the promise of massive logistical support and vital resources, he chose to align his forces with the Four Nations Alliance in their unified front against Konoha.
The brutal reality of the conflict had reached a tipping point. It no longer mattered whether Amegakure, geographically cursed to act as a buffer zone between the great powers, officially participated in the bloodshed or not. The great shinobi villages were already using their territory as a battlefield, riddling the country with craters and corpses. Since his homeland was being systematically reduced to a wasteland anyway, Hanzo reasoned it was far better to at least reap the promised supplies. Consequently, he took the strategic initiative, granting the armies of the Four Nations Alliance unhindered passage through his borders.
As the devastating climax of the Second Great Ninja War drew to a close, it left behind a catastrophic mess. Countless war orphans emerged from the rubble of Amegakure, small, emaciated figures struggling desperately to survive in the muddy, blood-soaked wasteland that had once been their home.
Deep within a dense, rain-slicked forest in Amegakure, Mie sat beneath the sprawling canopy of an ancient tree. She rested her chin lazily in the palm of her hand, her posture the very picture of indifference. Her entire being exuded a deeply pretentious, almost otherworldly aura of untouchable calm, completely at odds with the war-torn hellscape surrounding her.
Beneath her feet, the soil churned. The White Zetsu known as Tobi was currently spinning around in the dirt like a restless drill, his muffled voice echoing from the ground. "Mie, can you tell me what the urge to poop feels like?"
Mie didn't even bother to turn her head. Her gaze remained fixed on the dreary horizon as she replied in a dry, deadpan tone. "Go ask Black Zetsu about that. You two are the same kind of creature, so you'll naturally have much more to talk about. And if he refuses to tell you, then the next time he orders you to do something, just do the exact opposite."
"But Black Zetsu said he doesn't know what it is either!" Tobi's pale, swirling face abruptly popped out of the damp soil like a bizarre mushroom. "And he said you definitely would know!"
Before he could utter another syllable, Mie's fist descended in a blur.
Bang.
Tobi's head was ruthlessly punched straight back into the dirt, sending a small cloud of mud flying into the air.
"Don't just pop out of the ground like a weed," Mie scolded, casually wiping a speck of dirt from her knuckles. "You'll scare Yahiko and the others., asking a woman such a vulgar question is practically begging to get hit. Black Zetsu is just tricking you for his own amusement. I suggest you stop listening to him so much in the future."
Tobi slowly emerged again, visibly dazed from the impact. He clutched his swirling head, his voice taking on a huffy, aggrieved tone. "Black Zetsu is so mean. He's always lying to me! Next time he wants me to monitor someone, I'm going to report the exact opposite information just to spite him. Mie, you won't be angry if I do that, right?"
"I won't be angry at all," Mie replied smoothly, a faint, manipulative curve touching the corner of her lips. "But before you give him your fabricated report, make sure you come find me first so I can... confirm the content."
"Okay! I'll definitely come find you first!" Tobi agreed cheerfully, completely oblivious to the trap he had just walked into.
Hearing the naive clone's enthusiastic promise, a genuine hint of a smile finally reached Mie's eyes.
It was a beautiful, deeply ironic situation. Ever since the White Zetsu army had been cultivated, Black Zetsu's innate wariness toward her had plummeted by more than half. That ancient, shadowy manipulator genuinely believed that all the White Zetsu answered exclusively to him. But in reality, as the one who had physically helped their creation...
How could Mie possibly leave such a massive, glaring vulnerability in her own plans? She wasn't the original Uchiha Madara, blinded by arrogance and grand delusions. Combining her own unique talents with the creation process, she had quietly slipped a few hidden directives into the White Zetsu's genetic makeup.
Coupled with her relentless, subtle trickery over the past two years, these pale clones now subconsciously focused on her orders above all else. Black Zetsu had been firmly demoted to second in command without even realizing it. No matter what crucial intelligence the vast network of White Zetsu gathered across the elemental nations, Mie would always be the very first to know.
Her musings were interrupted by the distinct sound of three sets of messy, splashing footsteps approaching through the rain-soaked underbrush. Sensing the newcomers, Tobi immediately sank deep underground, vanishing without a trace.
A moment later, a bright, cheerful voice pierced the gloomy atmosphere of the forest.
"Master! I really caught a rabbit using the snare method you taught me! Come look, it's a huge, fat one! We can actually have real rabbit meat tonight!"
A flamboyant young boy burst into the clearing. His striking, orange spiky hair was plastered to his forehead from the damp air and his own frantic running, radiating a fierce, rebellious vitality. Yahiko held up a struggling, gray-brown rabbit by its ears, his face split into a massive, triumphant grin.
Right beside him trotted a young girl with pale blue hair, carefully clutching a small woven basket brimming with freshly foraged wild vegetables. Konan's usually quiet, reserved face was lit up with a rare, genuine smile, clearly thrilled by their bountiful harvest. Even as she ran to keep up, she didn't forget to scold her energetic friend.
"Slow down, Yahiko! What if you trip, loosen your grip, and the rabbit escapes?"
"Don't worry, Konan!" Yahiko puffed out his chest proudly. "From today onward, you are looking at Amegakure's number one professional rabbit catcher!"
Trailing a few paces behind the lively duo was Nagato. His dark red hair hung in overly long bangs, completely obscuring his eyes. He walked with a habitual hunch to his shoulders, his every movement quiet, hesitant, and deeply cautious, as if expecting the world to strike him at any moment. In his pale hands, he carefully carried a string of small, freshly caught river fish.
Mie rose gracefully from her spot beneath the tree, casually brushing non-existent dust from her robes. Taking in the impressive haul the three orphans had managed to scrounge up, she nodded in deep satisfaction.
"The three of you did exceptionally well today," she praised, her voice taking on the warm, authoritative tone of a seasoned mentor. "We can actually have a proper feast tonight. Hand them over. Let your master turn these raw ingredients into a truly delicious meal."
The moment those words left her mouth, the joyful smiles on the three children's faces instantly froze. A evident tension descended upon the clearing.
Yahiko swallowed hard, instinctively pulling the rabbit a fraction of an inch closer to his chest. "Uh, Master... how about you just keep resting? You've worked hard teaching us. You should definitely leave the cooking to us!"
"Nonsense. How could I possibly do that?" Mie chided gently, stepping forward with deceptive speed. "You three went through all the trouble of finding the ingredients in this miserable weather. It is only natural that it's my turn, as your master, to provide the cooking."
Before Yahiko could even twitch his hand back in retreat, Mie reached out. Her fingers skillfully clamped around the rabbit's head. With one smooth, terrifyingly gentle twist of her wrist, a soft snap echoed in the air, instantly sending the creature on its way to the afterlife.
She looked up from the limp carcass, raising a single, perfectly arched eyebrow. A sweet, utterly dangerous smile curved her lips. "You guys don't... dislike my cooking, do you?"
Swept by the chilling weight of that seemingly warm smile, the three little ones suddenly felt that their beloved master was incredibly terrifying. They shook their heads in frantic, synchronized denial.
"How could we?!" Yahiko squeaked.
"Master, you're definitely overthinking it!" Konan added hastily.
"Good." Satisfied with their absolute obedience, Mie turned around and walked toward the small stream to begin processing the rabbit's innards. Over her shoulder, she didn't forget to issue another command. "Nagato, bring those fish over here so I can gut them."
Left standing in the muddy clearing, the three little ones exchanged horrified, desperate glances, immediately dropping into a hushed, frantic huddle.
"What do we do?" Yahiko whispered wildly. "Master is actually going to cook again!"
Konan's face crumpled into a deeply bitter expression. The traumatic memory was still fresh in her mind. Shortly after Yahiko had successfully begged Mie to take him in as a disciple, he had proudly brought Konan along to share a meal prepared by their new master. The taste of that dark, sludgy concoction had been an unholy trinity of salty, bitter, and downright foul. For a terrifying ten minutes, Konan had genuinely believed she was being assassinated via poison.
"Even though it's incredibly bitter and salty..." Nagato murmured, his voice weak and raspy. Having only been picked up by the group a few days ago, he was still painfully thin. He slowly rubbed his hollow stomach. "...it's still much better than the moldy, rotting food we used to scavenge from the village trash heaps. It's actually okay." To Nagato, surviving the agonizing cramps of starvation made even toxic-tasting sludge seem like a blessing.
Yahiko gnawed on his lower lip, hesitating for a long moment as he weighed their options. Finally, he made an executive decision. "True. If Master really likes to cook, we have to let her. At worst, we'll secretly hold back half the ingredients right now. After she inevitably makes something completely inedible, we can just cook the rest ourselves."
Reaching a silent consensus, the three children obediently brought the bulk of their hard-won ingredients over to the stream, carefully setting aside a secret reserve stash. They stepped back, allowing Mie full reign to show off her terrifying culinary skills in their makeshift outdoor kitchen. While she was distracted, Yahiko and the others quietly processed their hidden reserves, fully prepared to take over the fire and quickly salvage dinner once the inevitable disaster struck.
An hour later, the deed was done. Mie stepped back from the crackling campfire, wiping her brow with a sense of deep accomplishment. She had successfully braised the rabbit meat, boiled the small river fish into a thick broth, and aggressively stir-fried the wild vegetables.
One hearty meat dish, one vibrant vegetable dish, and a steaming soup—by all traditional metrics, this meal could be considered an absolute masterpiece of wilderness survival.
Of course, that perfection existed solely in its visual appearance.
Taking a pair of wooden chopsticks, Mie confidently picked up a glistening piece of braised rabbit meat and popped it into her mouth.
Instantly, her entire expression warped. The serene, untouchable aura of a grandmaster shattered into a mask of pure, unadulterated horror. Her jaw locked.
'How...'she thought, forcing herself to swallow the vile, metallic-tasting chunk of rubber.'How could there possibly be such terrible-tasting food in this world?'
Refusing to believe that her own hands had birthed such an atrocity, she stubbornly grabbed a wooden spoon, taking a hearty sip of the fish soup before immediately following it up with a large bite of the stir-fried vegetables.
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the camp.
Through the sheer, overwhelming foulness of her own cooking, Mie had successfully managed to make herself clinically depressed.
She slowly lowered her chopsticks, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Glancing over, she caught sight of the three little ones desperately biting their lips, their shoulders shaking as they tried to stifle their laughter.
She sighed, finally surrendering her culinary ambitions to the harsh cruelty of reality. "Fine, fine. Laugh if you want to, you little brats. Then go redo the meal with whatever you hid from me. Hurry up about it, too. I need to eat something actually edible to comfort my deeply wounded soul."
Leaving the tragic remains of her feast behind, Mie walked into their small, hastily constructed wooden cabin and sat cross-legged on a sturdy chair.
Leaning back, she analyzed her utter failure. It actually made perfect sense. When her consciousness had been split off to form this body, her original main body hadn't bothered to learn a single thing about the culinary arts. As for her current life, she had spent the last few years comfortably surviving on takeout and rations bought with the vast sums of money she regularly extorted from Black Zetsu. She had literally never stood in front of a stove before today.
In the past, whenever her stomach rumbled, she would simply order Black Zetsu to fetch her something palatable. After successfully summoning the Gedo Statue and cultivating the White Zetsu army two years ago, she had upgraded to treating the clones like a personal, underground food delivery service.
Somehow, amidst all her grand scheming and manipulation, she had completely missed acquiring the most basic of human survival skills. Worse still, it seemed she possessed absolutely zero innate talent for learning it, which was a deeply frustrating realization for someone of her caliber.
'Whatever. It doesn't matter,'she rationalized, waving a hand dismissively in the empty room.'My main body will eventually learn this skill. It makes no difference whether this clone learns how to fry an egg or not; the main body will handle all the tedious domestic leveling.'
A short while later, the savory aroma of actual, edible food began to waft in from the campfire outside. Mie lounged comfortably on a chair woven from flexible bamboo strips, patiently waiting to be served.
As she watched the children work, her sharp gaze inevitably drifted over to the quietest member of the trio, locking onto Nagato.
To be completely honest, she hadn't been overly surprised when she stumbled across Yahiko and Konan scavenging in the ruins of Amegakure. It was practically destiny. But she had been genuinely, deeply shocked to encounter Nagato.
The Uzumaki Clan was currently recognized as a powerful, highly prestigious faction safely nestled within the walls of Konoha. As the most talented descendant of their current generation, Uzumaki Kushina was practically treated like royalty by the village brass. Given the sheer value of their bloodline, how on earth was a pure-blooded Uzumaki like Nagato still left wandering the muddy wastelands of the Rain, starving and forgotten?
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]