Chapter 157: Chapter 157: Kabuto
The third village was in worse shape than the previous two.
Kitahara Kaede stood at the village entrance, surveying the scene before him. Most of the houses had collapsed, and the remaining walls were scarred with blackened burn marks. The mud roads had been churned into a wretched mess, littered with scattered roof tiles and splintered timber.
He didn’t linger, heading straight toward the left side of the village. Nonou didn’t waste any words; she turned and headed right.
Kaede searched through the gaps of the fallen buildings, checking them one by one.
Nothing. No survivors, and no bodies.
There were drag marks on the ground, and door panels had been ripped away to serve as makeshift stretchers, all leading toward the mountain path to the east. The villagers must have evacuated before the battle reached them.
After searching the last leaning house, Kaede returned to the village entrance. Nonou was already there. Seeing him shake his head, her shoulders relaxed, and she let out a sigh of relief.
"The village is destroyed, but it looks like the people evacuated in time." Nonou rubbed the back of her neck. "Thank goodness. No casualties."
Kaede looked at her. Having spent so much time by Tsunade’s side, her skills were unquestionable. However, she had handled far too many wounded patients over the last few days; anyone would have broken under the pressure. Yet, even in her state of exhaustion, she was still worrying about the civilians left in the wake of the war.
’Danzo, you have no heart,’ he thought.
"Let’s go. There’s one more spot." Nonou shifted her medical kit to the other shoulder and started walking toward the dense forest. Kaede followed.
They walked for a while in silence. Nonou adjusted her glasses and suddenly spoke.
"Kitahara-kun, you’re so young to be on a battlefield. Do you ever feel..." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "How do you view this war?"
Kaede didn’t answer immediately.
"The cost is always borne by those at the bottom," he said, his voice flat. "The people at the top decide whether to fight and how to fight. Those at the bottom are responsible for the sacrifice."
Nonou’s pace faltered. She glanced sideways at Kaede. The young face was expressionless, and his voice carried neither anger nor resentment. He was simply stating a fact.
After a moment of silence, Nonou looked away, her voice dropping.
"Kitahara-kun, don’t say things like that in public."
Kaede glanced at her. Nonou didn’t explain, but there was a clear, heavy seriousness in her tone. Kaede understood. She felt the same way, but she understood the implications of those words far better than he did.
"Understood."
Nonou nodded and said no more.
After another ten minutes of walking, Kaede suddenly stopped. Nonou stopped with him and looked his way. Kaede knelt, staring at the ground.
There was a trail of footprints in the mud. They were very small, with short strides and uneven depth.
"A child," Kaede murmured, his finger tracing the distance between the prints. "Their stamina must have been nearly gone. The stride becomes more erratic; they were barely holding on by the time they reached this point."
He looked up in the direction where the prints vanished—deep into the forest.
"Only one set," Nonou said, her voice turning somber.
A single child, alone in the wilderness after a war.
"Let’s go." Kaede stood up and quickened his pace. Nonou followed closely behind.
The footprints became more chaotic the further they went. In several places, there were marks where knees had buckled and palms had pressed into the earth to keep from falling. Kaede didn’t speak, but he accelerated.
The trail vanished in front of the thick root of an ancient tree. Kaede rounded the root and saw him.
A small, thin boy was curled into a hollow beneath the roots, his head lolling against the exposed wood. His silver-grey hair was filthy and matted with blood and mud. A gash on his forehead was still seeping blood, which had flowed down his brow, masking half of his face. His clothes were rags, and his knees and palms were covered in abrasions. The rise and fall of his chest was so shallow it was almost imperceptible.
Nonou hurried over and immediately knelt. She pressed one hand to the boy’s chest and the other over the wound on his forehead, a green glow instantly radiating from her palms. Her movements were swift and gentle.
"Dehydration, hypothermia, blood loss. The forehead wound isn’t deep, but it’s been left untreated and is slightly infected."
While stabilizing the boy’s weak vital signs, she glanced at Kaede. "Kitahara-kun, get the brown medication from the side pocket of the kit."
Without hesitation, Kaede knelt and retrieved the vial, handing it to her. Nonou bit the cap open and dropped a few droplets into the wound.
Kaede stood up and stepped back half a pace, watching the boy.
As expected, he had appeared. Even though Kaede had changed the tide of the battle at Mount Kikyo, fate had still brought this person to Nonou.
Yakushi Kabuto.
Kaede scanned the surroundings, confirming there were no other tracks. Nonou spent a few minutes cleaning the wound, wrapping it in gauze, and carefully feeding him a few sips of water from a canteen.
The boy’s breathing finally steadied. Then, he opened his eyes.
Kaede looked into those eyes. There was nothing there. No fear, no will to survive—only a dead, hollow void.
Nonou’s hand paused. She slowly leaned in, bringing her face into the boy’s line of sight, and softened her voice.
"What is your name?"
The boy’s gaze passed through her, staring into the empty space behind her.
"Where is your family? Where are your father and mother?"
No response.
Nonou remained silent for a few seconds, deciding not to press further. She reached out and gently brushed the blood-stained hair away from his forehead, her fingers resting on his head.
"It’s alright," she whispered. "It’s alright if you don’t remember."
The boy’s body stiffened slightly. He didn’t pull away, nor did he lean in. It was as if he hadn’t been touched in so long that he had forgotten how to react.
Nonou carefully gathered him into her arms. The boy didn’t struggle. He simply stayed there, held against her, eyes open. But at some point, his small fingers had tightly gripped the edge of Nonou’s clothes.
After holding him for a while, Nonou looked back. Kaede was standing quietly nearby.
"Kitahara-kun," she began, her tone hesitant. "I want to take him back with me."
She looked down at the child in her arms. "There is an orphanage in Konoha; I am the director there. I take in children just like this." She paused, a bitter smile touching her lips. "It’s just that funding is always tight. I have to use my mission rewards to supplement the costs. Adding one more..."
She swallowed the rest of the sentence.
Kaede looked at her. She had saved countless people on the battlefield, yet back home, she was paying out of her own pocket to support an entire orphanage.
"Take him back," Kaede said casually. "A child shouldn’t die in a place like this. We’ll find a way to handle the funding."
Nonou looked at him for a moment. Then she smiled, the corners of her mouth curving upward, and the gaze behind her round glasses softened considerably.
"Mm."
She looked back down at the boy. The bleeding on his forehead had stopped.
"You don’t remember your name right now, do you?"
The boy didn’t move. Nonou looked at the gauze wrapped around his head and reached out to gently pat him.
"From now on, your name will be Kabuto," she said tenderly. "Yakushi Kabuto."
The boy’s eyes finally shifted. He looked up at Nonou’s face.
She remained expressionless, but the hand clutching the corner of her clothes tightened slightly.
Kitahara Kaede noticed.
"Nonou-senpai, it’s getting dark. I’ll carry the box."
He stepped forward, picked up the medical kit, and slung it over his shoulder.
"Let’s go."
Nonou gave a soft acknowledgment, gathered Kabuto securely in her arms, and followed him.
Their footsteps echoed through the woods.
As Kitahara Kaede led the way, his mind raced with a flurry of thoughts.
As they approached the edge of the treeline, he cast a sidelong glance back at Nonou.
She walked with a steady gait, holding the child protectively, her chin resting gently atop Kabuto’s head.
Comments