334 Chapter 109
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Title: Second Shinobi World War
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{A/N: So I'm gonna skip all the burial bullshit and move on with the summary of the Second Shinobi War. Mention some characters and then a Timeskip to when Shun is reborn.}
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After the death of Shun, or rather Kuchiki Tengoku, his body was laid to rest in the clan's cemetery back in Hanagakure. As a figure as old as Hashirama Senju, he had a certain fame and prestige that went with him.
After his Burial, Tsunade and Yatsuyo both passed on the message that Shun asked them to pass to their Grandmother and mother respectively.
Mito's reaction was calmer than Tsunade expected but moments later, Mito smiled and said. "Since he is so sure that he even knew he would die, I'm sure they're alright."
Both of them stayed for a few days before returning back to Konoha under the unnecessary and excessive amount of protection arranged by Hiruzen.
His reason being he couldn't allow someone as important as Mito leave without adequate protection.
On the other hand, when Yatsuyo was having a chat with Mikoto, Yuri was also around and the smug look on Mikoto's face made the old but young looking Yuri to gnash her teeth in frustration.
On the way back, Mito informatled Tsunade of what she'd missed.
As it turned out, Kushina had entered the academy and was facing bullies on a steady basis. "Nothing she can't handle after all, fufufu." Mito laughed as she recounted Kushina's reiteration of the events.
"Five years, Tsuna. Five years is all I have left." Mito said with a sombre tone.
Tsunade frowned but remained silent. "You have to take care of yourself as well as your new little sister."
"Humph, Kawaki is already a bundle on his own and now Kushina?" Tsunade scoffed playfully.
"Well, you were also once a handful. Hashirama pampered you lots and after his passing, Kuchiki did too." Mito said with a smile that wasn't a sad one. She looked like she was recalling so many happy memories with that smile.
"Just be the big sister they both need. I'm sure you can do that." Mito said comfortingly.
"I'll try my best, but no promises." Tsunade said. "That's already enough. Even if you make mistakes, learn from them, that's how you grow." Mito said.
"...You sounded like Ji-chan just now." Tsunade said sadly.
"Fufu. Well, he was the one that told it to us when we were still young." Mito said. "However, we live in a world where on mistake can cost you a lot...so be careful what mistakes you make."
"Mm." Tsunade nodded understanding the underlying tone in that statement.
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Kagerō Village
Several months prior to the war's beginning, Konohagakure had already been at war with the Kagerō Village of the Land of Mountains.
With the war's onset, the need for an end to the war with the Kagerō became apparent. Hiruzen noticed that Orochimaru alone couldn't handle this and had no choice but to send one of their top Jōnin, Jiraiya, as commander of a small unit.
Konoha unleashed a surprise attack on the Kagerō Village, which ended in a cease-fire. However, two weeks later, the Kagerō mounted a retaliation, hoping to catch Konoha off-guard, which failed, resulting in the burning of the Kagerō Village.
Following this, which was considered the first official battle of the war, the Land of Mountains officially sided with Konoha for the remainder of the conflict.
Following the Destruction and and assimilation of the Kagerō Village, Sunagakure, under the command of the third Kazekage, decided to make a strategic move.
While Konohagakure had its forces deployed in the Land of Mountains, and invade the Land of Fire. Sakumo Hatake was the general in charge of the defense of the border on the Land of Wind side of the country.
He only had approximately seven hundred men, and the invading force had roughly five thousand; one of whom was the Shukaku's jinchūriki.
The battle resulted in a victory for the Hidden Sand, allowing the now four thousand seven-hundred strong invasion force, with reinforcements on the way, unlimited access to the Land of Fire; thus beginning the Invasion of the Leaf.
However, Sakumo Hatake became known as "Konoha's White Fang" after he used his White Light Chakra Sabre to stop Shukaku's jinchūriki, Bunpuku.
Due to them being in a rather peculiar relationship, Bunpuku was able to bring out Shukaku's might properly, although not to its full potential.
Shukaku despite not being particularly caged, still didn't like this man that reminded him of their other Aniki, Fenrir. He had come across him a few years back, when he was posing as an eminent monk and traveling the land.
The meeting wasn't all that pleasurable as Shukaku was, for the first time since they were born, made calm.
During their clash with Sakumo, seeing the all so obvious Blade Intent coming from Sakumo's blade, Shukaku warned Bunpuku of their impending defeat.
At first, Bunpuku was skeptical, but after a clash or two, he was made to feel pain like no other. The pain was even transmitted back to Shukaku who couldn't resist cursing at Sakumo's entire ancestry only to feel a shiver run down his spine for some reason.
{A/N: Sakumo and the Sanins are still in their early twenties.}
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Following the humiliating defeat of Konohagakure at the hands of Sunagakure, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, ordered all of the available Konoha shinobi to fortify the Fire Temple, where he was sure Sakumo Hatake and his remaining men would gather.
He then withdrew all Konoha shinobi from the Land of Mountains to increase Konoha's chances in the face of the Sunagakure invasion. Upon reaching the Temple, Sakumo quickly realized he didn't have time to catch his breath.
Sunagakure soon launched an offensive, aimed at finally killing the man who had fought on even grounds with their jinchūriki.
The battle proved to be the first major turning point of the war, even though Konoha made a strategic retreat.
During the battle, the jinchūriki's special abilities were sealed by Sakumo Hatake using the Five Elements Seal, severely weakening Sunagakure in terms of power.
Furthermore, despite their superior numbers, Sunagakure suffered more losses than did Konohagakure or the Fire monks.
After Konoha's retreat, Sunagakure had the opportunity to occupy the Fire Temple, however, they chose against it, knowing that Konohagakure was likely to send a large reinforcement battalion to the Temple, and Sunagakure had already suffered a large dent in it's forces. Instead, the Sand ninjas pulled back and began planning their next move.
After the Battle of the Fire Temple, Sunagakure decided that a march directly towards Konohagakure would be a suicide mission after the losses they sustained in the aforementioned battle.
Instead, Sunagakure intelligence learned that Konoha was withdrawing its forces from the Land of Mountains, after their victory in the Destruction of the Kagerō Village.
Sunagakure then decides to mount an assault on the returning shinobi, hoping to cut off Konoha's reinforcements and secure another shot at the Hidden Leaf Village itself.
To do this, they decided to take Mount Katsuragi, a resting point for the Konohagakure reinforcements on their way back to the village. Unfortunately, they were met with a crushing defeat and this battle ended Sunagakure's invasion of the Land of Fire and their involvement in the Second Shinobi World War.
Sunagakure withdrew their forces from the Land of Fire over the following two weeks, during which time, Konoha prepared to launch offensives on two new fronts; the Land of Rain and the Land of Mountains, where Kumogakure and Iwagakure had invaded respectively.
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Middle Stages of the war.
Kumogakure and Iwagakure had not remained quiet all this time. After recuperating from their losses on Uzushio, taking advantage of Konohagakure's focus on Sunagakure, Kumogakure invaded the Land of Rain... and Iwagakure, the Land of Mountains.
In response to this, Konohagakure sends two powerful teams of shinobi into each land respectively while the remainder of the war effort cleans up the damage to the Land of Fire.
These teams were Team Sarutobi, who were assigned to the Land of Rain, and Team Shōyō, who were assigned to the Land of Mountains.
Following Iwagakure's invasion of the Land of Mountains, Konohagakure, who was still reeling from Sunagakure's failed invasion, sent Team Shōyō - a team of five Jōnin-level shinobi - to the Land of Mountains to begin countermeasures.
After hearing Shōyō had been sent, the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, personally appeared on the battlefield and directed his men towards the location of the Team.
This was a direct breach in the initial treaty signed by all the Kages in the first Kage summit. It was a law that no Kage was allowed to interfere in a battle except their village was facing it's end.
However, Ohnoki directly disregarded this and attacked when he got news of the involvement of Team Shoyo.
This was a team led by Shoyo Kawahiru. And the other members were Ryun Uchiha, Seireitou Hyūga, Hikaru Kurosaki and Uchiha Echo, a civilian orphan.
These five were already popular and were believed to possess near Kage level chakra, hence signifying how dangerous they were.
The battle took place in the mountainous valley closest to the border of the Land of Mountains. Ōnoki, and one hundred of his men, ambushed Team Shōyō in this valley, and a bloody battle ensued. While Ryun, Seireitou, Hikaru, and Echo fought the foot soldiers, Shōyō took on Ōnoki on a nearby cliff side.
Shōyō, to the Shock of Ohnoki, revealed Sage Mode during the fight. Try as he might, Ōnoki's Earth Release techniques were failing against Shōyō's kenjutsu and Senjutsu techniques.
With no other maneuvers left, Ōnoki unleashed Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique, which hit its mark; killing and vaporizing Shōyō on the spot.
From below, it was Seireitou who noticed their old master's death, thanks to his Byakugan eyes. The immense pain of loss within Ryun and Echo awakened their Mangekyō Sharingan.
At that point, the four grief stricken shinobi renewed their assault on the remaining Iwagakure shinobi. As night fell, the four had cut down over eighty of the original one hundred Iwagakure troops with only minor injuries themselves.
Still enraged by his master's death, and using the cover of darkness to his advantage, Seireitou went on a killing spree among the remaining Iwagakure forces, slaughtering close to forty men single-handedly before his teammates joined the fray to aid him.
By early morning the next day, Iwagakure's forces were wiped out and Ōnoki had strategically retreated to regain his strength after his lengthy battle with Shōyō.
The death of Shōyō was stomach churning to Konohagakure, but most importantly, his former students. After this battle, Ryun opted to go to the Dark Forest, the home of the Owl summons, and rest; something which his other teammates agreed to.
This battle awakened both Ryun and Echo's Mangekyō Sharingan, which would play a large role in the battles to come. It was also the battle in which Seireitou earned the title "Shiroyasha" [White Demon] after that battle due to his appearance during the slaughter. A slaughter he performed with nothing but his bare hands.
As with all wars, the Second Shinobi World War brought forth many heroes and took even more lives. It was during this war that the legendary "Sannin" rose to fame and received their nickname from Hanzō during a skirmish with Amegakure.
In the canon, it was known that the three Sanins knew they were defeated and Hanzo merely soared them due to fearing Hiruzen's revenge. With Tsunade being Konoha's princess and all three being Hiruzen's students, there was no way he would take their deaths lying down...
... However, in the confrontation in Amegakure, Hanzo was given a proper battle as Tsunade, Orochimaru and Jiraiya were all properly equipped to take him on.
His poison had zero to no effect on the three due to Orochimaru's resistance to poison after getting the Snake sage contract, Jiraiya's newly learnt breathing technique which helped him suppress the posion and Tsunade's... Well, posion immunity body.
She didn't have a need to use her Cell Activation Technique to burn her life force to keep her teammates alive. Despite this, they still couldn't defeat Hanzo of the salamander, testament to his might.
When the battle was nearing its end, Hanzo had to give them the title, not out of mockery this time, but out of genuine admiration. He could be called an old man, but he was still given the fight of his life by three "Brats."
The "Yonkō" also rose to prominence due to their battles in the Land of Mountains. On the other side, it was the war where Tsunade lost her lover, Dan Katō.
Whether it was due to the butterfly effect, Kawaki didn't participate in the war and didn't lose his life as a result. This in turn didn't lead to Tsunade developing an extreme case of hæmophobia, however she was still repulsed by the sight of blood.
The Ame Orphans lost their parents during this war, On their way back to camp, the three Sanins were besought by the three where Orochimaru graciously offered to end them.
To him who had seen the horrors war had in store for children, he genuinely felt that killing them would be better than letting them live through this hell known as life.
Fortunately, he was stopped by both Tsunade and Jiraiya and after a short discussion, Jiraiya decided to take care of them for a while, claiming it was the least he could do.
It all began...
... In a metal ruin in the land of Amegakure, the now known Sanins were sitting while enjoying their assigned rations as they regained their strength.
The rain was falling uninterruptedly, the atmosphere was as dreary as ever and there was no way any body would still be here-
"Who's there!" Tsunade shouted while looking into the darkness of the ruin. "Show yourselves! Don't hide."
Tap.... Tap. Tap. Tap.
A series of hesitant footsteps could be heard coming from the direction Tsunade was looking at. Gradually, a figure formed what was likely a seven or eight year old kid.
He had orange spiky hair and a weird cloth on his body. With short but steady steps, he walked towards the three Sanins.
"What do you want?" Tsunade asked. Stretching out his little hand, the boy demanded. "Give me some food."
Jiraiya asked. "What about your parents?"
"They were killed by ninja because of this war." The boy answered with an expression that showed nothing but hate.
"Sigh."Jiraiya sighed and brought out some biscuits from his pouch. "Here... Have some biscuits."
"Nagato. Konan! Come on out. They don't seem like bad guys." The boy shouted into the darkness.
Two heads seemed to pop out and moments later hurried footsteps could be heard as two children, the same age as the boy ran out and went for the biscuits in Jiraiya's hand. As soon as it was finished, they went for the one in Tsunade's
"Hey!" She shouted softly but couldn't bring herself to complain.
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The Sanins were currently on their way out of Amegakure and were walking into the distance... A few steps behind them, the three children could be seen following... As they stopped, the three stopped as well.
"Oi. Oi. What do you want? We already have you our food. What else do you want?" Tsunade asked becoming annoyed only to turn and see the resolute look in the boys face.
That wasn't a look a boy that age should have and that shocked her. As she stood there staring at him, the girl, Konan walked forward with her hands behind her back.
With a quick movement, she brought her hands out, greatly startling Tsunade who was about to reach for her pouch only to be stopped by Jiraiya who shook his head and motioned for her to look at the girls hand...
Turning to take a look, she saw a flower made of paper which was being offered to her by the girl. "Thank you. This is for you..." The girl said with a smile.
This smile caused Tsunade to involuntarily smile. That was a smile a child that age should have.
"It's an origami...folded from the biscuit wrapping." Jiraiya said
"This is for us?" Tsunade asked only for the boy earlier to walk out from behind Konan.
"Teach us Ninjutsu..." He demanded. "You're all ninjas from Konoha, right?..." He asked shocking the two.
{A/N: I mean, they were wearing their forehead protectors which obviously showed they were from Konoha... I wondered why they were shocked too 🤣🤣}
Orochimaru who had been silent ever since asked. "Shall I kill these children?"
"Wha-?"
"I have seen many war orphans. It's pitiful." He said with pity in his voice. "They would be better off If we just put them out of their misery right now." He graciously offered.
"Stop it Orochimaru! You go on ahead with Tsunade, I'll stay here and take care of them for a while." Jiraiya said.
"Huh?!" Tsunade asked.
"Just until they can take better care of themselves... It's the least I can do," Jiraiya said.
"But..." Tsunade began only to be ignored by Jiraiya who walked towards the three and knelt to their level. 'This should also be a part of my destiny... Isn't that right Old man?' he thought.
...
Days passed and turned to weeks and weeks to months since Jiraiya started living with the three Orphans, Yahiko, Nagato and Konan.
"Itadakimasu!" All four people gathered round a big fish said as they clapped their hands.
"Sensei, I think I've got the hang of fishing." Yahiko said with a bright smile.
Sniff. Nagato sniffed quietly, the two kids didn't notice but Jiraiya did. 'Hmm!?'
Unh. Unh. Nagato little sniffing turned into a suppressed cry which Yahiko and Konan noticed.
"Nagato, what's the matter?" Yahiko asked.
"I just remembered...about my family." Nagato replied as he cleaned his eyes. "And then.."
"Stop crying, goddamnit! You're a man!" Yahiko angrily rebuked as he slammed his hand on the table. "It's cuz of guys like you that Amegakure men are considered cowards!"
"..." Jiraiya was completely speechless for a few seconds. "The three Great Villages that surround Amegakure may be unstable right now, but I don't think this war is going to continue much longer. By the time you're all grown up, everyone will be living in peace and prosperity."
"That's easy for you to say!" Yahiko shouted, transfering his anger from Nagato to Jiraiya. "We've all lost our families. If there's to be peace, it should only come after the go through what we did. That's the true meaning of sharing pain, isn't it?"
"..." Jiraiya looked at the boy in both pity and apology. "And then what?"
"Huh?"
"After you killed them all, then what?" Jiraiya asked again.
"Then there'll be peace." Yahiko answered. "But even I know that's only a fantasy, and the reality is that there'll always be war." He said and sat back down. "I hate the rain. This country is always crying... It's a coward." Looking up to Jiraiya with a very determined gaze, he said. "I'll change this land. I'll protect everyone!!... That's why I...I want you to teach us Ninjutsu Jiraiya-sensei!"
...
That same night, Jiraiya sat on his lonesome as he reviewed what Yahiko had said earlier. 'If there's to be peace, it should only come after everyone had gone through what we had.'
'And that's why there'll always be war!'
'I will protect everyone.'
Bang! At that moment, the door was roughly pushed open as a horrified Konan burst in.
"Jiraiya-sensei! Hurry... Yahiko and Konan are in trouble!" She shouted and without wasting anytime, Jiraiya picked her up and said. "Lead the way."
Arriving at what looked like where chunin level ninjas should've just fought, Jiraiya saw a dead body, an injured Yahiko and a terror stricken Nagato.
"I brought Jiraiya-sensei!" Konan shouted as Jiraiya dropped her.
"What happened?" Jiraiya asked as he supported Yahiko who was trying to stand up.
"We...were attacked by this rouge ninja. He wanted food or money...but Nagato, he.." Yahiko tried to explain in laboured breath.
'This fellow is an Iwa Chunin, how'd Nagato...' Jiraiya thought as he looked at Nagato who was breathing heavily and was shocked by what he saw. 'Th-Those pupils!! Don't tell me he's..?!"
'That ripple pattern... Unbelievable... I've seen them in the Toad's archives... Those eyes said to hold the most noble of all Dojutsus... The Rinnegan!!'
It originated with The Sage Of Six Paths, said to be the father of all Shinobi... It is written that this person developed all the Jutsu known to us today...
Said to always appear when the world becomes corrupt, capable of being both a Godlike force of creation and an all obliterating instrument of destruction...
I thought it was only a myth... No one could really possess the Rinnegan... Except God... Now however.
....
"I've decided to teach you ninjutsu." Jiraiya said to the three children standing opposite him.
"R-Really!?" Yahiko shouted in excitement.
"Since you can never tell when you might be in danger again, I want you to be able to protect yourselves." Jiraiya nodded.
"That's great!!" Yahiko shouted but only him seemed to be reveling in the excitement.
"..." Nagato was just expressionless as he gazed at nothing in particular while Konan was being a girl and observing her brother figures.
"Thanks for saving me the other day Nagato!" Yahiko suddenly said to the emo boy. "I'm sorry for calling you a coward. The next time, I promise to rescue you Instead!"
"Th-thanks Yahiko." Nagato finally managed to say with a smile on top of it.
Konan seeing this also laughed. "What? But Nagato is stronger than you, Yahiko."
"That's why I'm going to train harder to get stronger!" Yahiko said as he began blushing. "You say too much as always Konan."
"Alright, let's get started. First, you're going to learn how to manipulate chakra." Jiraiya said with a smile seeing the children smiling too.
"Yes master!"
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Jiraiya's POV
Hmm? There's one snore less in the room.
That was my first observation as I regained consciousness from my short nap. Sitting up, I noticed that Nagato wasn't in his futon, probably outside thinking too much for his age.
Sigh... Kids... Well, can I really blame them? The wars make them grow too quickly. It makes me think we really loved a comfortable life growing up.
Walking outside, I noticed the crouching figure of Nagato sobbing his sorrows away as the rain fell heavily.
He must have come here so as not to disturb us... What a thoughtful lad.
"Tell me... What's on your mind." I said as I tapped the boy and sat beside him.
"Sensei."
"Still fretting about that day?" I asked seeing the looking of guilt and self reproach in his eyes.
"That day... When that man hurt Yahiko... I was so mad at him... Then everything went blank in my head...like I was in a trance or something... The next thing I knew, the man was on the ground, dead. I became so frightened...that I had gone blind with rage and killed him...!! Sniff... I know I did something wrong... I can't help but think that there must have been another way...!!" Nagato poured out everything he had been bottling up...which was good. It's always deadly to keep such level of emotions bottled up. It destroys you from the inside.
Wait, where did this level of wisdom come from? Am I beginning to Reason like the sages of old? Heh, must be it.
Anyways... "Nagato!"
"Mm!" The boy looked up to me waiting for some words of encouragement which I have in abundance.
"You know, I'm honestly not sure if what you did was right or wrong either. But thanks to you, Yahiko is alive. You protected him, your friend and brother. So I believe what you did was the right thing." I said. "No one can fault you for that."
"Once you've been hurt, you learn what it is to hate... On the other hand, when you hurt another, you become hated and wracked with a smoldering sense of guilt. But it is because one understands such pain that generosity towards others becomes second nature. This is what It means to be human."
"...What do you mean?" Nagato asked.
I smiled "To grow up."
"Grow up? I still don't understand." Nagato said.
"To become able to think and make your own decisions." I said.
"..." Nagato looked at me speechlessly. Who am I to blame, not every would understand the things I say.
"When we were crying... Yahiko saved Konan and me...from hunger... Even stole other people's food..." Nagato said.
This is the part where I keep silent.
"I just want to protect them, no matter how much pain befalls me." Nagato said as his voice changed from a crying kid to that of a determined kid. He has potential. I can't wait to see what level he'll reach.
"I see."
That's the type of mentality a saviour should have... Though is that really the case?
...
General POV.
Three years had passed since Jiraiya took in the three children and today, they were fighting against a clone strong enough to beat any normal chunin.
[Water Style: Raging Waves.] Yahiko said and spat a good amount of water from his mouth which Jiraiya(C) dodged.
Shui. Shui. Shui.
The sound of multiple paper shruiken tearing through to air could be heard as they assaulted the area Jiraiya landed.
[Wind Style: Gale Palm] Nagato said further increasing the speed the shruiken moved.
Their combined attack worked and the clone was immediately put out of commission.
"You've sure come a long way. Even able to take down my Shadow Clone now." The original Jiraiya said from the side.
"Sensei!" They all greeted.
"This means I can finally return to my village with peace of mind." Jiraiya said much to their shock. "Huh?"
"From here on out, you're on your own. You've done well these past three years." Jiraiya laughed and looked at his students. "Hey! No crying Yahiko, people will think you're a coward remember?"
"Konan... You'll grow up to be beautiful, let's meet again someday. This land is destitute... So there'll be hard days ahead. But from this point forward, you three can change the fate of this land." Jiraiya said and turned to leave.
"Nagato... You all have grown up... Don't you agree?" As he said this he laughed once more and swaggered away.
"..." Nagato stood rooted as he looked at the back of his teacher.
"Thank you... Sensei." They all said.
...
High above the skies of Amegakure, two beautiful women could be seen standing on the cloud as the sun hit them, completely contrasting to the whether below.
These two women had a black and white hair respectively with eyes also different and unique to them.
"Isn't it about time we made ourselves known to them?" The black haired woman asked.
"Hmm." The other replied not acknowledging or declining.
"That doesn't tell me anything Nami-nee, you gotta say something for me to go with." The other said.
"Well, Shun did say they would be important for the coming war, but except for the kid with Uncle's eyes I don't see how those two would be relevant." The woman called Nami spoke.
"Well, I'm originally a human, and so was Shun." The black haired woman said, sounding offended which the other didn't bother to apologize about.
"No, I'm aware. I'm just thinking of how we should go about it. The lass has a unique bloodline, which when properly trained could be more deadly that the base you." Nami said.
"Right? Those papers have a lot of uses to it. Plus, it's formed by the mixture of three elements water, wind and earth. Plus that unique Yang attributed nature in her as well. She surely a gem in the rough." The black haired woman said.
"Then would you like to be their caretaker, Ria?" Nami asked.
"Caretaker? Shun only said they were important, that doesn't mean we should be involved with them. Plus, Shun doesn't like us interuppting life on the planet. We aren't meant to exist after all." Ria reasoned.
"Well, he isn't around now is he? Plus, what's the worse that could happen, right?" Hinami asked with a devilish smirk that made Ria excited for some reason.
"I like the way you think my dear big sister. Worry not, for I shall take good care of them." Ria said and disappeared from the clouds.
