Chapter 118 Shinobu and Haku (Part 2)

Chapter 118 Shinobu and Haku (Part 2)

In the evening, Kocho Shinobu dragged Giyu and followed Haku to the bottom of a short mountain more than 200 meters tall.

Facing them was a cliff on one side of the mountain, almost completely vertical to the ground. Like an unpolished mirror, it reflected the beautiful afterglow on the other side of the sea and trees. It was covered with purple and orange, but the distinction was not very obvious. Magnificent color blocks.

"The patrol station I mentioned is right up there."

Haku stretched his neck and raised his eyes to the top of the sixty-story cliff.

"Is it really on such a high place?"

Kocho Shinobu raised her head exaggeratedly, and the angle of her neck made her worry about her future height.

The resurrected Shinobu and Giyu remain at the same age, so now her and Giyu's heights are not much different, but the key lies in the skeletal development after entering puberty.

She doesn't ask for her physique to surpass that of Rengoku Kyojuro and Giyu, she just wants to be nine centimeters taller than when she was alive (151cm), and preferably catch up with her sister.

"The reason why it is built at such a high position is because before the Fourth Mizukage came to power, Kirigakure Village was not completely hidden, and there was not heavy mist around here every day. The patrol station is located at a high place. It was also used as a lookout."

Haku introduced: "Later on, it was filled with mist all year round and nothing could be seen, so no one was willing to take the trouble to climb up. When Zabuza-sama didn't need me, this patrol station became my temporary place."

When he said this, there was a look of nostalgia and regret in his eyes at the same time.

"Now that the good weather in Kirigakure has returned, I'm afraid it will be reused soon."

"Looking at you, there must be a lot of precious memories here."

Kocho Shinobu smiled understandingly, "So I thought," You want to keep this place to yourself?"

Haku was told what was on his mind. He didn't know what he thought of, two red clouds appeared on his face, and he hurriedly avoided Shinobu's sight.

He took two steps forward, condensed chakra on the sole of his left foot and absorbed it on the cliff, then heeled with his right foot, keeping his entire torso parallel to the ground easily.

Haku took a few steps up and noticed that there were no footsteps behind him (below), so he turned his head strangely, only to find that Kocho Shinobu was pressing her chin with her index finger, staring at his shoes curiously.

A ridiculous idea suddenly sprouted in Haku's mind: "Well, you..."

"My name is Kocho Shinobu. You are older than me, just call me Shinobu."

Suddenly, Haku was interrupted, and Haku remembered He seemed to be used to the ninja life and forgot to tell his name.

"My name is Haku, I don't have a surname."

A simple word is enough to explain Haku's origin.

He pushed a little harder, jumped off the cliff, and landed in front of Shinobu.

"You haven't practiced treading water or climbing trees, so you can't go up?"

Haku just asked tentatively.

After all, when he thought about it, the boy from the Uchiha clan was so powerful that it was a bit dreamy.

As a companion, Kocho Shinobu, even if there is some gap between her and Giyu, it cannot be bigger than the gap between him and Zabuza-sama.

It is more likely that the girl was wary and did not want to follow him to that place.

When Haku thought of this possibility, although he could understand it, he was a little disappointed. After all, this was the norm in the ninja world - strangers were natural enemies.

For someone like him to offer help proactively, it seems a bit suspicious no matter how you look at it. But to be honest, he just felt that the boy(Giyu) was similar to him to some extent through the conversation between Orochimaru and Giyu, so he didn't want to see the latter die in vain.

However, this loss did not last long.

Because Kocho Shinobu's answer was even more outrageous than he thought.

"Treading water and climbing trees?"

Kocho Shinobu blinked inquiringly.

"This kind of thing requires that kind of energy called 'Chakra' to do it, right?"

"That kind of energy called... Chakra or something like that?"

Haku was a little stunned, and didn't even think about it for a moment. I understand why Kocho Shinobu calls something that is most familiar to Ninja like this.

"Don't you Konoha ninjas learn how to extract chakra on the first day of school?"

"We are not ninjas, and I am not from Konoha."

Kocho Shinobu suddenly smiled slyly when she heard this.

She pointed at Giyu behind her, "But he is indeed from Konoha. It seems like you really know him, Haku."

In fact, Giyu and Haku had a relationship - When Giyu was using Unknowning Fire. He flew above Zabuza and Haku's head.

But at that time, Giyu was using the Flame Breathing instead of the Moon Breathing, and he did not open the Sharingan, so Kocho Shinobu could not see Haku through Giyu, so it was unclear why the child knew Giyu.

"This..."

Haku's face froze.

He originally wanted to pretend that he didn't know him.

He felt that Zabuza's criticism was not wrong. He lacked the vigilance that a ninja should have, and his secret was revealed so easily. The one who exposed him was a little girl who claimed to be not a ninja.

Just as he was struggling with how to deal with it, Haku suddenly remembered the crux of the problem.

"Wait a minute, weren't we talking about you just now?"

He stared at Kocho Shinobu's face with wide eyes, "You just said that you are not ninjas?"

This is the hard part to accept.

"It's true."

Kocho Shinobu said very calmly, "He is still a student at the Ninja School, and will be in the fourth grade soon..."

Haku's facial features tightened bitterly, feeling that his good intentions had been deceived.

If the students of Konoha Ninja School were able to subdue the seven ninja swordsmen in one second, then Kirigakure might as well be destroyed altogether.

Kocho Shinobu continued: "As for me, I don't know anything about things like chakra. If I could do what you just did, I would have followed you long ago and I would never waste treatment time. Look at me, do you think I look like someone who is joking with other people's lives?"

"Not like that." Haku shook his head almost instinctively, but his eyes towards Giyu were full of doubt.

"I know you have a lot of doubts. I will prove it to you after we go up and complete further treatment. Although I don't mind lying, I never deceive those who are kind to me." Kocho Shinobu untied the vines around her waist and She said, "The situation is urgent now. Can you help me bring him up first? I can't walk freely on the wall. This kind of thing is still too difficult for me at the moment."

"...Okay."

After thinking for a while he nodded and tied the cane connecting the stretcher to his waist.

Kocho Shinobu squatted down and took out a very familiar Tea Kettle from the space under the stretcher and handed it over: "I'm not sure what this is, but I feel that if this thing breaks, the two of us will probably die. It's settled. In order to prevent it from falling and breaking during the ascent, please hold it carefully in your hands."

"Tea Kettle." Haku took the thing with a dull expression, and his throat couldn't help shaking violently.

After what happened last night, Haku heard that Zabuza said that Orochimaru used a certain technique to transfer the three tails sealed in the body of the Fourth Mizukage into this small kettle.

Haku didn't know what a "tailed beast" was, and Zabuza didn't elaborate on it, but simply described it to him - The three-tailed beast was a monster that couldn't be truly killed, but could easily destroy the entire Kirigakure Village.

Because it cannot be tamed, it can only be sealed in the body of Kirigakure's strongest Fourth Mizukage. It was a blessing that Orochimaru didn't force the three tails out during the battle with Mizukage, otherwise no one in Kirigakure would be able to deal with that thing independently for the time being.

After knowing that this thing was most likely in the hands of Giyu, Momochi Zabuza originally wanted to inform the village and let the senior officials use diplomatic means to ask for it from Konoha.

However, Terumi Mei believed that doing so would expose Kirigakure's weak state due to the lack of tailed beasts to other ninja villages. It was best to deal with it secretly and secretly reached an agreement with Konoha, so she asked Momochi Zabuza and Haku to pretend that they did not know about this. Let's wait until the new Mizukage takes office.

Now, with such a dangerous thing in Haku's hands, how could he not be nervous?

"I'll be careful."

There was a tight feeling outside Haku's brain. He dragged Giyu to the edge of the cliff, and when he was about to go up, he did not forget to remind Kocho Shinobu: "You wait here for a moment, I will take him up, and then come down to take you."

"Thank you for your kindness, Haku. "

Kocho Shinobu shook her head, but her eyes were fixed on the top of the cliff. "Actually, I can go up by myself, but I can't bring anyone with me."

Haku misunderstood Shinobu's meaning: "But if you want to go around from behind, you have to go up. It will take more than an hour to walk..."

"It's okay, I'll go up soon."

Haku didn't say anything, but smiled and started climbing. He thought it was a child trying to show off her strength, but this Kocho Shinobu was a little different from the maturity she showed before. But that's normal.

Kocho Shinobu at the foot of the mountain did not intend to take a detour, but opened her eyes wide and carefully searched for something on the seemingly smooth stone wall.

When Haku had dragged Giyu to the top and greeted her from above, Kocho Shinobu took a deep breath, as if she was ready for something.

"Just in time to try out the potential of this body."

The next moment, Haku, who was about to go down again, was surprised to see the small figure of Kocho Shinobu charging towards the cliff.

"Doesn't she have chakra? What is she doing?"

Haku leaned out half of his body, wondering to himself.

The next moment, his question was answered.

"Insect Breathing..."

Kocho Shinobu endured the white steam leaking out of her mouth and nose, and her seemingly fragile body burst into a desperate aura. The look in her eyes was completely different from before.

"Dance of the Centipede..."

She walked through extremely fast, lowering her body to run like a shadow. When she was still three meters away from the stone wall, she stepped on the ground with her right foot, making a loud sound like a monument and cracking a stone. Her body shot into the air more than ten meters high like a javelin.

"Hundred-Legged Zigzag!"

Seeing that she was about to hit the stone wall, Kocho Shinobu reluctantly repeated her old trick, stepped hard with her left foot, and landed on a vague bulge, immediately leaving a hole the size of a human head on the stone wall. The body bounced towards another bulge more than ten meters diagonally above.

In this way, she relied on the huge reaction force generated by violently kicking the wall and the stone wall, and kept jumping left and right on the stone wall. Using the weak points of strength, she often jumped more than ten meters in height, getting closer and closer to the top of Haku's place.

As she marched, she made a series of terrifying loud noises, leaving a row of twisted and winding potholes on the originally smooth cliff.

Seeing the figure getting closer and closer to him, Haku's mouth opened slightly, and he was simply amazed.

That sound of explosions coupled with the phantom of the flying model lake, it is no exaggeration to say that it is huge, and it is in sharp contrast with the petite body.

However, he was also a little worried, because the last twenty meters of the cliff were as smooth as a mirror. If Kocho Shinobu failed to find a point of strength and accidentally fell, the consequences would be disastrous.

But Kocho Shinobu had already considered this.

After she stepped hard on the stone wall for the last time, her breathing rhythm changed again. A kunai fell from the cuff of her yukata into her right hand, and then she raised it high to the sky.

"Insect Breathing·Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter!"

Then, Kocho Shinobu's body was completely suspended in the air, as if being dragged by the rocket-like kunai to fly higher, finally reaching a height of twenty meters. It was easily surpassed, and it rose another seven or eight meters before stopping.

Just when she was about to fall directly to the ground, Kocho Shinobu opened her arms wide, and the overly large butterfly-patterned feather fabric covering the outside was completely unfolded, making her stand still in the air for a moment like a real butterfly.

Haku raised his head and looked at this scene with great envy. The orange light of the setting sun actually embroidered the shiny edge on this translucent butterfly, making the figure look like a dream.

"Butterfly Dance: Caprice."

Finally, with a soft chant, Kocho Shinobu flapped its "wings", drawing a downward trending exponential function curve in the air, and landed on the ground quickly and elegantly.

Only this time, she didn't even make a sound, just like a butterfly stopping on the delicate petals.

Kocho Shinobu, who landed on the ground, only had a slightly red face, and there wasn't even a drop of sweat on her forehead.

She couldn't hide the surprise and excitement in her eyes - she used the insect's Breathing to use three sword forms in succession, but she could hardly feel the burden of the breathing method on her body!

In the past, I had to rest my legs for several days after using Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag. Now I only felt a little numb, and it was getting better quickly!

[Is this what it feels like to be strong? ]

Kocho Shinobu fully enjoyed this unprecedented strong self-confidence.

Then, an idea came to her mind that she had never dared to think about in the past -

[Since the burden of insect Breathing on the body is close to zero, then my sister's flower Breathing...]

Kocho Shinobu did it after she thought of it.

Haku, who was about to talk to Kocho Shinobu, stopped talking because he saw the look in the girl's eyes suddenly change from cunning and alert to as gentle and calm as a spring flower.

"Flower Breathing·Fifth Form: Peonies of Futility."

Kocho Shinobu held the kunai tightly, and completed a very fast stab at one point with her right hand from nine directions. The phantom formed by the arm and the kunai was just like the petals of the peony about to bloom.

Nine thrusts landed at the same location and were completed in less than one second. It is not difficult to imagine the difficulty.

Kocho Shinobu's best performance in the past was only six times before she could not breathe smoothly, but now she is only panting slightly - most likely because the flower Breathing did not achieve the usual results.

After the action was completed, she returned to her standing position, with the corners of her mouth raised, but her eyes were inevitably moist.

[Sister, have you seen it? I finally did it...]

Kocho Shinobu is a rare Hashira in the Demon Slayer Squad who masters three breathing techniques.

She passed the final selection by relying on water breathing among the five basic breathing methods.

Many demons there have not eaten for many years, their bodies are very weak, and their recovery speed is slow. Although Kocho Shinobu cannot exert the power of water breathing, it can still cut off the demon's neck with a few more cuts. But once the demon slaying officially started, the burden of water breathing on the body was obvious, resulting in Kocho Shinobu's performance being mediocre.

After her sister Kanae became a Hashira, Kocho Shinobu, as the sister of Flower Hashira, Kocho Kanae, began to learn the breathing method derived from water breathing - the Flower Breathing that is more suitable for female swordsmen. Although the situation has improved, it's not much, and Kocho Shinobu's main job has to transition from killing demons to treating injured team members at the Butterfly House.

It was not until Kanae's death that Kocho Shinobu began to study toxins wholeheartedly in order to take revenge, and further developed insect Breathing that was only suitable for herself based on flower Breathing, and finally became insect Hashira.

But now, she can use the Insect Breathing and Flower Breathing smoothly, not to mention the Water Breathing.

[It seems that Tomioka has been struggling for so long, not without reason. ]

Shinobu turned her grateful gaze to Giyu.

The strength of this body is far beyond imagination, and it makes up for almost all her shortcomings (of course, her height is still unknown).

[Thank you very much. ]

"Miss Shinobu, are you okay?"

Unknowingly, Haku used honorifics when addressing Shinobu.

With the physical fitness shown by Kocho Shinobu just now, no wonder she was not afraid of the two Kirigakure Ninjas at that time.

I really can't imagine what it would be like if such a person could use chakra.

Sure enough, there was a good reason why she could become a companion with a monster like Uchiha Giyu.

"It's okay, I just moved my body. I haven't had this opportunity for a long time."

Kocho Shinobu knew that she was a little too excited just now, so she nodded slightly apologetically, "I'm sorry for making you worry."

"No, it's okay." Haku was a little restrained. He clenched his fingers and said, "The patrol station is over there. Let me boil some hot water first."

He put the Tea Kettle in which the three tails is sealed on the stretcher and entered the cabin on the cliff first.

Kocho Shinobu dragged Giyu and followed him in slowly.

The furnishings in the wooden house are very simple. Except for a pair of tables and chairs, a stove, two single beds covered with wolf skins, and a row of shelves with several medical bags, there is nothing else, not even a water boiler. The casseroles were all taken out of Haku's scroll.

However, although this place is simple, there is not much dust. It has obviously been cleaned carefully.

While Haku was using the explosive tags fragments to light a fire and create ice and boil ice to boil water, Kocho Shinobu dragged Giyu on the stretcher to a bed, took out a medical bag and rummaged through it carefully.

"Medical gauze, cotton swabs, syringes, epinephrine injections, physiological saline..."

Her eyes quickly scanned the labels of these things. Although she had never seen some of them before, it was not difficult to guess their uses based on their shapes and names.

She felt Giyu's pulse, first gave him an injection to raise his blood pressure, and then decided to inject glucose intravenously to replenish water and basic nutrition.

"Don't you need a blood transfusion?" Haku said worriedly, "My blood type should be able to transfuse blood for everyone..."

"Thank you for your kindness, but it probably won't be necessary." Kocho Shinobu shook his head.

Giyu's body is different from ordinary people. As long as he replenishes his nutrition, regains a little consciousness. He can resume his normal breathing rhythm, the wounds all over his body will be under control immediately. This is the most important thing.

"This person has only slept less than thirty hours and eaten less than ten meals in the past ten days. The key is not keeping up with nutrition."

Kocho Shinobu hung the bottle on the corner of the window and pressed it gently The pulley on the infusion tube, a few drops of glucose solution dripping from the needle.

When the needle was inserted into Giyu's arm, Kocho Shinobu's voice became a little stern, "Otherwise... with his physical condition, he wouldn't be like this if he lost too much blood."

"He only slept for less than thirty hours in ten days?"

Haku was a little surprised.

After all, when he was fighting, he didn't feel tired at all. Instead, he was extremely ferocious and seemed to be more awake than anyone else.

"Well, there are some people in the world who often feel that they have made some mistakes and are not worthy of living comfortably, so they insist on squeezing their bodies like this." Kocho Shinobu put medical tape around the needle and stared closely at Giyu's closed eyes, as if hoping he could hear her.

"You finally got a little lucky (having a family), but you also feel that you're responsible for the misfortunes of others. In this case, luck has become pressure."

Haku didn't understand the meaning of Shinobu's words.

He looked at Giyu and asked: "Is he working so hard just to chase down Orochimaru?"

"Orochimaru should be just an accident. In fact, he came here just for your Fourth Mizukage. But he didn't expect that, Someone actually took the lead."

Haku said "As expected", and his tone also contained a bit of condemnation: "Is it an assassination mission from Konoha? You clearly said that he is not a ninja."

Unless the top management of Konoha is blind and let such people study in school. What is the difference between this and killing a pig with an executioner blade?

"Didn't I say I would prove it to you before?"

Kocho Shinobu raised the corners of her lips, turned over the stretcher, and took out a scroll from the ninja tool bag.

"He was reviewing the Ninja School textbooks a few nights ago. I don't have chakra, can you open this thing? There should be a lot of ingredients in it, just take it out and stew it into soup. Of course, if It would be great to have better trauma medicine."

"Are you sure?" Haku took the scroll with a tangled expression, "If he is a ninja of Konoha and I see some confidential documents in it..."

"Even if he is a ninja of Konoha, You see it..."

"If you really see any secrets, I won't do anything to you."

Kocho Shinobu suddenly frowned and said seriously: "Please don't compare us with ninjas."

"Oh, okay." Haku was frightened by the sudden severity she showed. He quickly unfolded Giyu's scroll, first pressed his handprint on the seal with the word "food" written on it, and took out a plastic box filled with ingredients. Before opening it, you can already see the various radishes inside.

Finally, Haku looked at the seal with the word "book" written on it and hesitated for a moment, because this was where most ninjas stored information.

But since Kocho Shinobu made such a guarantee, he also wanted to ask for proof of something, so he put his handprint on it.

A stack of books, both large and small, and a square box containing unknown contents appeared.

"Is it really okay to read it?" Haku asked again, his fingers resting on the backs of these books.

Although generally ninja information is conveyed in scrolls, it is not impossible to have books containing secret codes. Haven't you seen that these books are all wrapped in book covers? I always feel like I'm not showing off to others...

"Except for the little book, it's just something given out by the school. There's nothing you can't read."

Shinobu took out a thicker book and unfolded it. It happened to have the photos of the senju brothers, Senju Tobirama and Senju Hashirama.

She turned to the title page.

"Look, "The History of the Ninja: A Thousand Years' Journey, a Textbook for the Fourth Grade of Konoha Ninja School" was written by Sarutobi Hiruzen. This should be the name of the Third Hokage."

[It's really a textbook...]

Haku felt a lot more relieved all of a sudden.

So He casually took out another book and unfolded it from the middle, but it just froze there.

The next moment, his eyes felt dizzy and dizzy. His face turned visibly red from his neck. He could not move while holding the book in his hands, but his nose felt itchy.

"Is this, is this also a textbook?"

His frail tone caught Kocho Shinobu's attention.

The latter noticed something was wrong with Haku's face and took two steps forward with a suspicious look on her face.

She only glanced at the contents, her expression changed suddenly, and she said sternly as if she had returned to the Butterfly House: "Children are not allowed to look at this kind of thing! Cover your eyes!"

"Got it!" Haku hurriedly followed the instructions. The book fell from his retracted hand and was taken by the Kocho Shinobu with quick eyes and quick hands.

She started flipping through it casually, with a paternalistic look on her face at first, but the more she looked at it, the clearer the contempt in her eyes became: "These are obviously photos that have been manipulated. In order to make these women look more attractive, the shoulders and heads have been modified. The proportions of the hips are all wrong, and the width of the hip bones and the length of the legs are completely unrealistic. Moreover, such a thin figure has such a big chest, and she can't even stand up, let alone make such exaggerated movements. "

Haku opened the gap between his fingers curiously, and his sight came out from inside. His voice was a little aggrieved: "You are also a child, why can you see it?"

"I am a doctor and know the human body well. In my opinion, this book is a picture album full of errors; but a little boy like you will inevitably have unrealistic fantasies about the opposite sex after reading it, so you are not allowed to read it."

Kocho Shinobu spoke decisively and impatiently turned the book to the title page: " "Yugakure Ninja Village Courtesan's Bathing Award in 1945-50"? I didn't expect it..."

She glanced at Giyu, whose face was still blue, with doubt.

[Can a person who has no way of enjoying himself really collect such things? ]

I glanced at the corners and edges of the book, and it didn't look like there were any signs of reading.

[Or maybe you bought it for someone else? I remember he had two older brothers...]

Putting this picture album aside, Kocho Shinobu flipped through all the other books, then put the textbooks aside and studied these adult books. Haku couldn't sit or stand aside. He could only pretend to observe whether the boiling water was boiling or not, something as obvious as that.

"In addition to this kind of picture book full of errors, are there any other books?"

Kocho Shinobu opened two slightly smaller books, " "The Make out Tactics" and "The Make out Paradise"?. It's the same, there is no trace of reading at all."

[I really can't imagine what Tomioka would be like reading this kind of book...]

She was 70% certain that Giyu did not buy this book for himself, but she still had 30% doubts.

Kocho Shinobu glanced at Giyu, gathered all the harmful books together, and planned to ask about the situation when Giyu woke up.

But amidst her disdain, she had a little bit of hope that these books were indeed Giyu's collection.

Bad habits can be changed.

But at least this means that Giyu is a person who allows himself to have sensual enjoyment, rather than an ascetic who can only eat a carrot and fish for half a month.

If a person does not relax his spirit and squeezes his physical strength and time, sooner or later he will be completely broken.

And this is difficult to correct.

"The water is boiled." Haku stared at the pot of water for two full minutes before turning around and announcing, "You can put a new bandage on him."

Haku made a piece of ice to adjust the water temperature, and then added it to the water. He took out a basin from his scroll, poured water into it, and carried it to the bedside.

One of the two people cleaned the blood on Giyu's body and put on the high-grade trauma medicine taken from the scroll. The other helped him put on new and clean gauze and bandages.

It was obviously the easiest and most skilled physical work, but both Haku and Shinobu were so busy that they were sweating profusely and Shinobu felt even more tired than doing a set of Flower Breathing.

After finishing, Shinobu praised: "Haku, your movements are very skillful. This must not be the first time you help others treat wounds, right?"

"Well, Zabuza-sama also gets injured sometimes." Haku said slowly, and then he didn't say any more words.

I don't know whether it was the glucose that had the effect or the warm water. It didn't take long for Giyu to gradually resume the rhythm of water breathing and normalcy, and his body temperature also transitioned from the shockingly cold to a little warmer.

Although he still couldn't open his eyes or speak, as long as he regained control of the wound, the most difficult part was completely over.

"Although I've said it many times, I really need to thank you, Haku. Without your help, I'm afraid it would be difficult for him to get through today."

Kocho Shinobu stood up and bowed sincerely, "There are also ninjas like you. You are such a kind-hearted person. You know that we might be ninjas from other villages, but you are still willing to help. You are really a kind and gentle person."

"Maybe just because of this..."

Haku was so used to being thanked and praised that he fidgeted and scratched his sweat-soaked face.

Not only did he not feel grateful for saving someone's life, but he showed abnormal shame and self-blame.

"Only Zabuza-sama would say that I can't be called a qualified ninja. I can't even be called a qualified tool... because tools don't have their own feelings."

"Haku, you..."

Kocho Shinobu said seriously. She looked at the beautiful and dark face opposite, her lips parted, but she never spoke.

Until Haku was a little uncomfortable with the weird silence, a gentle hand gently covered the top of his head and slowly stroked his hair.

"It must be hard for you to live in a place like this."

It was as if a switch had been pressed on the long-ago memory, and the sour warmth that had not been felt for a long time hit Haku's nasal cavity.

Unknowingly, tears flowed down to Haku's cheeks, but he didn't know why.

" I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do this, and I don't know why..."

Haku was so ashamed that he tried desperately to wipe away the long-lost tears that poured out of his eyes. But it was futile.

Tears were the first thing he overcame after receiving ninja training. How could they pour out like this now? There must be something wrong...

"It doesn't matter, I don't care about this, but I think it's a good thing..."

This was not the first time Kocho Shinobu met such a child.

Her eyes were as loving as an elder sister's, and her voice was like warm marshmallows.

"Crying means that the life that truly suits you is far more than just being a tool."

However, she was clearly trying to comfort him, and Haku felt better, but he cried harder and harder.

God knows why.