Chapter 16
Paper shuriken flew at Yahiko, cutting through the rain as a chain of lightning traveled through the droplets of water, catching every single one of them. The moment the paper stopped in the air, they exploded.
Heat quickly made steam, covering Yahiko's vision as stone spears flew through it, straight at Yahiko. Jumping over them, Yahiko evaded being hit, only to be met with a fireball falling straight down on him. It covered the whole sky, leaving no place for Yahiko to escape.
Yahiko bound his hands together before his hair grew out and covered his body, shielding him from the heat, but still feeling the sheer weight of the fireball slamming into him and crashing him back to the ground.
Before he could even get back to his feet, paper flew around him, circling him. He used his hair to shoot out strands of it like needles that pierced through the paper, but there was still no sight of Konan. And the paper just continued to multiply, closing in on him.
But it mattered little, as Yahiko felt his chakra coming from the hair strands he shot out earlier as they generated lightning. Even though the fireball evaporated most of the water around him, he could use his hair as a medium to let the lightning travel in an unpredictable pattern.
"There is no point in hiding," Yahiko smirked. "Lightning Release: Lightning Explosion Level Three: Blinding Light."
The circle covered by Yahiko's hair exploded in blinding light and deafening thunder. After a second, he opened his eyes and let his hair recede from covering his ears before looking at Konan, collapsed on the ground.
"The higher one goes, the harder one falls," Yahiko commented as he saw an earth pillar rise nearby, and on top of it, Nagato, who tried to escape the explosion.
With a heavy kick, the pillar collapsed, and Nagato fell to the ground. Yahiko smiled at his victory before it disappeared as Konan's body turned into paper that scattered and attached to Yahiko, sealing his movement.
Nagato then quickly stood up, and now he was smiling at his victory as the ground disappeared under Yahiko's feet, and he fell into a pit that was soon filled up, further sealing Yahiko's fate.
"Bull. Shit. How did you escape the explosion? It was my new jutsu that you shouldn't have known of." Now left with only his head above the ground, Yahiko could only complain.
"What!" Nagato yelled out, picking his ears. "I can't hear anything through this ringing!"
"Because you always pull something like that at the end," Konan skipped over and explained. "So, I prepared for anything you would do and pretended to fall for it."
"Ugh, you got me." In the end, Yahiko couldn't say anything about it and accepted his loss. "I'll wash the dishes this week. Damn it, I didn't think my streak would be broken today. Just let me out."
"Nope," Konan placed a paper hat on top of Yahiko's head to protect him from the rain.
"What? Why?"
"Stay here and think about what you've done." Suddenly, Konan got angry and led Nagato away. Back home.
Did Konan already enter the age when normal men like him are not able to understand them? If not, what was her deal? And it wasn't like the hat lasted long in the air before dissolving and sliding off his head. Yahiko could only struggle to free himself.
…
"Very funny," Yahiko commented as he tried to shake dirt from himself before entering his home and seeing Konan and Nagato finishing eating, leaving a complete mess of dishes for him to wash.
"We left some for you," Nagato said, presenting Yahiko a bowl of ramen.
"Thank you." Yahiko could bite his tongue and accept it, as he was starving by now.
Then Yahiko glanced at Konan, who continued to glare at him. Was she still angry because he forgot to get some sweets for her the last time they went to town? Children—Yahiko could do nothing about it.
It had already been some time since Jiraiya left them. As slow as time seemed to go, Yahiko didn't even notice when winter finally reached them. Though it wasn't difficult for those who had now been trained using chakra to handle the colder weather.
And since they continued training every day, their bodies were only getting stronger. Though those two were monstrous talents that had a lot more chakra than Yahiko did. So, even though at first he could win more times than they did since he was already creating his own jutsu, those two showed today that his advantage didn't mean much in the end.
As they grew, they would be able to use their abilities better, and soon, Yahiko would be left in the dust. And he couldn't wait to see how much they would grow. Then he wouldn't need to worry about them so much.
Somehow, in his daily life, taking care of them, he forgot about the future and what he should do next. Training, sparring, and eating together like this was more than enough for Yahiko. He just didn't think it was enough for those two, who could accomplish so much once they grew up.
Boom!
Yahiko glanced outside as he heard a thunderous sound from a distance. Was a storm coming? Well, they were safe here, so he didn't have to worry about it. And since he had a mountain of dishes to wash, he had no time to worry about it either.
Cleaning himself up, Yahiko put his ruined clothes aside to be washed later and sat down with Nagato to eat some leftover ramen, still keeping his distance from Konan, as she didn't look too happy with him.
Boom!
Another thunderous sound could be heard from a distance. At least it wasn't getting closer to them. He just didn't expect a storm today. Well, they had already finished their training, and it was getting late, so they probably would just sleep through it anyway.
But Yahiko was still worried about the kids in the town. Hopefully, they had someplace to hide from the storm if it came to them. He should go tomorrow to check on them; it would be troublesome if some of them got sick and there wasn't any medicine for them.
"What is it, boy?" Nagato was the first to notice how Chibi looked a bit agitated.
Now twice as big as he was a couple of years ago, Chibi had become quite a sensitive dog. But still well-behaved, so his behavior got Yahiko a bit nervous now. So, he went to sleep with a heavy heart, hoping that the storm wouldn't be so bad.
…
The storm never reached them. It just rained as usual; a few more thunderous sounds were heard during the night, but each one was farther away than the last one. But Yahiko still felt that something was wrong.
"The market won't even be open by now," Nagato said, tired from a sleepless night as Chibi continued to act up during the night. "Can't we wait a few more hours?"
"No," Yahiko couldn't get the heavy feeling in his heart to go away, so he wanted to quickly go and check on the kids in the town.
So, before even breakfast, Yahiko was ready to go. But Nagato and Konan wouldn't just let him leave on his own. Since Jiraiya left, they were stuck together like glue, always doing everything together. Yahiko wouldn't even go for a walk alone, especially to the town.
"We can play until the market opens, and we can eat out for the first time in a while," Konan was always happy to visit other kids and play with them.
Though that comment about eating out hurt Yahiko a bit. Did Konan start disliking his cooking? He thought he was at least better than most cheap places they had visited in the town so far. If so, he had to up his game.
It didn't take long for them to reach the town, with how fast they could run now. But when they got close enough and saw thin pillars of smoke rise in the town's direction, they had to stop for a moment.
The scar on Yahiko's chest started to itch. But that was the least of his worries, and he rushed into the town without thinking. The closer he got, the more smoke he saw. And when he finally came to the town, he almost collapsed to his knees as his chest suddenly tightened and pain overwhelmed him.
"Yahiko," Nagato was the first to come after Yahiko and quickly noticed panic settling within him.
"The kids," Yahiko had a hard time breathing as he looked at the destroyed town, with nothing but burned-down and collapsed buildings.
"Hey! Get away, there's nothing there for kids like you," Yahiko snapped in the direction of a man walking through the rubble, looking around.
"What happened?"
"A fight," Yahiko then turned to an old lady sitting by some collapsed building, not even trying to get anything out of it. "A bunch of shinobi fought, and we were left with pieces to pick after them."
"But the war has ended," Konan was shocked to hear the answer.
"War never ends, girly," the woman replied, seemingly too tired to explain. "Go on, kids, there's nothing for you to find. Whatever is valuable can be dug up; those men around will find it first."
Yahiko looked around, but he couldn't find any of the kids he had grown attached to over the years; not a familiar face could be seen. Only a few people were looking around, and a few people collapsed near buildings, crying. Most of them seemed to have long since given up on finding their loved ones.
"Who did this?" Yahiko's voice dripped with venom as he finally was able to find his voice.
"A fight broke out. Some traitors tried to run away, from what could be understood through their shouting," the woman replied. "It makes no difference—not to us."
"Konan, you go to the right, Nagato to the left, and look for anyone who needs help."
Without a question, they went off, leaving Yahiko trying to calm himself down. The woman was right; it made no difference. There might still be people stuck under all the rubble who need help.
"Don't hurt yourself, kid. You won't find anyone to save. And even if you did, what's the point? All of this will just repeat over and over again."
"If there is even a chance to help one person, I will do everything I can to do so," Yahiko replied before speeding off through the buildings.
Yahiko had never tried it before and only thought of it right now, but he had to do something. So, the moment he got to the destroyed building, he put his hands on the ground and generated lightning. A small stream of it went through the ground around him.
"Ugh," Then he heard a voice.
Well, it worked, though he thought he could feel someone through the current of electricity. He didn't think twice about it before finding the source of the sound and pulling out rubble and helping a young woman out. After making sure that she would be alright and calling the people around him to help her, he went to another building.
…
Yahiko pushed himself to another building; he felt his legs giving out a couple of times by now. But he continued to use his nonexistent chakra to push a weak stream of lightning into the ground in hopes of finding someone.
When there was no response, he did it again with a stronger stream and only gave up when he did it a third time using an even stronger lightning stream. He collapsed on the ground with it, but only took a few moments to rest before pulling himself back on his feet and dragging himself to another area.
"Enough, boy." Yahiko couldn't even fight the arm holding him. "There isn't a place we haven't looked at now."
"No," there might be someplace he missed, "I have to…"
"Yahiko, please stop it." It was Konan now by his side. "It is over."
Yahiko wanted to say that it was never over. But he couldn't do anything against Konan's tears. They couldn't find even one kid. Only the dead and the grieving. In the end, he was only able to save eight people.
If only he had come here last night. If only he had thought more about how strange those sounds were.
They were dead because of me. The kids he should have looked out for were now gone because he failed them. He couldn't save any of them.
A.N. As always. Thanks for reading and supporting me. If you want 7 more chapters of this story and 42 chapters in total with all my current stories, please consider supporting me on pa treon ironworlf852. Thanks in advance.