"There's the scent of blood."
As they reached the village gates, Kiyoshi spoke up. Tsunade nodded, her expression grave. A scent of blood this thick was impossible for her to miss as well.
"Ten to one... it's the work of wandering ninjas," Tsunade said, emphasizing the term.
Even during wartime, the Land of Fire needed trade and travel for ordinary villagers, so it couldn't remain completely closed off. Under various factors, ninjas from other nations would inevitably slip in. Some might even be local deserters. They were collectively known as "wandering ninjas."
Unlike "rogue ninjas" who were on wanted lists, wandering ninjas didn't belong to any hidden village. They were mostly self-taught, using scrolls bought on the black market or stolen techniques from various nations.
Their skills were often crude imitationsālike using steel wire to mimic [Shadow Possession] or projectors to fake [Summoning Jutsu]. Because they lacked formal training, most of them were weak. These were essentially bandits who had picked up a bit of chakra and were using the chaos of the times to profit.
In an era of war, it was unfortunately common for ninjas with low moral standards to pillage and burn. True rogue ninjas of high caliber rarely bothered with ordinary villages; they had received formal education and sought higher-level knowledge.
As for active-duty ninjas with a village standing, none would be foolish enough to do this. It would only bring shame to their village, and such atrocities would lead to them being branded as rogue ninjas and cut off immediately.
"Hey, hey! This is the territory of the Wild Wolf Ninja Group. You two looking to steal our meal?"
A group of wandering ninjas spotted Kiyoshi and Tsunade approaching. Seeing their standard "ninja run" posture, the group immediately knew they were facing fellow combatants.
"Wild Wolf Ninja Group?" Kiyoshi gave a half-smile. He noticed a small blue-haired girl among them and realized they were also in the human trafficking business.
Tsunade realized this too. Her eyebrows shot up and her face turned cold with fury. She clearly had no stomach for such behavior.
"Wait, Leader Kikuta! Something's wrong," a lean man holding a rusted kunai called out to the leader.
The man called Leader Kikuta was burly, wearing a thick gold chain around his neck. "What is it, Yusuke Sakamoto?" He turned, wondering when his subordinate had become so cowardly. They had killed real ninjas beforeāthey had even ganged up to kill Chunin from the Great Nations!
Looking at the pair before him, he saw a woman whose armor style he didn't recognize, and a man without a green flak jacket, suggesting he wasn't high-ranking. Even if they were Leaf ninjas, as long as they were silenced here, no one would know.
"That's... the Uchiha crest," Sakamoto whispered, sweat beads forming on his forehead as Kiyoshi drew closer.
Uchiha! That was a Great Clan among ninjas! Sakamoto understood the ninja world better than the rest of his crew. He knew many of their kind had been slaughtered by the Uchiha; their Sharingan was simply impossible to deal with! One look was enough to drag a person into a nightmare.
"Uchiha..." The faces of the remaining Wild Wolf members paled. Kikuta was no exception.
Kiyoshi saw their expressions and guessed they had recognized his clan. He wasn't in the mood to waste time. "I'll kill them all."
Tsunade instinctively frowned at Kiyoshi's immediate decision to slaughter them, but then she looked at the burning ruins and the charred remains of the villagers. Blood was scattered everywhere alongside severed limbs. One could only imagine the cruelty of these bandits.
Upon seeing the blood, Tsunade's body went soft and she began to tremble, her instinct urging her to retreat. Finally, she managed to utter a single word: "Fine."
Seeing Tsunade trembling with what they perceived as fear, the bandits exchanged looks, a glimmer of hope appearing in their eyes. They thought they had run into two "frauds" and might be able to turn the tables.
Kiyoshi, however, was finished with them. He formed a single "Tiger" seal. A massive amount of Fire chakra was refined in his chest and surged up his throat.
Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!
The dragon's head split into three, becoming three fiery serpents that roared with flame as they crashed into the terrified Wild Wolf group. Kiyoshi was now extremely proficient with this jutsu.
From being able to release only one dragon at the start, he could now unleash three at once. The chakra consumption had only increased slightly because his deeper understanding of "Nin" and "Seals" allowed him to produce maximum effect with minimum waste.
The wandering ninjas were engulfed in flames, just like the villagers they had burned. Painful wails filled the air as flaming figures rolled on the ground. The only person left standing in Kiyoshi's sight was the little blue-haired girl. He had gone out of his way to avoid hitting her. After all, he wasn't a bloodthirsty monster.
The girl stared blankly, watching the villains who had been holding her captive being consumed by fire. She looked up to see a handsome big brother with black hair cascading to his waist. He offered a small smile and said:
"Come here."
There was a power in his voice that made the girl instinctively walk forward.
"What is your name?" Kiyoshi asked. With the help of his Traits, his words carried a sense of authority and trustworthiness to those of lower status.
"I... my name is Guren," she said timidly.
"Guren?" Kiyoshi rubbed his chin. Her name meant "Crimson Lotus," but there was nothing red about her. On the contrary, she had lustrous blue hair tied back with a simple ribbon, making it look like she had a small blue pineapple on the back of her head.
Her face was dirty, with a bit of "baby fat" similar to Kurenai Yuhi, but it was clear she would be quite cute once cleaned up.
'Orochimaru, huh...' Kiyoshi thought. It was a stroke of luck. It seemed that under his butterfly effect, he had found Guren before Orochimaru could.
In the original timeline, after Orochimaru's human experiments were discovered and he fled the Leaf, he joined the Akatsuki. Later, he coveted Itachi's Sharingan and attacked him, only to have his hand cut off. In the ninja world, outside of Kakuzu's [Earth Grudge Fear], there were no ninjutsu capable of regenerating lost limbs.
If there were, the Fourth Raikage, Might Guy, Sasuke, and Naruto wouldn't have remained disabled. Naruto's arm was a bio-mechanical prosthetic, not a flesh-and-blood arm like Obito's; it merely simulated the meridian system for daily use and jutsu. Thus, to gain a healthy body, Orochimaru performed his first [Living Corpse Reincarnation].
His first choice for a vessel was Guren! Unfortunately, an accident occurred, leading Orochimaru to choose Gen'yumaru as his first vessel instead.
"You'll come with me from now on. This village is destroyed; you'll only die if you stay here," Kiyoshi said. Even the orphanage barely received subsidies from the Land of Fire; other welfare institutions were non-existent. A child with no one to rely on was as good as dead.
"Me...?" Guren looked at him in a daze. Kiyoshi's smile felt like a small sun, warming her heart. She couldn't help but nod.
"Lady Tsunade, there shouldn't be an issue if I adopt her, right?"
"It's fine, as long as she passes the screening," Tsunade replied, waiting for her hemophobia symptoms to subside before answering. The Leaf didn't reject outsiders; in fact, for the sake of more ninjas and fresh blood, they were quite happy to accept them.
Many talented orphans had joined the Leaf and become ninjas in the past. As long as this girl passed the tests to prove she wasn't a spy, it was perfectly legal.
"Good." Kiyoshi nodded. He ruffled Guren's hair, making her blue locks even messier.
This wasn't a whim. Guren possessed the Kekkei Genkai [Crystal Style]! Once she grew up, she would be a subordinate ranging from elite Jonin to Kage-level. It was a guaranteed profitable investment; there was no reason for Kiyoshi not to do it.
Furthermore, Guren's loyalty in the original series was absolute. If not for Naruto's "Talk no Jutsu," she was truly willing to give everything for her master, including her life. Her only flaws were her disregard for any life other than her master's, her violent streak, and the fact that she wasn't particularly bright.
"Here." Kiyoshi pulled a water bottle and some dried rations from a sealing scroll and handed them to Guren. She was clearly starving; she took them tentatively at first, but soon began to bolt the food down ravenously.
"This is war..." Tsunade sighed. Her impression of Kiyoshi shifted from "bloodthirsty" to someone with a heart who hates evil. If he weren't sporting a Sharingan, she would find it hard to believe he was an Uchiha.
Once Guren finished eating, the three continued their journey. Since Guren was slow, Kiyoshi carried her on his back, traveling alongside Tsunade through the mountains. Leaning against Kiyoshi's strong back, Guren felt an inexplicable sense of security. Her small eyelashes fluttered, and she drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
Feeling the steady breathing against his back, a smile touched Kiyoshi's lips. Orochimaru's failure was his coldness, which allowed others to find a gap in Guren's heart. This time, Kiyoshi would focus on warmth. Once she was raised, her loyalty would be rock-solid.
'It's time to build a private force,' Kiyoshi mused. Planting pawns in the Cloud was one aspect, but he needed his own power base in the Leaf as well. During the trek, he thought of many things. There was Honoka Uzumaki on the Summoning Island, and Karin's mother in the Land of Grass.
These people could become excellent subordinates. He couldn't do everything himself; he needed people for the grunt work. He also needed to establish his own intelligence network to verify the plot's direction after his butterfly effects.
The next few days were spent on a tedious trek until they finally returned to the Leaf, which they had left not long ago. Thanks to Kiyoshi's gliding ability, he carried both of themāwhenever he had chakra, he used magnetism to ascend and then Wind Style to glide across the terrain.