Thanks for all the support, PS, and comments and reviews last week! I might not be able to reply to everyone, but I do read them all and I really appreciate it. This week, we'll still be using the same metric: 100 PS = 1 bonus chp, so go wild xD!
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The end-of-school bell droned like the cry of a dying insect.
The training grounds of Konoha's Ninja Academy had long since lost their usual bustle and the steamy tang of sweat. All that remained was deathly silence, and saturating the air, the thick, metallic reek of blood mixed with the raw scent of freshly torn earth and splintered wood.
That vast chasm that cut across the field, rending the ground, cleaving the forest, bottomless to the eye, was like a purging scar, seared not only onto the retinas of every witness, but onto the depths of their souls.
It felt as if the chill, rending aftershock left by that crimson slash still lingered in the air, pressing down so hard that it stole the breath from one's lungs.
At the edge of the grounds, beside a tacky pool of blood, medics were carefully tending to Minato's wounds.
Minato's eyes were empty. Blood and dirt had clotted on his face, his blond hair stuck damply to his forehead. His lips trembled, but he couldn't form a single complete syllable, only a senseless rasp bubbled up from his throat.
A sigh.
The students who had been watching had long since scattered. The few who remained huddled in the corners, barely daring to breathe.
"Minato… sigh…" Kimura Shū's lips quivered. He wanted to say something comforting and official-sounding, but in the end it collapsed into a powerless exhale. He looked toward the source of the ravine.
Near the beginning of the chasm, a figure stood motionless.
Kamiyama Ryo.
Dressed in a white training uniform, he bore only a few specks of dust, an arresting contrast to the devastation around him.
His right hand slid back into his pocket. His left rested casually on the Kusanagi sword at his waist.
The scabbard was plain, giving no hint that moments ago a lazy flick had seemed to shear through the very fabric of space.
On that perpetually unchanged face of his, tinged with a languid, world-weary look, there wasn't the slightest ripple.
Beneath his messy crimson bangs, those long, narrow eyes half-lidded, his indifferent gaze swept over Minato's sorry state, skimmed past Kimura Shū's panic, and finally came to rest on a red-haired figure not far away, Uzumaki Kushina.
Kushina still held a hand over her mouth, her petite body trembling.
The big eyes that always shone bright and chased Ryo's silhouette were at this moment crammed full of horror. She had seen Ryo fight. She had seen him "rule" the Academy. But those had all been little scuffles. This… what the hell, was that even human?
One strike. A casual swing. It split the earth. It hewed through the forest. It swatted the Academy's prodigy like a fly and left him a heap of scrap.
The terror brought on by such a colossal gulf in power seized her heart more viscerally than ever before. And yet, buried deep beneath that fear, even she could sense a shamefaced relief. The smugness she had felt about her little shows of temper and teasings? What a joke.
"Let's go, Kushina." Ryo's impatient voice snapped her rigid body awake.
"C-coming! What are you, the god of deadlines?!" That all-too-familiar tone yanked Kushina straight up out of the ice pit and shoved her back into explode-at-a-touch little chili pepper mode.
The afterglow of the setting sun spilled like overturned orange-red paint, brazenly brushing the rooftops and streets of Konoha after school. The day's heat still steamed up, and the din of earlier crowds faded into a warm hush.
Chirp, chirp.
Ryo walked the road toward the old Senju residence. Kushina bounced at his side, her red hair skipping in the evening breeze, chattering nonstop.
The earth-shattering sword stroke from earlier had long since been tossed to the back of her mind. For her, as long as Ryo was still Ryo, who cared if the sky fell?
He had just seen Kushina to the deep, old-fashioned Senju compound, a place soaked in history, and waved her goodbye as she hopped through the heavy gate.
The last trace of human warmth faded from Ryo's face, leaving only habitual detachment.
He had barely taken a few steps from the weathered courtyard gate when the air tightened.
A shadow appeared three meters in front of him as silently as a ghost.
The newcomer wore a white animal mask that left only the jawline visible, the standard garb of Konoha's ANBU, with a short blade strapped diagonally across his back.
He dropped to one knee, posture textbook-perfect and deferential, bowing so low it nearly scraped the ground.
His voice was low, tinged with unmistakable respect, and a thread of barely concealed fear. "Sir."
Ryo stopped. He did not pull his hands from his pockets, his eyes stayed lazy, only now with a faint annoyance at being interrupted. "Say what you came to say. Do not block my path."
The ANBU stiffened almost imperceptibly, but the memory of the horror at the training ground made his bow sink lower still. "By order of the Third Hokage, we request your presence. The Hokage awaits upon the Hokage Rock."
Ryo's brow twitched.
The Third? Hiruzen Sarutobi, that old lech who is always clutching his crystal ball?
What does he want?
Trouble.
In his head, the likely script flashed by, the Will of Fire, bonds, responsibility, for the sake of the village, a pile of empty platitudes.
Listening to a monkey perform was not worth as much as going home to lie down.
He tilted his head slightly. Rather than falling first upon the ANBU bowed into the dust, his gaze slid past and landed on the giant faces carved in the Hokage Rock in the sunset, the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, the Second, Tobirama Senju, and the silhouette now standing atop the cliff, the one who had summoned him, Hiruzen.
Ryo's eyes dropped to the ANBU's slightly trembling shoulder guards.
Annoying as it was, he knew that in Konoha, where the Third's power drowned the village like smoke, and especially right after the slightly serious scene they had just witnessed from him, some surface politeness was necessary.
"Lead the way."
"Yes. This way, sir." The ANBU, as if granted amnesty, rose at once. His body blurred into motion, careful to keep just half a body-length ahead of Ryo, heart thudding.
No way was he going to actually leap roofs and vault walls with this man behind him. He kept the pace to a brisk walk.
Hokage Rock, the landmark and symbol of Konoha.
The massive stone faces of the First, Second, and Third Hokage looked down upon the prosperous village nestled like a jewel in the embrace of the forest.
The sunset gilded Konoha in warm light. Cooking smoke curled upward, voices of the people rose and fell, the academy's clamor seemed far away. Peace, on full display.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood below the Third Hokage's stone face, at the edge of the cliff.
He wore the iconic Hokage cloak, light armor beneath. A pipe hung, as usual, from his mouth, but the ember had long since died, leaving only cold ash. Hands clasped behind his back, his posture was straight as a spear, eyes deep as he gazed at the lights blossoming below.
The wind ruffled his graying sideburns and set his cloak to snapping.
For a moment, he truly looked like a king surveying the fruits of his rule, tinged with satisfaction and weighed down by responsibility.
Led by the ANBU, Ryo stepped onto the platform atop the Rock. The ANBU bowed again, then slipped away as if dissolving into shadow.
Only two remained on the platform.
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)