Naruto: IHCS Ch. 135

The dragon weaved its way through the clouds.

Its massive body tore apart the thin layers of mist. White scales shimmered silver under the sunlight.

Shiratori sat behind Suguru. He heard Suguru exhale deeply in front of him.

"The stench of monkeys is finally gone."

"..."

Just how deep does his obsession with monkeys run?!

Suguru's black hair whipped wildly in the fierce wind.

He turned his head, narrowing his eyes slightly as he stared at the figure behind Shiratori.

"But there's still one more monkey..."

Shiratori pretended he hadn't heard Suguru's words. He looked down at the vast, clear lands of the Land of Grass beneath them.

The high-altitude view was refreshing.

"Where is this place? It looks so backward... there aren't even any curses."

Hearing Suguru, Shiratori explained: "This is the shinobi world. There are no curses here."

Suguru stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The shinobi world? Those monkeys earlier also called themselves ninjas. I didn't expect ninjas to actually exist..."

Nagato, clutching the hem of Shiratori's robes, sat quietly atop the dragon. Reflected in his Rinnegan were the clouds streaming past into the distance. His usually expressionless face now held a faint trace of joy.

He gazed at the back of Shiratori's head, a small smile tugging at his lips.

How wonderful.

Shiratori had said he could accomplish everything he promised, and Nagato would always believe in him.

Lowering his head, he looked down.

By now, the dragon had begun to descend, piercing through the clouds. The scenery below grew clearer.

From above, the towns of the Land of Grass looked like scattered toy blocks, streets crisscrossing neatly, houses aligned in rows. But on closer inspection, many of the buildings had been reduced to ruins. Few people walked the streets, and here and there black smoke curled up from the town's edges.

Shiratori looked at the charred areas below, a heavy sigh escaping his chest.

The dragon flew on, and the town's edge gradually gave way to a battlefield.

The earth there had been completely churned up, littered with craters and scorched soil.

Broken weapons were half-buried in the mud, and shattered headbands lay scattered everywhere.

"Seems that even without curses, humans still have things far more terrifying..."

Without curses, humans still slaughter one another. The destruction of war was stronger than any curse.

It seemed that no matter the era or the world, humans could never truly live in peace.

"Indeed."

Shiratori nodded in agreement.

"The one who starts wars isn't necessarily a qualified leader."

"But the one who maintains peace is always a true leader."

Suguru folded his hands into his sleeves, eyes narrowing with a lazy air. Though this era was plagued by war, more than war itself, he still despised curses the most.

A world untainted by curses was a wonderful thing.

He smiled in satisfaction.

"Shiratori is the most qualified leader!"

Nagato's voice rang out from behind him.

Shiratori nearly lost his balance and almost fell off the dragon.

He turned his head toward Nagato behind him.

In Nagato's eyes burned a resolute light.

Unmoving, he fixed his gaze on Shiratori and repeated: "I believe that in a world led by you, there will be no war!"

Aomine was the best proof of that.

Shiratori's mind was always filled with countless ideas, he always knew how to resolve the conflicts between people.

[Faith detected: Nagato +3000 points]
[Energy transferred to Suguru]
[Development progress: 74.3%]

Shiratori hadn't expected Nagato to have such faith in him.

Accepting Nagato's praise with a smile, he said, "I don't wish to lead the world. I only want the world to continue developing in peace and stability."

He clenched his fist tightly.

Suguru glanced back at him, a faint, unreadable smile tugging at his lips. "Such a naive belief."

How could the world ever develop peacefully and stably? As long as humans existed, conflict and desire would always remain.

"Let's find a place to land where no one will see us," Shiratori said to Suguru.

They couldn't stay in the sky forever. He and Nagato still needed to eat.

Under Suguru's control, the dragon began to spiral downward, approaching a small town on the edge of the battlefield.

From the air, they could see that half of the town was in ruins, while the other half was crammed with makeshift tents and shelters.

Some people scurried like ants among the wreckage, hauling supplies and tending to the wounded. Others lounged comfortably in the intact houses, watching those struggles from above with detached ease.

The dragon dove gracefully and finally landed deep within a forest that separated the town from the battlefield.

The three of them leaped down from its back.

The dragon vanished at Suguru's side.

Shiratori glanced at him, wondering whether or not it was time to make Suguru leave as well.

But Suguru, as if reading his thoughts, spoke first: "Let me stay a while longer. I'm very curious about this world."

Shiratori wasn't the type to mistreat his own cursed spirit. He nodded generously. "Very well."

Together, the three of them walked toward the town.

The forest bore many scars left behind by battles.

Although it was meant to be a buffer between the battlefield and the settlement, when war truly broke out, not every ninja could keep control.

The ruins in the town, and the wounded civilians among them, were the innocent victims of war.

A ninja might avoid an explosive tag, but it was just as easy for them to destroy someone's garden or snuff out a life.

At last they emerged from the forest and stepped into the town.

Their arrival drew little attention.

The people remained quiet, or rather, they simply cast a brief glance their way, then quickly looked elsewhere, as if they were long accustomed to strangers.

This town had clearly been dragged into ninja battles many times. Many of the walls were pitted with the gouges of kunai and shuriken. Some buildings had been burned so badly that only their charred frames remained.

Shiratori and the other two passed by a temporary medical station in the town.

It was packed with the wounded.

To call it a "medical station" was an exaggeration, it was nothing more than a crude tent.

The injured civilians were crammed onto wrinkled bedsheets laid directly on the ground. The sheets were covered in stains.

Groans of misery echoed from the civilians.

Inside the tent, the ones working weren't medical-nin, but only ordinary doctors.

The doctors were running around frantically, clearly short-staffed. Shiratori stopped in his tracks, gazing at the crude medical station.

Nagato silently watched the suffering people. Then his eyes shifted toward Shiratori at his side. Sure enough, he subconsciously started walking toward the medical station.

[Affection detected: Nagato +3000 points]
[Curse Growth - Love: 53.4%]

"They need help."

Shiratori's eyes sparkled with urgency.

Without hesitation, he stepped into the tent. The busy doctors didn't even spare him a glance.

"Let me help you."

Without waiting for the doctors to respond, he crouched beside an injured villager, placing his hands over the person's body.

In no time, the villager's bleeding stopped.

The doctors exchanged looks, one of them finally asked: "You're a medical-nin?"

Shiratori nodded. "Yes."

Under his hands, the villager's wounds quickly began to heal.

"Thank you... thank you..."

The villager muttered these words before fainting from exhaustion. He moved on to treat another.

"Are you a Konoha ninja or from Iwa?" a doctor asked sternly.

"Neither."

He shook his head.

"In that case, that makes sense... those people would never treat civilians," one doctor muttered sarcastically.

"Then where are you from?" another doctor asked as he continued tending to a patient, his side-glance falling on Shiratori.

In their eyes, he was just a child.

"I'm from the Land of Rain. Once, the Land of Rain was just like the Land of Grass is now. War destroyed our home. But now, the Land of Rain has found peace. I believe the Land of Grass will soon welcome peace as well."

Shiratori smiled softly at the doctors.

The doctors lowered their eyes bitterly, saying nothing.

The Land of Rain could end its war because its ninjas had driven out the great nations' ninjas.

But the Land of Grass had no Hanzō.

"We came here to the Land of Grass to help," he told the doctors.

Their expressions turned complicated, their eyes flicked toward Nagato and Suguru behind him.

Nagato stood silently, expressionless, while Suguru's hands remained hidden inside his wide sleeves, a faint smile on his face.

With Shiratori's help, the efficiency of treatment greatly improved.

By dusk, the civilians' wounds had finally been healed. The doctors breathed a sigh of relief and looked gratefully at him. Unlike medical-nin, they lacked the ability to heal wounds instantly. They could only rely on traditional treatment, slow, laborious, and often ineffective.

If a wound became infected, the patient was as good as dead.

Shiratori declined their offer to provide him a place to stay, and instead continued deeper into the town with Nagato and Suguru.

The further they went toward the outskirts, the more severe the destruction became, and the fewer people they saw.

He stepped carefully over scattered rubble and broken beams.

In the depths of the ruins, he spotted a bloodied, dust-covered hand. He crouched down and discovered a ninja crushed under a half-collapsed wall. The ninja was drenched in blood, breathing faintly, still alive.

He dragged him out, crouched beside him, and noticed the forehead protector hanging at his neck.

An Iwa ninja.

He pressed his hands to his chest, a healing glow spreading from his palms.

"Multiple fractures, internal bleeding, chakra nearly depleted..."

He quickly diagnosed his condition.

If not for meeting Shiratori, this man would have been doomed.

Though his face was caked with dust, he could tell he was a young man, no older than twenty. Pale, barely breathing, his chest rising so faintly it was almost invisible.

Nagato stood beside him, Rinnegan locked on the ninja's face, eyes filled with vigilance. His hand had slipped into his ninja pouch, muscles taut.

The moment this ninja made a suspicious move, he would strike without hesitation. He could not allow Shiratori to be harmed.

Seconds ticked by.

The ninja's eyelids trembled. His body, far sturdier than civilians', helped him endure.

Slowly, his eyes opened.

Before he could grasp the situation, a fierce glint flashed across them as his hand shot toward his ninja pouch, only to grab at empty air.

Confusion flickered across his face. His sharp gaze then fixed on Shiratori.

"Who... are you..."

His throat rasped dryly, his voice weak. He tried to sit up, but his body had no strength left.

"Don't speak. Save your energy."

Shiratori's tone was gentle.

Seeing his wariness, he reassured him: "We won't harm you. I'm a medical-nin, I just treated your injuries. You're safe now."

Still, the ninja's body remained tense.

But when he moved slightly, he was startled to realize his wounds really had healed. Only his chakra had yet to recover. In shock, he looked at Shiratori.

So young, yet capable of such advanced medical ninjutsu?

Incredible!

His eyes shifted, searching for proof of identity on the boy before him, but found nothing. Surely, he wasn't a Konoha medic.

Konoha ninjas would rather kill him than save him.

"What's your name?" Shiratori asked, watching him.

[Gratitude detected: Aoki +2000 points]
[Curse Growth - Gratitude: 28.8%]

That was enough, he now knew the ninja's name.