Chapter 89 (Patreon)

At that moment, Haku cautiously looked around before approaching a small food stall.

When the stall owner turned his back, Haku quickly grabbed two steamed buns and ran.

However, the owner soon noticed what had happened.

“Hey! You little thief!”

He rushed after Haku in a rage.

There was no way a five-year-old child could outrun a large, strong adult. Less than two minutes later, the stall owner caught up and cornered Haku at the end of a narrow alley.

Even with the man closing in on him, Haku continued stuffing the steamed buns into his mouth. He ate desperately, as though nothing else mattered.

Once he swallowed the last bite, Haku crouched down, covered his head with both arms, and quietly prepared himself for the beating.

“Stop!”

Pakura and Mei could no longer stand by and watch. They had not expected the stall owner to seriously strike such a young child.

Before the man could react, Shisui appeared beside him.

The edge of Shisui’s tantō pressed against his neck.

One slight movement would be enough to end his life.

Yujiro calmly jumped down from the nearby rooftop and landed in front of Haku.

After sensing the chakra hidden within the child’s body, Yujiro gave a small nod.

There was no mistake.

This child was Haku, and the power of a kekkei genkai was sleeping inside him.

“What’s your name?” Yujiro asked.

“H-Haku…”

Haku answered timidly. He had never seen so many powerful shinobi gathered in one place before.

“This man was about to hit you. Do you want to fight back?”

Yujiro smiled and waited quietly for Haku’s answer.

“I don’t.”

After a long silence, Haku gave an answer Yujiro had not expected.

“Haku, he chased you into an alley and was going to beat you!” Mei said angrily. “You really don’t want to fight back?”

“But I stole his steamed buns.”

Haku raised his head and looked at her seriously.

“I stole from him, so I deserve to be punished. I’m also grateful to him. Without those steamed buns, I might have starved to death.”

Mei stared at Haku in frustration, but she could not think of anything to say.

“Please don’t hurt the stall owner,” Haku begged. “You can punish me instead.”

Everyone fell silent.

Even after everything that had happened, Haku was still grateful to the man whose food had kept him alive.

Yujiro nodded to himself.

This was exactly the kindhearted Haku he remembered.

“Do you want to come with me?” Yujiro asked with a smile.

“Yes!”

Haku nodded immediately, but the excitement on his face quickly disappeared.

“Yujiro-san… please don’t take me with you.”

Haku lowered his head.

“I only bring misfortune to the people around me.”

“I asked whether you wanted to come with me,” Yujiro said.

“I do, but—”

“Then there’s no problem.”

Yujiro casually turned away.

“You don’t need to keep finding reasons to stop yourself. You want to come with me, so come.”

With that, Yujiro led the others out of the alley.

No one paid any further attention to the stall owner.

After they stepped onto the main street, Mei and Pakura looked back with concern.

“Yujiro-kun, are you sure Haku will follow us?” Pakura asked quietly.

“He will.”

Yujiro smiled with complete confidence.

“Someone I’ve chosen won’t disappoint me.”

Back inside the alley, hesitation passed across Haku’s face.

A few seconds later, his expression became firm.

Haku ran over to the frightened stall owner and bowed deeply.

“Thank you for the food!”

After saying that, Haku hurried out of the alley.

“Yujiro-san!”

Hearing Haku’s voice, Yujiro looked back and waved.

“Since you’ve made your decision, stay close.”

“Yes!”

Haku nodded eagerly and quietly joined the group.

When they reached a bridge, however, Haku stopped and stared at the water flowing beneath them. Sadness slowly returned to his eyes.

“Yujiro-san…”

“What is it?”

“What do you think is the meaning of life?”

Haku desperately wanted to know the answer.

The power he had inherited had brought terrible suffering to his mother. Because of that, Haku had begun to wonder whether he should ever have existed at all.

The others also fell silent as they waited for Yujiro’s response.

It was not an easy question.

Even Itachi looked at Yujiro expectantly. Shisui, Kakashi, Pakura, and Mei were no different.

Yujiro walked over to Haku and smiled.

“Maybe there isn’t any meaning to life from the beginning.”

Haku looked up at him.

“But as long as you stay alive, you can still find something that makes you happy.”

Yujiro placed a hand on Haku’s head.

“You might discover a flower someday. And I found you.”

Haku was not holding a flower at that moment, but for a child born into the Yuki clan, perhaps a snowflake could also be considered a flower.

The words had originally come from Orochimaru, the shinobi world’s most notorious collector of talented children.

Yujiro had simply borrowed them.

Even so, they worked remarkably well.

Haku’s eyes immediately brightened.

Shisui and the others also looked at Yujiro differently.

Even Mei and Pakura were deeply moved.

Those simple words could give someone a reason to continue living.

“All right,” Yujiro said, breaking the silence. “Let’s get something to eat. We’ll rest after that and continue our journey once everyone has recovered.”

Yujiro led the group back to the market town where they had stayed previously.

They entered a restaurant, ordered enough food to cover an entire table, and began eating.

While everyone was focused on the meal, Yujiro quietly activated his Simulation Acquisition ability.

A familiar mechanical voice rang inside his mind.

“Ding! Congratulations to the Host for acquiring the Ice Release kekkei genkai.”

“Limiter release progress increased by five percent.”

“Current progress: Level Three—forty percent.”

Mei turned toward Haku as they ate.

“Haku, do you have any special abilities?”

She already knew that Haku possessed a kekkei genkai, but she did not know what kind it was.

Haku instinctively wanted to hide it. After hesitating for a moment, however, he answered in a quiet voice.

“It’s the Ice Release kekkei genkai.”

“Ice Release?”

Everyone immediately became curious.

Haku picked up a glass of water and focused chakra into his hand.

The water inside the glass quickly froze.

“Do you think I’m strange?” Haku asked, lowering his head.

“You’ve got that completely wrong.”

Yujiro smiled and glanced around the table.

“If possessing a kekkei genkai makes someone strange, then nearly everyone sitting here is strange.”

The others looked at one another.

After thinking about it, they realized Yujiro was right.

Shisui and Itachi possessed the Sharingan. Pakura had Scorch Release, while Mei possessed both Lava Release and Boil Release.

Even though Kakashi had not been born with a kekkei genkai, he still carried Obito’s Sharingan.

Everyone present either possessed a kekkei genkai or had access to one.

“Besides, it’s only Ice Release.”

Yujiro raised one hand.

Several perfectly round pieces of ice formed above his palm.

“See? There’s nothing frightening about it.”

He casually dropped the pieces of ice into everyone’s drinks.

The entire table fell silent.

Everyone stared at Yujiro’s hand.

Mei, Pakura, and Haku were especially shocked. Each of them possessed an extremely rare kekkei genkai, yet Yujiro had just displayed another one as though it were nothing.

Who could have imagined that so many rare kekkei genkai could exist inside a single person?

In their eyes, Yujiro became even more mysterious.

After finishing their meal, the group returned to the inn to rest.

However, a small problem arose when it was time to wash.

“Haku, what’s wrong?”

Yujiro looked at the nervous child standing near the room’s entrance.

“Your clothes are covered in dirt. Take them off so they can be washed.”

“Yujiro-san… I think I’ll wait until you’ve finished bathing.”

Haku lowered his head, his face turning red.

“Why? We’re both boys.”

Yujiro grinned, impressed by how carefully Haku was guarding his secret.

“I-I’ll still wait until you’re finished.”

Haku tightly gripped the edges of his clothes, afraid that Yujiro might try to pull them off.

“All right.”

Yujiro shrugged helplessly and went to bathe by himself.

While he was washing, the door to the room quietly opened.

Mei and Pakura poked their heads inside.

“Mei, are you sure about this?” Pakura whispered.

“Of course I’m sure.”

Mei placed a finger against her lips.

“We can’t leave Haku alone in Yujiro’s room until we confirm it.”

The two women quietly entered and found Haku sitting inside with a bright red face.

“Haku, what are you doing in here?” Mei asked, crouching in front of the child.

“I’m waiting for Yujiro-san to finish bathing.”

“In that case, come here for a moment. I need to ask you something.”

Mei smiled.

A knowing light appeared in her eyes.

Ten seconds later, Haku’s entire face had turned red after hearing Mei’s whispered question.

“You noticed?” Haku asked nervously, fidgeting with both hands.

Mei covered her mouth and giggled.

The following morning, Yujiro looked at Haku’s freshly washed white clothes and nodded in satisfaction.

As far as Yujiro knew, Haku was an exceptionally handsome boy. In another few years, people would probably start mistaking him for a girl.

“All right. We’ve finished everything we came here to do.”

Yujiro looked over the group and nodded.

They soon left the inn and continued toward Konoha.

Yujiro walked leisurely at the front, admiring the scenery on both sides of the road.

Shisui and Kakashi guarded the left and right sides of the group, while Itachi remained close behind Yujiro.

Mei, Pakura, and Haku followed them.

“Pakura, don’t tell Yujiro about Haku,” Mei whispered into Pakura’s ear.

Pakura lowered her gaze and saw Haku looking at her with pleading eyes.

“All right,” Pakura said. “I won’t tell him.”

After a full week of travelling, the group finally arrived outside Konoha on the eighth day.

Yujiro stopped and looked at the familiar village gates.

For a moment, a trace of emotion appeared in his eyes.

“We’re finally back.”

A smile spread across his face.

“Let’s go home.”