When the storm ended, the world finally returned to silence.
Keisuke's consciousness slowly drifted up from darkness.
By then, the sea was calm.
He struggled to lift his head.
The sky above was a clear, boundless blue.
The seawater continued to erode his body, stealing away what little warmth he had left.
He had not drunk water for a very long time, and his lips were purplish blue, cracked and peeling.
The scene before him was a complete mess.
Only three rafts remained beside him.
After counting carefully, there were barely twenty survivors huddled together, most of them unconscious.
This was all that was left.
From more than three hundred comrades to barely twenty.
And more than half of them were children or severely injured Shinobi who had already lost their ability to fight.
Floating on the sea were broken pieces of rafts and several swollen, pale corpses.
He could no longer tell whether they were enemies or comrades.
A young Shinobi beside him slowly regained consciousness and stared blankly at everything.
His eyes were empty. Then, a mournful cry burst from his throat.
"They're all dead…"
"They're all dead!"
He grabbed his head and curled up, trembling violently.
His wailing triggered the emotions of everyone present.
Sobs. Moans. Cries.
A child who had lost his father screamed as he tried to roll into the sea, but was grabbed tightly by the person beside him.
Keisuke watched it all, his heart tightening until it became painful to breathe.
Nagano's final roar still echoed in his ears.
They were the sparks.
But these sparks were now drifting in an endless sea, any moment ready to be extinguished by the waves.
How were they supposed to ignite?
How were they supposed to burn?
He forced himself upright. His weak body swayed, nearly collapsing.
"All of you, shut up!" Keisuke suddenly roared, his voice so loud it made his throat burn.
The cries gradually stopped as everyone looked toward him.
Faces streaked with tears, lost and helpless.
"Will crying bring Nagano and the others back to life?"
"Will crying kill that bastard Yagura?"
Keisuke's eyes were bloodshot as he swept his gaze over everyone.
"We are the ones who survived. Every breath we take was bought by our comrades who fought to the death."
"If you want to follow them, jump into the sea right now. I won't stop you."
He pointed at the young man who had been struggling earlier, his voice cold.
"If you don't want to die, then hold on."
The young man froze, then lowered his head in shame.
The crying slowly faded.
But confusion grew heavier.
Yes, they had survived.
And then what?
Food, none.
Fresh water, none.
Medicine, none.
They didn't even know where they were.
"Where… can we go?" a girl asked quietly.
Yes.
Where could they go?
Back to the Land of Water?
That was suicide.
They were a group of abandoned ghosts, doomed to drift endlessly on this ocean until they rotted away.
A Shinobi whose thigh was pierced by a kunai spoke bitterly, full of self-loathing.
"The Resistance… is gone."
Despair spread rapidly.
Keisuke's chest tightened.
No.
It couldn't end like this.
He forced his mind to work.
There had to be a way.
Then suddenly, a name flashed through his mind.
Terumī Mei.
"Terumī Mei!" he blurted out. "Does anyone know where she went last?"
Everyone looked confused.
Then, a weak voice spoke.
"Go… to the Land of Fire."
Everyone looked toward the speaker.
It was an elderly Shinobi, almost as gravely injured as Nagano had been. One of the oldest survivors among them.
His face was deathly pale, his breathing shallow.
"The Land of Fire?" Keisuke was stunned.
"That's right…" The old Shinobi coughed violently, blood staining his clothes. "Mei… is in the Land of Fire."
Terumī Mei.
The name Keisuke had spoken, now confirmed by the old Shinobi.
"That's right! Mei has been seeking help from outside!"
"I heard Nagano say the last place she went was the Land of Fire!"
"The Land of Fire! The strongest of the Five Great Nations. The one that defeated Kumogakure. If we can get their protection…"
The desperate group finally grabbed onto a lifeline, color slowly returning to their dead eyes.
Keisuke's heart pounded.
The Land of Fire.
"But," Keisuke forced himself to calm down, "how do we get there?"
"This ocean is endless. We can't even tell which direction is which."
"And… why would the Land of Fire accept us, rogue Shinobi of Kirigakure?"
The old Shinobi shook his head and trembled as he reached into his clothing, pulling out an oilcloth and handing it to Keisuke.
Inside was a small compass.
The needle pointed firmly in one direction.
"This is… something Master Genshi prepared long ago…" The old Shinobi's voice weakened. "It points toward the Land of Fire."
"As for whether the Land of Fire will accept us…"
The old man looked at Keisuke. That look carried all the trust he had left.
"That depends on you, Keisuke."
"Terumī Mei is our hope."
"But we cannot put all our hope on her alone."
"Remember this. Asking for help is never as good as helping yourself."
"Once you reach the Land of Fire, you must do everything possible to show our value to that legendary man."
"Only if he sees our usefulness will he truly acknowledge us."
The old man's voice grew faint.
"Our value… is our hatred for Yagura… our knowledge of every corner of Kirigakure…"
"We… can become a knife…"
"A knife that stabs into the heart of the Land of Water…"
After saying his last words, the old Shinobi's hand slipped down, losing all strength.
He was gone.
Keisuke held the still-warm compass tightly, grief twisting his face.
He sank to his knees on the raft, unmoving.
For a long, long time.
Finally, he bowed deeply three times toward the old man's body.
When he rose, he lifted the compass high toward the clear sky.
"Everyone! Use planks, use your hands, use anything you can find!"
"Face this direction!"
"And paddle!"
His voice no longer held confusion, only ironclad resolve.
The survivors silently began to move.
Using broken planks or their scarred hands, they pushed the sea with all their strength.
The rafts slowly turned, drifting toward the distant direction shown by the compass.
Despair and exhaustion still lingered on their faces.
But in their eyes, something new had appeared.
Hope.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 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.)