The rendezvous point was too quiet.
I'd always believed the silence before battle was the scariest thing in the world…but I was wrong. This silence — the one that followed blood and chaos, the one that stretched longer with every heartbeat — was far worse. Every second my team didn't appear, the horrors in my mind grew more vicious.
Did he give chase after I left? Did they run into another enemy? Are they lying somewhere, too injured to move?
I paced, circling the clearing like a caged animal. We were Chunin — elite Chunin, even. What happened out there? What was that monster of a man we faced? His speed…his strength…his killing intent. I shivered.
For the first time, I understood something horrifyingly simple:
Villages with armies of thousands barely produced a few hundred Jonin.
And after the war? Even fewer.
I pressed a hand to my racing heart and whispered a familiar mantra — the same one I used in my darker moments:
"To the powers that be, I thank you for this day. May your grace stay with me and mine forever."
I repeated it again and again, sweeping the area with Lightning Sense every few seconds, anxiety twisting tighter inside me.
Half an hour crawled by.
Then — finally — a flicker of familiar chakra.
I sprinted.
Rina stumbled into view first. Her hair was tangled, her eyes dull. She looked like she'd fought death itself…and somehow cheated it. But she wasn't the one who made my legs freeze. It was the man he was supporting on her shoulder. It appears the roles were reversed when the Adrenaline ran out.
Sensei collapsed forward.
Or rather — what remained of him.
His left arm…was gone.
I dropped beside him, hands shaking. Medical supplies scattered across the dirt as I tore through them — disinfectants, thick bandages, sutures — anything to stop the bleeding. He'd already lost too much.
We worked in terrified silence until nightfall, when his wounds finally stabilized enough that we could move him.
We didn't dare stay there. We were near the border. The Konoha outposts were closer than returning home, so we went in the opposite direction from the Leaf. Rina walked stiffly beside me, not limping or holding any wounds, yet every step looked like it hurt. One wrong word and she'd break down like shattered glass.
Eventually — hours later — we reached a dusty outpost lodged against the edge of the desert. Small. Isolated. But it was ours, and it had communication.
Sensei was conscious again…just eerily silent.
He had lost an arm.
And a subordinate.
Some people think a ninken is just a tool.
But any Inuzuka — or anyone who's fought beside one — knows better.
Shiro hadn't been a pet.
He'd been family.
So I stepped forward to speak for us.
"Team Kagenori, Instructional Brigade, mission ID GH6328K. We encountered an unknown Jonin from Sunagakure accompanied by two Chunin. Casualties are severe. Request immediate medical evacuation and reinforcement. One member of our squad — Hyuga Souta — is missing in action. Last confirmed alive while retreating. Send a search—"
"There's no need."
Sensei's voice was low.
Flat.
Broken.
I turned to him. Confusion. Then disbelief. Then…a cold drop of horror that slid down my spine and wouldn't stop.
His single remaining hand trembled — not from blood loss — but from grief.
He didn't say the words.
He didn't have to.
His eyes already had.
Souta was dead.
-----
The funeral was a quiet affair. I don't know, I was just expecting a little bit of dramatic flair, really. But nothing happened. His clan was stoic. So were his parents and all his other friends. It didn't rain, nor was it dreary. It was quite a bright day in Konoha, actually. It made me realize the grim reality of Shinobi life. They weren't stoic because they did not love him. But the moment he stepped into the world of Shinobi, they had already accepted this covenant with glory and death. It was just me who hadn't been prepared. And now I knew why killers in all those films did not want to know anything personal about their targets. It makes it harder on you. Way harder. It should tell you a lot, coming from a man who has a thousand kill achievement.
Kuroki Renzo was his name. The missing-nin Jonin. He was trying to make his own organization. According to the story, he would fail eventually. I didn't know that name from canon.
As they lowered Souta's body. An unbidden thought came to me. Maybe that bastard might succeed this round. The effects of my butterfly effects were too large now. Maybe the team was supposed to die there without me. Maybe it would never be on the given mission. I realized the true power given to Reincanators wasn't the events. Because they change from the moment the MC exists. But his knowledge of the people.
His mother broke down in tears. Some of the Hyuga had the audacity to actually glare at her as if she were embarrassing the clan. I wanted to punch them. Punch them hard. A warm hand lowly crept into mine and stopped me. Rina also had a stoic face. But I knew her pain was bigger.
Inuzuka dogs weren't dogs or pets. They were siblings raised side by side. In fact, they were more. Siblings usually did not fight life and death battles with you. They did it every day. And now he was gone. Shiro did not have this big a funeral. But at least his body was untouched when the retrieval team went there. Souta hadn't been so lucky. Sensei told us the story.
After we retreated, we weren't worth the chase. But the other chunin told Renzo that the kid was a Hyuga. They didn't want to miss the chance of getting a Byakugan. So they chased him and killed him. That activated the caged bird seal. The Byakugan was lost. They cut it out to sell anyway. We don't know why, but they left the body behind. It is a valuable asset, but they left it behind anyway. Maybe the jonin didn't think his body was worth much. I wanted to go back out and murder something.
Rina leaned into me. Her head was resting on my shoulder. That stopped me from getting any funny ideas about vengeance. That guy was a jonin. A line from Robert Frost's poem came to me,
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And Miles to go before I sleep.
Our team was disbanded. By the time that arm was retrieved, it was done. Kagenori sensei will no longer be a Shinobi. Souta was dead. Rina was on indefinite leave. You would think that all of this would happen in a major arc somewhere. Grand battles and supremely high-stakes missions. I expected a heroic sacrifice or at least a villainous betrayal or something from him. Not a random encounter on some regular mission.
But such is the life of a Shinobi. And whether you believe it or not. It was just another day in Konoha. Nobody batted an eye at the procession as it passed. Some nodded, some just saluted. Most just went about their day.