"Asuma, seriously, how are you always this clumsy?"
Walking through the center of the village, Kurenai Yūhi looked at the bandages wrapped around Asuma's arm and let out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Sorry, sorry. How was I supposed to know a cat could jump that high?"
Asuma gave her a bitter smile, looking like he still could not believe he had made such a ridiculous mistake. Rotating the arm that still throbbed with pain, he walked beside Kurenai toward the hospital.
He had charged after a cat to catch it, only to slam straight into a wall and wrench his wrist.
The injury had turned out worse than expected. Even with a brace on it, the swelling was obvious.
"Hey, look over there."
Just then, Asuma happened to glance up and spotted a figure racing across the rooftops, lifting his hand to point.
Kurenai followed his gesture on instinct, and the moment she looked up, she saw the boy darting between the buildings.
"That's...!"
She knew that face all too well.
But more than the boy himself, it was the person on his back that made her heart seize.
"Dad!"
Kurenai instantly remembered that this was exactly what her father had been wearing when he left home that morning. Her pupils trembled as she stared at the direction the two of them had vanished.
Her mind went blank. She could not make sense of what was happening at all, but one look was enough to tell her that her father was in terrible shape.
"Kurenai, come on, we have to go see."
"...Yeah."
Still trapped in shock, Kurenai was jolted back to herself by Asuma's voice and leapt up onto the roof.
Byakuya had been moving far too fast. He was already nowhere in sight.
Kurenai immediately gathered chakra into the soles of her feet and took off after him at full speed, racing in the direction he had disappeared.
Was that really Dad? He looked awful... If he's hurt that badly, then he must be heading to the hospital... right?
The scattered drops of blood across the rooftops looked painfully vivid to her now.
Kurenai bit her lip and pushed herself even faster toward the hospital.
She had assumed Asuma was right behind her, but after running in a panic all this way, she realized he was nowhere to be seen.
Staring at the hospital building in the distance, Kurenai threw everything she had into reaching the front entrance.
"Where is he...?"
Inside, the hospital was chaos. Injured people were everywhere. The air was thick with the mixed smell of medicine and blood, and the entire place felt like it was on the verge of falling apart.
Kurenai's thoughts tangled up as she looked around frantically.
If it was an emergency patient, where would they take him?
Then she remembered the emergency ward and immediately turned that way.
She had thought she made it here fast.
But apparently, she had still lost too much time.
Only when she finally spotted Byakuya in the distance, signing paperwork, did the breath she had been holding at last leave her chest.
"How is he?"
"Thanks to you getting him here in time, the operation should be over soon. And your pressure bandaging was excellent. The wound didn't worsen on the way here. You did good."
She heard Byakuya ask the question while handing the papers over to a medical ninja.
Kurenai stood there for a long time, staring at his back.
Hina got badly hurt during training! What the hell happened with that guy!?
How bad was it?
They said she'd be in the hospital for at least a month... Hina was terrified too. They were supposed to be on the same team. How could he hit a teammate that hard!?
Kurenai found herself remembering their time back at the Ninja Academy.
Kuroshiro Byakuya...
From the very beginning, his reputation had been awful.
Even Hina, one of Kurenai's close friends, had been assigned to the same team as him and ended up seriously injured after getting caught in one of his jutsu.
And he had not apologized once...
Even without ever having dealt with him directly, Kurenai had heard more than enough stories about what kind of person he was.
She had already disliked him from the start, but after hearing that he had simply tossed out, Who told her to stand there? and walked away from an injured Hina, she had completely lost any patience for him.
But this time...
This time was different...
"Um... excuse me!"
Still breathing unevenly from running all the way here, Kurenai called out to him, her voice unsteady.
When Byakuya turned around, he looked awful.
His body was covered in scrapes and cuts, and his face, crusted with dried blood, was full of exhaustion he could not hide.
He seemed surprised to see her here. For once, that usually expressionless face showed a flicker of real shock.
"Thank you..."
"..."
In the end, Kurenai could not bring herself to say, I'm sorry for judging you based on rumors before I knew anything.
All she managed was that strained little thank-you.
But Byakuya gave her nothing in return.
He only looked at her for a moment, then walked straight past her.
"..."
Kurenai clenched her fists tight, glanced back once at his retreating figure, then turned and approached the medical ninja in front of her.
"Excuse me... how is Yūhi Shinku doing? Are his injuries very serious?"
"Oh, that patient? The operation should be over soon. If that boy hadn't brought him in when he did, this could have gone very badly."
"...I see..."
At last, the tension that had gripped her the whole way here released, and Kurenai let out one long breath.
Staring at the operating room doors still lit inside the emergency ward, she lowered her head deeply.
Once Dad was safe...
The next time she saw Byakuya, she was going to apologize properly.
She was going to tell him she was sorry, and that she was truly grateful.
---
By the time Byakuya stepped out of the Hokage's residence after respectfully handing over the scroll, he was in a very good mood.
"It's been a while since I've felt this relaxed."
At last, he could say goodbye, at least for now, to the days of sleeping rough and wandering the battlefield.
If there had been any small interruption along the way, it was only that Kurenai had suddenly thanked him at the hospital, but Byakuya had already shoved that whole thing out of his head.
"Honestly, I feel like I could forgive anything today."
It had been a long time since he had saved someone, and for some reason, that alone had put him in a good mood.
Even while warning himself not to get used to the feeling, Byakuya moved quickly through the trees on his way home.
Left!
Whoosh!
The voice that usually only came when he was fully focused suddenly rang through his head.
Byakuya dodged the incoming shuriken on instinct and turned toward the direction it had come from.
"Oh? Nice reaction speed."
What now?
At this point, Byakuya was honestly starting to get annoyed.
A second ago he had felt like he could forgive anything today, but not this.
Getting jumped for no reason was bad enough. Being evaluated afterward like that was even worse. Anger that usually never surfaced flared up all at once.
"..."
"You're Kuroshiro Byakuya, yes? A pleasure. My name is Danzō."
"...I know. You're the leader of Root, right?"
"For someone so young, you know quite a lot."
For some reason, Byakuya felt like he had just earned points.
Was this it? Was he here to recruit me into Root?
A little excitement crept into Byakuya's chest as he jumped down from the tree and came to stand face to face with Danzō.
"It seems you've already guessed why I'm here."
"You want me in Root, right?"
Then hurry up. What are you waiting for? I've been waiting for this.
Byakuya was dying to say yes already, and waited for Danzō to continue.
If he joined Root, he would barely have to deal with the canon characters anymore. No one would know his face. Then one day he could show up in front of Naruto, throw his throat onto the shuriken in Naruto's hand, and finally end everything...
"That's not a bad suggestion. But that's not why I came today."
"..."
No, wait. What now?
Byakuya stared at Danzō in stunned disbelief.
So you ambush me, test my strength, and it's not for recruitment? Was this whole thing just to mess with me?
"North of the Land of Fire, a group of refugees has recently settled there. Their movements are suspicious."
"..."
"According to our intelligence, they're carrying a large stockpile of weapons and poison. I brought this to the Hokage, but he said to leave them alone."
"..."
"So I came to you."
Now this was a problem.
If Danzō had come to recruit him into Root, things would have been simpler. But right now, what Byakuya felt from him was unmistakable killing intent.
Swallowing quietly, Byakuya felt the wrongness in the air around Danzō.
This was basically the same as saying: refuse, and I kill you.
"Oh, and one more thing... Quite a few children graduated from the Academy this year, didn't they? You're free to refuse, of course. They're only refugees, nothing impressive. Even freshly minted genin should be enough to deal with them. If I need someone for the job, I have plenty of options."
There was one thing Danzō had gotten completely wrong.
Byakuya had wanted to be a villain from the very beginning.
And more than that, he did not feel especially attached to any of the people from the Academy.
But he also knew full well that if he refused here, Danzō would kill him.
Because Danzō would assume he might go straight to the Hokage and report everything.
And even if Byakuya accepted now and later tried to secretly leak it to the Hokage, that would not work either.
Root was infamous for the cursed seal they used. One mark, and his mouth would be sealed shut.
In that case, there was only one thing to do.
Think this through carefully.
If I go and kill these refugees...
Then I'll be breaking one of the biggest rules a shinobi is supposed to follow, and my image as a villain will become even more complete.
They are not Konoha villagers.
They are only refugees, people with no real standing and no one to claim them.
Even if I kill them, Konoha will not have enough grounds to truly judge me for it.
And if I keep piling up infamy like this, one day I might become just as notorious as Danzō himself.
Which made the conclusion simple.
Perfect.