17

Yukan lay in his bed, sleeping. His face was right beside the window.

Yukan woke up from the bright light of the sun as he slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes.

He looked out the window as the sun's rays fell on him. The sounds of the birds chirping came from the outside as Yukan bathed in the sun.

"Wake up, you lazy thing. It is almost 8 A.M," Aayu's voice came from the lower floor.

"Mooom! You killed my vibe." Yukan said as he got up from the bed.

"What did you say, boy?"

"Nothing, mom." Yukan said as he thought,' It's my last day here today. I better not fight with mom.'

Yukan got up, left his bed, washed up and left his house after a long breakfast and talking to his mother for a long time.

Today, all his batchmates organized a party for him since he was the first of them to go onto the battlefield.

In the afternoon, he went to the ground to meet Minato, Shikaku and Choza.

"Aren't there any girls coming?" Yukan asked as he searched for them from left to right.

"??? We are here. Can't you at least say hello to us?" Shikaku said as he looked at Yukan with a disappointed expression.

"...Hello," Yukan said as if completing a formality he was forced to do.

Minato kept a hand on Yukan's shoulder and shook his head with a sad look.

"W-What do you mean? Are there no girls left? Would I need to be with you three shits the rest-" Yukan was saying. This was again because Minato caused another misunderstanding.

"No, idiot, they will arrive in the evening. Right now, it's just the three of us." Minato slapped the back of Yukan's head as he said.

"Well then, you little fu*k, don't cause misunderstandings," Yukan said as he slapped Minato back on his head.

"What just did you call me?" Minato asked as he walked a little forward in Yukan's direction.

Yukan quickly took a few steps back and shouted," Little fu*k,"

"Hah! These two..." Shikaku said as he yawned and looked at Minato chase Yukan.

The four boys then spent the whole afternoon playing with each other, making fun of each other and laughing heartily together.

In the evening, when they went to the party, Minato had gone back for some emergency and would be back soon as Yukan stood with Shikaku and Choza right in front of the gate of the establishment.

"Hey, before we enter, I want to say; all the best for the war," Shikaku said as he patted Yukan on his back.

"Same from me; all the best," Choza said as he also patted Yukan's back.

"Haha, thank you both," Yukan said as he smiled and entered the room where the party was being held.

After greeting everyone, talking to them and looking around for a while, Yukan left the establishment to get a moment of a breather.

"Ah, all these roses are getting hard to handle," Yukan said. His hands were full of roses made of ribbons. Almost all of his female classmates gave him one.

Yukan put all of them in the system subspace after ensuring no one was watching.

He had already received one from his mother and Myu before.

"..Only Tomato is left," Yukan said as he looked at the empty, dark street in front of him.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his back. When he turned around to look who it was, he saw Kushina with a cute pout on her face.

"Cute," Yukan mumbled.

"What?" Kushina did not hear him.

"Nothing. But, hey, why did you pinch me so hard?" Yukan asked as he kept a hand where she pinched.

"Y-You just called me tomato again, right?"

"Just that? *Sigh* Alright, I'll be leaving now. I have to leave early tomorrow morning." Yukan said as he was about to turn around and leave when he noticed that Kushina was hiding something behind her back, 'Maybe it is..'

"What is in your hands?" Yukan asked.

Kushina brought her hands in front and put a rose made out of ribbons in front of Yukan's face.

'I guess she did not know how to make it. It is uneven from almost all sides, but... It is cute.' Yukan said in his mind as he took the rose and smiled.

"Oh, This is for me, right? I may have made a mistake right there..." Yukan asked without changing his expression.

"Y-Yes. Just take it, I am only giving it as an f-f-friend, t-there is no other m-meaning." Kushina said as her face got as red as a tomato.

"Thank you, Tomato. Also, this is payback. " Yukan pinched Kushina's cheek softly, stepped back and disappeared in the dark.

"Hey! He went... Stay safe, idiot." Kushina said as she wore a worried expression and held the cheek Yukan just pinched while looking at the dark street Yukan disappeared into.

As Yukan was walking to his home, he saw Minato standing in the distance.

"Hmm? Why are you here? Shouldn't you have gone to the party?" Yukan asked Minato.

"Nah, I don't like parties. Moreover, the main guest already left, didn't he?" Minato said as he put his hand on Yukan's shoulder.

"So, what do you want, you little fu*k?" Yukan teased Minato.

"Haha, nothing special... Here, I know that girls give the boys roses, so I somehow managed to get these kunai I made to give you. Shit! I worked hard for, like, a long time for this." Minato said as he handed a hand-crafted Kunai.

It was made by gathering all the stones and binding them with ropes, but it surely would have been time-consuming.

"Haha, thank you for this," Yukan said as he took the kunai and kept it in his pocket.

"Yeah, just stay safe and come back alive," Minato said as he put his hand up for a fist bump.

"Of course," Yukan said as he fist-bumped Minato.

Yukan then soon reached his house and went straight to his room. He once checked all the necessities he may need for the next few days. After ensuring everything, he went down to spend time with his mother before leaving.

In Yukan's room, on his table, Kushina and his mother's rose were kept, apart from the large bundle on them that he had received.

-4 Years Later-

In a barren, lifeless land, shouts and screams of people came from every direction.

Corpses of people, no matter civilian or shinobi, child or woman, were fallen all over the place.

Rain was pouring down and in the middle of a field stood a 13-year-old boy wearing a mask and black cloak covering him from head to toe.

As the boy removed the cloak and mask, his facial features were revealed.

He had pitch-black hair with a small scar on his face.

He stared at the lifeless corpse he was standing on with cold eyes and took out his katana from it.

At that moment, another man wearing the same black cloak but a different mask appeared beside him.

"Sho, you had told me to remind you to not remove your mask and cloak while doing the mission." The man in the black cloak said.

Sho was the codename of Yukan. He received the name 3 years ago when he became a part of the ANBU.

"It's alright. The mission is over Tatsuya-San. They are all dead... *Sigh* I miss home again already." Yukan said as he looked up at the sky.

"But captain, you came back from Konoha two days ago." The man, Tatsuya said.

Tatsuya was his real name. He worked under Yukan. Tatsuya was an Earth-style ninjutsu user with the rank of a jonin.

"I know. *Sigh* Check all of them. I don't think any of them is alive, but someone may be lucky." Yukan said as he took out a clean but wet handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his hands which were full of blood.

Right now, Yukan had killed more than 40 ninjas alone. Ever since coming to the battlefield with Sakumo four years ago, Yukan trained like crazy to stay alive.

"Ah! My back. I still haven't gotten back in form. Boys! Let's go on the next mission tomorrow. I have to get back in form." Yukan shouted.

"Hey, don't call us like that, kid. We are all older than you." A voice came from somewhere around the corpses.

"Who's the captain? You or me?" Yukan asked as he yawned and turned around.

He then walked back alone to the camp of Konoha with a pair of gripping gloves in his hands and his katana hanging on his waist.