Chapter 7

For a while, we stood still, and not seeing her face, I began to fear the worst. But after a couple of minutes, the stick fell from her weakening grip, and her arms slowly rose, wrapping around my waist. With a sigh of relief, I hugged Keiko more tightly and stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind me with a thin thread of chakra.

— I'm here, and everything will be okay, — I whispered reassuringly, and all I got in response was a muffled sob. Then, lifting the kunoichi into my arms, I carried her to the couch in the living room.

Ahead were long hours of hard work as a psychotherapist for a killer who mattered to me. One of several.

Remembering how long it took for Keiko to be able to sleep without my presence or that of clones nearby, I shuddered. It's safe to say that the kunoichi was on the brink of a complete mental breakdown, not to mention the partial one that all veterans of a full-scale war experience to some extent.

Despite all her power, it's important to remember that all chakra users are still human, meaning they are social beings in need of support and communication. However, unlike ordinary people, the profession of a killer imposes its own limitations, and shinobi usually form strong attachments only to family members or those they grew up and worked alongside throughout their lives.

These are the pillars of support during tough times and the means to remain relatively normal psychologically. But losing these pillars significantly increases the likelihood of losing one's mind or becoming a killing machine incapable of feeling emotions. Keiko had lost all her support—her teammates and friends, as well as many mere acquaintances—so my support was very timely.

Especially considering the career collapse after our forces suffered a defeat in Ame at the hands of Hanzo the Salamander and his men. The story of the kunoichi was moving even to me, despite all the armor of professional cynicism and general awareness of the grim details of war.

In brief, taking advantage of the pause in the battle against Iwa's forces, the commander (not Nara) of our contingent in the Land of Rain decided to capture a more advantageous position for a second camp, allocating a force of a hundred shinobi, of which only a quarter were jounin. Intelligence reported the presence of only twenty Ame-nin, so the attacking group did not include the best fighters.

When the Konoha shinobi arrived at the location, they encountered the promised twenty enemy jounin and Hanzo the Salamander (who was supposed to be at the opposite border of the country), and all plans went to hell. Against one of the strongest kage with support and a huge salamander boss, they were simply annihilated, without even being given a chance to flee.

Of all, only two relatively survived—Keiko and a Uchiha who managed to escape at the beginning of the battle. My friend was not so lucky. Having expended herself fully on defensive techniques at the very start, she sustained poison burns from a summoning and took a blow to the throat from Hanzo's support at the very end, having witnessed the brutal massacre of her comrades and friends.

Usually, with such injuries and severe chakra exhaustion, a shinobi would kick the bucket almost immediately, but the unconscious kunoichi was saved by my seal, which, despite being on its last legs, managed to almost completely heal the dangerous wound after some time. However, there wasn't enough medical chakra left for everything else.

Also, it's quite an achievement—after several years of war, to manage not to deplete the far from infinite supply of Iya-ku Fuin. I had known before that my friend was far from a weak kunoichi, despite her chakra not being up to clan-level or top fighters, but going through many battles without receiving truly serious injuries is very difficult even for the best of the best.

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