Yuki Haku

Despite it being the cold winter season, the little girl wore only thin autumn clothes. Though they had been washed clean, the faded clothes had clearly been altered by cutting down adult garments.

With a ninja’s keen observational skills, Duke easily determined that this family lived in poverty.

The little girl was still looking at Duke timidly. Though she was so frightened that she wanted to run away, her mother had always taught her to be polite. Maybe he was a distant relative from her mother’s side of the family. Thinking that, the little girl asked expectantly, "Are you a relative from my mother’s side?"

"Why would you think that?" Duke looked at the little girl before him, feeling an indescribable strangeness. Something just felt off.

"Because Mother always says she lives far away, but she never tells me who else is in her family." The little girl pouted, clearly unhappy about it.

Duke laughed at her words and reached out to pat her head. "What a cute little girl. What’s your name?"

"My name is Haku. I’m a boy, not a little girl."

A thunderclap seemed to explode in Duke’s mind. His hand froze as he stared in shock at the little… boy before him. Only then did he realize what that strange feeling had been. No wonder things had seemed so mismatched. He was a boy.

I knew it. How could someone this cute possibly be a girl?

"No, that’s not the issue right now." Duke shook his head and looked at the little one who called himself Haku. "Kid, did you say your name is Haku?"

"Yeah!" The little boy nodded vigorously.

"Then you…" Duke was about to ask more when a woman’s voice came from the inner room, interrupting him.

"Haku, who are you talking to outside? Stop playing around and go see whether your father is back. It’s time to get dinner ready." A woman not yet thirty, with fairly pretty features, walked out of the house.

The woman jumped when she saw Duke’s attire. Trembling, she pulled Haku behind her and looked at Duke uneasily. "Excuse me, are you a ninja, sir?"

Her expression was evasive, as though she feared something.

Duke stared at the woman in silence for a long while before sighing. "Hōzuki Jingzi… so it’s you."

The woman before him was none other than the servant who had attended to his daily needs when Duke infiltrated Kirigakure years ago. He remembered telling Jingzi to flee far away before he left after his identity was exposed. Seeing her again now, he could not help feeling that times had changed. Seven or eight years had passed. She even had a child now—and this child was quite famous.

Having her true name, hidden for years, suddenly spoken aloud, Jingzi’s face went pale. Her legs weakened, and she nearly collapsed. "You’re from Kirigakure… Are you Anbu?"

Jingzi tightly shielded Haku behind her. She knew that once her identity was discovered, there would be little chance of survival. She had no talent for ninjutsu, and her strength was no different from that of an ordinary woman. Pleading, she said, "Ninja sir, please spare my child. He’s still young. He doesn’t know anything."

Duke was deeply struck by the wonder of fate. Both times he had come to the Land of Water, he had encountered Jingzi. He simply removed his veiled hat, revealing his true face. "Don’t worry. It’s me."

Jingzi’s eyes widened. Pointing at Duke’s face, she said in shock, "Y-you… You’re… Young Master Tian Man?"

Hōzuki Tian Man!

He was supposedly Duke’s distant cousin, and the two bore an extremely close resemblance. Duke had used the man’s identity when infiltrating Kirigakure back then. If he remembered correctly, that unlucky fellow had been taken away by Orochimaru. He had no idea whether the man was dead or alive now.

Inside the house, Duke looked around at the home, which barely had any decent furniture, and said regretfully, "Jingzi, it seems these past years haven’t been easy for you. What a shame. If you hadn’t been implicated by me…"

"You flatter me. If I hadn’t met you back then, I would certainly be living even worse now. When the clan was wiped out a few years ago, I might not have escaped death either." Jingzi had come to terms with it. Born into a great clan like the Hōzuki, without talent for ninjutsu, her future had been destined to become someone’s plaything. Her life was a little poor now, but she had a husband who loved her and a lively son. She was already content.

Jingzi was a very traditional woman. She did not seek much, only wishing to live out her life in peace and stability. Even if life was ordinary and dull, as long as the person beside her loved her, that was enough.

"Forget it. Let’s not talk about that." Duke pointed at Haku, who was hiding behind Jingzi and peeking out with only his head visible. Unable to help himself, he asked again, "Haku is a boy, really?"

"Yes! Is there something wrong with that?" Jingzi asked in confusion.

"There’s nothing wrong with it. I just think he’s quite pretty…" Duke’s expression turned strange. This gender would leave many people disappointed.

"Aren’t you the same?" Jingzi froze for a moment, then covered her mouth and laughed.

Duke: "…"

"Mother, is he a distant relative?" Haku asked softly from behind Jingzi.

Jingzi patted Haku’s little head and said gently, "Yes. This gentleman is one of Mother’s distant relatives."

Several somewhat noisy footsteps sounded in the courtyard. Jingzi hurriedly said to Duke, "My husband is back. Please don’t say anything. I’ll go take a look first."

Haku glanced at Duke before slipping out after her.

No matter how he looked at it, this scene and dialogue gave off the feeling of a husband coming home, discovering an unfamiliar man in the house, and the wife desperately explaining that he was a coworker. Duke had no mood to mock Jingzi’s words. The faint killing intent in the air made him follow them outside as well.

Quite a few people had gathered in the modest courtyard. They held wooden clubs or shovels in their hands, their faces filled with fear. Jingzi looked panicked and helpless as she desperately tried to explain something.

The tear-streaked man was Jingzi’s husband. He shoved Jingzi away, trembling as he raised the wooden club in his hand. Choking back sobs, he said, "Why? Why did you lie to me? You’re a descendant of a Kekkei Genkai ninja. Why did you come to this village?"

By the end, the man was nearly roaring his accusation.

The Fourth Mizukage’s ideological work over the past few years had been quite effective. Under the guidance of public opinion, the people of the Land of Water firmly believed that wars had been instigated by Kekkei Genkai ninjas and that they were the calamity of the nation. If anyone was found to have ties to a Kekkei Genkai user and failed to report it, they would be treated as accomplices and executed together. But if they dealt with the matter promptly, not only would their crimes be forgiven, they would even become heroes of the nation.

The cruel punishments made people afraid to resist, and Jingzi’s husband was no exception. Though he deeply loved his wife and son, when he saw Haku use his Kekkei Genkai ability, he still chose to end this cursed bond.

The man raised his club. Remembering the happy days the family of three had shared, he was on the verge of collapse. The people around him urged him on, telling him to hurry up and do it. If he hesitated and brought cold-blooded ninjas upon them, their entire village would be buried with them.

Looking at her husband raising the weapon of slaughter, Jingzi felt her heart turn to ashes in despair and closed her eyes. To a traditional woman like her, her husband was her sky. Now that sky was about to collapse. What meaning was there in continuing to live?

There was no meaning. She might as well die.

"Why did you appear before me… Why did you marry me?" The light had vanished from the man’s dull eyes. He laughed brokenly twice, then viciously swung down the wooden club in his hand.

Whoosh!

An ice kunai knocked the club away. The sudden scene left the courtyard so silent that a needle drop could be heard. The villagers stared in terror at the kunai on the ground, too scared to make a sound.

Duke walked out with a grim expression. A massive dragon head slowly emerged from the ground, its icy blue eyes lighting up as the air instantly froze into a suffocating stillness.

"It’s a ninja…"

"We’re going to be killed!"

"Don’t kill me! I don’t know anything!"

Duke coldly looked at the villagers, who had been crushed by his aura. Suppressing the anger in his heart, he said indifferently, "Get out."

The group felt as though they had been granted a pardon. As the air suddenly lightened, they scrambled and crawled out of the courtyard. Only Jingzi’s husband remained, dropping to his knees. He raised his head with his mouth hanging open, and there was not the slightest trace of life in his vacant eyes. The man was already on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Haku did not understand what had happened. At his young age, he could not understand much, but the sudden upheaval in his family made him clutch his mother and burst into tears. His father’s appearance had terrified him.

Duke walked over to Jingzi’s side. After hesitating for a moment, he sighed. "He doesn’t love you as much as you said he did."

Although the man’s overburdened mind had snapped the moment he raised a weapon against his wife, no excuse or reason could deny the fact that he had lifted the weapon of slaughter against her.

Jingzi trembled at his words and silently wept as she held Haku tightly.

Duke looked at the pitiful woman. "Do you want me to kill him? If it would make you feel better…"

"No!" Jingzi shook her head frantically. Looking at the man who was both familiar and unfamiliar before her, she gave a miserable smile. "Please spare him. He had no choice. I don’t hate him, and I don’t blame him."

Duke fell silent for a long time. Having witnessed a tragedy firsthand, he finally understood why so many chuunibyou wanted to change the world. The ninja world truly was not a good era. Hatred gave rise to more tragedies, and the pitiful people living within those tragedies gave rise to even more hatred. It was an unsolvable cycle…

Thanks to readers ‘Elegant Cabbage,’ ‘Collecting 16 to 25 Year Old Beautiful Girls,’ ‘zhizujie,’ and ‘Lightless Starry Sky’ for the tips!