In Yukigakure, the silhouette of the orphanage gradually became clear within Takuno's field of vision.
He had been so deeply immersed in his *Cultiv* that he had not set foot in this place for a long time.
As time flowed on, Jugo and Haku, who used to constantly accompany this place in the past, were no longer children in need of protection.
The trajectories of their lives had long since extended toward a broader world, so they naturally could not stay in this tiny little courtyard for long.
However, that bond originating from the bottom of their hearts had never been severed; the two would frequently make time to return, visiting Nono and bringing carefully selected gifts to light up the innocent smiles of the other children in the orphanage.
When Nono saw that long-absent figure at the entrance of the courtyard, she blanked slightly.
Immediately after, a warm smile slowly rippled across her face.
The passing of time had washed away many things, including that dread toward Takuno that had originally been deeply rooted in her very bones.
It had now settled into a complex but no longer panicked reverence.
More importantly, she had long since extinguished any thought of transmitting intelligence to Konoha.
This hard-won peaceful life right in front of her eyes, the children's sounds of laughter and joy, and the stable daily routine of the orphanage were the harbor she would risk her absolute best to protect, and she would absolutely not permit anyone or anything to break it.
"Milord? You've returned?"
She greeted softly, her voice carrying a trace of unnoticeable concern.
"Yeah." Takuno's response was as concise as always, his gaze sweeping across the inside of the courtyard, "Bringing a child over."
He turned his body sideways, gently pulling a child of about five or six years old, who had been shrinking back continuously inside the shadow behind him, to the front of his body.
"His name is Kaguya Kimimaro."
Kimimaro's appearance was remarkably frozen at the age he was when Takuno brought him back.
Although time had carved imprints upon his sleeping body, the long coma left the other party completely without any memory of growth during this period of time.
Takuno ultimately decided to choose a body for him that matched the age prior to his memory gap, as if that stripped-away period of time had never existed.
It was just that this body... was a bit skin and bones; after all, it was also impossible for him to go out of his way to kill an unrelated child for the sake of Kimimaro.
But this world would never be lacking in starving children, so wanting to find a physique suitable for the other party was not troublesome.
Nono's gaze fell upon Kimimaro, and her heart stirred once again.
That pair of eyes... was hollow, bewildered, with a massive confusion and emptiness regarding the meaning of his own existence latent within the depths.
This gaze—she was far too familiar with it!
The vice director of the orphanage, Zabuza.
When he first arrived, within those cold pupils, an almost identical undercurrent had also once surged.
Even with Haku and Jugo, when they first met, this kind of ash-dark light and shadow had also once flitted across the depths of their eyes, only the degree was slightly shallower.
What she did not know was that the barrenness within the hearts of Haku and Jugo, before meeting Takuno, possessed no essential difference compared to Kimimaro at this moment and Zabuza in the past.
It was Takuno's appearance that abruptly pointed out the direction for these two lost souls, bestowing upon them the meaning to forge ahead.
Kimimaro's consciousness was like slowly floating upward from the deep, ice-cold bottom of the sea.
He did not know how long he had been sleeping; his heavy eyelids finally parted a gap with difficulty, and the piercing light caused him to squint his eyes instinctively.
His blurred field of vision gradually focused, and what mirrored out was actually that very mask that had stamped into his eyes right before he lost consciousness.
The body's instinctual vigilance tightened instantly!
However, right at the split second before his muscles were about to erupt, he saw Takuno calmly extending a hand toward him.
That movement did not possess a single shred of aggressiveness, nor was it a posture of command; it was just quietly, and carrying some kind of indescribable implication, extending toward him.
Kimimaro froze violently.
An unprecedented bewilderment seized him, even causing him to fail to notice that the Shikotsumyaku belonging to himself had actually vanished without a trace?
His brain went completely blank, merely staring blankly at that hand extended over.
Takuno's gaze was calm and without waves, yet it seemed able to contain everything.
Time seemed to freeze at this very moment.
Kimimaro's young heart beat violently inside his chest cavity.
He widened that pair of silver-gray eyes which appeared dim due to a long-term lack of vitality; inside was filled with confusion, incredulity, as well as a faint sliver of hope that even he himself had failed to notice.
After a long time, as if using up the strength of his entire body, he trembled, lifting his equally young arm extremely slowly.
Ultimately, it gently rested upon Takuno's broad palm.
When those slightly cool fingertips brushed against the other party's warm skin, he trembled slightly as if struck by an electric current.
In the next instant, the scene in front of his eyes abruptly blurred; when his field of vision became clear again, he found that he had already placed himself outside an unfamiliar, vast courtyard.
Within the high walls, the children's crisp, silver-bell-like laughter and sounds of chasing and frolicking penetrated the courtyard walls, clearly entering his ears.
That sound... was so vivid, filled with carefree vitality.
Envy so thick it could not be dissolved instantly brimmed within Kimimaro's eyes.
From the time he remembered things, his life had been imprisoned within ice-cold cages and endless training and slaughter.
"Laughter" to him was a luxurious illusion belonging to a far-out-of-reach world.
Right when he was deeply attracted by the laughter, Takuno gently gave him a pull.
He lifted his small face somewhat ignorantly, bumping unexpectedly straight into a pair of eyes that were as gentle as water—it was Nono.
That gaze... what kind was it?
Like the most genial sunshine in the spring day, and like the moonlight shedding on a quiet night, gentle to the point of nearly being able to melt hard ice.
Even deeper within, there was also a kind of emotion that he fundamentally could not understand, a kind so intense it was nearly overflowing... pity?
Pitying whom? It couldn't possibly be him, right?
He was nothing more than a monster rejected by his clansmen and treated as a weapon.
A powerful sense of inferiority instantly coiled around his heart, causing him to nearly want to hide inside Takuno's shadow once again.
However, in the next instant, Kimimaro froze completely.
Nono, without the slightest hesitation, driven by that pity, walked straight toward him.
He did not even have time to make any reaction before he was gently yet firmly embraced by an incomparably warm embrace.
This sudden embrace shook his mind and spirit far more than any ninjutsu attack he had ever experienced.
"Child... you have suffered. Forget that unbearable past; in the future, just stay here and live together with me, okay?"
This... was it really being said to him?
These gentle words, this warm embrace... did it belong to him?
Kimimaro's lips vibrated a few times, but his throat was like being choked by something, unable to emit any sound.
If he was allowed to kill people, then he could without the slightest hesitation draw out his own bones to act as sharp blades, precisely piercing through the enemy's heart.
But at this moment, facing this unfamiliar warmth and affection, he was completely at a loss for what to do.
His body remained stiff, yet that warmth penetrated in through every single pore.
Nono's embrace was like a secure harbor, isolating all the coldness and hostility outside.
After what felt like a century had passed, Kimimaro finally found back his own weak voice, carrying an incredible raspiness and an unnoticeable sliver of a sob, gently spitting out a single word:
"...Okay."
Takuno standing and watching the scenario of Nono soothing Kimimaro did not cause him to feel surprised.
This former "Wandering Miko"—the piercing aura upon her body now had long since been replaced by the softness of maternity, and that patience and meticulousness when facing children appeared increasingly consummate.
"Lord," Nono gently gathered the slightly settled Kimimaro to her side, her gaze turning toward Takuno, carrying a sliver of expectation, "Are you... going to stay this time? Jugo and Haku, they really miss you very much."
Takuno paused.
He had originally been thinking of immediately leaving right after safely delivering Kimimaro.
However, the two names "Jugo" and "Haku" spitting out from Nono's mouth instantly outlined two familiar faces.
True enough, he had already not seen these two little fellows for a very long time.
After a brief weighing, his chin nodded slightly, responding in a low tone: "Yeah."
It wasn't short of this one day's time anyway.
"That's wonderful!" Nono's eyebrows instantly smoothed out, a smile blossoming by her lips, "I will have someone go and notify the two of them right away. If they know you've returned, those two children are afraid they'll jump up in joy."
Stepping into the courtyard, Takuno's gaze was grabbed by the scene within the courtyard, and he could not help but blank once again.
Under the sunshine, a group of children of varying ages was giggling and chasing; however, that figure surrounded in the center of the picture was a person unexpected to him—Zabuza.
That "Demon" who was renowned in the past for being cold-blooded and fierce—at this moment, his face was clearly written full of "unwillingness," yet he was clumsily, and it could even be said in a rush and muddle of hands and feet, coping with the children's pulling and frolicking; that appearance of forcefully enduring impatience yet having to accommodate them was truly rare.
This contrast was entirely too powerful.
Takuno pondered inwardly; Zabuza no matter what was also a real-deal elite Jonin—if he really set his iron heart to refuse, who within this orphanage could forcefully compel him?
Right at this time, Zabuza keenly captured Takuno's sight.
His entire person stiffened instantly, the expression on his face as if frozen; immediately after, as if to conceal this awkwardness, he coughed violently, intentionally putting on a stern face, and roared in a coarse voice toward the several little fellows coiling by his leg.
"Hey! You bunch of annoying bratty kids! Get far away from Laozi!"
The tone was pulled extremely high, working hard to construct his fierce aura of the past.
Pity that the children had long since thoroughly mastered his routine of being fierce in appearance but weak within.
That roaring sound not only failed to scare them back, but instead drew a burst of hee-hee ha-ha laughing and frolicking; the small hands pulling his sleeves and pants legs became even more unbridled.
The corner of Zabuza's mouth twitched a bit, turning toward Takuno, his eyes drifting, attempting to find back a bit of his majesty of the past, explaining dryly.
"Cough... that, Lord, don't you misunderstand! I am not willing to accompany them in fooling around! It is purely because... as the vice director here, duty resides!"
He worked hard to straighten his spine, attempting to make the reason sound more high-sounding.
An extremely faint trace of a smile flitted across the depths of Takuno's eyes, his tone calm and without waves.
"Yeah. As long as you are happy."
Zabuza upon hearing the words saw his expression collapse instantly, turning into an appearance of being dead to the world.
He was as if seeing his "prestigious name" built from storms of blood in the past completely turn to ashes and vanish without a single tile remaining right within this courtyard full of sounds of joy and laughter and this feather-light response of Takuno's.
He let out a sorrowful sigh, his eyes gazing toward the sky in grief and indignation, feeling his "dignity" as a ninja was drifting away with the wind.
At this time, Nono had already walked over pulling Kimimaro's hand, gently introducing him to all the children inside the courtyard.
Kimimaro appeared somewhat uneasy and cramped, his pale small hand instinctively gripping the corner of his clothes tightly, carrying the anxiety and detachment of a newcomer.
However, the children of the orphanage seemed to possess an innate goodwill.
They did not retreat because of Kimimaro's paleness and silence; on the contrary, several slightly larger children proactively extended their small hands, their eyes clear and bright, passionately inviting: "Come and play together!"
Several even smaller children also gathered around curiously, pulling the corner of his clothes without acting like a stranger at all, drawing him into the game circle currently underway.
Kimimaro's movements initially appeared extremely unfamiliar, even copying the movements of the other children somewhat clumsily, his footsteps also stumbling.
But beneath that careful cautiousness was a kind of affection he had never felt before.
Standing at a slightly farther location, Zabuza's gaze fell upon Kimimaro, his eyes becoming somewhat absent-minded and complex.
That kind of gaze again...
This kid... what exactly did he experience before?
Was it a darkness like how he himself struggled to survive within the Blood Mist back then?
Queries swirled within his heart, but Zabuza very quickly retracted his thought of probing.
He shook his head forcefully, throwing those unnecessary thoughts away.
How the past was was no longer important; what was important was that since fate delivered him here, delivered him to the side of Nono and this bunch of bratty kids...
Then, everything would slowly get better.
This place was originally a location for sheltering scars and nurturing new life.
Takuno stood quietly, taking this scene entirely into his eyes.
He turned his head sideways, saying from the bottom of his heart to the woman beside him: "Nono, you have taught them... very well."
"This is not my credit," she said softly, her gaze sweeping across the children frolicking in the courtyard, "It is they themselves who inherently deserve to be treated gently by this world."
Takuno nodded his head slightly, emitting a low "Yeah."
After a brief silence, a sliver of hesitation surfaced on Nono's face: "Lord, there is a matter... that needs to request your approval."
"Speak." Takuno was concise and to the point.
"I want to let the children go to school. It doesn't need to be the kind like the Shinobi Academy, just an ordinary literacy school is fine. To let them be able to come into contact with books, form friendships with peers of the same age, and understand the world outside the village."
An expectation for the children's future flashed within her eyes.
"The orphanage's funds are not enough?" His first reaction was a resource issue, "Have you mentioned it with Kazahana Doto? He didn't agree?"
With the current delicate relationship between the orphanage and him, as well as Kazahana Doto's character of recognizing the times, there was no reason for this kind of basic education request to be rejected.
"In terms of funds, there is temporarily no issue, and Lord Doto has also already approved the appropriation." Nono hurriedly explained.
"It's just... this kind of matter, I feel I should still personally report it to you once. It's just that you continuously did not return..."
Her meaning was very clear; even if Kazahana Doto managed the daily affairs, the one who truly could make the call and made her feel the need to report was always Takuno.
Takuno understood.
The research into the Kekkei Genkai had neared its conclusion; the laboratory on this side was already of no use to him, so the frequency of his returns was naturally sparse.
"For this category of affairs, you evaluate and decide on your own; just go straight to find Kazahana Doto to handle it." Takuno said.
Nono respectfully nodded and accepted, a stone in her heart dropping to the ground, a gentle smile blossoming on her face once again.
Afterward, Jugo and Haku also returned to the orphanage side; upon seeing Takuno, they were also extremely pleasantly surprised.
Later on, they also saw Kimimaro, who was brought back by Takuno this time; in a daze, they seemed to see themselves.
As a result, Kimimaro once again received the special care of two little adults.
Takuno looking at this scene did not feel surprised that these three similar individuals could form a bond.
But looking at their physical sizes, Takuno's face looked a bit strange; after all, in the original work, these three ought to be of the same age, but now, due to his reason, Kimimaro was many years younger than Jugo and Haku.
Furthermore, without realizing it, he had actually gathered all of these several individuals who possessed special bonds together.
Kimimaro, Jugo, Haku, and it could even be added... Zabuza.
Takuno shook his head, thinking no further about it; just let nature take its course.