Uzumaki Maki was about to speak again, but Chiba Shun cut her off before she could. "The Uzumaki clan is already gone. Why cling to old grudges now?" he asked flatly. "Do you really think you can overturn the Four Great Ninja Villages and avenge your ancestors all by yourself?"
"And even if you somehow did it, who would benefit in the end? Konoha. That so-called ally of yours would be the last one left standing."
Maki fell silent at once.
The truth was, she had never truly planned on revenge. And she certainly had no intention of running to Konoha for shelter. When Uzushiogakure fell, she had still been young, but old enough to remember what the adults said. Some cursed Konoha for dragging the Uzumaki into a war that was never theirs. Others spat bitterly that Konoha had watched from afar while Uzushio burned.
If she had really believed in that alliance, she would have fled to the Land of Fire long ago instead of ending up in the Land of Grass.
Seeing her go quiet, Chiba pressed harder. "I came on the Raikage's orders," he said. "And Lord Raikage made one promise very clear: no member of the Uzumaki clan who comes to Kumogakure will be turned into a jinchuriki."
Maki's expression shifted. That was the one point that struck true.
Everyone in the ninja world knew the Uzumaki were the best vessels for tailed beasts. Their chakra was monstrous. Their bodies were resilient. Konoha had already proven it twice, first with the previous Nine-Tails jinchuriki, then with the current one. Chiba knew there would one day be a third as well.
Beneath Konoha's bright, righteous facade, there were always calculations buried in the dark.
He saw the hesitation in her face and kept going. "Konoha claimed they had no time to save Uzushiogakure," he said, his tone sharpening. "And yet somehow they had enough time to save a girl who happened to be perfect as a jinchuriki."
"Maybe the reason they couldn't save the rest of your clan was because your people once refused to hand them another vessel. Maybe the reason only one survivor was rescued was because that was all they needed."
He paused, then added the cruelest blow with quiet precision. "I also heard Konoha managed to move the Uzumaki clan's Hall of Masks in time."
Maki's fists clenched so hard her knuckles whitened.
That was enough. Chiba knew the first wall had cracked. Whatever lingering warmth she might once have felt toward Konoha was gone now.
The second step was drawing her toward Kumogakure.
"We're different," Chiba said. "When the Raikage gives his word, he keeps it. If he says you won't be used as a jinchuriki, then you won't."
He let the next part hang for a moment before adding, "And to be honest, the Hidden Cloud already shelters bloodlines beyond its own people. I can't tell you everything yet, but when you arrive, you'll see it with your own eyes."
Maki shot him a skeptical look. "What bloodline clan would willingly join another village?"
Chiba only smiled. "You'll understand when we get there."
She narrowed her eyes. "I haven't agreed to go with you."
"Then where will you go?" Chiba asked immediately. "You don't trust Konoha. You can't possibly trust the other three great villages any more than that. And after what happened to you in Kusagakure, do you really think some small village will treat you fairly?"
He glanced at her forearm. Even through her sleeve, he remembered the bite marks clearly. "In a small village, you won't be a guest. You'll be a tool. Or worse, a blood bag."
Maki's face changed. She yanked her sleeve down, covering her arm as if hiding it could erase the memory.
Chiba's voice softened only slightly. "Kumogakure won't do that to its own people. If you want, you can join the medical department. With your physique, you'd learn medical ninjutsu quickly. You could become a true medical ninja instead of being used by one."
"And if you truly help improve the village's medicine," he went on, "your standing in the Cloud could end up higher than mine."
For the first time, real temptation flickered across her face.
What she had endured in the Land of Grass had frightened her deeply. The thought of being trapped in that life again clearly made her stomach turn.
Seeing that, Chiba delivered the final shove. "You're lucky," he said. "Right now, only that one Grass jonin knows the secret of your body. Imagine what would have happened if he had told the rest of Kusagakure."
Maki shuddered before she could stop herself.
She did not need him to paint the whole picture. A single woman used as a living stockpile of healing chakra for an entire hidden village would not survive very long.
After a long silence, she muttered, "Could I just become a wandering ninja instead?"
"No," Chiba said bluntly. "If you were ordinary, maybe. But you're not. With your body, without a major village behind you, you'll either end up as someone's medical reserve or locked in a laboratory as an experiment."
He did not say Karin's name. He did not need to. The future he remembered was proof enough.
Maki visibly recoiled at the word experiment.
"Kumogakure is the only village that sent someone to find you," Chiba continued. "The only one that offered terms before shackles. The only one willing to treat you as someone worth inviting instead of someone worth exploiting."
"Even if another village made the same promise," he added, "would you believe it? They'd look at your hatred and suspect betrayal. You'd look at their smiles and suspect chains. Trust would never exist."
His words wound around themselves, but she understood every one of them.
Because she had already thought through all of this on her own.
At last she asked the question that mattered most. "If I go to Kumogakure with you and I find it isn't what you promised... can I still leave?"
Chiba considered her for a moment. "I don't actually have the authority to guarantee that," he admitted. "But from what I know of the Raikage, if you truly want to go, he'd be willing to let you walk away."
He paused, then added with shameless honesty, "And in the worst case, if he refuses, I'm close to his son - the future Fourth Raikage. When he takes power, I can argue your case."
Maki gave him a very strange look. It was not every day a man casually spoke as though his own Kage's death were part of a reasonable long-term plan.
Still, the shamelessness somehow made him sound more believable, not less.
He kept talking after that, explaining what he could. How the village was structured. What life at the Ninja Academy was like. Why Kumogakure needed her, and what she could build there if she was brave enough to start over.
In the end, Maki lowered her head and forced the words out. "Fine," she said softly. "I'll go with you."
She knew exactly what she was agreeing to. Once she stepped onto that road, her future would lie in the Cloud's hands. If Kumogakure deceived her and turned her into a medical battery like Kusagakure had, she would be finished.
But she also knew she had no better option left.
So Chiba Shun, the three children, and the deeply uneasy Uzumaki Maki set out for the Land of Lightning.
This time, however, Chiba was far more cautious than before. In Takigakure, he didn't dare make contact with anyone at all. He bought as much food as he could in Kusagakure, had Ayana store it inside sealing scrolls, and then led the group onward by night while hiding by day.
They took the least traveled paths they could find and showed themselves to no one if they could help it.
Only after they crossed out of the Land of Waterfalls and entered the Land of Iron did Chiba dare guide them openly into a town again.
Maki looked at him strangely. "Why were you so careful in the Land of Waterfalls?"
Chiba coughed awkwardly. "Because an S-rank missing-nin has a bounty contract out on me. He likes money, and he probably wants my head."
Maki's eyes widened. She glanced left and right as if Kakuzu might step out of a shadow that very moment.
If she'd known earlier that the man rescuing her was himself being hunted, she might never have agreed to come.
Chiba unfolded a map and tapped it with one finger. "We'll take a sea route from here," he said. "From the Land of Iron, we sail back to the Land of Lightning."
He had no idea that this one decision would save his life.
Kakuzu had indeed gone to Takigakure after him. Takigakure's shinobi discovered him there, and the village - desperate to reclaim the Earth Grudge Fear and settle old scores - sent the Seven-Tails jinchuriki after him. Kakuzu lost track of Chiba during the chaos, but he did not give up.
After replacing the hearts he lost in that clash, he headed straight for the Land of the Moon instead. In his mind, Chiba was a Cloud ninja. No matter what mission he took, sooner or later he would return to the Land of Lightning - and the fastest path home usually meant passing through the Land of the Moon.
This kind of bounty didn't come around often. Kakuzu had no intention of letting ten million ryo slip through his fingers.
Meanwhile, Chiba and the others took the sea road and slipped safely back into the Land of Lightning.
Even after their feet touched the soil of home, Chiba still didn't relax. He drove the group forward at full speed all the way to the entrance of Kumogakure before finally allowing himself to breathe again.
Maki was deeply dissatisfied. She had started to suspect Chiba Shun simply didn't want to buy her dinner, so he had fled at top speed instead.
Because he was bringing an outsider with chakra into the village, Chiba had to register at the gate. ANBU arrived soon afterward to verify everything.
Then, under orders personally approved by the Third Raikage, the ANBU escorted both Chiba Shun and Uzumaki Maki straight to the Raikage's office.
The Third Raikage studied Maki's red hair and the chakra within her before nodding once. Then he looked at Chiba and asked, "You did well. What does she want?"
Chiba glanced at Maki before answering, "She wants to become a medical ninja."
The Raikage's eyes sharpened. "She already knows medical ninjutsu?"
Chiba scratched his cheek, suddenly aware of how flimsy the explanation sounded. "No," he admitted. "She left Uzushiogakure too young. She never learned any real ninjutsu at all."
"But her aptitude for medicine should be excellent," he added. And then, stepping far beyond what someone of his station should have said, he continued, "I think she may be able to improve the village's entire medical system."
The Third Raikage turned and gave him a strange look.
He was not offended that a jonin barely promoted a few years earlier had spoken out of turn. What puzzled him was something else entirely.
How, exactly, had Chiba Shun become so certain that Uzumaki Maki possessed talent in medical ninjutsu?