Chapter 3, Section 3: Uchiha Tajima Delivers Another Kill
Kaori Uchiha gently rocked the baby in her arms, her fingertips tracing the child's unusually quiet face.
Yan Sheng—her sixth child, and the only one who made her feel uneasy.
It's too quiet...
Moonlight streamed through the paper window, casting cool shadows on the tatami mat. Kaori looked down into her infant son's dark eyes, which reflected the flickering candlelight, showing no trace of the bewilderment or curiosity expected of a baby.
"Yan Sheng..." she called softly, tapping the child's cheek with her finger, "Are you hungry?"
There was no response. The baby in her arms merely glanced at her, its gaze calm to the point of being indifferent; were it not for the occasional blinking of its eyelashes, it would have looked like a doll.
Jiazhi's heart clenched. She recalled the harrowing experience of Yan Shenggang's birth—eight near-death experiences, eight brushes with death.
This child has been fighting for his life since birth... and may have already exhausted all his energy to cry.
It's all my fault.
Kaori felt guilty.
Her memory flashed back to that rainy night. Three months pregnant, she was ambushed during a mission, and a kunai slashed open her abdomen, leaving a gruesome wound. As blood soaked through her clothes, she thought she was going to lose her child forever.
"Madam, it's time to give you your medicine."
The maid's voice brought Kaori back to reality. She took the warm medicine bowl and carefully adjusted the child in her arms into a suitable position for feeding the medicine.
The baby's body was frighteningly light, as if it would break at the slightest pressure.
When the medicine touched his lips, Yan Shengcai opened his mouth and swallowed like a puppet following orders.
Unbeknownst to Kaori, the baby in her arms was contemplating a profound question:
Why let him reincarnate with his memories intact?
Yan Sheng frowned as he tasted the bitterness of the medicine in his mouth.
In his previous life, as the demon Kokushibo, he thought he would vanish into nothingness forever after death, or suffer endless punishment in hell. But in reality, he was reincarnated, although his body in this life was extremely weak, making him wonder if it was due to the many sins he had committed in his previous life.
Anyway... it's all meaningless now.
Coming to his senses, he looked at his mother's reddened eyes in this life and felt that she was blaming herself.
Yan Sheng was not a real child after all. He had strong emotional intelligence and the ability to understand others' psychology, so he could probably guess the reason for his mother's guilt in this life, but he had long lost the ability to empathize.
Kokushibo's heart shattered along with Yoriichi's sword, and his obsession with Kokushibo vanished with death. Now, all that remains is a weary soul.
Yan Sheng shifted his gaze and turned to look at the half-withered maple tree in the courtyard. A red leaf drifted down, swirling in the wind, much like the knife that had severed his neck in his past life.
If I were to die here...
The medicine bowl suddenly tilted, and a few drops of medicine splashed onto Yan Sheng's face. Jia Zhi hurriedly wiped it away, but froze the moment she met the baby's eyes—she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but a glimmer of expectation seemed to flash deep within the child's dark pupils.
He wanted to die.
"No, that won't do." Kaori put down the medicine bowl, tightened her arms, and said in a voice as soft as a feather, yet with an unyielding firmness, "Yan Sheng must live well."
Yan Sheng closed his eyes. Kaori's body temperature wafted through the swaddling clothes, making him feel as if he had returned to a snowy night in Tsugikuni.
......
Fine snowflakes fell outside the long corridor, accumulating into a thin layer. Young Yoriichi, dressed in thin clothes, stood alone in the courtyard, looking up at the snow-covered sky. His breath condensed in the air, then quickly dissipated.
Then, Yoriichi saw him.
Those usually empty eyes suddenly lit up, like a candle flame suddenly lit. He jogged towards him, his wooden clogs leaving a series of crooked footprints in the snow.
"Brother!"
The small body bumped into his arms, warm and cozy, then tilted her head back, her nose red from the cold, but her expression filled with immense joy: "You've come!"
......
"Yan Sheng?"
The baby opened his eyes and found his cheeks were wet. The woman gently wiped the corner of his eye with her finger, picking up a drop of warm liquid.
Yan Sheng was stunned.
He thought he had already shed all his tears, whether as Kokushibo or Tsugikuni. Well... but he is now Uchiha Kokushibo. He can't control the physiological reactions of this weak infant body.
Kaori didn't understand why her young son was suddenly crying, and since the child was too young, she couldn't get any answers from him. She guessed that he was feeling unwell.
The baby was too weak, and there was nothing she could do but hold the swaddled baby tighter and hum a lullaby in the hope of easing the baby's pain.
The woman's singing voice was soft, and for some reason, it reminded Yan Sheng of the rough flute that Yoriichi had once given him—the pitch was off, but it was something that the child had secretly made over three whole months.
***
Uchiha Tajima's hand touched the young boy's neck for the third time.
This was the second time he had resolved to kill the child. Uchiha Tajima could clearly feel the faint pulse beneath his palm, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.
He recalled the night Yan Shenggang was born, the delivery room filled with the smell of blood. When the medical ninja shook his head, indicating his inability to help, Tajima drew his sword, ready to end the child's suffering.
—Then, the moment he made his move, the child's chakra went berserk.
It's important to understand that while young children do possess chakra—which is innate—the amount is very small and cannot possibly go berserk. Yet, Yan Sheng did just that, a feat that can be described as "the first of its kind."
What a talent!
It was this amazing sight that made him stop at that time.
However, a month has passed and Yan Sheng's condition has not improved.
Medical Ninja: [“The young master’s internal organs are underdeveloped, and his meridians are very fragile... His survival rate is estimated to be less than 20%.”]
Tajima's fingers tightened slightly.
Why prolong such suffering...?
As the clan head, he had witnessed too much death; as a father, he knew all too well that in the Uchiha clan, even survival was a luxury for the weak. Rather than let this child suffer a painful death during some future illness, or be murdered in a vendetta, it was better...
The murderous intent spread as if it were a tangible force.
Yan Sheng calmly gazed at his biological father in this life. He had long sensed the other's intentions and was prepared to accept them. To him, this reincarnation was an absurd farce, and death was a liberation.
Just as Tajima was about to exert force with his fingertips—
"boom!"
A burst of violent chakra suddenly erupted from Yan Sheng's body. This was Yan Sheng's instinctive reaction to killing intent, etched into his soul by his three-hundred-year killing career as Kokushibo.
The azure chakra pierced Tajima's wrist like a sharp blade, forcing the battle-hardened clan leader to retreat half a step.
Tajima's Sharingan activated instinctively, and he clearly saw his son's chakra condense in the air, like the starting stance of some kind of sword technique. Even more astonishingly, some of the chakra quickly returned after the outburst, spontaneously protecting his son.
"Chieftain!"
The medical ninjas guarding outside rushed in upon hearing the commotion, only to be stunned by the sight before them—a one-month-old infant hovering in mid-air, its body enveloped in chakra. This chakra clearly did not belong to the clan leader, so... no matter how unbelievable it was, they had to admit that it belonged to the infant.
Tajima's killing intent had long been replaced by shock. This control over chakra, this explosive power at the critical moment—keep in mind, this was just a baby barely a month old!
If this talent existed in a healthy child, how extraordinary would that be? The Uchiha clan's strength would increase! Perhaps they could even easily suppress their arch-rival, the Senju.
What a pity, what a pity!
Yan Sheng landed back on the bed, his small chest heaving violently. The chakra outburst he had just unleashed was a double-edged sword; while it had forced Tajima back, it had also ruptured his own fragile internal organs. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips, leaving glaring red marks on his pale skin.
Damn it.
A rare hint of annoyance flashed in Yan Sheng's eyes. Three hundred years of fighting instincts were etched into his soul, and even reincarnation could not erase them. Just a moment ago, he had clearly accepted death, but his body had rebelled on its own.
Uchiha Tajima stared intently at Yan Sheng with his Sharingan eyes, which were filled with a complex mix of emotions, including shock and deliberation.
The medical ninja, finally regaining his senses, hurriedly stepped forward and channeled chakra into Yan Sheng's body, attempting to repair Yan Sheng's shattered internal organs.
Whether it would have any effect or not, Yan Sheng frowned as he was choked by the taste of blood rising to his throat. Just then, he suddenly noticed that the remaining chakra in his body was undergoing a strange change: the rampaging power had not completely dissipated, but was flowing along a certain trajectory, slowly repairing his damaged internal organs.
This is......?
For the first time, Yan Sheng truly felt this power unique to this world. Unlike the power of heaven and earth in breathing techniques, chakra was more like a torrent surging from the source of life, and even with his broken body, he could vaguely sense the possibilities it contained.
Tajima: "...From now on, you'll be in charge of keeping an eye on him and doing your best to keep him alive."
Yan Sheng barely managed to lift his eyes and look at the man who had tried to kill him just a second ago, who was now staring at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
His face was expressionless; he wanted to ask, "Are you sick?"
If you're going to take action, then take action. What does it mean to stop halfway through?
The taste of blood rose in his throat again, but this time Yan Sheng did not allow himself to pass out. He forced himself to stay conscious, tracking every flow of chakra within his body. This power was more subtle than he had imagined; each cycle brought about minute changes.
Yan Sheng suddenly had the urge to live. He wanted to see how far the power of this world could take him, and whether he could... reach the world seen through the eyes of the Son of God?
A note from the author:
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PS experienced eight near-death experiences, but didn't stop breathing each time.
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