Chapter – 40: A Beautiful Dream

[Yamanaka Ryoko POV]

My name is Yamanaka Ryoko and I became a chunin of Konohagakure two years ago. I just came back from a mission outside the village, from the Land of Noodles to be exact, two days ago and currently, I am enjoying a rare break from missions.

'Tensions between the villages are surely on the rise,' I mumble, 'It's already showing its effect here inside the village too! Even chunins like us are always on some missions these days.'

As a sensor ninja and that too as a Yamanaka, I could slightly interpret the state of mind of someone without even going into their heads. And currently, I don't even need to be proficient in the art to read the faces of these people. The anxiousness about what is to come is written all over their faces.

'Why do we fight so much? why can't people just enjoy the warmth of their homes and stay there? such a drag,' I sigh, 'Mmm, why am I sounding like Shinji?'

Nara Shinji is my good friend and teammate along with Akimichi Toshiro going along with the long tradition of "Ino-Shika-Cho."

I am currently on my way to Akimichi Chow to enjoy some barbeque. I was on my way when I spot a two-year-old kid sitting next to the trash, crying.

I sigh uncomfortably at the cruelty of the world and walk towards the child to see if I could help.

"Hi, kid! are you lost?" I ask.

The child stops crying for a moment and looks at me wearily.

"You don't have to look at me like that, I am Yamanaka Ryoko and I am a Konoha shinobi. And don't worry I won't hurt you," I say with a smile making the kid calm down a little.

Seeing him nod, I continue, "Okay, now tell me, what's your name? and how did you end up here?"

The kid just shakes his head and says, "Koji"

Just when I was about to continue asking, I hear his stomach grumble loudly making the kid lower his head embarrassedly.

"It's fine," I smile and take out an apple I had in my storage seal and hand it over to the kid while thinking, 'I am lucky to be born as a Yamanaka. If not for the clan, an orphan like me might have ended up like this kid too!'

I was handing over the apple to him when I feel a prick in my outstretched arm, like getting an injection. I look over to only see a creepy smile on the kid's face. That's when I knew I screwed up, just because I am inside the village I didn't keep my vigilance. In just a few seconds, everything turned dark I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, it was already evening. I was thrown next to the trash bin with all my items stolen. 'Thankfully he didn't take my clothes,' I sigh in relief, 'Just you wait kid, next time I see you, I will make sure you regret it!'

Losing the mood to enjoy barbeque, I turn and head back home.

Two days later I get a summon from my Jonin sensei for an emergency mission. After me, Shinji, and Toshiro all assemble, our Jonin sensei, Yasumi Kanjiro goes over the mission details.

Surprisingly, it's an A-Rank mission. Usually, these kinds of missions are never given to a team like ours with only three chunins and one jonin. Our mission was to deliver some top-secret orders from Hokage-sama himself to an outpost at the southwestern border of Land of Fire next to the Land of Wind.

As usual, Shinji thinks for some time and comes up with a plan of action. We would take the lesser-known routes and as we travel we would keep in mind to stay far away from any settlements or towns and leave as little trail as possible.

It all went according to plan till we traveled some distance to the south of Tanigakure where we were attacked by a group of masked shinobis. The attackers were way too powerful for us to handle. They had five Jonins and a group of chunins.

Knowing that the resistance was futile and that if we didn't escape we would all die, Kanjiro-sensei ordered us to escape separately while he distracts the opponents. All three of us were heartbroken and filled with tears but we couldn't let our sensei's sacrifice go to waste. So, we all tried to escape to the best of our abilities but alas, I couldn't outrun them.

I fought an unending battle alone with the three chunins who were after me. After sustaining what appeared to be fatal injuries, I managed to kill two of them and badly wound the third scaring him off. As I lay on the ground bloodied, I start to think of my friends, clan members, sensei who sacrificed his life for us and tears start to drop from my eyes.

'I am sorry sensei, I couldn't escape… I just hope my friends succeeded…' I think and close my eyes as all the pain starts to fade away.

When I get some sense of feeling again, it hurts! it hurts really bad! I try to open my eyes but they seem too heavy to budge. Enduring great difficulty, when I forcefully pull them apart, the view of a crudely built cottage room fills my eyes. I look around but don't find anything interesting there.

Sensing someone entering the room, I quickly close my eyes again and start using my sensor techniques to observe. A lady probably a year or two younger than me comes in and starts to remove the old bandages and cleaning up my wounds.

"Ouch," even with my fortitude and training, a small groan escapes my mouth.

"Ahhhhhhh" the young lady gets scared by me suddenly making noise and yelps while jumping away from me. Realizing that I should be in pain, she quickly apologizes and continues to treat my injuries, "Sorry! I didn't realize you were awake. But it's your fault for scaring me!"

"Ya, sorry," I say through gritted teeth.

"Okay, done!" she says backing away from me and starts to leave, "Your wounds have only started to get better, you should get some rest."

"I am Yamanaka Ryoko, who are you?" I introduce myself after confirming that she wasn't an enemy and had no malicious intentions towards me.

"Uozumi Yoriko"

After that day, she would come daily and take care of me from treating my injuries to making food. I also learned how she found me covered in blood and brought me home and nursed me. I, who never actually had anyone to call family started to feel a sense of being cared for that I never knew before. As time passed, she gradually became someone I never want to be away from. Every time I start to think about going back to the village after getting better, a sense of dread that I will never be able to see her again would drown me. Soon it became unbearable for me and I realized I had long since started to like her. Therefore, one fine day, I told her everything about myself, my village, my clan, and finally how I felt about her.

After pouring my heart out to her, unable to look her in the eye, I started looking at my feet instead and wait for her reply. My heart was beating crazily with half anticipation and half dread.

A few seconds later, when I didn't receive her response, I got dejected and was about to turn around and leave when I suddenly felt someone hugging me. 'She likes me too!' I was so overjoyed that I even forgot to hug her back. Only after I felt the dampness on my chest because of her crying, I came back and responded kindly.

The next few months were the best days of my life. I wished I could forever stay like this, with her. However, all good things must one day come to an end. The day came when I completely recovered and had to return to Konoha and know what happened to my friends on that dreadful day, were they able to survive? I was getting ready to tell Yoriko and ask her to come with me, but fate seemed to have made other plans for me, Yoriko was pregnant!

Thinking about our unborn child and then about the war-torn village, just the thought that my child could be in danger was enough to stop my beating heart. Therefore, I decided to leave; leave without even telling her because if I see her face again, I will definitely falter.

That night, I copied down everything I could remember from what is taught at the academy to Yamanaka hidden jutsus into scrolls and left them to Yoriko along with a letter explaining the situation back at Konoha and the ongoing war and how our child will be in danger if I took them with me. Finally, telling her to let our child train once he or she is two or three in the techniques of my clan if I am not back by then.

While returning back to Konoha, I decided to visit the place where my sensei sacrificed himself to save us and offer my respects.

'It seems like I exhausted all my luck for this life,' I think depressedly looking at the masked men who had already surrounded me.

After a few minutes, looking at the blade impaling my chest, 'So it ends where it started, ha? Thank god I didn't bring Yoriko here!' were my final thoughts before everything goes black.

"YORIKO!" I scream as I wake up and see an unfamiliar place with a disgusting smell. I look around only to find myself being thrown next to a trash bin.

"Isn't this…" the sudden change is too hard for my mind to process and I take several minutes to sort out the mess of memories, "So, all of that was just a dream? but it felt too real to be a dream… I can even remember everything that happened …"

I check my pockets, and indeed I have been robbed! This time I did not go home like in the dream but went to meet my friends and sensei. After what happened in the dream, I am dying to see them again.

** a few hours ago **

[Rei POV]

I had prepared two important items for this operation. One is obviously a reagent strong enough to knock someone out for six hours and the other is actually a kind of soothing perfume that messes up the sensors' concentration and lowers their vigilance.

After knocking out the Yamanaka chunin, I immediately pull him into the Origin space and throw out a clone that is disguised as him next to the trash bin just in case someone comes in searching for Ryoko.

It took three full hours to create a virtual environment and drag Ryoko's consciousness into it. Once he is in, it was just about creating a beautiful story and wait for him to spill out his secrets.

'It would have been so much better if I could just read memories directly, but I don't have the Yamanaka skillset, not yet at least. But after this operation, I should have some means…'

'He did write down everything he knew for his child! I believed I had to wait for his child to grow up and for him to teach his child, it went far better than I thought. Also, what a harvest!'

After getting what I wanted, I rob him just to throw off anyone who tries to investigate and place him next to the trash just like in the dream and leave.