Chapter 82: Stranded on a Deserted Island

"Your body's already at its limit… You're the most persistent ninja I've ever faced!"

Terumi Mei was in just as bad a shape. She was barely holding on through sheer willpower. If not for that, she would've collapsed long ago. But she was a ninja of Kirigakure—there was no way she'd let herself lose to someone from Konoha.

"A real man endures to the end!"

Kiyosuke gathered the last of his chakra and said,

"Terumi Mei, you're strong. Even though you're still young, you're already capable of holding off a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Honestly, if you put this much energy into chasing after guys, you'd definitely never end up single!"

Mei gritted her teeth. "What makes you think I'll end up single?!"

She was beautiful! There was no way she'd stay single in the future!

This bastard kept making that same stupid joke. Enough was enough!

"Just a hunch! Trust a man's instincts, girl! Hahaha!"

"Asshole!"

Even with the refined upbringing of the Terumi clan, Mei couldn't stop herself from cursing. This man was already dead in her mind!

Kiyosuke lunged at Mei. A kunai spun between his fingers, gripped in reverse, and stabbed straight down.

Clang!

Mei blocked it and drove her blade upward. Kiyosuke left his guard wide open—she saw her chance, seized the opening, and kicked him away with full force.

He stumbled back several steps. One foot landed on the edge of a cliff, his body tilting backward, about to fall—until a snake shot out from his sleeve and latched onto Mei.

The sudden tug yanked Mei forward. She didn't have much strength left either, and the next moment, she crashed into Kiyosuke.

Both of them plunged off the cliff together.

Splash!

They hit the sea.

Glug glug glug…

...

Crackle!

The sound of firewood crackling reached his ears.

Kiyosuke stirred awake, shivering. His whole body felt ice-cold. He hurried to shake himself off.

He spotted firelight and immediately dragged himself closer. He sniffed the air and looked around—sand stretched in all directions. He was lying beneath a coconut tree. The sky was dim, and above the fire… was a roasting snake.

That snake… looked oddly familiar?!

"You're awake?"

A familiar voice called out. He turned his head and saw Terumi Mei emerging from the trees, pale and holding a bundle of firewood.

As soon as he saw her, Kiyosuke tried to stand—but his body was limp, and his chakra was too depleted to respond.

"You used more chakra than I did," Mei said, placing the firewood down beside the fire and sitting.

"Don't bother struggling. You've got barely any strength left."

"We're on a small island near the Land of Waves. Until we recover some chakra, there's no way off."

She hadn't expected this guy to drag her off a cliff like that. If they hadn't gotten lucky, they both would've died.

"Why'd we end up on an island anyway? Shouldn't we have drifted toward the Land of Waves?"

"It's rainy season there right now. The day we fell, a storm hit. The current swept us away from the main coast. If it weren't for me, you'd be dead already."

Truth be told, she hadn't meant to save him. The snake had wrapped them together, and she hadn't had the strength to break free. So she just drifted along. Luckily, she was born in the Land of Water and knew how to swim. Otherwise, they would've both been dead weight in the sea.

That snake had dragged them off the cliff—and as a bonus, saddled her with this useless freeloader. The moment she woke up, she built a fire and roasted the snake, partly out of hunger and partly out of spite.

"Thanks for saving my sorry ass, Lady Mei!"

"Hmph! Now you call me Lady Mei?"

She snorted with a haughty little smirk. Trapped on a deserted island, short on chakra—dealing with Kiyosuke would have to wait. First priority was figuring out how to get back to the Land of Waves.

They still had a war to fight, after all.

Kiyosuke shuffled closer to the fire, still cold. The smell of roasted snake was making his mouth water.

"Where'd you even get that snake?"

Mei glanced at him and said, "Yours."

"…" Kiyosuke was speechless.

Fine. Not worth arguing about.

The more he smelled it, the hungrier he got. He reached out, but Mei smacked his hand away without hesitation.

"Go find your own food, you freeloader!"

"That's my snake!"

"I saved your life."

"Go eat some coconuts, then."

He rummaged through his pouch and found a few shuriken—relieved, he used one to knock down some coconuts from a nearby tree.

They thudded onto the ground. He tossed one to Mei, pulled out a kunai from his leg strap, cracked it open, poked a hole, and drank the coconut water straight from the shell. Once he'd drained it, he broke the shell open and ate the meat inside.

One wasn't enough. He ate two more.

Burp~

Tossing the empty shells aside, he finally felt some energy returning. With chakra flowing again, he dried his soaked clothes using Fire Release, steaming them until the moisture evaporated—leaving behind a crust of white sea salt.

"Ugh, gross. Give me a hand—hit me with a Water Release or something."

Mei shot him a look and sighed. "You're such a pain."

She pointed into the woods.

"There's a freshwater stream in there. Go wash your clothes downstream yourself."

"Thanks."

Kiyosuke disappeared into the trees. Not long after, he came back looking refreshed. His clothes were still dirty, but at least they were dry and clean-smelling.

He found Mei lying beside the fire, completely unguarded, beads of sweat on her forehead—probably from the heat.

She was braver than he thought. Letting her guard down like this, even with a potential enemy nearby.

"Good thing it's me. Anyone else would've killed you already."

He had no grudge against Mei, and he wasn't the type to kill someone who'd saved his life. That alone was reason enough to let her be.

Yawning, he lay down by the fire himself.

...

The night passed without incident.

As the first light of dawn crept over the island, Kiyosuke woke up. The fire had long since gone out. He sat up and looked over to find Mei curled into a ball beside him, pale and gasping for breath. Her body trembled with fever.

"It's not even that cold…"

The temperature was somewhere in the teens—nothing unbearable. What was going on with her?

He placed a hand on her forehead. She was burning up.

"Seriously? You're a ninja and you've got a constitution this weak?"

He didn't have any medicine on him.

"Alright… consider this me returning the favor."

He checked his chakra—after a night of rest, he'd recovered a decent amount. He quickly formed a shadow clone.

"I'm going to search the forest for herbs. You take care of her. She saved our lives—even if she's part of the reason we ended up on this island."

The clone nodded. "Leave it to me. You don't trust yourself?"

"Of course I do. I'm the best there is!"

The two of them slapped palms, and the real Kiyosuke grabbed a kunai and disappeared into the forest.

The shadow clone looked at the feverish Mei and said with a grin,

"What can I say… You saved me. There aren't many good guys like me left in the world. You're lucky, you know?"

(T/N: I strongly recommend you to read my new fanfic "Starting From Being Adopted by the Second Hokage!"

Quite an interesting fanfic. What really caught my attention is that the protagonist becomes stronger through a gradual process — this is not a brainless power fantasy. It's the first time I've seen something like this, and I have to say, I'm satisfied.

The main character has a pretty unique background, he's an Uchiha who was adopted by Tobirama (which is already unusual) thanks to Hashirama. As you might've guessed, the story takes place in the early timeline of the Naruto world. He's in the same generation as Hiruzen, which is another plus.

The MC is talented and works hard, but his efforts only make him slightly stronger than Hiruzen (at least for the first 100 chapters). He also has a well-developed personality, he's not a madman, but he is ruthless toward his enemies. One particularly interesting aspect is that he uses poison, a very underrated element in the Naruto world. We know from canon that poison can be deadly even to powerful shinobi, yet it's mostly associated with Sunagakure and usually used against genin or chunin.

The only downside is that the fanfic gives more attention to cooking than necessary (the MC is apparently very impressive at it, and everyone praises his cooking). It's manageable for me, but still a bit much. There's even a whole chapter about it at the beginning. For readers who aren't into that, I noted at the top that the chapter focuses on cooking and can be skipped. Thankfully, after that, the fanfic doesn't dwell on it this much.)

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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