Night had fallen, and the snow in the sky was growing heavier. Around the camp, the flakes had begun to accumulate.
Hane Genma added fresh firewood to the campfire. As the wood crackled and flared, he watched the flames regain their vigor before returning to his seat.
The flickering firelight danced in and out of shadow, occasionally illuminating one side of his face.
From the forest came the occasional sharp chirp of birds—signals from the night watch shinobi, indicating that all was well.
Genma was deep in thought.
From his recent conversation with Uchiha Nanami, he noticed something strange. Despite looking the same age as Tobirama Senju, who had been pursuing her, her speech carried an oddly ancient tone, like someone far older.
To awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan at that age... In a way, her talent might even rival Uchiha Madara's—well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration.
Considering the tragic requirements to awaken the Mangekyō, her childhood must've been even crueler than Madara's.
At the very least, several beloved friends or siblings had to die—enough trauma to severely jolt the brain and trigger the evolution.
Taking into account the space-time fluctuations that occurred when she appeared, the dried blood at the corners of her eyes, the fresh injuries she'd sustained before passing out, her confusion over the current date upon waking, and her occasional slips in speech... Genma had formed a hypothesis about the nature of her Mangekyō ability.
It was likely a form of time-jumping.
She might have used her Mangekyō Sharingan to leap from the moment she was being hunted by Tobirama to several months in the future in an instant.
If that was true, then her eyes were undeniably powerful.
However, based on her reactions, she didn't seem adept at using the Mangekyō Sharingan. That suggested she couldn't control the jumps well—neither initiating them at will nor precisely choosing when to land.
The coordinates she jumped to might land her months ahead... or years, even decades. So when she heard that Tobirama had only been chasing her a few months ago, she breathed a sigh of relief.
As for her claim that the eyes were only good for running away—it was obvious she hadn't fully explored their potential yet.
An ability that could traverse both past and future shouldn't be confined to mere escape. That was far too narrow a perspective... There was potential for miracles in a power like that.
But what kind of miracle?
That wasn't a question Genma could answer.
In truth, all of this was just his speculation, drawn from scattered clues. What if Uchiha Nanami's Mangekyō Sharingan didn't work that way at all?
Hard to say. For now, it was impossible to know for sure.
. . .
The next morning.
After a full night's rest, Uchiha Nanami had regained some mobility—at least enough that she no longer needed a stretcher.
"Looks like you've recovered a bit. What's your plan now? We're heading west," Genma asked her.
More precisely, northwest.
When he woke up, the temperature had dropped sharply. Every breath he took came out in white puffs.
Due to limited intel and the fact that he'd operated at the bottom rungs of the shinobi world until now, Genma didn't know much about the distribution of power across the land. But one thing he was sure of—he needed to stay far away from the region that would later become the heart of the Land of Fire.
They weren't short on food for the time being, but they desperately needed warmer clothing.
Nanami thought for a moment, then asked, a little awkwardly,
"Would it be alright if I travel with you for now?"
In her current condition, traveling alone wasn't a good idea. And beyond that, she was genuinely curious about this group of wandering shinobi.
A bunch of rogue ninja from various clans, all banded together and united in their trust for a single leader? In the current shinobi world, that sounded like something out of a fantasy.
Wandering shinobi banding together wasn't unheard of, but such groups were usually plagued by mistrust and ulterior motives. It rarely took long for them to scatter or turn on one another. "Trust" was a luxury—something that barely existed outside the confines of a single bloodline or clan.
To Nanami, this odd group likely had something special about them. She wanted to understand what it was... though perhaps she was overthinking it.
Still, her curiosity showed that Genma's orders were being followed to the letter. His people had disguised themselves well. On the surface, "Hane Genma" was just a leader of a loose collective with diverse origins.
"Of course," Genma replied smoothly. "We're a band of wandering shinobi trying to survive together. We welcome newcomers—even temporary ones. Traveling all the way together might be too much to expect, but joining us for a while is no problem at all."
He lied through his teeth with a straight face.
"Then I'll be in your care for now," Nanami said, a thoughtful expression crossing her face.
"No worries," Genma smiled. "Truth be told, we're pretty lost about what lies ahead. Thankfully, there will always be someone out there in need of a shinobi."
Given their current lack of strength, Genma had no choice but to play by the shinobi world's rules—looking for someone who could hire them. Unless absolutely necessary, he wouldn't resort to "fundraising" from non-shinobi powers.
As for raiding other shinobi factions—that was another story. So long as he could win the fight, it didn't matter. That was simply how this world worked.
It was a sad truth. Believe it or not, Genma and his people had left their peaceful, pastoral life behind… just to go job hunting.
And so Uchiha Nanami became a temporary companion, traveling with them westward while she recovered.
Their movements were extremely cautious. Genma wasn't eager to clash with other shinobi groups, and at times, they only traveled from midnight until dawn to avoid entanglements.
Still, in an era where shinobi were everywhere, no matter how careful Genma was, sooner or later, they were bound to run into others.
Normally, shinobi groups on the move would send scouts ahead and behind—preferably sensory-type ninja.
But Genma's group didn't have any sensory shinobi. They had no choice but to stick together.
Without sensory support, even if Genma tried to establish a perimeter, the moment they encountered an enemy, he doubted his lookouts could send a warning in time.
Most likely, the forward scouts would be the first to get wiped out.
Without a sensory unit, the battlefield was effectively transparent to the enemy. Genma's team was constantly surrounded by the fog of war.
Under such circumstances, it was safer to move as a tight unit.
After five days of cautious travel, they finally bumped into another shinobi force head-on.
Unluckily, the other group outnumbered them.
Luckily... those enemies were in even worse shape than they were.
When the two sides stumbled into each other, the enemy group was more panicked than Genma's.
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