Chapter 95: The Gift
If divine beings truly exist in this world, why would they turn a blind eye to human suffering?
The girl's desperate prayers ultimately went completely unanswered.
In the old woman's fading eyes—filled with profound despair and bitter resentment—a trace of lingering attachment to this mortal world remained visible.
But her greatest worry wasn't for herself—it was for her young granddaughter.
She was so small, so terribly frail. Having lost both her parents and now her last remaining relative, how would this child possibly survive the harsh winter ahead?
But the old woman had absolutely no strength left to give. Her purplish, cracked lips trembled weakly as she forced one final smile onto her blood-stained face: "My dear granddaughter... Grandma can't stay with you anymore. You absolutely must... live well from now on..."
With a soft, final sound—
The old woman's head slumped forward lifelessly.
"Grandma... Grandma!"
Terumi Mei could no longer suppress her overwhelming grief, collapsing completely onto the old woman's cold body while wailing with soul-deep anguish.
She watched helplessly as her most beloved grandmother—her last remaining family in this cruel world—breathed her final painful breath. It felt as though her young heart was being cut repeatedly by a dull, rusted knife.
But no matter how desperately she called out, there came no response whatsoever.
The extreme grief and unbearable pain of losing her last loved one crashed like a raging tsunami, violently battering against Mei Terumi's young and fragile heart with merciless force.
It felt as if countless invisible hands were dragging her down, inch by terrible inch, into an endless dark abyss of despair.
It is said that when a person's emotions experience catastrophic upheaval, the body will activate protective psychological mechanisms to prevent further mental damage.
At this devastating moment, Mei Terumi's eyes became completely unfocused and vacant—like an empty shell utterly devoid of any living soul.
But even this brief, merciful reprieve was brutally shattered.
The entire house was suddenly set ablaze from outside, and the intense flames swept inward instantly. The scorching heat dispelled the winter cold but simultaneously awakened the traumatized girl from her dissociative state.
BOOM!
The raging flames rapidly destroyed the house's wooden structure as burning support beams collapsed and fell with devastating force.
Perhaps it was fate itself, or perhaps divine protection, but her grandmother's departing soul had not yet traveled far—protecting her beloved granddaughter one final time even in death.
The collapsing beam—completely engulfed in hungry flames—struck the old woman's suspended body with tremendous force, causing her corpse to lurch forward. Her lifeless arms fell as if embracing Mei one last time, instinctively pulling the stunned girl away from danger and miraculously saving her from certain death.
Just a hair's breadth separated the beam from crushing her completely.
"Grandma..."
Mei Terumi sobbed with renewed intensity, tears streaming endlessly down her soot-covered face. Witnessing her grandmother's final protective act, she tried desperately to speak but could only choke on overwhelming emotion.
The demonic flames raged with merciless hunger, consuming everything around them without discrimination.
This place where she had lived her entire short life, the family she cherished above all else, the sanctuary called 'home'—everything was slowly turning to ash and memory.
Orange flames surrounded her completely as beams, planks, and support pillars continued collapsing in succession. Mei Terumi remained kneeling before her grandmother's body, her young eyes initially filled with confusion and unbearable pain—but those emotions gradually hardened into unwavering, adamant resolve. She clenched her small fists so tightly that her fingernails dug deep into her palms, drawing fresh blood.
Did it hurt?
If someone asked, Mei Terumi would undoubtedly answer: "No, it doesn't hurt at all."
Compared to the agonizing pain tearing through her heart, being burned and pierced by physical flames felt like absolutely nothing!
"Grandma, I will survive!"
Terumi Mei's large emerald eyes reflected the dancing flames of pure hatred. She bit her lip so hard it bled as she spoke with deliberate emphasis, word by forceful word: "I swear on everything... I will avenge you!"
She understood with crystal clarity that she absolutely had to survive—only by living could she ever hope for revenge!
"I will live!"
"I will definitely live!"
"No matter what happens, I absolutely must survive!"
Terumi Mei repeated these words to herself again and again like a desperate mantra. With her small, delicate hands, she forcefully pushed aside the burning wooden debris blocking her path.
SIZZLE!
The burning stakes instantly scorched her tender hands a painful, blistering red.
Even so, Terumi Mei demonstrated extraordinary resilience far beyond her young years. She refused to cry out in pain; instead, she endured the unbearable agony with gritted teeth, methodically moving aside every obstacle in her path while staggering step by agonizing step toward the exit barely visible through the shroud of flames.
CRASH!
She burst explosively through the inferno and smashed open the burning wooden door with her shoulder.
A small figure completely engulfed in hungry flames rolled desperately across the snow-covered ground, using the freezing snow to extinguish the fire consuming her clothes and flesh.
"I... made it out alive..."
Breathing in the frigid winter air with gasping desperation, Mei Terumi felt excruciating pain radiating from every part of her small body.
She had finally escaped the burning building, but the sections of tender flesh scorched by intense flames were charred black and raw—a level of pain even a fully grown adult male would find absolutely unbearable. Yet despite this torture, she bravely refrained from shedding even a single tear, using her bloodied hands to grip stones and debris as she slowly crawled and dragged herself toward the forest edge.
But then, a pair of standard black shinobi boots appeared directly in front of Mei Terumi's blurred vision.
STOMP!
The very next instant, those merciless ninja boots came down hard on her head with brutal force.
The carefully applied pressure was perfectly controlled—enough to inflict severe pain and total humiliation without immediately killing her outright. This level of precise cruelty demonstrated the extensive experience of a seasoned operative.
"Just as Lord Chōjūrō predicted accurately."
The Kirigakure Hunter-nin operative wearing an ornate patterned mask spoke with cold indifference, looking down with complete disdain at the struggling little girl trapped beneath his boot: "That old woman's grandchild wasn't present during the initial sweep, but would definitely return eventually."
"It was you... you're the one who killed my grandmother!"
Mei Terumi, drawing strength from some unknown desperate source deep within, forced herself to lift her head defiantly despite the crushing weight of the Hunter-nin's boot pressing down.
She finally saw it clearly: the murderer of her beloved grandmother wore a mask covered in distinctive patterns, and prominently displayed on the forehead protector was... the Kirigakure village symbol!
"Why... why did you kill her?!"
The girl's large, bright emerald green eyes blazed with profound hatred and righteous rage as she screamed her desperate question.
But the only response she received was an even more merciless, powerful stomp downward.
WHAM!
The girl's head slammed brutally into the frozen ground with bone-jarring force.
"You must be... that troublesome old woman's grandchild, correct?"
The Kirigakure Hunter-nin pressed down with slightly increased pressure, sinking the girl's head halfway into the packed snow. His eyes behind the mask gleamed with cold, calculating malice: "Answer honestly—have you recently seen a man wearing a black long-sleeved coat, with short black hair, and distinctive black-rimmed glasses?"
So that's the truth behind everything.
Mei Terumi's eyes dimmed with crushing realization as understanding finally dawned.
The ultimate culprit behind this entire nightmare tragedy... was herself.
If it weren't for her existence, if she had never met that kind ninja-nii-san that day, absolutely none of this horror would have occurred, and Grandma would still be alive.
"Judging from your subtle expression changes, it seems you genuinely do know something relevant?"
The girl's involuntary facial reactions naturally didn't escape the trained observation of the Hunter-nin operative. He immediately increased his crushing grip while shouting with sharp authority: "Tell me immediately—did you see this man or not?!"
"Why... why did you have to kill them all?!"
Hatred spread and festered like poison in her young heart; Terumi Mei felt an inferno of rage burning within her very core.
"Don't answer with irrelevant questions!" The Hunter-nin frowned with visible impatience, roughly grabbing the girl's hair and forcibly lifting her head upward. He stared directly at her with clear murderous intent, attempting to intimidate her into submission: "Answer my questions honestly and perhaps I can spare your miserable life. Understand?"
However, instead of fear, a pair of hate-filled eyes met the Hunter-nin's gaze directly.
The concentrated hatred and burning resentment accumulated in those striking emerald green eyes seemed genuinely capable of killing someone through sheer willpower alone—even momentarily startling the experienced operative.
"Damn insolent brat!"
The Hunter-nin suddenly realized he'd actually been frightened by a mere child, and his embarrassment immediately transformed into explosive rage.
Just as he prepared to teach this reckless brat a painful lesson, he noticed Mei Terumi's small mouth opening slightly as she exhaled a concentrated cloud of white mist directly at him.
HISSSSS!
The white mist proved extremely corrosive—in a single direct application, it rapidly melted through the Hunter-nin's protective mask.
The highly acidic vapor melted exposed skin on contact, and excruciating pain instantly assaulted his unprepared nervous system. Reacting purely on shocked instinct, the Hunter-nin immediately released the girl while stumbling backward.
"AHHHHH!"
The Hunter-nin hadn't remotely expected this little girl to suddenly expel such devastatingly corrosive acidic mist from her mouth.
Mei Terumi—though equally confused and bewildered about how she'd managed to produce that strange mist—reacted with survival instinct. Recognizing this absolutely wasn't the time to contemplate such mysteries, she immediately mustered every ounce of remaining strength and ran desperately toward the dense forest.
"Damn it, stop right there!"
Seeing his quarry escaping, the Hunter-nin immediately gave furious chase despite his injuries.
But Mei Terumi had only turned around one corner ahead, and by the time he caught up to that position, she had completely vanished.
In the relatively open clearing, there existed nowhere to hide effectively, yet he simply couldn't locate the little girl from moments before.
It was as if she had literally vanished into thin air!
"This is absolutely impossible!"
The Hunter-nin stared around with wide, disbelieving eyes behind his damaged mask.
What he didn't know was that just a short distance to his right rear—barely a few meters away—Mei Terumi stood frozen in nervous terror.
This bizarre, inexplicable phenomenon baffled both of them equally.
The Hunter-nin searched systematically everywhere within visual range, but somehow remained completely oblivious to Mei Terumi standing mere meters away in plain sight.
Initially, Mei Terumi assumed it was her traumatized imagination playing tricks, or perhaps the ninja was deliberately toying with her before the kill.
But as precious time passed, and watching her frustrated pursuer begin wreaking havoc in angry embarrassment at losing his prey, she realized with dawning shock that the Hunter-nin genuinely couldn't perceive her presence whatsoever.
"Could it possibly be...?"
A sudden thought flashed through Mei Terumi's racing mind as understanding began to form.
Immediately, she frantically rummaged through her burnt, tattered clothes and carefully extracted something precious.
It was the candy that kind ninja-nii-san had given her before departing, still wrapped in its distinctive layer of white paper.
She had assumed it would perish completely in the flames along with her clothing, but surprisingly, after being scorched by intense fire, only the actual candy inside had melted away—the white paper wrapping protecting it remained mysteriously, impossibly intact.
Carefully unwrapping the crumpled paper with trembling fingers, she discovered mysterious esoteric symbols covering the inside surface—strange markings she couldn't begin to decipher.
[End of Chapter 95]
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