I was shocked by the scene in front of me, the village is being invaded by ninjas from Konohagakure who are looting the houses and killing the civilians. It was a horrible, chilling scene. In front of me the body of what appears to be a beggar fell dead to the ground, I think it was he who knocked on my door asking for help.

Realizing how serious the situation is, I decided that I should leave my house and run soon if I want to survive, I put all my belongings in the item box, put on my black cape, and ran out of the house. In the middle of the run I was hiding from the ninjas that were in the middle of the streets, while using the alleys.

They don't seem to be a big group or with very strong ninjas, but I am still too weak for any of them. I don't know if they couldn't detect me because my chakra wasn't very high or if they were simply ignoring me because I was a child and was even weaker than a genin. But I still kept running between the alleys while hoping not to bump into any ninja head on.

Passing between the alleys I noticed that there were some civilians' belongings lying on the ground, I was in the middle of a scene of carnage and didn't know what would happen from here, so I didn't hesitate too much and picked the things up from the ground while storing them in my item box. The belongings were only a few coins and food thrown on the floor, but it could still be of some use in the future. So, I opened my box of items and picked up all of them wherever I went.

In the middle of the rush I tripped over something. I wasn't sure what happened, but by the time I realized I was already on the ground, so I decided to look where I hit and I found someone lying on the ground covered by a black raincoat with a similar height to mine, probably another orphan child in the middle of this war.

Since I was in the same situation as her, and probably had enough supplies to last two people a few days, I sympathized with her and decided to help this child get up so that we could escape together, since we are in similar situations and should help each other. I approached her and tried to help her up.

"Hey, are you okay?"

When I saw the child's condition I was surprised. She was malnourished and apparently without much strength to run, I even considered abandoning her, but changed my mind immediately after seeing her face. But what surprised me the most was her face.

She had short, straight blue hair, amber colored eyes with a lavender eye shadow. her eyelashes are in the shape of a diagonal line in the lower corner of her eyes and even though thin her face is beautiful.

It's Konan...

She was one of the characters where the death was an injustice done just to try to enrich the cast. Honestly, the way she ended up was a waste of a character for the story.

But honestly, she is one of my best waifus in naruto history and I'm not going to miss this chance to help her and change her future now.

Also, I'll get a possible reliable ally since in the anime and manga Konan was even willing to become an S-rank assassin to fulfill Nagato and Yahiko's ambitions. Remaining loyal to them even after their deaths.

In this timeline the more strong and reliable allies you have, the better you are at surviving.

When our eyes met, I gave her a gentle smile and asked "can you walk?" without much reluctance, she shook her head to the side.

Seeing that we didn't have much more time, I decided to act fast "so hold on to me, all right?" after a few seconds of hesitation, she nodded.

I paid her back with a princess lap and then supported her on my back while her arms were wrapped around my neck "hang on because I'm going to run a little fast".

When she nodded, I took off at full speed running away from the ninjas and the small village where I lived, I guess they just didn't see us as a threat and let us run away.

Possibly these konoha ninjas want to use my old village as their base of operations since there is a forest nearby. Which makes the environment more favorable for them should a fight occur.

Running away with Konan on my back, we made it out of the village and were getting further and further away. Since my stamina and strength were equal to that of an ordinary adult (civilian) then it wasn't much trouble carrying a child. Even more so one who was very thin in Konan's condition.

After more than an hour of running to get as far away as possible. I determined that we were far enough away from the danger of the konoha ninja.

Slowing down a bit as I checked the surroundings, I noticed that Konan's breathing was getting weaker and weaker as her head rested on my shoulder while her body felt warm.

Desperate, I tried my best to find a place to shelter us and by great luck I managed to find a somewhat hidden cave in the middle of a chain of rocks.

[High level genjutsu detected, due to the seriousness of the situation the Lv 5 auxiliary system was activated].

'Genjutsu? In the middle of nowhere? And on top of that a high level genjutsu?' Desperate to be able to help Konan, I decided to ignore those questions for now and hurried and ran to that location. Arriving in front of the cave, it didn't take me long to enter and take shelter inside in the hope of making Konan recover.

Once inside the cave, I put Konan down and started to check inside to see if there was anyone here, but apparently there was no one near the entrance since it was a visually deep cave.

Finishing the check, I went over to Konan and pulled off her cloak to see what injuries she had. After removing her cloak and placing it on a nearby rock, I went to check on her body.

"can you show me your wounds?"

She nodded and showed a cut on her right leg. It wasn't deep, but it wasn't just a scratch either. The wound was close to becoming infected and I could feel Konan's body getting hotter and hotter. She also had some bruises on her arms, in the torso area, and one on her left leg. I won't ask how she got these injuries, but she must have suffered more than she did in the original.

Fortunately, the ninja I killed earlier in the second chapter had a first aid kit with him. So, I pulled the kit from my item box, surprising Konan who had no idea where I got it from.

"this is a first aid kit, I'm going to use it to treat you, all right?" 

"Y-Yes"

Her voice was more beautiful than the one in the anime, although it was a little raspy, it is still one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. But I stopped thinking about that for now and devoted myself to tending to her bruises and hematomas.

"you're a little warm, are you feeling feverish?"

"uhum" she nodded in confirmation.

At the same moment I took off my raincoat and turned it inside out to the part where it wasn't wet. I then laid it on the ground to form a sort of blanket on the ground for her to lie on.

"sit here and rest while I disinfect the wound"

But before I tended to her wound, I took 10 slices of beef jerky and the bowl of water from my box of items and handed it to her. "eat up, I'm sure you're starving" I said ignoring the surprised expression she had on her face when she saw me take something out of the black hole.

She was a little suspicious of me before, but when she saw the food, I gave her eyes lit up and she immediately ate it. Seeing the haste with which she was eating, I realized how hungry she was.

"Eat slowly, the food won't come out of your hand" I spoke while keeping a gentle smile on my face.

A little embarrassed to notice the way she was eating, a slight pink blush appeared on her cheeks. And then she said "T-Thank you" and went back to eating.

After disinfecting her wounds, I bandaged her with gases. To make sure that she stayed warm, I took some twigs that I had collected in the forest and stored in my box of items. The branches were not completely dry, but after a few moments and a great deal of effort I managed to get them to catch fire.

With the lit fire warming up and illuminating the interior, Konan lay down on top of the cover while having a cloth with alcohol on her forehead to decrease her temperature.

"Why?" she asked me

"Why what?" I answered

"why did you help me and are you helping me?" she asked with an inexpressive face that she had since I rescued her

"I'm not sure"

"don't you know?"

"I'm not going to lie to you, I'm not sure why I saved you. I think it was just out of pure sympathy since we are in similar situations," I answered her with a gentle smile.

"Similar?" she replied, perhaps because I wasn't as bad as she was.

"Yes, I lost my parents to a ninja from Iwagakure and was left surviving only on what was left for me until today" I made a sad expression on my face so as not to let her suspect that it is a lie, even though it is not one.

"I'm sorry" she said with a slightly sad expression on her face.

"No problem, I should say that since you probably suffered more than me because of this stupid war" I said keeping a gentle expression on my face to make her more comfortable.

"Yes, my clan was killed by konoha ninjas and I had to flee to avoid suffering the same fate. Because of that I started living on the streets while trying to find food to survive..." she looked thoughtful for a moment but then continued "these injuries I have were from a fight with other kids to get food from a dumpster" she finished speaking with a pained expression on her face.

At that very moment I approached her and patted her on the head while saying "everything's going to be fine, let's help each other from now on" while giving her a warm smile.

After I said this, her eyes threatened to tear up while her face had a bittersweet expression. That made it look like she was angry, even if she was cuter.

For a moment I thought I had overreacted by patting her on the head, but...

What happened next surprised me. She suddenly threw herself on top of me and wrapped her head around my chest while crying loudly. Still in shock at this unexpected action I had no idea what to do in this situation, so I did what my instincts told me to do. I let her hold me while I smoothed her hair back so that she would relax.

After a few minutes of crying, Konan finally fell asleep in my arms. She must have cried and put out all the suffering she had kept to herself all this time.

Her face was mostly so inexpressive that I almost forgot that she is a child almost the same age as mine in this world. Carrying her in a princess lap, I laid her down on top of the comfortable cover because of the fluffy earth underneath.

Soon afterwards I decided to intensify my training. I will hold my breath for as long as I can while training to manipulate my chakra at the same time.

 ----------------------------// ----------------------------

It has only been a few hours since we arrived in this cave. At this point I think I am close to reaching 100% basic breathing. I have had no difficulty maintaining this technique during all this time in the cave.

I think my body has adapted so much that I can maintain it constantly without much effort. Right now, my chakra is at low levels because I kept training by trying to walk on the cave walls.

Konan hasn't woken up yet due to the accumulated stress she had, but her fever has already subsided and she seems to be sleeping with a cheerful expression, as she has one side of her lips raised slightly.

Seizing the moment, I went to try to take a look inside the cave. I was curious because of the previous notification. 'Why would a cave in the middle of nowhere have a high level genjutsu?' I was curious because of that and wanted to check inside to see if there was anything. But when I stood up, a hand touched my feet. It was Konan's hand that had been holding me while I was still asleep.

I hadn't thought about it until then, but I can't imagine how sad she would be if she woke up and didn't see me anywhere in the cave entrance.

Seeing how cute she looked in her sleep, I decided not to wake her up and to stay with her.

It was at this moment that a notification appeared in front of me.

[Basic Breath has successfully reached the {dominated} mastery level]

[Acquired {first step} achievement]

[Acquired 1 reward for mastering {basic breathing} wish to apply it]

[Acquired 1 reward for the achievement {first step} wish to apply it?]

An ear-to-ear smile appeared on my face. Now I just have to check my reward and wait for Konan to wake up so I can search this cave. But suddenly something alarmed my curiosity even more.

[an essential item for Mr. Hiro is found in this cave]