"There are two trees growing outside my house. One of them is… wait, what was it again?"
Rasa honestly couldn't remember what kind of junk he'd buried outside his house. Most of the time, these weird scraps he picked up were said to have some mysterious use, so he figured—what the hell—and dumped them at his front door.
As for putting them inside? His whole home was practically a giant sandcastle. It didn't get much sunlight, and if he wanted water, he had to wait until he was desperate. Throwing trash into the house just didn't sit right with him.
So why bother thinking about it?
Just toss the junk outside and let the desert winds do the rest. If something popped up later, it was still at his doorstep—easy to find.
But now?
It sprouted? That's it?
Honestly, kind of disappointing.
He'd hoped that burying some fruit pits might trigger some weird game-like reward. Most in-game events worked that way these days. You collect materials, craft some dumb thing—like a rice dumpling—and boom, you either get gear, currency, or some other surprise item. If all it did was slightly reduce your hunger meter, people would riot!
So…
"Does it glow at night?"
Rasa furrowed his brow and asked the girl across the table. Karura had just poured him tea and taken a seat.
"Or… anything strange about it?"
"Not really?" Karura tilted her head, confused. "They're just two tiny saplings. Nothing weird about that."
She frowned in thought.
"Unless you count them looking kinda droopy if you don't water them?"
"…"
Rasa stared at her, deadpan.
How the hell was he supposed to respond to that?
One look at the playful glint in Karura's eyes told him she was teasing him. He sighed, chuckled, and shook his head.
But still—
"Wait a minute… growing trees in the desert shouldn't be that easy."
Sure, the survival rate for planting in sand was crap. He must've buried half a dozen seeds at least, and only two took root. But if it were this easy, fixing desertification wouldn't be such a global problem. In reality, growing trees required conditioning the soil, irrigation systems, and tons of labor.
And yet, these things just sprouted from casual burial?
Is this the so-called "mysterious effect" of that junk?
But what good is that?
Maybe in some normal world, it'd be a cool ecological breakthrough—but this was the Shinobi World. If you really wanted trees, why not just "collaborate" with Orochimaru and have him Edo Tensei the First Hokage? That guy could plant a forest in five seconds.
Do that ten or twenty times, and boom—lush paradise.
No need to play farmer.
Rasa rubbed his temples, sighed, and muttered, "Whatever. No point overthinking it."
They were already planted—what could he do now?
But just as he was letting it go—
"Right, right~ Makes sense~" Karura nodded brightly, then smiled mischievously. "Now, let's talk about that kunoichi named Kana~"
"…"
Nope.
Let's go back to talking about the trees instead.
Rasa sat upright with a stern face. Trees growing in the desert—that had to mean something. Maybe there was some hidden truth there. If they could replicate it…
"Hmm?"
Before he could say another word, Karura raised a curious eyebrow and gave a questioning hum.
Rasa immediately deflated.
He sighed and tilted his head back to gaze at the ceiling at a dramatic forty-five-degree angle, voice tinged with melancholy.
"I saw her that day… a girl…"
Before he could finish—
"Sis, I'm back! And Brother Rasa too! The whole village is talking about how you've already moved on to someone new—just because you rescued—"
The door swung open and Yashamaru's voice cut straight through the air.
This brother-in-law… can I kill him?
"…And that's how it happened."
Rasa sipped his tea, tone serious. "This is top-secret, got it? Class-A level. Do not spread this around."
Kana's special constitution couldn't be made public.
Especially not during wartime.
Even if she couldn't actually bring the dead back to life, people who'd lost loved ones would take one look at her—and rage. And Kana being an outsider wouldn't help either.
"Don't worry," Karura said, wiping her reddened eyes. "Yashamaru and I won't say a word."
Clearly, she'd been crying earlier. Her kind heart… honestly, it was probably a good thing she hadn't become a shinobi herself. If she had, who knows if Gaara would've ever been born?
Karura fell silent for a moment, then sighed.
"There are always so many refugees after every war. Who knows how many nations or shinobi villages will be wiped out this time?"
No shinobi village would casually take in wandering ninja. You never knew if your own people had killed their family or lovers. It could destabilize the entire village.
Which meant… for rogue ninja, the options were limited: test subject, expendable tool, or eternal exile.
Karura shook the thought away.
She was a shinobi of the Sand. No use fretting.
She looked over at Rasa, whose expression was worn, and then to Yashamaru—noticeably darker and more muscular than before.
The frontlines must've been brutal.
They probably didn't have a moment to rest, standing under the scorching sun day and night to protect the borders from invading forces.
Otherwise, how had her once-frail brother changed so drastically in such a short time?
His skin was darker, his build sturdier, his posture sharper—and he wasn't even wearing the headscarf he used to cling to for protection from the wind.
Yashamaru… has really grown up.
A proud smile formed on her lips as she turned to Rasa, who still looked deep in thought.
"Yeah, I figured~"
Yashamaru chimed in from the side. He wasn't sure why his sister had just smiled at him like a proud mother, but his thoughts went back to when he was watering those two saplings.
"Big brother Rasa, the whole village already knows you're back. Everyone's gathered outside your house, worshipping those two trees that sprouted from the sand!"
He frowned slightly.
"But… why would trees suddenly grow in front of your house, Brother? And what kind of trees are they anyway?"
But Rasa didn't answer. He simply frowned and looked at Karura, perplexed.
"Why are the villagers praying to some saplings outside my home?"
Like… had they never seen a tree before?
That couldn't be, right?