One month after Shin's birth

POV Yumi

It was a sunny day in Konoha. Despite the intense war going on in Amegakure, life in Konoha was going on as normal for civilians.

Yumi was cleaning the house again, trying to avoid nerves while waiting for Byu. Today she should go home. At last the three of us would be together again. We could have our family reunited.

"Yumi, I'm home," I heard Byu say from the entrance.

I ran to greet him. "Welcome home," I said, forgetting that I still had a rag in my hand.

I hugged him and kissed him. I was so happy he was back. The number of ninja killed in the war was higher than in the previous one. I know that, despite being a Genin, Byu is capable of facing almost any Chunin, but in a war, nothing is assured.

When I separated from him, I noticed the bandage on his leg.

"Are you injured?" I asked as I immediately used the -Jutsu: Mystic Palm- to assess his condition.

"I'm fine, it's just a muscle injury. I couldn't take care of it in time, so it needs more time to heal. I can move well, it's more of a precaution," I heard him say, but it's not the first time he downplays his injuries.

I don't understand why she does this, knowing that I can check her condition in seconds. Verifying that it wasn't serious made me feel more relieved.

"You didn't mention any of this in the letters," I said, crossing my arms. We're both ninjas, he had no reason to hide these things from me.

"I know, I just didn't want to worry you anymore. If it wasn't for them sending us back early, I'd be cured by now. And you saw that it's nothing serious." He tried to hug me, but I kept my arms crossed.

"Besides, you weren't clear about the delivery either. You were serious, I didn't want to worry you anymore Yumi."

"How did you know?" But it didn't take me long to guess.

"Dad," I said, annoyed.

"I'm starting to miss when you two didn't get along." I gave up and hugged him again.

"It’s strange you say that, after all the effort you did to make us get along better," he told me with a smile.

"Uhm," I turned my face away. Sometimes, He didn't know when to leave things alone.

"But it's true that I wasn't entirely honest, Yumi. The last mission was worse than I told you. Before we talk about that, though, I want to see our son."

"You wait longer than I thought to ask for him. He's still asleep, come with me." We went to the crib that was in the living room; I placed it there when I cleaned.

Byu stared at him with a huge smile. "It's so beautiful," he whispered.

I hugged his arm. "Yes, he has your father's eyes." I could see Byu smile crack a little. This war not only took away most of his clan members, but also his father.

Shin is a glimmer of happiness among so much tragedy for Byu.

"That will help him with girls. My father had many women attracted to his eyes."

I punched him in the arm. "Our son isn't even a year old and you're already thinking about a partner."

"I'm just stating the obvious, you have to be prepared. Shin will have a lot of suitors." Byu laughed, but I think he realized I wasn't amused and shut up.

"At least he didn't inherit the talkativeness from you. He's a very quiet baby, only cries when he wants to eat or for a change," I said, trying to divert the conversation to something more pleasant about our baby.

Byu laughed, "Our son is perfect, he's very empathetic, and he sure will let us sleep at night."

I wanted to retort, but it was true that Shin rarely woke me up, and when he did, it was only once a night.

At that moment, Shin began to wake up. "He must be hungry. Hold him for a while before I feed him," I said as I picked him up for Byu to carry him.

"Really, how should I? Are you sure I won't hurt him? I can carry it later, if you prefer," he said nervously.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I don't know what men have with getting nervous about carrying a baby. "Honey, you're able to control your strength to the smallest detail when you fight or use shuriken. You won't hurt Shin."

Byu took it, and Shin looked at him before smiling at him. I could see the joy on his face as Byu spoke to him. I tried to memorize that moment in my mind.

Too bad Byu ruined the moment by telling Shin that he would be a heartbreaker. I took the baby away from him and said, "He must be hungry, and stop saying those things to Shin."

Again, Byu just scratched his head, saying he was joking.

By the time I finished feeding Shin, it was late. We decided to have dinner before talking about serious matters. We just chatted about everyday things, I explained how things were in the village and our friends.

Byu insisted on doing the dishes, so I left him and went to see Shin again. He's so beautiful, my heart was shuddering just to see him.

I didn't notice the time until Byu hugged me from behind. After a few minutes, he told me we should talk.

In the dining room, we sat down to talk. Byu began by relating what happened the day Shin was born, how two Jounin died and only 5 people survived out of 30. In itself, it's a miracle that he and Sora made it out alive.

I couldn't help but think about what would have happened if I had lost Byu on the same day Shin was born, or worse, if Shin had lost both of his parents that day, leaving him alone with my father and his uncle. But those thoughts didn't last long. No use thinking about what could have happened. We're both here with Shin, and that's all that matters.

"Don't worry, it was just bad luck, to have two missions go wrong. At least it served me well to be Genin. If I were Chunin, I might have had worse missions, or I would have faced Hanzo," he told me, trying to joke.

"Speaking of which, regarding your promotion to Chunin..." I didn't know how to approach the topic. I know it's something that affected him a lot; his biggest illusion was to be promoted after the disaster in the last Chunin exams.

"Well, there are details about that too that I couldn't tell you in the letters," he said, sighing.

"After most of the Chunin were killed, there were five of us left hiding in enemy territory..."

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6 Months ago

POV Byu

Amegakure, 7 km from an enemy supply station

We stopped running. There were only five of the initial fifteen of us left. We saw about 30 ninja, a far cry from the 5 to 8 mentioned in the mission report. We thought they would all be Genin, given their high numbers. The Chunin stayed behind fighting and ordered me and three others to plant bombs at the Amegakure supply post.

Only a few seconds of combat passed, and a massacre happened immediately. They killed the Chunin of the Hyuga clan, the strongest among us, Jounin candidates. It was then that we realized that there were many enemy Chunin.

Chaos ensued. -Explosive seals- began to rain down. Surely from our side, a common tactic when the enemy is more numerous. If I hadn't gone straight for the target when the order was given, I would have been caught in the middle of it all. I used almost every smoke bomb I had to cover my exit. Had it not been for that and the constant explosions, we would have been pinned down as well.

"Stop," I said.

"We have to treat Keiji is still losing blood" his wounds were many, especially one in his legs looked serious, and the one above his shoulder was bleeding heavily despite the quick bandage we put on him, he was surely dodging a deadly blow when he got that injury.

Keiji was one of the few ones that I knew from the group, he's from the Aburame clan, pretty honest man, we had a few missions together before the war, also the only surviving Chunin out of the 5.

We stopped at the place where there was a combat between users of the earth release and fire, because of the scorched earth and the rocks and parts of the ground raised on the surface.

I saw a large rock and said, "You," pointing to a shaven Genin who had been with me in other battles weeks before. I knew he was a Doton (earth release) user, and a pretty good one at that.

"I need you to create a cave for the three of us. The entrance should be small, but with enough room for the three of us to lie down." Then, I pointed to a part of the large, broken earth floor protruding to the right of the rock.

"Make another cave for you and the others there, of course, if you don't know the jutsu -Earth Release Rock Shelter-", I said, doubting that he had it, since it is a somewhat specific jutsu.

"I am Taro. I don't know that jutsu and I don't have enough chakra to move and hide the earth in two shelters, I could barely make one," he replied, waiting for me to decide where to do it.

I gave Nara some bandages and asked him to treat the wounds on Keiji legs first. I took a moment to think. Only one shelter would not be a safe option; if they caught one, they would suspect there might be more.

"What if you just cut the stones and store them in a scroll, would that be possible?"

"That would be a lot of rocks. We'd need a scroll with lots of storage, or several," he told me, considering the idea.

I pulled two scrolls from my waist pouches.

"These should suffice, one for each cave," I said, inwardly thanking my father-in-law for giving me some in case of need.

Until I finished, I told the other two to keep watch. Although I would probably find out before they did from my hearing, it was best to keep them occupied to avoid panicking about the situation.

I helped Nara treat Keiji's wounds. The wounds on his legs were deep, definitely putting him out of action, which was very worrying. The only one who could take on a Chunin now was me, and only against average Chunin, not elite ones like the ones who killed the Hyuga.

We stopped when the first shelter was ready. We moved Keiji into the cave and covered the exit with a rock that Taro had left ready.

After stabilizing his condition, I went out to talk to Taro and the rest. He was finishing his own shelter. When he finished, I called the other two.

"Hide. No one is to leave for the next four hours. Take the opportunity to rest. Then we'll see what we'll do. Hopefully, Keiji will wake up by then," I told them.

I went back to my cave and said the same thing to Nara. He fell asleep immediately; it was obvious that he was very low on chakra. I tried to do the same, but my thoughts wouldn't leave me alone.

This was supposed to be an uncomplicated mission, infiltrate and destroy nothing more.