Southwest of the Land of Fire, near the edge of the Land of Rain.

Ikeya Castle, a small city that is not ranked among the many cities in the Land of Fire.

Although the town was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Daimyo, the common people here knew that the Daimyo spoke a hundred words here, and it was not necessarily as useful as a single sentence of Tsuchiya-stream.

It may be too exaggerated to say that Tsuchiya Stream covers the sky with one hand in Ikeya Castle, but the earth overlord is at least worthy of it, not only have a few wandering shinobi under his command, but also have a lot of wandering samurai, and they are also embarrassed by local officials, black and white, and they have the strength of the middle ninja.

In addition, he has always been careful not to provoke a powerful ninja village like Konoha or other ninjas, and there is no ninja who is idle and hurts to eliminate violence, so the life of the earth overlord is also nourishing.

One of the largest mansions in Ikeya Castle is the base camp of Jun Tsuchiya.

In an ordinary courtyard.

Bang!

"Ahh A childish voice screamed, and then a short figure was kicked down, and the large bundle of firewood in his arms dispersed.

A young man dressed as a ninja retracted his feet and angrily yelled at the small figure who had been kicked down, "Stinky girl! You want to die!! ”

The immature and crisp voice trembled with trepidation, "Yes... I'm sorry! My lord, I didn't carelessly look at the road! ”

This is a little girl of about six or seven years old, whose body is as thin as dry wood, and who wears coarse clothes that are not much better than those of a beggar, which shows her humble status.

The girl rarely has silver-white hair and a pair of bright ice blue eyes, if it is an ordinary girl, even if she is not outstanding in appearance, with these specialities, she can also add a lot of charm.

It's a pity that it seems wasteful to this little girl.

On the girl's immature little face, a large burn scar spread from the girl's neck to the small half of the face, even if it can be seen from the remaining half of the small face, it should have been very beautiful and cute, but now it is only hideously ugly in the eyes of others.

The young body fell to her knees and trembled, apparently realizing that she had just been holding firewood taller than herself and could not see the way, and was in danger of hitting the adult who was very powerful in her eyes.

Ignoring the small shoulder that was kicked in severe pain, Xuehua panicked in her heart and hoped that the adult would calm her anger and forgive her for the collision, even if it was just a beating.

Looking at the little girl's humble and frightened posture, the young man who was just a shinobi felt a superior satisfaction, but suddenly seeing the ugly burns on her face, his heart suddenly felt sick to his stomach, and the joy that had just risen disappeared in an instant.

Frowning, the young man's face showed disgust, he snorted coldly, and hurried away from the little girl, as if he felt bad luck even if he looked at it for a second.

Seeing the young man walking away, Xuehua's young body stopped trembling, and her pale little face showed a look of happiness.

A few days ago, she saw another girl who was in the same yard with her and often bullied her, and she was beaten to death because she collided with these adults named "ninjas".

She also had nightmares for days.

It's just that, or even she didn't notice it, her ice blue eyes like jewels, when she looked at the back of the young mannobi, she revealed not only fear and panic, but also longing and longing.

Afraid of making another mistake, Xuehua's immature and rough little hands hurriedly picked up the scattered firewood, and then struggled to pick up the firewood that was taller than her.

She had to hurry to the room, and if it was too late, she would be scolded by a woman like a fat pig, and every time she felt like her ears were about to be screwed off, it really hurt.

In the room, the cook who cooked the rice was not there, Xuehua estimated that she was lazy again, smelling the aroma overflowing from the cauldron, her throat rolled unconsciously, even if the contents of this pot were only for the servants to eat.

Xuehua put down the firewood angrily, seeing that the stove was about to go out, she hurriedly added firewood, and then breathed a sigh of relief, and her dirty little hands wiped off the sweat beads on her little face, but it made the already ugly little face look even more sloppy.

Busy with these, Xuehua should come over to the sharp pain in his shoulder, and when he looked carefully, he found that there was a bruise, and a little grievance appeared in his jewel-like eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

Perhaps because she was used to it, she knew that tears and grievances would not attract any sympathy and pity.

In her short memories compared to ordinary people, she only vaguely remembers that she and her sister Feng Chime have been begging on the streets since childhood, and they are surviving with the pity of a few people, but because of their ugly appearance, most people hate them, so more often they are starving and cold.

Later, because the adoptive father took pity on them, he adopted them in this big house, but because of the ugly appearance of himself and his sister, they were still discriminated against and bullied, but they were already very satisfied, at least they would not starve and freeze again.

It's just that after the adoptive father died of illness, the sisters became unvalued again, so sometimes they couldn't even make ends meet, but she didn't want to leave here, because she didn't know if she could survive after going outside, so she could only be cautious and take her sister to live here.

"Sister... Sister!! ”

Suddenly, a familiar shout woke Snowflake, and then her little face suddenly turned pale, it was the sound of her sister's wind chimes.

Ignoring the stove that had not yet burned, the young figure ran out of the room in a panic.

Looking for the sound, Xuehua staggered and ran with a pair of small short legs, through a courtyard, and finally the figure of the wind chimes of the sister appeared in her sight.

In the field of vision, her sister Wind Chimes trembled and curled up, and a middle-aged man dressed as a samurai stood beside her, waving a bamboo stick and pumping it on her sister's body in an angry voice, making her hiss and cry out with all her might.

There were a lot of servants she was familiar with standing around, but they all chose to watch coldly, and did not step forward to stop them, and some even showed gloating eyes.

Xuehua suddenly turned pale with fright, and ran forward in a panic, begging incoherently at the samurai, "Big... My lord, I beg you to spare my sister! ”

Xuehua didn't know how her sister provoked the other party, but she couldn't let her sister be abused, she had no strength to resist, so she could only humbly ask for forgiveness.

When the middle-aged samurai saw Xuehua's pleading, he was not moved, he smiled cruelly, and suddenly whipped the bamboo stick in her face.

"Ahh Xuehua couldn't react at all, and a bloody streak suddenly appeared on her little face, and the crystal tears fell in large gullies.

"Sister!" The little girl who had been beaten looked at the middle-aged samurai in fear, and when she saw her sister being beaten, her young body suddenly trembled and crawled over to hug her sister.

This is a girl about the same age as Xuehua, with the same silver-white hair color and ice-blue eyes, and it can be seen from the body shape and small face contour that it is very similar to Xuehua, and the two sisters should be a pair of twins.

It's just that compared to the snowflakes, the burn scars on the little face of the wind chimes are heavier, and it can even be said that the whole small face is a crumpled burn mark, and if you don't look closer, you can't tell the contours of the nose and lips at all.

Xuehua hugged her sister in a panic, and then heard the sound of "snorting" bamboo strips waving, bursts of piercing pain from the body into the brain, the little face suddenly distorted, and couldn't help but let out a scream, crystal tears continued to drip on my sister.

There was no mercy in the eyes of the middle-aged samurai, there was only a hideous and twisted pleasure, and he waved the bamboo strip in his hand without mercy.

He would abuse the wind chime so roughly, and the two of them didn't need a reason at all, just because he had just been severely humiliated by a shinobi in front of the Tsuchiya stream, but he didn't dare to resist, and the wind chime just hit him who was angry.

He didn't dare to be angry with others, but in the face of two ugly girls with humble status, who were not even as good as servants, he didn't need to have any scruples, he could vent his anger on them unscrupulously, and no one would care if he was killed anyway.

With the sound of the bamboo strips waving violently, a series of crimson scars appeared on the immature bodies of the snowflakes and wind chimes, and the piercing pain continued to enter the snowflakes' brains, she could only hold her sister tightly, protect her in her arms, and try not to let her get on the bamboo strips.

I don't know how long it took, maybe the middle-aged samurai had already vented his grievances, and he threw down the bamboo strip contentedly, smiled coldly at the two sisters who were tired and scarred on the ground, and turned around in a happy mood.

And from the beginning, the onlookers saw that there was no drama to watch, and they all scattered boringly, and they did not show a trace of sympathy from beginning to end.

In the empty courtyard, only two immature cries remained.

"Sister... It hurts... I didn't do anything wrong... Woooooooo

Because most of the whipping was borne by Xuehua later, she actually had more scars on her body than her sister, but he still endured the pain that was about to make her faint, and comforted his sister while inhaling cold air, "It's okay, don't be afraid, I will protect you, let's go back first." ”

Helping her sister up, Xuehua frowned and inhaled the cold air, and there was not much grievance in her heart.

Being angry for no reason, it didn't happen in the past, and she understood that tears could not make others give birth to a trace of kindness.

It's just that looking at the horror left in my sister's crystal eyes, there is also a distressing grievance.

Snowflake suddenly remembered those ninjas who represented power in her limited cognition.

'If only I could be a ninja too!' ’