[Hokage] Terukawa

It's good to have a rough day, but everyone has business to do.I don’t have a lot of free time like the one above—I don’t have the time to talk to Kakashi Hatake all day long, at best, I only use the gaps between training sessions, and I basically don’t have the energy to take care of anything else on weekdays The problem, after all, some things that happened in Anbu really told me: Only strength is the last word.

Therefore, if you want to say that the ones who have been with me and accompanied me for the longest time-in fact, I have to count my dear ninjas and my dear Anbu teammates.

Counting from the day I came to Konoha, the ones who have been with me for the longest time are my mask and ninja sword. Although Anbu's training is harsh, it's just that.After all, there are always only a few skills that a ninja needs to master. If you find skills in day-to-day practice to achieve leapfrog improvement, you will get used to it. The benefits of the standard mask are thus revealed. It can be well isolated from everyone's sight-whether it is good or bad.

So if you really want to talk about the difference between Anbu and Ninja School... then I guess the key point is probably "whether there is blood or not".

And when it comes to "seeing blood"... this is not a pleasant topic at all.

In the Anbu dormitory, I lowered my head and repeatedly checked the blade of the ninja knife in my hand. After reading in the dark, I went to the bright place to read, and after reading in the bright place, I returned to the dark place. I realized this cruel fact - I don't know when, there was a small gap in the blade of my ninja knife.

Oh shit.

I pursed my lips tightly to resist the desire to swear - politeness is still very important, and it would be terrible if it became a habit.

"Your knife also broke the blade?"

The voice came from above me, and I looked up subconsciously, and saw a child with silver-gray hair staring at me with a pair of eyes of the same color and smiling.

It was Etsu Inoue, a member of the Anbu reserve team who joined the training with me, and also my roommate.

I breathed a sigh of relief: "Yeah, the quality is too... poor, I have only used it for more than a year."

"Hey, for standard things, you have better expectations for anything than for them... Speaking of which, you cherish these things more than I do. Don’t take it to repair it, it’s better to get a new one from the logistics department, it’s more cost-effective,” Inoue Yue climbed down from the upper bunk while talking, raised his hand to pick up a bag of things and said to me, “I I bought some dim sum, do you want a piece?" He thought for a while, and then added: "It has matcha flavor."

"Yes." I swallowed back the words of refusal, and instead agreed bluntly, "But why didn't you go home today? I remember that today is your rest day, and your home belongs to Konoha."

"My parents went on a mission to the two-person world. I am a poor little boy who has no food at home, so I simply stay here. Besides, you are still here, so we can be each other's companions... Why? Wouldn't it be fun to do it?" Inoue Yue snorted, and the tone was really a little bit unkind - but I could see his soft, warm eyebrows and eyes.He narrowed his eyes slightly with a snack in his mouth, and just a funny smile could make people feel a faint sweetness.

I answered absently, and stuffed the light green snack into my mouth at the same time.

... I can barely give it a seven point, it's still sweet, but it's better than nothing.

What's more, this light green itself is extremely pleasing to the eye.

"Yue, I haven't asked you yet." I took a sip of water to moisten my throat, "Why did you enter Anbu instead of going to Ninja School?"

"It's... a long story," he thought for a while, "It starts with my parents' parents, back then..."

"Long story short, straight to the point." I choked.

Inoue choked for a bit, and after beeping in a low voice, "As if I wanted to tell you a story", he said in a normal tone: "My parents and my parents have contributed to the compilation of the Ninja School textbook." , my parents are both beneficiaries. After a discussion over dinner, the two agreed that they could teach better than Ninja School, and I'm not stupid—so," he spread his palms and raised his eyebrows .There was a vague look of pride on his face, "Since I have mastered almost all the things I learned at Ninja School, what should I do to learn it again? Why don't I join Anbu's training to exercise my mind and accumulate experience gone."

You can see it through accumulating experience, but you can't see it through exercising your mind.

"Your parents are brilliant," I said, "I mean visionary."

Inoue Yue raised his head: "No, my mother is an ordinary Jōnin, and my father is an elite Jōnin. Let me tell you about Zhaohe, the wind blade he issued can split many big trees with ease."

"It's amazing." I admired and applauded symbolically at the same time, "I believe you can do it someday."

"You're too perfunctory, I'm obviously relying on luck to split your water now...Although I agree with your last sentence." He twitched the corner of his mouth and cursed with a smile, but he didn't consider Let's continue this topic.

And I raised my eyebrows and glared at him, then packed my knife and went out to the logistics department. ?

Unlike the three-person system of ninja school graduates, the formation of the Anbu Squad is a team of five.In contrast, although there is no longer-term consideration, it is more practical and relevant if we only look at the current conditions.And thanks to the blessing of getting along with each other in the previous year, even if I am the only member who was not born in Konoha Village, the relationship between me and the other four members of the same team is pretty good, and among the four, Inoue gets along better. It is the most comfortable one - quite a few members of the Anbu are born as war orphans. At this time, that little bit of thoughtfulness is enough to highlight a person's emotional intelligence - not to mention his emotional intelligence is online at the same time. He is also online, and his strength is also considered to be the best among the same batch of Anbu reserves. For me, it is a good object to learn from when there is nothing to do on weekdays. A good captain who makes directional decisions in various matters.

The only downside is... no, maybe that's not a downside?

In every task similar to clearing up the gang of thieves, he would stare at the mess everywhere for a long time and clenched his fists until his joints turned white, but when he attacked, he was able to hold back his anger very well, giving those sinful mountains The heaviest damage caused by thieves is to make them incapacitated, and most of the time they don't even have the symptoms of excessive blood loss-the very few cases that kill them are also relatively special.This merciful approach is in stark contrast to the other members of the group who are ready to kill and stab their hearts.

I believe that I am not the only one who thinks deeply about this point, but I have no way to talk about it—why makes the knife in his hand always so decisive and fast, as if there is no need to hesitate at all?Such an excellent person, such a cold knife, how could he have unnecessary pity for the task object?What's more, those scumbags were all dealt with by him very cleanly. His movement of shaking off the blood on the knife and putting the knife back into the sheath was chic and neat. The rabbit head mask covered his face, but I think the brows under his mask It must be frowning, and the expression must be solemn and serious.

If it weren't for a certain mission, when he and I were investigating alone, a thief who was proficient in ninjutsu suddenly appeared on the flank and attacked him, which caused me and him to act reflexively at the same time, I am afraid I would not have discovered his so-called "shortcoming" ".

There were two stab wounds on the thief's body, one in the throat and one in the waist and abdomen, the fatal one was from me, and the non-fatal one was from him-in this way, the problem emerged.

The conditioned reflex attack is often the most vicious, because it is natural, fast, and fierce, without any thinking, without any measurement, and completely comes from the instinct of blood flowing between the body.Your attack is as deadly as your body is, your talent determines how strong your attack is, and your experience determines how strong your attack is.

I have every reason to believe that if the knife I left on the throat with blood spattering directly killed the thief, I am afraid that the injuries to be dealt with that day were not just ordinary skin trauma.

And he didn't seem to have the option of "killing him" in his subconscious mind.

Realizing this, shudders and fears crept up my spine like a winter chill.I don't know what made me suppress my anger that day, I just stared at him for a long time, and then returned to the team as if nothing happened, with Shiori, Qing, and Haruma—— My other three teammates continued to talk about assignments.

Fortunately, after that time, Yue seemed to have gained some awareness, and he made changes in some details.Although the changes are subtle, I, who have noticed this for a long time, can see that he is slowly accepting the cruelty of this world.

That "weakness" was probably a secret.Then sometimes I think about it.

In the missions where he killed people before, did he repeatedly tell himself "they deserve to die" and let go of his thoughts before killing the killer?Then how tangled he must be.

But this brings up another problem-if he really never killed anyone before these missions, then Anbe's damn "Introduction" that caused me to have nightmares for several nights a year ago How did he pass the test?

Just now I asked him why he joined Anbe because I was out of some complicated and difficult psychology, but I didn't want to but accidentally answered this question that I had been pressing in my heart for a long time.

Ugh.

I felt a little inexplicably uncomfortable, and the young ninja who died under me in the "entry test" a year ago, the appearance of a ninja from an unknown ninja village flashed past my eyes again.

When he was pushed in front of me, his face was distorted like a ghost, and his eyes seemed to be able to burn the hatred and despair of reason - if the eyes could kill a person, I'm afraid I would have died many times.

That was the first time I saw such a crazy person, and it was also the first time I killed someone.

The feeling of killing someone for the first time...how should I put it?When I killed someone for the first time, I always felt that I was in a daze from the moment I stabbed the knife into that person's stomach. My consciousness seemed to be separated from my body, and my body didn't listen to me. It seemed to have a A new soul, and that soul stabbed the man a second and a third time before I knew it.After killing the first person, my soul finally returns, and everything becomes real again, but I know that I haven't reacted yet, because I know that once I react, I will start to be sad, but before I react, I The second person has been killed, and the third person has been killed.

Afterwards, I had a week of nightmares. I always trembled after waking up from the nightmare, but even so, I knew that my hand holding the knife would only be steady, and I also knew that in every "entry test" The only one who survives this will be me.

Is Koshi Inoue right or wrong?Is his compassion really his shortcoming?

I took the new ninja sword from the logistics uncle and thanked him-although I know that the quality of this one is only slightly better than the last one, but it is still sharp now.It can be a prop that can be used as soon as possible during the sparring, or it can be a murder weapon that pierces the carotid artery and the heart.

I don't know if he's right or wrong, or if his compassion is a flaw.

I only know that in this distorted world, I don't care and I don't have time to care about right and wrong. I only know that I will always be the one who survives.

Hope he is too.