[Hokage] Terukawa

Perhaps it was this time of Tang's actions that marked the watershed. In the long night of the Third Ninja World War, the deepest and most depressing dark period finally passed.

The bright sunlight of the day will eventually wrap the blood and sting of the wound, ruthlessly tearing apart the dream-like damp and warmth beside the fire, and then push back the long night of war far away, until the distant Western Mountain under.

Waking up is indeed a painful thing, but what is the difference between a person who has been immersed in sleep for a long time and a dead person?

Dreams are always illusory, pain is always real.It is useless to raise the soup to stop the boiling. A wound that is not cleaned will eventually rot and fester, first from the skin to the flesh, and then from the flesh to the bone.

However, no matter what, the first ray of light that dispels the darkness will pierce the clouds on time, announcing in a high-profile manner that all depression and chaos are over, so those who are addicted to sleep can choose to continue to sleep, but those who want to wake up must immediately open their eyes. He opened his eyes, closed his mouth again, and silently endured the obscure but long-lasting pain caused by being eroded by darkness.

Introspection focuses on wrong cause and effect, and peace originates from the throes of war.

"... People, people live..., it's too difficult..."

——This is on the cloud ninja front where he was beaten by the muscular men of the enemy until he was seriously injured and unconscious, and his life was hanging by a thread on the operating table of Konoha Hospital. Finally, he withdrew one foot from the gate of hell and returned to the world, but still Etsu Inoue, who had been in a coma for fifteen days in the intensive care unit, blurted out the first words after regaining consciousness.

When Inoue Yue opened his mouth to speak, Mrs. Inoue, who sneaked in to visit from other departments' work, was not there, so she missed the flash of water when the only son opened his eyes.

A pair of silver-gray eyes emerged from between the layers of bandages, at first they were out of focus, until the curtains on the side were rattled by the wind blowing into the ward, and even the afternoon sunlight shook along with it. The beautifully colored eyeballs turned slightly, bringing the colorful colors of the world back into their eyes.

"Zhaohe, and... Qing."

His eyes slowly moved from my face to Chun Riqing's, and then slowly scanned the entire ward, his voice was so hoarse that it almost became breathless, but the eyes he looked at me and Chun Riqing were extremely serious .

Inoue stared at us for a long time, as if he was remembering something, missing something, and confirming something... It was not until tens of seconds later that he let out a long breath, curled the corners of his dry and flaky lips, and said softly muttered:

"Long time no see, you and I are still alive... It's really great."

"Great."

——Yeah, it’s good to be alive.

But as Koshi Inoue said... It's hard to live.

Eshi Inoue followed his father to the cloud ninja front earlier than Minato and I took down Kikyo Castle, but came back later than Kakashi and I withdrew from Tango Country, which means... It means that he still doesn't know anything about Haruma and Shiori's death.

Originally, we wanted to uphold the principle that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. Qing and I planned to tell him these two bad news as soon as he woke up.We had long expected that this would be an unbearable torture for both parties, so we simulated this scene thousands of times in advance, thinking that this would make everything simple and numb—it turns out that we It's still too simple.

Whenever I look at those eyes full of rebirth-like joy and melancholy, I feel that my throat becomes extremely dry and it becomes extremely difficult to speak.

So after a simple eye contact, Ao and I remained silent, allowing Koshi Inoue to continue the topic by himself.

Fortunately, Inoue was overjoyed and disappointed when he learned that he had been in a coma on the bed for fifteen days. His problems were like a cannonball—battle situation, casualties, other battlefields, his mother... ...as if asking anything that comes to mind.Most of the time, he would turn his head and look over slightly, waiting for our answer. A few times, he would stop talking abruptly, and then come back to his senses after a few seconds, asking and answering himself in a sigh-like tone.

"Did we get the reward we deserved for our efforts on the cloud ninja battlefield? When I was brought back, was cloud ninja already beaten back?"

"Kunin...Kunin is very strong. That Eight-Tails Jinchuriki - called Kirabi, he is Raikage's younger brother, he... he is ridiculously strong, at least at the quasi-kage level. My father was in order to delay him. He was more than 20 knives, but he couldn't be saved in the end. But I know that although my father lost, he also won. The battlefield... Dad will be happy, but... oh..."

"I only have my mother."

"... Yun Ninja."

"Cloud ninja."

"Is the war over?"

"It's best if it's over. If it's not over... I'm afraid I have more energy than I want. My hand and leg injuries couldn't be dealt with properly during the war, and they dragged on for too long."

Yue's meaning was expressed somewhat cryptically, but it was also considered clear—especially for us who witnessed the whole process of Yiren and the doctors rescuing him.

I sat in the original seat and didn't say a word. I just looked up at the sun outside the window, feeling a little dazed. It was Chun Riqing who gave a low "hmm" beside me, breaking the short silence.

"The war isn't over yet, but it's not far away," I said after regaining my senses, "What's still going on is the final battle, and there won't be any more big waves."

Hearing this, he seemed to sigh.

"It's over, it's over... is the war going to end?"

"The war is coming to an end... that's a good thing."

"But I don't think it's the end."

he said quietly.

"I seem to be able to understand his mood."

he?

I was slightly startled.

"He" is a very general personal pronoun, but at this moment, I can easily understand who the person he refers to is.

——Li Hayakawa Haruma.

The person who once had a conflict with Inoue Yue because of disagreement, and finally gave up the argument and slammed the door.

He was also the one who was alone on Mount Kikyo, but in the end just left endless regrets in the world, and hurriedly stepped over the chasm of life and death.

"I want to apologize to Haruma, although it's been a long time since that incident, maybe he has forgotten it... er, no, he won't forget it."

Inoue said to himself.

"Even though time has passed for a long time, I should apologize for the stupid things I said. Anyone can say beautiful things, but the fact is that before experiencing the same thing, all the opinions and suggestions of others are just watching the fire from the other side. Talking without back pain. This is the most ignorant and arrogant, and also the most ridiculous and despicable."

His pupils looked over, and there was a clear dark light flickering between the silver-gray pale irises, but in response, we could only stand up straight in silence, letting the atmosphere in the ward fade away after his words fell to the ground. Caught in an almost suffocating stagnation.

——His expression froze, and the color of his whole body seemed to fade to pale at this moment.

Chun Riqing and I did not speak to each other.

——Language... What is the meaning of dry and empty language?

Does it change something or appease something?

Life and death, war.

Bays that were filled into land, mountains and forests that were flattened into mounds.

The sword cut off from the hands of the ninja, the unfulfilled last wish of the dead.

The dead, the living.

The scorched corpses under the ruined walls, the refugees hiding in the mountains and rock crevices, relying on streams and wild fruits to barely survive.

The parents of the inscription, the lover of the inscription, the relatives and friends of the inscription, and the children of the inscription.

And you, me... and everyone around those two people.

inscription.

inscription.

That's a good question, but it doesn't make much sense anyway.

—Words, of course, do not change anything, nor do they appease anything.The cruel and indifferent facts are so real there, we can't escape or reverse them at all-how can anything change the will of time?

The time of looking at each other in just a few seconds was infinitely extended subjectively, and my throat seemed to be choked by a fishbone.The seemingly invisible fishbone firmly hooked my flesh and blood, and the pain has been blurred, but the slight sense of awkward existence is still spreading like a tree root, grabbing my blood vessels, and then going up , connected to my heart with a thin but irresistible force.

There was a long silence in the ward.

Like those cemeteries that are so silent that they seem to have walked through the eternal night.

Inoue Yue didn't speak any more.

He just twisted his face to the wall with a slow and embarrassing movement, his limbs were bound by bandages so that he couldn't move, he turned his head hard and buried him until half of his face was buried in the soft pillow.

…………

……

Chun Riqing and I walked out of the ward, but when we turned around, we found an unexpected person waiting outside the door.

Mrs. Inoue sat quietly on the bench in the corridor. She looked up at the sound of the door opening. The silver-gray eyes, which were exactly the same as Inoue's, were somewhat hollow, and the sadness and pain of many days were piled together. , and finally gathered into the faint red around her eyes and the light blue under her eyes.

"Ah, is it over?" She stood up steadily, and smiled again, "I missed the time to wake up, but luckily you are here."

she says.

"I'm someone who's been through it too, and I know all too well how bad it can feel to wake up wounded in a war of this magnitude and not be able to see anyone I know in the ward."

——Not because of weakness or hypocrisy, but because war can make people neurotic to a certain extent...and neurotic people can't control their cranky thoughts.

This is not difficult to understand.

"We're afraid...fear."

I say.

"Because we have seen too many things, and most of the things are enough to make us empathize, it is inevitable to substitute ourselves."

After briefly explaining Koshi Inoue's current state of mind, we bid farewell to Mrs. Inoue, but before I took a few steps, I noticed that there was another man sitting upright on another horizontal chair a little far ahead. An acquaintance—his silver-white short hair was so bright that it was a bit dazzling in the slanting sunlight, making it difficult for people to ignore it.

"...You guys talk, I'll go first," Chun Riqing who had been silent just now said suddenly, "The team pension I want to distribute has not been paid yet, although it is sad, but as you said, long-term pain is worse than short-term pain Pain, rather than procrastinating, it is better to face the matter early."

I squeezed my fist and bumped him on the shoulder, just as a word of silent comfort.Chun Riqing's vision of looking at problems is always directed at the core and hits the nail on the head. Other factors are regarded as floating clouds by him, so verbal comfort is of little significance to him... But this state of disobedience and non-speaking is too worrying isn't it?

So over time, this minimalist ritual of punching shoulders was born.

Kakashi came over, and turned his head to look at Haruhiqing's back: "Why did he leave?"

"He has to send pensions to the families of his dead team members, which will take a lot of time."

The main task of the Chunriqing team in the war was to sneak around and intercept the support teams of other ninja villages. This team made great achievements, but it also paid a very heavy price... If I remember correctly, the five members of Chunriqing should be There is only one left.

It was a rare period of time when Chun Riqing almost wrote emptiness and depression on his face, and it was those short few days that made me realize that this guy is paranoid, what do you say? He didn't listen, and in the end I re-analyzed the situation for him, which made him realize that the ending of the team could not be changed by himself.

However, strictly speaking, these things are all internal information of Anbu, so there is no need to tell Kakashi.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I don't have anything to do these days, so I came to check on Lin's situation, and I remembered you... and Haruhiqing have been here for the past few days, so I went upstairs to take a look... By the way," Kakashi said, " It's time to pass the time."

...I spent a lot of time in Etsu Inoue's ward.

"So you're just waiting here?"

"...I don't really want to meet Inoue, no matter which Inoue it is," Kakashi said after a moment of silence, "Because of my father, Inoue and I used to be acquaintances... It's been a long time since we have seen each other. "

That must be because of Shuo Mao.

I think.

Regarding the matter of Sakumo... After all, there are only a small number of people who hold the same idea as us, and the ideas of the Inoue family are enough to anger a considerable number of people.

In this way, reducing the intersection is a matter of course.

Everyone says they don't want to be constrained by the times, don't want to be changed by the times, don't want to end their lives hastily, don't want to go with the tide... But just one war has changed too much.

Perhaps war is the epitome of most human nature.