"I'm serious." Chisen raised his head and met his eyes without flinching. "I've thought about it for a long time. Ever since the last ambush. I thought retaliation in kind would scare them off, make them back down. But I was wrong. Someone behind them is driving them forward. It isn't a question of whether they want to fight. They have to fight. Helian is pushing them. The Old Nobles of the Land of Fire are pushing them. And there are others."
"So you want to stop them with twenty thousand lives?"
"I want to end it with twenty thousand lives." Chisen didn't raise his voice, but every word carried weight. "Shikamaru, war isn't a brawl. A brawl ends once someone wins. In a war, if you don't cripple the enemy, they'll keep coming. Once, twice, three times. People will die every time. Twenty-three in Kushida Village. Next time, it might be two hundred and thirty. The time after that, two thousand three hundred. Add it all up-which number is bigger?"
Shikamaru said nothing.
Chisen lowered his head and looked at Raincrack Basin, circled several times in red on the map.
"I don't want this either," he said, much more quietly. "But there's no other way. They've already set foot on the Land of Fire's soil, already taken its civilians prisoner, already raised the banner of 'Kill All at the Border.' I can save twenty-three people. I can't save two hundred and thirty. I'm not a god. I'm one man. I only have one blade."
The hospital room stayed quiet for a long time.
By the time Shizune pushed the door open, neither of them was speaking. Chisen had tucked the map back under his pillow. Shizune gave them a suspicious look, put down the medicine, and left.
After the