This really had me stumped.
Looking at the child before him, who had finally poured out all the doubts in his heart in one breath and now seemed relieved, staring at him with blazing eyes, Chiba could not even force a bitter smile.
How could he possibly answer a question that no one, ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, had ever been able to explain clearly?
The boy before him was not wrong at all. War was an incredibly painful thing. Every battle could mean loss—parents losing children, children losing parents, companions losing companions, brothers losing brothers, sisters losing sisters... Even individuals might lose precious limbs, irreplaceable eyes, ears, mouths, or noses. The outbreak of war itself represented loss.
And no one was truly a victor.
Take the current Ninja World War. Konoha should have counted as the ultimate victor, but was Konoha truly a victor?
That was hard to say.
Although Konoha could obtain a massive amount of reparations from this Ninja World War, the prolonged war and its prolonged consumption had dealt enormous damage to Konoha's finances. Those reparations could never make up for it. After all, whether in his previous life or this world, war was fought with supplies and money. Chiba had worked as an assistant for a time, and Konoha's financial expenditure in this war was almost half of its total finances for the past five years.
That was also one of the reasons Konoha had actively sought Peace Alliance negotiations and wanted to end the war as soon as possible.
Such enormous financial spending could eventually be earned back with Konoha's prosperity, since the relatively ample remaining half of its finances could still be used for future development and postwar recovery. But if the fighting continued, Konoha's coffers might be exhausted, or it might