"So why was Teacher Kushina alone in the wooden house?"
The scenery before them sped past in a blur. As the outline of the wooden house ahead gradually grew larger, Hirohiko, sweat slowly beading on his forehead, could not help asking.
The distance between the city wall and the wooden house had not been far to begin with. At the speed of the three of them, the house was already right before their eyes within minutes.
Although their view was somewhat obstructed as they dashed through the grove, they still caught sight of that familiar outline at once—the outline that had not changed in the slightest over more than a decade.
And now, as they drew closer to the Japanese-style wooden house, that pain buried deep within their hearts—or rather, deep within their memories, the pain that could never be erased—kept assaulting their nerves.
That was why they had remained silent along the way, their nerves stretched taut as though facing a formidable enemy.
At this moment, Hirohiko was almost at his limit.
"Gulp!"
Hearing that question, Yukina instinctively swallowed. The muscles in her face twitched unnaturally.
Clearly, even for a genius who had become a captain of Konoha's Defense Force, the name Kushina still carried the same overwhelming weight it had back then.
"Cough... I didn't want this either!"
Chiba looked like he was on the verge of tears. Honestly, he truly had not wanted things to turn out like this! Of the three of them, he was undoubtedly the one with the clearest memory of that unbearable pain. After all, when Kushina had still been around, he had taken plenty of beatings. Kushina liked to talk about collective responsibility, but she rarely punished Hirohiko and Yukina. Whenever something happened, before he could even begin explaining, a fist would