Fourth Hokage

If one excluded the times he had seen him from afar, this was actually Yuhara's first time coming into contact with Minato Namikaze, and Minato generally left people with a very good first impression—except for his enemies.

Even setting aside his strength, the Fourth Hokage was tall and handsome, friendly in manner, and warm whenever he smiled.

By this point, Yuhara had already calmed down. For one thing, getting emotional would not solve anything. For another, the outcome had already been decided, and nothing he did now could change it.

An Anbu ninja whispered something into Minato's ear. Then Minato walked over toward Yuhara.

Yuhara could no longer remain seated, so he stood up with Tigo beside him. However, they merely stood where they were and did not go to meet the Hokage... They were guarding a corpse, after all. Even in the presence of the Hokage, they should not act overly eager.

Of course, that had never been Yuhara's intention.

"I've heard about what happened to you. Thank you for your hard work on the Rain Village reconnaissance mission. The information you brought back has been a great help to the village in assessing the current situation in the Land of Rain... The dead are gone, while the living must carry on. Please pull yourselves together." The Fourth Hokage came to Yuhara's side and said this.

From the Hokage's standpoint, at any formal occasion, his attitude should be to treat all ninjas equally. At a time like this, there was not much he could say, either... The words spoken by the Hokage could neither be completely superficial nor overly emotional.

"The intelligence is important" was really just a polite remark. Whether it was the earlier Iwagakure reconnaissance mission or the current Rain Village reconnaissance mission, it was absolutely impossible for only one ninja team to have taken part. Only after the various reports corroborated one another would they become the basis for Konoha's judgment.

So, was the general information Yuhara and the others had brought back really that important?

Yet even for such intelligence, the original twelve-man team had been reduced to only two survivors.

Regardless, the Fourth Hokage's tone sounded exceptionally sincere.

Thus, Yuhara treated him with equal sincerity.

"Ninjas like us are, when all is said and done, merely a group of insignificant people. Even so, people like us used our own ways to make a negligible contribution to Konoha's war effort, so we don't need sympathy or pity. As ninjas, at least my comrades lived meaningful lives in the end."

As Yuhara spoke, he was looking at Jian Dong's corpse. Then, as he continued, he raised his head until his eyes met the Hokage's.

Although he said "we," he had not really included himself. He was talking about Jian Dong.

Because Yuhara spoke so sincerely, he came across as somewhat impolite.

"Hey, watch your man—"

A ninja tried to stop Yuhara's rude behavior, but the Fourth Hokage raised a hand and halted him first.

"We've already lost too much in this war, and in the end, we may gain nothing at all... The only thing I can promise is that I will bring this war to an end as soon as possible."

The Fourth Hokage really did have an excellent personality. He was actually willing to seriously converse with an unknown nobody like Yuhara, who spoke so sharply.

"Hokage-sama, I'm just an ordinary person. In war, we often face situations like this... A second slower means death, while a second faster can make you a hero. But our limits lie there in plain sight, so people like us can never become heroes.

"Yet war always demands that heroes be one second faster, then one second faster still. So even heroes will one day be unable to cross that brief, one-second obstacle... Every human being has limits. Therefore, even a powerhouse like you, Hokage-sama, has limits to what one person can do. A Ninja World War is not something a single hero can resolve."

To be fair, Minato seemed to deeply understand what Yuhara was saying.

But to the other Konoha ninjas, it sounded as though he was insulting the Hokage.

Minato looked into Yuhara's eyes and discovered an unusually cold sharpness in the young ninja's lead-gray irises.

"I've heard that the Fourth Hokage is the fastest ninja in the ninja world. So if you were faced with a situation where you had to save two people at the same time—or if those two people were both your closest relatives—what would you do? That is why choices are often neither good nor bad. A choice is simply a choice, something where, no matter what, you must choose one of two options."

To be honest, Yuhara was being a bit argumentative. Was Jian Dong's range of choices really the same as the Fourth Hokage's?

The ordinary ninjas around them were dumbfounded. They wondered why this young man was so incredible that he could lecture the Hokage so openly.

"I'll remember that."

Although listening to the opinions of lower-ranking ninjas was also part of a Hokage's duties, well... Minato was actually somewhat bewildered at this moment too.

But he truly took Yuhara's words to heart. The idea of "not being able to go any faster" had hit the nail on the head, because something like that had happened to him many times. For example... he had failed to save Obito, and he had failed to save Rin.

After that, the Fourth Hokage concluded his condolences and left.

Only after the Hokage had gone did Tigo let out a sigh of relief. She glanced furtively at Yuhara and asked, "Yuhara... are we all right?"

"We're fine. The Hokage is a good man, and that was a pleasant conversation," Yuhara said.

He had used the Hokage as a trash can, pouring out a huge amount of negative emotions into him. How could the conversation not have been pleasant?

However, in the eyes of the Hokage himself and the ninjas beside him, that was not how things had seemed. They felt that what Yuhara had said... had actually made sense, but that he should not say it again next time.

When all was said and done, it was simply that Minato was magnanimous.

It could also be said to be the normal measure of a superior. The higher a ruler's position, the more kindly he naturally treated those at the bottom, even if it was merely for show. If a ruler retaliated against an ordinary ninja over such a simple verbal affront, that would mean he fundamentally lacked the qualities needed to be a ruler... I'm talking about you, Danzo.

Yuhara and Tigo did not belong to the Land of Rivers frontline camp, so after Jian Dong's body was cremated, they returned to Konoha with her ashes.

With the team gone, Yuhara and Tigo temporarily no longer had to participate in any missions.

Jian Dong had been a genuine Konoha Ninja. Although she was only a civilian ninja, her ashes could be buried in the famous Cemetery of Spirits.

Some things might sound unpleasant, but Jian Dong's end had actually been better than that of most ninjas. At least she could "return to her homeland in spirit" instead of having her corpse abandoned in the wilderness.

No matter how one returned home, returning home was still returning home.