Fourth Hokage

If we discount the times he'd seen Minato Namikaze from afar, this was actually Yuhara's first time interacting with Minato Namikaze. And Minato Namikaze generally left a very good first impression (unless you were an enemy).

Even setting aside his strength, the Fourth Hokage was a tall, handsome man with a friendly demeanor and a warm smile.

By this point, Yuhara had calmed down. For one thing, emotional responses couldn't solve any problems. For another, the outcome was already set; nothing he did now could change it.

An Anbu Ninja whispered something into Minato Namikaze's ear, and then Minato Namikaze walked towards Yuhara.

This forced Yuhara to get up from his seat. He stood up with Tigo beside him. However, they merely stood in place, not moving to meet the Hokage... They were guarding the body, and even in front of the Hokage, they shouldn't appear overly eager.

Of course, Yuhara had no such intentions.

"I've heard about what happened. Your reconnaissance mission in Amegakure was tough. The intelligence you brought back has been a great help to the village in assessing the current situation in the Land of Rain... The deceased are gone, but the living must carry on. Please try to pull yourselves together." The Fourth Hokage came to Yuhara's side and spoke.

From the Hokage's perspective, his attitude in any formal setting should be one of impartiality towards all ninja. At a time like this, it was also difficult for him to speak... The words from the Hokage couldn't be entirely superficial, nor could they be overly emotional.

"The intelligence is important" was actually a polite phrase. Because for both the previous Iwagakure reconnaissance mission and the current Amegakure one, there were definitely multiple ninja teams involved. Only after various pieces of intelligence corroborated each other would they become the basis for Konoha's judgment.

So, was the general intelligence Yuhara and his team brought back truly that important?

Yet, despite such intelligence, only two members of the original twelve-person team were left alive.

Regardless, the Fourth Hokage's tone felt very sincere.

So Yuhara responded with sincerity.

"Ninja like us are, in the end, just insignificant people. However, even people like us have made our own small contributions to Konoha's war effort in our own way. Therefore, we don't need sympathy or pity. As ninja, my comrades ultimately lived meaningful lives."

As Yuhara spoke, his eyes were on Jian Dong's body. Then, as he spoke, he raised his head until his eyes met the Hokage's.

Although he said "we," he wasn't really including himself. He was talking about Jian Dong.

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

"Hey, watch your at—"

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

"We've already lost too much in this war, and in the end, we might gain nothing... The only thing I can promise is to end this war as soon as possible."

The Fourth Hokage truly had a good personality, willing to seriously converse with an unknown person like Yuhara who spoke so sharply.

"Hokage-sama, I am just an ordinary person. In war, we often face situations like this... Being a second too late means death, being a second faster could make you a hero. But our limits are there, visible to the eye, so people like us can't become heroes.

But war always demands heroes to be a second faster, then another second faster. So even heroes will one day be unable to cross that short one-second gap... As long as one is human, one has limits. Therefore, even a powerful person like the Hokage has limits, and a Ninja World War cannot be resolved by a single heroic figure."

Surprisingly, Minato Namikaze deeply empathized with what Yuhara said.

But to the other Konoha ninja, it sounded like Yuhara was insulting the Hokage.

Minato Namikaze looked into Yuhara's eyes and saw a chilling coldness in the young ninja's lead-grey irises.

"I heard 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 simultaneously, and both were your closest loved ones, what would you do? So often, choices are neither good nor bad; a choice is simply a choice, something that must be made regardless.

Honestly, Yuhara was being a bit unreasonable. Was Jian Dong's range of choices the same as the Fourth Hokage's?

The ordinary ninja around them were stunned. They wondered how this young man could be so audacious as to lecture the Hokage so openly?

"I will keep that in mind."

Although listening to the opinions of his subordinates was part of the Hokage's job, but... well, Minato Namikaze was also a bit stunned at this moment.

But he did take Yuhara's words to heart. The idea of "cannot be faster" hit home, as it had happened to him many times. For instance... he hadn't saved Obito, nor had he saved Rin.

After that, the Fourth Hokage concluded his consolatory work and left.

Once the Hokage was gone, Tigo finally breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at Yuhara and asked, "Yuhara... are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Hokage-sama is a good person. Our conversation was very pleasant," Yuhara replied.

He had used the Hokage as a trash can to vent a lot of negative emotions, so how could the conversation not be pleasant?

However, from the Hokage's own perspective and that of the ninja around him, it wasn't quite like that. They felt that Yuhara had... spoken quite well just now, but perhaps not to say it again next time.

Ultimately, it was Minato Namikaze's magnanimity.

But it could also be said to be the normal capacity of a superior. The higher a ruler's position, the more approachable they naturally were to those at the lowest levels, even if it was just for show. If a ruler were to retaliate against an ordinary ninja for such simple verbal transgressions, it would mean they lacked the qualities to be a ruler... speaking of which, Danzō.

Yuhara and Tigo were not stationed at the front-line camp in the Land of Rivers. So, after cremating Jian Dong's body, they returned to Konoha with her ashes.

With the squad disbanded, Yuhara and Tigo wouldn't be participating in any missions for the time being.

Jian Dong was a legitimate Konoha ninja. Although she was a civilian ninja, her ashes could be buried in that renowned Cemetery of Spirits.

Some things are unpleasant to say, but Jian Dong's ending was actually better than that of most ninja. At least she could "return home in spirit," rather than being left as a corpse in the wilderness.

Regardless of how one returns home, returning home is still returning home.