A Life Begun Anew

The Reincarnation Hall on the second morning was not much different from the night before.

The vast hall, seemingly without end, was still bathed in a faint glow. Portals floated silently in the air, awaiting their respective purposes. Before the brightest one, the Human Path, a long line still stretched out.

Tobirama Senju and Hashirama Senju stood quietly in a corner of the hall, watching the scene before them.

The wicked still wailed as they were thrown into the Asura Path or Animal Path. Those utterly unforgivable souls cried and struggled before the vortexes, but it was useless. The Velociraptors carried out their duties without expression, tossing them in one after another to endure pain ten times greater than what they had inflicted on others in life.

Over at the Human Path, it was still a line of children.

There was no fear on their faces, only the confusion and anticipation unique to facing the unknown. The dinosaurs stayed gently by their sides, lightly holding their little hands with massive claws and soothing them in low voices.

"Don't be afraid."

"When you get there, very, very kind people will be waiting for you."

"You'll have a warm home, lots of delicious food, and you'll never have to go hungry again."

The children nodded and obediently stayed in line, walking step by step toward that door leading to new life.

Hashirama looked at the children, his eyes reddening slightly.

Of course, he knew where these children had come from. Over the millennia, the Ninja World had suffered countless wars, famines, and disasters. Every war and every upheaval had claimed batch after batch of innocent lives.

And the most heartbreaking of them all had always been the children who never had the chance to grow up.

But now, they finally had a