"Th-this was really that easy?"
Seeing the opponent he'd struggled so hard against get taken out by Hyuga Hyakusho in a single encounter, Nawaki felt as though it wasn't real:
"Was I really this weak?"
"Uh, Nawaki, don't be like that..."
Seeing Nawaki suddenly look like a complete loser in life, Hyuga Hyakusho felt a little uncomfortable:
"To be fair, I only had the advantage because he'd been fighting you for so long and had already used up a lot of his stamina and chakra!"
"Hyakusho, you don't have to comfort me!"
Nawaki dropped his usual idiot act and spoke in a low voice:
"I've already formed a fairly good judgment of what really happened in that fight, after battling my opponent to the death. He still had some fight left in him. At the very least, unless the gap in our strength was enormous, you couldn't have taken him out so easily!"
"Oh my god!"
Seeing Nawaki looking so down, Zhou Duan had no intention of going over to comfort him. Instead, he grabbed Namikaze Minato by the collar, looking delighted:
"Minato, you saw that, right? Nawaki's finally starting to get it! I used to think old man Hiruzen had made a hopeless move by dumping this guy on me, but who'd have thought one real fight would teach him the essence of combat? This is great! There's still hope for him. As long as he gets his head on straight, I can turn him from an idiot with negative combat sense into a powerful fighter!"
"Hatake Shudan, Namikaze Minato, Hyuga Hyakusho, listen up, all three of you!"
Unlike usual, when Nawaki heard Zhou Duan's teasing, he didn't argue back. Instead, he looked at the three of them solemnly and made a vow:
"I, Senju Nawaki, grandson of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and a ninja determined to become Hokage, swear here and now: from this day forward, I will never do anything stupid again. I will never act like an idiot again. I'll leave the ranks of the weak and become a ninja with a working brain and some intelligence, no longer an imbecile!"
"...Uh!"
Namikaze Minato, who'd been silent the whole time, twitched his mouth slightly and gave Hatake Shudan an awkward smile:
"I feel like something's a little off here."
"Don't bother feeling it!"
Looking at Nawaki's spirited declaration, Zhou Duan said in despair:
"Just from those few lines, it's obvious he's still an idiot!"
"Hey, Zhou Duan, don't push it!"
Senju Nawaki had just made his vow, and now his teammates were looking down on him. He couldn't help feeling embarrassed:
"I've grown a lot from that fight. Just give me a few more battles, and I'll surpass you!"
"Yeah, sure, sure!"
Hatake Shudan had clearly had enough of talking to Senju Nawaki. He cut off Nawaki before he could go on, then pointed at the four Sunagakure corpses on the ground:
"We made quite a commotion. Our Konoha ninja might come to check it out, but we could also attract a squad of Sand ninja hunters. Collecting the belongings of dead ninja is an important skill on the battlefield. Knowing you, you've probably never learned how to do it. Nawaki, search these four bodies. The three of us will guide you. Hurry up—we don't have much time!"
"...Zhou Duan!"
Hatake Shudan had brushed aside Nawaki's spirited vow in just a few words. Even though Nawaki was angry, there wasn't much he could do. It was a declaration, and he'd have to prove it through his own efforts from then on. There was nothing he could do if the others didn't believe him. But the fire in his heart had barely begun to die down when he heard Hatake Shudan's instructions and looked at the four corpses on the ground. Nawaki fell silent for a moment. Then his anger finally boiled over:
"Are you messing with me?"
It was no wonder Nawaki was so furious. The four corpses there could only be described as gruesome. Their bodies were covered in wounds, and they were coated in a layer of white, murky liquid that reeked. They'd fought while spilling it, despaired while spilling it, and finally died while spilling it!
The middle-ranked Sand ninja was in even worse shape. Even while fighting, he'd had to endure the filthy insults of several Ninja Turtles. It was a truly miserable record—one that would get him mocked for the rest of his life, even in hell!
Of course, there was one upside to dying like that: at least it would keep a lot of enemies who wanted to search your corpse after death at bay!
Senju Nawaki was hoping for exactly that now. Unfortunately, he'd run into Hatake Shudan, who'd fed every last shred of conscience to the Ninja Dogs!
"Hey, Nawaki, get to it! Why are you just staring at me?"
Seeing that Senju Nawaki still hadn't started and was wearing an angry expression instead, Hatake Shudan immediately took offense:
"Nawaki, a ninja endures what others can't! If you won't even do something as simple as searching a corpse, what can you ever accomplish? This operation by the Sand ninja shows that Sunagakure has committed a major force. They must have plenty of pursuit squads, and there's a good chance we'll run into another one. After a fight, we might have only a very short time to search the bodies before another battle begins!
"And later, we'll be heading to the front lines. We'll have even less time to search bodies there!
"This is your first time doing it. If you don't get some experience now, you might not get another chance. Are you really willing to keep throwing yourself away like this? Just look..."
Zhou Duan pointed at the middle-ranked Sand ninja's corpse:
"I went to all the trouble of dragging that middle-ranked ninja from the Land of Wind back here with a wire. I didn't damage him at all. I did it just to give you the best possible conditions for searching him. Don't you understand how much thought we put into this?"
"Um, Zhou Duan..."
Hyuga Hyakusho whispered in Zhou Duan's ear:
"I'm the one who dragged that middle-ranked ninja back. What did you have to do with it?"
"I know you dragged him back!"
Zhou Duan whispered back in Hyuga Hyakusho's ear:
"Looks like you want to share Nawaki's suffering, too!"
Hyuga Hyakusho stared at Zhou Duan. After a couple of seconds, he suddenly broke into a radiant smile:
"Zhou Duan, we go way back. He's just some middle-ranked ninja. What difference does it make who dragged him back? It's fine, I don't mind. Hehe, hehehe!"
"Since that's the case!"
Ignoring Zhou Duan and Hyuga Hyakusho's whispers, Nawaki suddenly had a rare moment of clarity and posed a very pointed question:
"Zhou Duan, since you're making such a noble speech, why don't you show me how it's done first?"
"..."
Zhou Duan glanced at Nawaki and gave him a look of utter disbelief:
"Nawaki, you've known me long enough. Do you really think I'd do something so filthy?"
"So you think I should do something that filthy, then?"
Nawaki instantly lost it:
"You bastard! What gives you the right?"
"Because you can't beat me, and I can still beat the crap out of you!"
Zhou Duan swept out both hands, and six or seven vials of different-colored medicine appeared between them:
"Nawaki, believe me. If you don't do as you're told, you'll end up worse than those buddies sprawled beside you. Now, Nawaki, answer me—are you doing it or not?"
Looking at the vials in Zhou Duan's hands, the ninja named Senju Nawaki instantly remembered the terror of being at the mercy of the Tree-Whacking Potion. Seeing Zhou Duan's vicious expression, Nawaki swallowed, and tears streamed down his face against his will:
"I'll do it!"
Before you continue