When Konoha was first established, the village cemetery was built behind the Memorial Stone so that no one would forget the heroes who had fallen in battle.
That way, whenever people went to visit their departed loved ones, they would pass by those heroes, quietly nurturing the Will of Fire in everyone.
At that moment, Senba was dressed in black, silently cleaning his grandfather's gravestone. He had a mission that afternoon, and before setting out, he had come to say goodbye to the old man.
As he lay dying, the old man had been most concerned about Senba. But Senba was now in a far better position than most children his age, so the old man had passed away with a smile.
Senba had therefore recovered from his grief fairly quickly. The dead were gone, but those of them who were still alive had to keep moving forward.
When he had finished cleaning everything, Senba didn't leave right away. Instead, he walked toward the Memorial Stone nearby. He wanted to see Konoha's heroes.
The Memorial Stone stood in a square clearing. Senba stopped in front of the name at the very top: "Hashirama Senju."
From there, he walked farther in. Mito Uzumaki, Tobirama Senju, Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, and more—names filled his view as he continued onward.
He couldn't help but feel a surge of respect. Whether or not they had been used up as tools and died, they had all truly protected Konoha.
When he reached the latter half of the clearing, a memorial engraved with "Rin Nohara" came into view. He didn't stop, but walked straight past it.
"Fresh chrysanthemums in weather like this. Looks like Kakashi Hatake's habit of getting lost isn't for nothing."
Thinking back to the bright chrysanthemums he'd just seen in front of Rin Nohara's memorial, Senba couldn't help admiring Kakashi Hatake's devotion.
But sometimes, people appeared as soon as you thought of them. Just as Senba reached the exit, a young man with silver hair and a slanted Forehead Protector walked in.
Seeing the man's outrageous hairstyle, Senba froze for a moment. He knew it was Kakashi Hatake, of course—but what caught his attention was the chrysanthemums in Kakashi's hands.
As if he'd realized something, the hair on the back of Senba's neck stood on end. He kept his expression calm as he walked past Kakashi Hatake.
That must be the child the Third Hokage mentioned. He really does look like the Second Hokage. Like everyone else, Kakashi Hatake marveled at Senba's appearance, then promptly forgot about him.
A few minutes later, Kakashi Hatake looked at the chrysanthemums beneath Rin's memorial. With practiced ease, he placed the flowers he'd brought beside them. He was used to this sight by now.
Thinking that one of Rin's other friends had come to pay their respects, Kakashi Hatake crouched down and wiped the memorial as he told her about what had been happening in his life.
Only this could bring comfort to Kakashi Hatake's deeply wounded heart.
"Is he taking a dump? Does he really have to squat like that, Tobi?"
A frivolous, carefree voice rang out in the pocket dimension not far from Kakashi Hatake, an absurd contrast with its surroundings.
The dimly lit space was filled with countless gray, oblong stone pillars of varying sizes, floating haphazardly in no particular arrangement.
On one of the pillars, Obito, dressed in a black robe with red clouds and wearing a Spiral Mask, watched Kakashi Hatake. The frivolous voice came from behind the mask.
"Shut up!"
Obito raised his left hand and violently stabbed himself in the right side of his body.
After silencing the other voice, the Tomoe in Obito's right eye spun rapidly, forming a sharp spiral. Blood vessels stood out across the white of his eye.
"Kakashi! Kakashi! I'll make you taste what it's like to fall into hell!" His desperate roar echoed through the dark space.
The Land of Rivers lay between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. Its landscape was crisscrossed with rivers and thick with vegetation, but it had no other resources.
The Land of Fire had no shortage of terrain like this, but it was highly coveted by the Land of Wind. Seeing so much water, Sunagakure, surrounded by desert, practically saw red.
Following the principle of stopping the enemy from getting what they wanted, Konoha drove Sunagakure back every time it entered the Land of Rivers. After repeated clashes, this war-ravaged land was left in ruins.
As a result, the Land of Rivers had no independent ninja village. Sunagakure was poor, after all, and its forces descended on the land like locusts, stripping it bare.
It wasn't like Kusagakure, which could pay tribute and then play both Konoha and Iwagakure against each other. That wouldn't work here.
Though tensions were high, merchants had always been the most willing to take risks. Besides, no ninja village would do something as short-sighted as attacking a merchant caravan.
So when a caravan traveling from the Land of Water to the Land of Wind entered the Land of Fire, it set up camp for the time being and sent someone to Konoha to request a mission.
"This is the place where problems are most likely to arise on this mission." Genma Shiranui sipped tea to ease his hangover as he took out a photograph.
After the Third Shinobi War came to a halt, the major ninja villages were all secretly licking their wounds. Some wandering ninjas had seized the opportunity to grow bolder.
A group of wandering ninjas had begun robbing travelers along the only route from the Land of Rivers to the Land of Wind. They were elusive, and only investigators who came later had managed to take pictures of the scene.
Merchants shared information among themselves, so when they heard about the attacks, they brought along photographs provided by survivors.
"Teacher Genma, so we only need to escort them to the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Wind?" Senba picked up the photograph from the table and studied it. The long marks in the picture made him frown.
"Teacher Genma, don't you think these marks look like they were made by some enormous reptile?"
Senba set the photograph down and lightly tapped the marks with his index finger. Yue and Iruka leaned in to examine it as well.
The ground in the photograph was scored with several clear, winding furrows.
"Marks this large, and the scene looks like a battle... It must be a Ninja Beast. A python, maybe? No, that can't be—"
Looking at Uchiha Yue, who had quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, Senba's eyes filled with helplessness. This girl really was careless. If anyone else heard her, it would be another headache.
"Senba, you're not wrong. So the mission office sent someone to consult that person. The conclusion was that the two things had nothing to do with each other, so you don't need to worry."
Only after hearing Teacher Genma say this did Senba relax. The next second, he felt his palm get bitten—and remembered that he was still covering Yue's mouth.
"Bleh!"
With her mouth free again, Uchiha Yue made a face at Senba, teasing him for being so cautious. Beside them, Iruka watched the two fool around with a helpless expression. They really had energy to spare.
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