"Do you know who I am?" Senju Tobirama watched Hanyu Yu's expression as he gave his name. Hanyu had looked stunned and surprised when he heard the introduction, but beneath those emotions, there was also a faint sense of I knew it.
"Ah... Anyone who paid even a little attention to the war would know the name of the Hokage of the Land of Fire. To ordinary people like us, you're one of the culprits responsible for separating us from our loved ones and driving us from our homes." Hanyu quickly composed his expression. Memories sealed away in his mind for years were surging back, but he couldn't let that show... so he offered a seemingly reasonable explanation for his momentary lapse.
As he spoke, he pointed to the center of his forehead, indicating the ninja symbol on Tobirama's Forehead Protector. Though ninjas were a mysterious profession, it wasn't impossible for ordinary people to recognize the symbol on someone's Forehead Protector... It belonged to a ninja village called Konoha.
The Land of Fire, the Hidden Leaf Village, the Second. Once Tobirama had given his name, it was perfectly "reasonable" for a commoner like Hanyu to describe his identity so accurately...
If not for the blood and mud smeared across half of Tobirama's face, Hanyu would have recognized him at once. But he absolutely couldn't let on that he knew.
"A man of great importance..." Hanyu could only pretend to marvel. As he compared the scene before him with his memories, the events became clearer: this dying man was the Second, which meant the two men who had just died in a heap were probably Kinkaku and Ginkaku of the Cloud Village.
"The war, huh?" Under normal circumstances, a pointed remark like Hanyu's would have prompted Tobirama to say something like, "War is never one-sided. No one wants to start one." But there was no need for him to say that now... Though Konoha had indeed been invaded in this war, and its actions could be described as a defensive counterattack, did any of that matter to a homeless child?
Tobirama even considered himself one of the "culprits" Hanyu had mentioned.
"How old are you?" Tobirama asked. Perhaps it was the last flicker of life before the end, but he seemed to have regained a little strength.
"Thirteen? I think so, but I can't remember exactly... Why do you ask?" Hanyu answered without thinking.
"No reason. You just don't act like a child your age, but... there's nothing wrong with that."
Whether it was his clear speech, calm demeanor, or logical behavior, Hanyu really didn't seem like a child his age... The most obvious trait of children was their emotional behavior, and there was no sign of that in him.
If a child that age wasn't a ninja, they'd be lucky not to scream at the sight of someone as close to death as Tobirama. How could they calmly hold a conversation?
The Second was puzzled by Hanyu's precociousness, but it was hardly worth praising, celebrating, or even mentioning. Hanyu looked young, but this was already his second life.
Unfortunately, it seemed he had been born into an age of chaos. The only thing in his favor was that if he searched his memories hard enough, he could find information about this chaotic era, or what was also known as the "Shinobi World."
"After you've been through enough, you naturally grow more mature." Hanyu gave a vague answer. He had now sorted through the memories in his mind and focused his attention on what was happening before him.
One of them was one of the Five Kage, powerful enough to shake the world; the other was nothing but a "homeless child." Their difference in status was immense, but the gap between them was even greater in another way: one was dying, while the other was only just beginning his life.
"Could you do me a favor?" Tobirama had little time or reason to dwell on trivial matters now. "After a while, please take care of my body. Someone like me carries too many secrets and too much intelligence, so it can't be allowed to fall into enemy hands. The best thing to do is burn me to ashes and erase all trace of my existence."
"Can't you take care of something this important yourself?" Hanyu hadn't expected him to make such a request.
"I had enough strength and means to do it before, but after treating your injuries, I can no longer take care of myself... As you can see, I can't even stand now. Besides, asking someone to erase their own corpse is rather inhumane, any way you look at it." Even now, Tobirama showed a rare glimpse of his dark humor.
Yes, dark humor... For ninjas who had secrets to protect, it was common to dispose of their own bodies when they took their lives.
Not giving Hanyu a chance to refuse, Tobirama continued, "From our conversation, I can tell you're someone who longs for a peaceful life. And in this world, there's no safer place than a ninja village. So if you take word of me back to Konoha, they'll take you in."
A ninja village was naturally relatively peaceful, but... "Would a ninja village really let some ordinary outsider settle there? Especially during wartime..."
Hanyu was tempted, but he also had his doubts.
"Konoha will take you in. As long as you're not a spy from another village, everything will be fine if you give them this." Tobirama spoke with certainty and placed a piece of paper on his knee.
Hanyu certainly wasn't a spy, but he didn't understand why Tobirama would trust a stranger like him. The man before him was the Second, after all. Unable to hold back, he asked, "If you really are an important figure in the Hidden Leaf Village, wouldn't you get a lot in return by handing me over to another village?"
"No. You won't."
"Why do you say that?"
"This place is much closer to the border of the Land of Fire than it is to any other country."
"I understand..."
Even if only for the sake of his own safety, Hanyu wouldn't take the long way around.
"Then everything's settled." Tobirama let out a long sigh, sounding either regretful or relieved. After saying that, he didn't speak again.
Hanyu sat quietly where he was. He wasn't thinking about the Hokage just then; he was trying to suppress his pain and slowly regain his strength.
"Hey."
About two hours later, he tried calling out to Tobirama.
There was no answer. The tree hollow was silent.
Hanyu knew it was time to get to work.
He struggled to his feet and walked over to Tobirama. First, he picked up the piece of paper and found that it was covered in a code he couldn't understand. He didn't bother trying to decipher it and carefully tucked it into his clothes.
Then he reached out and checked Tobirama's breath. He had indeed stopped breathing.
Given Hanyu's injuries, there was no way he should have been able to move around again so soon. The fact that he could walk normally showed that Tobirama had somehow treated him.
The tree hollow was strewn with fallen leaves and small pieces of dry wood. Hanyu didn't move Tobirama's body. Instead, he piled all of it around him, then turned and went outside to search through the drizzle for damp firewood that could still burn. After spending most of the day going back and forth, he had piled enough fuel to fill most of the tree hollow.
Starting a fire was easy for someone like Hanyu, who was used to living on the road. But before he lit the kindling, he fell silent for a moment, then walked over to Tobirama again and removed his Forehead Protector.
Then he finally lit the fire. Once he was sure it had caught, he quickly backed away from the hollow.
Smoke spread rapidly. The heat of the flames drove away the chill of the autumn rain, but it was still raining, and the only fuel was wood. Hanyu wondered whether the fire could truly meet Tobirama's request to "burn himself to ashes."
But his worry vanished the next moment. A few popping sounds came from within the flames, and the fire roared up as if someone had poured a huge can of gasoline onto it. In no time, the entire tree was burning.
It must have burned something the ninja had been carrying, setting off a chain reaction.
To avoid being caught in the flames, Hanyu had to retreat again.
A tree so immense that ten people could barely wrap their arms around it must have taken decades, even centuries, to grow. But in just a few breaths, it had become a towering, blazing torch... Death always came faster and more fiercely than growth.
Under the scorching heat, the drizzle evaporated into rising mist, shrouding the area.
He didn't know whether this might start a forest fire, but that didn't seem worth worrying about. What mattered was that he looked likely to fulfill his promise. Thinking this, he glanced at the flames again... and the sight made his hair stand on end.
Tobirama's silhouette flickered in and out of view within the flames, but at that moment, Hanyu clearly saw him raise one hand and give a thumbs-up.
It seemed to be a gesture of approval for Hanyu keeping his promise.
That meant that even as the flames consumed him, even now, Tobirama hadn't died. He was still conscious.
"No wonder he's a... ninja."
Ninjas never trusted others easily, especially not a ninja like the Second, Senju Tobirama.
Hanyu truly didn't know how to describe what he felt as he watched the scene before him.
He had come through an age of warfare and followed his elder brother in bringing that chaos to an end. He was unmatched in strategy and didn't shy away from schemes. He always imagined the worst of his enemies, was ruthless, and had blood on his hands. He had waged war abroad time and again, killing countless people, and ruled with an iron fist at home, his methods harsh and severe. Senju Tobirama had spent his life amid bloodshed.
Yet even for a man like him, killing was only a means to an end, never an end in itself. He had saved Hanyu, whom he had accidentally injured, not out of kindness, but simply to make one thing clear:
He was the Hokage of Konoha, not a bloodthirsty criminal or an inhuman terrorist.
In the sixteenth year since the Hidden Leaf Village was founded, the First Shinobi World War had reached a strategic stalemate. Konoha was even preparing to sign a peace and alliance agreement with its chief enemy, Kumogakure. Yet during the alliance ceremony, Cloud Village renegades launched a surprise attack and assassinated both the Second Raikage and the Second, undoing everything the two sides had worked toward since the war began.
The figure in the flames quickly disappeared, but the "torch" kept burning into the night. By then, Hanyu had long since left.
Before long, dawn was near, and the rain stopped. Faint morning light fell on the clear blue sky after the rain. Hanyu looked back toward the place where he had spent the previous night, but the rolling mountains and lush vegetation naturally blocked his view. He could no longer know what had happened there. And yet... everywhere he looked, the world after the rain was exceptionally beautiful.
"Konoha, huh..."
Compared to a life spent wandering, Konoha might be a better choice for Hanyu.
One rainstorm had ended here, while another would fall beyond the horizon, out of sight.
Before you continue