Lin Qing picked up a roasted rabbit leg and tossed it over.
Konan caught it but didn't eat. She watched him warily and repeated, "What did you do to me?"
"I just want to have a calm conversation with you."
Lin Qing had read Konan's memories. He knew about her past with Nagato and had also seen her connection to Jiraiya.
A group of children who had grown up in a war-torn region had come to long for peace, hoping to create it with their own hands and challenge the rules of the world. That was brave.
But it also meant facing oppression from those very rules.
Hanzo the Salamander, who had driven Yahiko to his death; the Masked Man, who had manipulated their plans; the conflicting ideologies among the members of their group...
All these things were offshoots of the "rules of the world."
"...Your original goal has been twisted. You're heading toward another kind of hell."
Konan pressed her lips tightly together. "What do you know?! You're an Uchiha young master who lives in Konoha. You have no idea how horribly the civilians in those small, weak nations suffer when war breaks out."
"I do know."
Lin Qing spoke calmly. "It's true that I've never taken part in a war myself, but history will remember all the sorrow and pain."
"His...tory?"
Konan couldn't understand.
The world she lived in had always had a hazy understanding of "history."
The Ninja Academy and the various clans had all deliberately erased much of it. That was why villages, clans, and shinobi seemed to change and grow with each generation, yet they kept fighting the same enemies and making the same mistakes.
Lin Qing waved a hand.
"It's fine. You don't need to understand right away. I won't try to convince you