The Meaning of Choice

There was no need for any extra introduction.

The moment he took hold of the "white powder," the revulsion that welled up inside him silently told Lin Qing exactly what this stuff was.

Drugs.

The officials of the Land of Waves were secretly trafficking drugs.

There were two things Lin Qing hated most: gambling and drugs.

Sasuke reached out with his little hand and grabbed Lin Qing's sleeve.

He had rarely seen Lin Qing's eyes so cold.

"I'm fine."

Lin Qing spoke softly. "But..."

He looked up at the dozens of crates of "white powder" on the ship, then turned toward the front.

An old, rusty fishing boat pulled alongside them. Black cannon muzzles stuck out from both sides of the vessel.

Forty bare-chested sailors with dark skin and axes and knives hanging from their waists stood aboard. When they saw the warriors lying on the ground, their faces turned murderous. They drew their weapons and advanced on Lin Qing.

"...They're the ones who should be worried."

"Star Platinum!"

This was a fight with no suspense.

Not a single person could take one punch from Star Platinum. Everyone who rushed at them was sent flying even faster, blood spraying from their mouths as they crashed into the sea.

"Monsters!"

At last, the sailors broke. They forgot all about their comrades and fled back to the fishing boat.

"Get lost!"

Little Sasuke shouted after them, grinning with delight.

He loved traveling with Lin Qing. They could settle scores and speak their minds without holding back.

Ninja?

What ninja?

He had no intention of holding back.

But Sasuke's smile soon froze on his face.

Shouts rang out from the fishing boat opposite them. Its cannons swung around and took aim.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three cannonballs arced through the air, all fired at once.

"Star Platinum!"

Lin Qing raised a hand and pointed.

Star Platinum roared and spun through the air, kicking away the first cannonball.

Then it spread its arms, caught one cannonball in each hand, and with steel-hard arms, hurled them all back.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The three cannonballs shrieked through the air, breaking the sound barrier and moving so fast they left only afterimages on the retinas.

A series of rumbles and screams followed.

The fishing boat was pierced and torn to pieces. The sailors screamed as they fell into the sea.

The battle had begun out of nowhere, then ended just as abruptly.

Only then did the passengers come to their senses and realize they had escaped with their lives.

They weren't fools.

Drug trafficking was absolutely forbidden, even in this wretched Ninja World.

There was only one cargo hold on the ship. Drugs that had to be kept dry would naturally be stored there. So... now that they had seen the drugs, would they be allowed to leave the ship alive?

The answer was obvious.

The passengers sank to the deck. At last, they could let their hearts, which had been in their throats, settle back down.

"W-we're saved."

The sea breeze brushed their faces. The relief of having survived left them dazed as they looked toward Lin Qing's back. He wasn't particularly tall or imposing, but right now, he gave them a sense of security beyond compare.

Lin Qing had Star Platinum throw all the white powder on board into the sea. It tossed the bald warrior in after it, then slapped the sailors who had been knocked unconscious awake and gave them two choices:

Sail the ship or go into the sea.

Their lives mattered more. The remaining sailors hurriedly nodded and bowed, putting their best kowtowing manners on display as they got the ship moving again.

After Lin Qing and the others had gone far away, the bald warrior surfaced and spat toward the cargo ship.

"Idiots! I've spent half my life on the water. You think I'm going to drown in the sea?!"

There was a lifeboat on the fishing boat. The sailors who had fallen overboard had already gone to find it. It wouldn't be long before they got back, and then they could row to the Land of Waves.

"You dared touch Lord Gato's cargo? You're dead, kid! You could run to the ends of the earth, and someone would still cut off your head and bring it back!"

The bald warrior cursed.

The sea split open, and a sailor with blood running down his head surfaced, gasping for breath. His face was filled with terror. "Sir! The fish, the fish..."

"Fish?"

The bald warrior didn't understand what there was to be afraid of.

Had they run into a shark?

No, that couldn't be right. He knew this route well.

Sharks didn't roam these waters.

"The fish have gone mad!" the sailor shouted.

As if to prove him right, a palm-sized fish leaped out of the water and dove into the sailor's mouth, clamping down on his tongue.

"Ah—!"

The sailor screamed and reached into his mouth to pull out the crazed fish, but a second bit his hand, and a third gouged out his eye.

The bald warrior stared in shock at the sight before him.

He recognized the fish leaping out of the water. They weren't supposed to be aggressive. Even more shocking were their eyes—

Ruby-red.

That was what happened after they consumed drugs!

The fish had eaten the drugs Lin Qing had thrown into the sea. Stimulated by the chemicals, they had gone mad!

Only then did the bald warrior notice how eerily still the sea was. Not a single sailor was in sight.

He looked down. The water was crimson.

"Stay away from me!"

The bald warrior's desperate wail rang across the sky.

Lin Qing looked away.

Sasuke seemed to want to say something, so Lin Qing flicked him on the forehead and said with a grin:

"Out with it."

Sasuke scratched his head and lowered his gaze. "I was just wondering... weren't we a little too conspicuous?"

He meant what they had done to the fishing boat.

It had felt great at the time.

But thinking it over afterward, he realized there were holes in their story everywhere.

Once the ship docked, Konoha would only have to make a few inquiries to learn they had come to the Land of Water.

"Sure, we were conspicuous. But that's what choices in life are about."

Lin Qing said, "When you threw that kunai, hadn't you already made your choice?"

"That was just my emotions getting the better of me..."

Lin Qing shook his head. "What people call 'emotions' are the fruit borne by the tree called your 'value system,' which has grown within you over the years.

"A cold-blooded ninja couldn't feel what you felt. Can you imagine Danzo flying into a rage and stepping in to save Xiaotao?"

"But... was it right?" Sasuke asked.

Lin Qing rubbed his little head.

"There's no right or wrong in something like this. If you absolutely have to call it right, then it just needs to meet two conditions—"

He held up two fingers.

"First, you thought it through, and it was true to your heart.

"Second, you're willing to pay the price and bear the consequences."

Sasuke thought back once more.

Was he willing to risk Danzo tracking him down to save Xiaotao?

The answer was yes.

Having just lived through the massacre of his clan, Sasuke couldn't bear to see anyone he knew get hurt again.

He gradually understood what Lin Qing meant.

"Brother Ao, you're really incredible. Not just because of your strength, but also..."

Sasuke placed his right hand over his heart.

"The strength in here."

Lin Qing smiled, taking it as a compliment.

Incredible?

In the real world, he'd been an out-and-out failure.

Things had been fine while he was in school, but after he started working, he never fit in with the workplace.

There were too many things Lin Qing couldn't turn a blind eye to.

Once, he stopped his boss from sexually harassing a female colleague. The incident caused a huge commotion, but in the end, the colleague who had been harassed called it a misunderstanding.

Lin Qing became the one who couldn't "read the room."

Afterward, his boss made things difficult for him and his coworkers ostracized him, thinking that would make Lin Qing regret what he'd done.

But Lin Qing didn't regret it.

He hadn't stopped the harassment because he had something against his boss, nor had he done it to save the female colleague who later turned the blame back on him.

Lin Qing had simply felt that it wasn't right.

Just like today.

Of course, doing the right thing required having the means to do it.

In his previous life, Lin Qing's means had been his technical expertise as a core member of his team.

In this life, it was the JOJO System.

As for the meaning of choosing what was "right"...

Lin Qing leaned against the railing. A gentle sea breeze drifted by, and he narrowed his eyes as he listened to Xiaotao's laughter and Sasuke's haughty snort.

Xiaotao stepped forward and gave Sasuke a big hug.

Sasuke stood frozen in place.

A smile curved Lin Qing's lips.

Maybe this was the meaning.

"Woo—woo—"

The ship sounded its horn.

By dusk, they had reached the Land of Water.