"Finally, we're back..."
Looking at the gates of Konoha Village, which still didn't feel all that familiar, Qi felt a wave of emotion...
After the battle ended, everyone returned to camp to rest for a while, then set off for the village. This time, though, the ones coming back weren't just Orochimaru and him. Uchiha Xiu, Hyuga Tong, and the others were coming along too.
After all, being a ninja was a quintessential short-term combat profession. Even a so-called Shinobi World War was just a mission to a ninja. Once the mission was complete, they naturally returned to the village to rest, while a new batch of ninjas took over the guard duties.
Konoha had suffered grievous losses in this battle. Several hundred ninjas had died, bringing the casualties to more than two-thirds of their total forces. Qi didn't know how many people had died on the Rock Ninja side, but he figured their losses were even worse...
As far as the people around Qi were concerned, only three of the more than twenty elite Chunin Orochimaru had originally brought with him had survived the journey back to the village. Of the teammates who had been with Qi, only Uchiha Xiu and Hyuga Tong had made it out alive.
Bloodline limits really were a wonderful thing. Qi had Ice Release to thank for his survival. Although most powerful ninjas didn't possess bloodline limits, those who did were often among the very strongest. That was simply a fact...
Wasn't even Orochimaru, who was incredibly powerful, completely suppressed by the Mangekyō Sharingan? Without the Mangekyō Sharingan, Itachi Uchiha would be no match for Orochimaru at all. Orochimaru feared nothing—except that there was nothing he could do about the Mangekyō Sharingan's genjutsu...
With those thoughts on his mind, Qi followed the others through the village entry formalities and entered Konoha Village.
"Orochimaru, thank you for your hard work this time. You did well."
As soon as they entered the village, Qi saw a large crowd gathered up ahead. Villagers lined both sides of the street, staring at their group. Qi knew they were the ninjas' family members.
The people at the head of the crowd were obviously important figures in the village. Leading them was the head of Konoha Village itself—the Third Hokage.
Qi didn't need to ask why he knew that was the Third Hokage. The attire of the Five Kage was easy to recognize. No leader of any other village would dare wear those clothes or call himself a Kage, because the Five Great Villages would see it as a provocation.
If the daimyo of the Five Great Nations were the five poles of the world, then the Five Kage were the five poles of the Shinobi World. No sixth country or village could claim a status like theirs.
"Lord Hokage."
Orochimaru was still a "good student" at this point. He put aside the false front he usually wore around outsiders and sincerely bowed to the Third Hokage.
Perhaps few people in the world could truly understand Orochimaru's thoughts, but Qi could guarantee that the Third Hokage, Tsunade, and Jiraiya, who had been part of Orochimaru's childhood, all held a special place in his heart.
There were no truly good or evil people in the world. Orochimaru would eventually become little more than a mad scientist. He might have been bad, but he couldn't have been all that bad. Otherwise, he wouldn't have waited so long before developing an obsession with eternal life.
He might have been cold-blooded, but in the original story, he had chances to kill Tsunade and Jiraiya, yet he didn't. Even Anko, his former student, was someone he could have killed in an instant, but he spared her too. If it had been Qi, though, he would have killed Anko, because that would have been more effective.
Qi guessed that, to Orochimaru, these people might have been like Ogata was to him. In Orochimaru's eyes, perhaps no one in the world truly mattered to him except Ogata.
"Heh heh..."
The Third Hokage smiled at Orochimaru. Standing behind him, Qi took the opportunity to examine the man hailed as the strongest Hokage in history.
The Third Hokage wasn't nearly as old and frail as Qi remembered. He had a few wrinkles at most. He was still a long way from being called old.
"Orochimaru, is this the child from the Yuki Clan?"
The Third Hokage had noticed Qi. After all, everyone standing beside Orochimaru was an important figure, including two or three Jonin, while Qi was the only little kid standing there. His clothes also looked so similar to Orochimaru's that it was impossible not to notice him.
"Yes, this is Kagetsu Qi."
Orochimaru turned sideways and pulled Qi forward.
"He's my student, Lord Hokage. You should call him your grandstudent."
"Grandstudent!"
Qi didn't dare act up in front of all these bigwigs—in fact, a whole crowd of them. He dutifully called out to the Third Hokage.
Didn't he see who all those people behind them were? Especially the man beside them, dressed in black with a scar on his face. The guy was probably Konoha's number-one iron-blooded fanatic: Danzo!
Not only that, Qi clearly saw people from the Hyuga and Uchiha Clans in the crowd. He didn't even need to think twice to know what level these people were on...
"Heh heh, what a polite child. You don't need to be so nervous."
The Third Hokage's eyes crinkled with laughter. There was nothing he could do about Tsunade, but Orochimaru had finally taken on a student who suited him. As his teacher, the Third Hokage felt proud too.
It wasn't that he looked down on that child, Mitaraishi Anko. Her achievements in the future would surely be limited. He was confident he could judge that sort of thing correctly; his eye for people had been proven right by the Sannin.
Of the students Jiraiya had taken in back then, he had been most impressed by Minato. The outcome had proven his judgment right: Minato had become one of the top young ninjas in Konoha and was renowned throughout the Shinobi World.
Now, he had the same confidence in Qi, especially after reading the reports of Qi's performance on the battlefield.
Everyone's performance on the battlefield was recorded in detail. That was easy enough for a ninja village to do. There were only so many people fighting, after all. Besides, was there any organization in the world better at gathering intelligence than a ninja village?
Qi was very much like the Sannin when they were young, which was exactly the sort of thing the Third Hokage liked. He was now very glad he had given Qi to Orochimaru rather than Minato. Given Qi's temperament, Orochimaru was clearly the better teacher for him.
"Ahem... Sarutobi, now isn't the time for you and your student to catch up. We should take care of business first."
Seeing that Sarutobi seemed to have forgotten the matter at hand, the scarred man in black stepped forward and nudged his arm.
"The family representatives are all waiting."
What a bold guy. He actually dared interrupt the Hokage, and did it so casually...
Qi was more and more certain that this guy was Danzo. Other than Danzo, he couldn't think of anyone in all of Konoha Village who would dare talk to the Third Hokage like that.
"Quite right."
The Third Hokage nodded and adjusted the large hat on his head. He began greeting the other Konoha ninjas one by one, then gave an impromptu speech. Naturally, it was all about encouraging them and announcing the village's rewards.
The rewards were the most important part, of course. A ninja village's rewards weren't just a pat on the back or a few words of praise. They came with tangible benefits.
Wars in the Shinobi World often produced powerful ninjas, and this system was one important reason. There were many things that would be impossible to obtain during peacetime, but during a war, as long as you survived and earned enough merit, you could exchange it for rewards from the village.
Those so-called rewards were often scrolls containing ninjutsu, with the rank depending on the merits you had earned.
And merit could be accumulated. If you didn't have enough after one mission, you could keep building it up until you reached the required amount.
Honestly, it was a lot like the points system from Qi's previous life...
Before long, the Third Hokage finished his speech and announced that they were dismissed. Only the higher-ranking ninjas remained where they were. Most of the others hurried over to the villagers to reunite with their families.
The villagers who couldn't find their family members kept asking the other ninjas about them. Cheers and sobs rose from the crowd, with the latter far more frequent than the former. After all, Konoha had lost more than two-thirds of its forces this time...
Qi couldn't leave either. He wasn't a Jonin or an elite Chunin, but he was Orochimaru's student. He absolutely couldn't leave before the Third Hokage did. After all, he was the Third Hokage's grandstudent now.
"Orochimaru, I heard the Tsuchikage's son took part in this battle too?"
The Third Hokage and Danzo had also stayed behind. It was Danzo who spoke.
"He was injured, though, so he won't be returning to the battlefield anytime soon."
Orochimaru nodded, then glanced at the Third Hokage. Although he was the Third Hokage's student, he leaned more toward Danzo when it came to wartime strategy.
"The Rock Ninja's attacks have been getting more and more intense lately... But we still have to guard against Kumogakure, so we can't focus all our strength on fighting the Rock Ninja. This is troublesome..."
The Third Hokage understood what Orochimaru meant, but he was troubled too. After all, as Hokage, he had to consider many more things, both inside and outside the village...
"Exactly. The daimyo of the Land of Lightning has been heavily supporting Kumogakure in recent years, and the Cloud Ninja are becoming more and more aggressive! We must make Sunagakure increase its attacks on the Rock Ninja. Our Konoha went to war with them to support Sunagakure!"
Danzo was the one speaking again.
"Otherwise, what do they take us for? A bunch of suckers!?"
"But the daimyo's cuts have weakened Sunagakure, and they have in fact paid us a substantial amount. If we put it that way, it will inevitably damage our relationship as allies."
The speaker was another leader from the village. He frowned.
"We should phrase it differently."
"Payment? Konoha doesn't need that money!"
Danzo had never known the meaning of tact, and besides, in his mind, everyone outside Konoha was an enemy. Anything was fair game.
"We took their money to do them a favor, so people wouldn't think we were just giving Sunagakure charity. Can that little bit of money make up for the losses we suffered fighting the Rock Ninja? Sunagakure should understand that better than anyone!"
The bigwigs kept arguing, while Qi, watching from the side, was dumbfounded.
Listen to that... What a way to put it... Konoha had clearly been forced to fight, yet after Danzo ran it through his mouth, it became Sunagakure owing Konoha a favor...
He couldn't imagine what the Sunagakure ninjas would think if they heard this...
But then Qi thought about it. The ninja world had never cared much for reason. Someone like Danzo might not be a bad leader, after all. There were always people who had to be sacrificed, whatever the system. As long as it wasn't him, that was all that mattered.
He wasn't completely clueless about social cues. He knew Orochimaru had told him to call the Third Hokage "grandteacher" on the Third Hokage's instructions. You couldn't just casually call someone that. Clearly, both the Third Hokage and Orochimaru recognized his worth and had decided to make him one of their own.
But from the moment he called the Third Hokage "grandteacher," he had been pulled into the whirlpool of Konoha's upper echelons. He had become a member of the Senju faction, and the surrounding bigwigs were undoubtedly witnesses to it.
The Senju and Uchiha had been at odds ever since the founding of Konoha. Qi didn't care about that, though. He knew the Uchiha Clan was a doomed family and wouldn't last much longer.
What he cared more about was the infighting within the Senju faction: the struggle between the conciliatory faction represented by the Third Hokage and the hardline faction represented by Danzo... That was the really dangerous part...
"All right, that's enough arguing."
After letting the bigwigs argue for a while, the Third Hokage, as their leader, had no choice but to say a few words and state his opinion. There was no point in arguing forever.
"We'll do as Danzo suggested and ask Sunagakure to send more troops. But we really do need to be careful with the wording. Whatever may happen later, Sunagakure is our ally right now. Konoha can't humiliate its allies, or who would ever want to form an alliance with us again?"
"Understood. We'll do as Lord Hokage says."
Seeing that the Third Hokage had spoken, the other bigwigs sensibly stopped arguing. Each of them had already achieved their own aims.
Even Danzo, though still dissatisfied and convinced that the Third Hokage worried too much, accepted his decision and said no more.
"Then it's settled. You can all go."
The Third Hokage nodded to everyone, then turned to Orochimaru and Qi.
"Orochimaru, come with me to my office... You must be tired too. Go get some rest first."
"Yes."
Qi was eager to leave as soon as possible and nodded like a pecking chicken. When he saw the Third Hokage and Orochimaru finally set off, he turned around and started to look for Ogata.
But a hand grabbed him...
"Where are you going?"
A little annoyed, Qi turned around and saw—well, wasn't that Uchiha Xiu?
Thinking back, he had been with Orochimaru the whole way and hadn't had a chance to talk to him.
"I'm going home..."
Qi replied. He looked behind Xiu and saw a middle-aged man who resembled him standing not far away, watching them.
"Is that your father?"
"Ah... No, don't change the subject. Did you forget what I said? If you made it back alive, I'd give you two swords?"
Qi realized... he really had forgotten... After all, it had been something he'd said casually while cutting people down. Who would remember that?
"About that... Are you really giving them to me? I heard chakra weapons are expensive."
Qi put extra emphasis on the word "chakra." For one thing, an ordinary sword would be useless to him. For another, he was subtly trying to keep some distance from the Uchiha Clan.
He wasn't a naive child anymore. He might not have eaten pork, but he had at least seen pigs run. Those people up above loved turning a non-issue into a real issue, or a small issue into a big one. He didn't want to get dragged into trouble for no reason.
Besides, weapons weren't all that important to him. The best weapon of the Yuki Clan was Ice Release itself. The ice crystals created by Ice Release were practically the best chakra weapons.
"You know a lot about the village. My father just told me you'd joined Konoha not long ago, but I never would have guessed."
Uchiha Xiu's smile was tinged with amusement.
"Don't worry. Me giving you something won't cause you any trouble. If one of my family's elders wanted to give you something, that would be a problem."
"Heh heh..."
Qi gave an awkward laugh.
"By the way, where's Tong?"
"I was just praising you, but are you pretending to be dumb, or are you really that dumb? I can call Tong my brother when we're outside, but now that we're back in the village and both our families' elders are here, do you think we can still act that way?"
A helpless, mocking look flashed across Uchiha Xiu's eyes.
"Forget Tong. How long our friendship will last is anyone's guess. That 'grandstudent' of yours, heh... Don't tell me you don't know what it means."
With that, he patted Qi on the shoulder.
"I, Uchiha Xiu, keep my word. I'll bring the swords to your home later. Give me your address."
"I'll be going to my former teacher's place for a while. Just bring them there."
At that point, Qi felt he was being too pretentious. They were only two swords. What was there to make a fuss about? He should just be straightforward...
Qi gave Uchiha Xiu Ogata's address, chatted with him for a few more moments, then said goodbye and left, heading for Ogata's residence.