The Coming Farewell

Ye Wuji sat outside the house, folding paper roses out of sheer boredom. Konan was on the other side, idly playing with a piece of paper in her hands. The dog named Hua was crouched beside her. It seemed to belong to Nagato, but from what Ye Wuji had observed, Hua liked Konan best and was always following her around.

It was almost noon. After Yahiko and Nagato had gone out, Ye Wuji had started training, but half the day had passed and they still hadn't returned. Seeing Konan looking worried, he set aside his training. He'd meant to keep her company with a chat, but she didn't seem in the mood, so he stayed quiet and simply remained by her side.

Just as Ye Wuji was about to fold another paper rose, Konan suddenly stirred. Seeing the smile on her face, Ye Wuji knew Yahiko and Nagato must have returned.

Sure enough, before long, two figures appeared in Ye Wuji's line of sight. It was Yahiko and Nagato. Both were smiling now, as if something good had happened.

"Konan, the war is about to end. We can go home," Nagato said happily.

"Yeah. Once the war is over, we can go back to our own home. We really have Hanzo-sama to thank for this. He challenged Konoha to a battle to decide the outcome once and for all. Whatever the result, the war should end after that." Yahiko smiled. "Still, I hope Hanzo-sama wins. I believe he can do it. After all, he's Amegakure's guardian deity. No one has been able to defeat him all these years. Konoha is strong, but it's still not quite a match for Hanzo-sama—unless they gang up on him."

"Mm." Konan nodded, then said, "Jiraiya-sensei should be there, too. With his abilities, he might even be one of the people fighting Hanzo. Do you think anything will happen to him?"

At the mention of Jiraiya, all three fell silent. Yahiko was the first to speak. "Sensei is strong, but he's still rather young. And he is from Konoha, after all. There's nothing we can do about that. But with his abilities, even if he can't win, he should be able to escape safely."

As he spoke, Yahiko glanced cautiously at Nagato. Nagato didn't respond to the subject at all. He went silently into the house. Watching him leave, Yahiko said to Konan, "Try not to bring up Konoha from now on. Jiraiya-sensei saved us and taught us some ninjutsu, but Nagato's parents were killed by Konoha shinobi. Keep that in mind, Konan. And you too, Ye. Don't mention Konoha in front of your big brother Nagato. Understand?"

"Understood." Ye Wuji nodded.

"Ye is so well-behaved and clever—and so handsome, too. You'll be amazing when you grow up." Seeing Ye Wuji nod, Yahiko praised him.

"All right, Konan, go make something to eat. I'm sure everyone's hungry. You haven't eaten either, have you? Whatever it is, we can talk after we eat."

After the four of them finished eating, Yahiko gathered everyone together again. "Let's talk about what to do from here. We're definitely going home; that's where we belong. But should we go now, or wait until the war has died down?" he began.

Konan spoke next. "I think we should wait until the war is over and the shinobi from the other countries have withdrawn before going back. The war might be close to ending, but nobody knows what could happen next."

Yahiko and Konan continued discussing it. From what they said, Ye Wuji gathered that their village had been caught in the middle of the fighting for a long time. Even now, there were still plenty of shinobi from various countries in the area. The shinobi wars didn't have much to do with ordinary people, but even so, the number of civilians caught in the crossfire and killed every day was staggering.

Nagato remained silent throughout Yahiko and Konan's discussion. In the end, Yahiko made the decision: they would go home now. His reasoning, as he put it, was, "This war has caused a lot of casualties, and there must be plenty of orphans. During the war, the countries will look after some of them to show off their strength and the generosity of the great nations. They'll at least give them a little food. But now that the war is nearing its end, both the victor and the defeated will leave the Land of Rain and return to their own countries. They won't have time to care for those orphans. The winning side might be all right, but the defeated side usually falls into disorder at a time like this. This will probably be the hardest time for the orphans. That's why I've decided we should go back now. We might be able to save a few of them."

After hearing that, Konan wasn't very happy about it. To her, the two people standing right there were the most important people in her life. She didn't care what happened to anyone else. When she'd been at her lowest, those two had helped her. But when she saw that Nagato agreed, she said nothing more. She would support anything those two wanted to do—even if they wanted to destroy the world.

The three of them quickly reached an agreement and decided to leave first thing tomorrow morning. The earlier they got there, the more likely they were to save someone.

So the early form of Akatsuki was about to take shape? Weren't most of its early members orphans from the war? Though later, Zetsu and the others seemed to have killed them all.

"Ye, come with us, too. You don't have any family now, so stay with us. We can look after one another." Once the others had made their decision, Yahiko said this to Ye Wuji.

After that battle, Ye Wuji had told them about his background in this world. So, seeing that Ye Wuji was an orphan too—and the youngest among them—

Yahiko's sincere words touched Ye Wuji. If I stay with them, maybe I can influence them and keep Madara and the others from using them. That was what he thought, at least.

But Ye Wuji knew it wasn't realistic. He didn't know what Madara might do to anyone besides Nagato, and the Third Shinobi World War would break out in just a few years. Amegakure would be one of the main battlefields again.

Ye Wuji knew how little he could do. In his current state, he might not even live to see the Fourth Shinobi World War. To stand against Madara and the others, he knew he needed strength more than anything.

Since he wasn't strong enough yet, Ye Wuji could only stay away from the whirlpool of war. So, faced with Yahiko's invitation, he shook his head and said, "I won't go with you. I want to leave this village. I don't want to stay here anymore."

Hearing this, Konan and Nagato were about to say something, but Yahiko stopped them. He smiled. "All right, then. Konan, Nagato, go get your things ready."

At Yahiko's words, Konan and Nagato exchanged a glance, then went outside.

Only after Konan and Nagato had left did Yahiko speak to Ye Wuji. "Ye, do you hate war too?" That was the first thing he asked. Nagato really didn't know how to answer.

To tell the truth, although Ye Wuji had been an orphan since childhood and had suffered a lot, he didn't really know what to say about war. In his previous life, he'd only seen wars in movies and on television. In reality, by the time Ye Wuji's generation—and those who had experienced war—had passed away, the people who came after them had never lived through one. Plenty of people said war was terrible and that many would die, like in the Second World War, which was said to have killed tens of millions. But in the end, it was just a number.

And with technology advancing, many people of Ye Wuji's generation had completely forgotten the suffering war brought. Influenced by all kinds of movies and TV shows, some even looked forward to war. Ye Wuji had been influenced by the old director of his orphanage. The old man had never actually fought in a war, but he'd lived through that era, so his descriptions of war were much more real than anything on television. So, strictly speaking, Ye Wuji was against war, but since he hadn't experienced it himself, it wouldn't be wrong to call him neutral.

Ye Wuji hadn't experienced death in war in his previous life. But in this world, even though he still hadn't experienced war firsthand, he had been a victim of it. He also knew war was inevitable. The best one could do was keep it as small as possible, involving only a few people and sparing ordinary civilians. That was the kind of war Ye Wuji believed was best.

But no matter how much people talked about something they hadn't experienced themselves, some would still take it lightly. Ye Wuji remembered finding a pretty good job in his previous life. It wasn't as good as some people's jobs, but to him, it was the best he could hope for: looking after a warehouse. Most of the goods stored there had been shipped from Japan. His job was simply to record the items when someone came to collect them; he didn't even have to carry anything. Best of all, it paid well. The work was easy, and the money was good. Unfortunately, he lost the job after just two days.

It was around the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. It was a very important day in China, and people on television and elsewhere were commemorating it. Japan had never admitted what happened, but that didn't stop the people of China from remembering. That day, a lot of people gathered along the road to commemorate the event, blocking the warehouse entrance and making it impossible to ship anything for a while. The owner showed up, but he wasn't stupid. Seeing the crowd, he knew better than to say anything, so he waited nearby for them to disperse and the shipments to resume. One of the deliveries seemed to be particularly urgent.

The owner muttered, "What's all this for? They do it every year. How am I supposed to make money if they delay things? Besides, it was only a few hundred thousand people who died. With so many people in China, if you ask me, they could die a few more times. It'd even ease the population pressure." He'd only spoken quietly, and Ye Wuji was the only one nearby. The owner didn't seem to be afraid of Ye Wuji saying anything. But he hadn't expected Ye Wuji to say nothing at the time, then grab a stick from the side and smack him over the head with it. Ye Wuji didn't stop there. He kept beating the man with the stick until he was barely recognizable. One of his hands was broken. By the time the owner's men reacted, some were coming to grab Ye Wuji while others were preparing to call the police.

Ye Wuji said to the beaten man, "Are you sure you want to call the police? This time, it was just me beating you. Believe me, if you call the police, I won't be the only one who'll want to beat you up." Those words were why the only time Ye Wuji ever beat someone, he didn't get into any trouble.

Of course, after beating him, Ye Wuji was bound to lose the job. He didn't tell anyone about it afterward. After all, that man wasn't the only one who thought that way. Sometimes Ye Wuji saw people online say the same thing: so many years had passed, and China was still hung up on it. To some people, it was only a few hundred thousand deaths. These days, unless you casually killed a hundred million people, you couldn't even call yourself the protagonist of a novel.

But, as far as Ye Wuji heard, the man who'd said all that could no longer go online. Apparently, one day he'd been walking down the street when someone destroyed his hands and mouth. Ye Wuji didn't approve of that kind of violence, but he felt that someone like that deserved it.

While Ye Wuji was lost in these thoughts, Yahiko watched him from the side. Seeing him remain silent, Yahiko thought he hated war because he'd suffered on the battlefield. People who hated war because they'd been hurt by it existed in every world. Yahiko assumed Ye Wuji felt the same way, and that was why he didn't want to go back to a place where fighting was still going on.

"All right, don't think about it too much. Our Ye is a strong kid. Go get some rest. We're parting ways tomorrow." Having misunderstood Ye Wuji, Yahiko didn't say anything more.

"Mm." At this point, Ye Wuji didn't know what to say. He'd been about to say something, but then another thought came to him. He walked toward the door, his hands clenched so tightly that his nails were nearly digging into his skin. He seemed not to notice as he walked out.

"Looks like he still hasn't come to terms with his parents' deaths," Yahiko said.

"Yeah. To go through something like that at such a young age... We had it a little better than him. But do you think he'll be all right on his own?" Konan asked, appearing in the room with Yahiko.

"He should be. Ye is stronger than we think. Before he met us, he was already living on his own, wasn't he? Still, the person who taught Ye ninjutsu seemed to be from Konoha, too. Do Konoha's people always do things like this?" Nagato said.

"Maybe Konoha had something to do with his parents' deaths. They like to make up for things they've done, don't they?" Nagato continued.

"Nagato, don't say that. Jiraiya-sensei is a good person, and what happened had nothing to do with him." Yahiko spoke to Nagato sternly.

"Then are you really going to let Ye go off on his own? The war is still going on. What if he runs into the enemy?" Konan asked Yahiko.

"It'll be all right. I'll give Ye a route to follow. Nowhere is completely safe, but there are still plenty of peaceful places. If it weren't for the fact that our home is here and we have things to do, we could go somewhere like that, too." Yahiko said this, and when he saw that Konan still wanted to say something, he continued, "Don't worry. Once the war is over, there should be a few years of peace. Then we can send Ye to Konoha and have him find the person who taught him ninjutsu. If he lives as an ordinary person there, won't he be safe?

"Besides, once we've taken care of our business, we can go visit Ye. All right, go on. With the time you have, why not get some things ready for him?"

Only then did Konan come around. She hurried out, full of enthusiasm.

"Ye, since you call me big brother, I ought to prepare a few gifts for you. I hope you'll like them," Yahiko murmured to himself.