Memorial and Transformation

The next day, Shiro got up early and changed into a black kimono. He did not have much of an issue with wearing one—when in Rome, do as the Romans do. He ate Japanese food, spoke Japanese, and even used a Japanese name; why would he care about a kimono? Besides, it did not mean anything. It was not as if he had no chance of going back. At worst, this was just a trip.

That said, Shiro still found the kimono uncomfortable. But today was a special day, so he obviously could not just do as he pleased. No matter how uncomfortable it was, he had to wear it. It was a sign of respect for the ninja who had died in battle.

Yes, today was the memorial service for the ninja who had fallen on the battlefield. To show respect for the fallen, nearly all ninja had no missions and gathered in the village.

Duy and his son also stopped training for the day, a rare occurrence, and changed into black kimonos before heading to the Memorial Stone.

There were many people heading toward the Memorial Stone, but no one spoke. Everyone simply walked in silence.

By the time Shiro arrived at the Memorial Stone, many people had already gathered there. There were ninja and civilians alike. No one had specifically been told that attendance was mandatory; everyone had merely been informed of the time.

Yet everyone had consciously set aside what they were doing. The ninja had also made time in their schedules, refraining from taking missions during this period or only accepting short ones. Thus, many people were present. However, only the village higher-ups and the families of the fallen stood in the open space before the Memorial Stone. Everyone else, including Shiro and the others, watched silently from the outskirts.

After a while, the crowd gradually stopped growing. Nearly the entire village had arrived, yet despite the sheer number of people, the grounds remained quiet.

At that moment, the Third Hokage stepped forward. "Villagers, they have not died. They still live in our hearts, and they are still protecting us. So do not grieve. We must let them see our happiness and not let them leave with regrets!"

"A person only lives once. There is no need to force yourself onto a path you dislike. It does not matter whether you live freely or die freely. But no matter which path you choose, do not forget to protect those you cherish. We cannot let their sacrifices be in vain. We must face the life ahead with strength!"

"I firmly believe that wherever leaves dance, fire burns. The fire's shadow shines upon the village and lets new leaves sprout."

Shiro stood beside Yamada and silently watched the Third Hokage. Listening to the Will of Fire, so familiar from his previous life and mockingly called the strongest genjutsu by netizens, he felt something different in this setting. Perhaps wars began for profit, but by their later stages, they were more often fought to end the war and protect one's homeland.

Because of this, Shiro now admired even more those heroes who had shed their blood for that red nation. He could not do it. Even though he now possessed strength ten times greater than theirs, he still could not compare to them. It was the difference in conviction. They fought for their country, while Shiro only fought for the people around him.

The crowd gradually dispersed. After saying something to Yamada and the others, Shiro walked toward Kushina's group. He said nothing, merely standing there quietly as he watched Tsunade and the others weep. Shiro, Minato, and the others did not try to comfort Tsunade again.

Because any words now would seem pale and powerless. Those who had never experienced the loss of someone they loved could not understand that kind of pain. Shiro had never experienced it either, so he could only stand to one side and watch.

Watching Tsunade cry, Shiro knew that the Tsunade Princess among the Sannin had died along with Nawaki and Dan.

Perhaps only that man, who had still become a hero amid extreme misfortune, could bring the Tsunade Princess back to life.

After a while, Tsunade and the others rose to leave. The dead were gone; they could not remain immersed in the past. According to Tsunade, she was going back to prepare something. She did not tell Shiro and Minato what it was, but Shiro guessed it was probably the plan to assign a medical ninja to every squad. Still, Shiro remembered that the plan seemed not to have passed. He said nothing. It was not something he could interfere with yet.

However, not everyone had left. Orochimaru still remained at the Memorial Stone.

Before leaving, Shiro glanced at Orochimaru. He vaguely remembered that Orochimaru seemed to have begun accelerating his descent into darkness from this point onward.

For the next two days, Shiro trained with Duy and the others at the training grounds, preparing for Ryūchi Cave's trial. But he was not too worried. After all, he had carefully prepared a trump card to deal with the Cannon Fodder Snake!

However, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and the others still had many matters to deal with over the next two days. It would be several more days before they could arrange Shiro's trial, so he went to the training grounds to train with Duy and his son.

Shiro's current training was fairly simple: he repeatedly shot arrows, compared his performance against the archery experience he had gained through Projection, identified his shortcomings, and made adjustments.

But while that sounded simple, actually doing it was another matter entirely. To use a fitting analogy—

It was like reading a game guide. When you read it, it seemed easy: just 123 transform, 123 transform, 123 add. I can do that too. But when you actually tried it... well, everyone knew how that ended.

So Shiro still needed to practice again and again before he could truly make it his own. It was not all that dull, though. While he could not improve with every arrow, he could still improve a little every two or three shots. Being able to feel his own progress was wonderful. It was just a bit too expensive.

So Boss Ma was right: spending money made you stronger, and salary created happiness.

Once roughly seventy percent of his arrows had been used up, Shiro would stop practicing archery and switch to Shuriken techniques. He still needed to master those. The more skills, the better. During this process, he also used Reinforcement Magecraft for coordination training, so it was not a waste of time.

After finishing all that, he would practice taijutsu with Duy and the others, and the day would more or less be over.

Unlike Duy and the others, Shiro would wander the streets after dinner rather than continue training. After all, more than twenty years of life in his previous world still had a great influence on him. He had been a couch potato for over twenty years. Although he had gained dreams after crossing over, asking Shiro to train desperately like Duy and the others was impossible. It would never happen in this lifetime.

The reason Shiro had reached his current level, aside from forcing himself to train every day, was largely the training boost brought by that Heroic Spirit Card. In truth, his current situation was already quite good. He was gradually adapting to this new life. When he had first arrived in this world, even if he forced himself to train, he could not keep it up for half a day.

Fortunately, after entering the Ninja Academy, the requirements became stricter. Then he met Kushina, who forcibly pushed him to train. Only then did things improve somewhat.

But that was normal. Shiro had been an otaku in his previous life, and a low-tier, half-useless one at that. It was impossible for him to arrive here and immediately strive to become stronger.

Fortunately, Kushina and the others had forced him along. Otherwise, Shiro felt there was a high chance he would have died on the battlefield. Of course, Duy and the others deserved credit too, though Shiro really did not want to admit it.

Some might think Shiro was foolish. Could he not have waited until the war ended before attending the Ninja Academy?

Shiro had wanted to, but the problem was that he did not know what year the Second Shinobi World War ended. When watching Naruto in his previous life, he had basically skipped flashbacks. He only knew a little about events before the story began from summaries. How was he supposed to know when the Second Shinobi World War ended? If it dragged on too long and he became ineligible to enroll, would he not simply be waiting to die? An otaku like Shiro did not know any effective training methods.

Therefore, Shiro was deeply grateful to them. One coincidence after another had come together to create the Shiro of today. He was not exceptionally diligent, but this was enough. This was Shiro. Otherwise, he had another way to grow stronger quickly: imitate Shirou Emiya, so the Heroic Spirit Card's effects could be maximized.

But in the end, the one left alive would only be Shirou Emiya!

There was a saying that put it well: if you pretended to be a good person for your entire life, then you truly became a good person.

This was because the Heroic Spirit Card had a side effect. It possessed a faint suggestive effect. When the card's support reached its maximum, that suggestion would appear as well. This was one reason Shiro had not used that method.

He knew he was only an otaku. He did not have the confidence to withstand that kind of suggestion.

But that was all in the past. The current Shiro had begun to enjoy training a little. Of course, that was mainly because he was too bored. There was nothing at all here—not even a tile-matching game.