So after all that, you didn't hear a single word I said? Kurenai fought back the urge to complain and looked at him resolutely. "Jin, you..."
"I know what you're trying to say." Jin sighed, gently lifting the two pairs of little hands away from his face with a bitter smile. "I don't have any peers from my year in Konoha, but I do in the Hidden Cloud."
"There are some things you can't run from. You have to find the courage to face them... All I can do is put an end to them myself."
Kumogakure
Honko Rai was the only one who knew that the Cloud Hidden Seven's "fourth brother" was still alive, but his reaction was surprisingly calm. "I told you long ago. He wouldn't die."
As for who had been hit hardest by the news, it was undoubtedly Kumoi Chizuru. After returning from Konoha, she had fallen ill again and had only begun to improve today.
Kazama Chijin, Asagiri Shizuka, and the others had stayed by her bedside. Seeing Kumoi Chizuru wake up, Asagiri Shizuka hurriedly asked, "Chizuru, are you feeling better? Does anything still hurt? Should I get the doctor?"
Looking at her companions' concerned faces, Kumoi Chizuru gently shook her head. "Don't worry, Shizuka. I'm all right now."
"What exactly did he do to you? Why... why..." The moment Kazama Chijin recalled that scene, he swallowed the rest of his question.
Kumoi Chizuru tilted her head slightly, remembering that night...
"Do you understand now? This is what I went through. I did finish Brother Shan and Brother Lan off with my own hands."
Jin's voice held no warmth, as though he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him. After "seeing" it for herself, she had let out an anguished scream.