The Meaning of Life

Inside the Tsuchikage Office, the atmosphere was as heavy as the dead silence before a storm.

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, hovered in midair with his small body, tightly gripping the battle report from the front lines in the Land of Grass, his knuckles whitening from the force.

The cold words on the report were like sharp knives, piercing through the composure he was forcing himself to maintain. Kannabi Bridge had been destroyed, their supply line had been cut, and Mahiru, Kakko, and Taiseki, three elite jonin, along with multiple jonin and chunin, had died in battle. Konoha's "Yellow Flash," Namikaze Minato, had descended like a nightmare and overturned the battlefield with crushing force.

"Useless! A pack of useless trash!" Onoki finally erupted. His furious roar echoed through the stone chamber, shaking dust loose from the walls. The surprise attack he had painstakingly planned, the elite force he had placed such high hopes in, had actually suffered such a disastrous defeat despite holding an absolute advantage!

The loss of Mahiru and the other two, in particular, was practically like chopping off one of Hidden Stone's arms. It pained him so badly he almost bled. How many resources and how much time did it take to train an elite jonin?

"Calm your anger, Lord Tsuchikage!" Kitsuchi hurriedly advised from the side, his expression just as ugly. "Konoha's Namikaze Minato was stronger than estimated. The Flying Thunder God Technique paired with Rasengan truly was... impossible to guard against. This defeat was no crime of poor fighting."

"No crime of poor fighting?" Onoki abruptly turned around, fury and unwillingness burning in his cloudy old eyes. "It was precisely because we relied too much on this so-called 'absolute advantage' that the enemy landed a fatal blow! Namikaze Minato... Yellow Flash... what a Yellow Flash!" He nearly squeezed the name out from between his teeth.

Hidden Stone's order to retreat had already been issued. The front-line troops were currently in a standoff with Konoha's remaining forces, but with their supplies and spearhead unit lost, continuing the attack was no longer possible. Instead, there was a risk of being counterattacked by Konoha reinforcements. Retreat was the only choice, but Onoki could not swallow this bitter anger!

He floated over to the window and looked at the village below, busy yet unable to hide its decline, his mind racing. Directly retaliate against Konoha? Their forces were damaged right now, and Hidden Cloud's attitude was ambiguous. It was not the right opportunity. But if he simply endured this humiliation in silence, where would the Third Tsuchikage's dignity be? Hidden Stone's morale would certainly suffer a heavy blow.

Suddenly, a cold glint flashed through his eyes. "Kitsuchi, go contact the Bounty Station." His voice was hoarse as he gave the order.

"The Bounty Station?" Kitsuchi froze. That was the ninja world's underground black market for handling bounties and stolen goods.

"Yes." A cruel curve rose at the corner of Onoki's mouth. "Place a bounty of fifty million ryo on Namikaze Minato's head! I want every outlaw in the entire ninja world to know the price of provoking Hidden Stone! Even if they can't kill him, I'll make sure he can't eat or sleep in peace!" This was a way to vent his anger, and also a deterrent. His Hidden Stone Village had not yet fallen so low that anyone could butcher them as they pleased!

By the time the news returned to Konoha, it was already deep into the night.

Inside the Hokage Office, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the detailed battle report presented by the ANBU and remained silent for a long time. The embers in his pipe flickered on and off, illuminating his complicated face.

The victory was certain. Kannabi Bridge had been destroyed, Hidden Stone's offensive had been frustrated, the Land of Grass front had temporarily stabilized, and Namikaze Minato and Kakashi's squad had returned successfully, even bringing back the good news that Uchiha Obito had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Without question, this was a victory worth celebrating.

But the final few lines of the battle report cast a shadow over that victory: "...Uchiha Narong, in order to cover his teammates while carrying out the demolition mission, engaged in fierce combat below the cliff south of Kannabi Bridge against Hidden Stone elite jonin Mahiru, Taiseki, and multiple chunin. He is suspected to have detonated explosive tags, perishing together with the enemy. No remains were found..."

"Uchiha Narong..." Sarutobi Hiruzen murmured the name, and complicated ripples rose in his heart. Did he feel regret? Indeed, a little. A genius of the Uchiha who had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and Orochimaru's disciple as well—he might have become a pillar of the village in the future.

Did his heart ache? Not quite. As Hokage, he had seen too many sacrifices. From the perspective of the village's interests, the death of a member of the Uchiha Clan in battle might even reduce some potential pressure from internal division. Especially since this Narong was closely connected to Orochimaru... That complicated thought flashed past and was pressed down by him, turning into a heavy sigh.

"What a pity... Send word down. Posthumously promote Uchiha Narong to jonin, and compensate his family according to the standards for a hero. Minato has rendered great merit this time, and yet... it is hard for him to escape blame." The final sentence carried an indescribable implication. He needed to pacify the Uchiha Clan, and he also needed to balance Orochimaru's possible dissatisfaction.

The news reached the northeastern front, Uchiha Fugaku's command post.

When the messenger ninja finished reading the battle report, Fugaku waved a hand and dismissed everyone. When only he remained in the command post, his upright body seemed to hunch slightly. He slowly sank into his chair and raised a hand to cover his face.

In the shadows, no one could see his expression at that moment, but a sorrow and suppression that had nearly taken physical form filled the entire room.

For a full day and night, Uchiha Fugaku did not step out of the command post once. He rejected all reports and visitors, bearing this heavy blow alone.

In recent years, the Uchiha Clan's talents had withered. It had not been easy for a Narong to appear, with talent and temperament both of the highest grade. He had even awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan at such a young age. Fugaku had placed great hopes in him, viewing him as one of the key figures who would support the clan in the future and even win more voice for them within the village.

But now, he had died so meaninglessly in a foreign land, without even his bones to be found! To the clan, this loss was immeasurable. Just a few days earlier, the joy brought by his wife Mikoto giving birth to their son, Uchiha Itachi, was now obliterated by this sudden grievous news, leaving only endless exhaustion and bleakness behind.

At the border of the Land of Waves, where they were facing off against Hidden Mist, Might Guy was doing handstand laps around the camp when he received the news.

When his classmate and friend Hyuga Yutaka told him the news in a heavy tone, Guy's movements froze. Then he crashed hard to the ground.

"Narong... he..." Guy abruptly raised his head. The usual hot-blooded energy and smile were gone from his face. Tears mixed with dirt poured from those eyes that were always full of vitality. "How could... Narong was so strong! We promised we'd burn our youth together and become powerful ninja together!" He pounded the ground hard, letting out suppressed sobs.

Narong was an opponent and friend he acknowledged. Though one was surnamed Uchiha and the other Might, years of fighting side by side and daily sparring had already formed a deep friendship between them. Guy's grief was pure and blazing.

From that day on, Guy's training became even more frenzied, almost self-abusive, as if he wanted to vent all his grief and helplessness through sweat and fists. He silently swore in his heart that he would become even stronger, carrying Narong's share with him!

Meanwhile, in a secret base somewhere in the Land of Fields, Orochimaru was dissecting a newly obtained experimental subject with a peculiar kekkei genkai when he received the encrypted message delivered by a summoned snake.

After reading the contents of the scroll, his movements paused for an instant. His golden snake pupils flickered with an unreadable light in the dim laboratory.

"Dead?" Orochimaru's voice was still hoarse and flat, without the slightest ripple to be heard. He set down the scalpel and walked to the side, unhurriedly wiping his fingers with a disinfectant towel, as if he had only heard a trivial piece of news. "How truly... regrettable. Narong-kun was quite a 'talented' child." In his tone, there seemed to be more regret than grief, more like he was evaluating a damaged experimental instrument that had held considerable research value.

"Life blooms so brilliantly, yet withers so easily... fleeting and fragile, like cherry blossoms." Orochimaru walked to the window and looked at the gloomy sky outside, muttering in a low voice, "Precisely because of that, one must break free of this body's constraints and pursue the art of eternity... Narong-kun's 'sacrifice' proves this all the more. Limited life is not worth investing too much emotion in at all. Only knowledge, truth, and... immortality are the only reality."

Uchiha Narong's "death" seemed to become the final straw, making Orochimaru even more indifferent to worldly bonds and pushing his desire for forbidden techniques and longevity research to a new peak. His gaze grew colder, more focused, and also more... dangerous.

He turned and returned to the operating table, picking up the scalpel once again, as if he wanted to cut away all stray thoughts and devote himself completely to that forbidden realm. Konoha's hero? The Uchiha's hope? In his eyes, they were nothing more than a chess piece that had already lost its value on the road to truth.

The smoke of Kannabi Bridge gradually dispersed, but the wounds and undercurrents left by the war seeped even deeper into the hearts of everyone involved, quietly changing the course of the future. Konoha had lost a potential genius, while in the depths of the ninja world's darkness, a new chess game revolving around a "dead man" had only just begun to be set up.