"I don't know."
In the end, she answered softly.
Lie Yang nodded.
"Then let's eat first."
Kurenai Yuhi froze for a moment.
She had originally thought Lie Yang would continue pressing her.
Or use her wavering to make her completely stand against Konoha.
But Lie Yang did not.
He simply picked up his chopsticks again.
"When people are hungry, they can't think clearly."
Kurenai Yuhi looked at him.
After a long while, she softly murmured, "Mm."
The two resumed their meal in silence.
After their brief time together, the atmosphere in the courtyard gradually settled.
Night shrouded the eaves.
The food on the table was slowly eaten away as well.
Yet Konoha, a thousand miles away, was blanketed by an oppressive gloom that made it hard to breathe.
People still walked the streets.
Shops remained open.
At the Ninja Academy, children trained as usual.
But everyone spoke far more quietly.
The number of guards around Konoha's perimeter had multiplied severalfold.
Inside the village, patrol ninjas moved back and forth in teams of three.
ANBU figures continually swept across the rooftops.
The Konoha Police Force had also set up checkpoints everywhere.
Uchiha Lieyang was still alive.
Not only was he alive.
He had taken Kakashi's and Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan, severely wounded Might Guy, and taken Kurenai Yuhi away.
The news weighed like a boulder on the heart of every Konoha ninja.
No one knew whether Lie Yang would return to Konoha again.
Nor did anyone know how much death he would bring the next time he appeared.
Whispers among the ninjas never stopped.
"Did you hear? Captain Kakashi's left eye was gouged out."
"Shisui lost both eyes too."
"That was two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Might Guy opened the Seventh Gate and even used Daytime Tiger, yet he still couldn't kill