After the War

The war did not truly end the moment Hanzo turned away.

It was only that the battle between the Three Sannin and Hanzo struck the scales of the Land of Rain battlefield like a heavy hammer. Hidden Rain Village seemed to have given up entirely, and its entire front collapsed within days. At the same time, Hidden Sand Village was beaten back step by step and forced to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Land of Fire. On the northern front, Hidden Stone Village saw that although Orochimaru had transferred away his main force, the remaining defenders and traps had sealed off the sector so tightly that, after much hesitation, they ultimately chose to withdraw.

The Second Shinobi World War officially ended in Konoha's thirty-seventh year.

That long war had been like an enormous meat grinder, crushing an entire generation's flesh and blood and scattering it across the vast land. Though Konoha had won most of its battles, there were far more empty houses in the village than there had been before the war.

After the war ended, Tsunade walked out of the hospital and stood on the cliff for an entire afternoon without saying a word. In that war, she had lost two people: her only younger brother, Nawaki, the last bloodline of the Senju Clan, and her lover, Kato Dan. Those two deaths tore open a wound in her heart that could never heal, so she chose to leave Konoha, leave the shinobi world, and leave behind everything connected to the word "shinobi."

Jiraiya chose to remain at the border of the Land of Rain rather than return. It was said that he had picked up several war orphans after the final battle and decided to raise them for a while. Having witnessed lives fade away on the battlefield, witnessed human nature twist, collapse, and decay at the brink of life and death, having learned the terror of war, the fragility of peace, and the countless white bones buried beneath the words "the shinobi world," he began traveling throughout the shinobi world.

After Bai Ye spent a long time recovering in Konoha's postwar camp, he withdrew with the troops back to Konoha. Hatake Sakumo's injuries were too severe, and he remained in Konoha Hospital for a long time before finally being approved for discharge.

On the day he left the hospital, Sakumo did not ask anyone to pick him up. Leaning on a cane, he walked out of Konoha Hospital's corridor one step at a time.

Bai Ye stood at the entrance to Konoha Hospital, Sakumo's short sword in hand. Someone had wiped down the sheath, and the bloodstains smeared across it had become faint brown marks.

Sakumo took the short sword and slung it diagonally across his back, securing it with a spare strap so that its weight was evenly distributed across both shoulders.

"Let's go home."

The Hatake Clan's little two-story house was as unremarkable as ever. The two pine trees by the entrance had grown much taller, and the neighbors had helped tend the yard, pulling the weeds clean.

When Sakumo pushed open the door, he heard the sound of hurried little footsteps coming from the living room, one after another, their rhythm growing faster. It was completely unlike the delicate whimpers he had made that autumn when he had peed all over Bai Ye.

Kakashi Hatake was more than two years old now.

At the sight of them, he came wobbling out from the middle of the living room, holding up an unsharpened kunai. His silver hair was a shade darker than Sakumo's, more grayish silver, and the corners of his mouth drooped slightly, giving him a complicated expression that mixed indescribable grievance with stubbornness.

"Dad... up!"

Sakumo stood in the entryway, his cane in his left hand and his right hand braced against the doorframe, smiling as he looked at Kakashi holding the kunai.

Kakashi stood before Sakumo and looked up at the man whose face and neck were still wrapped in bandages, whose silvery white hair had been cut much shorter, and whose body carried a mixture of hospital disinfectant and the bloody tang of scabs. Very sensibly, he gave up on being held by his old father.

"Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't."

"You're lying."

Sakumo smiled.

Bai Ye stood at the door and watched Kakashi hug Sakumo's leg and rub against it hard. Then, with a tiny hand not even as big as his own fist, he grabbed Sakumo's index finger and looked back at him.

"This big brother... I've seen him in the photo album."

"This is your Brother Bai Ye." Sakumo patted Kakashi's head.

Kakashi looked at Bai Ye again, then turned back and gripped Sakumo's index finger even tighter.

That evening, Sakumo set up a charcoal brazier and an iron grill in the open space outside his house. Bai Ye obediently went to the nearby butcher shop and bought fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables.

"Bai Ye, seriously, with your swordsmanship, you shouldn't be this bad! Look at this piece! It's so thick—how's Kakashi supposed to eat it? And this one! It's so thin that the moment I put it on the grill, it burns!"

"Where did you buy these shrimp? I'm telling you, Uncle Kishimoto's seafood isn't much good. He mixes the live ones with the dead ones and won't even let you pick. You need to buy from Auntie Seto!"

Listening to Sakumo's complaints, Bai Ye tightened his grip on the kitchen knife as he cut the meat.

I won't argue with an injured man! He must've been hit in the head by a ninjutsu... That makes no sense, though... A kitchen knife is still a knife, so why does cutting meat feel so awkward...

Konoha's thirty-eighth year, spring.

In the second year after the war ended, Bai Ye shifted the focus of his life back to training. During the expedition, his aunt had moved away from the Uchiha Clan Grounds without leaving an address. She only had someone pass along an envelope containing a stack of money and a note—"You're grown now. Live well." Bai Ye put away the money, tucked the note into a book, and continued practicing with his sword.

After seeing the note, Bai Ye simply moved into the Hatake home. Every day, he practiced swordsmanship in the Hatake Clan's backyard, swinging his sword from early morning until dusk. At such times, Kakashi would painstakingly drag over a little stool and sit in the backyard corridor to watch Bai Ye train. At first, the piercing shrieks frightened him so badly that he covered his ears, but later he got used to them and could sleep peacefully amid the sound.

A few months later, he tried picking up that unsharpened kunai and imitating Bai Ye's movements in the yard. Sakumo leaned against the doorframe and watched, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly. Bai Ye glanced back at him, and Sakumo shook his head without saying anything.

In summer, Minato returned from the Land of Rain.

The day he returned to Konoha was an evening. The setting sun dyed all of Konoha orange-red. Bai Ye was practicing swordsmanship in the Hatake Clan's backyard when he heard a knock at the door. When he opened it, Minato stood outside, his yellow hair turned a warm bright orange beneath the sunset. His smile held something more than Bai Ye remembered. Jiraiya was still in the Land of Rain, and Bai Ye did not ask Minato what he had experienced there. Everyone who returned from the battlefield had changed in some way. Bai Ye squatted in the corridor, wiping his sword, while Minato leaned against the pillar beside him. The two talked for a long time.

Fugaku was the first person Bai Ye encountered when he returned to the Uchiha Clan Grounds after the war.

After the war ended, the Uchiha Clan Grounds returned to an exceedingly slow sort of normalcy—the patrols walked more slowly through the streets, new target paper hung from the posts on the training grounds, smoke once more rose from the incense in the shrine, and those clansmen who had lost loved ones in the war settled into their empty homes.

Fugaku stood on the training ground with his lips pressed together, dressed in a dark blue Uchiha Clan uniform. He told Bai Ye that he would soon report to the police force. The clan had arranged for him to begin training there as a low-ranking officer.