Questions

"Ha, ha, ha!" Yizhe laughed heartily.

Ever since his hands had been injured, he had constantly worried whether they could ever be healed. Only after meeting Tsunade had he seen hope.

Now that they had finally recovered, all his gloom vanished in an instant!

"Why are you making such a racket?" Tsunade covered her ears, her willow-like brows raised in displeasure.

"Let's go, we're heading back! I'm starving!" she muttered as she packed the various surgical instruments into a scroll.

"Are you coming or not?" Tsunade frowned and shouted.

She leaped out of the snow pit and saw Yizhe still standing there blankly, staring at his hands and turning them over and over.

"Mm!" Tsunade's sudden shout made Yizhe jolt.

"I'm coming!"

With that, he used the Body Flicker Technique and followed her out of the snow pit.

"They're just two hands. What's so fascinating about them?" Tsunade muttered as she walked.

Along the way, she caught Yizhe happily staring at his hands, turning them over and over without end. For no reason at all, it irritated her.

"You don't understand!" Hearing Tsunade mutter, Yizhe lowered his hands and clasped them behind his head. Looking quite pleased with himself, he said happily, "Regaining what was lost is one of life's greatest joys!"

"Regaining what was lost?" A strange look flashed through Tsunade's eyes.

Who knew what she had remembered? She suddenly fell silent. Seeing this, Yizhe and Shizune did not dare disturb her and could only fall silent as well.

The three of them walked across the snow in utter silence. The air was eerily still, broken only by the sound of their soles scraping against the snow.

"Kid, do you think reincarnation exists in this world? Is there any ninjutsu that can bring the dead back to life?" After a long silence, Tsunade was finally the first to break it.

"I don't know about ninjutsu that can bring the dead back to life." Yizhe shook his head.

"But as for reincarnation, I think it must exist!" he said firmly.

As for why he was so certain, it was because he himself had benefited from reincarnation!

Of course, he could not possibly tell anyone such a thing. He did not mind judging others with the worst possible intentions.

He had no desire to become experimental material for someone else's research into reincarnation!

"Why are you so certain?" Tsunade abruptly turned around, her expression grave.

Her beautiful brown eyes carefully scrutinized Yizhe's face, trying to determine whether he was simply spouting nonsense to attract attention.

But she was disappointed. There was not the slightest wavering on Yizhe's face, only complete conviction.

Yizhe was startled by her sudden turn, but he fearlessly met her sharp gaze. He had no idea what had provoked this hot-tempered beauty!

Unable to make anything of it, Tsunade turned back and kicked up a clump of snow, scattering it through the air as she asked, "Why?"

"Do you know about the Nine-Tails Rebellion from over two years ago?" Yizhe asked in return.

Though he could not reveal his own secret, there were still other examples he could explain.

"Of course we do! So what?" Shizune cut in.

Hearing Tsunade and Yizhe discussing such a strange topic, she became interested as well. Although they had left the village early and had not experienced the Nine-Tails incident themselves.

But an event as major as the Nine-Tails rampage in Leaf Village could not possibly be kept secret. News of it had long spread throughout the Ninja World.

Thus, they had learned quite a bit about it while traveling outside the village.

"The Fourth Hokage used a ninjutsu called the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal the Nine-Tails," Yizhe said slowly.

"The Dead Demon Consuming Seal?" Tsunade frowned. This was the first time she had heard of this ninjutsu.

"It is said to be a forbidden technique that sacrifices the user's own soul to summon the Death God and seal away the opponent's soul," he explained.

"And then?"

Tsunade still did not understand. Why had he brought up this sealing technique? What did it have to do with reincarnation?

Yizhe shook his head and said helplessly, "Have you never wondered why people have souls?"

"Where do souls come from? Where do they go after people die? Why does the Death God exist?"

"They can't possibly appear from nothing and vanish into nothing, can they?"

"That's right! Where do they come from? Where do they go?" Tsunade murmured as if possessed.

"My lady, Lady Tsunade!" Shizune, standing nearby, sensed something was wrong and called out loudly.

"Mm!" Tsunade jolted and came back to her senses.

"My lady, what's wrong?" Shizune asked worriedly.

"It's nothing, nothing! I was thinking about something and got lost in thought!" Tsunade waved her hand, indicating that there was no problem.

"But even so, you still can't conclude that reincarnation exists," she sighed helplessly.

"If you keep longing for something, there will surely be an echo. So long as there's even the slightest hope in your heart, it's better than having nothing at all!" Yizhe said firmly.

"Hope...?"

Tsunade looked up at the dim sky in the distance and fell silent again, but her steps became a little quicker than before.

Before long, after passing through the city gates, a cluster of low houses piled with snow appeared before the three of them.

Clang!

Before they even entered the city, they heard the sound of steel striking steel.

The three looked up toward the sound and saw two black-clad samurai locked in fierce combat at a street corner.

Passersby all wore frightened expressions and kept their distance, not daring to approach as they hid to one side and watched.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Tsunade frowned and spoke softly.

As soon as she finished speaking, she took the lead and hurried toward the battlefield.

As a healer, she instinctively detested this sort of brawling.

"Hey, sir, can I ask why those two samurai are fighting?" Yizhe stopped a young man who was watching the commotion nearby.

"Those two?" The young man curled his lip and said rather helplessly, "One of them is named Yuichi, and the other is Koji!"

"They both live on this street and have been close since childhood. I've never seen them have any conflict before!"

"Recently, for some reason, they started arguing over minor issues related to swordsmanship. At first, they were only small arguments, but gradually there was friction between them. Today, they actually started fighting outright!"

After saying that, the young man shook his head regretfully, utterly unable to understand it.

"Swordsmanship?" Tsunade and Shizune, who had listened patiently nearby, exchanged glances in confusion.

As ninja, it was difficult for them to understand such obsession.

Since it was a matter of swordsmanship, Yizhe found it understandable instead.

From the various books he had read in his previous life, he knew that swordsmen were a group of idealistic and obsessive people. It was perfectly normal for them to come to blows over matters of swordsmanship.

Unyielding even unto death—those words described people like them.

The samurai of this ninja world also primarily cultivated the way of the sword. Their people were like swords, and so were their temperaments! They were probably much the same as swordsmen. Other problems might be easy to resolve, but if it involved swordsmanship, then it would be troublesome!

To these idealistic people, nothing was more important than the sword!

If they wanted the other side to acknowledge their beliefs, there was nothing more direct than proving it with their swords.

"Lady Tsunade, should we stop them?" Shizune pointed at the two samurai fighting fiercely in the middle of the street and whispered.

Tsunade remained silent, merely watching the battle in the field.

This morning, while reviewing the draft before uploading it, I suddenly thought of a joke.

So I added it in. O(≧?≦)O You should be able to spot it. It's pretty obvious!