"No, you do!"
Jingyi stared into his eyes.
"???"
I was avoiding responsibility?
Was I?
Hatake Sakumo froze, while Jiraiya looked a little confused.
"Sir, there was no war without casualties. From the day we became shinobi, we had to accept that reality."
Jingyi raised a hand and patted Hatake Sakumo's shoulder. "There's no use dwelling on it. If you think you were wrong and that the destruction of the elite unit was all your responsibility, then pull yourself together, rest and recover. Once you're healed, wipe out Iwagakure's people."
"Your comrades sacrificed themselves. We can't just let the culprits live in peace, can we?"
"Right! Jingyi said that well."
Jiraiya clapped his hands hard and began joking around.
"Sir, think about it. If we accidentally die and reach the Pure Land, how are we supposed to face those dead comrades and teammates?"
"We haven't even avenged them."
That was quite the thing to say...
Jingyi couldn't hold back and smacked Jiraiya. "If you don't know how to talk, then shut up."
"I'll do my best to pull myself together."
Hatake Sakumo smiled, though there was still a hint of confusion in his eyes.
I tried. Handle this sort of thing yourself next time. Don't drag me into it. Jingyi gave Jiraiya a look that said he had done all he could.
Hatake Sakumo was the type who liked to get trapped in his own thoughts. Advice had very little effect on people like that; whether he could break free depended on himself.
Jingyi had no solution, and Jiraiya was even more helpless.
After lying together in the infirmary for so long, he and Hatake Sakumo had quickly grown closer. It was precisely because he cared about him as a friend that he hoped Hatake Sakumo could move on.
Unfortunately,