After listening to Kabuto Yakushi's analysis, calm to the point of cruelty, Ino Yamanaka could no longer hold herself up. She slid slowly down the cold wall.
Her gaze swept over the wreckage. Just minutes ago, her companions had sat here, talking and laughing. Now only spatters of blood and scattered personal belongings remained, silently telling of the tragedy that had just taken place.
"They... they're all..."
Shoyo Takeuchi sat slumped in a pool of blood, clutching his hair with both hands. Tears dripped down his face, mingling with the blood smeared across it. "Sato was teaching me how to decipher a coded message just now. And now... now all I can touch is his..."
"Pull yourself together!" Kabuto Yakushi's voice cracked through the heavy air like a whip. "This isn't the time to cry."
"What do you know?" Shoyo Takeuchi jerked his head up, his bloodshot eyes full of anger and despair. "Have you ever watched your companions explode into a bloody mist right in front of you? Have you ever smelled this much blood? I still have their... all over me!"
"So what?" Kabuto Yakushi cut him off, his gaze icy behind his glasses. "Has Naruto Uzumaki preserved the peace for you for so long that you've started to think spying is like the cartoons Anya watches? Some make-believe game full of adventure?"
He stepped forward, his voice low but piercing.
"What did you think war was? A thrilling clash of Ninjutsu? Glorious deeds recorded on a list of honors?"
"No. War is feeling a companion's body slowly go cold in your arms. It's the endless cries of the wounded. It's that agonizing moment when you have to end a gravely injured companion's life with your own hands."
Kabuto Yakushi spoke evenly, but every word carried weight.
"Those