The Sweetness and Bitterness of Konpeito

"When that time comes, Shingetsu, will you come too?"

Just thinking of that wonderful future, filled with hope and warmth, gave Yakushi Chinatsu the strength to keep living with a grateful heart, even if all she had now was a schoolbag stitched from rags and mixed-grain rice that was hard to swallow.

Now she wore a faint smile, the curve of her lips tender as she gazed at Shingetsu with cautious, slightly awkward shyness.

Shingetsu was the first person outside the Orphanage to show her concern of her own accord. Chinatsu hoped to become friends with this kind child, but she also knew that someone as lowly as herself could never win the regard of Shingetsu, who came from the powerful Uchiha clan.

Would she hate me for being so forward?

The thought that Shingetsu might despise her made Chinatsu's heart ache as though someone were pounding on it. Yet however slim her chances, she wanted to try.

"No."

...Ah, so that's how it is after all? Of course. Why would someone from a great clan care about an orphan like me?

Chinatsu lowered her head in dejection, unable even to cry. Speechless with shame, she anxiously wrung her hands, her body as stiff as a length of rotten wood.

An orphan from birth, Chinatsu had endured countless scornful looks and insults. Without the director's care and love, she would probably have died young, like so many other orphans created by this era's wars and poverty.

I was too greedy to want a friend!

Yakushi Chinatsu lowered her eyes helplessly, so hurt and unwilling to accept it that tears nearly fell. Just then, a slender, delicate little hand, pale as snow, suddenly caught her wrist.

"You won't have to wait that long."

Shingetsu had not noticed Chinatsu's dejection at all. Completely absorbed in her own world, she kept saying things no one else could understand, her brows slightly furrowed as though pondering something.

With her wrist suddenly seized, Chinatsu's mind went blank. She looked down at the hand holding her wrist, then up at Shingetsu's serious expression and distracted eyes, and asked in bewilderment.

"What are you talking about?"

"Chinatsu, I promise you, before you become a shinobi, I'll make sure everyone can eat rice!"

That question brought Shingetsu's wandering mind back. Still holding Chinatsu's hand firmly, she spoke in a low voice, her expression earnest, but her words remained incomprehensible.

In that brief moment, she had carefully reflected on her mistake.

Shingetsu had thought she already understood the Shinobi World's low, warped productivity and the suffering of its common people. But now it seemed she had still overestimated things.

The Daimyō and nobles have reached a whole new level of vile and deserving to die!

Still, it was not too late to learn this. And what did it prove? Didn't it fully demonstrate how important farming and stockpiling land were, and just how far-sighted she, Uchiha Shingetsu, had been?

Since the Shinobi World was so desperately short of food, once the harvest came and she held vast stores of grain, wouldn't she be able to do whatever she pleased and throw her weight around wherever she went?

By now, Shingetsu had formed a preliminary plan. In a few months, after the fields yielded a bumper harvest, she would first set aside some grain to help the Konoha Orphanage and Konoha's poorest civilians. While expanding her influence, she would also take in a group of displaced people, then have them cultivate more and larger fields.

Farming truly was an instinct engraved deep in the soul of every Chinese person. Even after transmigrating, Shingetsu still yearned from the bottom of her heart to till the land and grow vegetables.

For now, though, she could only take things slowly. After all, seeds sown today could not be harvested tomorrow.

Across the fields, nurtured by human labor, suitable weather, and fertilizer, green seedlings could only bear their heavy bounty as spring passed into autumn and blossoms gave way to fruit.

That was an iron law of nature no one could defy, except for a certain Wood Release user named Hashirama Senju.

Whenever she thought of this, Shingetsu became so jealous of Hashirama Senju that her face practically twisted beyond recognition.

You have Senju blood, and so do I, so why don't I have Wood Release? Is it just because I don't have asura chakra? But I have Uchiha blood and a God Tree, too!

This isn't fair at all!

The thought that Hashirama might produce everything with a clap of his hands while she had to wait months for a harvest made Shingetsu grind her teeth. But what baffled her most was something else.

That damned Hashirama Senju! How could he not use Wood Release to farm? What a criminal waste!

"...Huh?"

Although her brain had processed Shingetsu's words, Yakushi Chinatsu could make no emotional or logical sense of them. After freezing for a long moment, she dumbly voiced a questioning sound.

"You'll see when the time comes. Don't worry, it won't be long."

Shingetsu patted Chinatsu's stiff shoulder. After a moment's thought, she casually dropped her lunchbox beside Chinatsu, slipped back into her original seat, and began rummaging through her little black schoolbag, which bore her clan crest.

"Found it."

After some rummaging, Shingetsu pulled out the jar of konpeito Hashirama had given her. She gently shook the glass jar, listening one last time to the lovely clinking of the candies against the glass, then reluctantly opened it, selected a red candy, and popped it between her lips.

With grain would naturally come sugar, and greater wealth besides. But none of it would be possible without people.

Without people to cultivate it, land would remain nothing but land and produce no grain. Without people to refine it, seawater would remain seawater, yielding no salt.

No matter where one was, people were what mattered most.

"Kagami, have some candy."

Reaching out to tug on Kagami Uchiha's clothes, Shingetsu picked out a blue konpeito and carefully placed it in his hand.

"Oh, is this for me? Thank you, Shingetsu."

Accepting the precious candy, Kagami smiled with bashful delight, both cheeks flushing red.

But his smile soon stiffened a little, because right in front of him, Shingetsu selected two more candies, orange and purple, and offered them to Miki and her sister.

"Miki, Inari, here."

"Kazuma, Kaen, these are yours."

In the blink of an eye, Shingetsu handed out another two yellow candies, placing them in Uchiha Kazuma's and Kaen's hands.

"How generous, Lady Shingetsu. Are you planning something naughty?"

"Oh, shut it, Inari. This is called enjoying sharing."

After giving candy to all the Uchiha youngsters, Shingetsu simply continued along the seats, handing out sweets beneath the astonished gazes of those youngsters, who were gradually realizing something was off, and the rest of the students.

"Kotoma, yours."

"I get one too?"

Holding a white konpeito, Hinata Kotoma smiled shyly with her lips pressed together. She picked up the candy and placed it in her mouth, savoring it carefully. Its refreshing sweetness swept away the bitterness that had lingered in her heart.

Soon, more than half the class had received a little konpeito, while the others waited eagerly for theirs. But Shingetsu found herself troubled as she looked at them.

It was not because she was running out of konpeito. Rather, among those she had deliberately ignored, aside from the Senju Clan members, only Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura remained.

Ugh, if I could help it, I really wouldn't give them any candy.

After hesitating briefly, Shingetsu finally picked out three green konpeito with considerable reluctance and tossed them in front of the three.

If there had been black ones, she would have chosen three black candies for these three, whose hearts were as black as the bottom of a cooking pot. That would have suited them perfectly.

"...This candy isn't poisoned, is it?"

Shimura Danzō stared fixedly at the green konpeito before him, terrified that some deadly poison lay hidden inside and would kill him the moment he ate it. Beside him, Mitokado Homura, who was already sucking away at his candy, silently rolled his eyes.

"Just eat it. If you don't want it, I'll gladly take it!"

"No!"

Danzo immediately snatched the candy away and carefully placed it in his palm. Torn between wanting the sweet and fearing death by poison, he struggled with himself.

"Why do I still feel like something's wrong?"

Utatane Koharu clicked her tongue in exasperation, simply snatched the candy, and popped it into her own mouth, enjoying it happily.

"Ah, my candy!"

After that whole round, everyone in the class had joined the candy-eating ranks. The once-brimming jar of konpeito now held only a shallow layer.

Shaking the jar with its pitifully few remaining konpeito, Shingetsu sat back down beside Yakushi Chinatsu. She selected a golden candy and personally placed it in Chinatsu's hand, allowing no refusal.

"Everyone's had some now. You should have one too, Chinatsu."

"Huh?!"

Chinatsu stared blankly at the candy in her hand, astonishment, shock, and disbelief flashing in her eyes. Bewildered, she thought:

Had Shingetsu gone through that whole round just so I could have a piece of candy too?

The thought left her rooted to the spot, even the hand holding the candy trembling a little.

No, how could anything so unbelievable happen? How could anyone be so foolish?

Seeing Chinatsu standing there dumbstruck, Shingetsu reached out and gently nudged her shoulder.

"Hurry up and eat it! Or I'll get angry."

"Ah, y-yes."

Still dazed, Chinatsu instinctively put the candy in her mouth, carefully tasting it bit by bit with the tip of her tongue. A rich sweetness quietly seeped into her very being. Unable to resist, she gave it a lick, then another the very next moment.

So this is what people call sweetness?

For the first time in her life, Chinatsu learned what sweetness tasted like, and her eyes suddenly stung.

Her lips moved soundlessly. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. In the end, only her chest rose and fell as she drew breaths tinged with sobs.

This is so strange, Chinatsu thought, lost and helpless. The candy in my mouth is so sweet, so why does my heart feel so bitter and hurt? Why do my tears keep falling?

I can't cry. If this keeps up, what if the candy in my mouth takes on the bitterness of my tears?

How could she waste such a precious sweet? How could she let Shingetsu's kindness go to waste? Yet the more she thought this, the faster Chinatsu's tears fell, like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

Watching Chinatsu weep, Shingetsu said nothing. She took out her handkerchief and silently wiped away Chinatsu's tears.

"There'll be lots of candy in the future, too. Everyone will get to eat it. I promise."

Still making promises no one could understand, she took out the konpeito jar again and pressed the remaining candy, along with the handkerchief, into Chinatsu's hands.

"Take these back to your little brothers and sisters. They're my gift to them."

"Thank you... Thank you..."

Chinatsu clutched the jar and handkerchief, biting her lip hard. For some reason, waves of wrenching pain gripped her heart, making even breathing difficult and agonizing. Yet within that pain, hope and the first light of dawn were slowly rising.

Her tear-soaked vision blurred the girl before her beyond recognition. Looking at that hazy figure, Chinatsu felt an overwhelming yearning well up in her heart. Once again, she gathered her courage and timidly pleaded:

"Could you... hug me?"

Shingetsu did not answer yes or no. She answered with her actions, opening her arms and drawing Chinatsu into her small embrace.

Feeling the girl's warm, gentle embrace, Chinatsu felt as though she were holding the warm sunshine of mid-spring. She hugged Shingetsu's slender body tightly in return, feeling utterly safe.

Summoning her courage, Chinatsu asked earnestly once more:

"Can we... be friends?"

"We're already friends!"

In the end, on that bright, sunny afternoon, apart from Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been driven out of the classroom by Madara Uchiha and deliberately ignored by Shingetsu, the Ninja Academy students and the children at the Orphanage all got to taste the konpeito Shingetsu shared.