Chapter 21

Xuan Zhe shot back, "Last time? You saved him last time, and what happened?"

That single question left Sakumo speechless.

"Wasn't this what Young Master Shinnosuke wanted, too? Didn't he say it himself-a ninja who can't complete his mission is trash?" Xuan Zhe shook the empty sake flask. "How nice. He didn't die as trash. He breathed his last as a Konoha hero. Getting his name carved on the Memorial Stone-what an honor."

By the end, he almost failed to hold back his laughter.

What damned honor was there once you were dead?

Hadn't Minato Namikaze had plenty of glory? What had happened to his son?

Sakumo took the sake flask, fell silent for a long while, then tipped his head back and gulped down several mouthfuls himself.

Forget it. Maybe Xuan Zhe was right.

Seeing the utterly convinced look on his older brother's face, Xuan Zhe laughed inwardly. This idiot actually bought it?

Chōza Akimichi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "D-dead? Lord Hokage's eldest son?"

He, too, referred to Sarutobi Shinnosuke as "Lord Hokage's son."

To put it bluntly, in the eyes of their great clans, that identity was all Shinnosuke had left. They had never considered him much of a ninja.

When Tobirama Senju came up, everyone instinctively thought of the "Shinobi World's Fastest Ninja." No one associated him with "the Hokage's younger brother."

An ordinary jonin wasn't weak, but there were plenty of people at that level who could replace one at any time. During a major war, nobody made much of the deaths of a ninja or two of that caliber.

But if it was the Hokage's son, that carried an entirely different weight.

"Karma really doesn't miss a thing..."

Inoichi Yamanaka murmured.

"During that last attempt to assassinate the Second Kazekage, the older brother, Hatake Sakumo, botched the mission to save Shinnosuke and got called trash for it. This time, the younger brother, Hatake Xuanzhe, left him to die and completed the mission perfectly instead. I wonder what Sarutobi Shinnosuke would think if he knew about it in the afterlife."

Perhaps because the ninjutsu he practiced was connected to the mind, Inoichi Yamanaka had always been sensitive and perceptive.

Hatake Sakumo had been condemned for saving someone, while Hatake Xuanzhe had earned merit by leaving someone to die. He couldn't say which brother had done the right thing.

But one thing was perfectly clear to him-anyone had the right to criticize Hatake Sakumo except Sarutobi Shinnosuke.

Someone saved your life, and you turned around and attacked him? What kind of logic was that?

That was precisely why he had never thought much of that young master.

Far too full of himself.

"Did he really die at the Second Kazekage's hands?"

Shikaku Nara, the sharpest mind on the team, suddenly spoke up.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean?"

Chōza Akimichi and Inoichi Yamanaka both turned to look at him, utterly bewildered.

The slower-witted Chōza Akimichi frowned and pressed him. "Shikaku, where did that come from?"

Inoichi Yamanaka caught on faster. He immediately guessed what Shikaku Nara meant, and his expression changed abruptly. "Shikaku, don't tell me you suspect-"

"Shh!"

Shikaku Nara raised a finger to his lips, signaling him to stop.

Inoichi Yamanaka forced down his surging emotions, but his voice still shook uncontrollably. Looking toward Jiraiya, who was chatting with Tsunade and Orochimaru nearby, he lowered his voice. "L-Lord Jiraiya... should know something about **..."

"Stop thinking about it."

Before he could finish, Shikaku Nara cut him off coldly, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"There are things you live longer not knowing."

With those words, he turned and left with the other two, never looking back.

It was as though they had never been there.

As for that speculation just now-naturally, they would take it to their graves.

At dinner that evening.

Orochimaru, the frontline commander-in-chief, announced that any ninja who was injured or had lost a family member in battle could return to Konoha early.

Only a small contingent would remain to guard the border and conduct negotiations with the Land of Wind.

Tsunade had long since lost any desire to spend another second in this miserable place.

Although she hadn't been back on the front lines since the previous year, she had fought desperately in so many battles for Konoha and saved countless lives before that. Everyone had to acknowledge that she deserved the greatest credit for their victory in the Second Shinobi World War.

If she had been willing to stay and become the Fourth Hokage in the original story, Minato Namikaze would never have had a chance.

"What? Dan Katō's dead?!"

Orochimaru had only just announced that the wounded and those whose families had suffered losses could return to the village first. Before his voice had even faded, a strange cry rang out.

Everyone's eyes turned toward Xuan Zhe.

Orochimaru's eye twitched as he looked at Xuan Zhe and Tsunade sitting together.

Could those two behave themselves for once?

Tsunade's face darkened, and she gave Xuan Zhe's shoulder a vicious pinch. "What are you shouting so loudly for?"

With everyone around them looking over, she lowered her voice to explain. "On the fourth day after you left, Konoha and Sunagakure fought again. Orochimaru said a ninja who used black iron sand killed him."

Black iron sand?

Xuan Zhe rubbed his chin, pondering.

The Third Kazekage?

In the original story, Dan Katō seemed to have been killed in an explosion, so he had most likely died at the hands of an Iwagakure ninja with Explosion Release. It could also have been ** tags; those things were everywhere in the Shinobi World.

But Xuan Zhe really couldn't adjust to Dan Katō simply dying like that.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

Wasn't a romantic rival like that supposed to be someone I killed myself for it to feel satisfying?

How had he died so... casually?

For a moment, he felt as though his opponent had fallen before he had even exerted himself.

Seeing his odd expression, Tsunade jabbed him in the waist with her elbow. "Who are you making that face at?"

Xuan Zhe waved a hand. "Nothing, nothing. Dead is dead. With his meager abilities, it made no difference whether he died sooner or later."

Everyone nearby shuddered at those words.

Sure, from Xuan Zhe's perspective, he would have loved for Dan Katō to die sooner, but did he have to be so utterly unrestrained about saying it?

At Konoha's gates.

Streamers fluttered through the air, scattering all over the ground.

The entire village crowded both sides of the street, shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Welcome home! Welcome, heroes!"

"Lady Tsunade! Thank you for saving my husband!"

"Lady Tsunade! Lord Jiraiya! Thank you for all your hard work!"

"Look! That's the [Konoha Black Blade]! I heard he killed the Second Kazekage. That's how we were able to end the war."

"Really? That's wonderful. Konoha has another formidable ninja now. We'll be able to live more peacefully from now on."

The thunderous shouts nearly lifted the village off the ground.

The name the villagers shouted most was "Lady Tsunade." Of every ten Konoha ninja who had been on the battlefield, nine had received treatment from Tsunade herself. In the ordinary world Xuan Zhe had lived in before, anyone with half a brain avoided offending doctors, let alone when living among ninja like this. Who could guarantee they would never take a blade in their lifetime?

Next came the cries of "Lord Jiraiya."

A few calls of "Lord Orochimaru" were mixed in.

Here and there, faint cries of "Xuan Zhe" and "Konoha Black Blade" could also be heard.

Killing the Second Kazekage had hammered the name [Konoha Black Blade] into the consciousness of the entire Shinobi World.

But then there was Hatake Sakumo-his contributions in this war were hardly any less than Orochimaru's or Jiraiya's. Yet, walking all the way from the Main Gate to the entrance of the Administration Building, he barely heard anyone call his name.

Just because he had botched that one mission?

"Tsk, tsk. They're treating you pretty miserably, big brother." Xuan Zhe grinned beside him, rubbing salt in the wound.

"Konoha White Fang! Konoha White Fang!"

"Dad is the best!"

Two cheers suddenly rang out, reaching the ears of the surrounding ninja.

Hatake Sakumo had been wearing a bitter smile, but when he turned to look, his lips immediately curved into a genuine one. The shouts had come from none other than Kakashi and Obito. No, those two little brats, Kakashi and Obito. Beside them stood Rin Nohara, Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy, and the rest of that bunch of little brats, all yelling at the top of their lungs.