Three days later.
Konoha had barely caught its breath amid the ruins.
Those who needed burying had been buried, what needed repairing had been repaired, and the sounds of crying had slowly faded.
Nearly a third of the people were missing from the streets-dead, injured, or fled.
But those who remained were still moving forward, step by step.
Funeral processions followed one after another, white banners fluttering from one end of the village to the other.
Shuo leaned against the entrance to the Mission Hall, a candy in his mouth.
An orange wrapper, a chestnut pattern, quiet and still.
Sai stood beside him.
"Third procession."
"Mm."
"The Third's funeral is tomorrow."
"Mm."
Neither said anything more. They simply stood there.
Obito came running around the street corner, his eyes red as peaches and terribly swollen.
"Shuo! Minato-sensei wants you at the Hokage Building!"
Shuo glanced at him. "Been crying?"
"N-no! I got sand in my eyes!" Obito hurriedly wiped his eyes.
Shuo did not call him out.
"Let's go."
Half the Hokage Building had collapsed. The other half was still barely usable.
Several people sat in the meeting room: Minato, Jiraiya, two elders, and a woman he had never seen before.
Blond hair, a diamond-shaped mark on her forehead, and an aggressive air.
"You're here." Minato looked up.
Shuo stared at the woman, quickly running through things in his head-absurdly powerful chakra, medical skills and monstrous strength both maxed out, no longer young, yet looking very young.
"This is Lady Tsunade," Minato introduced her. "The Fifth Hokage."
Shuo blinked. "Hokage?"
"Yes." Tsunade looked at him. "You're that Flash of Konoha?"
Shuo said nothing.
Tsunade stood and circled him once.
"I heard you held off eight hundred Iwagakure ninja alone?"
"Mm."
"Scared off three S-rank rogue ninja from the Akatsuki?"
"Mm."