Main World.
Summer, Year 30 of Konoha.
Outside the gates of the Elite School, Konohagakure.
The barrier was still there. The bars of Wood Release: Boundary-Locking Wooden Prison remained motionless, while the net of vines trembled faintly in the gaps, as though breathing slowly. Jiefang stood at the center of the barrier, his wooden staff planted before him, its tip resting against the ground. Mito stood two paces outside the barrier, neither approaching nor retreating. A wooden wall separated them, along with decades of distance.
Jiefang did not raise his voice. His tone was as level as if he were reading a document that had already been checked three times. "Mito, you said, 'Some things can't be judged by appearances alone.' Then tell me-if we don't look at appearances first, what should we look at? What else have you hidden beneath them? If you've hidden everything beneath the surface, aren't those two children left with nothing but appearances to judge?"
Mito's lips moved, and her voice sank. "Do you think I had a choice?"
Jiefang tapped his wooden staff lightly against the ground, as though he had heard those words far too many times and had finally reached a point where he could respond. "Of course you had a choice. But you followed one path to the bitter end. You chose only Konoha. Back then, we spared no effort in supporting you, making you the wife of the God of Shinobi, allowing you to marry Hashirama Senju while still bearing the name Mito Uzumaki. What was the purpose of all that? The Land of Whirlpools wasn't a charity. All those Sealing Jutsu of our clan weren't meant to support someone else's fantasies."
Mito raised her voice a little, as though she had finally found a foothold on which she could