Abandoned?
Anyo gave a helpless laugh. "One correction: I was the one who was abandoned."
Kikyo thought for a while, then said, "Then tell me what happened before you split up. I'll judge who's right, and no lying."
"All right."
Anyo hid nothing, telling his daughter everything that had happened between the two of them inside Kikyo Mountain.
"You actually poisoned her. Fine, it looks like you meant well, but I don't approve of that approach." Kikyo offered her opinion, then continued, "Do you know why I said you abandoned us?"
Anyo's expression shifted. He asked tentatively, "Was there something else I didn't know?"
Kikyo sighed. "Shizune told me that back when she was traveling with big sister Tsunade..."
"Wait." Anyo interrupted her with an odd look. "Why do you call her big sister..."
"Oh, you really don't understand women." Looking helpless, Kikyo said, "Women hate growing old more than anything, so in front of outsiders, we have to call her big sister. Right now, you're still an outsider."
"An outsider? Fine, go on." Anyo had no rebuttal.
Kikyo said, "When the two of them left Konoha, they stayed in the nearest town for a week. They didn't go anywhere during that time. Shizune said she kept hoping for something, but you never showed up, not once."
Hearing this, Anyo could only smile bitterly, unable to say a word.
Kikyo wasn't about to let him off. Tilting her head, she asked, "What, nothing to say?"
Recalling how he had felt back then, Anyo answered helplessly, "When I learned she'd left, I was utterly discouraged. I thought perhaps we simply weren't right for each other. It never occurred to me that she'd wait for me."
"Then what if you'd known she was carrying me?"
Those words exploded like a thunderbolt in