Chapter 218: Naruto's Doubts
The battlefield, having just experienced a major battle, welcomed the dawn of a new day. This once-lush forest was now a scene of utter devastation after yesterday's bloody fight.
The morning mist wrapped around the canyon like a shroud. A broken lightning sword was stuck in the remains of a giant fir tree in the battlefield, the residual Lightning Release chakra on its blade still faintly flickering, searing spiral patterns into the bark.
The land, washed by the torrential rain three days ago, was once again stained a dark brown. Blood had coagulated in the gullies into translucent amber.
A crow's sharp talons sank into the empty eye socket of a Konoha ninja. This Konoha Chunin's throat had been completely sliced open by a ninja sword, and milky-white maggots crawled in his severed windpipe.
To his death, he clutched half a Cloud forehead protector, its metal edge deeply embedded in the bones of his palm—perhaps the last war trophy left to the world by some enemy before he had his neck broken.
Neji shooed the crow away, laid his comrade's body flat, and then beckoned to the team that had come to collect the corpses.
A stream carried a scroll covered in sealing formulas eastward. Blood foam gathered in a whirlpool, forming a grotesque human face. Downstream, on a shallow bank, the charred corpse of a Cloud Jonin knelt halfway in the river, seven still-burning explosive kunai stuck in its back. His hands were frozen in the "Ram" seal. Generally, this seal is the second to last in Lightning Release ninjutsu, but what jutsu he wanted to use will likely remain a mystery forever.
In the ground, a deep pit dozens of meters in diameter was filled with honeycomb-like holes—the masterpiece of hundreds of explosive tags detonating simultaneously.
A ribcage, sent flying by the shockwave, was wedged diagonally in a crack, with half a tattered green flak jacket hanging from it. A severed hand was tightly gripping a rock crevice, its fingernails stuffed with blue and white cloth strips—from some Cloud ninja who tried to block the explosion with their body.
A light rustling of paper suddenly came from a pile of rotting leaves. A gentle breeze blew past, revealing the scene below. The Konoha Chunin at the very bottom had not yet closed his eyes, his pupils reflecting a Cloud forehead protector being melted by fierce flames, droplets of liquid metal slowly sliding down the enemy's twisted mask.
The wind swept through a metal thorn bush made of senbon, making a sound like the wail of a shakuhachi flute.
In the center of the battlefield, a Konoha Special Jonin, whose chest had been pierced by False Darkness, still stood tall. His spine was nailed to the scorched earth by a lightning-struck tree, his left hand maintained a seal position, and the earth spear extending from his right fingertips formed a perfect symmetry with the enemy's heart.
Sasuke, with some difficulty, separated the body of a ninja wearing a Konoha forehead protector, who was entangled with a Cloud ninja, from his opponent. This Konoha Chunin, in his last moments, with his abdomen pierced, had still held on to his last breath to viciously stab a kunai into his enemy's chest. The two died entangled like this.
After laying the other's body flat, Sasuke reached out and helped him close his eyes, then signaled the corpse collection team that had arrived from Konoha to properly preserve the remains, to be brought back to Konoha for burial later.
"Naruto, stop spacing out. We need to collect the bodies of our comrades and bring them back to Konoha before noon," Neji said softly, coming to Naruto's side.
"Neji, is this... war?" Naruto stood up, his lips tightly pressed together. After a while, he finally said with difficulty. But he had barely taken two steps when his foot suddenly slipped.
Naruto staggered back, his heel crushing half a ribcage. The smell of decay suddenly became thick, slithering like a snake into his nasal cavity and coiling around his stomach. He clamped his hand tightly over his mouth, the whimpers leaking from between his fingers startling the crows that were pecking at brains.
Two styles of forehead protectors glinted coldly in the pile of corpses. The Konoha ninja at the very top, lying face up, had a kunai engraved with a cloud pattern stuck in his right eye socket.
"Blargh—" Stomach acid mixed with the remnants of the cup noodles he had for a late-night snack before setting out last night splattered onto the scorched earth burnt by lightning. Naruto's trembling fingertips sank into the mud, touching something damp and tube-like—half an intestine wrapped with an explosive tag was hanging from a gap in a corpse's leg armor.
Sasuke's kunai suddenly appeared before his eyes, its tip flicking away that section of purplish organ.
"Don't move around carelessly," Sasuke said, glancing at the surroundings. "It'll be troublesome if you step on an explosive tag trap."
"Are you alright?" Neji asked with concern, patting Naruto's back.
Naruto's head shot up, bloodshot veins exploding in his azure pupils, "Why... why do they have to tear people into pieces, I said!"
The roar startled the crows twenty meters away that were pecking at a tattered corpse hanging from a tree branch. The flock scattered in response, and black blood dripped from the neck stump of the headless torso.
"These people, whether they are our comrades or enemies, whose fathers are they, and whose sons? They should have families waiting for them to come home, but now they are all dead here!" Naruto roared emotionally.
"You're right. But this is war," Sasuke glanced at his completely emotional best friend, shook his head, and then said, "Teacher said that war is a continuation of politics. As long as there are filthy politicians in this world trading interests, then war will never stop."
Before Sasuke's words had even finished, he suddenly found that Naruto had rushed towards a collapsed earth wall.
Naruto was digging through the collapsed earth wall with his bare hands, trying to drag out a wounded Cloud ninja whose legs were pinned.
Neji's expression suddenly changed drastically. He rushed forward to stop Naruto, while anxiously reminding him, "Are you crazy? He has an explosive tag hidden in his sleeve!"
"But he's still alive!" Naruto's face glowed with a golden halo under the newborn sun. "Hang in there!"
He wrapped a medical bandage messily around the wounded man's bleeding wound, completely oblivious to the other's left hand gradually gathering chakra.
The dull thud of a kunai cutting through flesh and a flash of lightning exploded at the same time. Sasuke coldly pulled out Shiden, which he had plunged into the other's heart. The cold blade reflected the frozen expression of Naruto, who had been pulled away by Neji and was only wounded in the arm. "This is the thing you wanted to save."
"I..." A puff of smoke rose from Naruto's slashed left arm as it slowly healed. After Neji let him go, Naruto collapsed powerlessly to the ground again, constantly muttering, "Why did it turn out like this? I was clearly trying to save him."
"Teacher was right. The ninja system of this world is seriously ill," Neji couldn't help but say at this moment.
At this moment, inside the seal space, Naruto raised his head and looked at the Nine-Tails behind the seal gate.
And the Nine-Tails, contrary to its usual state of just lying down and sleeping, sat up and looked down at Naruto.
"Brat, stop letting your mind wander. I can feel your negative emotions. They're so noisy I can't sleep at all," the Nine-Tails said after a moment of silence.
"Sorry, Big Brother Kurama," Naruto said apologetically. "And, for the battle before, thank you."
"Hmph, I just didn't want my Jinchuriki to die in such a disgraceful way," the Nine-Tails snorted coldly.
"Nine-Tails, tell me, why must chakra be used for war, as a weapon for mutual slaughter?" Naruto suddenly let out a long sigh and then asked.
The Nine-Tails' gaze sharpened, its thoughts traveling back through time. He remembered that once before, an idiot just like the foolish boy before him had asked him a similar question. Why was it that the Sage of Six Paths founded Ninshū with the hope that chakra could become a bond to connect people, allowing them to understand each other, but in the end, chakra became a weapon for people to kill each other?
At that time, the Nine-Tails was carefree, living a life of eating, sleeping, and beating up Shukaku when he was unhappy. So, facing that youth's question back then, the Nine-Tails couldn't give an answer.
But after several thousand years had passed, facing the same question from Naruto, the Nine-Tails recalled his experiences over several thousand years and found that he still couldn't give an answer to this question.
"I don't know," the Nine-Tails said in a deep voice. "In my long life, I have witnessed countless instances of your kind killing each other. You humans always like to say that we Tailed Beasts are representatives of disaster. However, what I have seen over these thousands of years is humans, in order to improve the efficiency of slaughtering their own kind, sparing no expense in time and energy to transform chakra into more powerful ninjutsu."
It had to be said that the current Naruto was very much like that youth from back then. They were both kind-hearted by nature, and also... just as naive.
"Is there really no way to make everyone give up on war?" Naruto muttered to himself.
"Even those as powerful as your village's First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and Uchiha Madara couldn't completely solve this problem. Although they brought a brief period of peace, after they departed one after another, the flames of war in the ninja world were reignited," the Nine-Tails said. "You humans are just such a strange race."
Hearing this, Naruto fell silent again. After a while, Naruto left the seal space without a word.
"Little brother? Naruto? Hey? Are you alright?" Deidara waved his hand continuously in front of Naruto.
"Big Brother Deidara," Naruto returned to his senses, raised his tired eyes to greet him, and then realized he was on Deidara's flying clay bird. "This is..."
"Hey, the Uchiha kid saw you weren't in a good mood, so he asked me to take you back to the village first," Deidara said.
"Um, thanks," Naruto said, forcing a smile.
"Why are you being so polite with me!" Deidara slapped Naruto hard on the shoulder. "By the way, you saw my performance last night, right! Wasn't it awesome!"
It would have been better if Deidara hadn't brought it up. As soon as he mentioned it, the gruesome state of the enemies who were swallowed by the explosions Deidara created before they died appeared in Naruto's mind.
"Big brother, do you remember how many people you killed yesterday?" Naruto's voice trembled as he asked.
"Who knows?" Deidara shrugged. "They were all enemies anyway. To be able to become a part of my art, they can be considered to have died without regrets."
(End of chapter)
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