[Hokage] Terukawa

My temple is throbbing with pain.

I silently washed the blood off my hands in the basin, turned around, took the basin and walked out of the dungeon, and poured the water on the roots of the dead tree in the yard.

"Brother Black Fox, can you still hold on?"

Someone came over, his tone full of surprise and sighing.

"This... has been four days or five days? I really haven't slept at all. Oh, it's just that the dark circles under my eyes are a bit heavy..."

"Do not touch me."

Not sleeping for four or five days is a bit of a stretch for a ninja, but it's not the limit. I'm just tired and have a headache now, and I happened to meet a strange man who was so bold as to lift my hair and look at my dark circles. I was so irritated that I almost wanted to jump into the well, and I immediately warned him coldly.

"Allowing you to meet Lan doesn't mean you can get away with anything with me. I reattached your finger last time, but I may not be able to do that the next time."

Watanabe Heibu then obediently withdrew his hand, took two steps back and kept a relatively "safe" distance.

I glanced at him, not interested in finding out when he came. Some people are like this, if they don't show their respect for you one day, they will go crazy and try to test the red line in a hidden way. To put it bluntly, he deserves a beating. I don't know how Yang Yi "communicated" with him... But considering his current situation, it is normal to be anxious, and we should not blame him too much.

"Didn't I say everything I needed to say yesterday? Why are you here again? You can't be concerned about his surgery."

"As long as you are here, I know that he will never walk out of the dungeon alive. This is the most reassuring thing for me right now, so I always want to be by your side."

"If you can't explain it clearly, don't leave. If you like standing here, just stand here forever." I turned around and was about to leave without even looking up. "I'm going to take a rest. Someone will take my place soon. You can take care of yourself."

Watanabe Pingbu came over with a gloomy face to stop me: "Good brother, don't be angry, I came here to pass on a message to Mr. Yangyi... I just spoke without thinking."

Whether it is nonsense or not, the way Watanabe Heibu addresses us has changed from "Black Fox Brother" to "Mr. Yang Yi" at the beginning. This is him expressing his attitude and stating his position.

Having said that, I didn't miss the annoyance in his eyes. It seems that the fact that he was allowed to see Lan yesterday caused him to have a slight deviation in his perception of me, and he only corrected it now. Yang Yi knew his little thoughts very well, so this person would not be alone... But this has nothing to do with me.

I nodded, signaling him to speak up.

"Mr. Yang Yi said that he found something in the city lord's living room that you might be able to use. However, it is inconvenient to ask others to do it, so you can go get it after you have rested."

They occupied the City Lord's Mansion the day we entered the city. How come they only discovered it now? I thought for a moment and confirmed, "He told me to rest before I go, not now?"

"Mr. Yangyi has reserved a rest room in the castle tower."

"It looks like something important," I sighed. "I'll do it."

Watanabe was stunned for a moment, then quickly lowered his head - probably revising his understanding of me. This is normal. I guess even at the last moment, he was still thinking about alienating me from Yangyi's group, until I calmly accepted Yangyi's arrangement from a distance.

What was his original impression of me? "Decisive" or "impatient", "friendly" or "hypocritical", "persistent" or "stubborn"? I was not a person who would listen to advice. I didn't look at him much, but just shouted, "Yang Er, I see you! You come to take over!"

Persuading him to quit was a hint that "I'm going to do something big next time", and it was about conserving my energy, so it was almost like Yoichi was considerate, and there was no reason to refuse. Even if there were some disagreements between Yoichi and I, I would never show it to Watanabe Heiho - if they had received the history and education of my previous life, they would know that people like Watanabe Heiho actually have another name for us, called "class enemies".

Yang Er landed silently and nodded to me, but he was too lazy to hide his dislike and disdain for Watanabe Heibu. I had no intention of changing the relationship between the two, and just tilted my head to the back: "It's a tough bone to chew, be careful."

------

The cold snow clouds finally dispersed. The sky lit up the dusk lights for the first time in a long time, and the clouds on half of the sky were scorched by the burning red of the remaining fire. The former city lord's seal was smashed into jade chips by the Hasunuma family, and the power and arrogance gathered on it also collapsed into ash. It was forgotten and abandoned on a small table in the corner. Several larger pieces were pieced together to form a nondescript shape - obviously, someone had tried to repair it; and obviously, he failed - or, it was abandoned.

The light of the devil lazily lowered his eyelids, and those not-so-fine powders seemed to float in a phantom of blood, and even the flat shadow was faintly tinged with red.

The atmosphere at this moment is not as bleak as this.

"So that's how it's used." Yang flicked the paper in his hand. The wet ink was like a colony of marching ants, twisting the strokes into words in a way that was definitely not beautiful.

"How does it feel?"

Yang Yi shook his head, but he was smiling: "It makes my handwriting look uglier, and it's not as convenient as charcoal sticks and pencils."

"You can't use those now, and you won't be able to use them in the future," Yakushi Nono adjusted the frame of his glasses, "where's this textbook?"

"Very impressive, step by step, from the shallow to the deep." Yang Yi's dark eyes lit up slightly, "I never knew that entering an orphanage was such a lucky thing."

"What I write for children is naturally the best." Yakushi Nono said softly, "I will not only teach children to read and write, but also teach them the principles of being a human being. I will teach them to know themselves, know others, know what is right and wrong, what is beautiful and ugly, to face and know their own hearts, and do the right thing."

"It is worthy of your lofty ideals," Yang Yi moved the paperweight and pressed the new paper flat, "Only you who have walked and experienced all kinds of things in the world can look to such a distant future. I have never... I am more of a day-to-day person."

"My eyes are looking at the future, but I also know that everything must start from the present. I, you, and we are all the beginning. I know that I may not be able to do it... no, I definitely can't do it, but that doesn't mean that children can't do it. My longing is not to see a world without war and bloodshed, where everyone is satisfied and happy, but to let all children know that such a world can exist. Children hope that people will love each other."

Yakushi Nono's tone was gentle, and his lowered eyes contained a sparkling light.

"I have disguised myself as a farmer for several years, worked the fields, pondered, and searched for several years. In between missions, I also wanted to know how ordinary people who are weak and cannot extract chakra survived those lost days.

“When facing a strong person, people can’t help but say things that they don’t mean, so I went to see for myself and think for myself… Then I understood.

"It is rice. It is seeds. It is longing. It is hope."

Yang Yi raised his head from between the pages. The sun was setting quickly, and the brilliant red just now had quietly faded to crimson purple, and then to deep blue. The surging cold chased the iron wind chimes newly hung on the eaves, playing a short and sonorous wind.