The familiar smell of ink and old paper filled the room as Shinra sat cross-legged beside the low table covered in scattered seals.
Compared to when he had first arrived here months ago, the house no longer felt as strange.
At first, Kurosawa's residence had seemed chaotic to him. Scrolls stacked carelessly across the floor, unfinished formulas scribbled across loose sheets of paper, sake bottles scattered around the room, and seals carved directly into wooden surfaces. Yet after spending enough time here, Shinra eventually realized there was an odd sense of comfort hidden within the chaos.
At the same time, Shinra's relationship with Kurosawa had also changed gradually.
Although Kurosawa still acted rude most of the time, Shinra could tell that the man no longer viewed him as merely Yogi's troublesome student. Occasionally, Kurosawa would even answer questions that went beyond basic fuinjutsu theory instead of dismissing them outright.
Naturally, that only happened whenever he wasn't drunk.
"Your symmetry is off again," Kurosawa said lazily while taking a sip from his sake bottle.
Shinra looked down toward the formula he was currently working on and frowned slightly.
The storage seal drawn across the paper looked stable at first glance, yet after observing it carefully, he finally noticed the issue.
One of the secondary symbols used to stabilize chakra flow was slightly tilted.
"…I see it."
Kurosawa snorted lightly. "You only saw it because I pointed it out. If that was an actual field seal instead of practice paper, the stored object would've probably exploded the moment chakra was inserted into it."
Shinra silently corrected the formula.
Over the last few months, Kurosawa had finally begun allowing him to practice actual seal construction instead of purely memorizing theory. According to him, Shinra's foundation was "acceptable enough to stop wasting paper on explanations."
Even then, Shinra still found fuinjutsu absurdly difficult.
A single misplaced symbol could destabilize the entire structure.
A slightly incorrect ratio between symbols could completely alter the seal's function.
Unlike ninjutsu, there was very little room for instinct or improvisation.
Everything depended on precision.
The room gradually returned to silence afterward, broken only by the sound of brushes moving across paper.
Kurosawa suddenly frowned slightly.
"…You're distracted today."
Shinra's brush paused for a brief moment.
"Am I?"
"Yes." Kurosawa leaned back slightly while observing him carefully. "You've been staring at the same formula for the last three minutes."
Shinra stayed silent for a while before finally putting the brush down.
"…Sensei."
"Hm?"
"How did you feel after killing someone for the first time?"
The room fell silent.
Even Kurosawa's expression froze slightly.
For a moment, Shinra wondered whether he had crossed some sort of line.
Yet instead of becoming angry, Kurosawa simply took another slow drink from the sake bottle before setting it down beside him.
"…So Yogi finally decided to let you brats undertake C-rank missions."
Shinra nodded quietly.
Kurosawa remained silent for several more seconds before speaking.
"At first?" he muttered quietly. "I felt repulsed."
His voice carried none of its usual laziness.
"The sensation of taking another person's life isn't something normal people are supposed to grow accustomed to. But at the end of the day, we are shinobi. To complete the mission, you have to stop at nothing even if it means betraying yourself for the sake of the village. At least, that's the textbook answer."
Shinra listened quietly without interrupting him.
Kurosawa leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes briefly.
"'The enemy nations are evil, Konoha is righteous.' Such phrases were very popular during the Third Great Ninja War. It helped those who struggled with killing convince themselves that they were doing the right thing."
"If you want my opinion on the matter, then such notions only breed hypocrisy. The people you might kill may not be innately evil. They may have a family to protect, people waiting for them to return home, or they may simply be following orders just like you."
Shinra frowned slightly. "So are you saying I shouldn't kill lightly?"
"No, hesitation will get you and those around you killed." Kurosawa opened his eyes and looked directly at Shinra. "You must understand what it means to take a life before you decide whether or not you're willing to do it."
Shinra stayed silent.
Kurosawa continued calmly, "Some shinobi convince themselves that every enemy they kill deserves death. Others try to suppress the guilt entirely and slowly become numb to it. In the end, both paths usually lead to the same destination."
"And what destination is that?" Shinra asked.
"A broken path."
The room became quiet once more.
Kurosawa took another drink before letting out a quiet sigh.
"That's why you need a reason to fight. Something that justifies your actions to yourself." His eyes drifted slightly toward the unfinished seals scattered across the room. "Otherwise you'll eventually lose sight of where the line between duty and cruelty actually is."
Shinra listened carefully.
"For some people, that reason is protecting their family."
"For others, it's loyalty to their village."
Kurosawa's expression darkened slightly.
"And some simply become addicted to power."
His gaze slowly shifted back toward Shinra.
"If you walk this path long enough, eventually you'll be forced to choose between your own ideals and the mission placed in front of you. That's the moment where a shinobi's true nature reveals itself."
Shinra frowned slightly. "And what did you choose?"
Kurosawa laughed quietly, though there was very little humor behind it.
"…I'm still trying to figure that out myself."
Silence settled over the room once again.
Shinra lowered his eyes slightly toward the unfinished seal in front of him.
'A ninja way, huh…'
Naruto's world always spoke proudly about ideals and convictions, yet the reality underneath those words was far uglier than the stories themselves.
Children killed for villages.
Clans destroyed one another.
Wars repeated endlessly.
And somehow, shinobi still continued calling it duty.
"…Did you regret it?" Shinra asked quietly.
Kurosawa looked at him for a long moment before answering.
"Some of them."
Shinra understood the meaning behind those words immediately.
Kurosawa suddenly grabbed another scroll and tossed it toward him. "Enough philosophy." His usual lazy tone finally returned. "Finish studying that formula before I change my mind and throw you out."
Shinra caught the scroll before glancing toward its title.
Intermediate Chakra Compression Formula Theory.
His eyebrow twitched slightly.
"…You call this intermediate?"
Kurosawa smirked faintly. "Stop complaining. You wanted to become a seal master, didn't you?"
Shinra sighed quietly before opening the scroll.
Yet despite returning to his studies, Kurosawa's earlier words still lingered inside his mind.
'As long as you remain true to your own ninja way…'
For the first time since arriving in this world, Shinra found himself genuinely wondering—
What exactly was his own ninja way supposed to be?