Lowering her soft antennae, Katsuyu carefully looked at Shinichi, and after confirming that the boy was not joking, she replied crisply.
"I understand."
The moment her words fell, her massive body transformed into countless palm-sized slugs, and, like a living white tide, they spread throughout the ruins in every direction, slipping into every crevice and every pile of rubble in search of those faint, lingering signs of life.
"Senior Minato, aren't you going to ask why I'm doing this?"
Minato withdrew his gaze from the small slugs and gently shook his head.
"I think that if you're doing this, Shinichi, you must have your own reasons."
"Hehe."
Shinichi chuckled softly, then he began walking forward across the waterlogged rubble.
Minato followed, and the two walked side by side through the ruins.
"A few months ago, Jiraiya-senpai asked me a question: How can we create a peaceful world where people understand one another and war no longer exists?"
As he walked, Shinichi spoke calmly.
"At the time, I didn't answer immediately. Instead, I asked everyone present a question, what is the essence of a ninja?"
Minato's steps paused briefly, and his brows furrowed slightly as he fell into thought. Before he could arrive at an answer, the young man's voice sounded again.
"A tool for killing."
"That was my answer at the time, a ninja is a tool for killing."
Upon hearing this, Minato's lips moved slightly, but in the end, he silently nodded.
"But I believe that even if a ninja is destined to kill, we must not abandon the last trace of compassion within our hearts."
Shinichi stopped walking and looked toward the tiny slugs busily moving through the ruins, before continuing calmly: "On the battlefield and during missions, ninja serve their respective masters and fight with their lives on the line until one side dies. That is the duty of both sides."
"But after stripping away that shell called ninja, we are all human beings."
"Whether the Village Hidden in the Mist or Konoha, the people lying beneath these ruins and the people standing above them are not fundamentally different."
"Once victory and defeat have been decided and the flames of war have temporarily subsided, treating wounded enemies is less about saving the enemy and more about saving ourselves."
"To save the last fragment of humanity preserved amid endless slaughter."
"It is precisely this final fragment of humanity that prevents us ninja from completely degenerating into nothing more than tools of killing."
After saying this, Shinichi continued forward until he arrived before a collapsed, slanted wall, then, raising one hand, countless streams of wind flowed from his palm.
Like countless gentle invisible hands, they slowly lifted and moved aside the stacked rubble, broken beams, and warped wooden planks.
As layer after layer of ruins was removed, a hidden corner gradually emerged.
A young girl wearing a blue robe and possessing long reddish-brown crossed curls appeared within the sight of Shinichi and Minato.
She lay in muddy water, with most of her body firmly pinned beneath a collapsed stone slab.
Her youthful face was covered in mud and bloodstains, her lips were pale, and her eyes were tightly shut; she looked no older than ten.
"Besides, senior Minato..."
Shinichi turned to look at Minato and continued: "Killing was never our destiny as ninja from the very beginning."
...
"Am I going to die?"
Feeling her body becoming increasingly cold, the girl's consciousness grew ever more blurred.
The darkness before her eyes deepened further and further.
At this point, all sounds around her had already disappeared.
Only distant and near buzzing remained in her ears, as though the entire world were drifting farther and farther away.
The girl's name was Mei Terumi, and she had just passed her eleventh birthday less than two months ago, yet she had already become a Chunin several years earlier.
She was recognized throughout the Village Hidden in the Mist as one of the new generation's greatest geniuses.
Although young, she had already mastered Fire, Lightning, Earth, and Water Style.
Many Jonin within the village had even commented that she would undoubtedly become a master in these fields in the future.
As a Chunin, although still a minor, the prolonged war and increasing manpower shortages in the village had resulted in the young prodigy, Mei Terumi, being drafted into the conflict over a month ago.
However, she did not participate in frontline combat, and her responsibilities were limited to logistics, transport, and escort duties.
Strictly speaking, she should never have been in Rinkai City, but fate often played cruel tricks.
After the Village Hidden in the Mist captured Rinkai City, Mei Terumi arrived as part of the first group delivering logistical supplies.
Then, on the very next day, Commander Yagura seemed to sense that something was wrong and immediately ordered all logistical transportation operations halted.
This was to prevent Konoha from tracing the supply routes and discovering the location of the Village Hidden in the Mist's core logistics.
As a result, Mei Terumi and the other members of the first logistics team were temporarily forbidden from leaving Rinkai City.
They would have to wait until the situation stabilized before returning with a later transport convoy. Yet, she never imagined that such a world-shaking disaster would occur only a few days later.
Even now, Mei Terumi still did not understand what had happened.
The last thing she saw was a cyan rainbow streaking across the horizon, then came an earth-shattering explosion that swallowed everything.
After that, only darkness and the suffocating sensation of cold rubble and broken beams, gradually burying her alive, remained.
At this moment, the girl's eyelids grew heavier and heavier while her consciousness became increasingly vague.
It felt as though, in the next second, she would sink into that darkness from which she would never awaken again.
Just then, the young girl seemed to vaguely hear some faint movement.
Immediately afterward, a soft, slick little thing pressed against her body, and a warm, gentle chakra slowly seeped into her from the point of contact.
'Is... Is someone from the village here to save me?'
Sensing the warm energy gradually flowing into her body, the girl thought hazily, and her body seemed to regain a trace of strength, and her senses slowly began to return.
However, before she could think further, the ruins pinning down her body began to rise slowly.
Light pierced through the gaps as the debris was lifted away, shining onto her mud-covered face. As one stone slab after another was removed, a clear and bright young voice came from above her head.
"Besides, senior Minato… Killing was never our destiny as ninja from the very beginning!"
The girl barely managed to open her eyes and looked vaguely toward the source of the voice, her vision swaying several times through the curtain of rain before finally focusing.
A tall figure stood before her, with his head turned to speak with someone beside him.
The rain and mist blurred his outline, but she could make out his black hair and those exceptionally calm eyes.
"What a handsome guy..."
The thought drifted through her mind uncontrollably, then the rain and mist thinned slightly, and her vision finally became clear.
Mei Terumi saw that face clearly, and her heart suddenly clenched while all the blood in her body seemed to freeze in an instant.
"Shi! Shi! Shi! Shi! Shinichi Higashino!!!"
The girl's eyes rolled back, and she fainted cleanly on the spot.