Behind one of the tents, Akashō spotted a green figure curled into a ball, head buried between his legs, quietly sobbing.
"F-Father…"
Might Guy wiped his tears, his mind filled with the image of Might Duy turning back with a smile just before opening the Gate of Death.
Months had already passed. Guy wasn't the pessimistic type, and he had long since stopped drowning in grief over his father's death. But after bringing him up with Akashō today, he couldn't hold it in anymore, so he slipped away to cry alone.
"Might Guy?"
A voice suddenly came from the side. Guy turned his head in confusion, and his tear-streaked, twisted face immediately fell into Akashō's view.
Then, noticing Kakashi standing there in a daze, Guy instantly tensed up and hurriedly turned his face away.
"I—I wasn't crying!"
"Oh?"
Akashō chuckled and sat down beside him.
"It's just your dad dying. What's there to cry about?"
Guy snapped his head back in disbelief, eyes wide.
"What do you mean 'just'? How many fathers do you think a person gets in a lifetime?!"
"…Forget it. You've never experienced this kind of pain. What's the point of telling you?"
He lowered his head bitterly. At that moment, Kakashi walked over and sat down on his other side.
"No, Guy. Akashō's father is dead too."
"And his mother was killed by Hidden Sand Village shinobi as well."
"Huh?"
Guy stared blankly at Akashō's smiling face, not knowing what to say.
His father was gone. Kakashi's father was gone. Akashō's parents were gone too.
Three children without parents sat side by side behind an empty tent, silently lifting their heads to watch the distant sunset.
"Why do we have to go through something this painful…"
Guy's tears had dried, and the liveliness in his eyes from earlier that day was completely gone.
Kakashi beside him also fell silent. Yeah… why did life have to be so twisted?
"People themselves aren't perfect. How could life ever be perfect?"
Guy and Kakashi both turned to Akashō in surprise. He simply smiled faintly.
"Time is the best poison. One day, you'll grow numb."
"Isn't it supposed to be the best medicine…"
"Hahaha, same difference!"
Guy let out a sigh. "Akashō, you're really open-minded. You don't feel like a kid at all."
...
Morning.
Akashō stared at the Villain Template, lost in thought.
Ever since being confined by Minato Namikaze, this was the first time he had opened it.
He couldn't cause trouble, couldn't gain reputation points—so there had been no point in checking it before.
That's what he thought.
But when he saw the templates for Kokushibo and Bertholdt Hoover, he froze.
Kokushibo: 510,000 reputation.
Bertholdt: 430,000 reputation.
Total: 850,000 reputation.
Akashō slowly exhaled. Why?
It made no sense.
At that moment, he suddenly recalled the extra twenty thousand reputation he had gained when leaving Hidden Leaf Village months ago.
Wait… had he overlooked something?
"Ordinary people!"
"Huh?"
Kakashi, who had been spacing out nearby, turned to him in confusion.
"What ordinary people?"
"Nothing."
With this new realization, Akashō was practically buzzing with excitement, brushing Kakashi off casually.
Kakashi clicked his tongue in annoyance. This guy was always so jumpy.
Meanwhile, Akashō could no longer suppress the grin spreading across his face.
He was certain now—the source of those hundreds of thousands of reputation points was ordinary people.
At first, he had assumed this world was like an ancient one, with poor transportation and communication. Gaining reputation from civilians would be nearly impossible, so he focused on shinobi instead, since they provided exponentially more reputation.
But over time, he had strayed from the correct path, putting all his attention on shinobi while ignoring everything else.
For example, compared to the small country he had stayed in for a year, civilians in larger nations lived more peacefully, and there were major cities packed with people.
The simplest example? The great ninja villages.
Not everyone there was a shinobi—in fact, civilians far outnumbered them, at least ten to one.
Akashō had been to Hidden Leaf Village. Judging by its size, it housed at least tens of thousands of families—and that didn't even include the ninja clans.
War, after all, was like a field of leeks that would eventually be harvested dry. Once it ended and all the shinobi returned to their villages, large-scale harvesting would become extremely difficult.
Civilians, on the other hand, were different.
They didn't have the mental resilience of shinobi.
Akashō wouldn't even need to show up in person one by one. A few rumors would be enough to make them fear him—and willingly hand over reputation.
This was a whole new continent.
Of course, the fastest and most effective way to spread his name was still to keep causing chaos.
The difference might seem small—but it would determine whether he could keep reaping long-term gains after the war ended.
Wait… come to think of it, he'd never asked the system how much reputation an S-rank template required to unlock.