CH_33

Between day and night, there seemed to be only the briefest dusk.

As if it had just been daylight a moment ago—and now the sky was already a canopy of stars, with insects chirping all around.

The closer battle site had probably already ended, but from the Konoha camp further away, explosions, flames, and flashes of lightning could still be seen and heard from time to time.

The Konoha transport convoy had already finished cleaning up the battlefield. Of those genin whose fate had been uncertain earlier, only two were found to be severely wounded—the rest were truly dead.

As for those two severely wounded…

One had his chest caved in. Tōji gave up on him. With injuries like that, it would've been better to die outright. By protocol, someone present should have given him a quick death. But no one was willing to be the one to do it. The poor guy just had to lie there suffering for over ten more minutes before he finally passed…

The other was also seriously injured—but he'd only lost an arm, and all the ribs on one side were broken… Tōji still had enough ability to give him some emergency care. Plus, among the supplies, there were oral hemostatic and anti-inflammatory medicines. Without overthinking it, Tōji stuffed some into the wounded genin's mouth. Finally, he used the 【Healing Technique】 to stop the bleeding at the shoulder stump, and only then was he done.

Hardly anyone else was injured…

When a jōnin struck, genin rarely got off with just minor wounds.

Since they were still in a combat zone, no one lit a fire. Most sat in the darkness in silence. Those who needed to recover chakra did so quietly; those who needed to eat to regain strength chewed their dry bread softly.

Tōji moved as quietly as he could and sat down beside Natchi.

Natchi was staring at the row of bodies laid out on the ground, looking dazed.

Even the intact bodies were unpleasant enough to look at—and among them were the ones that had been smashed…

Though Tōji could now look at corpses without feeling nauseated, he really couldn't keep staring at something so gruesome…

"Natchi, what are you thinking about?" Tōji looked up at the clear night sky and chatted casually with him.

The fires of war on the ground didn't stop the stars above from shining bright and clean.

"There are a lot of things I can't figure out," Natchi said quietly.

"If you can't figure them out, then don't." Tōji wasn't really trying to have a deep conversation—he just wanted to ease the tension through talk.

"Tōji… Did you only step in because I went all in?" Natchi's question put Tōji in a tough spot.

"Asking that won't get you anywhere. The battlefield changes in an instant—I just happened to catch the right moment to strike. If I'd acted at any other time, I might not have succeeded—and I'd have just thrown my life away." Tōji was still telling part of the truth. As long as he wasn't outright lying, he could live with it.

The essence of being a shinobi was deception. But maybe that didn't have to mean deception about everything.

"Either way—at least, thank you." Natchi turned his head to look at Tōji as he spoke.

Tōji kept his gaze fixed on the stars above. "Don't mention it. We've been through life and death twice together now."

Indeed—two missions, and they'd run into danger both times. And both times, the two of them had come out alive.

Even Jakkō, who'd seemed like he might be a schemer, hadn't escaped death this time.

"You know—if only we could throw off all the extra responsibilities, wouldn't that be great?" Tōji suddenly said.

From the moment you're born, you're destined to carry some responsibilities. And the more people expect from you—the more they've "invested" in you—the more "debts" you owe.

In both his past life and this one, Tōji understood that truth. Yet it still troubled him.

What he hated most was that saying—"with great power comes great responsibility." The ones in the clan whose talent was too low to become shinobi? Those were the people Tōji envied the most.

Today, he'd walked along death's edge once again.

"When you're alive, extra responsibilities and your basic duties naturally get mixed up together." Was Natchi a fool who just happened to say something wise?

__________________________________________________________________________________

I've set up my ! Members can get early access to five chapters~

https://.com/Doz1?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink