Chapter 316: Young

Inside a hospital room in Konoha, sunlight poured through the window.

The large tree outside swayed gently in the breeze.

On the bed, Nawaki lay comfortably with both hands folded behind his head.

He looked like a man in his thirties, yet his eyes still carried the innocence and restless energy of someone much younger.

That clear, youthful spirit was impossible to hide.

"Konoha... It's been so long. Even this tree looks better than the ones outside."

He gazed at the blue sky beyond the window and sighed with genuine emotion.

His voice carried the complicated feelings of someone who had survived death and finally returned home.

Just as he rolled over to find a more comfortable position, the door quietly opened.

Tsunade walked in.

She had spent the past several days dealing with the wounded after the war and had only now finished handing off her responsibilities.

At last, she had time to breathe and properly visit the younger brother she had thought lost forever.

She was exhausted in both body and mind, but the gaze she directed toward the bed was exceptionally gentle.

"How are you feeling? Do your wounds still hurt?"

Tsunade pulled a chair over and sat beside the bed.

Nawaki immediately grinned and slapped his chest with one hand.

"Sis, you're here!"

"I'm much better now. I feel like I could walk outside and kill a bull with my bare hands!"

That familiar, exaggerated teenage tone helped Tsunade relax.

Looking at the mature face that seemed older than her own, she felt a sharp ache in her chest.

But more than anything, there was overwhelming joy at having her only brother back.

"Stop moving around and lie down properly."

She deliberately hardened her expression and scolded him with all the authority of an older sister.

"I'm giving you another full examination before I'll be satisfied."

Nawaki obediently stopped fidgeting and let her pull back the white blanket.

Tsunade pressed gently around several joints, concentrating on the chakra flowing through his body.

Then Nawaki's eyes suddenly lit up with gossip.

"Hey, Sis. Are you and Master together now?"

He leaned his head closer with a grin.

"Are you two all lovey-dovey already?"

Tsunade's hands froze in the middle of the examination.

She stared at him in confusion.

"Master? Who exactly are you talking about?"

Nawaki looked at her as though she had just said something completely absurd.

"The man who was helping me walk on the battlefield!"

"You were standing right beside me talking to him!"

His mouth fell open dramatically.

"Sis, don't tell me getting older made you senile!"

"Idiot!"

Tsunade cursed instinctively and raised her fist, ready to smack him on the head just like she used to.

But when she saw that mature face, the fist stopped awkwardly in midair.

She lowered it and took a deep breath.

'Nawaki thinks... Kitahara Kaede is his master?'

When Nawaki disappeared and was declared dead, how old had Kaede even been?

He might not have been born yet.

How could he possibly have trained Nawaki?

The timeline didn't match at all.

And from the completely natural way Nawaki had asked the question, it was obvious that he had long assumed something romantic would eventually happen between her and Kaede.

That certainty wasn't something he could be faking.

'Could it be...'

'Does Nawaki have those memories too?'

That seemed like the only explanation for why he would know Kaede.

Wanting to test the possibility immediately, Tsunade stopped the examination.

She stepped back slightly and stared directly into Nawaki's puzzled face.

"Do you... have those memories too?"

Nawaki blinked.

"Memories? What memories?"

Tsunade kept watching his eyes.

"Memories involving a man named Hagoromo Kaede."

Nawaki frowned and thought hard for quite a while.

Then he shook his head vigorously against the pillow.

"Hagoromo Kaede? I've never heard that name in my life."

The instant he finished speaking, however, his expression changed as though he had suddenly realized something horrifying.

All the color drained from his face.

He shot upright in bed and pointed a trembling finger at Tsunade.

"Sis!"

His voice jumped several pitches.

"Don't tell me you found some other man named Hagoromo Kaede!"

"You absolutely can't do something like that!"

He slapped his thigh with his other hand in agitation.

"Master may be quiet and kind of gloomy, but he's seriously good to you!"

Tsunade was so angry at the ridiculous accusation that she almost laughed.

She glared hard at the shameless brat.

But beneath the nonsense, his words confirmed something important.

Nawaki truly had no idea who Hagoromo Kaede was.

That meant his understanding existed entirely independently of those twenty years in the simulation.

The Kaede he knew was Kitahara Kaede, a person who had genuinely existed somewhere in reality.

But if Nawaki didn't possess the simulator's memories, then how did he know about her relationship with Kitahara Kaede?

Instead of clearing, the fog in Tsunade's mind only grew thicker.

She cut off her spiraling thoughts and looked away from Nawaki's anxious, accusatory stare.

"Stop imagining things. We... aren't together yet."

"What?!"

Nawaki's shriek nearly pierced the room.

He sprang out of bed as though launched by a spring and hurried over to inspect Tsunade from head to toe.

"That can't possibly be right..."

He rubbed his chin and muttered loudly to himself.

"It's been this long and Master still hasn't won you over?"

Barefoot, he began pacing back and forth across the hospital room.

"Where did things go wrong?"

"The progress shouldn't be this slow at all..."

Tsunade's thoughts were already in chaos.

Having him pace endlessly in front of her only made her more irritated.

"Will you sit down and be quiet?!"

She finally snapped.

"What are you pacing around for?!"

Nawaki flinched and immediately sat obediently back on the bed out of pure reflex.

Tsunade stood in front of him and looked down into his clear brown eyes.

She asked the most important question directly.

"Enough of the nonsense."

"From what you've been saying, you already knew Kitahara Kaede long ago?"

Her gaze remained fixed on him, refusing to miss even the slightest reaction.

"You're absolutely certain the master you're talking about is that young man from the battlefield a few days ago?!"

Nawaki nodded without hesitation.

"Of course it's him!"

His answer was loud and certain.

"Even if Master were burned to ashes, I'd still recognize him!"

Then he paused, and a strange look of confusion appeared on his face.

"Although, now that I think about it... something really is weird."

He tilted his head as he searched his memories.

"Master looks a lot younger now than he used to. And his eyes are different too."

Nawaki frowned, trying to find the right words.

"The way he looks now feels... clean, I guess. There's none of that crushing sadness around his eyes anymore. The kind that used to hurt just looking at him."

The hospital room fell silent.

Tsunade said nothing.

Her mind seized on every word he had just spoken.

'Younger?'

'Used to?'

'Crushing sadness?'