Chapter 240 : Death is not the end
"Don't cry, Shi—"
Naraku propped himself up and sat, just opening his mouth to comfort him when Shisui threw himself into his arms.
"Senior... I thought..."
—I thought you'd abandon me like Obito-bro.
Shisui, like a young swallow returning to its nest, sobbed and hugged Naraku's waist, refusing to let go.
Seeing him cry so sadly, Naraku hesitated for a moment but still didn't push away the two arms around his waist.
—Sigh... just hug.
—Why is it that no matter where I am, I can't escape the fate of raising children?
Naraku helplessly rubbed the little head resting on his chest, looking down as soft black hair, strand by strand, slipped through his fingers.
—Is it because it evolved into the Eternal Mangekyo? I feel like I can see even clearer than before.
Naraku inwardly sighed.
Having absorbed the Dōjutsu Power of another pair of Mangekyo, his eyes naturally upgraded to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Not only did he recover from the vision damage caused by overuse of Dōjutsu, but he also gained nearly "infinite" Dōjutsu Power.
From now on, he could unleash Ama no Kaguhiko and Tenmei Gyokumei without restraint, no longer worrying about exposing flaws in front of the animator.
Even the bloodline limit sickness could gradually heal using this reason, restoring this body to a completely healthy state.
Noticing the strength in Shisui's arms gradually relax, Naraku pulled back his scattered thoughts and patted the other's shoulder.
"I apologize, Senior, I was too rude."
Shisui apologized with red eyes; thinking of how he had just done the same thing as before and almost blurted out the news of Obito-bro's sacrifice, he wished he could bury his head in the ground and never lift it again.
Naraku picked up the handkerchief on the bedside table, wiped the remaining tears from Shisui's face, and said softly.
"It's my fault for making you worry so much."
He looked at the dazzling sunlight outside the window, his lips moving almost imperceptibly.
"The weather is really nice today, let's go see the hibiscus flowers."
..."Little Itachi, you can only have one, okay? Otherwise, you'll get cavities."
Naraku sat with Itachi on a clean large stone, dividing his skewer of three-colored dango into two portions: one with one dango, and one with two.
"Okay~" Itachi obediently took the bamboo skewer with only one dango, bringing it to his mouth and trying to take a few bites.
Chewing the remaining two dango in his mouth, Naraku looked towards the stream not far away, where Shisui was practicing Body Flicker Technique and shuriken throwing.
Several shadows flashed continuously through the bushes, and dozens of shuriken scattered, spinning towards the target twenty meters away.
Perhaps tired from practicing for too long, three or two of the shuriken Shisui threw deviated from their trajectory; if this continued, they would certainly miss the target.
Naraku swallowed the sweet dango in his mouth, casually flicking the bamboo skewer; the thin stick spun with a gust of wind, striking one of the shuriken precisely.
This shuriken was hit, changing its angle slightly, and then collided with the other deviating shuriken, ultimately all carving tricky arcs and embedding themselves in the bullseye.
"Wow!"
Itachi exclaimed, quickly holding the half-eaten dango in his mouth, his small hands clapping in front of his chest: "Gugu is so amazing!!"
"Senior, good afternoon!"
Shisui, covered in sweat, saw Naraku watching him not far away, quickly washed his face and hands in the stream, and ran over cheerfully to greet him, whereupon a double-layered bento box suddenly appeared in his hands.
"Let's practice after lunch, I'll join you."
"Okay."
Shisui sat directly on the ground; opening the bento box, he found it didn't contain his mother's usual dishes.
Seeing his slight confusion, Naraku softly explained: "I made it, I don't know if you'll like it."
"Thank you, Senior, I'll eat it all."
Shisui's eyes lit up, and he then devoured the meal, making it disappear at a visible speed.
Naraku, meanwhile, sat cross-legged on the stone, holding Itachi and watching the scenery, listening to him count how many little birds flew across the sky.
After a while, Shisui noticed that Senior Naraku seemed a bit quiet today, so while his mouth was stuffed, he furtively glanced up to see if there was anything unusual in the other's expression.
Ever since Senior woke up that day, he had never mentioned Obito-bro's sacrifice directly; even the clan head and his wife, everyone seemed to be deliberately keeping this news from him.
—But the news spread so widely, how could Senior truly be completely unaware?
—Perhaps, Senior already knew about it, but just didn't want us to worry about him, so he kept pretending not to know.
Shisui was lost in thought, and as a result, when eating the last bite of food, he choked from swallowing too quickly.
A cup of warm tea appeared just in time; he didn't think much and instinctively reached out, took it, and drank it all at once, finally getting the food down his throat.
Just as he finished tidying the bento box, a string of beautiful three-colored dango entered his central vision again.
—It was a new flavor he hadn't tried yet, developed by Granny Ame.
Naraku's gentle voice softly drifted into his ears.
"Eat some sweets, and your mood will get better."
Shisui took the bamboo skewer and stared blankly at Naraku; the latter's expression was as gentle as ever, yet he understood everything from the gaze in those eyes.
Tears fell one by one onto the ground; the more he wiped with his sleeve, the more the tears gushed out uncontrollably.
"Senior Naraku, I'm sorry... Actually, Obito-bro, he..."
"I know."
Naraku sighed, his gaze drifting towards the small stream not far away.
Many fallen leaves were drifting away with the stream; they would, like countless other leaves in other rivers, eventually converge in the ocean.
"Death is not the end."
Naraku said: "One day in the future, we will definitely see him again."
...The aftermath of the Mount Kikyo Battle and the Kannabi Bridge Battle had not yet passed, when a piece of good news, like a hurricane, swept through all of Konoha in an instant.
Iwagakure, due to severe damage to its supply lines and unable to gain an advantage against Konoha, actually redirected ten thousand Ninja from various locations to attack the Land of Lightning.
It was now Kumogakure's turn to be forced into a two-front war.
The Raikage had no choice but to halt his offensive against Konoha, reallocating some forces to resist Ōnoki's sudden betrayal.
Konoha's pressure sharply decreased, and everyone was pleased, wishing that Iwagakure and Kumogakure would fight even more fiercely, like dogs biting dogs, preferably resulting in both sides suffering heavy losses and neither gaining an advantage.
Naraku also witnessed this historic moment through the animator.
In the animator, after Minato went to the Kumogakure front lines to put out fires, fighting the AB duo to a draw, this plot of Iwagakure's betrayal and Kumogakure being caught off guard and suffering a great loss immediately followed.
Although he already knew the two Ninja villages would clash, he still couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard the Third Raikage's exasperated roar in the animator.
Being tricked by Ōnoki so many times and still not learning his lesson, he deserved it.
However, the Third Raikage was indeed a formidable man; to protect the Hidden Cloud Village, he single-handedly held back Iwagakure's ten thousand strong army, fighting for three days and three nights until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died.
A village cannot be without a leader for a day; the Third Raikage's son inherited the name "A," urgently returning to the village from the front lines to succeed as the Fourth Raikage, and confined his good brother—the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer Bee—to the Cloud Gorge...
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Read Ahead & Support
Read up to 650 chapters ahead with daily updates at 02radnovel.com
Connect & Updates:
(Twitter) • x.com/02IsmetHQ
Instagram • instagram.com/02novelofficial
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯