Hii Kōri quickly and silently "floated" into the town now serving as Suna's stronghold. The intense, gloomy aura radiating from within made him resemble a lonely ghost.
Patrolling Suna ninja along the way were all startled by this powerful aura, and he had to proactively approach and verify his identity each time.
Arriving before Chiyo's room, he didn't knock but quietly slid the door open and entered.
Chiyo didn't look up from her desk. She just stared at the photograph on the table, silent.
In just one night, the Chiyo who had been full of vitality, as if she were still a lively twenty-year-old, had become stooped, as if she had aged teenagers.
It was at this moment that Hii Kōri realized his foster mother, usually as playful as a cat and always smiling, was already forty-five years old.
In this world, she was already considered elderly.
Hii Kōri pulled out a chair and sat down just as silently, then produced a flask of water from the scroll on his wrist and placed it beside Chiyo's hand.
"Drink some water. Even though the humidity in the Country of Rain is much higher than in the village, going so long without water isn't good."
"...Leave. Let me calm down for a while."
Even her adopted son's concern couldn't make Chiyo look up. She paused for two or three seconds like a rusty gear before squeezing out this response. Her voice was extremely hoarse, no different from the sound of a dead branch scratching across sandy soil.
"Next, because of the loss of Big Brother's puppeteer unit, the troops near the Country of Rivers will be under a lot of pressure."
"Considering that, to pin down our forces and prevent us from sending reinforcements, the attacks from the Moon Lake direction will probably become much more intense..."
Seeing Chiyo's reaction, Hii Kōri began analyzing the possible battlefield situation on his own.
He had quickly read through the written report delivered by the intelligence-bearing Suna ninja on the way over. The loss of so many puppeteers was a significant blow to Suna, if they didn't respond in time, they would be very passive.
"I said, let me calm down for a while! Just one day! Now get out?!"
Chiyo obviously couldn't listen to any of this right now. She randomly waved her arm at Hii Kōri, trying to shoo away this guy who kept chattering at such an inappropriate time.
"No."
But this completely uncoordinated and powerless wave couldn't do anything except knock over the water flask Hii Kōri had placed beside her. He easily caught his foster mother's wrist and faced her with quite firm force and an even firmer tone.
"It's not just Big Brother and Sister-in-law who died on the battlefield; there are many more Suna ninja. You're Suna's overall commander now; you can't only see Big Brother and the others' deaths."
"Although it could have been an accident, we can't ignore the possibility that Konoha dispatched a master of White Fang's level to attack that area precisely because Mataza was your son."
"If you collapse now, that would be playing right into Konoha's hands."
Hii Kōri's speech grew faster and faster, until his monotonous tone sounded like he was pressing Chiyo.
"How can you say such things, you wretched boy! Mataza wasn't..." The increasingly annoyed Chiyo suddenly snatched her arm back from Hii Kōri's grip, angrily slammed the table, and turned around.
And saw Hii Kōri's dead, empty eyes.
That gray color was exactly like scorched earth left after all excess emotions had been burned away.
"If grief worked, I promise I'd cry louder than anyone."
Hii Kōri let out a soft breath, turned to look at the sunlight outside the window, which seemed even pale, and spoke in an extremely bland tone.
Chiyo's breath caught, and then her entire body slumped. Large chunks of words suddenly seemed to gain physical form, all choking together in her throat.
Eleven or twelve years ago, before Hii Kōri was brought to Suna, when facing his biological parents' bodies, this was exactly what he had said.
"And compared to you and me, this hurts Sasori more."
Picking up the fallen water flask from the table, unscrewing it and taking a drink, Hii Kōri's already unfocused gaze became even more hollow, as if across thousands of miles projecting onto Sunagakure.
"Whether it's you and me, or Big Brother and Sister-in-law, having acted as ninja for so many years, we're all mentally prepared for this kind of thing, right? The dead can't speak, and no matter how much grief we feel, we can bear it."
"But Sasori, how is that child supposed to face this?"
Hii Kōri had always been very attentive to his little nephew, to whom he had no blood relation.
Maybe it was because of that red hair so similar to his own, or maybe it was the throbbing he felt when witnessing the child's birth, or the way he had stayed quietly and obediently by his side over the years... there were countless such reasons.
But ultimately, it was probably just because Sasori was "family" by his side.
Hii Kōri could easily ignore those "clan members" he had never met, even the ones who had actively abandoned his original body's parents—but he would never ignore the family right in front of him.
"Hey, old woman. Normally I could take over your command. I can rely on my brain to command small-scale skirmishes. But not now."
"I have no experience handling wars involving tens of thousands of people. Any mistake, even a decision that's 'not correct enough,' could cost dozens or hundreds of their lives."
Hii Kōri's expression was calm. "Even though war itself brings endless grief, at the very least, we can't let the dead's lives be wasted due to wrong decisions."
"...You're right."
Chiyo raised a hand and patted her own cheek, revealing a self-deprecating smile. "To be taught a lesson by you brat... I really am getting old."
"Old? Isn't it a bit early to be saying that? Cheer up. Don't make such an ugly face."
"Your most pressing task now is to quickly prepare some jokes like usual, and then live as long as possible, so that when you die, you can surprise Big Brother, who's been waiting for you for decades."
Squinting as he teased her, Hii Kōri stood up and headed for the door. "Now wash your face, comb your hair, mobilize everyone, and smash the hell out of those Konoha bastards' ugly mugs."
"Brat, then where are you going?"
Detecting the hidden meaning in her adopted son's words, Chiyo frowned, sensing things weren't simple.
"To do what I'm better at, of course."
Stopping at the door, Hii Kōri responded with a tone of righteousness.
"To bet everything with the enemy."
And then he stepped into the pale sunlight.
"Cursing each other."
***
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