Konoha Notes

Chapter 52: The End (Part 1)

The traces of martial law remaining on the streets have not been completely erased, but the suffocating chaos has subsided.

On a quiet street corner near the Sea Breeze Pavilion, Shuji was dealing with the last bit of the mess.

The corpse of Huan Shi was not brought back to the village. It was disposed of directly. The fire burned very brightly. The boy watched expressionlessly as the flames licked the corpse. There was no thick smoke, only a slight crackling sound and an indescribable smell of burning.

Before long, only a small clump of grayish-white embers remained on the spot, which were swept away by the wind and disappeared without a trace.

Jubei, whose life core is a lump of flesh, was brought back to the village because he seemed to know about Orochimaru.

Both Hai Shi and Shui Shi were contained in a sealing scroll and handed over upon returning to the village.

You can probably exchange it for some resources or money.

After this battle, both Anko and Itachi's equipment will need to be repaired and updated.

Hong Shancheng's commission fee is far from enough. He needs to go back and have a good talk with the village to see if they will reimburse the expenses incurred this time.

In this situation, can the annihilation mission and the intelligence gathering mission be considered as being completed together?

By this time, Izuku Port had recovered from the chaos of martial law.

After the Black Eclipse Gang's surprise attack failed, the Tea Mountain Gang, now leaderless, was just a group of ordinary people with considerable strength and courage, and was unable to face the counterattack from the local forces of Jiegang.

Since the martial law period, the Kazuki family has always been very careful to guard their home, and they have no intention of relaxing their guard even now.

The local trading company had no intention of offending the powerful figures, and the Wasabi family was busy dealing with the aftermath of their own casualties, so no one paid them any attention.

Through Wasabi's family, Shuji obtained several core members of the Tea Mountain Gang from the Fisheries Association president, one of whom was the scarred former city gate guard captain.

I plan to try and see if I can get some more useful information from them.

Inside a guest room at the Haifengting Inn, Shuji bent over his desk, summarizing the various intelligence materials he had collected.

Hongdou, who was in charge of interrogating the prisoners of the Tea Mountain Gang, came in and slapped a few sheets of paper with hastily written confessions onto the dossier that Xiu Si was organizing.

"A bunch of spineless cowards." Hongdou snorted, pulled over a chair and sat down casually, her boots even sticking up to the edge of the table.

"He wet his pants before the snake even crawled into his nostril."

"They know very little, they are terrified of the beast guards, and all they know is that the guy used absolute power and ruthless methods to subdue all the forces in Wild Tea Slope."

"Of the money they robbed, aside from a small portion left to buy alcohol and food for the gang, the vast majority was taken by Jubei regularly. As for what he did with it or who he gave it to, nobody knew. The Black Eclipse Clan? They had never even heard of that name; they just thought Jubei was some powerful wandering samurai."

She spoke quickly, but her gaze was somewhat unfocused, not landing on Xiu Si's face.

The room fell into a brief silence, broken only by the scratching sound of Shuuji's pen nib gliding across the paper.

Hongdou's toes twitched unconsciously under the table. Her lips parted several times, but finally, as if she had made up her mind, her voice lowered, carrying a barely perceptible dryness: "Hey, Shuuji..."

"That guy didn't say anything more about Orochimaru before he died."

The pen stopped, and Shuji looked up at her calmly.

"After we return, the village will receive some new information."

"Hmm... Ah." Hongdou's shoulders slumped slightly, and she turned her head to look out the window.

The harbor wind blew in, lifting a few strands of deep purple hair from her forehead.

“But—” Her voice was so soft it was like she was talking to herself, or perhaps to the sea breeze outside the window, “I don’t know why, but whenever I get involved with the words ‘Orochimaru,’ I… can’t control myself.”

She raised her hand and scratched her hair in frustration. "I know it's no use rushing, but I just... want to know something right now. Anything is fine."

Xiuji didn't stop writing, nor did he look at her; he simply listened quietly.

Hongdou's gaze was somewhat unfocused: "He sealed away part of my memories and left a curse mark on me." "But he didn't kill me."

"Shuji, I think... I remember something..."

"It wasn't that he abandoned me; it was that I gave up following Orochimaru and chose to stay in the village."

She lowered her head.

"Konoha is my home, the place where my parents lived... the place where my comrades are all."

"But after I returned to the village, the secret police locked me up."

She felt as if she could feel the coldness and suffocation of that secret room again.

"That room had no windows. I don't remember the time, but I know that there would be interrogations every now and then, over and over again."

"Later, the Hokage came in person and told me that this was something that had to be done for the safety of the village, and also to give the village an explanation to the friends and families of the other people killed by Orochimaru."

"He killed many people, including genin, chunin, ANBU, and even jonin."

"I understand..."

but……

The words that followed stuck in his throat, turning into a sharp, intense bitterness that surged up to his eyes.

My vision blurred instantly, and warm liquid welled up without warning, rolling down my cheeks with a "plop," "plop," drop after drop, hitting the dark tabletop covered with a thin layer of dust, spreading out into small dark dots.

She slammed her forehead against the cold table, not wanting anyone to see her in this disheveled state.

The sound of the pen nib scratching the paper stopped.

Only suppressed, faint sobs remained in the room.

A hand with calloused skin, yet unusually warm, gently landed on Hongdou's disheveled, deep purple hair.

There were no extra words, only the warmth conveyed through the palm of his hand.

Hongdou's body stiffened abruptly, and then the suppressed sobs seemed to pause for a moment, before surging even more violently.

She didn't look up, but buried her forehead deeper into her arms, like a wounded young animal that had finally found shelter.

Shuji's hand rested quietly on the top of her head, feeling the slight trembling beneath his palm.

——————————————The dividing line for the next day——————-
Morning light pierced through the thin clouds, illuminating the Wasabi family's estate, which was under repair. The ground, cleaned overnight, no longer bore the horrifying traces of blood, and even the heavy stench of blood in the air had been greatly reduced. The busy figures of the craftsmen and the sounds of mending wood indicated that this family was striving to recover from its trauma.

Shizune's figure moved among the wounded. Her right hand was wrapped in thick bandages, but her movements were still nimble as she focused on treating the complicated wounds of a seriously injured wasabi guard.

Seeing Xiuji and Hongdou walking towards her one after the other, she simply nodded hastily before immediately throwing herself back into the treatment.

Itachi was placed in a particularly secluded room deep within the manor.

Sunlight streamed through the paper door, casting a soft glow on the floor.

The boy sat leaning against the cushion by the window. Although his face was still pale, his eyes were clear and his breathing was steady, indicating that he was no longer in serious danger.

Tsunade was sitting next to him.

"It was just some foreign chakra residue imbued with natural energy that had invaded my meridians. It was a bit troublesome," Tsunade said, picking up the teacup beside her. "But it's been completely cleaned up now."

"Thank you for your trouble."

　It was heated by the black soil.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)