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Chapter 295: Home
For the next half-month, the two of them simply wandered across the Land of Rain.
With no destination and no schedule, they simply wandered.
Konan led Alex through city after city, town after town. Everywhere they went, she would stop—at a street corner, by a bridge, or in front of a certain shop—stand quietly for a moment, and share a few words about the past.
She showed him the river where they used to fish. The water was still clear, though the riverbed felt much narrower than she remembered. The reeds on the banks grew taller than a person, rustling in the wind like hushed whispers.
Standing by the water, Konan told him how she and Yahiko used to compete to see who could catch the most fish. Yahiko had lost, but refused to admit it, demanding a rematch. Nagato had just stood off to the side, watching them without a word, a faint smile on his face.
She took him to the hills where they used to forage. The edible greens were long gone, replaced by a vibrant carpet of wildflowers swaying in the breeze. Konan crouched down, picked an unknown little flower, and smelled it. She mentioned how they used to survive solely on those wild greens. Back then, they didn't care what tasted good or bad; a full stomach was the greatest happiness.
She showed him the shrine where they used to wait out the rain. It was incredibly dilapidated now. The paint on the torii gate had entirely peeled off, and a corner of the main hall's roof had collapsed. But Konan said it was one of the places she had felt safest. When it rained, the three of them would huddle in the corner of the hall, listening to the downpour and waiting for the sky to clear. Yahiko would tell stories he'd overheard from the adults—some true, some exaggerated—but they were all wonderful to listen to.
Everywhere they went, Konan lingered for a long time.
Her expression was calm, but Alex could sense the turbulence beneath her serene surface. The memories that had been sealed away by time were being opened, little by little, like peeling apart the pages of an old, yellowed photo album—each one carrying the heavy scent of time.
As she walked through these places, she was no longer the untouchable 'God' who commanded the ninja world. She was simply a traveler returning home, walking the roads of her youth, looking at scenery that had fundamentally changed, and reminiscing about the days she could never get back.
Alex stayed by her side the entire time. A quiet companion. A quiet listener.
They walked like this for a long time. Across fields, over hills, and through endless towns.
Finally, at dusk one evening, they arrived at an unnamed little town.
It was so small it wouldn't even appear on a map. Just one main street, two rows of houses, an ancient well at the entrance, and an old locust tree beside it. The fading light of the setting sun bathed the cobblestone street in a warm, orange-red hue.
Standing at the town entrance, Konan's gaze moved past the houses to an empty lot at the very end of the street.
There lay a pile of ruins.
No, calling it ruins wasn't quite accurate. It was little more than a mound of collapsed dirt walls, completely overgrown with weeds and vines. Its original shape was completely lost. If Konan hadn't been staring so intensely at it, Alex wouldn't have even realized a house used to stand there.
"This is it," Konan's voice was light, almost carried off by the evening breeze.
She walked forward, following the main street. It was quiet. An occasional pedestrian walked by, but no one noticed them. Alex's genjutsu was still active, allowing them to drift through the town like ghosts.
Konan walked slowly. Every step seemed to tread upon fragments of her memory.
Her gaze swept over the houses. Some were new, some were old. Some looked exactly as she remembered, while others were entirely unrecognizable. But she didn't stop in front of any of them. Her eyes remained locked on the ruins at the end of the road.
Finally, she arrived.
Konan stopped and stood completely still. The setting sun cast her long shadow over the collapsed dirt walls, like an embrace thirty years late.
Alex stood behind her, not stepping forward. He could feel that Konan's emotional state was fluctuating far more wildly than before.
This place was the most special. The final stop on her journey of remembrance.
Konan's home. Her original home, before the wandering began.
She stood there for a long time. Then, she crouched down and brushed aside a clump of weeds, revealing a section of broken foundation.
The foundation was made of stacked stones. Thick green moss carpeted the heavily weathered stones. But beneath the moss, faint traces of life could still be seen.
"I originally thought..." Konan's voice was soft, as if murmuring to herself. "I originally thought I had no memory of this place at all. Of my parents. Of this house. No impression whatsoever."
Her fingers gently traced the stones.
"Because I was too young. What can someone remember from when they were only two years old? I thought I couldn't remember anything at all."
A profound sadness surfaced on her face.
"But after awakening the Kekkai Mora, those scenes buried in the deepest parts of my memory suddenly surged to the surface."
A faint tremor entered her voice.
"I remember now."
"I remember what this house looked like."
"I remember the tree outside the door."
"I remember the sight of my mother's back as she cooked at the stove."
"I remember looking up at the sky when my father lifted me onto his shoulders."
"I remember all the things... I thought I would never recall..."
She couldn't finish.
Alex stood behind her, watching her shoulders tremble slightly, offering no words. The sun continued to set, dyeing the clouds a deep purple. The evening breeze rustled the weeds over the ruins, the soft shhh-shhh sound almost like an answer to her words.
"This house wasn't big," Konan's voice finally regained some composure. "It was tiny. But it was so warm. During the winter, my mother would light the stove, and my father would hold me in his arms. The wind howled outside, but inside, it was so incredibly warm."
Her fingers rested on the stone foundation, lingering there.
"Then the war came. My father was drafted into the military and never returned. My mother tried to raise me alone, but she couldn't hold on. She left me at the gates of a temple, hoping someone would take me in. And then..."
She paused.
"And then... that was it."
Alex finally stepped forward and crouched beside her. He reached out, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know what happened to my mother after that," she continued. "The monks at the temple chased me away, saying they couldn't afford to feed me. So I started wandering the streets. All alone. I was so young. Later I met Yahiko... and then Nagato... and then..."
She looked up at Alex.
The final rays of the setting sun illuminated her face, giving her profile a soft, warm glow. A single tear shimmered at the corner of her eye, catching the light, but it never fell.
"I used to think I didn't have a past." Konan shook her head. "No home, no parents, no childhood. Those things were stolen from me when I was so small that I couldn't even remember they existed."
"But I know now."
"They did exist."
"I had a home. I had parents. I had a brief, yet incredibly warm two years."
She stood up, her gaze sweeping over the ruins once more.
The ruins remained silent, the weeds swaying in the wind. But to Konan now, it was no longer just cold stone and dirt. It was her former home, the place where her life began, the very first mark she ever left upon this world.
Alex took Konan's hand. Gently, his thumb brushed away the tear that finally spilled over.
"You now possess the power to change everything," he said softly. "Whether it's your friends or your parents, you can bring them back."
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