"Author: Hyuga Kiyonari. Illustrator: Kurama Yakumo…"
Konan opened the magazine and murmured as she read.
This issue contained a dozen or so stories. The contributors weren't only from Konoha—works from across the Land of Fire had been collected. Most author bios were long-winded, proudly listing impressive backgrounds, but under Hyuga Kiyonari's name there was only a single simple line.
"As a living creature, a person's main quest is simply to stay alive: consume enough energy every day, drink enough water, replenish necessary vitamins, and avoid danger. Beyond that, nothing matters. The meaning of life is to keep shit warm."
Konan couldn't help letting out a small laugh.
Pain didn't interrupt her rare moment of rest. He simply waved for the White Zetsu to leave, then lowered his head again and resumed studying the dense pile of documents on the desk.
Konan's eyes kept moving through the lines. When "R" and "the ship" appeared, the image of that mysterious masked man rose uncontrollably in her mind.
Back then, Yahiko died, and all of Akatsuki's companions fell under Hanzō's men. For Nagato and her, trapped in despair, the masked man had been that "ship"—promising hope, claiming it could ferry them out of the bitter sea.
But whether it was this so-called "ship," or the masked man himself… it was all a carefully woven lie.
They were liars.
Even Ultraman—powerful enough to destroy the "ship" with a gesture—couldn't erase the loneliness buried in people's hearts. People would still keep waiting for the next "ship" to appear.
The Rinnegan was the same. There would always be something stronger than the Rinnegan.
No matter how great, power was only a tool. Power itself could never become hope.
…
At the Land of Fire border.
Tsunade sipped tea in boredom, her one small comfort. There was no helping it—Shizune watched her like a hawk and ruthlessly stripped away even the occasional chance to drink.
Just then, Hyuga Kiyonari asked Katsuyu-sama to send over a magazine.
Tsunade took the publication and blinked. The feeling was… kind of like how a kid, once they achieved something, couldn't help wanting to show it off to an adult.
"…That's a nostalgic feeling."
She smiled and casually flipped it open.
At first, she read absentmindedly—but soon the story caught her.
"If this ship is really like what you say, then you wouldn't need it. Have you truly gained nothing at all, and you still want to run away?"
That sentence was like a switch, touching something deep inside her. Memories rushed in like a flood—Nawaki's mangled corpse, Dan on the brink of death whispering "I don't want to die," and the suffocating weight of pain Konoha had given her…
After enduring so much, hadn't her choice been exactly that—running away?
Believing that if she left, she could forget the pain.
Tsunade set the magazine down, closed her eyes, and whispered.
"The real… Tsunade…"
How similar she was to R.
The harder she tried, the smaller she felt. The more she gave, the less she saw any reward. Before she had gained anything at all, she chose to give up and flee.
But the difference was: the "ship" R tried to believe in was a lie… while she had found a real "ship," and she had found the real Tsunade.
"Kiyonari… no matter what, I believe in you."
"You'll do what the people before us couldn't."
…
In Konoha, Hyuga Hinata was also holding a copy of the magazine.
She'd heard Kiyonari and Uncle Ishida had put together this "Konoha Literature Monthly." After the first issue was printed, Kiyonari gave a few copies to each friend. And according to others, it sold out as soon as it hit the market—hugely popular. Even the Hokage had bought one.
Hinata wasn't interested in the other authors. She flipped straight to Kiyonari's story and began reading.
But the deeper she read, the more she sensed the undercurrent beneath the surface.
R ran away because of the pain of his wife's suicide—but what about everyone else in the story?
They didn't have tragic pasts. Like the ending said: an ordinary night, an ordinary apartment, an ordinary person… Was the world really that worthless to them?
Ah. I understand.
The people in the story also carried their own "Caged Bird."
Hinata didn't know what form it took, but this was Kiyonari's story.
Even if he always looked so open-minded and cheerful, at the end of the day he was still branch family. The stories he wrote would inevitably carry some shadow of the Hyuga.
But under the Caged Bird's restraint, the clan members wouldn't even have the chance to "run away." No "ship" would come for them— not even a fake one.
If even Ultraman was helpless… then perhaps, in a way, it also meant that Kiyonari… was helpless too.
…
Deep underground, Shimura Danzo also held a copy of Konoha Literature Monthly, his face full of disdain.
"Ultraman… childish in the end. This is the kind of work Hiruzen favors?"
That brat didn't understand: there was no obstacle in this world that absolute power couldn't crush. Every problem, in the end, was simply because power wasn't enough.
With a sharp slap, Danzo tossed the magazine onto the table. The red giant in the illustration looked as if it were standing tall right on the tabletop.
The brat himself wasn't important.
And yet… he had gotten tangled up with the jinchūriki, and even became his friend!
Danzo's heart was filled with annoyance and regret.
He regretted that when Hyuga Kiyonari first made contact with the jinchūriki, he hadn't immediately sent someone to negotiate with Hyuga Hiashi and demand that brat for Root.
An ordinary branch member. An orphan. The kind you'd lose in a crowd and never find again—easy to assign some reason and make him "sacrifice for the village" in a perfectly reasonable way.
If he had acted back then, the jinchūriki would never have had the chance to form emotional bonds, and would have continued drifting in isolation. The moment the boy's mental defenses showed even the slightest crack, Danzo could have demanded the jinchūriki from Hiruzen under the justification of "the Nine-Tails threatens Konoha's safety."
If he had acted back then, Tsunade would never have forgiven the village—or Hiruzen. She wouldn't have had the chance to interfere in the Hyuga's affairs, and she wouldn't have stayed.
Hiruzen was old. He couldn't last many more years. If Danzo just kept waiting patiently, a chance would come eventually.
That vision—brimming with life, everything bursting into bloom—had been right before his eyes.
But who could've imagined that in only three short months, the situation would turn sharply downward and the Hokage seat would feel completely out of reach?
"Why… why do I always miss the most critical moment?"
…
As for the person everyone was talking about—Hyuga Kiyonari himself—right now he was holding the draft of his second story, asking Kurama Yakumo to draw illustrations.
He had absolutely no idea that he'd only written a story, and it would spark such a huge reaction.
After reading the second story carefully, Yakumo set the pages down and couldn't help asking, "Kiyonari… Ultraman defeated only a giant monster formed by fused parasites. But… there are countless parasites still hidden in the cracks of human society."
"Why is it that in your story, even though Ultraman wins, it still feels like… 'nothing truly changed'?"
~~~
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