Chapter 201: Trial and Key
"Invitation?!"
This word cleaved through the fog of confusion shrouding Kisame's mind. Those small eyes suddenly widened, pupils contracting slightly in the firelight. What shocked him even more were the words that followed—"reshape this false world."
This declaration, arrogant to the extreme, was like a stone thrown into stagnant water, stirring ripples in his heart.
However, for Kisame who'd already tasted betrayal's full flavor and held the deepest doubts about all promises, merely such vague yet grandiose slogans were far from enough.
"Heh heh..." Kisame let out a hoarse cold laugh, though his hand gripping Samehada didn't loosen one bit. "How unexpected, Lord Menma. Unlike those terrifying rumors circulating the shinobi world, you're quite skilled at preaching."
His tone carried sharp skepticism.
"But if I may be blunt, what essential difference exists between your so-called 'truth' and the 'betrayal' I just personally experienced? It's merely jumping from one cage into another perhaps more attractively decorated cage."
Kisame needed an answer—one that could truly pierce his numbed nerves, let him see a glimmer of different light.
He stared fixedly at that fox mask, wanting to penetrate it, to see clearly whether what hid behind was a savior or another more sophisticated deceiver.
"You say we're 'fellow travelers'? Then please tell me—" Kisame's voice carried almost obsessive questioning.
"What betrayed you? What qualifies you to claim you can see through this world's 'falsehood'? If... if the 'truth' you pursue turns out to be merely another more elaborate deception in the end, then what? Wouldn't we just be repeating the same tragedy?"
Hearing Kisame go on about "truth" and "falsehood" like a tongue-twister stuck in an endless loop, Menma behind the mask indeed felt a headache coming on.
This guy's stubbornness was more troublesome than anticipated. But for this future indispensable capable subordinate before him, he had to provide a perfect answer sufficient to break through his defenses.
He fell briefly silent, considering how to express complex truths in a way people of this era could understand. After several seconds, Menma spoke.
"Hoshigaki Kisame, you've gotten something wrong." Menma said slowly. "I wasn't, like you, betrayed by some specific person or village."
"The betrayal I experienced... was far more thorough and far grander. What betrayed me was 'hope' itself. That naive expectation believing that as long as you worked hard, as long as you followed certain rules, a beautiful future would arrive."
His tone carried a trace of mockery, whether directed at himself or that ethereal "hope" was unclear.
"Correspondingly, what I betrayed wasn't any single faction either. I betrayed the fundamental 'rules' themselves that this entire shinobi world operates on. That endlessly cycling hatred, deception, the fate of using and being used."
"You ask what qualifies me? The answer is simple. Because I once, like you—even more devoutly than you—tried to maintain that seemingly reasonable 'order,' to believe those high-sounding 'righteousness' claims... until I personally touched its core and discovered its foundation was already completely rotten, beyond salvation."
According to the original timeline's development, even upon achieving so-called peace, that fragile balance was merely superficial. Ultimately... the threat from beyond, the "Otsutsuki" descended, all efforts appearing so laughable before higher-level power—wasn't this too an ultimate betrayal of "hope"?
"This world's falsehood doesn't stem from surface lies and deception, but from the 'contract' maintaining the entire order—from the very moment it was initially signed, it was already a blank check destined never to be honored."
"The strong arbitrarily define what constitutes 'truth,' while the weak... like you and I once were, can only be forced within this framework to endlessly repeat the cruel cycle of 'loyalty' and 'betrayal.'"
Menma paused briefly, giving Kisame time to digest these words, then directly confronted that most core doubt.
"You ask whether the 'truth' I pursue might become another more sophisticated deception?"
"I cannot and will not give you a so-called 'never-breaking' promise. Because such promises themselves become one of the 'falsehoods' I most despise. Empty checks are meaningless."
"What I can give you are only two things—"
"A key, and a trial."
"Hoshigaki Kisame, walk with me. I'll forge for you a true 'place to belong'—not based on profit or fear, but based on the 'truth' we'll practice together. I'll become your comrade—not verbally, but truly back-to-back, blades pointing in the same direction."
"What we'll cleave won't merely be enemy bodies, but the very foundations of all hypocrisy in this world, breaking that pitiful cycle. And the price... is your entire past, and your yet-unknown future."
Menma's voice carried final, unquestionable challenge. "Now, tell me—do you have the courage to grasp this key that might lead to hell or might lead to rebirth?"
Kisame stood frozen in place, his entire body's muscles seemingly losing sensation, only his heart pounding wildly in his chest, blood's surging sound roaring in his ears. He could barely breathe, because the scene Menma described was precisely what he'd yearned for in his heart's depths even in dreams, yet never dared voice—true comrades, and a world completely rid of hypocrisy, naked and real.
This promise was beautiful as an illusion. Logically, with his years of experience in darkness, he should be more vigilant, should repeatedly question Menma's motives, speculate whether deeper traps hid behind this... But at this moment, an almost instinctive impulse overwhelmed all rational weighing.
Too similar... These words were almost like someone had directly glimpsed Kisame's deepest confusion and crafted a tailor-made answer.
True comrades... a world without falsehood... If this promise had even one-ten-thousandth truth to it, even if ahead lay blade mountains and fire seas, eternal damnation, Kisame would stake everything to grasp it!
However, precisely because this promise's weight was too heavy—heavy enough to stake his soul—Kisame instead needed one last thing—something that would let him completely sever retreat paths, fully deliver past and future—an irrefutable reassurance. He needed Menma to prove this wasn't merely pleasant words.
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