He stood up from his chair, walked to the window, and stared blankly at the sky.
He was no longer a child—or rather, he had never really been one. Adding up his two lives, he was nearly forty years old.
In the past, he might have harbored thoughts of revenge, but now, that inclination was gone.
Because, truthfully, it was boring.
No one hoped for him to do such a thing. If one were to speak solely of pain, Eisawa Shiraishi's suffering was a hundred times worse than his own.
But what did he do?
Was numbing himself with alcohol really his true intention?
No, Gisei believed his uncle must have been thinking about revenge all the time.
The world is always cruel, yet also strangely beautiful. Life is a multiple-choice question with obscure meanings.
If Eisawa had pursued revenge, he would surely have dragged himself into even deeper suffering—something he didn't wish to see. So, he chose to let all the pain end with him.
He had always told himself to look forward and not be blinded by hatred, yet he himself struggled desperately in its vortex.
Wanting to save him... looking back now, it really seemed like the willful tantrum of a child. Saving him just meant forcing him to continue his painful struggle. It would have been better to let him find relief sooner and go to the Pure Land of his dreams.
Thinking of this, Gisei could do nothing but sigh.
He wasn't an extremely radical child like Sasuke; he might feel sentimental about the changing seasons, but he would recover quickly.
Since he wasn't going to take revenge, did he have to live the way they expected him to?
Gisei refused.
An adult's thinking is different from a child's, especially for someone like Gisei. He was sharp, seeing through to the essence of things with a single glance. He saw the true reason for his clan's destruction.
Even if one seeks revenge, every debt has its debtor.
Were the Third Hokage and Danzo really the enemies? Or was the entire Hidden Leaf Village the enemy?
No. The true enemies were Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju—and their inverted "Will of Fire."
Actually, calling it "inverted" wasn't quite correct, but arguing about this issue was like arguing whether the chicken or the egg came first; there was simply no answer.
In the beginning, Konoha definitely only had ninja clans. Later, it slowly developed, and the number of commoners increased. This was objectively a good thing. It was good for Konoha, and good for the ninja clans too; more people meant more missions, and no one would complain about having too much money.
But that guy, Hashirama Senju, was a person of extreme, universal love.
He wanted to create a Konoha where everyone was equal and lived together in peace.
The idea was great, but on what basis? Even in modern society, there is an order of arrival. In the context of Konoha, why should ninja clans make no distinction between themselves and commoners?
I clearly came first!
The one who gets into bed first definitely isn't the husband, but the ex-boyfriend instead? What kind of joke is that?
In this way, his "equality" became an injustice to the ninja clans.
In the end, true equality doesn't exist even in modern society.
The endlessly burning Will of Fire? Is it really okay to treat people as "leaves"? Hey, those falling leaves are individual human lives.
Gisei felt it was necessary to make the people in this village recognize reality.
He wanted to dig up the roots of Konoha, directly excavating the graves of the two Senju brothers.
Destroying the Will of Fire—this was his true revenge.
To achieve this goal, relying solely on power definitely wouldn't work. Even someone as strong as Madara Uchiha couldn't do it, so expecting him to come up with a way right now wasn't realistic either.
But the road ahead was long, and no one could say for sure what the future would hold.
Gisei sneered; he now had a deep understanding of Madara Uchiha's feelings.
Continuing to look through the notes, he found another sealing jutsu inside—one that could seal the butterfly seeds.
This was a technique developed by his grandfather. Eisawa said it was created for those in the branch family.
After firmly memorizing this sealing jutsu, doubts arose in his heart.
Whether it was his grandfather or any other relative, they absolutely would not have let him see this kind of thing. But Mei gave it to him. Even though the content inside was clearly disadvantageous to her, she just handed it over.
Why?
Was she that confident in him?
He was indeed very afraid of death, but not to the point where he would let her manipulate him without daring to resist.
He thought about asking Mei, but then decided against it. It didn't matter much; she was just an anomaly anyway. Gisei believed that one day he would know all her secrets, and when the tables turned, she shouldn't blame him for being ruthless.
Just as Gisei was pondering, a knock sounded at the door.
After composing himself, he said, "Come in."
When the door opened, the person who appeared before him surprised him a little.
Anna Takemoto.
He hadn't seen her for a while, and she looked much more haggard.
"Why do you have time to visit me today? If Grandpa Shuichi died, I would be very happy to attend his funeral."
If it were the old Anna Takemoto hearing these words, she probably would have flown into a rage, but today she was acting strange.
"Walk together?"
Gisei suspected he was having auditory hallucinations. Or perhaps he was caught in a genjutsu?
Although Anna's temper wasn't as violent as her grandfather's, she wasn't exactly easy to get along with. Gisei knew perfectly well that something must have happened, otherwise she wouldn't look like this.
On the roof of the hospital, the two stood by the railing overlooking Konoha.
The wind blew past, sweeping a few fallen leaves into the sky.
Gisei reached out and caught a leaf, turning it over and over in his hand, remaining silent. Anna had also been silent since they arrived. Their eyes met occasionally, but they quickly looked away from each other.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward—perhaps even terrible.
After about ten minutes, Anna took a deep breath and finally spoke.
"Are you not planning to change your mind?"
Gisei was stunned for a moment, not understanding what she meant.
"Grandpa told me you want to leave Konoha. Can you really not stay?"
So it was because of this. Did Anna come to be a lobbyist?
Naive. If people's thoughts were that easy to change, there wouldn't be so much suffering in the world.
Gisei shook his head with a bitter smile. "Actually, leaving or not leaving Konoha doesn't matter to me. It's just that Konoha can't give me what I want, and I can't give you what you want."
"This is a gap in thinking. Do you want me to stay and fight for the position of Hokage?"
"Even your grandfather probably knows that fighting for Hokage isn't realistic at all, but he has no choice but to pin his hopes on me."
"But what can I do? Take you all to the battlefield to die in exchange for a slim chance?"
"Although I am a selfish jerk, I haven't reached the point of being cold-blooded."
Anna's gaze was very cold, like the biting wind in winter.
"You are always like this. You see failure before you've even done anything. You want to escape because you're afraid of failure. When I was little, I said you were a coward. I didn't expect that now that you've grown up, you're still a coward."
Gisei's expression turned ugly. "Do you remember what I told you in the hospital?"
"The me of yesterday is different from the me of today, and the me of today is different from the me of tomorrow."
"A person should do things according to their ability. If strength can't keep up with ambition, you'll only get burned."
"Your strength doesn't match that position. Forcing a fight for it will only lead you into someone else's trap."
These were his heartfelt words.