Chapter 88: Nonō, What is Your Choice?
"A purge and massacre driven by several factions?"
Kurama Unkai's face turned horrified.
The words "purge" and "massacre" together meant the scope of involvement would definitely not be limited to Uchiha ninja.
Perhaps... also those hundreds, thousands of Uchiha civilians...
Hesitating for a moment, Kurama Unkai lowered his head and asked: "Lord Master, if I may be so bold as to ask, are the Konoha higher-ups involved behind this?"
"Mm."
Menma didn't hide it, nodding.
Creak!
Seeing the Lord Master nod, Kurama Unkai grit his teeth, his eyes filled with horror, and said resentfully:
"Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Shimura Danzō... do those beasts have any humanity left? How dare they commit such an inhuman act?!"
Although he was from the Kurama clan's hawk faction, it was purely because Konoha couldn't satisfy their demands for benefits.
He thought he already viewed the Konoha leadership as sordid enough.
But he never imagined the Konoha leadership would commit such an act devoid of human nature.
"Lord Master!"
Kurama Unkai looked at Menma and said: "Are we to take a hand in this, to fish in troubled waters?"
Although he felt some empathy like a fox grieving for a dead rabbit, he would absolutely not show any misplaced pity.
As a member of the Crimson Moon organization, he only needed to safeguard Lord Master's interests.
"In this game of chess, I was already one of the players."
Menma smiled meaningfully, then instructed: "You just need to prepare in advance. When the time comes, leave Konoha in the shortest time possible."
"Yes! Lord Master!"
Kurama Unkai lowered his head, cold sweat already drenching his forehead.
A game of chess and chess players... the Uchiha are merely chess pieces.
And they... don't even qualify to be chess pieces.
Realizing this, Kurama Unkai's heart hardened, a trace of determination flashing in his eyes.
"Brother, I hope you can turn back. Otherwise, even I, your younger brother, won't be able to save you."
...
The next day, inside Satomi Hill Villa.
Warm sunshine pierced through the openwork curtains, casting mottled light spots that slowly moved from the edge of the bed across it.
"Mmm!"
Seemingly sensing the warmth, Yakushi Nonō, lying on the bed, let out a soft hum.
Her delicate eyelashes fluttered gently, finally, slowly opening her eyes.
"Where... is this place?"
Nonō's consciousness gradually cleared, and she slowly regained her senses.
The next second, she couldn't help but groan in pain, feeling all the muscles in her body aching and twitching.
But she still grit her teeth, propping herself up on her arms to sit up in bed.
She looked around with a vacant gaze.
Unfamiliar surroundings, and an unfamiliar person...
"Who are you?"
A man wearing a mask stood by the bed, leaning somewhat lazily against the wall.
From his exposed eyes, Nonō could see the amusement in their depths.
"This is a mischievous, black-bellied fellow."
Nonō made her judgment instantly.
"Wandering Priestess? Oh, no, wait..."
Menma suddenly spoke: "The Wandering Priestess has already been disposed of by Danzō as an abandoned pawn. I should call you Yakushi Nonō now."
Nonō's delicate eyebrows furrowed tightly. She sized him up for a moment.
Then, without a word, she turned her head, looking out the window with a vacant gaze.
"Don't tell me you're going to play the childish trick of amnesia."
Regarding Menma's teasing, Nonō asked expressionlessly: "That child who killed me earlier... what happened to him?"
"Dead."
Hearing Menma's answer, Nonō could no longer maintain her composure.
She whipped her head around, murmuring, utterly disheartened: "Dead? How could it be..."
That child... was so familiar.
And the words that child spoke before she fainted.
"Why did he call me Director? And his glasses, and medical ninjutsu..."
The more she recalled, the more familiar that face became, and the expression on Nonō's face grew even more despairing and sorrowful.
"That child... was it Kabuto?"
But... how could I possibly forget Kabuto?
I clearly remember him perfectly.
"Is that child really dead?"
Seeing Nonō's somewhat despairing expression, Menma also put away his playful smile.
This woman's heart... how is it even more fragile than that guy Kabuto's?
If I keep teasing her, she might really break.
"If you're asking about that Root spy, Kabuto, then yes, he's already dead."
Before Nonō could say anything, Menma's tone shifted: "If you're asking about the orphan Yakushi Kabuto, then he's still alive."
He then took out a letter from his robes and tossed it before Nonō.
"Take a good look at this letter. He left it for you. After reading it, you'll understand everything."
Finished speaking, Menma shook his head and turned to leave the room.
Click!
With a soft click of the closing door, the room returned to silence.
"Kabuto... is still alive?"
Nonō stared blankly at the letter, murmuring: "It's good he's alive... it's good he's alive."
She almost... almost did something she could never forgive herself for.
Rustle rustle rustle~
Nonō snapped back to reality, much of the numbness and blankness in her eyes dissipating.
She then opened the letter before her and began to read.
Her expression gradually changed along with the letter's contents.
Anger, sorrow, shock, numbness, bitterness...
She saw Danzō and Orochimaru's conspiracy, saw Kabuto's journey from confused struggle to rediscovering himself, and also saw Kabuto's comfort and counsel.
Although the tone in the letter was very normal, very positive and optimistic, as if that sensible child had never changed,
But...
"Kabuto... I'm so sorry. If I had recognized you then, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out this way."
Nonō touched the barely perceptible damp marks on the letter paper, her face filled with deep guilt.
After a moment, her years of psychological training as an intelligence operative allowed Nonō to calm her emotions.
She immediately began to analyze information about that "masked man" and his identity.
Codename Ame-no-Minakanushi, leader of the mysterious organization [Crimson Moon].
Organization personnel unknown; leader's and organization's strength also unknown.
The only thing known was that "Ame-no-Minakanushi's" strength definitely reached 'Kage' level.
His battle record was sparse, but every enemy he fought was formidable.
"The Cloud's AB Combo, Konoha's Shisui of the Body Flicker, and S-rank missing-nin Orochimaru..."
Moreover, Ame-no-Minakanushi could also enter and leave Konoha freely, ignoring the barrier that enveloped the entire village.
The more she thought, the heavier Nonō's heart became.
A powerhouse of such strength... why expend effort to save me?
Could it be... to use me to blackmail Kabuto?
Click!
With a crisp sound, the door was opened again.
"Miss Nonō, this is the food we've prepared."
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, Nonō frowned and turned her head.
Seeing the aged face, she recalled for a moment in her mind.
Reacting, her eyes instantly widened.
"You are... Kurama Unkai, the younger brother of the Kurama clan head?"
Kurama Unkai placed the food on the bedside table, bowing slightly and saying seriously: "My elder brother is indisposed. I am now serving as the Kurama clan head."
Kurama Murakumo... indisposed?
"Hehe~"
Nonō smiled somewhat helplessly, her tone bitter: "Then I hope he recovers his health soon."
With that, she said no more.
After picking up the food, she turned her head again to look out the window.
Kurama Unkai, seeing this, tactfully withdrew from the room.
The room returned to silence once more.
...
Midday in Konoha seemed somewhat quiet, the sunlight also appearing somewhat lazy.
Nonō sat beside the window, her gaze unfocused as she looked at the blooming flowers in the flowerpot.
Slowly, she extended her fingers from the shadow towards the sunlight.
The instant she touched the sunlight, it felt as if warmth spread from her fingers throughout her body.
Click!
Hearing the door open behind her, Nonō turned her head and smiled: "You came after all."
Her smile was warm, like the midday sun, yet also seemed filled with motherly love and kindness.
But in Menma's eyes, this Nonō's smile was as hypocritical as Kabuto's.
No, even more hypocritical than Kabuto's.
"Seems you've recovered well."
Menma walked to the bedside and sat down, teasing.
Nonō smiled and shook her head, then turned to look at several children outside.
"Heehee! Come chase me!"
"Can't catch me, can't catch me!"
Watching these laughing, playing, carefree children, much of the sadness in Nonō's eyes dissipated.
A gentle expression couldn't help but appear on her delicate face.
"Nonō, do you like children very much?"
Noticing the change in Nonō's expression, Menma suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Yes~"
Nonō leaned back relaxedly against the headboard, her tone gentle: "No matter what happens, the carefree laughter of these children is always a good medicine to heal pain."
"The children at the orphanage should be more sensible than them, right?"
Hearing this, Nonō's eyes dimmed, her expression also somewhat pained.
"I actually wish the children at the orphanage weren't so sensible, that they could grow up carefree. But..."
But, she couldn't achieve that.
To save the orphanage, Kabuto, at an age when he should have been laughing and playing, spent five years as a spy in various countries, always having to wear others' masks, living cautiously.
And she herself was even used by Danzō, made to fight Kabuto to the death.
Thinking this, Nonō looked at the man before her calling himself "Ame-no-Minakanushi".
If not for this man, she would be dead by now.
And that child Kabuto, after discovering he had personally killed his "mother", would surely have completely collapsed.
Then he would be used by Orochimaru, becoming a tool in his hands...
"Thank you."
"...Hmm?"
Nonō's out-of-the-blue thanks made Menma pause.
Reacting, his tone held amusement: "Why aren't you afraid of me now?"
"What use is there in being afraid?"
Nonō looked outside with a bitter smile.
Watching the four familiar Hokage faces in the distance, she sighed: "I don't know if you're conceited or confident. Aren't you afraid I'll escape and expose your conspiracy?"
She had been locked up in Konoha from beginning to end.
"The Wandering Priestess is already dead, killed by Konoha's own hands."
Menma said calmly: "The one who survived, sitting before me now, is just Yakushi Nonō, a gentle orphanage director."
Nonō pointed at herself with a puzzled expression, asking back: "Do you think... the word gentle is suitable to describe me?"
She was a Root intelligence operative, the strongest intelligence operative.
The codename Wandering Priestess didn't represent "life", but the deaths of countless ninja from other countries.
For someone like her, the word gentle hardly seemed to fit.
"You demand too much of yourself."
Menma smiled and said: "When I just entered, I saw you reaching your hand towards the sunlight. Did you feel the sunlight was very gentle then?"
Nonō paused for a moment, finally nodding slowly.
The ancient gentleness from light.
"The sunlight shining into the room is gentle to you; the laughter of the children outside is gentle to you."
"And the lamps that light up after sunset are gentle to me. Also the scent of spring, the warm breeze of summer, the falling leaves of autumn, the warm sun of winter – for me, these are all gentle."
Saying this, Menma looked at Nonō and smiled: "When I just entered, the sunlight shone on your gentle, downcast face. I saw gentleness then too."
Nonō's gaze flickered away. She turned her head to look at the sunlight outside the window.
Finally, after hesitating for a moment, she asked: "If I no longer have the identity of the Wandering Priestess, what value do I still have to you?"
In her view, the reason Ame-no-Minakanushi saved her was for her abilities as Root's top intelligence operative.
Only this way could her usefulness be fully maximized.
Only then would she have value in being rescued and recruited.
And just as Ame-no-Minakanushi said,
In this world, she was, in fact, already a dead person.
Once news of her being alive was exposed, not only would Konoha hunt her down, but it would also implicate the children at the orphanage.
Because she knew too much.
Now, only Ame-no-Minakanushi could take her in.
And performing espionage work for him was the only way Nonō thought she could repay him.
"So you're also a stubborn one?"
Menma, hearing Nonō's words, looked slightly surprised, then chuckled: "Besides being a spy, do you have no other identity?"
Other identity?
"I don't know what else I can do now, what other identity would be more valuable to you?" Nonō asked blankly.
From a very young age, she was forced by Root to learn various espionage skills.
Now, having become an outstanding spy, infiltrating various countries and ninja villages, acquiring much secret intelligence for Root,
But, besides being a spy, she knew nothing else.
Menma scratched his head somewhat helplessly, asking back: "Since you feel you can only be a spy, then why did you choose to become an orphanage director, even going so far as to resist Danzō for it?"
"..."
Nonō fell silent.
Yes, why?
"Even without the identity of the Wandering Priestess, don't you still have the identity of an orphanage director?"
"...What?"
Nonō abruptly raised her head upon hearing this, her expression incredulous.
She happened to meet the deep blue eyes under the mask.
Those deep blue eyes, though holding amusement, were as sharp as blades.
In that instant, Nonō felt as if all her thoughts had been seen through.
Her spy instincts immediately made Nonō want to lower her head, not wanting Menma to see her constantly flickering gaze.
But just then.
"Nonō."
Menma spoke again: "Kabuto has grown up. He chose to stand before you, before everyone at the orphanage, to protect your safety."
Nonō's eyes trembled. She slowly raised her head.
Menma's tone also became serious as he asked gravely: "Will you choose to use the power in your hands to save others, shouldering the responsibility of a director? Or choose to use the power in your hands to harm others, continuing to evade the gentleness in your heart?"
"Now, it's your turn to make a choice."
(End of Chapter)
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