Revolution in the Ninja World

If you excluded the time he had seen him from afar, this was actually Habara's first time interacting with Minato Namikaze. And Minato tended to leave a very good first impression (except on his enemies).

Even setting aside his strength, the Fourth Hokage was a tall, handsome, friendly, and warmly smiling person.

By this time, Habara had calmed down. For one, being emotional couldn't actually solve any problems, and for another, the outcome was already set, and nothing he did now would change it.

An Anbu ninja whispered something to Minato Namikaze, and then Minato walked towards Habara.

Habara couldn't continue sitting there now. He stood up with Daigo beside him. However, they just stood in place and didn't go to meet the Hokage... They were currently guarding a corpse, so even facing the Hokage, they shouldn't act too eagerly.

Of course, Habara had no such thoughts at all.

"I've heard about what happened to you. It was hard work on the Amegakure reconnaissance mission. The intelligence you brought back will be very helpful for the village in assessing the current situation in the Land of Rain... The dead are gone, and the living must go on. Please take care of yourselves," the Fourth Hokage said after arriving beside Habara.

Standing in the position of Hokage, the attitude he displayed in any formal occasion should be to treat all ninjas equally. And at this time, it wasn't really appropriate for him to say too much... The words that came out of the Hokage's mouth couldn't be completely superficial, nor could they be too emotionally deep.

"Intelligence is very important" – these words were actually polite. Because whether it was the previous Iwagakure reconnaissance mission or the current Amegakure reconnaissance mission, the ninja teams involved were definitely not just one. Various pieces of intelligence would be cross-referenced before becoming Konoha's basis for judgment.

So, was the general intelligence that Habara and the others brought back really that important?

Yet even for such intelligence, the original twelve-man team was now down to only two survivors.

Regardless, the Fourth Hokage's tone of voice made people feel very sincere.

So Habara responded with sincerity as well.

"Ninjas like us, in the end, are just insignificant people. However, even people like us have used our own ways to make insignificant contributions to Konoha's war effort. Therefore, people like us don't need sympathy or pity. As a ninja, in the end, my companions lived meaningful lives."

When Habara spoke, his eyes were looking at Izayo's corpse. Then, as he spoke, he raised his head until his eyes met the Hokage's.

Although he said "we," he didn't really include himself. He was talking about Izayo.

Because Habara spoke so sincerely, he seemed a little impolite.

"Hey, watch your attit..."

A ninja wanted to stop Habara's impolite behavior, but the Fourth Hokage reached out and stopped him first.

"We've already lost too much in the war, and in the end, we might not get anything... The only thing I can promise is that I will end this war as soon as possible."

The Fourth Hokage had a really good personality. He was actually willing to seriously communicate with an unknown ninja like Habara, who spoke in a confrontational manner.

"Lord Hokage, I'm just an ordinary person. In war, we often face situations like this... One second slower is death, one second faster is a hero. But our limits are there, visible to the naked eye, so people like us can't become heroes. But war always demands that heroes be one second faster, and then another second faster. So even heroes will one day be unable to overcome this short one-second obstacle... As long as we are human, there are limits. Therefore, even a strong person like Lord Hokage, the power of one person is limited. A Great Ninja War cannot be solved by a single heroic figure."

It has to be said, Minato Namikaze deeply resonated with Habara's words.

But to other Konoha ninja, it might sound like he was insulting the Hokage.

Minato Namikaze looked into Habara's eyes and found that this young ninja's lead-gray eyes had an unusually cold feeling.

"I heard that Lord Fourth Hokage is the fastest ninja in the ninja world. So, if you faced a situation where you had to save two people at the same time, or if both of those people were your loved ones, what would you do? So, many times, choices are neither good nor bad; choices are just choices, things that require choosing one over the other no matter what."

To be honest, Habara was being a bit fallacious. Was Izayo's range of choices the same as the Fourth Hokage's?

The surrounding ordinary ninjas were stunned. They thought, why is this young man so awesome, to be able to preach to the Hokage so openly?

"I will keep that in mind."

Although listening to the opinions of lower-level ninjas was also part of the Hokage's job, but... well, actually, Minato Namikaze was also a little stunned at this moment.

But he did take Habara's words to heart. The statement about "can't be faster" hit the mark, because this kind of thing had happened to him many times, such as... he hadn't saved Obito, and he hadn't saved Rin.

Afterwards, the Fourth Hokage ended his condolence work and left.

After the Hokage left, Daigo finally breathed a sigh of relief. She quietly glanced at Habara and then asked, "Habara... Is everything okay?"

"It's fine. Lord Hokage is a good person. The conversation just now was very pleasant," Habara said.

He had used the Hokage as a trash can, pouring out a lot of negative emotions, so how could this conversation not be pleasant?

However, from the perspective of the Hokage himself and the ninjas around him, it wasn't like that. They felt that Habara... had actually spoken well, but he shouldn't have said it.

In the end, it was actually because Minato Namikaze was magnanimous.

But it could also be said that this was the normal bearing of a leader. The higher the position of a ruler, the more amiable they would naturally be to the lowest level of people, even if it was just for show. If a ruler retaliated against an ordinary ninja for such a simple verbal offense, it meant that he was not qualified to be a ruler at all... cough cough Danzo.

Habara and Daigo didn't belong to the Land of Rivers forward camp, so after cremating Izayo's remains, they returned to Konoha with her ashes.

The squad was gone, so Habara and Daigo didn't have to participate in any missions for the time being.

Izayo was a proper Konoha ninja. Although she was just a commoner ninja, her ashes could be buried in that famous memorial park.

Some things might sound unpleasant, but Izayo's ending was actually better than most ninjas'. At least she could "return to her homeland in spirit," instead of being abandoned in the wilderness.

No matter how one returned home, returning home was still returning home.