Accompanied by a gentle breeze, Hikari quietly landed on the roof of one of the houses in the bandit stronghold.
"Have you taken care of everyone?"
Hinata hesitated and glanced toward the house in the corner nearby before falling silent.
During this time, she had already killed all those who attacked her, including a few rogue shinobi who had mastered basic ninjutsu. But when it came to the remaining women and children, she couldn't bring herself to act.
"You don't want to do it?" Hikari asked again.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Hinata's face, but in the end, she remained silent.
She didn't know what she should do.
In her eyes, these children were innocent, and the women here had clearly been forced into this life.
"Sasuke, I'm leaving it to you." Hikari's gaze fell on Sasuke. "Go."
Sasuke said nothing. He simply picked up a kunai and walked into the nearby house.
Amid cries and terrified screams, the shouting inside quickly died down.
"Done."
With Sasuke's voice, he emerged from the house with an unchanged expression.
He looked exactly the same going in as he did coming out—no trace of blood splattered on him from the killings.
"Naruto, come over here too!"
Hikari called out to Naruto, who was standing guard outside, then turned to Hinata.
"Hinata, what do you think of Sasuke's performance?"
Hinata shivered slightly. Looking at Sasuke beside her, her expression grew complicated before she finally said, "Good."
"What does 'good' mean? That he did the right thing, or that he did the wrong thing?"
"He did the right thing. He did what a shinobi should do."
"So you approve of his actions?"
"I approve."
"Really approve?"
As Hikari fired off question after question, Hinata's expression grew increasingly conflicted until she fell silent once more.
Seeing this, Hikari shook his head slightly and turned his gaze to Sasuke.
"Sasuke, what do you think of Hinata's performance?"
Sasuke didn't hesitate. "Not good."
"How so?"
"Showing mercy to the enemy goes against the shinobi code!"
According to the shinobi code, anyone deemed an enemy or a mission target—even an infant in swaddling clothes—must be killed.
Hikari's expression remained unchanged as he continued, "Then why do you think Hinata couldn't bring herself to do it?"
Sasuke glanced at Hinata, his eyes cold. "Probably because of her pointless compassion."
"Senpai!"
Naruto arrived at their side. Looking at the silent Hinata, the indifferent Sasuke, and Hikari who was scrutinizing the two of them, Naruto was confused about the situation.
"Naruto, go take a look inside that house."
Hikari pointed to the house Sasuke had just entered and told Naruto.
Naruto nodded and quietly pushed open the door.
Women in their twenties or thirties, barely clothed, lay in pools of blood. Some were even heavily pregnant, and most of their faces showed no fear—some even wore faint smiles.
The rest were infants still in swaddling clothes and a few half-grown children.
The horrifying scene struck Naruto's heart deeply.
"This is...?" Naruto could tell that all these people had been killed by shinobi kunai.
In other words, they had all been killed by Sasuke.
"Do you think these people deserved to die?" Hikari asked Naruto.
Naruto hesitated for a moment before answering, "I don't know!"
Yes, he really didn't know.
These people couldn't have harmed them in any way. The oldest child was no more than ten years old, and the women had lost all hope for life. From their appearance, Naruto could guess that they had been confined to this house their entire time here.
This was a group of women kept captive by bandits.
"What was the mission objective?" Hikari asked—not to one person, but to the entire team.
"Report: Eliminate every single person in this stronghold!" Sasuke answered quickly.
Even after killing these women, children, and the weak, Sasuke's eyes showed little change. In that regard, he was already a very capable shinobi.
"Shinobi exist for this very purpose: completing the mission objective is our top priority. I know all of you have compassion—especially you, Hinata. You think these women and children are innocent and should be allowed to leave, don't you?"
After the serious tone, Hikari began to explain the reason, helping them relax.
He needed to make Hinata and the others understand why this had to be done—why these children had to be killed.
"Hinata, let me ask you: How do you think these women ended up here?"
Hinata replied, "They were abducted... right?"
Hikari nodded. "Correct. Bandits don't produce anything — they're parasites in the shinobi world. This area is near the national border — neither the daimyō of the Land of Fire nor the daimyō of the Land of Rivers want to invest here. Once war breaks out, this place would be the first to be invaded. That's why so many bandits have sprung up here."
"If I'm not mistaken, these bandits settled here after the Third Great Ninja War. They abducted women from nearby villages by force and threat — and their existence constantly drains those villages dry."
"Hinata, if you were brought here and forced to become a tool for the bandits' desires and to bear their children, what would you do?"
"I'd kill them!" Before Hikari could finish, Hinata interrupted.
Hikari didn't mind the slight rudeness and continued, "That's because you have strength. These women have no choice but to be treated as tools for breeding and desire. Every day they live here is like living in hell. Do you think it's better to kill them now, or to send them back to the villages below the mountain?"
Though she didn't want to admit it, Hinata had to face the harsh reality.
For these women, death was indeed a form of release.
First, there was the practical issue: When these women were abducted by the bandits, in a way, their families had already abandoned them. In extreme cases, they were even seen as part of the bandits. If they were sent back, only a few would live well; most would suffer.
"Besides the women, there are these children. To you, they're innocent. But to these women, the children are proof of their captivity—proof of their oppression. If you let the women and children go together, what do you think would happen to those children?"
"Most of them would be killed by the women's own hands. In their hearts, these children are nothing but cursed offspring."
This time, a change finally appeared on Hinata's face. Crystal tears began to fall from her eyes. She was crying.
Hikari asked, "Why are you crying? For the bandits? For the women? Or for the children?"
Hinata looked up at the sky. "I'm crying for myself. To think I've been living in such a pitiful world all this time."