Hanzo's throat felt constricted, and he couldn't speak for a moment. What choked him was pain.
"No!"
Not getting a response from Hanzo, Haruki looked back at the Ame ninjas and found Suzaku's body.
He knelt beside Suzaku's body, placing his hands on the large hole in Suzaku's chest, and light emanated from his hands.
"He won't die!"
"No one will die!"
"I will bring everyone back to life!"
Haruki repeated stubbornly.
Hanzo watched Haruki's appearance at that moment, his heart throbbing with pain. He came to Haruki's side and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Haruki…"
As soon as he spoke, Hanzo realized his own voice was trembling uncontrollably.
He gulped, composed himself, and slowly said, "Accept their deaths."
This is the path all ninjas must walk.
The light in Haruki's hands extinguished. He threw himself onto Suzaku's chest, letting out a heart-wrenching wail.
[Ding!]
[System detected Hanzo's affection value +5000.]
[Your Love Curse growth value has increased to 95%.]
"No…"
"I don't want anyone to die…"
"I don't want…"
A hoarse voice echoed across the battlefield.
Crows flapped their wings, soaring across the pale sky.
Hanzo's heart suddenly ached, he looked up, gazing into the distance. There, the first ray of dawn had already appeared.
Haruki's cries continued to echo, not dissipating. Hanzo knew that anything he said would be useless. Haruki has to overcome this hurdle himself. He knew how much Haruki valued emotions.
"Brother…"
"Please wake up, okay?"
"Look at me!"
"…"
Haruki stared unblinkingly at Suzaku's pale, cold face. His pupils were dull and dilated. Tears dripped from Haruki's chin onto Suzaku's face.
At this moment, was Haruki truly just acting?
Haruki felt a suffocating pain in his heart. A poisonous snake of agony coiled tightly around his heart.
People had died right before his eyes. The ninjas of Amegakure were all good, they were all so young, yet they had tragically died here in such a sorry state.
"Wake up!"
"Wake up, all of you!"
Haruki pushed Kurogaya, who lied beside him with eyes tightly shut.
He still remembered Kurogaya was only fifteen. No, Kurogaya should be sixteen this year.
Only half of Kurogaya's body remained, and before he died, a faint smile even lingered on his lips.
Haruki's eyes ached. He breathed rapidly, but tears still poured down, hitting the ground one after another.
"Enough. Haruki." Hanzo pulled Haruki into his arms.
"Don't waste Chakra, they are all dead. No matter how hard you try, you can't bring them back to life."
"Accept reality."
[Ding!]
[System detected Hanzo's affection value +10000.]
[Ding!]
[System detected Hanzo's affection value +10000.]
[Ding!]
[System detected Hanzo's affection value +10000.]
[Currently collected affection value totals 30000. Your Love Curse growth value has increased to 98%.]
Hanzo had not actively embraced anyone since the poison sac was implanted. He knew his embrace would only bring death to those around him.
But at this moment, holding Haruki in his arms, he felt more clearly that Haruki was still a child.
If there were no war, he would still be attending ninja academy. But now, he had already experienced unimaginable pain on the battlefield.
"There must be a way!" Haruki struggled free from Hanzo's embrace.
Hanzo knelt on the ground, watching Haruki crawl towards the bodies of the Ame ninjas.
The morning glow spilled across the sky.
After an unknown amount of time, the Ame ninjas who had remained at the Amegakure encampment rushed towards the Land of Wind border after receiving Hanzo's signal flare. When they arrived, they saw Haruki futilely treating the corpses one by one.
[Ding!]
[System detected Yushi's affection value +5000.]
[Ding![
[System detected Yunsuke's affection value +3000.]
...
[Ding!]
[Currently collected affection value totals 20000. Your Love Curse growth value has increased to 100%.]
Yushi led the Ame ninjas to stand silently behind Hanzo. None of them disturbed Haruki because they knew that only Haruki could save himself.
The Ame Ninjas, with red-rimmed eyes, quietly waited for Haruki.
Haruki continued to search among the bodies without giving up.
The rising sun illuminated the battlefield, yet no one felt the slightest warmth. This war was won in the most tragic way.
[Love Curse growth value has met the requirement, do you want to generate a Love Cursed Spirit?]
'Yes.'
Let everyone accompany him forever in a different way.
Haruki stared intently at the several corpses before him.
Cursed Energy surged within his body. His pupils dilated, and blood vessels gradually filled the whites of his eyes.
"Fake… It's all fake…" Haruki's chapped lips moved.
Like a dream.
"This is fake…"
"Everyone is alive…"
Cursed Energy emanated from him, enveloping the bodies of the Ame ninjas on the battlefield.
"Don't die…"
"Stay with me forever…"
Haruki's voice was hoarse, his pupils red, and the stubbornness in his voice worried Hanzo.
"Get up…"
"Get up, all of you…"
"Stay with me…"
"Stay with me forever…"
"…"
All the extreme negative emotions accumulated since his arrival into this dangerous world completely erupted at this moment.
The bodies of the deceased Ame ninjas underwent a transformation. Visibly, black viscous matter writhed on the corpses. An ominous, chilling aura instantly spread.
In an instant, the surroundings became extremely cold, it was as if it had started to snow.
A black, mud-like substance gradually extended upwards into the air. The black mud, growing from countless Ame ninja corpses, continuously twisted and condensed in the air into a one-meter-sized black sphere. The black sphere furiously rotated and compressed in the air.
"What is that?"
Yushi frowned deeply, his face pale as he stared at the black sphere rotating high in the sky in front of Haruki.
They had witnessed the black sphere forming from substances growing out of their comrades' corpses.
Hanzo stared unblinkingly at Haruki, and combining it with Haruki's previous words, he had a guess in his heart.
"Haruki…"
"Protect Haruki…"
A sharp shriek exploded across the silent battlefield.