News that Iwagakure was driven out of Fire Country came back on the third day after Shuji left.
Specific battle conditions were confidential. Battle results were not. The somewhat unsettled hearts in the village recovered their calm.
This is related to senpai. Itachi believed so.
"Why?" Izumi propped her chin, looking at Itachi.
"Precisely because it's a mission of this level, they needed to mobilize senpai alone." Itachi's tone was certain. "Senpai's strength has always been unfathomable. Though we've experienced several missions together, he has never fully displayed it."
"The Third must have known this clearly, which is why he only summoned senpai."
Uchiha Izumi was a mediocre shinobi. She had self-awareness of her own talents. Even having awakened her Sharingan, as a shinobi, she was still ordinary.
Itachi was the most outstanding, most talented shinobi within her knowledge. Since he said so, it must be so.
So she smiled and went along with his words. "Mm, you're right."
"I'm going to train now, Izumi."
"Do your best, Itachi."
—
The village still has not summoned us.
Anko was training. In her ears constantly swept past fragments of villagers' conversations: Iwa withdrew, Cloud is willing to negotiate, the Tsuchikage was driven out of Grass Country...
But there was still no news of Shuji. She didn't know where he went. These achievements should have his share. As a member of Team Five, she was left behind because she was too weak.
The sky darkened without her noticing.
Anko dragged her exhausted body back to her apartment building, but stopped at the entrance.
"Shu... ji?" Her voice was light, uncertain, thinking she had mistaken someone.
"Haven't eaten?" The captain looked up at her upon hearing the voice.
"Ah... mm, not yet..."
"Open the door first. I need some water. Later we'll call Itachi and go eat."
Anko's mind was a bit dazed, but her body acted first, obediently opening the door. She mechanically walked toward the kitchen to boil water, watching Shuji just like the first time he came, cleaning up the ninja tools and miscellaneous items she had thrown around, while lecturing her about this old habit.
Because her stomach was too hungry, Anko opened a cup of instant ramen.
When she realized there might be only one cup left, she resignedly took out a bowl to share between the two.
"Hey! You gave me too little!" She stared at the small half bowl Shuji pushed over, naturally complaining. Anko protested dissatisfied. "Is this how captains abuse their squad members!"
"I'll treat you to food later. Too much instant ramen and Anko will turn into a sweet potato."
"What sweet potato! Too much! Shuji!" Anko flailed trying to pounce over, but was held back by a hand pinching her face, raging impotently.
She muttered incoherent words, but ultimately obediently accepted the allocation, quickly finished the noodles, simply cleaned up, then was led out by Shuji to find Itachi.
"Senpai, you've returned." When Itachi saw Shuji, his eyes brightened slightly, then returned to calm, politely greeting.
"Have you eaten?" Shuji opened with this question.
"Eh..." At this time he naturally had eaten, but Itachi looked at Anko grinning behind Shuji. "Not yet."
Uchiha Itachi naturally lied.
"Then let's go. Come to think of it, the village hasn't had any new shops lately."
"I want tempura!" Anko raised her hand.
"Itachi?"
"Tempura is fine with me too."
"Tempura it is."
Anko originally had a pile of complaints, a pile of strange things she wanted to say. But now she felt like nothing needed to be said.
With western line hostilities subsiding, many rotating shinobi came out to relax, so the shop's atmosphere was fairly lively.
In the noise, several middle-aged shinobi were raising glasses in celebration.
"Finally drove those Iwa bastards out!" A scarred-face shinobi gulped down a big mouthful of alcohol. "This time we finally vented our anger."
"Their..."
"Hey!" Another slightly older shinobi quickly stopped him. "Battlefield matters are classified. Absolutely cannot be discussed! Don't forget!"
"Sorry... just thought of Kento. To cover us... they..." The scarred shinobi's voice lowered.
This topic brought the entire shop's atmosphere down considerably. Anko's chopstick movements slowed. She looked toward Shuji.
The captain lowered his eyes, sipping tea.
"Heard Cloud is still dragging their feet?" Customers at another table tried to change the topic, bringing up another major matter. "Negotiations started some time ago, right? Still no result?"
"Clearly their envoy did that sort of thing in our village first, yet they still have the face to hold us accountable..."
"If you ask me, the Hyūga family shouldn't have been so heavy-handed." A different voice came from the corner. "If they'd just subdued him, the situation wouldn't be this passive. Now look..."
"What are you saying!"
The warm atmosphere completely dissipated in argument. The shop owner hurried from behind the counter, smiling apologetically to smooth things over. Familiar customers at surrounding tables also spoke up to mediate, saying they shouldn't have internal strife on such days.
The owner gave each table a free serving of fried shrimp tempura. The tense atmosphere slowly eased in the food's aroma and mediation.
But once words were spoken, they represented certain real thoughts.
Shuji ate the shrimp the owner sent. Though his mouth tasted sweet aftertaste, his mind thought of the Hyūga matter.
During the pressure of two-front warfare, no one could spare attention on pursuing details. Now external threats temporarily eased. Internal rifts and resentment began seeking outlets.
A bitter battle with Iwa produced shocking casualty lists. Negotiations with Cloud were destined to be difficult and possibly require concessions. With nowhere to vent negative emotions, they finally found a seemingly reasonable target: the Hyūga clan.
Even rationally understanding the Hyūga clan were victims in this matter, when one's own pain and losses needed a responsible party to bear them, people would subconsciously wish that victim could have been more perfect back then.
Blaming victims was always much easier than directly facing war's cruelty and unreasonableness.
At such times, if village leadership didn't actively guide public opinion and gather consensus, then the pressure the Hyūga clan bore would only increase daily.
The final result would probably still move toward the ending he knew.
Shuji couldn't determine whether the original Konoha faced circumstances more difficult than now, such that they had no choice but to make the decision to use their own people's corpses to calm matters. But from his personal judgment, the current Konoha was far from needing to take that step.
At least at Shuji's not-yet-high level of understanding, he did not approve of this approach.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild