Time flew by like an arrow.
Konoha, Year 32.
Just at the beginning of summer, the weather was quite warm but not excessively hot.
This day was a special day—
The day the heroes returned!
Of course, the war had not completely ended.
The heroes who returned were merely the severely injured personnel from the front lines; they would no longer be able to live as ninjas in the future.
On the battlefield, they had already become burdens to their comrades and must be uniformly escorted back to Konoha to spend the rest of their lives in the village.
Along with the numerous injured returning were the bodies of the ninjas who had already sacrificed their lives; they would forever rest in the earth.
Thus, on this pleasantly warm day, some remained silent, some wept, and some perhaps shed tears, but not tears of joy.
Even without any orders, people and ninja races in Konoha had voluntarily organized a solemn ceremony to welcome the heroes home.
But the adults waiting for the heroes' return maintained sorrow and silence, while the usually active children didn't know what had happened and dared not speak out rashly, merely standing quietly amidst the somber atmosphere.
War was never a beautiful affair.
—At Hakushi's house.
Hakushi was not particularly interested in welcoming these so-called heroes.
He had no family participating in this war, so welcoming heroes was optional for him.
However, Hakushi knew that Ruri would be going to the welcome ceremony; as a member of the Uchiha Race, she had the obligation to welcome clan members returning from battle.
If it were just Ruri alone, Hakushi thought he might meet up with Ruri at the village entrance for the welcome.
But surrounding Ruri were certainly many Uchiha clansmen; he felt it would be inappropriate for him to follow along.
From this perspective, Hakushi thought he should stay honestly at home, as he had many experiments to conduct.
In the past two years, not only did Hakushi learn on his own all the medical ninjutsu from the medical ninjutsu scroll handed over by Ruri, but he also mastered them thoroughly.
To put it bluntly, Hakushi had considerable confidence in his medical ninjutsu skills.
Besides this, other aspects of his skills didn't fall behind either.
According to Ruri's assessment, he now possessed equivalent strength to the Chunin Level.
A year before, Ruri had undergone a rigorous selection by the Jonin of her clan and achieved Chunin Level strength. Hakushi could match Ruri either 40-60 or 50-50, so he naturally was at a Chunin Level of strength.
However, he never exposed his true capabilities; in others' eyes, he remained an ordinary student at the Ninja School.
He was someone who blended into the crowd unnoticed.
He had mastered many ninja techniques, aside from the Three-Body Jutsu; he also mastered the Hand Sage Art, Healing Jutsu, Hemostasis Jutsu, and Chakra Scalpel—these essential medical ninjutsu required of an excellent medical ninja.
As long as he understood the essence of each, learning them was not difficult for Hakushi.
Moreover, possessing a mature soul, he had far greater self-control than most people and devoted several times more time to training than ordinary individuals.
Every day, apart from regular rest and classes, he spent most of his time in training.
He had gone through immense hardship to achieve his current results.
Inside the house's space, this was Hakushi's specially designated mini-laboratory.
On the table lay many distillation bottles, test tubes, containers, along with Bunsen burners flickering with red and blue flames.
There were also some glass bottles holding transparent solutions; within them soaked some rather rare plant specimens and portions of animal torso specimens, such as vital organs like eyeballs and livers.
Hakushi handled these apparatus skillfully to achieve the results he needed.
Then he recorded the data on the computer.
Speaking of which, Hakushi found it quite unexpected that, in the not-so-industrially-developed Ninja Realm, computers existed.
Although computers from the current era in the Ninja Realm, in Hakushi's opinion, hadn't reached a high level of sophistication, having them was better than not.
He only excelled in fields like chemistry, biology, and pharmacology; although he also understood electronics and machinery, he wasn't proficient in them.
Creating a computer himself was something Hakushi simply couldn't do. Professional matters had to be left to professionals.
Even purchasing this computer, with a processing system that Hakushi considered low-level, had cost him quite a bit of money.
Scientific research was like a bottomless pit, continuously consuming Hakushi's already limited funds over the past two years.
As of now, Hakushi's resources were nearly depleted, which naturally slowed his research progress.
He could gather raw materials himself, but for some precise instruments and more precious materials, money had to be spent.
While Hakushi pondered these troubles, there was a sudden knock on the door.
He put down his work and went to open the door.
Sure enough, it was Ruri.
Now eight years old, she was a bit taller than she had been two years ago. Although she still looked youthful, her gaze had grown sharper and colder, giving the impression of being rather aloof.
Even if it sounded a bit harsh, Ruri wasn't very good at socializing.
She didn't understand how to accommodate others and wasn't adept at handling interpersonal relationships, but she was very enthusiastic about becoming stronger.
In her bones, she was a hot-blooded, battle-loving person.
This likely related to the Uchiha Race's traditional personality; the clan members typically were quite hot-blooded and combative.
Hakushi believed that if it weren't for his true strength earning her respect, he'd likely find it difficult even to get a word with her.
Because both knew some of each other's secrets, Hakushi felt he and Ruri made a well-matched pair.
"Did the welcome ceremony end so soon?"
Hakushi led Ruri into the house and asked out of curiosity.
By his estimation, Ruri should spend the entire day welcoming Uchiha heroes back.
"No, I just left early. But quite a few of our clan were sacrificed, and some can no longer live as ninjas."
Ruri's mood seemed somewhat low.
"After all, it's war," Hakushi sighed.
Death or injury in war was undoubtedly normal.
"Why didn't you go?"
Ruri asked Hakushi this question.
"I don't have family returning from this war."
Ruri then remembered that Hakushi's parents had perished on a mission long ago.
"I'm sorry."
"It's all right, I don't care about such things. Being alone is just a bit freer."
Hakushi smiled at Ruri, signaling he didn't mind, and walked toward the separate space inside the house.
Ruri also followed Hakushi into the separate space—Hakushi's private research lab.
Hakushi didn't hide his research activities from Ruri.
After all, what he was doing wasn't some unspeakable, forbidden experiments, and even if Ruri knew, she wouldn't spread it around.
They had developed this tacit understanding over the past two years.
Although it hadn't reached the ultimate level of "you don't say, I already know," Ruri wasn't someone who liked to dig into things.
For instance, even though she knew of Hakushi's true strength, she never considered exposing it.
Hakushi didn't ask Ruri why she wouldn't expose him, and Ruri didn't ask Hakushi why he hid his strength.
Even so, this didn't affect the pure friendship between them.
This was the best kind of tacit understanding.