Chapter 63: How to Achieve Peace?
Yuu's teaching for Itachi was thorough and wide ranging.
Considering Itachi was only four years old, Yuu did not push heavy shinobi training on him. It was far too early. Not only would it be inappropriate, it could also affect his physical development later.
Besides, with Itachi's talent, once he was old enough, it would not be hard to catch up on that kind of training.
So Yuu's guidance leaned more toward chakra control and the principles behind it. He also covered parts of medical ninjutsu. And beyond shinobi skills, he taught other kinds of knowledge too.
At the very least, basic logic and moral education had to be included.
He wanted Itachi to form a set of values early, so he would not accidentally walk down an extreme path.
Even if it was difficult for an Uchiha to avoid extremes, Yuu still tried to steer him in that direction.
After some time, the results were good.
At the very least, after staying by Yuu's side for a while, Itachi became noticeably more cheerful. He still kept that steady, composed look most of the time, but he spoke more often now.
Everything seemed to be moving in a better direction.
One day, Yuu brought Itachi to the orphanage.
The sight of Konoha's orphanage stunned him.
Inside, many children moved about.
The ninja world was still in an era of war, so naturally not every orphan there was healthy and whole.
There were many children Itachi's age, yet their bodies were already scarred and broken. Some were missing a hand. Others bore different injuries.
The scene made Itachi fall silent, as if the battlefield memories he had once witnessed were crawling back to the surface.
"Why does there have to be war?"
He looked up at Yuu beside him and could not help asking, "Why can't everyone live together in peace?"
"Everyone has a different answer to that," Yuu said, not avoiding the question. His voice remained calm. "War is the continuation of disputes between people. It's also what happens when contradictions erupt all at once."
"Contradictions?" Itachi caught the word immediately.
"Yes." Yuu nodded. "There are disputes between individuals, and there are disputes between groups."
"When contradictions pile up to a certain point, and they can't be reconciled anymore, war begins."
"Can't they understand each other?" Itachi asked again. "So many people dying over contradictions… it's too terrible."
"If a bird wants to live, it must eat the insects on the ground," Yuu said. "But what if you're the insect?"
Itachi fell silent. After thinking, he shook his head. "Humans and beasts are different."
"Different, yet similar," Yuu replied softly. "The Land of Wind is covered in desert. The people there are generally poor, and they desire good land more than anyone."
"And the people of the Land of Fire already have that."
He looked at Itachi. "You're from the Land of Fire. Would you be willing to give your land to the people of the Land of Wind?"
"Can't we… talk about it?" Itachi hesitated, uncertainty showing on his face.
"Then let me put it another way." Yuu smiled faintly. "The Sharingan of the Uchiha is a famous ocular jutsu."
"Suppose one day, in the future, you have a younger brother."
Yuu paused, watching Itachi's expression, then continued with the same gentle smile. "And someone decides your brother's Sharingan is valuable, so they want to take your brother's body for it."
"I would kill him!" Itachi snapped his head up, his face suddenly hard with seriousness.
He did not even need to experience the situation. Just imagining it made anger surge through him.
If someone truly dared to do that, he would make them pay, even if it cost his life.
"That's where the problem is." Yuu lifted a hand in a small gesture. "Everyone has desires, and disputes will always exist."
"Contradictions are inevitable. They will explode sooner or later. That's why war exists."
Itachi frowned.
He was young, but his mind was unusually mature, far beyond children his age.
And because of that, he felt even more pessimistic.
No matter how he turned the problem over, he could not find a way to eliminate war.
Human desire could not be removed. Or rather, a person with no desire was no longer human.
As long as desire existed, war could not disappear.
And war would always bring casualties, including the suffering and deaths of innocents.
"Teacher… is there any way to avoid these things?"
He thought for a long time and still found no answer. In the end, he raised his head and looked at Yuu.
After these days together, he already trusted Yuu deeply.
The teacher in front of him felt different from everyone Itachi had met before.
Not only in attitude, but in wisdom, and in the way he handled questions.
During this time, no matter what doubts Itachi raised, Yuu always seemed able to answer.
And he answered seriously, never brushing him aside the way Fugaku often did.
So at this moment, Itachi instinctively sought an answer from him.
"I don't know either." Yuu met his gaze and shook his head. "If you're asking for a way to completely prevent war from ever breaking out, I don't think that's possible."
"And if there truly was no such thing as war at all, I don't think that would necessarily be a good thing either."
War had not vanished even in Yuu's previous world. It had only become far less common.
And from another perspective, war was an efficient way to resolve contradictions.
If war disappeared completely, how would all the accumulated contradictions be released? How would old forces be replaced by new ones?
If it reached that point, Yuu felt it might not actually be good.
"However," Yuu continued, "even though contradictions will explode in the long run, we can still reduce senseless wars and meaningless deaths as much as possible."
"That can be done."
"How?" Itachi's eyes brightened immediately. "How can it be done?"
"Make people's lives better," Yuu answered.
Itachi froze.
"Make people's lives better…" He looked confused. "Can that stop war?"
"A bird eats insects because if it doesn't, it will starve," Yuu said. "But what if the bird could live without eating insects?"
"The people of the Land of Wind want to seize land from the Land of Fire because they live in a place where survival is harsh. Even if they struggle, they still might die at any moment."
"But what if they could become prosperous through their own effort, with enough to eat and enough to wear?"
Yuu looked straight at Itachi. "If that happened, would they still be willing to risk their lives for a piece of land in a far off country?"
"No." Itachi's eyes lit up as understanding snapped into place. "If that were true, then aside from a few madmen and ambitious people, no one would start a war…"
"And that," Yuu said, "becomes a matter for laws and supervision."
"Malicious people exist everywhere. But if the law is sound, and those people can be made to pay a price in time, then reason will force most of them to stop and stay in their place."
To develop productivity.
That was the only way Yuu could think of to reduce most wars.
From his perspective, war was inevitable. No matter how much society developed, as long as contradictions existed, war would eventually erupt.
But meaningless wars could be avoided.
That required raising the standard of living.
If most people lived well, could obtain necessities easily, and had opportunities to move upward, then most disputes would fade before they turned into war.
And once the foundation became strong enough, even when war did occur, it would not be as cruel as the current ninja world.
After all, in a world where people could feed and clothe themselves with ease, moral standards naturally rose. It would not be as cold blooded as it was now.
"Then how do we make most people's lives better?" Itachi pressed, eyes shining with urgency.
"That," Yuu said, patting Itachi's head with a smile, "is the problem we need to work on."
"Everyone has their own answer."
"Which path to take has to be found through your own effort."
"And that," he added, "is also why I'm teaching you these things."
Itachi's eyes widened as he stared at Yuu.
From this moment, Yuu's image became grand and almost radiant in his heart.
Because Itachi felt Yuu definitely had the answer.
From the moment they met, Yuu seemed to know everything. His abilities felt beyond normal imagination.
If Yuu refused to say more, it was probably because Itachi was still too young.
"I need to grow up faster," Itachi thought, watching Yuu's back as he walked ahead. "I need to become stronger, so I can help Teacher sooner…"
"When that day comes, I'll be able to learn the answer."
In the distance, Yuu had already moved toward another area.
"You look really confused."
A voice came from the side.
Itachi turned.
A boy stood there, looking at him with curiosity.
The boy's face was clean, his smile bright, and a pair of glasses sat neatly on his nose.
"Are you Yuu gege's student?" the boy asked, clearly interested.
"And you are?" Itachi asked politely, the same careful courtesy as always.
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi," the boy said, giving his name.
Without Yuu realizing it, the young Kabuto and Itachi met like this.
What kind of changes that meeting would bring in the future was still unknown.
"Teacher Nono."
On the other side, Yuu stepped into Nono's office.