Chapter 28 (C28)
Kana now has two choices.
First, he pulled out the dagger he had hidden on his person and charged at him to fight him again.
Second, I used my past life's talent as a debater on the school team to give him a cold laugh and scoff: What the hell are you talking about?
But given that the first option would only result in her being humiliated again, and the second option would make her lose her composure by jumping up and down as if her weakness had been exploited, she simply stared at him quietly for a while, slowly walked past him, and bent down to pick up her wakizashi.
"You hate me so much, I thought you also thought it would be better if I died."
Those who survive a battle by luck may be hailed as heroes, as people say that luck is also a part of strength.
Strangely, those who survived being injured or missing risked being regarded as shameful "deserters."
Just like Utatane and Mito, who suspected that she had been given a spell to extract information from Konoha, their expressions when they saw her were as if to say—you might as well just die.
“I really hate you,” Kakashi said, making no attempt to hide his disdain for her, “that’s why I want you to live.”
People have to endure all kinds of suffering while they are alive, but they can feel nothing when they are dead.
So Kana couldn't say whether it was better to be alive or dead.
Kakashi clearly thought so too.
A faint breath escaped from her nostrils, a sound almost like a soft laugh. Kana sheathed her sword, the blade pressed against the hilt, and said slowly, "How vicious, Captain."
.
After Yuko's death, Kana moved here from her original residence so that the children wouldn't have to go through so much trouble to adapt to the new environment.
Even though she's lived here for several years, Kana still occasionally feels like a stranger.
This is not surprising, though. She has been in this world for more than ten years and still has no sense of belonging that she cannot live without.
The neglected plants in the courtyard were already showing signs of decay. She stepped through the quiet entrance hall and walked through the deserted living room.
The sign that read "Neji" and had a picture of a small white dog next to it was a birthday gift she made on the spur of the moment to appease a child. There was no human breathing behind the door that was hanging there, so she passed by without stopping.
She opened the door to the room next door, which had a different sign on it.
The sign had the words "Kana-neechan" written crookedly, with the handwriting clearly showing its immaturity. The day after she refused, a sneaky puppy brought a small stool, stood on tiptoe, and hung it on the door without her permission.
Kana pushed open the door, but the person who had long held herself to the standards of a ninja didn't immediately notice. Instead, she was half-sitting and half-lying on the folded blankets, hugging her pillow. Her thick, dark eyelashes were smudged with moisture and pressed down heavily, and a small mound was squeezed between her brows from the effort.
Kana stared at the dark marks on the blue-gray pillow, wondering if they were from a child's saliva. Because she was so disgusted, she didn't take the pillow from his hand, but she was determined to replace it with a new one that wouldn't be contaminated by the snot and saliva of a human baby.
Maintaining this posture for several hours will break your neck the next day. Office workers who used to sleep at their desks to meet work deadlines know this all too well, let alone little kids whose spines are not yet fully developed.
As Neji placed his hand on the back of the child's neck to lay him down, he suddenly opened his eyes.
Kana didn't even have time to see his expression before she was embraced tightly.
She watched as the cylindrical pillow, which belonged to her but had been thrown far away, rolled several times on the ground before finally hitting the wall and coming to a stop.
The person in her arms seemed to have lost the ability to speak, only clinging tightly to her clothes and sobbing.
After patiently trying to decipher it for a while, I could barely make out what he was saying.
"Is it another dream?"
In just two months, his strength had become terrifying, as fierce as a drowning person desperately clinging to the last straw on the surface of the water.
Kana tried to pull him away by the back of his collar, but she couldn't.
"I told you not to come into my room without permission, right? If you do this again, you'll have to eat pumpkin for three days." Kana, unable to use force, heartlessly began to intimidate the child.
The puppy in my arms paused for a moment while trembling, then burst into an even louder noise.
That was a weakness that even when Hizashi and Yuko passed away, they gritted their teeth and refused to reveal it to anyone.
Like the helpless and desperate howl of a young animal that has lost everything, the body curled up in a ball is soaked by the torrential rain, the acidic liquid corroding the exposed wounds, the pain being drowned in the misty and heavy water vapor.
In that almost incoherent chaos, Kana pieced together his fear—he was afraid that it was all just another dream, just like every night for the past two months.
Kana still doesn't like hugs.
Zhi Shui, who once confidently assured her that he would help her develop the habit, is no longer there.
She only managed to imitate the action of "initiating a hug" after he left.
Or rather, it was his departure that taught her that lesson.
Kana reached out, her left arm encircling Neji's waist, further squeezing the already cramped space between them. Her right palm landed on his slender back, patting him lightly once, then once more.
Reason was reminding me what I should say at this moment, but I couldn't remember any of the comforting words and routines from my past life that I used to pretend to empathize with my clients in order to calm them down and get to the point as quickly as possible.
After a moment of silence, in the very end, she simply said, "Go to sleep."
"I am here."
In the adult world, even crying in the dead of night requires careful consideration, because after the sun rises tomorrow, there are still damned shifts that can't be late, there are rotten people and scumbags that you have to deal with, and life goes on like hell.
However, underage children still retain some privileges.
The person sent by the main family to capture Neji to go to school had just climbed into the house through the window, and before his feet even touched the ground, he was kicked out.
"You you you you you..."
Kana, who hadn't slept well all night because of the octopus in her arms, was in a low mood. "I'm suing you for trespassing!"
Neji still went to school—though he was late, he did so after applying ice to reduce the swelling in his eyes.
Moreover, Kana personally escorted him to school.
The puppy was very unhappy.
But Kana handled it very easily: "Didn't you say you were going to become stronger to protect me?"
The system commented on her ruthlessness for the thirty-seventh time.
Kana, who usually ignored it, surprisingly retorted, "Are all your systems as clueless as you?"
System: "This is an insult to the national unity. How can someone who studied law knowingly break the law?"
Kana: "Is it possible that some people learn this so they know how to stay on the edge and not go in?"
Kana stopped and, unsurprisingly, looked at the group of tall, burly men who had suddenly appeared and blocked her way. She remained completely calm and even kindly explained to the system, "The tool knife has been recovered. Both the main family and the Hokage have things they need to confirm."
Rather than letting Neji suffer from his own powerlessness and watch helplessly as she was taken away, it would be better to let him stay at school unaware of what was happening.
The system remarked that even you can be soft-hearted.
Actually, no.
Neji's crying really disrupts her sleep. Even with her sleep cheat code that makes one session better than six, she can't handle it. These people who don't have to take care of kids and can rest easy are just talking without understanding the pain.
Unlike the higher-ups in Konoha.
Besides her, Konoha has many other options who are willing to sacrifice their lives, and Hyuga cannot find a sharper sword to replace her in the short term.
So after she defeated seven adult members of her clan in a series of battles, realizing that her strength had increased rather than decreased, Hyuga immediately lifted her control over her.
It's not that the main family is too weak-willed, but rather that from their superior position, the "bird in a cage" technique has always been in their hands, so they naturally have the right to be fearless.
"Healing."
Kana paused in her steps and turned around to see the clan's medical ninja following behind the Third Elder.
Kana only realized he was talking to her when the Third Elder took two steps closer and spoke again.
Kana looked down at the dark red bloodstains seeping from the white bandage wrapped around her leg.
From a realistic perspective, she could have easily taken advantage of the situation for free, then ignored it and walked away like an ingrate.
But that useless sense of self-esteem doesn't seem to have died out completely; it pops up out of nowhere, jumping around happily.
He vanished from his spot in an instant. "No need."
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