Chapter 20 C20
Scent seems to be the most personal choice that strangers remember.
For example, on that dull and damp summer night, in a room without any lights, Kana was more concerned with the scent of some unknown flower on Yuko's body when she helped her up, rather than with the face whose outline could only be barely discerned by the weak moonlight. The scent was so faint that it was almost imperceptible.
That scent was masked by the smell of milk during breastfeeding, but returned to its important position a year later, becoming Yuko's main scent. Then it was slowly eroded by the smell of medicine and hospital disinfectant. Several completely incompatible scents were mixed together, none of them could devour the others, and none of them could accept the others, eventually deteriorating into a kind of withered aftertaste.
Whether in her previous life or in this strange time and space, cancer seems to be an incurable disease.
Neji was already asleep in the next room.
Kana looked at Yuko, who was leaning against the bed, and listened to her coughing in a low voice, which sounded like a broken accordion with its speaker whirring and whistling out leaky notes.
In fact, everything is not without clues.
When she went to the hospital to visit the injured Uchiha Itachi, Yuko's speed in receiving the news and arriving at the hospital was too fast. Most likely, she was there at the time.
She took back the medicine that had been rejected and patiently stuffed the seventeen pills one by one into the miscellaneous bottle to which they belonged.
“You’re so smart that sometimes I forget you’re just a nine-year-old,” Yuko said.
Only a bedside lamp was left on in the room, but it was enough for her to see the calm and expressionless face on Kana's face.
Because her disguise wasn't perfect; at best, it could only barely fool a five-year-old kid like Neji.
Kana lifted her long eyelashes. "Do you want me to stop you, or force you?"
"Neither."
She was already terminally ill and didn't have much time left. She stopped taking her medication because she wanted to add some value to her death before the slight guilt she felt over Hizashi's death completely dissipated.
"I want to entrust Neji to you, is that alright?" She held Kana's hand tightly.
Kana realized for the first time that a dying person could have such great strength that she was unable to break free.
"Is it okay, Kana?"
Blood trickled slowly from the corner of her lips, and her voice became muffled because of the foreign object in her mouth.
"May I?"
Her thin hands, from excessive force, had veins bulging menacingly, like blood-sucking worms crawling in a mottled pattern, gnawing wrinkles into the pale petals.
Kana might later wonder if being afraid of death is one of the many flaws in human nature.
After obtaining the pain blocker, she could have left this place without pain as she wished. After all, no matter how sincere and persistent Hyuga Neji was in calling her "sister," they were ultimately not family, and whether he could live past eighteen had nothing to do with her.
But he hesitated to act, probably because the act of wielding a knife to commit suicide, a symbol of death, is itself a challenge to cowardly human nature.
"Is it okay, Kana?"
Yuko's voice had weakened, but her eyes shone brighter, like flames burning fiercely in the snow and ice, and even the hand that had gripped her wrist so tightly became hot, as if despair had been branded with a burnt smell.
"You will be his only family..."
She was a traveler kneeling on the ground, begging desperately, trying to exchange a handful of sunlight in her hand for the bread that others used to live on.
He will love you forever...
She is a siren from the Strait of Messina, tempting people to fall into the endless abyss with seductive tones that mask malice.
"The only one" and "forever" are clearly the most easily broken lies and the easiest things to lose.
Kana only had the foolish experience of treating others as "the only one," but she was never treated as "the only one," so she could only simply attribute it to—perhaps because that feeling was too wonderful, so there would always be people willing to be moths to a flame.
"Please, Kana..." Tears rolled down her cheeks like dewdrops on withered flower branches.
At that moment, for no apparent reason, Kana suddenly remembered the scent on Yuko's body. It was the scent of lilies, just like the scent of the person who had promised to wait for her in the same place and then disappeared.
That person was once her only one.
But I can no longer remember what her expression was like before she turned and left.
Kana had her reasons for refusing to move in with Yuko and the others from the start.
Yuko felt pity, gratitude, and perhaps even a tiny, insignificant thing that resembled love for her. These feelings were real, but they couldn't change Yuko's selfish desire to replace her as Neji's emotional support.
In Yuko's heart, she is first Neji's savior, the older sister Neji wants to be close to, and the person Neji can rely on in the future, and only then is she "Hyuga Kana".
Ultimately, Yuko didn't love her, but Neji.
Kana twisted her right hand, freeing herself from her grasp, and used the second knuckle of her fingers to wipe away the tear stains on Yuko's face, softly replying, "I will let him live past eighteen."
Yuko slowly smiled. As long as she could accompany him until he grew up, until he became an adult with the strength to live on his own and the courage to live on his own, "that would be enough."
Compared to Yuko, the system was the one who truly breathed a sigh of relief, because mission takers hate those who break their promises. When she agreed to Hinata Yuko's request, it was actually the beginning of her truly accepting the mission.
.
Kanai remembered watching a documentary about hyenas, which described them as notorious opportunists on the African savanna. They had a keener sense of death than the Black and White Impermanence, the guardians of the underworld. Moreover, unlike the picky cheetahs, they would eat rotting corpses with maggots in their entrails, their eating habits completely devoid of human aesthetics. They were also a hierarchical group with a strict system, where the leader enjoyed all privileges, and their offspring were born with a throne to inherit. Other female hyenas had no right to refuse a cub's request for milk—even if they themselves had offspring to feed.
Kana dismissed the third family member from the clan who had come to express their "adoption" on the day of Yuko's burial, following the scent of blood. They used perfunctory responses such as "Excuse me, what did you just say?", "The wind is too strong, I can't hear you", and "I'm hungry".
I was just about to cook a meal to fill my stomach when I discovered another one had arrived.
"The shop is closed today, you'd better come early tomorrow." Kana neatly pulled the door shut.
Turning around, he looked at the person who had jumped over the courtyard wall and entered the courtyard, and said, "This is trespassing."
The Third Elder snorted coldly.
Perhaps because he had been pampered and spoiled for so long, the old man spoke with a commanding tone, "Pack your things, someone will pick you up tomorrow."
"No." Kana crossed her arms, a very disrespectful form of body language for an elder.
The reason she suddenly thought of the second brother of the grasslands was because she realized that the Zong family, who had ferociously and hastily pounced on her because she had shown some talent, wanting to take her under their control and "devour her whole," were actually no different from hyenas.
“You are nine years old, and Neji is five,” the Third Elder said, showing a rare moment of patience. “These half-grown children can’t even take care of themselves, how can they support the younger ones?”
"His parents, and my parents, left us enough to live until we can earn our own money." In fact, it's not just until we graduate from the Ninja Academy; it should be enough to support them until they are eighteen or twenty years old.
Of the basic necessities of life, mortgages are the biggest burden, but neither of them has to worry about them. In this world, "transportation" is basically done on foot, so the only things left to solve are clothing and food—just by slightly restraining excessive desires, a lot of trouble can be avoided.
Besides, she's not just sitting around doing nothing. At such a young age, she's already a low-level ninja working for a living. Her wages from part-time jobs are income, so supporting herself isn't difficult.
The Third Elder's eyes narrowed. "Without the main family's subsidy, do you think you could..."
“I can,” Kana interrupted him.
“Just in case you’ve forgotten,” Kana kindly reminded me, “before I graduated from the Ninja Academy early, before you inexplicably gave me away, I always lived alone, using the money my parents left me to take care of myself.”
She emphasized "the money left by her parents".
The Hyuga clan provides subsidies to their orphans, but until she demonstrates her worth, no one cares whether she actually receives them. Even Yuko and Hizashi had no recollection of her before she helped Yuko during her difficult childbirth, just as no one cares how the weeds in the corner grow.
The people in charge of distributing the aid probably felt emboldened and arbitrarily withheld funds because of this.
"I haven't used a single penny of your money."
There was no resentment in her tone, which meant she had no expectations and that the connection between them had long been severed, which was what he felt was the worst thing that had happened.
"Back then, when I boiled water, I could only fill the kettle to a quarter full, otherwise it would be too heavy to lift. When cooking, I had to stand on a chair and tiptoe to climb onto the stove. When I was sick, I had to go to the hospital by myself to register and get an IV drip."
"Back then, I survived without you adults. Why do you think that now that I've learned ninjutsu and taijutsu and have the ability to survive, I need you?"
"As for Neji, you should ask him yourselves. I cannot make the decision for him."
Just as you had no right to disregard my personal wishes back then.
Neji, who had been eavesdropping in the entryway, burst out like a cannonball, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. "I'm not going! I want to stay with my sister!"
“I have a bad temper and hate trouble. If you want to come with me, you have to learn to do housework, take care of yourself, and be obedient,” Kana didn’t pull her hand away from his. “But if you call me sister, I will agree.”
"But that's all."
Neji buried his head in her thin back, tightening his arms around her. Kana couldn't understand how such a small child could have so much strength.
Because of the obstruction of clothing, Neji's voice became somewhat muffled, like a human's low sob, "I want to be with you forever."
It's "forever" again.
No wonder he's Yuko's biological son, whom she carried for ten months.
The power of genetics is truly terrifying.
"I'll give you a chance to change your mind."
You are still young and don't understand how easy it is to go back on your word.
Kana didn't forcibly pry his hands off. "Once you graduate from the Ninja Academy, you'll have a chance to choose again."
There is only one chance.
However, if one makes the same decision after being clearly informed of the consequences and after careful consideration, and then breaks the agreement, that is called betrayal.
She does not forgive betrayal.
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