Himawari was, after all, still a child—or rather, a child who had seen the cruelty of the world, a child who had been trained as an assassin from a young age.
Everything that had happened along this journey would have been a disaster to anyone else, but to her, it was all rather fun.
"Sir, look! A little pinwheel!"
Every splash of color along the journey became a source of entertainment for her. Even the Demigod was no exception.
Hanzo of the Salamander’s weapon, the chain sickle, had become her trophy.
She had even made up a story about how she and Big Brother Joseph had challenged the Demigod Hanzo and the Rain shinobi in the Land of Rain, during which she had supposedly slaughtered them all.
The fact that she possessed the Demigod’s personal weapon, now decorated with a little pinwheel, was apparently proof that her story was true.
If one insisted on scrutinizing the details, then the battle had merely been Joseph doing the actual slaughtering while she stood there shouting "Gah-gah!" at everyone.
So technically, she hadn’t lied.
And if anyone kept pressing the matter, they had better not blame the little girl for becoming ruthless.
After all, she was a six-year-old girl capable of taking on a Special Jōnin by herself.
Seeing such a carefree little girl put Kei in a much better mood as well.
"Himawari, stop fooling around. Be careful, or that monster will come and catch you!"
Kei pointed toward the strange phenomenon in the Land of Grass, attempting to frighten the little girl with it.
Whenever he was with this child, Kei always found himself forgetting that she was first and foremost a cold-blooded assassin, and only after that a carefree little girl.
Obviously, Kei’s threat failed to scare her.
"Bleh! The big monster already got pinned down and beaten by Buddha! It doesn’t have what it takes to catch Himawari! Buddha will protect me!"
The little girl was completely unfazed.
Kei liked the girl, but he was also full of complaints about her innocence, carefree attitude, and fearlessness.
She possessed the courage to charge forward without hesitation.
Kei did not.
The fearless little girl also awakened Kei’s own childish side. Today, he seemed determined to argue with a child over everything.
"Himawari, we came here to fight a war, not to go sightseeing!"
Kei said something even he didn’t believe, desperately trying to make Himawari realize that she was in the wrong.
Perhaps this was simply how the shinobi world was supposed to be.
The older generation would always find the younger generation annoying, while the younger generation would always live happier lives than their predecessors.
Though full of complaints, perhaps that was proof that society was progressing.
Unfortunately, Kei’s reprimand did nothing to restrain the girl.
She happily ran circles around him, the pinwheel in her hand spinning rapidly. With her other hand, she pointed toward the chaos in the Land of Grass while muttering:
"Sir, weren’t we going there to fight a monster anyway? We can just treat it like a sightseeing trip while we’re at it."
Well, the Uchiha group, who had originally planned to return to Konoha, had changed their plans once again.
They were going to the Land of Grass to take a look.
Kei wanted to see what Granny Huan was actually up to.
As for the monster Himawari talked about, Kei estimated that they would probably arrive too late to see it.
Shinobi might be extremely fast on foot, but the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain were still two separate countries. It would take two or three days to get there.
Besides, the five of them weren’t even in a hurry. They were traveling as leisurely as if they were on a picnic.
And right now, it was obvious that a gigantic Buddha was leading a horde of monsters in pressing a monster into the ground and beating it senseless.
By the time Kei and the others arrived, the battle would probably already be over.
Kei didn’t believe that the monster could withstand a beating for two or three days.
Following Himawari’s pointing finger, Kei raised his head.
Buddha’s radiance illuminated all things.
The stars of one’s natal destiny aligned, calamity stars withdrew and fortune stars arrived, the Nine Luminaries bestowed longevity, and one’s allotted fortune remained peaceful.
A gigantic Buddha had one hand pressing down on the monster, rendering it completely immobile, while the remaining nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine hands continued to rain punches upon it without pause.
Naturally, the monster refused to submit.
It struggled desperately, sending thunderbolts flashing across the heavens, but at most it could injure some of the lesser monsters.
Yet within Buddha’s Vajra Realm, even those injuries recovered instantly.
In the blink of an eye, the monster would once again be subjected to the ferocious retaliation of the monsters surrounding it.
It was like a mighty lion facing a ferocious tiger accompanied by a pack of starving wolves.
Even fighting the tiger one-on-one would be difficult enough, yet now it had to endure being swarmed.
There was simply no end to its misery.
Looking at the scene before him, Kei suddenly thought of Journey to the West.
He thought of the legends and myths of the gods.
Even beneath the Western Heaven, monsters were everywhere.
Perhaps the difference between monsters and gods was nothing more than status.
Those who possessed divine offices were gods and immortals.
Those without divine offices were monsters.
And this scene, combined with Kei’s encounter with Yahiko today, suddenly made the myths and legends he knew seem terrifyingly profound.
"A person without foresight will always be troubled by immediate concerns."
Kei suddenly felt that things were becoming increasingly complicated.
"I seem to have written a piece of mythology today..."
Because of this thought, even Himawari’s cheerful mood could no longer infect Kei.
The closer they got to the Land of Grass, the heavier Kei’s thoughts became.
Human beings could not create something completely beyond their own imagination.
When all was said and done, the world of Naruto was ultimately a world imagined by human beings.
Although this was a real world, everything that happened here could still be traced back to stories from the real world.
It simultaneously transcended reality and reflected it.
The Five Great Hidden Villages corresponded to the five permanent members of the United Nations.
The First and Second Shinobi World Wars reflected the great wars of the real world.
And there were countless other examples.
When Kei met Yahiko, he had discovered that Yahiko’s entire life seemed to be reenacting a Chapter from the history of Western religion.
That was extremely intriguing.
Johnny was a thoughtful man.
Seeing that Kei was distracted and showed none of the enthusiasm of someone enjoying a leisurely trip, he asked with concern:
"Sir, is something troubling you? Why don’t you tell me about it? Since we’re out to have fun, you should enjoy yourself. Just look at how happy Himawari is!"
Kei looked at him and suddenly felt that Johnny’s thoughtfulness wasn’t particularly helpful.
It seemed that everyone around him, except himself, had really started treating this trip as a sightseeing excursion.
Still, Kei genuinely needed someone to talk to.
If his speculation was correct, then he might be playing an extremely important role in the path some people would take toward becoming gods.
And that was a role Kei did not want to play.
"Johnny, tell me something. If we become involved in a war between gods, what role do you think we should play?"
Johnny didn’t understand why Kei was asking such a question.
Did that really even need to be answered?
"Sir, we have always been caught up in a war between gods! I am a believer of Kōga Group’s temple . Naturally, I must write a legend for Kōga Group’s temple in this world!"
As he said this, Johnny’s eyes shone with fervor.
Perhaps this was the difference between a person with faith and one without it.
Kei could not understand Johnny’s willingness to do anything necessary to spread the glory of his god.
For someone like Kei, who had no faith, once one reached a certain position, not even a god should be allowed to manipulate one’s life.
Of course, if one remained at the very bottom of society, one would still pray for the gods to bless and protect them.
That was simply human nature.
It was like saying, "If my left eye twitches, I’ll have good fortune today; if my right eye twitches, disaster is coming," while simultaneously dismissing the whole thing as nothing more than superstition.
In other words, Kei was essentially a refined, calculating egoist.
Having already become one of the handful of people standing at the very pinnacle of this world, Kei naturally did not want some inexplicable entity manipulating the world above his head.
"So, Johnny, don’t you want to become a god yourself? To become an existence standing alongside the deity you believe in?"
Kei suddenly asked a shocking question.
If anyone other than Kei had said something like that to Johnny, they probably would have received a blade and a dose of Shuten Six Paths in response.
"No, no, no, Sir! For a believer, that would be blasphemy!"
Johnny didn’t even dare to seriously contemplate Kei’s question.
Kei, however, was completely unconcerned.
He knew that his right eye was incredibly powerful, while his left eye had never received the favor of a god.
Perhaps the god whose gaze was fixed upon the Naka River could neither afford to favor him nor dare to do so.
Yet today’s encounter with Yahiko seemed to have allowed Kei to glimpse an opportunity to become a god.
The myths and legends of the real world seemed to share remarkable similarities.
Whether they were Western myths or Eastern legends, perhaps they were simply humanity interpreting the stories of gods from different perspectives.
The Great Flood.
Shooting down the suns.
A son killing his father.
These myths appeared at different times and in different regions, yet their contents were remarkably similar.
Could all of that really be coincidence?
Kei didn’t believe it.
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