"Come in!"
Knocks rarely sounded at the door to Hagoromo's hospital room. If medical ninjas or Kushina came by, they would just walk right in.
None of them respected his right to privacy.
"Oh, it's Asuma."
The one pushing the door open this time was Asuma Sarutobi.
"Hey, hey, why the look of disgust the moment you saw it was me?"
In truth, Hagoromo didn't know many people, and even fewer would visit him during his convalescence. However, he did have a few he could call friends.
"Can I say it's because you aged prematurely and have way too much facial hair?"
He answered the question quite seriously. If you were going to act disgusted by someone, you needed to provide a reason; you couldn't just use the cliché, 'You're a good guy, but...' format.
Such was the tragedy of Asuma Sarutobi—an ignorant youth, yet old before his time.
"...You're as merciless as ever. It's genetics, you understand? Genetics. It's an uncontrollable force of nature; I can't do anything about it."
This at least proved he was the Third Hokage's biological son, which was a good thing for Hiruzen, Biwako, and Asuma himself. Hagoromo shouldn't be too demanding.
"The Fourth's wedding is today, isn't it? What a tragedy for you not being there. For the sake of that, I'll forgive your personal attack just now," Asuma said.
"He isn't the Fourth yet, is he?" Although Minato's ascension was an open secret by now, it probably wasn't great for the Third's son to be calling him that so casually.
"And do you really need to call it 'a tragedy'? Just look at me—does it look like I'm in any condition to move freely? Honestly, I kind of wanted to..."
"Wanted to what..."
"Nothing. What about Kurenai and Yamashiro? Are they not in Konoha?" (He had actually wanted to see what his teacher looked like in a wedding dress).
"Yamashiro is still at the frontlines. Kurenai will be returning soon. After all, the pressure of the war has greatly decreased, so they don't need to maintain that number of ninjas on the front anymore."
The youth nodded. As former teammates, if those two were in the village, they wouldn't have just ghosted him after hearing about his condition.
"Want to go for a walk?" Asuma asked.
"Going out is a no-go; the medical ninjas here won't allow me to move around too much... Let's just go to the roof to get some fresh air." He shouldn't be running around during his recovery.
"Yeah, alright."
"What do you mean 'alright'? Don't just stand there, give me a hand." Did he really expect a crippled patient to show off some taijutsu and do a kip-up straight out of bed?
"Got it, got it. You could've just said so directly."
Asuma seemed a bit strange today, as if his mind was weighed down by something.
Being highly fragile at the moment, Hagoromo was supported by his friend as they slowly made their way up to the roof, step by agonizing step. Once there, he immediately sat down on a bench, while Asuma leaned against the railing and gazed out into the distance.
From up here, Konoha looked the same as it always did.
"The weather is really nice today. No one has been paying attention to you lately, right? Including Kushina-senpai?"
In reality, that wasn't true at all. He had seen Kushina just yesterday morning. She had come specifically to inform him that she wouldn't be coming today, seemingly to prove she wasn't the type to forget her disciple just because she was getting married... Please, you're getting married today, why the hell would you come?
"Don't change the subject. If you have something to say, spit it out. Is it a romantic consultation? Something regarding Kurenai?" He didn't take the bait, cutting straight to the point. It was Asuma who needed to speak directly.
"Romantic consultation? No, do I look like someone who would have that kind of trouble? Someone like you is probably the one who needs relationship advice."
"Cough!"
A careless remark from a clueless person often hits the nail right on the head, even if the speaker himself remains completely oblivious.
Asuma's actual meaning was that with a face like that, Hagoromo was prone to misunderstandings and should definitely have romantic troubles worth consulting over.
"If it's not about Kurenai, then what is it?"
"..."
Did Asuma's entire universe revolve around Kurenai Yuhi in Hagoromo's eyes?
"It's nothing like that. I was recently promoted to Jonin," Asuma said. Only cold, hard facts could rein in his friend's wild imagination.
"Oh? Congratulations. But that was only a matter of time for you, wasn't it? Is that something to stress over?"
"That's not the point. The point is that I'll be leaving Konoha soon."
"Is it a mission, or... Look, the Hokage's son becoming a missing-nin would have way too huge of an impact. You better think this through carefully."
Only further cold, hard facts could rein in that imagination.
"It's a mission. I'll be executing a long-term assignment to protect the Daimyo, so I'll be leaving the village. It could be for five years, maybe even ten."
"Why? Did the Hokage assign this to you?"
Isn't that way too long? A legendary decade-long mission?
Naturally, he didn't actually believe Asuma would become a rogue ninja, but he hadn't expected him to take on a mission like this either.
The guy was the Hokage's son after all. Sending him away for ten years was practically exile. Aside from the Hokage himself, no one else would dare disrespect him like that.
"No, I requested it myself."
Hagoromo: "..."
"So it really is a romantic issue, huh?"
He must have been provoked by Kurenai, right?
Asuma ignored the jab this time. "If I had to pin it down, it's the conflict between me and the Third. Compared to my older brother, I've never been able to satisfy the old man. Even though my strength is improving and I'm a Jonin now, that dissatisfaction is still there. It's even worse..."
"Being in Konoha just makes me feel a bit lost."
"So, you're running away?" Hagoromo had somehow taken on the role of an agony aunt mediating family disputes.
Being able to step outside the limited perspective of the situation, he could easily guess the root of the conflict between the Third and Asuma. It was undoubtedly over philosophical concepts like the "Will of Fire."
But given Asuma's current age, he likely couldn't grasp the Hokage's true demands. He simply interpreted the Third's expectations as a requirement for combat strength, when in reality, the Hokage cared much more about ideology and mindset.
There were some who could think like a Hokage at the age of seven, but just like Hagoromo being able to see through so many things, that was an anomaly.
Asuma's situation was exactly how a normal person his age should think.
"Running away, huh? Yeah, I suppose it counts as running away."
"Asuma... people are inevitably forced to do many meaningless things in their lives. Just like your beard, it's an unavoidable objective reality. It doesn't determine the value of your life..."
"But actively choosing to do meaningless things... that just means your brain is broken."
"That would have been much more persuasive if you hadn't brought up the beard... So, to you, Hagoromo, what is something meaningful in life?"
"To me? It would probably be protecting the things I want to protect, I guess..."
That sentence really shouldn't have ended with an "I guess."
"And what are the things you want to protect?" Asuma pressed.
"That... I haven't found them yet," he replied.
But was that the truth? Had he really not found them?
"The things you say sound exactly like the old man. They seem to make a lot of sense, but they lack substance. It's as meaningless as saying nothing at all," Asuma sighed.
"The important things in life obviously can't be found that easily. After all, they're 'important,' not 'ordinary.'... Only you know your own thoughts; no one can help you with that. You'll probably figure it out someday."
"But there is one thing I can say for sure: what's the point in protecting the Daimyo? It has absolutely zero meaning. I advise you to really think it over. Five or ten years is a very long time."
Hagoromo's words verged on coldness, but the reality was that this endeavor held absolutely no meaning whatsoever.
What did the Daimyo matter? To him, the man was nothing. Less than nothing.
"I'll think about it."
Asuma said this after a moment of silence.
In reality, there was nothing left to think about. Since he had already accepted the mission, even if purely out of youthful stubbornness, he was still going to leave the village.
"Speaking of which, not being able to attend your teacher's wedding and being stuck here chatting with me instead... you're pretty pitiful yourself."
"But wedding or no wedding, as long as the sentiment is there, that's what counts."
Asuma steering the topic back to Kushina meant the discussion of his own problems was over.
"Sentiment?" Hagoromo was confused.
"A wedding gift. Don't tell me you didn't prepare one?"
"Uh?"
Crap! Was that a thing?!!
A person's mind can be very easy to change, or incredibly difficult. A few days later, Asuma still came to bid his friend farewell.
The Hokage's son left Konoha.
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