Whenever moments like this came up, Rin was the one who had it a little harder.
After all, she was the only girl on the team, so she couldn't bathe together with Mikami Yuu and the others.
Luckily, Rin had already mastered Water Clone, so she could leave one water clone behind to keep watch for her. As for Yuu and the others, they only needed to stay a little farther away and keep an eye on the surroundings.
That evening, after finishing a reconnaissance run, Mikami Yuu's group arrived near a mountain stream. According to their usual arrangement, it was Kakashi's turn to prepare food, while Rin went to wash up by the stream. Mikami Yuu and Obito squatted on a boulder up high like a pair of oversized wildcats, watching the area around them.
"Hey, Yuu."
Obito suddenly spoke up. "Why do you think ninja have to fight wars?"
"Huh?"
Mikami Yuu froze for a second, then turned to glance at Obito, confirming that he wasn't just talking nonsense and was actually asking seriously. "You're asking me?"
Seriously… the war had already been going on for half a year, and you're only just now asking that?
And besides, was this really the kind of thing a future low-sanity disaster like you should be worrying about? You're not some seven-year-old who can already think like a Hokage…
Still, there was nothing going on right now, and he had time to kill.
So after a moment's thought, Yuu answered casually, "Why else? To fight over resources, obviously."
"Resources?"
"Yeah. The real purpose of every war is to seize resources. Sometimes that means actual things like land, money, and manpower. Other times it means more abstract things, like influence and the right to speak."
"Take this war, for example. Sunagakure is in the Land of Wind, a desert country—sparse population, scarce resources. The Land of Fire, meanwhile, is full of fertile plains, rich in both money and people. So naturally Suna feels bitter about that and wants to grab our land and resources."
That much was true. The Land of Wind's environment really was harsh, but it also had a huge territory. In theory, it ought to be rich in things like gold and oil. Too bad Sunagakure didn't know how to make proper use of that. They'd have to wait for Rasa to show up… Come to think of it, if he reported that little bit of information to Konoha, would he get some kind of reward?
On the other side, Obito thought about Yuu's answer for a while, then frowned and objected, "But if that's all it is, then they don't have to start a war over it, do they? Couldn't they just sit down and talk it out?"
"What do you mean, 'that's all'?"
Mikami Yuu laughed. "You think everything in the world can be solved by talking it out? Say your family had a gold mine and someone else set their sights on it and wanted to kill you and take it—do you think you could just sit down and have a nice talk with them? Or take your dream of becoming Hokage. Can you just sit down with the Third Hokage and ask him to hand the position over to you?"
"?"
Obito blinked. "That's not the same thing!"
"Why isn't it?"
Yuu shot back. "Land and resources are limited. Just like there can only be one Hokage. But the number of people who want those things is not limited, so competition is inevitable."
"Maybe you're decent enough that you'd choose to compete fairly and not use dirty tricks. But can you guarantee everyone else would do the same?"
"And human greed never ends. People always want more after getting something. If you can become Hokage, then why not go one step further and absorb the other villages too?"
"Get… get what village? Isn't Takigakure our ally?"
Obito looked lost again.
Yuu's mouth twitched. "I mean it's human nature to keep wanting more once you've already gotten something."
"Oh…"
Obito scratched his head, still half-confused. "So just because Konoha happens to be in a richer place, that's somehow our fault?"
"Not exactly fault. It's just the way things are."
Mikami Yuu let out a sigh. "Think of it this way. You think the Third Hokage isn't doing a good enough job and doesn't deserve to stay in office, so you decide to force him out and take his place. In that case, who's at fault?"
"I already said I'd never do something like that! And how could the Third Hokage possibly be doing a bad job?!"
Obito was so startled by that disrespectful line that he hurriedly waved his hands and denied it.
And that was honestly how he felt.
At this point in time, Obito still had a very favorable view of the Hokage line and of Hiruzen Sarutobi in particular. There was almost a sense of admiration there. And to be fair, Hiruzen really had done a decent job during this term, White Fang incident aside. Overall, his merits outweighed his flaws by far, unlike his later term when he kept making one bad call after another.
Still, it seemed like Obito kind of understood what Yuu had meant just now.
And at the same time, didn't.
After all, his Wisdom stat was only two, and his education level was basically half-illiterate. Thinking through questions like this—questions with no clear right answer—was just too complicated for him.
Mikami Yuu didn't say anything else. He simply looked up at the deep night sky.
To be honest…
Sometimes he really hated this world.
Sure, the galgame was fun, ninja abilities were interesting, and people like Tsunade and Namikaze Minato were kind to him…
But all of that only held true because he had the system.
Without it, as an ordinary civilian-born person, the odds of Mikami Yuu dying in this Great Ninja War wouldn't just be high—they'd probably be seventy or eighty percent at minimum, if not closer to certain death.
On a broad level, less than fifty years had passed since the founding of the Five Great Villages, and yet the ninja world had already gone through three wars. On average, you could hardly find a pair of ninja between whom you could make up one complete set of living parents. A team like Team Minato right now—one that had both him and Rin, whose parents were both still alive—was practically a rare specimen.
In an environment like this, it wasn't surprising at all that people occasionally snapped and turned into psychotic wrecks bent on lashing out at the world. What was rare were stable, decent people with normal values.
Of course…
There were a few clans where the chances of someone going crazy were definitely way too high…
After a while, Obito looked up again. He had already let the war-and-resources topic go.
"Yuu, then tell me this—what matters more to a ninja: the mission, or their comrades?"
Mikami Yuu's mouth twitched slightly.
So that was the kind of question he wanted to throw out, huh…
"You're really asking about the White Fang thing, aren't you?"
Instead of answering directly, Yuu threw a question back. "Speaking of which, didn't you already ask Asuma about that a while back? You also said you wanted to go apologize to Kakashi afterward. What did he say?"
"I did go look for Kakashi, but the moment I brought up his father, he got really upset and wouldn't listen to a word I said. Seriously, it pissed me off!"
Obito looked annoyed.
Then again, both Uchiha Obito and Kakashi were still just kids in their early teens, mentally immature. And Kakashi at this stage, because of his father Hatake Sakumo's death, had fallen into an extreme mission-first mindset, so that kind of reaction made sense.
Mikami Yuu had no intention of getting involved in the massive bond plot between Obito and Kakashi. That thing was dangerous. Not something you watched too closely.
So he just thought for a moment, then said casually, "Obito, have you ever heard of the trolley problem?"
"…What's a trolley?"
~~~
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