Chapter 29: Untold story

Harmony is a mental state, and all its practitioners need to maintain their emotions in balance. It’s not about becoming devoid of emotions, but rather about balancing positive and negative emotions.

That’s why, for its practitioners, it is important to always be careful. Strong and intense emotions like anger and hatred are poison. If a Harmony practitioner feels these emotions too intensely and disrupts their mental state, they may succumb to the emotion and become a murderous monster who does not distinguish between people. In the end, the chances of returning to normal are low, and only death remains.

Whether becoming a target of someone who no longer wants to see them hurt anyone or spending all their energy and dying while killing and destroying.

Since he began his training in Harmony at a young age, Yujin was shielded from these negative emotions by his master. Despite a long-standing war happening in the lands, Yujin’s master never allowed him to even get close to affected areas or battlefields.

According to Yujin’s master, painful experiences help people enter a state of Harmony, as these experiences become fuel for finding balance. People without painful experiences struggle to find balance precisely because they have nothing to balance.

It’s like having a scale, and on one side, you put something heavy, and on the other side, there is nothing. It’s easy to simply add something to the other side to balance the scale.

It is different, however, when you are already in a state of Harmony.

The scale is already balanced, and your job is to maintain the balance. If suddenly a strong and intense emotion like hatred overwhelms you, the pendulum, which was in balance and keeping things running, swings heavily to one side, destroying the balance completely because of the weight.

Yujin was a blessed child after meeting his master. He had everything he needed to grow well. His master ensured that he had all the good things that a normal child would not have, and so when it came time to balance things, his negative and positive emotions formed a perfect balance, and he achieved Harmony at a profound level, with noticeable improvements over the passing years.

That’s why Yujin’s decision, at the age of 18, to understand the war was controversial.

He almost experienced a breakdown in balance when Xu Rong died, so what would happen when he witnessed the war?

Although Yujin’s master tried to stop and convince him otherwise, Yujin was determined.

He sought revenge for Xu Rong, and that’s when he found her tormentors dead, abandoned in the middle of a forest.

It was the first time Yujin realized how insane war is.

When he saw the scene of death, of hundreds of people in a camp, with mutilated and destroyed bodies, the smell of death, rotting flesh, and insects everywhere; all the feelings of hatred and anger he was feeling disappeared, and he achieved an even greater balance than before.

He finally understood the chaotic essence of war.

He buried the bodies, not because he cared about the people who died, but because he didn’t want anyone else to have that hellish sight.

After that, Yujin continued visiting war-torn regions. He saw entire villages destroyed, with bodies exposed to the open sky. He saw orphans amidst ruined buildings, with nothing to eat or anyone to turn to for help. He saw villages being invaded, people being killed, women being raped.

He walked through many places, always helping as he could. He took orphaned children who had no one to villages that were still standing; he buried the bodies of the dead; he defeated invaders who were killing and raping.

The more he saw, the more uncomfortable he felt, but at the same time, his good deeds filled him with pride. He had the power to help people, and he helped. The negative emotions were balanced by his positive actions, and he felt that, although it wasn’t enough, he was still changing the lives of many people.

Yujin was currently in Tsunade’s training facilities. He had been training there in recent days, partly for privacy, partly because he hoped to find her here.

He didn’t want to confront her again, but he believed that as long as he didn’t actively seek her out, and they happened to meet, it wouldn’t be bad.

But she never came to the underground facilities.

Today, once again, Yujin was here, not to train but to reflect.

He sat in a lotus position in one of the training halls, thinking about the past, about everything that happened. He was trying to make a decision.

When he was talking to Jiraya about his ideals, Yujin didn’t want to discuss his not-so-admirable philosophy. Initially, he didn’t plan to speak, but as Jiraya grasped the nuances of what he had talked, he decided to speak, hoping it would be a reference for him to complete the book he was writing.

But as he began to speak, Yujin remembered a passage from the magazine about relationships.

‘8. Have ambitions and goals: Having objectives and consistently seeking personal growth is attractive. Share your ambitions and goals with the woman, and be willing to support her in her own dreams. This creates a partnership based on shared aspirations and a joint pursuit of a meaningful future.’

He recalled this passage, how he had no ambitions or goals beyond perfecting his martial arts, and every time Tsunade broke down in tears in front of him.

The images of her tears falling and the rare smiles she gave merged, and he realized only now that he had a dream.

He wants to make her happy, more than anything.

He wants that smile to perpetuate on her face.

But how will he do that with his current life philosophy?

Since that day, Yujin had been paralyzed, running from the past. How can he grow and evolve if he’s stuck in the past? How can he nurture a dream if he can’t dream in the first place?