>>5936549“There is no wheel! Look, back in the warring clan period, there were constant, massive battles. Eventually things got better. Eventually the constant, massive battles went away, and now even our great wars involve medium sized groups killing each other in the woods. It’s getting better! We’re not gods, we can’t just end violence with waves of our hands, it really is just out of our hands! But every generation that goes by, things do get better. Less war, less famine, more technology, everyone is getting happier. Hell, the Kumamoto clan hasn’t needed to call on ninja for years because the world is becoming such a peaceful place, and yet, one small aberration and all of a sudden we’re having this conversation, acting like we’re trapped in a primitive hellscape once again! I mean, look around you, man! Beauty and peace, as far as the eye can see, and all because shinobi have been fighting to make the world a better place since the dawn of time. Our lives might be too short to see a major change, but history shows us a clear line of progress. If at any point we just cucked out and let our enemies win, we’ll have just flushed all of that progress down the drain. Rendered it pointless, and for what? Blind naivety?”
“I… Don’t think you’re wrong. I just think he isn’t wrong either. Progress is made because we don’t have to just resign ourselves to the world we were born into. Maybe it’s the naive idiots among us who are the ones who have given us what you’ve referred to as progress. Without a bit of naive hope for something better we’d never have gotten this far at all, and going forward we might want more of those people. Not less.”
“You’re the one who told me to duel her!” He says, referring to Yuzuki and implying you’re a hypocrite.
“You had to because it was inevitable. But something being inevitable doesn’t mean it’s good, or that we ought to just accept that we can’t hope for anything better. It might not be inevitable the next time if the two of you just learn from it and grow.”
Naoki throws his hands up in mock defeat. “Alright. Okay. Maybe we all have our parts to play. But I’ll tell you this: There is no amount of ideology, argument, or sophistry that’s going to convince me that I’m in the wrong for thinking that I have an absolute right to destroy my enemies. There’s nothing anyone can say that will convince me to roll over and die. Now, fight me.”
Naoki charges you. He’s not necessarily out for blood, because then training would have no purpose. But he’s definitely deliberately pressing you much harder than he would have otherwise to illustrate a point. A hard fist narrowly misses the side of your head as you duck to the side.
“Exit the wheel of violence then, Otomo.” He says, emphasizing himself with a kick aimed towards your groin, a kick that you narrowly manage to deflect with your own foot. “Why are you engaging in the violence if you don’t like it?”
