The ceasefire with Hidden Sand happened a few days later.
This time, the location for signing the ceasefire agreement was reconfirmed. The Konoha envoy team wasn't attacked, and the signing scene passed peacefully and quietly.
Although the war was over, ninjas still had to be stationed at the Land of Fire's border.
Moreover, withdrawing and returning to the village wasn't something that could be done in just a day or two. The leftover supplies had to be checked and accounted for, and there were many wounded needing care.
And the bodies of those who had fallen needed to be identified and transported back to the village.
Sakumo's squad now had nothing to do, and with the war over, there was no need to sabotage the Hidden Sand camp from behind enemy lines anymore.
The other three were temporarily free, but Hakushi, being a Medical Ninja, was still requisitioned and had to stay with the medical unit every day.
Once the wounded's conditions improved, returning to Konoha would also be much smoother.
That day, Hakushi was as usual working with the medical unit, cooperating with other Medical Ninjas to treat injured ninjas.
In fact, he was just helping out—the ones performing surgeries were all experienced, highly-skilled adult ninjas.
Hakushi didn't complain about this—on the contrary, this made his workload much lighter.
This kind of life continued until the beginning of December. When the Konoha ninjas on the frontlines began to break camp and head back to the village, Hakushi's work with the medical unit finally ended.
Returning to the village from the frontlines wasn't a quick journey—it took three or four days in total to get back.
During the journey, they had to tend to the wounded and protect remaining critical supplies, so they couldn't move too fast—otherwise, they could have reached the village in just a day.
When he returned, Hakushi experienced the 'hero's welcome' for the very first time.
Led by the Third Hokage, Konoha's senior officials and a large number of Konoha ninjas, along with villagers from Konoha Village, all came to greet the returning ninjas from the frontlines.
After resting for a day, Konoha held a large burial ceremony the following day.
Only just over five hundred bodies could be brought back, and less than a tenth of those remained intact.
And many were missing entirely, or their bodies so mangled that it was impossible to tell who was Konoha and who was a Hidden Sand ninja—these cases were even more numerous.
The weather in December was already bitterly cold.
And on the day of the burial ceremony, the weather was gloomy, with rare glimpses of sunlight.
The four members of Sakumo's squad wore pure black mourning clothes, standing before the rows of newly-placed gravestones to pay their respects in silence.
This war with Hidden Sand, waged over two years, was every bit as brutal as the war in the Land of Rain—if not worse. The casualty rate was even higher than that of the Land of Rain campaign.
The overall strength of Hidden Sand's ninja force was far above that of Hidden Rain Village's ninja.
"I didn't see Jonin Tsunade here."
Ayane glanced around and spoke in a low voice.
Hakushi also scanned the surroundings—Orochimaru and Jiraiya, both of the Sannin, were here, and even Jiraiya's student Minato was present, but Tsunade herself was nowhere to be seen.
"After all, this war took away the two people closest to her. It's only natural she wouldn't want to attend a funeral like this. But, once everyone has left, she'll probably come here alone in secret."
She didn't want to show the Sannin's vulnerable side to others, so she'd choose to come on her own after the crowd had left. In Hakushi's view, Tsunade's heart had become softer.
But everyone's strength is different; everyone bears bad news in their own way.
This was something Hakushi could totally understand.
"You guys head back first. I have something to discuss with Lord Hokage."
After the funeral, Sakumo left these words behind and walked toward where the Third Hokage and the other senior officials were gathered.
The three of them had no objections. After exchanging glances, they left Tomb Park together.
"Looks like this year's New Year festival is going to be a quiet one."
Ayane spoke as she walked, sounding somewhat regretful.
Hakushi and Ruri both nodded in silent agreement.
It was already December, and many families had been torn apart by the war. Although the festival would still be held as usual, it would surely not be as lively as in past years.
It wasn't just civilians—many ninjas from the major clans had also perished.
"So, what do we do now? The war's over… it all feels so sudden."
"That's probably because our squad never actually fought on the frontline, so it feels that way to us."
Hakushi replied to Ayane's sigh.
"You two better not let your guard down just because the war's over. If you die, it'll be hard to find another ninja who can keep up with my pace."
Ruri poured some cold water on them from the side.
Hakushi laughed it off and said, "Don't worry—safety has always been my top priority."
The end of war didn't mean ninjas were no longer needed.
In peacetime, ninjas would still carry out missions, but compared to wartime, the difficulty of those missions would be much lower.
Hakushi realized that he'd never actually done a normal mission—the only missions so far had all involved fighting enemy ninjas.
The lowest level of those was B-Class Missions, but usually they were A-Class. Occasionally he'd even tag along behind Sakumo for S-Class Missions, picking up easy credit.
Thinking about how both Ruri and Ayane were already Chunin, and he was the only Genin remaining in Sakumo's squad, Hakushi wondered when it would be a good time for him to become a Chunin too.
After all, being a Genin in the elite Sakumo squad did feel a bit out of place.