INTERLUDE: Hinata

A Third Person POV experiment

"He seems happy." Hinata mentioned to Konan.

The blue-haired woman nodded, "It's strange to see him this active. The healing your associates gave him is nothing short of miraculous. I hope we can repay the debt someday."

Hinata giggled, "Jon's been going crazy over the information he gathered during the examination. Apparently, it has massively accelerated his research."

"Research? Did he experiment on Nagato?" Konan asked.

Hinata shook her head, "Not really? The procedure is something that's been trialled on a lot of individuals, but according to him, the way that the chakra networks integrated with the muscle grafts was quite amazing."

Konan seemed worried, "Doesn't everyone have a chakra network? Why would this be new information if he had already done this before."

Hinata shook her head, "Chakra networks like ours aren't really common outside the Elemental Nations. Sure, there are some places that use it, but most of the places I was shown had something else that was similar."

"Those… arrays that Jon created for the battle." Konan nodded, "They really weren't chakra? I thought that they might be some sort of foreign sealing style…"

"No, Jon doesn't even have a chakra system." Hinata admits, "Well, not now at least. He's been offering medical aid in exchange for being allowed to non-invasively study people's bodies."

"And he's just going… give himself chakra?" Konan asks, "That sounds far fetched."

Hinata shrugged, "He can technically already do it, but the process hasn't been tested yet and he wants to have a better idea of how things should look. Apparently, I should call him if I see someone called Jugo."

"Ah, the Senjutsu user." Konan nodded, "I can understand why Jon would be interested in him."

Hinata nodded, "He said something about that. I hope we find him, Naruto is supposed to be starting to learn how to use the Toad-style sage mode soon and if anything happens it should mean that Jon can help better."

"You trust them that much?" Konan asked.

Hinata laughed, "Jon is very intelligent. I think he got more intelligent after meeting us somehow. He's learning about things very fast."

"I've noticed. You don't seem too impressed with the stuff in those labs." Konan pointed out.

Hinata shrugged, "Jon lets me see his labs and the stuff I saw there looked better than anything I saw there. He even taught me about a few things. After I told him about making medicinal salves, he showed me a machine that he has that can make skin and flesh so that I can test the mixtures without hurting anyone."

"That would revolutionize medicine!" Konan said with wide eyes, "I remember Jiraya teaching me medical Jutsu and I remember how different fish are from people. You said Jon could just… conjure a leg from nowhere when you want?"

Hinata nodded, "Any part of the body, except the brain. That part is locked by the machine."

"Why the brain?" Konan asked with a furrowed brow.

Hinata took a breath, "Apparently it can make people by accident."

Konan blinked, "Really?"

"It's a little more complex than that, and Jon admits that reasonably skilled individuals won't need to worry about it, but for my purposes, the training would be a little useless." Hinata said with a shrug.

Konan stared at her, "I see. I wouldn't have thought that he was so cautious."

"He's a lot more careful than most would believe. It is simply that he has ways to check things as he goes and to get results quickly." Hinata admitted, "Mercy and Spider-Woman check his precautions regularly, so I'm fairly sure that he is doing well on that front."

The two women sat in silence for a minute, watching as the compound in front of them began to collapse.

As the dust settled, a blonde and a redhead stumbled out of the fog, laughing as they dragged a cadre of bound prisoners behind them.

Among them, was a furiously spitting Uchiha, who was screaming about some injustice or the other. Itachi walked alongside them, shaking his head sadly.

Konan frowned, "Do you know what Tsunade is going to do with him?"

"Itachi asked for him to be spared, and Jon's revelation of the psychiatric field in his lands has interested Tsunade, so I suppose she might just throw him at the people she has assigned to that task." Hinata offered.

Konan furrowed her brow, "Psychiatry?"

"Apparently, at some point, someone discovered that there are things called mental illnesses. Just like stress and disease can harm the body, they can also harm the mind. Psychiatry is a field of medicine focused on the mind." Hinata offered, "I don't really understand it though, and since the damage to the mind is so difficult to observe, the doctors need a lot of information about the source of the damage to diagnose problems, and I couldn't afford to reveal Konoha secrets."

Konan nodded, paper wings unfurling behind her as she stood, "I wonder is that is why someone as powerful as Jon has barely seen battle."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

Konan shook her head, "Jon is… naive, in many ways. He isn't hardened by war. That someone as strong as him exists but hasn't been exposed to the horrors of war? It seems almost unimaginable."

"That might be more to do with the fact that there have been no true wars in almost a hundred years." Hinata suggested.

Konan froze, "Truly?"

"There are areas of instability, pockets of conflict here and there, but the vast majority of the lands are peaceful, and have been for a long time. It's a little strange, honestly." Hinata confided.

"How did that happen?" Konan asked.

Hinata looked at the sky, "I don't really know. Jon doesn't really know himself. He thinks it's because war became too risky."

"War being too risky?" Konan asked.

Hinata nodded, "There's a… weapon. Anyone can make it if they have the materials and knowledge. And using it will destroy a city."

Konan's shrugged, "Why is that so scary?"

"Well, mainly because they can be made quickly and easily. It isn't just one weapon, tens of thousands exist."

"They could kill everyone." Konan cries.

Hinata shook her head, "And it gets worse. These bombs? After they explode, they poison the land. Trying to live there will almost certainly kill you slowly and begin killing children before they are even born."

"That sounds horrific. Were they ever used?" She asked.

Hinata nodded, "Exactly twice. Both the attacks were a part of a single operation, designed to end a war. It worked."

"Do they still have these weapons? I would think that they would not make more after the first two." Konan considered, starting to walk over to the two men.

Hinata shook her head as she followed the blue-haired angel, "There was a time when the weapons could theoretically be recovered from. Few enough in number that at worst, new capitals would have to be created. But there were two nations that knew how to make them and their situation was more reminiscent of Konoha and Iwa after the Third War than it was of Konoha and Suna's relationship today."

"They couldn't afford to fight, so they tried to show each other up." Konan said with Dawning realization.

Hinata nodded, "They competed on having bigger bombs, they competed on having more bombs and then, all of a sudden, there were so many bombs that any war like the Shinobi wars would end all life as they knew it."

Konan nodded weakly, "Because if either of those countries were about to loose, they would take everyone else down with them."

"The techniques needed to build the weapon have spread too. Six, or perhaps seven other countries have access to these weapons - if a lot fewer, but still enough to start things off."

Konan nodded and stared into the distance.

Hinata nodded.

"Is that truly what it takes?" Konan asked, "To end war?"

"Well, according to Jon the other thing that did it was that the horrors of war were spread so widely after those wars that no one really wants to start another anyways. He also has theories on how different technologies affected the chance of wars taking place and he's hoping to find enough information to see if there's a better way to end war."

"Hey, Hinata! Check this out!" Naruto yelled, waving a pale disembodied hand with a ring on it, "We found one of Nagato's rings!"

Nagato rolled his eyes, "The snake wasn't there though. Coward."