Hachiman had suspected something bad, but he never expected that even without chakra or a lack of resources, there were scum like this that pretended to be human while doing such despicable acts.
After venting a little, Nobu wrapped up the story, he clearly didn't want to go Into the details of him killing his parents or how things went with his beloved Hana-nee.
Hachiman didn't know what to say, so he could only offer his condolences for Nobu's grandmother and thank him for being open about his past, he then, not being a hypocrite at all, made up his own story, he said he came from an ordinary smithing family, but that after his father died, since they had no other income and no suitable farmland, they planned to move to more prosperous place, and now here he was, alone and forced to find a random big brother as a middle-aged man.
The two of them talked the entire day and didn't even set out from the ruins of the village, but in the next day, they finally started their wandering journey.
Hachiman discovered a lot of the customs and cultures of these different places while traveling, and one of the things he heard about was the massive Divine Tree some people prayed to, Hachiman recalled that bastard that loves to "Ding!" told him that Kaguya had already eaten the chakra fruit, but for some reason it seemed like she would wait years before even starting the Infinite Tsukuyomi, so he could actually try to find her before then, from what he remembered, Kaguya was actually a great woman, especially for an invasive alien Otsutsuki.
Just the fact that she didn't absorb the entire planet's chakra and only planned to make an army with some people (even though they were forcibly taken and basically killed, she at leadt gave them some nice dreams) to help her fend off the dirty aliens that would come after her was already quite considerate, keeping in mind humans were like livestock to the Otsutsuki, the fact that she even cared about their lives a little showed how much compassion she had, even though it might also have been because of her own fear of death and the fact that she might have related to being a sacrifice for someone's power, but even though she had a nicer side, her actions also showed how ruthless she could be when it came to her own life and safety.
As Hachiman started thinking about it, he wondered what made those unfilial children turn against their mother, was there no way to talk about it a bit before sealing her inside the Moon forever? They seemed a little rash, even though he could understand their feelings about their mom going too far and disregarding human life; still, he knew he couldn't judge any of them as he didn't remember the original series ever going into detail about what happened in this era.
'They didn't even tell us about Hashirama's cause or time of death, how could we even get to know much about Kaguya and her sons? And as for Boruto? I simply didn't watch it, and although I still checked the new characters, powers and lore out, I didn't see much besides Isshiki's existence when it came to Kaguya, speaking of Boruto, what if there was another being like Otsutsuki Shibai in this universe?' Hachiman unconsciously broke out in cold sweat at the thought, but he quickly decided to pretend there was no longer any invincible opponent like that, because even if there was, it's not like he could deal with them.
Thinking about those aliens and his future, Hachiman decided it would be a waste if he pretended not to know about Kaguya, so he made the decision to seek her out–considering he also needed her help to get some chakra in a quick and humane way, he firmly believed he had no choice in the matter, he definitely wasn't a man to be swayed by the prospects of becoming the father of the Sage of Six Paths.
As his thoughts started to not seem quite right for a little brat, Hachi turned around, only to see Nobu clutching his chest and coughing blood, he immediately went to support him, but Nobu said it was just his illness flaring up.
Hachiman had heard from Nobu about his illness, but he never imagined it was this serious, if left untreated, it wouldn't take long before he died, wasn't this guy supposed to open a restaurant?
Hachiman had seen how kind and selfless this guy was on their travels, he thought it was just as he had said in an earlier conversation, because he wanted to be like his grandmother and Hana were to him, it turns out it might also be because he really has no plans to keep anything to himself for the future.
As they kept walking, Hachiman decided to also look for a cure to Nobu's illness, but when he considered his options, it seemed only Kaguya could realistically help him, so he decided to search out for the God Tree, even though he remembered it seemed to be in the Land of Fire bordering some random corrupt country, he sadly couldn't remember any names or locations for the life of him, and there shouldn't be any particularly amazing town built there yet, so he could only follow his guts and rumors along with a sick Nobu.
As it turned out, Nobu was already quite spent because of his illness, after Hachiman suggested finding the God Tree, he immediately rejected the idea and said he just wanted to help as many people as he could and share some of his cooking with others, what he didn't mention was why it was as if he never wanted a cure.
After four years of traveling together, Nobu's body couldn't take it anymore, so Hachiman forced him to stay with him in a small town they had been to earlier in their journey.
Hachiman had learned many things during this time, cooking, first-aid, sewing, you name it, he had all basic human skills down.
Hachi even found time to make his own ninja tools and experimented with chakra manipulation, hand seals and fuinjustu, he was obviously successful in replicating ninja tools, now being proficient in throwing and his own rudimentary kenjutsu.
Even though he tried a lot of other things, the facts were humans currently didn't have much chakra, even though his spiritual energy was abnormally high and was even increasing, he didn't have enough physical energy to generate a lot of chakra, and without knowing any proper techniques, the best he could do was learn walk on trees and water and create some useless fuinjutsu seals that couldn't do what he wanted properly yet.
As for any techniques, don't kid him, there simply wasn't enough chakra to develop these techniques from scratch, for example, if he knew the proper hand seals and principles behind some basic jutsu, he was confident he could perform it, but creating new jutsu was an inefficient and chakra intensive process, so he decided to leave it for later and focused on other things, overall, it was a relative success, he could pretty much beat any adult man that wasn't a Samurai now, even regular Samurai probably couldn't beat him in a 1v1 if he could leverage his versatility.
Although unimpressive in the eyes of future generations, as dignified pioneer with no special bloodline or system, Hachiman felt quite proud of his progress, even though he was aware he was barely a mediocre genin at the moment.
Now, at nearly 15 years old, the problem at hand was that Nobu was clearly dying, and he couldn't do anything about it; they had grown quite close over the years, and Nobu even helped him a lot with training, so even if he didn't consider himself sentimental, he really hoped he could live.
If he couldn't save him, which seemed most likely, Hachiman was determined to wait until he could seal his body and take it with him until he found a way to revive him, but as he thought of Nobu's firm rejection of going after the God Tree, Hachiman felt that he should ask him about it first.
Entering the room where Nobu was lying in bed, Hachi immediately asked him, "Nobu-nii, if I could find a way to revive you with the help of the God Tree, would you want me to do it?"
Nobu, who was felling groggy, widened his eyes in surprise at the sudden inquiry, he felt he needed to ask, "Did you just say you think you could find a way to *cough* revive me?"
Hachi nodded in a way that implied it was a normal question, Nobu twitched his mouth at his antics, and also realized this little brother had already given him a death sentence, even though it was true, it felt a bit cold, but at least he was thinking of a way to revive him, he thought.
He then said, "I know you always wanted to find the Divine Tree, and I'm sure you'll do it, but no matter what, I don't really have anything to live for anymore. I never told you about this, but after I left home, I missed Hana-nee very much for several months, so I went back to try and find her, even though I was the one that left liked an idiot without saying goodbye; when I asked around, I discovered she also left her home a little after I left to look for me, I never knew I meant so much to her, so when I heard that, I was both excited and disappointed at my cowardice on the day I left."
"Anyways, I wasn't happy for long, after I asked in the surrounding towns for over a month, I finally found someone that knew about her, but... well, *cough*, that was the wife of the person that found her injured and unconscious body when he was hunting in the woods, she said he brought her back for treatment, but it was too late, the cause of death seemed to be some sort of hallucinogenic that poisoned her and made her injure herself. It was probably a venomous animal, a mushroom she picked or a hallucinogenic gas she breathed in somewhere when wandering around, it sounds ridiculous that she actually died in such an outlandish way, right?" At this point Nobu was already in tears, it was really too tragic, Hachiman couldn't help but suspect that the universe had it out for this man, he simply couldn't get a break, his parents were worthless scum, his kind grandmother was probably killed by those bastards, his childhood sweetheart never knew exsctly how he felt about her and still worried so much about him that she went out to search for him, but she actually died in such an unfortunate and unlucky way, on top of all that he has always been weak and sickly, so he never had a chance to have a good ending, it was just despairing.
"At the time, I couldn't believe she died in such a way, so I kept looking for new information for months, but that town with the hunter was the only place I found any traces of her, I couldn't believe that because of my indecisiveness I indirectly endangered her and lead to her death, at that point I really wanted to end myself, to be honest; but then I remembered how much Grandma and Hana-nee changed my life by simply being there and helping me in the way they could, so I decided that since I had nothing to live for, I would live like them and try being kind to others... *cough* That's how we ended up meeting I guess, Hachi, and it has been fun to finally have another person I can say I loved and was important to me, *cough*, but I don't need to be healed or revived, I just wanna see grandma and Hana-nee again, if it weren't for you, I'd probably have let myself die earlier, so please do me a favor Hachi, I'm sorry for imposing this on you, but it's just my wish, you can follow it if you want to, but don't feel obligated to as it seems you already know what you wanna do in the future... *cough* Please continue to be kind to the ones that deserve it, and never lose hope in humanity, more importantly, don't lose hope in yourself, I always notice you seem apprehensive to form new bonds, so listen to me, never hesitate when it comes to your loved ones, Hachi, I'm sure a kid like you can find a great girl, so please find someone you can love and cherish, don't be like me, don't lose the opportunity to love and be happy." That last phrase struck a chord in Hachiman's heart as he remembered his father talking about his mother, it seemed like some primitive Shinobi had been waiting in ambush to cut some onions right now.
As single tears ran down his cheeks, Hachiman resolved himself and decided to follow Nobu's advice, he would seek people worth loving and not hesitate to chase after that someone and cherish them if it worked out. That was his answer all along, if he hadn't hesitated and moved abroad with his girlfriend back then, maybe that would have led him to the love his father talked about; but the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that he simply didn't feel that something special his father and Nobu seemed to have felt with her, he was sure she wasn't the one, but now he realized that even if he found the one for him, he was still the type of person to hesitate and let the chance slip, so if he found the right person for him now, he would not hesitate to try his best.