The ceasefire with the Hidden Sand was something that happened a few days later.
This time, the location for signing the ceasefire agreement was reaffirmed, and the delegation from Konoha was not attacked. The signing of the ceasefire agreement proceeded without incident.
Although the war has ended, the border of the Land of Fire still requires ninjas to be stationed there.
Moreover, returning to the village is not something that can be done in just a day or two. The unused materials need to be inventoried, and many injured people also need care.
The bodies of those who sacrificed themselves need to have their identities verified and be transported back to the village.
Sakumo's team is now idle, with the war over, there is no need to engage in sabotage behind the Hidden Sand camp lines.
Leaving aside the other three, Hakushi is currently being requisitioned because of his role as a medical ninja and has to stay with the medical unit every day.
When the injured have recovered, returning to Konoha will also be much smoother.
Hakushi was working as usual in the medical unit, cooperating with other medical ninjas to treat injured ninjas.
In fact, he was mostly assisting since the medical ninjas performing surgeries were all experienced and highly skilled adult ninjas.
Hakushi didn't complain about this; it actually made his workload much lighter.
This routine continued until early December when the ninjas from Konoha on the front lines began to pull back and return to the village, and Hakushi concluded his work with the medical unit.
Returning to the village from the front line took a total of three to four days since they didn't travel very quickly.
During this time, they had to care for the wounded and protect the unused important materials, thus they couldn't move too fast, otherwise, they would have returned to the village in a single day.
Upon returning to the village, it was also Hakushi's first time enjoying a 'hero's' welcome.
Led by the Third Hokage, a large number of Konoha ninjas along with villagers of Konoha Village came to greet the ninjas returning from the front lines.
After resting for a day, a large-scale funeral ceremony was held in Konoha the next day.
Only over five hundred bodies could be brought back, and only less than a tenth of those were intact.
Many bodies were unidentifiable, being either unaccountable or too damaged to distinguish whether they belonged to their ninjas or those of the Hidden Sand; the number of such cases was even greater.
The weather in December was already very cold.
Additionally, the day of the funeral ceremony was not sunny, with very little daylight seen.
The four members of Sakumo's team wore pure black mourning clothes, standing before the newly erected tombstones in silence.
The war with the Hidden Sand, which lasted more than two years, was even more intense than the war in the Land of Rain, with a higher casualty rate.
The combined capabilities of the Hidden Sand ninjas far exceeded those of the ninjas from the Hidden Rain Village.
"Haven't seen Jonin Tsunade."
Ayane glanced around and said softly.
Hakushi also looked around. Among the Sannin, both Orochimaru and Jiraiya were present, and even Jiraiya's disciple Minato was there, but Tsunade was nowhere to be seen.
"After all, this war caused her to lose her two closest people directly. It's understandable she wouldn't want to attend such a funeral. But she will probably come alone after everyone else leaves."
Not wanting others to see the vulnerable side of the Sannin, she would choose to come alone to mourn later. In Hakushi's view, Tsunade's heart had grown softer.
However, everyone's inner strength varies, and people handle bad news differently.
Hakushi could fully understand this.
"You guys head back first. I'm going to discuss something with Lord Hokage."
After the funeral, Sakumo said this before walking towards the location where the Third Hokage and the other high officials were situated.
The three of them, including Hakushi, did not object, exchanged a glance, and left the Tomb Park.
"This year's New Year's festival looks like it's going to be quite subdued."
Walking along the road, Ayane remarked, appearing somewhat regretful.
Hakushi and Ruri also nodded slightly upon hearing this.
It's already December, and many families have been torn apart by this war. Although the festival will still be held, it will surely be less lively than in previous years.
It's not just the civilians; many ninja clans also lost a significant number of ninjas.
"What should we do next? The war is over, and it feels so sudden."
"That's probably because our team didn't participate in the direct combat, so it feels that way."
Hakushi responded to Ayane's sentiment.
"Don't get too complacent just because the war is over. If you die, it will be very difficult to find ninjas who can match my pace."
Ruri interjected, pouring cold water on them.
Hakushi chuckled and said, "No worries, safety always comes first for me."
The end of the war doesn't mean that ninjas have lost their purpose.
Even in peacetime, ninjas still have to carry out missions, but compared to wartime, the difficulty of the missions is considerably lower.
Hakushi realized he had yet to take on a regular mission, as all his previous tasks involved combat with enemy ninjas.
The lowest of these were B-Class Missions, normally classified as A-Class Missions, and occasionally, he followed Sakumo to carry out S-Class Missions, contributing in ways to earn war merits.
Considering that both Ruri and Ayane in the team were already Chunin, Hakushi contemplated when he should also become a Chunin.
After all, being a Genin in the elite Sakumo team felt somewhat out of place.