"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 145: White Fang's Life of Caution
Hatake Sakumo became active starting from the Second Shinobi World War, quickly gaining fame both inside and outside the Land of Fire for his fierce fighting style, creating a deterrent effect on battlefield enemies of "thousands of troops avoiding the white-haired man."
Not long after, he earned the title "White Fang of Konoha," becoming one of the leading figures among Konoha's new generation of ninja.
In the original timeline, Hatake Sakumo's suicide was a famously ridiculous tragedy in all of Konoha's history.
Frankly speaking, if someone like him could be driven to suicide, it meant the Hokage in power at the time might as well have killed himself too... What use was there in staying alive?
The White Fang's cause of death couldn't simply be attributed to what Yūshin considered "poor stress tolerance"—his death was probably due to a kind of despair.
He despaired over the shinobi village system, the mission structure, and human nature constrained by special moral concepts.
With no light ahead, death was preferable.
Of course, this touch of tragedy couldn't mask Hatake Sakumo's own responsibility. At the very least, he was someone who couldn't control his own negative thoughts, only passively endured environmental pressure, and lacked the will to actively seek change.
Clearly, he hadn't mastered the traditional art of overthrowing superiors. Whether successful or not, you still had to try... Look at how that old schemer Shimura Danzō did things.
But this was the Hatake Sakumo in Yūshin's understanding. Looking at the guy before him now, though his facial lines were hard, his overall mental state seemed decent enough.
Walking one behind the other, as they neared Fireflies Village, Hatake Sakumo removed the short blade from his back, then folded his vest and draped it over his forearm.
Yūshin glanced at him in surprise, then said: "So cautious?"
"This is only natural. As someone in the organization who has abandoned his surname, this level of caution is appropriate," Hatake Sakumo said.
He wasn't removing his clothes to hide bloodstains—ninja having some blood on them was normal, and usually there was no need to deliberately conceal it... He was simply hiding his Konoha uniform and the Fireflies symbol on it.
No forehead protector, no uniform—this way he could avoid revealing his origins as much as possible.
However...
What did "someone who has abandoned his surname" mean? Did the Fireflies organization also have something like a purge squad internally?
That didn't seem right. Logically, after Konoha was established, Fireflies Village—or rather the Fireflies organization—should lose its administrative and management functions, becoming a simple "civilian group."
Because Konoha would definitely inherit a series of systems from Fireflies Village. It was equivalent to a larger Fireflies Village growing out of the original, with overlapping functions—naturally the Fireflies would retreat as Konoha advanced.
If Konoha could satisfy everyone, if the Hokage was absolutely fair and perfectly dutiful, then the name "Fireflies" might be passed down, but both the official and civilian parts of the Fireflies organization should gradually dissolve into Konoha.
But the Fireflies organization seemed to maintain its development momentum—what did this indicate? The more dissatisfied people were with the current environment, the more they would pursue idealized fundamentalism.
"No factions within the village" leads to all sorts of strange phenomena.
From this perspective, wouldn't the Fireflies organization be Konoha's "Root"? That seemed rather ominous.
Yūshin temporarily didn't inquire about events in the future, because normally Hatake Sakumo, having just arrived in this space-time, would still be in a period of mental confusion.
Compared to the previous time traveler Sasuke, Hatake Sakumo's performance was already quite rational. However, performance was performance, thoughts were thoughts—Yūshin didn't believe this person's heart was calm right now.
"You can calm down for a few days first. After fully understanding your situation and settling your emotions, we can discuss other matters."
"Don't worry, though the era is different, the Fireflies organization is still the same Fireflies organization... The current Fireflies are even purer than those of your era."
Whether Yūshin was simply stating facts or deliberately comforting the other party was unclear.
Hatake Sakumo's face showed a trace of excitement. He stared directly at Yūshin and said: "I definitely trust Yūshin-sama completely, but my mind is indeed a bit chaotic and needs calming."
Yūshin felt uncomfortable under the other's gaze—who could withstand a middle-aged man's worshipful stare?
He felt somewhat strange. Hatake Sakumo was undoubtedly a normal person, so some of Hatake's thoughts might represent the common understanding of ordinary ninja... In other words, in future ninja's eyes, Yūshin might be a legendary figure of great righteousness.
Comparing this to the reputation of the other member of the "Clever Duo," fate was truly mysterious.
But thinking carefully, this was natural, because Yūshin had created the spiritual utopia "Fireflies" for small and medium ninja clans, while what had Tobirama created?
Well, Tobirama had many small inventions—things like ANBU and Edo Tensei.
Defeated by middle-aged worship, Yūshin arranged for Hatake Sakumo to rest, hoping he could adjust his mindset quickly.
Afterward, Yūshin also went to rest. This night had been nerve-wracking, leaving him feeling mentally exhausted.
Hatake Sakumo's adjustment speed was faster than Yūshin had imagined. On the second and third days, he wandered around Fireflies Village. Initially he was frequently distracted, later he often appeared contemplative, and finally he truly awakened.
On the third night, Hatake Sakumo found Yūshin again.
"Yūshin-sama, I now fully understand my situation. Thinking carefully, whether in this era or my original era, what I need to do is actually the same... nothing more than using my blade to strike down invading enemies."
"If you can think this way, that's truly excellent." Yūshin thought to himself that people really were different—Konoha's Sword King was much more useful than Konoha's Wall King.
Regarding official duties or responsibilities as a Konoha ninja, Hatake Sakumo just needed to continue being himself.
However, even this kind of killer who didn't blink when taking lives still harbored longing for family in his heart.
Therefore, Hatake Sakumo now looked somewhat reluctant to speak.
"It's fine, say whatever you need to say. We're all on the same side."
Yūshin indicated that if there was something to discuss, he should speak freely.
Hatake Sakumo's expression struggled briefly, but finally he gritted his teeth and said:
"Yūshin-sama, I wanted to ask if I have any chance of returning to my original space-time. I still have some... bonds and attachments."
"I'm not trying to escape my responsibilities as a Fireflies ninja, it's just... just..."
"It's fine, I understand."
Yūshin truly understood this helplessness of being unable to return—don't forget he was also a time traveler, and even more unfortunate than Hatake Sakumo.
"Extend both hands, show me the backs..."
Hatake Sakumo complied, but his hand backs showed nothing except veins.
Seeing this situation, Yūshin shook his head. Hatake Sakumo and Uchiha Sasuke's situations were different—the former didn't have a "quarantine approved" stamp on him.
Yūshin had suspected this before, but now he could confirm it... For a certain space-time's "Indra's" disappearance, for certain people this was an abnormal phenomenon that must be corrected, so they would interfere with Little Seven's space-time ninjutsu.
In other words, if he hadn't been eliminated, Sasuke would very likely return to his original space-time.
This definitely wasn't Little Seven's doing—what fox would consider things so thoroughly... Yūshin felt only a real ghost would have reason to do such things.
Looking at Hatake Sakumo's situation, clearly he wasn't so fortunate. Though his strength was much greater than Sasuke's when he first arrived in this space-time, everything wasn't determined by strength but by bloodline.
Considering restless ghosts was still far too early. Yūshin refocused and said to Hatake Sakumo:
"You can consider yourself as having accidentally entered a space-time rift, coming here from the future. Finding another space-time rift to precisely send yourself back to your original position would be quite difficult."
Could Little Seven send someone back to their true era? Yūshin felt it was questionable. On one hand, Little Seven was completely unwilling to do such things; on the other hand, seeing how it kept randomly drawing cards, you could tell it would be very difficult to precisely insert this card back into the deck where it originally belonged.
"Then..."
"You're not without opportunity. The most reliable method is actually to live your way back."
"Live... live back?"
"Of course, after all, this era isn't far from the era you were active in. If you work hard, you can live to that era."
Yūshin couldn't precisely determine Hatake Sakumo's specific birth time, but could basically confirm Sakumo was born between Konoha years ten to twenty, because he was basically the same generation as the Sannin.
So as long as Sakumo worked hard to stay alive, Yūshin's words weren't deceptive.
"If you're willing, you could even return to your family's side at the moment of your disappearance. Your family might not even experience the pain of losing you."
"The only problem is, you'll need to endure a somewhat lonely and long life."
"Lonely? No, I'm not afraid of loneliness."
After hearing Yūshin's "suppress first, then encourage" words, Hatake Sakumo felt things weren't so hard to accept. As long as he could return... being able to return was much better than "losing love forever."
But Yūshin doubted Hatake Sakumo's mental state—you're not afraid of loneliness? You have the face of someone bearing deep grudges and great suffering.
But regardless, after having a life plan that could barely be called "balancing public and private matters," the restless feeling about Hatake Sakumo visibly disappeared.
He was no longer pretending to be calm, but truly calm.
After calming down, as a qualified worker, Sakumo began actively looking for work.
"Yūshin-sama, I can set out now to bring the Hatake Clan back to the organization. We Hatake are just a small ninja clan—this matter isn't complicated."
Look, this is the huge effect of "surrender faction" members. The current Hatake Clan definitely couldn't imagine that among their future descendants, someone would be so actively betraying them.
"No rush. You seem to be a swordsmanship master? Let me first experience your strength."
Yūshin felt excited and pulled Hatake Sakumo to an indoor training hall.
In his original era, after Hatake Sakumo became famous, he often encountered such situations, so he was accustomed to it. Even for Yūshin-sama's sake, he proactively closed the training hall's doors... Respect was respect, admiration was admiration, but these didn't diminish Sakumo's confidence in his own strength.
If discussing taijutsu, Konoha indeed had absolute kings above Hatake Sakumo, but if narrowed down to blade and sword techniques, honestly, in the Shinobi World's thousand-year history, Hatake Sakumo had never feared anyone.
Yūshin wanting to compete with him in this area was, frankly, somewhat self-humiliating.
Yūshin was currently nineteen years old, a physically mature ninja. He could manage some taijutsu, but he was a standard wild-style fighter.
Hatake Sakumo was a standard peak-period ninja, with taijutsu and swordsmanship at grandmaster level.
Just by laying out the conditions, the victory and defeat could be determined.
Without using ninjutsu, Yūshin had no qualification to stand opposite Hatake Sakumo.
Fortunately this was a closed-door competition, otherwise everyone could have enjoyed Yūshin's disheveled defeat.
Afterward, Yūshin began seriously considering the feasibility of establishing a ninja school—such an excellent Sword King shouldn't be wasted.
Establishing a comprehensive ninja school was still premature, but a specialized taijutsu and swordsmanship school...
Well, classes could be scheduled for afternoon and evening hours.
In other words, even if Yūshin temporarily didn't establish a ninja school, he could at least create a ninja night school.
Unfortunately, taijutsu couldn't be taught by correspondence, otherwise the village's average education level could have made a leap.
Since Hatake Sakumo was in excellent physical condition and decent psychological state, he officially accepted the mission to recruit the Hatake Clan.
Before departing to execute the mission, Hatake Sakumo met many of Fireflies Village's leadership.
"Greetings, seniors. I'm a newly joined ninja named Gan Wen Cui."
This was his standard self-introduction.
It must be said, Hatake Sakumo was someone who liked to keep things in his heart, making him appear heavy-hearted.
He deeply knew his time traveler identity shouldn't be revealed, so he became even more cautious. Except for Yūshin, he didn't dare reveal his true name to anyone else.
At this time he even had some excessive thoughts, such as:
To avoid affecting historical progression, I should try not to reveal future events. Yes, time travelers should keep their mouths shut.
What if I carelessly make "prophecies" and history undergoes major changes? What if it causes a "corrupted save file"? That would be even worse.
Seeing Hatake Sakumo constantly maintaining a stern face and being cautious with words and actions, Yūshin thought this type of "ruthless and taciturn" character had always behaved this way.
It could only be said that Hatake Sakumo was overthinking. When it really came time to "spoil" things, he definitely wouldn't be able to hold back... This is human nature.
Turncoat Hatake Sakumo accepted the mission to subdue the Hatake Clan and left Fireflies Village alone... He wasn't surnamed Hatake for nothing—there was no reason he wouldn't know where the Hatake Clan's ancestral "habitat" was located.
Hatake Sakumo was quite similar to his son. He covered his face, came before that small village, stopped, then called out loudly:
"Hatake Clan, come out! I'm here to negotiate terms!"
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