Discussion

"I'm not exactly troubled. I just don't know what the situation on the battlefield is right now, or when we'll actually have to go there. I feel a little uncertain."

"After all, I'm really afraid of dying. If I go to the battlefield without knowing anything, it'll be easy to end up as a martyr."

Uchiha Feiyu blinked and asked without the slightest politeness. The Third Hokage's eyelid twitched, while Kakashi beside him sucked in a sharp breath.

Wasn't this guy being way too blunt? He was directly asking about military secrets? And he said it so plainly!

"Matters concerning the war are Konoha's secrets... You are still Chunin and Genin, so I cannot tell you for now."

"Of course, if you are willing to take the exam, I believe you could easily become Special Jonin. How about it? Would you like to try?"

"Forget it. If someone my age became a Special Jonin, wouldn't I become a target on the battlefield? Being a Genin is better. The enemy villages probably won't pay much attention to me, and at most I'll run into a few Chunin opponents."

Before Kakashi could say anything, Uchiha Feiyu immediately refused to become a Special Jonin. If it were a direct promotion to Jonin, he might actually have considered it, but Special Jonin? Forget it.

Konoha had fewer than a hundred Jonin in total. Even the Hokage had to be selected through a vote by the Jonin. Because of that, every Jonin possessed a certain amount of influence in Konoha. If they had the ambition, they could easily establish their own little faction in Konoha.

But while Special Jonin were also called Jonin, they lacked the most important right: the vote for Hokage. In the end, they were just high-level thugs.

It could be said that the main purpose of the Special Jonin rank was to accommodate lone ninjas whose strength had reached Jonin level, while serving as a barrier to keep them from entering the upper ranks. Naturally, Uchiha Feiyu had no interest in being a high-level thug.

Especially since Uchiha Feiyu was currently in the same class as Asuma, he would basically never encounter any dangerous missions. But if he became a Special Jonin, the Third Hokage would definitely transfer him out and work him to death.

The veins on the Third Hokage's forehead bulged violently. Although he had long heard about Uchiha Feiyu's personality from his son, only upon meeting him in person did he realize just how incompatible this guy's fear of death was with ordinary ninjas.

"Feiyu, you must understand that for a ninja, blindly avoiding things is not the way to truly grow. Only by constantly facing challenges and becoming the strongest ninja can you truly be at ease..."

"Lord Hokage, if you become the strongest ninja, does that mean you'll be safe?"

Uchiha Feiyu interrupted the Third Hokage, looking at him with a strange expression.

"Of course. The stronger a ninja is, the safer he naturally becomes. If your strength is sufficient, ordinary ninjas will flee at the very sight of you."

"But among the successive Kage of the Five Great Ninja Villages, it seems none of them died of old age, right?"

Third Hokage: "Σ(っ°Д°;)っ!!"

Facing Uchiha Feiyu's gaze, the Third Hokage finally retreated in helpless defeat. After that, he had no desire to say anything more to Uchiha Feiyu and Hatake Kakashi. After forcing out a few words of concern, he left.

"Feiyu, you've got way too much nerve! You even dared to make fun of Lord Hokage!"

Only after seeing the Third Hokage leave did Hatake Kakashi finally let out a breath of relief. He looked at Uchiha Feiyu in astonishment.

"So what if I made fun of him? It's still much better than being sent to the battlefield in a daze! This is the very beginning of the Ninja World War. Anyone who goes to the battlefield now is practically cannon fodder."

Uchiha Feiyu shrugged, speaking as though it did not matter in the slightest.

What a joke. If he had let the Third Hokage sweet-talk him into a stupor today, he would probably have been sent straight to the battlefield tomorrow! With life and death at stake, who cared whether he was the Hokage?

"But this can only delay things for a while, right? Since we became ninjas, we'll have to go to the battlefield eventually."

"If I can delay it for a while, then I'll delay it. The intensity of the Ninja World War is basically concentrated in the first and last few months. A few months from now, the fighting on the battlefield should decrease drastically. It won't be too late to go then."

"Aren't you afraid Lord Hokage will get angry? As Hokage, it would be easy for him to punish you!"

In response to Kakashi's question, Uchiha Feiyu merely sneered.

"Heh... Let him do whatever he wants! If he really dares to assign me some suicidal mission, like assassinating an enemy commander, then I'll just defect!"

After obtaining Hatake Sakumo's soul, Uchiha Feiyu had already prepared himself to pack up and leave if things went bad.

After all, with his current strength, even becoming a Rogue Ninja was much safer than being directly dragged into the Ninja World War.

Generally speaking, Rogue Ninjas at the Elite Jonin level were powerful enough that, unless they caused too much harm, the major ninja villages rarely took the initiative to hunt them down. The Rogue Ninjas who truly lived in constant danger were mostly ordinary Jonin and Chunin.

As for Genin, as long as they covered their tracks and faked their deaths, and did not know any critical secrets, the ninja villages did not have the manpower to pursue them. So as long as one prepared properly, defecting was not particularly dangerous.

That was precisely why Uchiha Feiyu had acted so unconcerned before the Third Hokage. At worst, he would just run. He truly did not believe that, during the Third Ninja World War, Konoha would care so much about an insignificant figure like him.

Kakashi was left dumbfounded by Uchiha Feiyu's words. He opened his mouth.

"Feiyu, defecting isn't something to joke about!"

"You're right. When I leave Konoha, I'll leave behind a resignation letter. I'll write, 'The world is so big. I want to go see it.'"

"This... I've never heard of a ninja being able to resign..."

"Heh!"

A cold smile appeared on Uchiha Feiyu's face as he spoke lightly.

"That's right. Not only can ninjas not resign, they cannot retire either. Unless they become disabled one day, they can only keep working until they die!"

"Not only that, even students who graduate normally from the Ninja Academy are at most twelve or thirteen years old. As far as I know, even ordinary people cannot start working until they are fourteen, right?"

"They start working and killing people at thirteen or fourteen. If they're lucky, they can keep killing for fifty or sixty years, and maybe the village higher-ups will pity them for being so miserable and let them retire while dragging along a body full of injuries and illness..."

"Tell me, Kakashi, do you really think being a ninja is such a reasonable profession?!"

Kakashi opened his mouth, countless thoughts swirling through his mind, yet he could not say a word.

Before Uchiha Feiyu spoke, Kakashi had never felt much about the profession of being a ninja. After all, every ninja village operated this way, and he had never seen other ninjas complain about it.

But after hearing Uchiha Feiyu's words, Kakashi finally realized that being a ninja—a profession that put one's head on the line—was unimaginably cruel and harsh. It practically squeezed every ninja dry of their flesh, blood, and youth.

"Now that you put it that way, I feel a little lost. Are ninjas... really this miserable?"

"Heh, so many ninjas have brainwashed themselves into becoming tools. Tell me, isn't that miserable?!"