A Promise That Can Never Be Fulfilled

Protect Konoha and safeguard your comrades.

These two things should have existed under the same concept.

However, when these two things finally clash one day, what should the village ninjas choose? Everyone will have different ideas.

According to the will left behind by the First Hokage, we should spare no effort to protect Konoha;

However, Hatake Sakumo is a thoughtful man who believes that the lives of his comrades should be more important than the mission.

If you don't even cherish your companions...

That would truly reduce a ninja to a mere tool.

The world always seems strange.

Little Kakashi has been trying his best to think like an adult.

Even this mature little guy couldn't quite understand why his father, who had just gone on a mission and saved a friend who was on the same mission, had fallen from a war hero and Hokage candidate to a useless person that everyone criticized.

Even those who were rescued were blaming their father.

The father, however, was unable to offer any explanation for these matters.

Because some people said that his father violated the ninja rules and caused Konoha to suffer huge losses, he should resolutely carry out the village's mission instead of acting on his own will.

This was somewhat difficult for Little Kakashi to understand.

However, Little Kakashi still respected his father very much. When everyone was criticizing his father, he stayed by his father's side like a well-behaved and sensible child, because his father was still a hero in his heart.

However, Hatake Sakumo gradually became more reclusive.

She even devoted all her energy to spending time with her son.

When Little Kakashi passed the entrance exam for the Ninja School, Hatake Sakumo finally showed a rare smile, which made Little Kakashi somewhat happy.

Late at night, Little Kakashi suddenly noticed that his father seemed a little strange. He was always talking to himself late at night, holding the short sword that had made him famous.

"Lord Shirou."

"If only you were still here."

Sakumo always thinks of the man he met when he was young, because when people are weak, they always hope to receive guidance from the person they admire.

No matter how powerful humanity becomes, it will always encounter this kind of confusion, and it will always hope that there will be someone stronger to guide it.

"I always felt that the village was going down a wrong path."

If someone has to watch their comrade die in order to protect Konoha, then what is Konoha protecting?

If the interests of the village are sacrificed to protect comrades, then Konoha will suffer a great loss as a result, which would also violate the original intention of protecting Konoha.

If the protection of one's companions is measured by the interests of the village, then the lives of those companions become a tool for trade.

However, everyone in Konoha had already accepted the will to sacrifice everything for Konoha, and this will had become a tacit rule. He, however, had broken this rule and become an anomaly among ninjas.

"Dad!"

Little Kakashi rushed over in fear and grabbed his father's arm. He looked at the short sword in his father's hand, and the child seemed to be able to feel his father's deathly stillness.

"I'm a little scared."

"Then how about I stay by Kakashi's side?"

Hatake Sakumo gently stroked Little Kakashi's head.

Little Kakashi nodded quickly.

In the little boy's room, the father and son finally began to talk about their conversation over the past few days, and they started discussing this very issue.

Is Dad upset about recent events?

"Yes-."

"But I don't think Dad did anything wrong."

Little Kakashi clung to his father's arm, muttering softly, "If you don't even cherish your comrades, what else is there to cherish?"

"You're still too young, Kakashi— "

Hatake Sakumo smiled slightly, not intending to discuss these topics with his son too much. He simply picked up a bedtime story from the bedside table, intending to lull his son to sleep.

"Did Daddy really meet Lord Shirou?"

Little Kakashi pressed down on the picture books of bedtime stories, trying to cheer up his father in his own way. He seemed to believe that his father had actually met Shirou Emiya: "I remember Dad talking about it. What kind of person was he?"

"Him—"

Hatake Sakumo chuckled softly and spoke of the people he had met in his youth, "He was always very busy with work, always cherished his time, and rarely wanted to talk to anyone around him, so much so that many people thought he was an arrogant person—"

"But-"

"He was never arrogant."

He always treated everyone equally.

"His entire life was dedicated to one thing: striving to save every life he saw, like a warm and loving deity protecting humanity."

"He chose to become a medical ninja because he didn't want anyone else to suffer the pain of losing a loved one."

When Hatake Sakumo said this, his heart skipped a beat, and he paused slightly as he stroked his son's head, because he remembered what that man had once said: the pain of losing a loved one was something even that man could not ignore.

After Kakashi's mother died

Even Hatake Sakumo was struggling to keep up.

Looking at his obedient yet proud son, the man dared not imagine the devastation his son would suffer after losing him as his father.

However, Hatake Sakumo, who stayed by his son's side, also noticed something else: some people were attacking his son because of his actions that harmed Konoha's interests, causing his son Kakashi to be criticized in the village as well.

This son...

It is also accompanying me through this ordeal.

However·

It was this son's love for his father that made Hatake Sakumo somewhat reluctant to let him continue to suffer in the village with him. Perhaps only death could relieve him of all this?

But·

But he couldn't tell his son.

The next afternoon.

Little Kakashi returned home.

When the little boy pushed open the door, he saw his father lying in a pool of blood. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Mingming...

I've been staying with my father, Mingming...

Why did my father choose to die because I had always supported him?

However, Hatake Sakumo's death did not seem to wash away his shame. Few people attended his funeral, and some even accused him of harming the village's interests.

Fortunately.

Those who attended the funeral were all very important figures.

At least the Konoha's Sannin once respected Hatake Sakumo all came to attend the funeral, and the funeral even became a rare gathering for them.

"I thought you weren't coming back—"

Orochimaru was somewhat surprised to see Tsunade return.

"How could I not come back?"

Tsunade looked at Hatake Sakumo's portrait with some displeasure, her face showing great dissatisfaction. "I heard some people are criticizing Hatake- senpai for violating the ninja rules. Since when has protecting one's comrades not been a ninja rule?"

As a longtime friend of Hatake Sakumo, Tsunade did not think that Hatake Sakumo had done anything wrong, because she would have made the same choice if she were in the same position.

"What kind of bullshit rules are these!"

Tsunade remembered the rumors circulating in the village and couldn't help but curse, "I refuse to believe there could be any damn mission more important than your and Jiraiya's lives!"

Orochimaru couldn't help but smile.

What are you laughing at?

Tsunade saw the smile on Orochimaru's lips and, already annoyed, launched into a tirade. "Orochimaru, you don't actually believe that everything those idiots in the village say is true, do you? Back when we were fighting Hidden Stone Village, you Jiraiya wanted to kill Jiraiya to get rid of this burden!"

This is a story from the past.

During the Second Shinobi World War, the three of them were surrounded by Hidden Stone Village. Jiraiya and unable to escape for a time.

At that time, Tsunade was still trying her best to save Jiraiya's life. However, Orochimaru advocated killing Jiraiya and then retreating. If they hadn't received reinforcements, Tsunade and Orochimaru might have clashed because of this.

"But that's the code of the ninja."

Jiraiya stood beside them and couldn't help but sigh, "Back then, if we hadn't waited for reinforcements, Orochimaru's idea wouldn't have been a mistake, it might even have been the best choice. Even if he had killed me then, I would have agreed with his actions, and I don't approve of your actions in protecting me at that time—"

"Get out of here, both of you!"

Tsunade's face clearly showed that she was quite angry.

Jiraiya fled in terror, overwhelmed by the wolf and fox.

Orochimaru stubbornly stood still, even with a smile on his face, as if he didn't care about his past behavior at all. He just quietly looked at Tsunade.

"Lady Tsunade, calm down—"

Standing next to Tsunade, Shizune quickly began to whisper words of advice.

"The village has completely changed."

Tsunade took a deep breath to calm herself down, recalling the conversation between her Grandpa, the First Hokage, and Shirou Emiya.

"When the village's rules became tacitly accepted as meaning that anything was acceptable for the village's benefit, even at the cost of one's own life, the will left behind by the Grandpa had been distorted by the villagers..."

"That person mentioned it to my Grandpa."

"This was originally a two-way problem."

"If the village's higher-ups believe that the lives of the village's ninjas are more important, and they sacrifice the village's interests for the lives of their comrades, they should be praised by the village's higher-ups rather than blamed, because this will create a two-way exchange."

"The village's ninjas will risk their lives to complete the tasks assigned by the village because the higher-ups value their lives, and the higher-ups will make the village better and better because the village's ninjas will risk their lives to protect the village's interests."

"Ninjas are not afraid of sacrifice."

"They will protect each other's companions."

"Because of our comrades, there will be no meaningless sacrifices."

"The village is not afraid of losing its interests."

"Because there will always be ninjas who understand that they were born in a village worth protecting, and people are willing to risk their lives to protect the village."

"But-"

"When the village's leaders believe that the village's interests come first, they will stop at nothing to protect the village's interests, even sacrificing the lives of their comrades. The relationship between ninjas and the village, which should be one of mutual attraction and attraction, will become one of mutual repulsion."

"At this moment—"

"Someone will awaken like Hatake Sakumo."

"Little brat."

"Your father is not wrong."

"The only mistake is this completely transformed Konoha."

Tsunade glanced at the small figure standing before the tombstone and said coldly, "Don't blame your father for being cowardly. The fault lies with this unpleasant era. Train diligently to awaken the Storm Release your father created and carry on the will he left behind—."

Little Kakashi remained silent for a while.

"Are you leaving?"

Orochimaru watched Teuchi's departing figure, his heart filled with a complex mix of reluctance and anticipation. "Tsunade, the situation in the Shinobi World isn't looking too good right now."

"The Shinobi World War— "

"It might be starting again—"

"So what?"

Tsunade glanced at Orochimaru with an indifferent expression, her voice echoing coldly in Orochimaru ears. "This village, with its twisted hearts, has no reason to remain. I hate Konoha now more than ever!"

After saying that, Tsunade seemed to have thought of something and suddenly said, "Orochimaru, if you become the Fourth Hokage, then come and change all of this. Perhaps I will come back then—"

"Good."

Orochimaru finally smiled.

In this era of Konoha, the entire Konoha believed that Orochimaru, one of the Konoha's Sannin, had become the only candidate for Hokage.

Orochimaru knew that what he was doing might offend his former friends, but he believed that as long as he hid his darkness, just like his teacher, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, he could still win back his old friends.

Unfortunately...

This promise could never be fulfilled.

After the Third Shinobi World War ended, many children grew up during the war, and many were still grieving the loss of their loved ones. Even Konoha was not peaceful after the war, and the Nine Tails Riot' rampage caused even more people to lose their loved ones.

But none of this has anything to do with Orochimaru anymore.

Whether it's the Hokage Position of Konoha or those illusory powers, none of them are as important to him as his own immortality. Only by living and seeing everything live can he find meaning!

Orochimaru would stop at nothing to achieve immortality!

When Orochimaru's hidden human experiments in Konoha were finally discovered by his teacher Sarutobi Hiruzen, he decided to sever all ties with the past, left Miyō, and became a missing-nin. He abandoned his promise to Tsunade and took away the Crystal Coffin Tsunade left in Konoha.

The 55th year of the Konoha calendar.

Several years after Orochimaru defected from Konoha, the last Crystal Coffin met its destiny since its creation.

Compared to the vast changes it has witnessed over a thousand years, and compared to the countless tragic stories of souls its owner has seen in the Underworld over the millennia, everything that has happened in the last few decades is utterly insignificant.