Hate, Love

Ding—Congratulations, host! You have received a random reward: Space Ring.

"My god, a Space Ring!"

Torikaze stared fixedly at the silvery-white ring inside the gift box, making no attempt whatsoever to restrain the smile on his face!

He had never imagined that such an amazing item could come from a random gift box!

Torikaze immediately took out the ring. The instant it left the box, the gift box dissolved into specks of light and vanished.

But Torikaze had no mood to care how it had disappeared. He carefully examined the Space Ring instead.

The Space Ring was entirely silvery white, engraved with unknown symbols. At its top sat an exceptionally pure, dazzling, colorless transparent gemstone.

Torikaze eagerly put the ring on, imitating the fantasy novels he had read in his previous life as he immersed his spiritual power into it. Sure enough, he sensed the space within the ring.

"Holy... shit." Nothing could better describe Torikaze's feelings at that moment than those two words.

Because he could not see the boundaries of the ring! Unsure whether it matched his guess, Torikaze immediately ran to the family's secret chamber!

He stored its collection into the Space Ring, item by item!

But as the last scroll was placed inside, Torikaze became incomparably excited!

"This Space Ring seems to have no boundaries! It can store things infinitely!"

Torikaze truly found it hard to believe that the System had given him such an overpowered gift!

Though perhaps the ring's space was simply too vast, and the things Torikaze had stored had not yet filled it.

No matter what, this ring could provide Torikaze with enormous help!

"I'll never have to eat Soldier Pills again!"

He was in a wonderful mood. He had never expected the System, which had endured his curses all this time, to give him such a treasure for free!

Though his own luck had played a part as well, Torikaze still decided that he would not curse the System for the next three days.

That was already the limit of his restraint!

Although he had grown stronger after gaining the System, Torikaze's peaceful days had vanished along with it.

For all these days, he had either been fighting, training, carrying out missions, or being hunted down by enemies!

He greatly missed the days when he could lie on the grass and listen to the babbling stream.

Still, Torikaze was someone with strong self-regulation. He would not let bad emotions affect him too deeply, and getting a little emo now and then could soothe the mind and prevent depression.

Coming back to himself, Torikaze looked at the empty secret chamber and took everything he had stored in the ring back out.

The main reason was that he had already learned most of the ninjutsu here. Though keeping them in the ring would not take up space, it would be too messy.

And if something happened to him, these could serve as an inheritance. Leaving them to the village would count as a gift as well.

Torikaze then left the secret chamber. It was still early, and there was no need to stay home in that cold, empty place.

After leaving the clan grounds, Torikaze wandered the streets of Konoha. By this time, everyone had more or less finished eating, and it was time for an evening stroll.

As Torikaze passed near the Ninja Academy, he spotted three familiar figures.

The three of them noticed Torikaze as well and immediately called out, "Hey! Torikaze!"

Torikaze waved at them. It had been a long time since he had seen Kosuke, Shinku, Ikkaku, and the others.

Maruboshi Kosuke and the other two ran up to Torikaze, then gave him a light punch with their fists.

"We haven't seen you at school for days! Where have you been?"

Shinku chimed in, "Yeah, we thought you'd been expelled. We asked Sensei Mizuya, but he wouldn't tell us."

Hearing their complaints, Torikaze finally recalled that he truly had not seen Kosuke and Shinku since the Combat Training class that day.

At the time, he had not gotten the chance to explain anything to them before being summoned to the Hokage Office.

After that, he had been training with Master and Lord Tobirama, and had never gone back to school.

"Sorry, Kosuke, Shinku, Ikkaku. Actually, after that day, Lord Hokage took me as his disciple, so I stopped going to school."

The moment he said that, Torikaze realized that his three friends had suddenly fallen silent, and regret filled his heart.

Sure enough, he should not have said it like that. He wondered whether it would hurt their young hearts.

After a while, Shinku, usually the calmest among them, spoke uncertainly. "Torikaze, you... really became Lord Hokage's disciple?"

Torikaze took a deep breath and nodded.

Since he had already said it, trying to hide it now would only seem petty.

At that moment, Maruboshi Kosuke patted Torikaze on the shoulder, his face brimming with a smile.

"Man, you scared us! Though we're really shocked that you became Lord Hokage's disciple, as long as we know you're okay, we don't need to worry anymore."

Umino Ikkaku nodded as well, offering Torikaze his most sincere congratulations on becoming the Hokage's disciple. After all, they were good friends!

Torikaze let out a sigh of relief. He had been afraid it would affect Kosuke and the others, but it seemed he had worried too much.

Torikaze then told his friends about what he had seen and experienced over the past few days, broadening the horizons of these children who had not even become ninja yet.

They had never expected Torikaze to have become so strong already, or that he could fight alongside Lord Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others! And from the sound of it, they got along quite well!

It made them yearn even more for the life of a ninja.

Torikaze did not tell them about the cruelty of being a ninja so early on. Shattering someone else's dream was the most vicious thing one could do.

After selectively recounting what he had seen throughout this mission, Torikaze explained some of his insights into Chakra and ninjutsu training to the three of them.

Though they had not begun learning ninjutsu yet, they would be able to use it sooner or later.

After chatting for a while longer, Maruboshi Kosuke suddenly remembered that they still had something to do, and they hurriedly left.

Watching them run off into the distance, Torikaze revealed a faint smile before continuing his stroll through the village.

Though he looked like a six-year-old child, Torikaze's soul, counting both lives together, was nearly thirty years old.

Yet he could somehow get along perfectly with these real children. Perhaps it had something to do with his personality in his previous life.

Back then, his friends often told him that he was already in his twenties, yet still acted like a child.

But Torikaze felt that a larger part of it was because he regarded everyone here as living, breathing people.

He did not treat everyone as NPCs or himself as the chosen son of this world simply because he had transmigrated to Another World and watched a few episodes of anime.

It was precisely because he had watched the anime that Torikaze could deeply understand that every person here was striving for their family and village.

From the Hokage down to children who had just enrolled, all were the same.

Torikaze hated having transmigrated into this era, because wars were frequent in this age and human lives were as cheap as grass.

But he also loved having transmigrated into this era, because he could personally witness what Konoha, with him in it, would look like in the future.