[Is It Over!][Seeking Recommendation Tickets!]

One month later, the incident of White Fang Hatake Sakumo failing a mission spread throughout the village.

The incident involved Hatake Sakumo, as captain, infiltrating enemy territory during an extremely secret mission. He was forced to make a difficult decision—either continue the mission or save his comrades.

According to Konohagakure's rules, abandoning a mission was strictly forbidden.

After much deliberation, Hatake Sakumo ultimately chose to terminate the mission to save his comrades' lives.

As a result, he was blamed by the Land of Fire, which suffered losses, and his comrades in the village. In the end, even the teammates he rescued verbally attacked him.

It was clear that behind all of this, the Konoha higher-ups, led by the Third Hokage, were fanning the flames.

The reason why the Konoha higher-ups, led by Sarutobi Hiruzen, acted this way was simple: Hatake Sakumo was an outstanding individual respected by everyone in the village and the most popular candidate for the next Hokage.

Hatake Sakumo's achievements and fame were such that even the legendary Sannin had to give him three points of deference.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's goal was to remain the absolute leader of Konoha, regardless of whether he was in office or not.

In the original work, Sarutobi Hiruzen's favorite disciple, Orochimaru, once said that choosing Namikaze Minato as the Fourth Hokage was like choosing a puppet.

Namikaze Minato would undoubtedly obey the Third Hokage's every word.

However, Hatake Sakumo would absolutely not.

And Hatake Sakumo became dejected and disheartened after this mission.

If the plot had followed the original work, Hatake Sakumo would have committed suicide not long after.

Public opinion could truly kill.

But unlike the original work, Hatake Kakashi's mindset had changed due to some exchanges with Hyuga Bin.

Even though he was being pointed at and gossiped about because of Hatake Sakumo's situation, he didn't care.

He only cared about Hatake Sakumo's condition. He chose to take leave during this period, staying by his father Hatake Sakumo's side every day to comfort him.

When he noticed Hatake Sakumo showing suicidal tendencies, he even said something that Hyuga Bin had taught him, something difficult for his personality to utter:

"Father, if you're gone, what's the point of me living alone and helpless..."

Perhaps it was because of Hatake Kakashi's words that Hatake Sakumo ultimately did not choose suicide. He resigned from his position as Head of Anbu and applied for a one-year leave of absence from Sarutobi Hiruzen to process his emotions at home and to teach Hatake Kakashi.

This was the first time Hyuga Bin, who had transmigrated to the world of Naruto, had actively tried to change the original plot.

Of course, Hatake Sakumo not committing suicide was also what the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen had hoped for.

The higher-ups, represented by the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, did not want Hatake Sakumo to commit suicide.

Hatake Sakumo, as a Kage-level powerhouse of Konohagakure, could influence the outcome of battles on the battlefield.

Their only goal was to strip Hatake Sakumo of any possibility of becoming the Fourth Hokage.

After all, Hatake Sakumo's popularity had been too high before, so high that Sarutobi Hiruzen felt insecure on his throne, so high that Shimura Danzo felt he had no chance of becoming the next Hokage, and so high that Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura worried about losing some of their power.

Now that Hatake Sakumo had resigned in disgrace and his reputation in Konohagakure had soured, he had naturally lost the possibility of competing for the Fourth Hokage, making it a "win-win" situation for everyone.

As a genius, coupled with Hatake Sakumo's meticulous daily guidance, Hatake Kakashi successfully became a Chunin at the age of six, once again breaking the record for promotion to Chunin.

Before this, Hatake Kakashi had graduated from the Ninja Academy at the age of five, also breaking the record for graduating from the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Prior to this, the earliest graduates from the Ninja Academy were six years old, and the earliest Genin promoted to Chunin were eight years old.

On the night of his promotion to Chunin, Hatake Kakashi sought out Hyuga Bin for a challenge again.

And was once again defeated by Hyuga Bin.

After the battle ended, Hyuga Bin told him that he had used 8.5 tenths of his strength in this fight.

Hatake Kakashi believed Hyuga Bin's words and decided to work even harder, making an appointment with Hyuga Bin to challenge him again next year.

And so...

Year 40 of Konoha.

One day, upon returning to the village from a mission, Hatake Kakashi challenged Hyuga Bin again in the familiar forest.

And was defeated again!

However, this time he could feel that after the battle, Hyuga Bin's breathing had become more rapid, indicating that the gap between them was not large.

When asked, Hyuga Bin said he had used 9 tenths of his strength this time.

Year 41 of Konoha.

Hatake Kakashi challenged Hyuga Bin and was defeated again.

However, this time, he only "narrowly lost" by one move, just a little bit away from defeating Hyuga Bin.

He had reason to believe that next time, he definitely could.

Next time for sure! Next time for sure!

After so many years, he finally saw a glimmer of hope in defeating Hyuga Bin.

Year 42 of Konoha.

This year, Hyuga Bin graduated before he could receive a challenge from Hatake Kakashi.

After graduation came the team assignments, conducted in the style of mission squads.

On the day of team assignments, Hyuga Bin waited quietly in the classroom for his leading Jonin to arrive.

The Konoha squad tradition was generally "one Jonin leading three dead weight," and if it was a escort mission, there would also be a slacker shouting "666."

After waiting for half an hour, Hyuga Bin's father's good friend, Hyuga Masayuki, walked into the classroom and called his name.

Besides him, Hyuga Masayuki also called Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin; they were the 22nd squad of this year's class.

This came as a bit of a surprise to Hyuga Bin.

Because he remembered that in the original story, Hatake Kakashi had switched teams a few times after graduating. By the time Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito graduated, the three of them became teammates, and their new leading Jonin was arranged to be Namikaze Minato.

However, Namikaze Minato was not among the leading Jonin this time, and Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, and Nohara Rin did not form a team. Instead, Nohara Rin, Uchiha Obito, and he himself formed a team.

Hyuga Bin wasn't sure if this was a change in the original plot caused by his butterfly effect, or if he simply misremembered. Perhaps Hatake Kakashi didn't team up directly after the three graduated, but rather after some time had passed, they "formed a group" into a squad.

If it was the latter, then squad "group formation" would imply the death of original teammates, leading to the re-formation of incomplete teams...

Then, Hyuga Bin arrived at a possibility:

"Masayuki-san and I are bound to die sooner or later, aren't we?"