Konoha's White Fang Commits Suicide

"Teacher Tomohisa, I want to challenge Shuichi." During combat practice that day, Might Guy directly challenged Shuichi.

Up until a few months ago, they had fought fewer than five times in total. Each time, Shuichi had not rushed to defeat him, instead slowly honing his taijutsu skills before seizing an opportunity to launch a series of attacks and knock Guy down.

Over the past few months, after completing Tree Climbing, Shuichi had spent most of his Chakra each day on Water Walking training. He had only just succeeded in Water Walking these past two days, and his true strength had yet to be displayed in actual combat.

Since Guy had happened to challenge him this time, he decided to try something new.

After they formed the Confrontation Seal, Shuichi did not assume any defensive stance at all. Instead, his hands swiftly formed three seals.

"Ram, Snake, Tiger." BOOM! With a soft sound, two clones of Shuichi appeared on the field.

"Wow, the Clone Technique!" The students below cried out in surprise.

As soon as Shuichi's two clones appeared, they immediately charged at Guy side by side.

Guy froze for a moment upon seeing the Clone Technique. But then he remembered that clones created by the Clone Technique had no combat ability, so he did not hesitate. Completely unconcerned, he charged straight at them.

BOOM! Sure enough, the moment they collided, the two clones vanished. Guy prepared to continue his attack on Shuichi.

But after smashing the two clones, he was instantly dumbfounded. Three identical Shuichis had appeared before him.

It turned out that after Shuichi had used the Clone Technique for the first time, he had taken advantage of the first two clones blocking Guy's vision and swiftly used the Clone Technique again.

During this second use, Shuichi's real body had directly switched places with one of the clones. Ignoring Guy's hesitation, all three Shuichis charged at him simultaneously.

Bang! While Guy was at a loss, Shuichi's real body, positioned on the far right, kicked Guy's left calf, directly throwing off his balance.

Shuichi gave him no chance to counterattack, displaying the taijutsu techniques he had learned through frequent sparring with Kakashi. Within seconds, without stopping for even a moment, he struck Guy repeatedly with both fists and feet.

Of course, since this was a spar between classmates, the injuries Shuichi inflicted would heal before long. Still, unlike his usual matches, Shuichi resolved this battle cleanly and decisively.

Sanada Tomohisa had actually known that Shuichi should have long since been capable of using the Three Basic Ninjutsu Techniques. After all, Kakashi, who was just as outstanding as him, had become a Chunin not long ago.

But when he saw Shuichi's rapid hand seals today, as well as his strategy of combining Clone Techniques to seize the initiative, he could not help but be amazed by Shuichi's rate of growth.

Shuichi's friends were even more excited. When Shuichi came over, they all gathered around him.

"Shuichi, you used the Clone Technique twice in a row just now? That was incredible. The clones I make now don't feel like me at all."

"Shuichi-kun, you looked so cool!"

"Haha, you all thought they looked pretty convincing, right? I've practiced for quite a long time too." Shuichi acted very modestly.

In his previous life, he had never been much of a talker. Although after transmigrating, he had been playing with relatively immature children, it had indeed made him more cheerful and optimistic, while also teaching him to be more considerate of others' feelings.

"The Ninja Academy has nothing left to teach him." Sanada Tomohisa knew that Shuichi progressed quickly in his studies. After all, he saw him in the library every holiday.

After Shuichi used ninjutsu that day, few students dared to challenge him even during regular combat practice.

Shuichi could not help but feel a little lost as well. It seemed that he had completed all the training he could do and learned all the knowledge he could learn. What should he do next?

Konoha's autumn that year seemed somewhat bleak. Over the past few months, an unusual atmosphere had begun to hang over the village.

At first, only a handful of villagers had discussed it. But now, many villagers openly discussed Konoha's White Fang in the streets.

"Hey, did you hear? White Fang directly abandoned a mission midway through, causing huge losses for the village."

"No way. Could someone as strong as Lord White Fang really fail?"

"I don't know, but I heard it was to save a teammate."

"This..." Some villagers thought, If I were his teammate, I'd definitely want him to do that too. After all, who doesn't cherish their own life?

However, not only in Konoha but throughout the entire shinobi world, the prevailing view of shinobi was still that completing missions was their duty.

When quite a few villagers began defending White Fang, Genin nearby would occasionally step forward to refute them.

"That's not how it works. Our Konoha Village has always had an excellent reputation for completing missions. Now that White Fang abandoned a mission, it might not affect him much, but we shinobi have received far fewer missions lately."

"By then, Konoha's operations might even be affected because of this."

Some villagers who still wanted to argue were suddenly left speechless. After all, they were not shinobi, so they were not in a position to dispute it.

Not long afterward, to everyone's surprise, even the teammates White Fang had saved came forward to publicly condemn him. Those who had wanted to speak for White Fang no longer knew how to open their mouths.

At the Ninja Academy, the students also secretly discussed the matter from time to time. The children from the great clans seemed to regard it as taboo, speaking of it only in hushed voices.

"Kurenai, did your father tell you about Lord White Fang?" Shuichi and the others were rather worried about Kakashi, because Kakashi had not come to see them for a long time.

Shuichi knew that White Fang would ultimately commit suicide, and he truly wanted to save him. But at present, he was merely a seven-year-old child at the Ninja Academy. Even if he wanted to help, he had no idea where to begin.

After coming to this world, he had realized that no one was stupid. If White Fang could be persuaded to return simply with words about the Will of Fire, then why had none of the great clans acted?

So he guessed there had to be some hidden truth he did not know. A powerhouse like White Fang had killed countless enemies during the Second Shinobi War and could be said to have saved many Konoha Ninja. There were certainly quite a few from the great clans among them.

Everyone knew that if White Fang were around when war broke out again in the future, many casualties could definitely be avoided. Every shinobi could understand that.

So, out of caution, Shuichi first asked Kurenai to see what her family had to say and whether he could draw any useful information from it.

"My father said this matter is very complicated. He told us children not to discuss it too much and not to get involved." When Kurenai heard Shuichi ask about it, she leaned closer and answered quietly.

Shuichi, who had still had a few ideas, could only tell himself not to think about it any further. There was probably some political struggle within Konoha involved. Ninja Academy students like them knew nothing about the real situation, and they might end up helping someone count their money after being sold out.

This strange situation lasted for several months. Then one day, shocking news suddenly arrived: Konoha's White Fang had committed suicide at home.

When Shuichi heard the news, Yūhi Kurenai had quietly told him. Ordinary students still knew absolutely nothing about it, while the students from the great clans did not mention it at all.

Though Shuichi deeply regretted White Fang's suicide, he was merely a civilian and had no way to do anything. He could only remind himself to be cautious of Konoha's political turmoil in the future.

Shuichi planned to find time to visit Kakashi with a few of his friends, so that he could emerge from the shadow in his heart as soon as possible.

At the same time, Shuichi would keep a close watch on any related information. If he learned any hidden details, he would remind Kakashi about them in the future.