Task or Companion?

Kakashi's hollow eyes shifted almost imperceptibly.

He turned his head slowly.

Half a step behind him, Higashino Shinichi stood silently, holding an ordinary dark umbrella, shielding him from the torrential downpour.

Shinichi wasn't looking at Kakashi. His gaze was fixed on the same new gravestone ahead, calm and distant.

"You..."

Kakashi's lips moved faintly beneath his mask, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing. He turned his attention back to his father's tombstone, as if that was the only place where he could anchor himself.

Shinichi didn't speak. No comfort, no questions. He just stood there in silence, holding the umbrella over his former rival—now a classmate who might need it more—creating a small, wordless shelter.

The rain lashed violently against the cemetery, but in this corner, there was only the dense patter of raindrops on the umbrella and the frozen stillness between the two boys.

"For a ninja..."

After a long while, Kakashi's voice cut through the rain, hoarse and dry.

"...is completing the mission more important, or protecting your comrades?"

Upon hearing this, Shinichi was silent for a moment, his gaze still fixed on the cold gravestone. He spoke slowly:

"The First Hokage was born in the chaotic Warring States period. In that era, ninja clans slaughtered each other, children were forced onto battlefields, and life was as fleeting as morning dew... The sacrifice of comrades was a constant, everyday occurrence."

"Even someone as strong as the First Hokage—later revered as the God of Shinobi—experienced the pain of being unable to protect those important to him in that brutal age." Shinichi's voice was soft. "Records say that the young First Hokage lost many family members and personally felt the helplessness of watching loved ones vanish before his eyes. Precisely because of that, he understood the difficulty and preciousness of protection more deeply than anyone."

"So, the First Hokage gave everything to build a different world—a world where children wouldn't have to go to war at a young age, where comrades could entrust their backs to one another. The core of that became what we now call the Will of Fire—cherishing the village, protecting your comrades, and safeguarding the next generation to carry it forward."

"So you're saying comrades are more important?" Kakashi turned his head, his gaze sharp as it pierced Shinichi.

Shinichi still didn't answer that either-or question directly. He continued:

"As an occupation and a system, ninja function because mission rules are strictly followed. They maintain the order and trust that allow the village to survive. Completing a mission and protecting a client's interests upholds Konoha's reputation and peace. That, too, is protecting the village and all the comrades living in it."

"So you think the mission is more important?" Kakashi's voice dropped.

"No, Kakashi." Shinichi shook his head gently, finally shifting his gaze from the gravestone to the rain-blurred cemetery around them, as if looking toward a more distant future.

"What I'm trying to say is, I don't know."

"I haven't experienced the desperate situation Lord Sakumo faced. I haven't shouldered such a heavy choice. Maybe only when I'm truly pushed to that point, in that split second, will I know what my instincts choose. Until then, any judgment from the outside is reckless."

"But." Shinichi's tone shifted, calm yet firm. "Until that day might come, I will do everything I can to do one thing."

He turned to meet Kakashi's eyes and said:

"Work hard to become stronger! Strong enough to avoid being forced into that kind of either-or dilemma as much as possible."

"Strong enough that, even in a desperate situation, I can still struggle to find a way to both complete the mission and protect all my comrades. Strong enough that, perhaps one day, I'll have the power and wisdom to influence or even change certain rules—so that I, the comrades I cherish, and the next generation can face fewer such cruel predicaments."

"That's what the First Hokage did. He might not have fundamentally changed the brutal nature of the ninja profession itself, but he used all his strength to try—to build a framework that could protect what was important as much as possible, pushing the world in a better direction."

"And the Second Hokage, the Third Hokage, and countless nameless predecessors of Konoha, who inherited his will, have all given their utmost in their own positions to do the same."

"I don't know if Lord Sakumo's choice was right or wrong, because I wasn't in his place. But I do know that if we just stay stuck in the argument of mission versus comrades, we won't change anything. The only path forward is to become stronger than we are now—strong enough to have the right to rewrite the premise of the problem."

"What if you face that dilemma before you have enough power?"

Kakashi's tone suddenly turned aggressive. Before Shinichi could answer, he pressed on, as if trying to cut off all escape routes:

"Suppose you're the captain right now. Me and a few others are your team. Our mission is to escort a vital piece of intelligence back to Konoha. Right now, we're being hunted by enemies and trapped in a desperate situation."

"As captain, if you choose to abandon the mission, it will cause heavy losses to the village. If you choose to complete the mission, you have to leave one or even several teammates behind to hold the enemy off—or even kill them yourself to prevent intelligence leaks if they might be captured."

His eyes locked onto Shinichi, his voice urgent.

"Higashino Shinichi! Tell me, what would you do?!"

"I'll hold them off."

Shinichi's voice wasn't loud, but it was resolute.

"If that day ever comes, covering the team and bearing the greatest risk should naturally fall to me as the captain." He looked into Kakashi's eyes and said, word by word, clearly: "And you, Kakashi, from now on, you're the captain. The intelligence is yours to protect. You lead everyone back."

For an instant, the air under the umbrella seemed to freeze.

After a long pause, Kakashi snapped back to himself and sneered, "That's... still just running away from the problem!"

The moment the words left his mouth, as if he could no longer bear the space under the umbrella or the person in front of him, he spun around and plunged into the pouring rain, running off without looking back, quickly disappearing into the gray curtain of water.

Shinichi didn't chase after him.

He stood there still, but the faint, subtle premonition that had lingered since before he arrived at the cemetery didn't fade. Instead, it grew clearer and stronger.

[Good Omen (Green): Your fortune has begun to touch the mysterious. Occasionally, you will sense small auspicious signs and favorable developments on the horizon.]

As he had expected, after hosting a lively, flowing-feast-style appreciation banquet—different from the customs of this world—his [Swordsmanship Apprentice] had soon upgraded to [Swordsman], and he had also earned a chance to draw a green trait.

Good Omen was the new trait he'd drawn—one that seemed to involve the elusive realm of fortune.

But when he first got it, Shinichi hadn't noticed any change at all. Not until just now...