Time slipped quietly by. At Kakashi's "suggestion" and to meet his own needs, Ling continued his tedious but efficient chakra control training. The Hatake Residence seemed to have truly settled into peace, with only the increasingly refined chakra manipulation over the basin of water in the courtyard silently attesting to its owner's progress.
Yet Konoha's peace was always superficial.
One dreary morning, devastating news pierced the entire village like a cold kunai, catching everyone off guard. It also struck Tobirama Senju hard within the mental world.
The Uchiha Clan had been wiped out.
The news spread like a plague, bringing not grief but a more complicated, indescribable fear and deathly silence. Overnight, the sprawling compound of the great clan had become strewn with corpses. Its sole surviving orphan, Sasuke Uchiha, had been hospitalized after falling unconscious from severe shock. The killer was none other than his own older brother, the S-rank rogue ninja Uchiha Itachi.
An invisible, blood-red pall seemed to hang over all of Konoha. Few people walked the streets, and even those who spoke kept their voices low. Oppression and unease filled the air. The Ninja Academy suspended classes for a day.
Ling stood in the courtyard. Even through the many walls, he could feel the suffocating atmosphere outside. He had just pieced together the fragments of information he had sensed and reported them to Tobirama within the mental world.
A brief, deathlike silence followed.
Then an unimaginable fury, born purely from surging soul power, crashed through Ling's entire mental world like a tangible tsunami!
[Bastards!!!]
Tobirama's roar held none of his usual composure or biting sarcasm. It was filled with incredulous horror and towering rage, leaving Ling's consciousness ringing.
[A clan! The entire Uchiha Clan! In a single night?! By one person?! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Even if Uchiha Itachi was a once-in-a-century genius, there was no way he could have done all this without a sound! Unless... unless there was help from inside! A purge! Was it Danzo?! Was this that fool Shimura Danzō's doing?!]
Ling could clearly "feel" the violent fluctuations of Tobirama's soul fragment. It was a rage rising from his deepest core, as though something he held inviolable had been utterly violated.
[Stupid! Shortsighted! Hopeless fools!!] Tobirama continued to roar. [I established the Konoha Military Police Force to isolate them and keep them in check, not to turn them into a powder keg, much less let someone set it off! However dangerous the Uchiha were, they were still part of Konoha's strength! They hacked away a third of the village's elite fighting power, perhaps even more, all for that laughable need for control and their own fear?! Where was Hiruzen Sarutobi?! Did he just stand there and watch it happen?! What kind of Hokage was he?!]
Ling had never seen Tobirama lose control like this. The Second Hokage's soul fragment burned with fierce anger: anger at seeing his ideals twisted and trampled, anguish over the needless destruction of Konoha's strength, and utter disappointment in his successors' foolish actions.
[For the village... is this what they call acting for the village?! Cutting off their own arm, tearing down their own defenses! If the Uchiha's power had been guided and put to use, it would have been an immense asset to the village! And now? All that remains is a child consumed by hatred and a madman who deserted! Danzo... oh, that Danzo! How dare he... how dare he...!]
The furious roaring finally gave way to an utterly frigid killing intent, cold enough to almost freeze the soul itself.
Ling silently endured the storm raging on the level of the soul. He understood Tobirama's anger. For a man who had founded Konoha, devoted everything to the village, and even sacrificed his life for it, seeing later generations squander his legacy and internal strife cripple the village could only provoke such fury.
Only after a long while did Tobirama's anger gradually subside, turning into a chilling, unnerving stillness.
[...Ling.] His voice regained its composure, but it was colder than ever before. [Remember today. Remember the Uchiha's fate. This was not destiny. It was the result of the most foolish, most unforgivable political conspiracy and internal power struggle. Power itself is innocent. The guilt lies in the filthy hearts of those who control and wield it.]
[Danzo... and that weak Third Hokage... neither deserves to lead Konoha.] Tobirama's tone carried an unprecedented resolve. [You must grow stronger, faster. Strong enough to have a voice, strong enough to change all of this. Konoha cannot go on like this.]
"Yes, Teacher Tobirama," Ling answered solemnly. The destruction of the Uchiha had taught him a lesson about this world's dark side in the cruelest way possible.
While classes were suspended, Ling did not go out. He could feel that Root's covert surveillance had not diminished at all. Instead, it had grown even tighter, watching him like lurking ghosts.
A few days later, classes resumed at the Ninja Academy. The atmosphere remained oppressive.
Sasuke Uchiha returned. He seemed like a different person. The coldness surrounding him was no longer pride and aloofness, but a deathly darkness that seemed to swallow even the light around him. He rarely spoke, and his eyes were hollow. Whenever his gaze swept over someone, it occasionally revealed an unsettling indifference and... profound hatred. No one dared approach him lightly anymore. They even tried to avoid eye contact.
Naruto seemed to want to say something, but Sasuke's utterly impenetrable aura drove him back. In the end, he merely scratched his head and, for once, remained silent. Sakura watched from a distance, her eyes reddening, but she did not dare approach either.
During the lunch break, Ino quietly sat down beside Ling, traces of lingering fear and worry on her face.
"It's so awful..." she whispered, her voice still trembling slightly. "Sasuke-kun... he seems completely shattered. How could something like this happen...?"
Looking at her pale face, Ling handed her a small packet of calming tea he had brought with him. "Have some hot tea." He paused, then added, "Those who are still alive have to keep going."
Ino accepted the tea packet. Her fingertips were a little cold, and she hesitated briefly when they brushed Ling's hand. A barely perceptible blush rose to her cheeks. "Thank you... Ling-kun, you always seem so calm," she said softly.
"I just know being afraid won't help," Ling answered evenly. He looked at Ino. Even amid her fear, this girl still cared about others, and that kindness seemed especially precious beneath the bloodstained shadow. In this oppressive atmosphere, their relationship seemed to have quietly grown a little closer. As for Hinata, she spent most of her time sitting quietly at her desk, occasionally casting Naruto a worried glance before quickly lowering her head again. She had little interaction with Ling.
Ling's gaze, meanwhile, turned more often toward the world outside the window, toward the places deep within the village where power and darkness lay hidden.
The destruction of the Uchiha was like an icy rain that shocked everyone awake. It gave Ling a deeper understanding of Tobirama's anger and sense of urgency, and strengthened his resolve on the path to power.
He knew his peaceful school life was about to end. The bells of graduation would soon ring. Carrying the Second Hokage's fury and hopes with him, he would step into a ninja world that was more real-and far more brutal.
Before you continue