Chapter 1

"Hey, you little Hatake brat, what brought you to my place today?"

It was Konoha Year 38, and the Second Shinobi World War was raging.

In the Land of Fire, beside a lake on the outskirts of Konoha, stood a crude wooden cabin.

Beside the cabin were haphazard vegetable patches planted with cabbages, tomatoes, and corn.

This place lay outside the village walls, in an untended stretch of countryside. In the future, that kid Naruto would often fish here to fill his belly.

A little boy of five or six stood at the cabin door.

His silver-white hair stuck up like a hedgehog's spines. A mask covered his face from the nose down.

He tilted his head back and called into the cabin.

Creak-

About half a minute later, someone pushed the wooden door open from inside.

A man who looked about twenty-five or twenty-six came out. Like the boy, he had silver hair, but his was parted down the middle and fluttered freely.

He stood tall and imposing, with a commanding presence.

Handsome and dashing.

Those words could not have suited the man better.

Provided, of course, that he was not wearing that farmer's straw hat.

"Oh, it's Fifty-Fifty. What brought you out here today?"

The man glanced down at the little fellow, then picked up a hoe nearby and went to work in the field.

"Uncle... my name is Kakashi."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, utterly exasperated.

In all his years, he had rarely heard this uncle get his name right.

Fifty-Fifty.

That was the nickname his uncle had given him.

Hatake Xuanzhe, age twenty-eight. Rank: Konoha Genin.

He had attended the same Ninja Academy class as Konoha's three current leading figures-Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru.

He was also the younger brother of White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, five years younger than Konoha's second-strongest fighter.

As for whether Hatake Sakumo could defeat the current Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, that was hard to say.

After all, although Hiruzen Sarutobi was still in his prime, he was nearly fifty. Breaking through to greater heights was impossible.

In the years ahead, he would only grow weaker with every battle.

Xuan Zhe set down his hoe, picked up the cabbage on the ground, plucked a few tomatoes, and rinsed them in the bucket beside him.

He took two rice balls from the lunch box behind him and casually tossed one to Kakashi.

Kakashi caught the rice ball, but his expression was grim.

"Uncle, this really isn't the time to eat. My dad has been-"

He quickly described Hatake Sakumo's strange behavior over the past few days.

Essentially, ever since returning from a mission last week, the once fairly cheerful man had grown increasingly silent, shutting himself in his room all day and refusing to say a word.

Unease had driven Kakashi to seek Xuan Zhe's help.

Xuan Zhe frowned and thought back for a moment, then suddenly remembered something.

Had this kid just entered the Ninja Academy?

Counting the days, it seemed about time.

"How many times have I told him not to get so hung up on things? He hasn't learned a thing."

Xuan Zhe pressed his straw hat onto his head, stood up, and headed toward the Konoha Gate.

Kakashi hurried after him.

But after just two steps, Xuan Zhe seemed to remember something and turned back into the cabin.

When he came out, he had a sword in his hand.

Kakashi's throat tightened, and he swallowed.

The unease in his heart suddenly became a much more tangible fear.

Outside the Hatake Clan's home.

When Xuan Zhe and Kakashi arrived, five or six Konoha ninja were already blocking the entrance, pointing at Hatake Sakumo in the doorway and berating him nonstop.

"It's all your fault the mission failed! If we'd completed it properly, the war with Sunagakure would have been over already!"

"You're a damned traitor to Konoha!"

"Do you know how many of our brothers on the front lines will die because of your selfishness?!"

Xuan Zhe glanced at their ninja uniforms and raised an eyebrow.

"The Sarutobi Clan? Who's the one leading them?"

Kakashi answered quietly, "Sarutobi Shinnosuke... I think he was on my dad's team for the last mission."

"Oh, him."

Xuan Zhe chuckled and stepped forward.

The next second-

Smack!

A resounding slap landed hard across Hatake Sakumo's face.

It cracked like a firecracker, stunning everyone nearby.

The slap spun Hatake Sakumo around and knocked him to the ground, his left cheek swelling badly.

"Xu... Xuan Zhe?"

The slap left stars dancing before Hatake Sakumo's eyes. It took several seconds before he could make out who had struck him, and his voice was filled with disbelief.

"Dad!"

Kakashi froze in fright. Only after a long moment did he recover and rush over to help his father up, turning to shout at Xuan Zhe:

"Uncle! What are you doing?!"

I asked you to comfort my dad, not hit him!

"Why didn't you talk back?"

Xuan Zhe stood there looking down at Hatake Sakumo, his voice as cold as shards of ice.

Hatake Sakumo opened his mouth but could not get a single word out.

"A bunch of trash dared to climb onto your Kage Level head and take a shit, and you just kept quiet? Have you gotten addicted to eating shit?"

Xuan Zhe hurled another remark at him.

"Outrageous! You're an Eternal Genin! Who gave you the nerve to spout nonsense here?!"

Behind him, Sarutobi Shinnosuke and the others flared up. They reached for Xuan Zhe's shoulder, intending to punch him.

My dad's the Hokage. Who should I be afraid of?

Eternal Genin.

Konoha had two of them.

One was Might Duy, the bushy-browed man who only knew Taijutsu.

The other was the man before them-Hatake Xuanzhe, who had a badass older brother but was still a Genin himself despite being nearly thirty.

Swish-

In an instant, Xuan Zhe drew the sword at his waist.

Unlike his older brother White Fang's usual combination of Lightning Release and Hatake Style Swordsmanship.

The instant Xuan Zhe's blade left its sheath, billowing flames surged up along it.

Fire Release combined with swordsmanship was rather like the Uchiha's fighting style.

Boom-

Fierce flames wrapped around razor-sharp sword energy, erupting with a presence that rivaled White Fang's.

Black fire?!

The flames and sword energy twisted together, shooting skyward almost close enough to graze Sarutobi Shinnosuke and his companions' foreheads.

Rumble!!!

Immediately afterward, the entire cliff face behind Konoha exploded.

The statue of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was blasted to pieces!

Black flames continued burning all around it.

[Dimension Evolution System]

[Host: Hatake Xuanzhe]

[Swordsmanship: Hatake Style Swordsmanship (Naruto world) → Hawkeye Black Blade Swordsmanship (One Piece world), evolution progress: %]

[Fire Release Ninjutsu (Naruto world) → Kekkei Genkai: Blaze Release (Naruto world), evolution progress: 78.4%]

[Body Flicker Technique (Naruto world) → Hohō (Bleach world), evolution progress: 25.9%]

"Kurenai, how about I treat you to something to eat?"

Along Konoha's shopping street, two girls of six or seven walked ahead while a boy around their age chased after them, chattering nonstop.

"Kurenai, why don't you just say yes?"

A girl with shoulder-length black hair turned to the girl beside her, whose long hair curled slightly and whose eyes resembled rubies, and gave a wry smile.

"No way! All Asuma ever does is brag about how amazing his dad is. I've heard it so much my ears are growing calluses-hey, look! What's that?!"

Kurenai Yuhi's eyes suddenly widened halfway through her sentence.

A black crescent whistled across the sky above Konoha, then slammed into Hokage Rock on the mountain behind the village.

Boom!!!

A violent shock wave whipped up fierce winds that swept through nearly half the village.

Kurenai Yuhi, Shizune, and Asuma, children who had only just entered the Ninja Academy, were all knocked to the ground.

The ordinary villagers fared even worse.

They tumbled every which way, ending up covered in dust and dirt.

"Wh-what happened? Are we under attack?"

"Look at Hokage Rock!"

"Lord Third's statue... it's gone?!"

"An attack! It has to be an attack!"

"Hurry and notify the Konoha Military Police Force!"