The sky was so dark it seemed about to collapse. Cold threads of rain wove a slanting, boundless net that shrouded all of Konoha. Before the Memorial Stone, the dense crowd resembled a silent forest drenched in rain. There was no funeral music here, only the monotonous, oppressive rustling of raindrops striking oil-paper umbrellas, and faint, intermittent sobs carried on the wind.
A hero's funeral should have been glorious and solemn. Yet Hatake Sakumo's funeral was filled with suffocating awkwardness and guilt.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood at the very front, having removed his Hokage hat, letting the cold rain wash over his face, which was etched with exhaustion and remorse. His clouded eyes rested on the small black-and-white memorial portrait before the Memorial Stone. His lips moved a few times as he tried to say something, only to find that any eulogy would seem hollow and hypocritical.
A hero driven to death by the village... How was he, the Hokage, supposed to mourn him?
In the end, he merely uttered a few words in an aged, hoarse voice. "Konoha... has lost a great shinobi."
That dry assessment was like a pebble dropped into stagnant water, stirring not the slightest ripple. Among the crowd, the villagers and shinobi who had once attacked "Konoha's White Fang" with the most vicious words now bowed their heads, afraid to look at the portrait, and even more afraid to look at the small figure before it.
Kakashi Hatake.
He wore an ill-fitting black mourning outfit, his small body standing ramrod straight in the cold rain, like a sapling that might snap at any moment. He did not cry, nor did he show any expression. Those eyes, which should have been full of life, now resembled two bottomless pools of stagnant water, emptily reflecting this gray world. Both hands clutched his father's memorial portrait, his knuckles white with the force, as though it were his only connection to this world.
It was as though his soul had been torn away.
Senju Chen stood beside him, holding an umbrella over him. Rain streamed down its edges, forming a small curtain around him and Kakashi that shut out the world. He could feel that what came from the boy beside him was not sorrow, but a state of... "nothingness." An emptiness left after all vitality had been stripped away.
He reached out his warm little hand and gently rested it on Kakashi's shoulder.
Kakashi's body trembled almost imperceptibly. A trace of focus finally returned to his vacant eyes, and he slowly turned his head to look at Senju Chen.
Senju Chen said nothing. He simply looked at him with eyes so clear they held not a trace of impurity, then gave his shoulder a slight squeeze.
It was a silent promise, and a silent declaration.
I am still here.
Tsunade stood behind the two children, her broad palm resting gently on Senju Chen's shoulder. There were no tears on her face, but two flames of anger, suppressed to their utmost limit, burned in her golden eyes. Her gaze passed over the crowd, scraping like a knife across the faces of Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura.
If looks could kill, these members of Konoha High Command would already have been cut to pieces.
Jiraiya stood at her side, all his frivolity gone, his expression dark and grim. As he watched the two small figures huddled together, conflicting feelings filled his heart. Guilt, helplessness, and a trace of... uncertainty about this village he loved so deeply.
The funeral proceeded in an eerie silence, and ended in silence as well. The crowd began dispersing in twos and threes. Before leaving, many cast a complicated glance, mingled with sympathy and guilt, at the child holding the portrait.
Those looks pierced Kakashi like countless fine needles.
"Sis, I need to go to the bathroom." Senju Chen tilted his head up and spoke to Tsunade with a child's characteristic hint of urgency.
Tsunade had been on the verge of erupting in fury. Only upon hearing her younger brother's voice did she abruptly come back to herself, her gaze instantly softening. "Go on. Hurry back, and don't get caught in the rain."
Senju Chen nodded, took his hand off Kakashi's shoulder, and plunged into the quiet little grove behind the Memorial Stone.
Away from the crowd's eyes, only the rustling of rain against leaves remained. Senju Chen leaned behind a thick tree trunk and looked at his system panel.
At that very moment, the voice he had long awaited sounded in his mind.
[Ding! A change to a key plot point has been detected!] [Successfully altered the course of key character 'Hatake Sakumo's' fate, allowing him to escape the 'death' ending and enter the 'new life' route.] [Rewards are now being distributed based on the change to Hatake Sakumo's worldline...] [Reward one: permanent skill slots +1. Your current available skill slots: 5.] [Reward two: initiating the 'Fate's Gift' card draw...]
Within Senju Chen's mental space, several cards with intricate silver patterns on their backs appeared out of thin air, slowly rotating.
Senju Chen gently reached toward one of them with his mind.
The selected card abruptly stopped spinning and turned faceup, bursting with dazzling white light!
[Drawing... Congratulations to the host for obtaining the unique skill card: Hatake Style Kenjutsu: Mastery (passive)!] [Skill description: you have mastered the essence of the kenjutsu that 'Konoha's White Fang,' Hatake Sakumo, honed over his entire life.]
Boom-!
An unimaginably vast torrent of information, interspersed with countless fragmented, bloodstained images, instantly surged into his mind!
It was Hatake Sakumo's life.
The clumsiness of holding a blade for the first time, the nervousness of his first mission, the trembling and vomiting after killing an enemy for the first time...
How to evade a lethal kunai on the battlefield with the simplest movement; how to catch the gaps between an enemy's breaths amid flashing blades; how to coat a blade with chakra and cleave through steel; how to merge his killing intent with his blade, making enemies lose their nerve before battle even began...
Countless swings of the blade, countless life-and-death struggles, countless bloody battles... A man's growth from an inexperienced youth into the "White Fang" whose very name terrified the entire Shinobi World-all his experience, techniques, insights, and even muscle memory were, at that moment, forcibly poured in their entirety into the depths of Senju Chen's soul and body by the system!
Senju Chen's body trembled slightly against the tree trunk, his small hand unconsciously assuming the posture of gripping a blade.
He could even "smell" the lingering scent of rust and blood on that short blade named "White Fang."
Only after a long while did he slowly open his eyes.
Deep within those clear eyes, a cold flash of blade light seemed to flicker and vanish.
He straightened the rain-soaked hem of his clothes, his expression returning to that of an innocent, harmless five-year-old child. He left the grove and returned to Kakashi's side, naturally raising the umbrella over him again.
Kakashi still looked just as lost, as though he had noticed nothing.
Senju Chen looked at Hatake Sakumo's memorial portrait in his arms, then at the boy beside him who had lost his entire world overnight, and spoke softly in his heart, in a voice only he could hear:
I'm sorry, Kakashi.
I can't tell you the truth yet. This heavy identity as the 'son of a hero betrayed by the world' is your destiny, and it will also be the catalyst for your growth.
His gaze was calm and far-reaching.
But consider this 'gift'... an advance on the interest I'm taking from your father.
Rest assured, one day, I will let you and your father reunite openly and honorably, before everyone's eyes.
Until then, let me use this blade to cut open this rotten world... for you, and for myself.