Ever since he had stopped taking missions, life had been pretty dull for Kakashi Hatake.
Every day, he was either at home or at the training ground, going back and forth between the two.
The morning after attending the Third Hokage's funeral, Kakashi woke up and saw a note tucked under something on the living room table.
He glanced at it. His father had left it, telling him to buy breakfast on the street after he woke up.
After washing up, Kakashi went out and once again saw villagers gathered in twos and threes, whispering among themselves.
The sight was all too familiar to Kakashi.
In the past, he had heard plenty of similar conversations on the streets: gossip, idle chatter, and curses. They had all been directed at "White Fang."
His first thought was that they were cursing his father again today.
Before, it probably would have soured his mood for the entire day.
But now... things were different.
After the "baptism" of Rin's three sentences, he no longer took it to heart.
So Kakashi walked calmly down the street. He wasn't deliberately eavesdropping, but snippets of conversation still reached his ears.
"That old bastard Shimura Danzō actually dared to assassinate Lord Third?"
"Pah! What kind of bullshit advisor was he? He was a menace!"
Kakashi stopped in his tracks.
They weren't cursing White Fang?
They were cursing... Shimura Danzō?
A little surprised, he slowed down and pricked up his ears, eavesdropping for a while.
Shimura Danzō was the only one the villagers were cursing.
They said he had harmed the village, suppressed the various clans' ninja, and even pocketed money allocated to the villagers, among other things.
Corruption, oppression, abusing his position to do whatever he pleased-they cursed him for one thing after another to their hearts' content.
What shocked Kakashi most was the accusation they cursed him most fiercely for: Shimura Danzō was the culprit who had killed the Third Hokage.
Kakashi stood by the roadside and thought for a moment, then decided to head over to the place in the village where notices and announcements were usually posted.
He intended to see for himself what was going on.
Sure enough, a crowd had gathered around the notice board.
Taking advantage of his small size, Kakashi squeezed through the gaps between people and looked up at the newly posted notice.
There it was, written in black and white:
It has now been established that the Third Hokage was murdered by former advisor Shimura Danzō. Coveting the Hokage Position, Danzo used Root to assassinate the Third, and both died in the ensuing confrontation.
Below that was a long list of Shimura Danzō's dirty deeds: assassinations, surveillance, embezzlement of public funds, suppression of the clans, human experimentation...
Kakashi read through them one by one until his eyes fell on the last line, and he froze...
It read: An investigation has established that the incident in which Hatake Sakumo previously rescued his comrades, causing a mission to fail and harming the village, was in fact a frame-up orchestrated in secret by Shimura Danzō.
Kakashi stared at the notice and murmured, "Is that what happened?"
But his father had never told him any of this.
As he stood there lost in thought, a familiar voice called out:
"Kakashi, did you come to read the notice too?"
Kakashi turned and saw Rin Nohara walking toward him, her eyes curved in a smile.
He nodded. "Yeah."
Before Rin had reached him, a childish and irritating voice rang out:
"What? It's you, Kakashi, you stuck-up jerk!"
Kakashi looked toward the voice and saw a boy with goggles on his head and the Uchiha Clan Crest on his shoulder.
He remembered now.
This was one of his classmates from his year at the Ninja Academy. His name seemed to be Uchiha... Obito?
What stood out most about the guy was that he was a complete dead last, the kind who ranked at the bottom in everything, yet still had a foul mouth.
Kakashi couldn't be bothered to spare a guy like that a glance.
He looked around and saw several other familiar faces besides Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara: Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy, and Mitaraishi Anko, all classmates from a year ago.
When they saw Kakashi looking over, they nodded in greeting.
"Long time no see, Kakashi," Kurenai Yuhi said gently, giving him a polite smile.
"Yo! Kakashi!" Might Guy boomed, giving him a thumbs-up and flashing a mouthful of white teeth.
"Kakashi!" Anko greeted him too.
Kakashi looked at them one by one. In truth, he remembered these classmates only vaguely.
Kurenai Yuhi, for instance: her father was a jonin in the village who specialized in Genjutsu, and she was quite talented at it herself.
Then there was Might Guy. Like Obito Uchiha, he was at the bottom in everything except Taijutsu. He was passionate and lively, always going on about "youth," but unlike Obito Uchiha, he didn't have a foul mouth.
And Mitaraishi Anko seemed to like sweets.
Kakashi nodded back at each of them with a "cool and aloof" air, wondering why they were all here. Didn't they have school today?
He thought about it and came up with two possibilities: either the school had closed because of what happened to the Third, or today was a day off.
Just as Kakashi had thought, it was indeed a day off, and the Ninja Academy was closed.
These second-year Ninja Academy "little bean sprouts" had evidently heard about Danzo assassinating the Third too, and had come to read the notice together.
Seeing how warm Rin was toward Kakashi, Obito Uchiha felt terribly jealous.
He curled his lip and deliberately raised his voice, hoping to attract some attention:
"Hmph! That Shimura Danzō actually dared to assassinate Lord Third! What outrageous guts! Good thing he was found out early, or else... When I become a jonin, I'll make sure to teach him a lesson!"
Kakashi finally deigned to look at him.
But one word was written plainly in that look: contempt.
Obito spotted that contemptuous gaze at once and bristled.
"What's that supposed to mean, Kakashi? Don't think you can show off in front of me just because you became a Chunin early!"
Seeing this, Rin hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. "Obito, don't be like that."
She turned to Kakashi and said softly, "Kakashi, we're going to eat dango after reading the notice. Would you like to come?"
Kakashi had intended to refuse. For one thing, he thought it would be a waste of time; for another, he didn't like noise.
But seeing that Rin was the one inviting him, the fondness he felt for her surfaced.
After all, those three sentences from Rin really had helped him a great deal.
Besides, his father had also told him to spend more time with people his own age.
Kakashi thought it over and nodded.
And so Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, Might Guy, Kurenai Yuhi, Anko, and Kakashi-the six of them-went to the dango shop in the village.
They bought some dango and chattered away as they ate.
Rin took out a skewer and offered it to Kakashi. "Kakashi, do you want to try this? This flavor is really good."
Seeing that it was from Rin, Kakashi accepted it.
Obito, watching from the side, nearly popped his eyes out.
For one thing, Rin hadn't given him any. For another, just because Rin offered it to Kakashi, he accepted it? Why should he?
The more Obito thought about it, the angrier he got. He ate one dango per bite, gnashing his teeth, envy, jealousy, and resentment written all over his face as he muttered nonstop.
Kurenai Yuhi, sitting nearby, didn't notice what was happening. Instead, she sighed.
"I wonder how Asuma is doing... Lord Third's murder must have made him terribly sad..."
The children all fell silent at once.
Kakashi chewed his dango without replying.
News had always traveled fast.
The truth about the Third's murder spread throughout Konoha, and before long, spies planted in Konoha and the Land of Fire by the other villages sent the news back.
Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure learned one after another that Konoha's Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō had both died, and they were all delighted.
The five great nations of Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning had already been producing frequent little sparks of friction as each expanded its military.
Now a major incident had occurred in Konoha, leaving it too busy dealing with its own internal affairs. How could they not be happy?
The Kage of the various villages were all as delighted as if it were New Year, planning to take advantage of the opening to make trouble for Konoha.
And so, without prior agreement, the four great nations began escalating friction at their borders, especially their conflicts with the Land of Fire. They all wanted to use the opportunity to test the current attitudes of the Land of Fire and Konohagakure.
Thus, in the five days since the news spread, the situation in the Shinobi World grew increasingly turbulent, and friction between the Five Great Nations did indeed intensify.
And at that moment, Jiraiya finally returned to Konoha with his three disciples.