"Yuzuru, don't say that again. Whatever else he did, Lord Hashirama brought an end to the age of chaos."
Sakumo looked at him sternly.
"Brought an end to the age of chaos? Dad, did you even manage to keep a straight face saying that?"
Yuzuru looked at Sakumo and shook his head.
"Konoha White Fang-was that some nickname people gave you because they had nothing better to do?"
"After two Shinobi World Wars, the death toll was probably higher than during the age of chaos, not lower, right?"
"Dad, you alone have killed hundreds of people at the very least, if not thousands, haven't you?"
Hatake Sakumo fell silent, because Yuzuru was right. His title of Konoha White Fang was no joke. He had earned it through killing.
"The age of chaos never ended. Hashirama Senju personally draped it in a glamorous cloak called war between great nations, making it more legitimate, more open and aboveboard."
"Why did he distribute the tailed beasts back then? What gave him the right? He clearly could have suppressed everyone with his absolute strength. Even after his death, the Nine Tailed Beasts would still have been there, and with the Uzumaki Clan, represented by Mito Uzumaki, sealing them, the tailed beasts couldn't have stirred up much trouble. In two generations at most, the Shinobi World could have achieved complete peace. But what was he doing?"
"To put it bluntly, the mess he left behind succeeded in getting his own younger brother killed-the Second, the man who truly gave everything for Konoha."
"And Dad, do you know why I don't want to graduate early?"
Yuzuru looked at Sakumo and asked.
Beside them, Kakashi had only just recovered from his shock and asked instinctively, "Why? Isn't it because you want a few more years to play?"
"Because being a ninja is a rotten profession. I'd rather be a person, a living, breathing person."
"Let me give you a simple example."
Yuzuru looked at Kakashi.
"How many missions to wipe out robbers and bandits have you done now?"
"Five or six, I guess."
Kakashi answered casually.
"Then who paid you?"
"The people who posted the missions, of course."
Kakashi answered without thinking.
"So, the ordinary people those robbers preyed on? Since they'd already been robbed and victimized, where did they get the money? Would the robbers deliberately leave them money so they could hire ninja to get rid of them?"
Kakashi: ...
Hatake Sakumo looked at Yuzuru before him with a complicated gaze.
"What? Can't answer? Then let me tell you. It's because they sold everything they owned for next to nothing, even their own children!"
"So-called ninja feed on money others paid for with their flesh and blood to carry out what should be the country's most basic duty, and even serve as weapons of war when necessary."
"Those ordinary people who posted the missions-aren't they residents of the Land of Fire? But were they safe? What did the Land of Fire give them? Peace? Enough food and clothing? Safety? Not a single one! They don't even know whether they'll survive the day."
"Those robbers and bandits-how do you know they wanted to become bandits? What did they do before? Could they have been that earlier group of ordinary people?
"The ninja and this rotten country squeezed everything out of them, even their families and children. They lost everything and had nowhere left to turn. In the end, they took the desperate risk of becoming the next robbers, living one day at a time.
"Because they don't know when ninja just like those will come to kill them, just as they hired ninja years earlier to kill the bandits who persecuted them."
At those words, Kakashi froze completely and looked helplessly toward Hatake Sakumo.
"Don't look at Father. He's been a ninja for decades. He stopped thinking for himself long ago. In fact, he causes far more destruction than a genin like you."
"You're just a genin who squeezes ordinary people for profit. Someone like Father is an executioner who destroys an enemy country's manpower, killing them whether they're ninja or civilians. He'll even strike at civilians from his own country when necessary. In a sense, he's a weapon of war that can't be called human at all."
Yuzuru spoke without holding back.
At those words, Hatake Sakumo offered no rebuttal, only a bitter chuckle.
As a ninja, preventing any possible intelligence leaks during wartime meant that those he killed were far from just ninja.
"Yuzuru is right, Kakashi. That's what the ninja world is like."
Faced with Kakashi's pleading gaze, Sakumo could only harden his heart and tell him that cruel truth.
"Being a ninja is nothing to be proud of, and Hashirama Senju doesn't deserve the respect of later generations, either. He could only make his contemporaries stand in awe of his strength, but he would never earn their respect, because no matter how much power a fool gains, he's still a fool. While he was alive, people would be wary, but never afraid, because no one fears a fool, even one with great power. All it takes is a little placating."
Kakashi's eyes were filled with confusion. He had always looked up to Hatake Sakumo as his role model and wanted to become an outstanding ninja. But now, Yuzuru and Sakumo had told him themselves that being a ninja was such a disgraceful profession. For the young Kakashi, the blow was considerable.
"Dad, Kakashi, come with me. Let's deal with these rumors first. The simplest way is to go straight to the people at the center of the storm."
Yuzuru headed out first. Kakashi and Sakumo exchanged a glance and followed.
The three went straight to the entrance of a barbecue restaurant.
"What are we doing here?"
Kakashi asked in confusion.
Yuzuru wasted no words. He created a shadow clone and went inside. Soon, two figures were thrown out.
"Who are you? How dare you attack the village's ninja inside the village?"
The smell of alcohol still lingered on the two men when they suddenly spotted Hatake Sakumo.
"Hatake Sakumo! What are you doing here?"
"Who gave you the right to address my father by name?"
Yuzuru stomped down and broke their arms.
"Stop! Attacking Konoha ninja without cause-Minazuki Yuzuru, are you trying to become a missing-nin?"
Suddenly, several Anbu appeared and shouted sternly.
"A missing-nin? Am I a ninja? Haven't you got something wrong?"
Yuzuru glanced at the three of them.
"I'm not in a very good mood right now. You'd better get lost."
At those words, the three attacked at once.
Seeing this, Hatake Sakumo and Kakashi immediately moved to stop them.
"Just watch. You two are ninja, after all. I'm not. Ninja rules don't apply to me."
Yuzuru stopped the two with his words.
Then three ice mirrors appeared before the three Anbu, blocking their way.
"If you won't listen, go spend some time in the hospital and cool down."
Then three ice wolves appeared within the mirrors, burst out through them, and lunged at the three men, snapping their jaws.
"You-Minazuki Yuzuru, what are you doing?"
Giving the Anbu no further thought, Yuzuru looked at the two ninja before him. Ice senbon appeared in his hand, and he drove them straight into their bodies. As the cold entered them, their lips instantly turned bluish-purple, and their bodies began to shake.
Yuzuru tossed the two before Hatake Sakumo.
"Now kneel and thank my father for saving your worthless lives."
"Yuzuru, this..."
Hatake Sakumo had just started to speak when Yuzuru interrupted him.
"Father, you don't need to say anything. Kindness is useless on the likes of them."
"They can even insult the man who saved their lives. There's no need to show mercy to people like that."
Yuzuru kicked the backs of their knees, forcing them to kneel before Sakumo.
"My father abandoned his mission because of you two pieces of trash. Now kneel, kowtow, and thank him first. Then apologize and tell everyone that you two useless fools held him back, causing Konoha White Fang's mission to fail."
"No way. He chose to abandon the mission himself. We didn't force him. Besides, we never wanted him to save us. Why should we be blamed for the mission's failure? As a ninja, is he supposed to blame his comrades when he fails a mission?"