Chapter 107: A Ninja Who Fails a Mission Isn't Necessarily Trash
From the day Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin Nohara became Minato's students, in order to build good relationships with these three children and be a qualified sensei's wife, Kushina had expended considerable effort conducting research and investigation into them.
Though Obito came from the Uchiha Clan, his parents had died young and he'd been raised by his grandmother. Before graduating from the ninja academy, his grandmother also passed away. Despite bearing the Uchiha Clan name, he was an undeniable fringe figure within the clan, never developing that typically Uchiha sky-high arrogance. He was a gentle, kind, somewhat clumsy good child.
Rin's background was ordinary. Her parents were both ninja, but only chunin. They'd died on missions when Rin was small. She'd gotten through her student years relying on her parents' meager inheritance and village survivor benefits. She was a gentle, strong, independent child.
Finally there was Kakashi. The Hatake Clan wasn't any major clan, but Kakashi's father, Sakumo Hatake-senpai, was a super genius mutation produced from ordinary commoners, making the unremarkable Hatake Clan famous throughout the ninja world. Young Kakashi at the ninja academy similarly displayed the same genius potential, causing many to anticipate a future scene of two White Fangs, one large and one small, dominating the ninja world.
But then enormous upheaval occurred.
During a certain mission, Sakumo Hatake-senpai faced a choice between rescuing comrades and completing the mission. He ultimately chose to rescue comrades and abandon mission completion. But this choice didn't bring village commendation or comrade gratitude.
Instead, somehow the news leaked out. Throughout the village, all voices blamed Sakumo Hatake. In such an environment of universal condemnation, Sakumo Hatake chose suicide, proactively ending White Fang of Konoha's brilliant life.
This matter brought enormous impact to Kakashi. Supposedly, before this, though Kakashi at the ninja academy was also poker-faced, he could still socialize. But after his father Sakumo Hatake's suicide, Kakashi completely became an iceberg, practically radiating "keep away strangers and acquaintances alike" aura from head to toe.
During the initial period as Minato's student, he was also aloof, stubborn, and solitary. Minato agonized over this for a long time. With Obito and Rin's help, he gradually changed Kakashi bit by bit.
In fact, their efforts were effective. That Kakashi would sit on their sofa now instead of grabbing a blade to fight someone was the best proof.
However, watching Kakashi radiating gloomy, depressed negative energy, Kushina felt unprecedented difficulty. Her mood was heavy, as though she'd swallowed a large portion of goldenseal—this bitter taste nearly seeped into her bones.
"I'll find a way to tell Minato about the rumors as quickly as possible."
Kushina spoke with some difficulty.
At this moment, in her view, whether rumors slandering Minato or rumors attacking village leadership weren't that important. Anyway, she didn't believe such absurd, ridiculous rumors would greatly impact Minato. As for village leadership... she was too lazy to care about them.
Comparatively, Kakashi's problem was most thorny and difficult to handle. At Kakashi's age, emotions were unstable—like explosive tags placed beside a fire. Any random spark jumping over might immediately trigger violent explosion.
After repeated consideration, she slowly said: "Kakashi, nine times out of ten, rumors are fabricated lies with near-zero credibility. About your father's matter—"
"Kushina-sensei, I know rumors aren't credible. It's just... what they're saying sounds too much like the truth!" Before Kushina could finish, Kakashi spoke hoarsely.
His voice carried a faint trace of tearfulness. The single exposed eye faintly surged with alternating glimmers of tears and fury. "They say Father's missions back then were all top-secret. Even if missions failed, not a word should have leaked out. Also, even though Father's mission at that time failed, the village didn't suffer any severe losses. Someone definitely deliberately made an issue of it. Perhaps that mission itself was a trap—just like our experience at the front lines!"
Kakashi recounted, also connecting to his and Rin's experience of being betrayed.
Strictly speaking, their mission transporting supplies to Mount Kinko had also failed. If not for Clan Head Hyuga's divine intervention, their entire squad would probably have only Kakashi himself surviving in the end.
Having such a concrete personal experience, Kakashi gained new understanding of so-called missions.
Turned out, not all missions needed completing. Some missions perhaps were traps specifically set for certain people from the very start. Ninja who failed missions weren't necessarily trash—they were eyesores in the mission issuers' eyes!!
"Kakashi! Don't let your thoughts run wild."
Kushina sensed something wrong with Kakashi's emotions. Though his mouth said "I know rumors aren't credible," listening to his tone, he already somewhat deeply believed them.
"This matter isn't something you can investigate clearly yourself. I'll contact your teacher immediately. Once Minato returns, have Minato help you investigate this matter's truth. You absolutely mustn't let your thoughts run wild or act impulsively. Understand?"
Kushina stared intently at Kakashi, fearing he'd rush out regardless of consequences.
Fortunately, Kakashi's self-control remained.
He sat on the sofa without moving, only saying: "I know, Kushina-sensei. I won't act recklessly. However... I truly want to know what exactly happened back then. Father only failed a mission once—had the situation already become so severe that without his suicide, he couldn't account to the village?"
"Wait until your teacher returns. He'll definitely help you!"
Kushina could only answer this way.
Because she'd already deeply realized that right now, Kakashi deeply believed this rumor, firmly convinced his father's suicide had very deep internal secrets. Continuing to debate this matter with Kakashi now would only make the situation worse!
What she could do was try to soothe the youth's emotions by going along with his words.
Then wait for Minato's return.
Receiving urgent contact from Kushina transmitted through Mount Myoboku's toad, Minato's heart immediately tightened. After hastily greeting Teacher Jiraiya, he activated Flying Thunder God Technique and rushed back to the village from the front lines.
By this time, Kakashi had already left—but not alone. Rin had also gone out with Kakashi, saying they were going to the training ground to practice. For Kakashi now, every minute and second of sitting idle doing nothing was torture.
"Kushina, what happened?"
Minato was somewhat anxious. He looked his wife up and down, and only after confirming Kushina was healthy and safe did he breathe slightly easier.
"It's Kakashi."
"Kakashi?"
Minato froze, blinking somewhat uncomprehendingly. "What happened to Kakashi?"
"The situation is like this..."
Kushina recounted everything from start to finish.
After hearing it, Minato looked dazed. He truly hadn't expected that during his time at the front lines, the village would be so... lively!!
Hearing rumors about himself traveling thousands of miles to Hidden Mist Village to capture Mist ninja and research forbidden techniques left him completely speechless. These rumors were truly rumors—purely fabricated.
But after hearing rumors about Kakashi's father, his expression became extraordinarily serious and solemn.
"Minato, speaking from the heart, unlike that rumor slandering you, even I listening to this rumor about Sakumo-senpai felt like hearing the truth. Back then... did Sakumo-senpai's suicide truly have some hidden circumstances?"
Kushina asked softly.
Minato pressed his lips together and shook his head gravely. "I'm not clear. I didn't have much contact with Sakumo-senpai. However... one thing this rumor says is correct—Sakumo-senpai's missions were all classified missions. Whether successful or failed, they shouldn't have become common knowledge. Within this... *sigh*"
He couldn't continue speaking either.
White Fang of Konoha Sakumo Hatake's suicide was definitely abnormal and unnatural. This was a thought Minato had upon hearing news of White Fang's suicide back then.
However, this matter was too significant, involving village leadership. Forget his teenage self back then—even his current self, what could he do?
"Kushina, I'm going out first to understand the situation."
Minato stood up.
Though he didn't know what he could do, as Kakashi's teacher, he couldn't do nothing after knowing all this.
"Minato, be careful. Don't force yourself."
Kushina looked at Minato somewhat worriedly but didn't stop him.
Minato embraced Kushina, hurriedly left the door. He didn't deliberately disguise himself, openly going onto the street, then seeking familiar villagers to start gathering information.
Upon asking around, he truly realized how fiercely these evil winds were blowing in the village recently. Even friends who didn't much like going out had actually heard about these matters, pulling him to ask why the village didn't demand compensation from Rock and Sand ninja.
They complained to him that due to the war, village prices had risen much higher than before.
Minato left quite awkwardly.
He had no way to answer his friends' questions.
After returning to the main street, Minato's emotions were also thrown into some disorder. Standing at the street corner, but after standing for two minutes, he couldn't stand it anymore. Because he was also a celebrity in the village—many people recognized him. Previously, everyone's gazes toward him mostly contained emotions like respect, admiration, and affection.
But now, probably affected by rumors, passersby's gazes toward him carried indescribable complexity.
Minato couldn't stand still anymore and hurriedly left.
After repeated hesitation, he didn't go to the Hokage Building but came to the training ground near home, finding Kakashi and Rin who were training here. Besides them were also an Uchiha Clan girl and a Hyuga Clan girl.
Kakashi occupied a corner by himself, holding a short blade, forgetting himself while polishing his blade techniques. The other three girls gathered together—unclear whether training or socializing.
"Sensei."
Rin, whose training concentration was lowest, was first to see Minato Namikaze appear at the training ground entrance. The girl immediately rejoiced, running lightly like a young deer to Minato's presence. "Sensei, when did you return? How's the situation at the front lines?"
Aika and Akiba also walked over, very politely greeting him.
"Rin, you all continue training! I'll go talk with Kakashi."
Minato gently patted the girl's head.
"Sensei, Kakashi he..." Bringing up Kakashi, the smile on Rin's face immediately vanished, replaced by deep unease.
"It's fine, Rin. Leave it to me."
Minato comforted her, nodded to the other two girls, then walked toward Kakashi.
"Sensei, you're back!"
"Kakashi."
Minato looked at Kakashi holding a short blade, momentarily somewhat dazed. Since Obito's sacrifice and that White Fang short blade's destruction, though Kakashi still used short blades in combat, he'd never continued polishing blade techniques.
Now he'd picked up this sharp blade technique inherited from White Fang of Konoha again.
From this alone, Minato already detected changes in Kakashi's mentality.
"I've already heard about the rumors. I also went out and made a round just now, roughly inquiring. Kakashi, can you tell me what you're thinking now?"
Minato asked softly.
"Sensei, I only want the truth. I want to understand whether my father was truly forced to commit suicide."
Kakashi raised his head, meeting Minato's eyes directly, stating his thoughts decisively.
"If you discover it's true, what will you do?"
Minato pressed.
"Whoever did it, I'll kill them!"
Kakashi gripped his short blade tightly, killing intent rolling like boiling water.
Minato wasn't surprised, only felt somewhat tired and helpless. He had thousands of words wanting to advise Kakashi to act rationally, but thinking that the one forced to suicide was Kakashi's father, he truly couldn't speak words of dissuasion.
"Sensei, don't trouble yourself over me. I'm telling you this not to make things difficult for you. I'm your student after all. Regardless of what I do, I can't avoid implicating you. To prevent you from being unwittingly dragged down by me, I went to find Kushina-sensei."
"Kakashi, don't act recklessly. The truth of the matter isn't yet clear."
Minato sensed something wrong. Kakashi's emotions now were truly off.
"Sensei, don't worry. I won't act recklessly. If I acted recklessly, wouldn't I become the same kind of scum as those who forced my father to death? I'll trace the truth, then... obtain justice for my father!"
Kakashi's eyes flowed with unwavering, fight-to-the-death determination.
****
50+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces