Protecting Konoha and safeguarding one's comrades—
These two ideals were once considered one and the sa.
But what happens when they co into conflict? When that day finally arrives, how should a shinobi choose? Everyone has their own answer.
According to the ideals left behind by the First Hokage, Konoha must be protected at all costs. However, Sakumo Hatake was a man who thought differently. He believed that the lives of comrades were more important than any mission.
Because if a shinobi cannot even cherish their comrades...
Then they are nothing more than tools.
The world always seed strange in its ways.
Young Kakashi had already made an effort to think like an adult.
Even so, he struggled to understand why his father—once a war hero and even a candidate for Hokage—had fallen from grace so drastically, simply because he had chosen to save a comrade during a mission.
Even...
The very person his father had saved was now condemning him.
And his father could do nothing to defend himself.
People claid that his father had violated shinobi protocol, causing Konoha to suffer a major loss. They said that he should have followed orders and prioritized the mission over personal feelings.
It didn't make sense to Kakashi.
But no matter how others criticized his father, he remained by his side, a quiet and well-behaved child, because in his heart, his father was still a hero.
However...
Sakumo Hatake gradually withdrew from the world.
He spent more and more ti at ho, dedicating himself entirely to his son.
When Kakashi passed the entrance exam for the Ninja Academy, his father smiled—sothing Kakashi hadn't seen in a long ti. That brief mont of happiness made Kakashi feel at ease.
But one night, Kakashi noticed sothing strange.
His father sat alone, murmuring to himself in the dead of night, holding the short blade that had once made him famous.
"Lord Emiya...
"If only you were still here."
Sakumo always rembered the man he had t in his youth.
Because in tis of weakness, people instinctively sought guidance from those they admired.
No matter how strong a person beca, there would always be monts of doubt.
At such tis, they needed soone wiser to show them the way.
"I feel like the village is heading down a dangerous path," he whispered.
If protecting Konoha ant watching comrades die...
Then what was Konoha really protecting?
If saving a comrade ant sacrificing the village's interests...
Then wouldn't that contradict the very purpose of protecting Konoha?
If a comrade's life was weighed in terms of village benefits...
Then had shinobi beco nothing more than disposable pawns?
Konoha had long accepted the ideology that the village must be protected at all costs.
This belief had beco an unspoken rule.
But now, Sakumo had broken that rule—he had beco an outcast among shinobi.
"Dad!"
Little Kakashi, frightened, ran to his father and clung to his arm.
He glanced at the blade in his father's hand, sensing an overwhelming aura of despair.
"I'm scared," Kakashi admitted.
"Then I'll stay by your side, okay?"
Sakumo gently stroked his son's head.
"Mm."
Kakashi nodded eagerly.
In the quiet of his room, the father and son finally talked about what had been troubling them.
"Dad... are you sad about what happened?"
"Yeah..."
"But I don't think you did anything wrong."
Kakashi hugged his father's arm, murmuring,
"If we can't even cherish our comrades, what's left to cherish?"
"You're still too young, Kakashi..."
Sakumo chuckled softly, deciding not to burden his son with his worries. Instead, he picked up a bedti storybook, ready to lull him to sleep.
"Dad, did you really et Lord Shigen?"
Kakashi pressed his hand against the book, trying to cheer his father up in his own way. He seed to genuinely believe that his father had once t Emiya Shigen.
"You always say you did... so what kind of person was he?"
"He..."
Sakumo smiled as mories resurfaced.
"He was always busy with his work.
"He cherished his ti and rarely spoke to others, which made many people think he was arrogant.
"But...
"He was never arrogant."
"He treated everyone as equals."
"His entire life was dedicated to one thing—saving as many people as possible.
"He was like a benevolent god who loved all of humanity."
"He beca a dical ninja so that no one else would have to endure the pain of losing a loved one..."
Sakumo trailed off, his hand pausing as he stroked his son's head.
Because he suddenly recalled sothing.
Shigen had once said—
Even he could not ignore the pain of losing family.
After Kakashi's mother passed away...
Sakumo himself had struggled to hold on.
Looking at his proud yet kind-hearted son, he dreaded the thought of what would happen if Kakashi lost his father too.
But the village had already turned against him.
And now, even his son was being bullied and ostracized because of him.
His son...
Was enduring the sa humiliation alongside him.
And yet...
It was precisely Kakashi's love for his father...
That made Sakumo unwilling to let him suffer any longer.
Perhaps death was the only way to escape this tornt.
But...
He couldn't tell his son that.
The Next Afternoon
Kakashi returned ho.
He pushed open the door...
And saw his father lying in a pool of blood.
He froze.
His young mind refused to comprehend what he was seeing.
Just yesterday, they had spoken.
He had stayed by his father's side.
He had tried his best to support him.
So why?
Why had he still chosen to die?
But even in death...
Sakumo's disgrace was not erased.
His funeral was scarcely attended.
So even continued to criticize him for betraying the village's interests.
Thankfully,
The people who did attend held great significance.
Among them were Konoha's legendary Sannin—one of the rare monts they reunited.
"I thought you wouldn't co," Orochimaru remarked, surprised to see Tsunade.
"As if I wouldn't,"
Tsunade frowned at Sakumo's photo, clearly displeased.
"I heard people were blaming him for breaking shinobi protocol... Since when was protecting your comrades not part of the rules?"
As an old friend of Sakumo's, Tsunade never believed he had done anything wrong.
If she had been in his place, she would have made the sa choice.
"What a load of crap!"
Tsunade scowled at the rumors she had heard.
"I refuse to believe that any so-called 'mission' could ever be more important than your lives or Jiraiya's!"
Orochimaru smirked.
"What are you smiling at?"
Tsunade snapped at him.
"Orochimaru, don't tell you actually agree with those idiots in the village? Back during the war with Iwagakure, you wanted to abandon Jiraiya just to escape!"
That was an old mory.
During the Second Shinobi War, the three of them had been surrounded by Iwagakure forces.
Jiraiya was gravely injured, unable to flee.
Tsunade desperately tried to save him.
anwhile, Orochimaru argued that they should kill Jiraiya and retreat.
If reinforcents hadn't arrived in ti, Tsunade and Orochimaru might have fought each other.
"But that was the shinobi way,"
Jiraiya sighed.
"Back then, if we hadn't been rescued, Orochimaru's decision wouldn't have been wrong.
"In fact... it would have been the best choice.
"Even if he had killed , I would have accepted it."
"Both of you, shut up!"
Tsunade fud.
"..."
Jiraiya wisely retreated.
Orochimaru, however, remained, smiling quietly.
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