[Three-Blade Style]
Akaba stared at the sword for a few seconds. He wasn't particularly intimidated, but considering his unpolished techniques lacked precision, to avoid injuring himself, he figured it would be best to just start practicing.
This volume is essentially Kakashi's side story, telling events from Kakashi's childhood to the first mission he undertook as a Jonin. The death of the White Fang merely appeared incidentally.
Everyone pays more attention to the White Fang's death.
After all, no one really knows who Kakashi is yet, but everyone knows Sakumo. They've fought together on the battlefield and shared comradeship in battle.
Of course,
the real reason is that people in the village haven't actually read Kakashi's full side story—they've only seen book reports written by their kids, based on which they guessed parts of the plot.
To his surprise, even the Three-Blade Style had piqued Sakumo's interest. Could his dental health really be that good already?
Looking closely, his teeth indeed seemed very white.
White Fang of Konoha—truly lives up to his reputation.
"Are you secretly making fun of me right now?"
Sakumo had originally been observing others in the Preparatory Division training, but suddenly turned his sharp gaze toward Akaba.
"Not at all," Akaba replied quickly, curiosity flickering in his tone. "Is your Three-Blade Style anything like Zoro's?"
"Not exactly. Achieving that style requires long-term training and conditioning of the jaw. I'm not quite at that level yet, so I came up with my own version of the Three-Blade Style."
As Sakumo spoke, he took out two swords and flicked one upward with a toss from the other, using both hands' blades to launch the third sword airborne.
The third blade shot forward like a throwing dagger, spinning through the air.
When adjustments were needed mid-trajectory, Sakumo manipulated it using Chakra threads while also using the dual swords to assist with maneuvering.
Its destructive power may not rival Zoro's Three-Blade Style, but its speed was astonishing and made it appear even more unpredictable and eerie.
Hmm, maybe later we should incorporate holding another sword in the mouth?
Four-blade style?
Somehow, Akaba felt Konoha's White Fang was walking further and further down a path of no return.
Akaba glanced sideways at Sakumo, who controlled the suspended blade using just one sword as a launcher and manipulator.
Suddenly, he somewhat understood Windseer's feelings about wanting to teach him a lesson back then.
Your child has finally grown into someone close to your ideal image, only to be completely side-tracked by someone else. Even though he still turns out exceptional, the result is ultimately not what you expected.
Well then, let's draw some manga.
"I want to do some drawing. You can watch over these trainees for me and make sure they don't slack off too much. Of course, if you're interested, you can personally discipline them a bit."
Since he was about to start drawing anyway, he decided to foist the task onto Sakumo.
Sakumo hesitated briefly, but eventually, his desire to see the manga overpowered his wish to go home and rest, so he nodded in agreement.
Thanks to this, Akaba could return and create Multiple Shadow Clones to assist him. His Yin Seal had accumulated enough Chakra through ten days of storage that inputting more was temporarily unnecessary.
That's precisely why he could use both the Great Waterfall Technique and large-scale Genjutsu yesterday.
With two shadow clones helping, within just one afternoon, he finished Kakashi's side story, slightly expanding upon the White Fang's Death section as well.
The canon didn't elaborate much on White Fang's death, only mentioning that he and his squad were on a classified mission when he decided to save his teammates, resulting in the mission failure, which violated ninja rules.
Ninjas are taught to prioritize missions.
Faced with heavy public criticism, White Fang eventually committed suicide.
Creative works often need artistic embellishment. Akaba slightly borrowed from Sima Qian's words, portraying White Fang as a great ninja who challenged the era and its rules.
You've got to give him credit!
Akaba read through everything again before sending someone to deliver it to Yamano for immediate printing, intentionally preventing Sakumo from seeing it right away.
After expansion, these two sections together now covered ten chapters' worth of material.
This was the first time in over ten days that Yamano had received an assignment from Akaba. During this period, they'd only received several volumes each from Mito Uzumaki and Jiraiya, and at other times the printing equipment just sat there gathering dust.
Sakumo supervised their training using exactly the martial arts school approach. They quickly realized they got it even worse under his leadership than they did with Akaba—the training left them all exhausted, collapsing after sessions.
Even Might Duy found it tough under Sakumo's regimen. He was accustomed to regular exercises like running and push-ups, but what Sakumo demanded carried certain technical elements.
Might Duy was persistent but clearly lacked technique.
The upside, though, was significant—everyone learned many techniques related to ninja tools and blades unique to the Hatake Clan, which would certainly benefit their future development greatly.
Even lower-ranked ninja could tell the difference between good and bad.
Upon learning Akaba had sent new content, Sakuma Yunlang immediately posted a preview himself to avoid having people come knocking for information.
It wasn't until the next day that Yamano's delivery truck arrived at the village, quickly attracting numerous ninjas—mainly due to those "afterthoughts" mentioned earlier. Seeing how deeply affected their kids were, everyone became curious about what they'd been reading.
Therefore, the first batch of 200 copies hadn't even made it onto the shelves before customers surrounded the vehicle.
Eventually, they stopped trying to shelve the manga altogether and just sold them straight from the truck.
In less than half a day, the manga sold out completely.
These ninjas also had too much free time on their hands since the recent war ended—there weren't many missions available yet, most of the effort was still focused on internal cleanup and restructuring. Thus, everyone found themselves with plenty of time for leisure activities like reading comics.
Many people simply sat outside the manga shop with solemn expressions, thoroughly absorbed in their reading.
Initially, most approached this with mere entertainment in mind, but upon reaching the White Fang storyline, they fell silent.
What was revealed above directly reflected issues currently confronting actual ninjas.
Mission vs. comrade.
How do you choose between the two?
They thought of many fallen companions; faced with such dilemmas, they usually followed regulations strictly, abandoning teammates in trouble while choosing to move forward and complete their missions.
This practice had become standard across various villages, essentially forming part of the so-called "ninja world norms."
"This White Fang truly was a remarkable ninja, brave enough to defy rules,"
One jonin said after finishing the section about White Fang, but only managed half the sentence—the latter half felt too sensitive to say aloud, so he stopped himself decisively.
"As the saying goes, all men must die—one's death may weigh heavier than Mount Tai, another lighter than a goose feather. White Fang's suicide was not cowardice; it revealed his determination to challenge rules and rigid thinking. Kakashi simply didn't understand this principle yet."
Everyone gushed in admiration.
Whether there were additional hidden circumstances remained uncertain—perhaps only Akaba himself truly knew. But even the surface meaning alone had deeply moved everyone.
Take that line for instance: "All men must die—one's death may weigh heavier than Mount Tai, another lighter than a goose feather."
Absolutely brilliant.
"I believe Sakumo might truly become the legendary White Fang celebrated throughout the Ninja World. He possesses such talent."
A group of elite chunin and jonin discussed serious matters outside the shop.
Not about defying rules per se, but rather about current ninja regulations being inadequate and similar topics.
Sakuma Yunlang trembled inside the store, fully expecting Danzo to show up the next day and tell him to shut down the shop—for a while at least. After all, these discussions weren't exactly safe topics.
Everyone kept reading.
At this point, Sakumo arrived too.
Unfortunately, by the time he got there, all the manga had already sold out. Sakumo sighed and turned to leave when someone called him back. "Sakumo, come read one with me."
"Would that be okay?"
Sakumo looked toward Sakuma Yunlang.
Sharing books was quite common, but doing so right under Sakuma Yunlang's nose seemed somewhat disrespectful to the merchant.
"No problem, I'll just pay for another copy."
One hundred taels wasn't much for a jonin—a single mission could bring in far more than that.
"Thank you, Senior Akai."
Sakumo didn refuse, as Akai was his comrade from the Whirlpool Country War. Skilled in both Wind Release and Fire Release techniques, he was an exceptionally powerful ninja.
Sakumo sat down as Akai happened to finish the last page and handed the manga to him.
Sakumo took it and flipped through each page. Soon he came across a color illustration.
In the vividly colored image stood a striking blonde-haired man.
"He must be The Fourth in this manga," Sakumo mused silently to himself.
"The Golden Flash", Minato Namikaze. He looks just like the photo from earlier in the manga—it must be him."
Akai didn't spoil anything else, just answered that question.
Nodding, Sakuma continued reading.
The story opened without mentioning White Fang at all, focusing instead on Kakashi's rise to jonin and his first mission—the destruction of the Kannabi Bridge.
Kakashi appeared to be none other than his own son featured in the manga.
Sakumo mused silently to himself before continuing forward. Soon afterward, the manga mentioned Kakashi's father and details about White Fang's suicide.
A great ninja who stood against the era and its rules—White Fang.
All men must die...
This string of praise almost made Sakumo question reality.
Based on his speculation, the White Fang portrayed probably prioritized his teammates, temporarily abandoning mission execution, without necessarily having any intention to oppose the system itself.
As for ultimately ending up taking his own life—he still didn't completely understand why.
Yet regardless, was saving a companion really worth writing about so grandly? Was this interpretation going too far?
Later on, Kakashi's team encountered a similar situation—Rin was captured, and Kakashi faced the dilemma of saving his teammate or completing the mission.
Sakumo turned the pages slowly. Kakashi's decision was still true to who he was, but judging from that Sharingan, something significant had clearly happened afterward.
Indeed, Obito had passed away, leaving behind the Sharingan as a symbol of their bond.
Flipping through the pages, the manga just stopped abruptly.
Kakashi's side story concluded.
Sakumo hesitated for a moment, then fell into thought—should he go train with Akaba today or not?
"Sakumo, keep up the good work and become a legendary ninja like the White Fang!"
Akai flashed a thumbs-up, showing off his pearly whites.
"That's right! Let the Legend of the White Fang echo across the Ninja World! Of course, with your talent, never even think about taking your own life. Better a live dog than a dead lion. As long as you're breathing, there's always another shot."
The other ninjas also chimed in kindly.
"Uh... Yeah, sure."
Sakumo, already known for being emotionally reserved and poor with words, found himself at a loss on how to respond in this situation.
Distracted by the exchange, he completely forgot about his initial plan to practice sword techniques with Akaba.
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