"Step aside, Kakashi! Don't force me!"
Kondō Bangyan's jaw was clenched so tight it creaked, his face twisted and ugly.
He knew that after showing fear in front of Kakashi, there was basically no way to talk his way out of this anymore.
On the surface, it looked like just one eight-year-old kid had come to confront him—easy enough to brush off.
But in a village full of genjutsu, mental jutsu, and truth serums, "fake testimony" was basically a myth. As long as Kakashi was willing to point the finger at him, there was no way he'd walk away clean.
His only path now was simple:
Take Kakashi down fast.
Run.
Escape Konoha.
"So you really are going to resist to the bitter end…" Kakashi said quietly. "Good. If you'd just given up, I'd almost be disappointed."
Under the mask, the corner of his mouth curled in a cold smile as he drew the White Fang short blade and leveled it at Kondō Bangyan.
"Just an eight-year-old brat," Bangyan spat. "You really think being called a 'genius' a few times lets you stand against a jōnin?"
Agitated and with his nerves fraying, he didn't bother talking more. He slammed his hands together and began to form seals, chakra surging.
But in the space of a heartbeat, the lightning around Kakashi's body flared, and he shot forward like a streak of light. The White Fang short sword in his hand seemed to exhale a faint white glow as it came cleaving down from above.
Kondō Bangyan, still in the middle of his hand seals, went pale.
"C-Captain White Fang!!"
His hands, which should've moved with practiced ease, suddenly trembled. His fingers froze. The chakra circulating in his body stuttered and roiled out of rhythm.
The jutsu failed to form—he didn't release anything. Instead, his chakra flow backfired, and a sharp pain bloomed in his chest, leaving him short of breath and off-balance.
Kakashi standing there should've been nothing more than an eight-year-old child.
But that single strike—the stance, the aura, the precise control of the White Fang sword style—dragged Kondō Bangyan's mind straight back to the battlefield.
To his former captain.
To the man known across the ninja world as the strongest blade in the Leaf: Hatake Sakumo.
Like an aurora. Like a lightning bolt.
The arc of the blade flashed in an instant and vanished just as fast.
Kondō Bangyan stared blankly for a heartbeat. Then the blood at his chest sprayed outward.
He hadn't always been this pathetic. Under normal circumstances, he was still a tokubetsu jōnin. But seeing that familiar flash of sword light tore open the guilt and terror he'd been suppressing.
All those festering emotions erupted at once.
By the time he realized what was happening, Kakashi's strike had already cut him down.
It wasn't just Bangyan who was stunned.
Even Kakashi was a little dazed after the slash.
For that brief instant, he felt his body move on its own—like his limbs and blade were being guided, executing a sword move he didn't know he could use.
"Just now…" Kakashi stared at the sword in his hand. "Was that… Father… protecting me from the afterlife?"
He replayed the sensation in his mind, the way his body had moved, the feel of the strike.
For a moment, it was as if Sakumo's spirit had flowed into him and swung the blade through his hands.
He stood there, a little lost.
"Didn't see that coming, Kakashi," Feiyu said, sounding impressed. At the same time, he quietly recalled Hatake Sakumo's soul back into himself. "You actually dropped a tokubetsu jōnin in one hit. Were you holding back during training the other day?"
Kakashi snapped out of it and shook his head.
"I don't know what happened either… Maybe it really was Father's spirit watching over me." He looked down at his hands. "Normally, my swordsmanship isn't anywhere near that level."
"And this guy… he completely panicked and lost his nerve. That's the only reason I beat him in one blow. Even if I could maintain that state, defeating a tokubetsu jōnin wouldn't normally be easy."
Still, having personally felt the essence of the White Fang sword style, Kakashi was confident.
In the coming days, his swordsmanship would improve by leaps and bounds.
The gap to tokubetsu jōnin-level combat power suddenly didn't feel so far away.
Just then, noise began to rise from the nearby streets.
The fight between Kakashi and Kondō Bangyan had been short. But with the Third Ninja War about to erupt, all of Konoha was on edge—hyper-alert.
ANBU and the Police Force were patrolling non-stop.
Even a few seconds of disturbance was enough to bring them running.
The first to arrive were a squad of masked ANBU who landed on the rooftops with a series of soft thuds. One of them, wearing a cat-pattern mask, frowned and asked in a low voice:
"What happened here? Why was there fighting?"
"We caught a spy. That guy." Feiyu wasted no time, immediately flipping the script and pointing at Kondō Bangyan's body. "He slipped up and exposed himself. Then he resisted arrest and got cut down by Kakashi."
The ANBU glanced at each other.
They all recognized Kondō Bangyan. Given that Hatake Sakumo had been their ANBU commander, his death had caused an earthquake in the organization. Feelings about Bangyan among ANBU were… not positive.
But calling Bangyan a spy?
That, they didn't quite buy.
This guy's background had already been dug through multiple times. If he'd really had anything that suspicious going on, he'd have been dragged into ANBU's interrogation rooms ages ago.
Maybe the kid just couldn't take it anymore, the squad leader thought. Wanted to settle things personally. He's White Fang's son, after all. We'll have to find a way to protect him from the fallout…
While thinking, the ANBU captain turned to look more closely at Kondō Bangyan—only to freeze.
The man lying on the ground wasn't just dead. His expression was… strange.
A hollow, bitter smile. A numb, resigned look in his eyes.
Exactly like the faces of captured spies right after they confessed.
Don't tell me… he really was involved in something?
"Captain, what do we do?" one of the ANBU behind him asked quietly.
The squad leader raised a hand.
"Take everyone back to ANBU. We'll investigate this properly."
The investigation, of course, never went anywhere.
Because shortly after Kondō Bangyan was taken into ANBU custody…
He "committed suicide by poison."
After all, there was still a Root inside ANBU.
Root's original mandate had been training and covert operations. Killing one man inside ANBU's own building?
Child's play.
Easy or not, ANBU operatives weren't idiots.
It wasn't like some foreign village could just stroll into ANBU HQ and silence a prisoner. If they were capable of that, Konoha might as well disband on the spot.
Before this, the White Fang smear campaign had only left the more perceptive jōnin and Chunin suspicious.
Now?
With a "spy" who'd just been brought into ANBU custody suddenly "killing himself" there… people didn't need to be geniuses to connect the dots.
It was almost a certainty:
Konoha's higher-ups were involved.
Even ordinary ninja, hearing about an "ANBU prisoner committing suicide," couldn't help but start questioning the official narrative about White Fang's death.
They might not know the word "propaganda," but they understood one thing very well:
A so-called "spy" committing "suicide" in ANBU's hands was… ridiculous.
Nobody bought it.
Not really.
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