With Kakashi's talent, letting his old man "revive" a few times and demonstrate the White Fang sword style a few times was basically a guaranteed shortcut.
Even Feiyu himself had jumped straight into jōnin-level the moment he mastered the White Fang blade art back then. So Kakashi reaching quasi–Kage-level was only natural—and with his father riding shotgun, he could "burst" into true Kage-level at any moment.
With that level of strength, staying glued behind Namikaze Minato would be a complete waste. So becoming a jōnin earlier than canon and leading his own squad made perfect sense.
What Feiyu didn't expect was this—
Obito and the others had ended up under Kakashi.
Feiyu could already picture Obito's "righteous idiot" face, boiling with anger.
He remembered Obito had awakened the Sharingan back when he was under Feiyu's command. Feiyu had assumed Obito would skyrocket.
And yet Obito was still only a chūnin now.
Obito was rescued at Kannabi Bridge in the original track.
Even if Madara's lair wasn't located there, Madara—or at least White Zetsu—had definitely been watching that region around that time.
So if Feiyu wanted to draw Madara's attention as quickly as possible…
Then acting at Kannabi Bridge was the best choice.
Having made his decision, Feiyu stopped listening to Konoha's battle plans. He turned and walked straight out of the command tent.
The moment he left, Kushina—who'd barely spoken—suddenly looked around blankly, as if she'd missed something.
Minato immediately noticed her expression shift.
"What's wrong, Kushina?" he asked gently. "Did you sense something?"
Minato's warm "sunshine" boyfriend aura kicked in instinctively.
But Kushina shook her head.
"It's nothing. I'm used to the front line now. I don't feel tired."
She didn't know how to explain it.
When she was tense, she didn't notice anything. But the instant Feiyu left, her body relaxed on instinct—and only then did she realize her earlier state had felt… wrong.
Kannabi Bridge
Kannabi Bridge was an essential node for Iwagakure's logistics and transport. If Konoha cut it, repairs would take time and effort, and supply routes would become far more troublesome.
In ordinary army warfare, it would've been a classic choke point—cut the grain road, and even a million soldiers would collapse without a fight.
Shinobi warfare wasn't quite the same.
Ninja fought in squads, consumed less supplies, and had soldier pills. They also had storage scrolls, summoning techniques for transport, and the raw mobility to cross mountains and rivers like it was nothing.
Still—
A node was a node.
And Iwa treated it as such.
In the original story, Kannabi Bridge only had a handful of defenders—mostly jōnin. Strong, but thin.
That was largely because Iwa had previously thrown ten thousand ninja into surrounding the Third Raikage. Even though they killed him, their own losses were heavy. They simply didn't have spare manpower to fortify every point.
Now, it was different.
With Iwa's manpower still abundant, they'd stationed ten squads at Kannabi Bridge—ten jōnin, plus thirty chūnin and genin.
They'd turned the bridge into an iron barrel.
Standing on a hillside, Kakashi surveyed the distant defensive layout and frowned hard.
"…That's a lot of them." His voice was low. "This won't be easy."
Kakashi had learned White Fang sword techniques and reached quasi–Kage-level—
but unlike Feiyu, he didn't have a bottomless bag of dirty tricks.
He didn't know the Camouflage Concealment Technique for invisibility.
He didn't know the Light-Heavy Rock Technique to reduce footsteps and boost movement.
Which meant his only real method was simple.
Cut them.
But even a quasi–Kage-level shinobi didn't have great odds charging ten jōnin head-on.
And worse…
Kakashi's squad wasn't built for this at all.
He ran through them in his head:
Nohara Rin: a standard chūnin. Strong point was medical ninjutsu.
Uchiha Obito: improved after awakening Sharingan, but still only "special jōnin" level at best.
Might Guy: could open the Eight Gates, but at this stage it still put him around special jōnin strength—and it wasn't sustainable in prolonged combat.
Those three together against thirty chūnin and genin?
Best case, they kill a few.
Worst case, they get minced.
Kakashi's jaw tightened.
"Unless I can trigger that burst again… there's no win condition."
He exhaled slowly, frustrated.
"But relying on sudden bursts isn't a long-term plan either. Living on a tightrope every day… one mistake and you drag everyone down with you."
His gaze dropped to the White Fang short blade in his hand.
Sometimes, when danger closed in, he could vaguely feel the presence of his father through the weapon—like a cold breath behind his shoulder.
He didn't know if it was imagination.
He didn't know where that strange "explosive state" in critical moments truly came from.
But as a sharp, paranoid genius, Kakashi had begun to suspect the blade itself.
Still, suspicion meant nothing.
If he couldn't confirm the source, he couldn't treat it as his normal strength. No matter what fight he faced, he refused to count that burst mode as part of his baseline.
The problem was—
The command staff did count it.
Because of his crisis performances, Konoha's commanders kept overestimating him… and the missions being assigned to him were becoming more and more insane.
Kakashi let out a soft sigh and turned away, thinking about alternative approaches—how to lure Iwa squads into splitting up, how to isolate them and crush them in waves.
But the moment he turned—
he saw a familiar figure behind him.
Kakashi's eyes widened. His entire body tensed.
"Feiyu?!"
"How are you here?!"
Feiyu smiled faintly. "I came because I felt like it."
Then he glanced at Kakashi's stance and chuckled.
"You're not bad. Most people would've swung the moment they saw a Konoha missing-nin."
Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Even if I wanted to swing, I couldn't beat you."
He paused, then said something unexpectedly blunt.
"And I don't think you betrayed Konoha."
"I think Konoha betrayed you."
Among the scandals Feiyu had exposed was the truth of Danzō orchestrating the murder of Feiyu's parents, disguising it as an "accident," planning to seize and brainwash Feiyu afterward.
The only reason the plan never reached its final stage was that Feiyu's Sharingan hadn't evolved early, so Danzō judged him as having no potential.
But a blood debt didn't vanish because the killer regretted it.
Feiyu wiping out Root and killing Danzō—many shinobi didn't say it out loud, but sympathy was everywhere.
And Kakashi… didn't even need an explanation.
After what happened to Sakumo, his own situation and Feiyu's had always echoed each other.
In a sense, Feiyu slaughtering Root was even a kind of revenge Kakashi never got to take himself.
So Kakashi felt no hostility toward him.
Feiyu's eyes flickered with mild amusement.
"Then why do you think I'm here?"
"Trouble Iwa?" Kakashi asked.
Feiyu clicked his tongue. "Why not trouble Konoha?"
Kakashi's answer came instantly, firm as steel.
"If you were here to trouble Konoha, you'd already be killing."
"You wouldn't be standing here talking to me."
Kakashi knew Feiyu too well.
In the war, Feiyu's behavior could be summed up as—
Respect the strong. Beat the weak to death.
And when he struck, he struck viciously. Once he confirmed you weren't a threat, he latched on and didn't let go until there was blood everywhere.
If Feiyu wanted people dead, he wouldn't waste words.
He'd turn invisible and start harvesting.
Feiyu laughed softly. "Fair."
"You understand me pretty well."
Then he looked Kakashi up and down.
"Just you? No one else with you?"
"You're a jōnin now. Don't tell me you don't even have subordinates."
"I do," Kakashi said, expression turning bitter. "They just can't keep up with my pace."
"Now I get why you didn't take me, Obito, and Rin on missions back then. Once the gap gets too big, ordinary shinobi become… baggage."
"This time I came to scout alone. The others are in the rear."
Fast shinobi had one true advantage—mobility.
Fight when you want, run when you want.
And that only worked at full power when you had no anchors.
Kakashi had finally learned that lesson.
Feiyu tilted his head. "You look like you're stressing."
"Want me to help?"
Kakashi stared at him, genuinely startled.
"You're acting weird."
"With your personality… you don't do anything for free."
Feiyu rolled his eyes.
"Just answer. Do you want help or not?"
"Of course I do." Kakashi answered instantly, with zero shame. "If a strong leg is willing to carry me, why would I struggle?"
Feiyu's smile deepened.
And in a place Kakashi couldn't see, the soul bound to the White Fang short blade—Hatake Sakumo—held his forehead.
He didn't know whether to feel proud… or humiliated.
From a moral standpoint, Kakashi had been completely "corrupted" by Feiyu.
They hadn't spent long together back then, but Feiyu's brutally rational, poison-chicken-soup worldview had struck Kakashi like lightning during his most confused years.
Sakumo felt secondhand shame.
But—
A shameless Kakashi would probably live far better than Sakumo ever did.
Easier. Freer.
And at that thought, Sakumo also felt a trace of comfort.
Feiyu's voice turned lazy, almost playful.
"Alright."
"Today, I'll let you widen your horizons."
He glanced at the White Fang short blade and chuckled—like he was greeting Sakumo directly.
Then—
Boom.
A vast surge of chakra erupted from Feiyu's body like a tidal wave.
Kakashi sucked in a cold breath.
The chakra pressure alone made his scalp go numb.
In Kakashi's mind, Feiyu was undeniably powerful—an elite among Kage-level shinobi.
But purely in terms of chakra reserves?
He should've been on the lower end of the Kage tier.
Feiyu wasn't even eighteen yet. His body had mostly matured, but he was still far from his true peak.
Chakra reserves correlated strongly with age. Generally, shinobi hit their highest and most active chakra output between thirty and forty—often one to two times higher than at eighteen.
Kakashi himself was still young, with relatively low reserves even for a jōnin. He was bottom-tier in raw chakra quantity.
But when he tried to estimate Feiyu's chakra after that surge—
his mind went blank.
Feiyu's chakra felt like it was at least three hundred times Kakashi's.
Maybe more.
So much more he couldn't even calculate it.
Just a few years ago, Kakashi's chakra hadn't even been that far behind Feiyu's.
They'd both been growing.
How the hell did Feiyu pull this kind of gap?
Kakashi stared at him like he was looking at a monster.
"Feiyu…"
"What the hell is wrong with your chakra?"
"Did you eat some heavenly treasure? Some miraculous elixir?"
He swallowed hard.
"No—I should be asking…"
"Did you start eating heavenly treasures and miraculous elixirs like meals?!"
"Even if your Sharingan evolved more… even if your Uchiha blood awakened better…"
"It still shouldn't jump hundreds of times!"
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