After listening to Sasuke's explanation, Kakashi's face instantly turned grim.
"Enough!" He abruptly looked up, his voice cracking as he cut off Sasuke's speculation, his breathing becoming ragged.
Kakashi didn't want to hear any more.
It wasn't that he couldn't think of these things himself. On the contrary, Kakashi was very intelligent. He had just been subconsciously avoiding this matter.
Sasuke looked at the man on the verge of collapse before him and didn't press further.
His purpose for coming here had been achieved: he obtained the White Fang's Kenjutsu, and through this incident, he had confirmed some of his own suspicions about Konoha's dark side.
As for guiding Kakashi out of his past... that was something he couldn't do.
Sasuke turned and left the dojo.
The empty dojo was now occupied only by Kakashi.
The door closed again, shutting out the outside light, leaving only a sliver of illumination filtering through the crack.
Kakashi's body trembled slightly. Sasuke's words had peeled away the layers of disguise he had built over the years, exposing the bloody wound beneath.
He had always convinced himself that his father died due to the village's public opinion, due to his companions' blame, due to his own weakness.
He had resented his father for it… resented him for abandoning the mission, his honor, and ultimately his life and himself, all for the sake of so-called companions.
'But if...'
'If all of this had been a conspiracy targeting the 'Konoha's White Fang' from the very beginning?'
This thought, like a seed, once planted, took root and grew wildly in his mind.
…
Outside the dojo, the setting sun's afterglow cast a rare gentleness over the Hatake Clan's compound's courtyard.
Sasuke stood in the spacious courtyard, recalling every movement and essential point recorded on the scroll in his mind.
'I need to verify it.'
Sasuke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and expelled all distracting thoughts about Konoha and Kakashi from his mind.
In the next instant, he opened his eyes, leaving only pure focus.
He spread his feet apart, lowered his center of gravity, angled the tip of his blade forward, and assumed the most basic sword-holding stance.
Then, he moved.
Without using Shunpo, just the simplest step forward, then a swing of the blade.
The blade cut through the air, producing a faint whistle.
Once, twice, three times...
At first, his movements were somewhat stiff, carrying shadows of his past life-or-death struggles.
But as his understanding of the essentials deepened, his movements became increasingly fluid.
Each swing of the blade was more stable and more fierce than the last.
Kakashi had, at some point, emerged from the dojo. He stood quietly in the shadows of the eaves, watching the boy practicing his swings in the courtyard.
Watching that familiar sword-holding posture, that familiar slashing trajectory…
His pupil unconsciously contracted.
The slender figure of Sasuke in the courtyard seemed to slowly overlap with the tall figure from the depths of his memory… the one who had taught him how to swing a sword in this very same courtyard.
'Kakashi, the hand holding the sword must be steady.'
'The moment you strike, your mind must be calm.'
'The blade of our Hatake Clan exists to cut through anything when it is most needed.'
His father's gentle voice echoed in his ears once more.
Kakashi's breathing became somewhat labored.
He saw Sasuke's movements change again.
A blue-white Lightning Release Chakra began to swirl around Sasuke's body, crackling audibly.
With every slash, the blade seemed to grow sharper.
'He was perfectly integrating the Hatake Clan's Kenjutsu with his own power.'
'Even... doing it better than me myself had back in the day.'
Kakashi leaned against the cold pillar of the corridor and slowly closed his eye.
'If Father's death truly had hidden circumstances, if he was truly consumed by the village's darkness...'
'Then what did all my actions over the years amount to?'
'Sasuke is right.'
'Someone who couldn't even face themselves had no right to guide others or speak of the future.'
Kakashi's eye snapped open.
He raised his head, his gaze passing over the layered eaves, looking toward the Hokage Rock standing in the distance under the setting sun.
Toward the face carved into it, symbolizing the village's highest authority.
'What was the truth back then?'
'Who was it that pushed that public opinion from behind?'
'I have to find answers to these questions.'
'For Father, and also for...'
...allowing himself to one day, openly and honorably, pick up that broken sword named 'White Fang' again.
He turned, his figure flickering, and Kakashi silently disappeared into the shadows of dusk.
Night gradually deepened.
In the Hatake Clan's compound's courtyard, only the sound of the boy practicing his swings remained.
Sasuke stopped his final slashing motion and slowly sheathed his blade.
He closed his eyes, carefully sensing the soreness in his muscles and the flow of Chakra within his body.
"Hah..."
He exhaled a turbid breath, opened his eyes, and a trace of rare satisfaction flashed within them.
This blade technique truly suited him.
Every move coincided with his own combat instincts.
Channeling Lightning Release chakra onto the blade aligned perfectly with the way he used Takemikazuchi.
He could feel his understanding of Kenjutsu slowly improving.
Sasuke looked around and found that Kakashi had already left at some point.
'Just as well, it saved me the trouble of saying goodbye.'
He reattached both swords to his waist, his figure flickered, and he silently left the courtyard.
…
Beside Konoha's Memorial Stone, there was an even more solemn cemetery.
Here rested the souls of all the Uchiha Clan's members.
Sasuke didn't approach, only stood far away in the shadow of a tree, quietly watching the rows of cold tombstones.
The night breeze blew, stirring the black hair on his forehead.
'Uchiha Itachi...'
Sasuke silently recited the name in his heart.
'Thinking about it now, that man's words after slaughtering the entire clan, 'to test my capacity', now seemed utterly ridiculous.'
'A monster who could without hesitation erase his parents and entire clan just to test his capacity?'
Sasuke didn't believe it.
Even while driven by hatred, he now understood there must be hidden circumstances behind it.
The Kyubi Attack, the higher-ups' ostracization of the Uchiha Clan, the conspiracy behind his parents' deaths...
All of it seemed connected, waiting only for a key to link everything together.
But Itachi did kill them.
Regardless of the reason, the blood-soaked ground, the image of his parents fallen in pools of blood… these were undeniable facts.
This fact was the root of his revenge.
'But the truth... what was it?'
A crazy thought abruptly rose from the depths of Sasuke's heart.
He had seen that technique on the Scroll of Seals.
A forbidden technique that could recall the deceased from the Pure Land back to the living world… Impure World Reincarnation.
'If I can summon the souls of Father and Mother, wouldn't I be able to find out what truly happened that night?'
'Did they know the inside story?'
Once this thought appeared, it clung to him like a maggot in the bone, madly gnawing at his reason.
'Just a little sacrificial offering, a seal formula…'
'No.'
Sasuke suddenly clenched his fist, his fingertips digging deeply into his palm. The sharp pain brought instant clarity.
A struggle and pain flashed in his eyes.
"...I shouldn't disturb them." He murmured to himself, as if convincing himself, "I shouldn't disturb the peace of the deceased."
Let them rest in peace.
'Father, Mother...'
'The path of revenge, the path of seeking the truth… I will walk it alone.'
---
Check out My Patreon For 40+ Advanced Chapters:
Pat reon.com/IamPoorGuyToo