When Instructor Yamano ordered them to form the Seal of Reconciliation, Ren immediately took the opportunity to back down and stopped provoking Kakashi.
Obito shouted from the side, “Kakashi!
Don’t forgive him!
You can’t form the Seal of Reconciliation with that bastard!” A vein throbbed at Kakashi’s temple.
He clearly had no intention of letting this end so easily.
However, Instructor Yamano spoke before he could act.
“You will all become shinobi one day.
Kunai and ninja swords aren’t the only weapons a shinobi can use.
Anything that gives you an advantage can become a weapon—including vicious words meant to throw an opponent off balance.
Kakashi, your fundamentals are excellent, but what happens when you meet someone like Ren on the battlefield?
If your enemy knows how to provoke you, are you going to lose your head every time?
When they insult your father, do you think they’ll hold back?
Do you think they’ll stop just because I order them to?” Kakashi gritted his teeth, but in the end, he reluctantly held out his hand.
Yamano was right.
Verbal attacks were another weapon in a shinobi’s arsenal.
No matter how badly an enemy provoked him, he had to remain calm.
Seeing that, Ren extended his fingers as well.
Their index and middle fingers hooked together, bringing the spar to an official end.
Instructor Yamano gave a subtle nod of satisfaction.
His goal had been achieved.
Kakashi now understood the gravity of his father’s crime.
A shinobi who abandoned a mission was trash!
After all, Yamano’s older sister had been one of the shinobi killed along the border of the Land of Fire because of that failed mission.
He watched Obito and Might Guy crowd around Kakashi, anxiously saying something to him, then raised his voice.
“Next match!
Uchiha Obito versus Might Guy!” …
During the break, Yamano glanced sideways at Ren, who had approached him, and fixed him with a look that made the boy’s skin crawl.
“You did well today, Ren,” he murmured.
“Keep provoking Kakashi tomorrow.” “I still want to provoke him today, Instructor Yamano.
I don’t think I can hold myself back.” “Fine.
Go ahead.
Tigers have their uses, and so do snakes and scorpions.
You seem to have a certain talent for getting inside an enemy’s head.” He paused before adding, “Any skill that strengthens your existing advantages is something a shinobi should develop.” Ren stared at him.
‘I’m doing your dirty work, and you’re still taking shots at me?’ Apparently, it was not enough for the students to make each other miserable.
Some of the teachers were just as bad!
…
When class ended, Ren caught up with Kakashi.
Obito immediately shouted, “Uchiha Ren!
If we weren’t from the same clan, I’d beat the hell out of you!” Ren scoffed.
“You say that like you could even get close enough to touch me.
I’m not here to waste time arguing with you.
I have something to say to Kakashi.” Kakashi stopped and turned around, staring at him in silence.
Ren met his gaze.
“Kakashi, your father got 119 Konoha shinobi killed!” “Tonight, take him from house to house and apologize to every family he destroyed!
Tell him to spend what’s left of his ruined life trying to help those 119 families!” “What’s with that look?
Fine, I’ll say something nicer.” “Some of those 119 shinobi might have been brothers, fathers and sons, or sisters serving together.
Konoha has plenty of orphans too, so maybe one of the people who died was the last living member of their family.” “So perhaps you don’t need to apologize to all 119 families.
Maybe a few of those families are already completely dead.
Perhaps you only have to visit a hundred homes.” “Don’t make me despise the two of you even more.
Take responsibility for what you’ve done, you fucking Hatakes!” It was an unbearably heavy subject, yet the moment Ren opened his mouth, every word somehow came out in the most punchable way possible.
Guy was already in the air, his foot flying toward Ren’s chest.
Ren hurriedly used the White Fang–Style Taijutsu he had just learned and darted backward.
Even while retreating, he kept a close eye on Kakashi and saw that the boy still looked deeply withdrawn.
Obito shouted furiously, “You beanpole!
Don’t make me beat you up!” Ren’s parents had died in battle, leaving him to grow up alone and badly malnourished.
His classmates had nicknamed him Beanpole because of his tall, skinny frame.
Obito quickly corrected himself.
“No, Beanpole isn’t good enough.
We should call you a bee!
Those things are poisonous, just like your mouth!” Sarutobi Asuma wandered over from the other side with both hands shoved into his pockets, looking far too pleased with himself.
“Why not call him a centipede?
He’s skinny and venomous.” More and more insulting nicknames were being invented for Ren by the second.
He could only sigh inwardly.
‘What the hell is wrong with Konoha?
Everyone here is at least a little messed up in the head.’ …
By the time school ended, the sky was covered in crimson clouds.
The fading light painted the rooftops and the distant Hokage Rock in deep orange, with streaks so dark they almost looked like blood.
Ren returned to the Uchiha compound and stepped into his cold, silent home.
It was not hard to understand why the original Ren had developed such a poisonous tongue.
A five-year-old living alone in a house buried under dust was bound to end up with a few problems.
The place had gotten so bad that there were literal paths worn through the dirt.
The floor had not been cleaned in at least a month or two, and a narrow trail of footsteps ran from the entrance straight to the bedroom.
From there, it continued to the bathroom, then from the bathroom to the refrigerator.
That was it.
The original Ren had never even entered the kitchen.
The floor in that direction was still covered in a thick, undisturbed layer of dust.
No wonder his classmates called him Beanpole.
The poor kid had been living miserably!
Ren rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning.
He worked until late at night, and by the time he finally finished, the house looked livable again.
Exhausted, he collapsed into bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
…
A deafening crack of thunder jolted Ren awake in the middle of the night.
His eyes snapped open as a scene from the original manga suddenly came back to him.
The White Fang of Konoha had taken his own life during a stormy night filled with thunder and rain.
In the manga, flashes of lightning had illuminated the window, casting the frame’s shadow across a curled-up corpse on the floor.
Kakashi had been the first person to discover his father’s body.
Ren threw open the window, climbed through it, and leaped into the pouring rain.
He ran toward Kakashi’s house, following the route preserved in the original owner’s memories.
Through the downpour, he soon spotted a crowd of shinobi gathered in a distant alley.
Cloaked figures wearing masks—the Anbu—were moving across the nearby rooftops.
‘No…’ Ren stopped at a distance and watched as the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, entered the Hatake residence.
Not long afterward, Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu arrived one after another.
The White Fang of Konoha had still taken his own life.
One of the Anbu turned toward Ren.
The figure’s mask was impossible to make out beneath the dark hood, but Ren felt their gaze settle on him.
He turned away and disappeared into the heavy rain.
This world was far too cruel.
What good had saving his comrades done Sakumo?
In the end, he had been humiliated into taking his own life, and even the teammates he saved had blamed him.
What good had his loyalty to Konoha done?
All he had left behind was a deeply traumatized Kakashi.
Ren needed to make full use of his system.
He would push more people past their breaking points and use the rewards to become stronger.
At the very least, he had to secure his own survival.
Then, if circumstances allowed, he could carve out a freer, more comfortable life in the shinobi world.
Otherwise, what was the point of being given a second chance?
…
The next morning at the Ninja Academy, one shocking piece of news after another struck the class of five-year-olds.
Unable to endure the humiliation and rumors surrounding him, the White Fang of Konoha had taken his own life the previous night.
Kakashi arrived at the Academy on time without saying a word, but he did not enter the classroom.
Instead, he went straight to the headmaster and requested permission to graduate early.
Throughout the entire morning, even Kengen, the instructor teaching the Three Basic Techniques, seemed distracted.
The students were in no better condition.
Before long, Kakashi completed a specially approved individual examination and graduated from the Academy early, officially becoming a genin.
Ren had already been doing his best to keep a low profile, but Obito still stormed to the back row of the classroom and shouted at him.
“Beanpole!
I’ll never forgive you!
You were the one who kept provoking Kakashi!” After yelling, Obito glanced toward Nohara Rin, clearly hoping she had noticed how brave and righteous he was being.
Ren had more than a dozen insults ready to launch straight back at him, but he swallowed every one of them.
He could make Obito snap some other day.
He was not giving up on breaking him.
He was merely postponing it.
A slow, carefully planned emotional breakdown would be far more effective!