In the early morning, the first ray of sunlight shines through the window onto the folded bed.
Kakashi, who had not slept all night, returned home early, changed into black clothing, and arrived at the burial place.
That's right, today is Hatake Sakumo's funeral.
As the Paulownia coffin was lowered into the grave, the Third Hokage turned to look at Kakashi, who silently shook his head.
So the Third Hokage raised his left hand slightly, and the Anbu ninja beside him stepped out, formed seals with both hands, and pressed them in front of the tomb.
"Earth Style: Burial!"
The soil on both sides quickly rose towards the middle, forming a hemispherical tomb.
Seeing this, the Third Hokage moved to the memorial stone, looked at the newly engraved name of Hatake Sakumo, and began to tell the visitors about his life's achievements.
There were not many people behind him, all dressed in black and holding white flowers for the memorial service.
Kakashi watched all this silently, a sadness welling up in his heart. After the fusion of souls, he also inherited some of the original owner's emotions.
This Kage-level warrior who was once so famous that even the Sannin were in awe of him has now become history.
Kakashi also lost his only relative from then on.
Soon, the Third Hokage finished his speech.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had presided over the ceremony, now walked in front of Kakashi.
"Kakashi, Sakumo was the village's hero. Now that he's gone, I'll be your family from now on, and the villagers in this village will be your family."
Kakashi remained silent.
Seeing this, the Third Hokage sighed and said nothing more.
He knew that he needed to give Kakashi time to process the pain.
The funeral lasted a day.
In the evening, Kakashi dragged his tired body back to the Hatake home. Oh yes, it is his home now.
The empty room was very desolate. After a simple wash, Kakashi lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
He was really too tired.
...
After an unknown amount of time, Kakashi woke up in a daze.
Regaining his strength, he stood up and walked into White Fang's room.
He found the inconspicuous "Atlas of Fire Country Geography" in the corner of the bookshelf and pulled it hard.
The bookshelf in front of him slowly moved, revealing a secret door behind it.
Kakashi approached the secret door, formed a special seal with his hands, and pressed the energy gathering point on the door lock.
With a slight click, the secret door opened automatically, revealing a staircase leading underground.
Kakashi took out a flashlight from the desk drawer and walked down the steps.
A secret room made of green hemp stone, the same size as the room above, came into view.
The dimly lit room was filled with three rows of bookshelves, on which hundreds of scrolls were stored according to different categories.
Ignoring the part about family secrets and ninjutsu, Kakashi directly picked up the long-forgotten "Hatake Sword Technique."
Swordsmanship is the foundation of the Hatake clan. Konoha's White Fang is a unique skill that allows him to dominate the battlefield. It is also a secret technique that Kakashi has been practicing since he was a child.
Different from the swordsmanship that ordinary people understand, Hatake swordsmanship is essentially a kind of ninjutsu.
Its greatest feature is that it can be combined with Chakras of different attributes to produce completely different effects using the same sword technique.
Due to the Hatake family's natural all-round characteristics, successive family heads have developed them to varying degrees based on their own strengths.
Among them, the most profound ones are the Flame Blade combined with fire, the Wind Blade combined with wind, and the Thunder Blade combined with lightning.
The flaming blade bursts, and the blade light combined with the air can produce a violent explosion;
The wind blade is sharp, and with one swing, the enemy is torn into pieces;
The lightning blade can penetrate, and if you practice it to Ultimate, even Susanoo can be pierced through with one blow!
Unfortunately, Hatake knife skills are easy to learn but difficult to master.
If you want to achieve great success, you must go through life-and-death battles again and again!
At the same time, the practitioner himself must have an extremely strong physique and a huge amount of Chakra to support it!
This resulted in an extremely high death rate among ordinary clansmen.
As a result, the family population dwindled to the point where Hatake Kakashi was the only one left in his generation.
Thinking of this, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh.
If I die accidentally, there will be no one to carry on the Hatake swordsmanship.
After reading the swordsmanship scroll, Kakashi kept it close to his body.
As for the other ninjutsu scrolls, Kakashi didn't touch them, as he had no use for them for the time being.
He has his own system and can instantly master ninjutsu as long as others perform it in front of him.
Instead of spending time practicing these now, it is better to focus on laying a good physical foundation. This is the right way!
After walking out of the secret room and restoring everything, Kakashi used his skills to quickly arrive at the waterfall in the Konoha Forest.
He took off his shoes and socks, walked barefoot across the water, and stood under the waterfall.
Different from the elementary tree climbing and water walking, it is more difficult to control your body accurately under the violent impact of the waterfall!
Fortunately, White Fang had taken him through similar training before, so he avoided the fate of being washed into the water.
After stabilizing his body, Kakashi closed his eyes and adjusted his body to a unique rhythm in coordination with the breathing characteristic of Hatake swordsmanship.
Suddenly, Kakashi opened his eyes and quickly drew his sword!
Lift, chop, cut, stab, slice, slash, block, press, collapse, pick, and hang.
The basic movements that he had already mastered became several times more difficult under the impact of the waterfall!
Kakashi gritted his teeth, and while making sure his movements did not become deformed, he swung his sword a thousand times for each move!
After an unknown amount of time, Kakashi, exhausted, finally climbed out of the water with difficulty, collapsed on the shore, gasping for breath.
The training beyond his physical limits made his consciousness a little fuzzy, and he wanted to fall asleep.
But his remaining sanity told him that if he fell here, he would be lucky enough to avoid the wild beasts that came to the river to drink water.
With his wet clothes alone, the loss of body temperature at night could easily take his life!
So he forced himself to stand up, and walked towards the village, taking one deep step and one shallow step, as if he was walking on cotton.
Finally, Kakashi managed to get home, took a quick shower, and then fell asleep on the bed.
...
One year later.
A silver-haired young man was wielding a katana deftly under the waterfall, his movements light and graceful, like a dancing elf.
The young man suddenly put away his knife and stepped back, holding his breath.
His left hand held the scabbard, and his right hand grasped the hilt. His whole body went from motion to stillness, vaguely blending into the surroundings.
As the Chakra operated, the boy could clearly feel a force gathering in his right hand.
Gradually, the palm holding the knife handle began to tremble...
The time is now!
"Hatake Style: Wind Blade Slash!"
Kakashi shouted in a deep voice, and with the sword in his right hand ready to strike, he suddenly slashed towards the waterfall in front of him!
In an instant, a crescent-shaped blade light flashed by, cutting the waterfall in front of it in half in the shape of a "one"!
"Huh~"
After making a few cuts with his knife, Kakashi put away his blade and breathed a sigh of relief.
During this year, he practiced swordsmanship every day without interruption, and has been trying the Nature Transformation of the wind attribute Chakra.
Perhaps it was God's will that hard work pays off, at this moment he had finally mastered the basics of the wind blade!
"Counting the days, tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the new school year."
Putting away his joy, Kakashi thought to himself.
Unlike the original work, Kakashi did not choose to graduate early and become a Genin because of White Fang's death.
Compared to those Genin missions of catching cats and dogs, he needs more sufficient practice.
So after enduring the initial painful special training, the body gradually adapted.
While training, he always maintained the existence of a Shadow Clone.
Therefore, all the courses in the Ninja Academy were attended by the Shadow Clone, and no one except Rin and Obito had discovered them for the time being.
Guy, who was unaware of the truth, was fooled by Kakashi with various excuses every time he launched a campus challenge.
However, for the opening ceremony, he must be present in person.
After all, with the Third Hokage present, it was important to keep a low profile.