Chapter 27 (C27)
Proverbs are wise sayings summarized by people through years of experience, but often they only sound plausible and may not actually be of any practical value.
For example, there is a saying: "Those who survive a great calamity are sure to have good fortune in the future."
Kana returned to Konoha after a "narrow escape," not expecting any warm welcome or lenient treatment, but being interrogated by higher-ups for a day and then threatened with being fired by her direct superior was just too unlucky.
Captain Kakashi utterly despised her strength from every angle, and then concluded that the Anbu was not a place for someone like her, and that if she knew what was good for her, she should get out of there immediately.
Kana calmly raised her hand to wipe away non-existent droplets from her face and nodded. "I'll go tell the Third Boss later."
Although he was the squad leader, the Anbu were directly subordinate to the Hokage. No matter how much Kakashi acted like his direct superior in front of her, he actually had no power to make personnel changes.
“I will definitely tell him the truth: you asked me to ask him to resign.”
"..." Sure enough, there was a reason why he didn't like Hyuga Kana. It's easier for a smart person to provoke anger than for a truly stupid person to act foolishly.
"Hey kid..."
"Oh, what's wrong, you big devil?" The in a bad mood employee decided to stop tolerating the idiot boss's crazy behavior and chose to confront him directly.
If it weren't for the fact that she was only eleven years old, a girl, and had injuries, Kakashi might have really lost his temper and given her a good beating.
Kana completely rejected any semblance of goodwill shown towards the minor, instead intensifying her attack: "Have you ever heard the saying 'It's easy to invite a god, but hard to send him away'? After I passed the test, I said I was just forced to come and go through the motions and didn't want to join the Anbu, but you arrested me with a single transfer order, and now you're saying I'm not strong enough and want to kick me out? What kind of good thing is this..."
She crossed her arms over her chest and said, "If you're not satisfied, go complain to the Hokage and ask him to fire me, instead of forcing me to resign."
The implication is that the third generation had no such intention at all; it was all your own doing to settle personal scores.
Hinata Kana possessed a maturity and sophistication beyond her years. After keenly realizing that he didn't like her much, she would never appear in front of him unless it was for some unavoidable business.
Even when they meet, they are always distant yet polite, leaving no room for criticism.
Now, every word she uttered was intended to trigger his anger. This was the first time Kakashi had ever seen her so out of control, with all her sharp edges raised.
He looked at the girl who was now showing an unfamiliar side of herself, as if he had suddenly noticed a ripple in a pool of stagnant water that was faintly exuding a putrid smell.
—Ah, so this person is still alive.
The discovery evoked a stronger emotion than the anger that had been deliberately provoked, which instead calmed him down.
An argument is only meaningful when there's a back-and-forth exchange; one-sided output with no response from the other is like a mad dog barking in vain.
Kana frowned. According to her observation, Kakashi's emotional state had been extremely low. People are easily angered if this negative state persists for a long time, especially since he disliked her.
But what's going on now? Did she just say something that reminded him of someone from the past or something in the past? Why did he suddenly lose interest?
"Since you think I'm not strong enough, then let's fight."
This is actually a provocation, especially in an elite unit like the Dark Division, where everyone is among the best of their peers, with high aspirations and strong self-esteem. Phrases like "let's have a fight" or "let's spar" are generally taken as meaning "I'm going to beat you to a pulp."
Kakashi lowered his eyes to look at her, and what was outrageous was that Kana actually read a kind of pity in his dead fish eyes that she had never seen before.
That's disgusting.
It gave me goosebumps.
Just as she was thinking about how to add fuel to the fire and ignite him, she heard Kakashi say, "Let's have a fight."
The result was as expected.
After all, they had nearly a decade of experience together, and he himself was considered a genius.
This was probably the most pathetic moment she had ever been in all her years in this world.
With one hand pressed against the back of her neck and a knee pressing down on her lower back, her face was pressed against the rough ground, like a salted fish washed ashore and left to dry in the sun, struggling frantically but unable to break free.
Kakashi touched a wound on his left cheek with his other hand, and a little blood seeped out from the tear in his mask.
"How did you manage to mix Lightning Release into Water Release?" Although it was only a somewhat clumsy attack, it was already shocking enough.
"Water conducts electricity, even elementary school students know this common sense, Captain, you can't be unaware of that, can you?" Although Kanaka didn't win the fight, she was definitely not inferior in verbal skills.
Who taught you that?
The vast majority, or even almost all, of ninjas are unable to simultaneously combine two types of chakra to perform ninjutsu.
As far as he knew, the last person who could do this was the First Hokage, who was hailed as the God of Shinobi. His unique Wood Release technique was based on the precise control of the combination of water and earth chakra.
Kana rolled her eyes and quickly felt the grip on the back of her neck tighten, much like the way she used to interrogate spies in the interrogation room.
At the same time, a kunai was threateningly stuck in her right hand as she was about to secretly perform a ninjutsu.
"Captain, don't you read novels?" Kana coughed slightly as she opened her mouth because she couldn't breathe properly, and then she forced a smile. "People who fall off cliffs and are lucky enough to survive will find unparalleled secret manuals in caves, and then they will become self-taught and defy fate."
Kakashi didn't believe her nonsense at all, but one thing was undeniable: the necessary prerequisite for "teaching" was "mastery," and looking throughout Konoha, there was simply no one who met that requirement.
Therefore, she may not have had any teachers; in other words, she is truly self-taught.
I couldn't help but think of Itachi Uchiha, who almost managed to break free from his control and jump off a cliff to save someone.
What kind of monsters and demons are these kids?
Kakashi paused, his thoughts racing. The most monstrous genius of their generation, the Uchiha, was already dead, and in the future, with some people deliberately obscuring his memory, few would remember him.
He could sense that something was wrong with her emotions and guessed that her provocation was just a way to vent her frustrations openly, but he didn't know the reason.
But at this moment, looking at her dry eyes and tightly pursed lips, he suddenly felt that the silent pain in this body resonated with the same thing in his own body, and the places where their skin touched began to burn as if they were branded with fire.
In that moment of distraction, Kana formed a water blade in her hand and slashed it forcefully at the person who was close by. Grabbing the moment when the restraint on her neck loosened, she turned around and leaped up, landing firmly five steps away. She pulled out the wakizashi that had been knocked away earlier and held it diagonally in front of her chest, ready to attack at any time.
Kakashi didn't want to fight anymore.
While venting through destruction and devastation may temporarily make one forget the pain, this brief period of forgetting will be followed by a backlash of immense emptiness.
He knew this all too well.
For the first time, he realized with absolute clarity that he hated Hinata Kana so much because she was like a mirror, constantly reminding him of the past.
Orphaned at a young age, a child prodigy, aloof and arrogant, lacking teamwork skills, and preferring to act alone.
Most importantly, they are not afraid of death.
And just like him, something important in his life was taken away.
But they are still different—at least she hasn't lost everything.
Then we should do everything in our power to protect what remains.
He put his hands in his pockets. "You have a younger brother, Hyuga Neji, right?"
The wakizashi grazed past a strand of hair on his right side.
Kakashi didn't move; a few strands of his silver hair, cut off and falling onto his shoulder, were casually patted off.
Even though I said that it was just an unimportant burden, it seems like I still get angry because of it.
“During the time you were ‘dead,’ he would wait at the village entrance every day, from morning till night, day after day.”
"He wouldn't allow anyone to build a cenotaph for him, and he wouldn't allow anyone to touch his belongings. Anyone who told him that he was dead would be attacked and bitten like a mad puppy. Even if he was knocked down, he would get up and attack again, bleeding and gritting his teeth."
"This is not a place for you to stay in the Anbu..." The people here are either penniless and living like him, or they have families and everything they need, like Uchiha Itachi.
Although he didn't doubt that she would become an outstanding ninja, but...
"Since you are someone else's 'only one,' don't be so willful."
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