After defeating Kakashi Hatake, Zhao Yi Qianming's name spread quickly through the village. Even walking down the street, he sometimes overheard people whispering about him.
Konoha's White Fang was one of the village's greats, said to surpass even the Legendary Sannin, a hero revered by all. As the gifted son of the White Fang, Kakashi naturally drew wide attention.
This time, Zhao Yi Qianming had beaten Kakashi. No matter the means, the reputation was made.
Among civilian shinobi the story spread even more.
Konoha had been founded not long ago. Civilian shinobi still struggled to rise. In wartime, most civilians were used as cannon fodder, while clan shinobi rarely took the most dangerous assignments.
Civilian shinobi resented it but were powerless.
Now, among Konoha's current elites, both Orochimaru and Jiraiya were civilians, and Jiraiya's student Minato Namikaze was beginning to show his edge. These facts gave civilians real hope.
And now a civilian, Zhao Yi Qianming, had even defeated the White Fang's son.
All of this stirred the civilian shinobi. It felt like they could already see their day coming.
After finals, the Academy granted a two-month break.
With an adult's mind and a clear sense of how strong future enemies would be, Zhao Yi Qianming did not get cocky over one win against Kakashi. Besides daily training, he often went to Yamamoto Hideyoshi's home to consult on Ninjutsu, absorbing shinobi knowledge nonstop.
This delighted Yamamoto Hideyoshi.
Not only did Zhao Yi Qianming avoid complacency, he trained even harder. Pleased, Yamamoto answered every request. Whenever Zhao Yi Qianming came to ask, he taught without holding anything back.
Two months passed in a blink, though they left Zhao Yi Qianming a bit frustrated.
He had thought that after showing talent this time he would draw the attention, even the recruitment, of Konoha's higher-ups.
He had even decided that if Danzo Shimura invited him to join Root, he would accept without hesitation.
A hidden village existed to cultivate shinobi, but at the start it was built from major clans. In that structure, it was hard for civilians to break out.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya looked glamorous, but without the Third Hokage's guidance they would never have reached such heights. Minato Namikaze's rise to Fourth Hokage would also owe much to Jiraiya's tutelage.
Outside of the famous few, thousands of civilians in Konoha struggled in obscurity.
Joining Root would come with limits and even brainwashing, but at least it was a shortcut to becoming strong.
Danzo would die to Sasuke Uchiha one day anyway. As long as he survived to then, freedom could still be taken back.
If you live, you can rise.
Yet to Zhao Yi Qianming's disappointment, the two months passed quietly.
If Root would not take him, then he would wait for graduation and hope for a good sensei assignment.
'Looks like I need to keep showing what I can do,' he thought.
He didn't know that in Root's underground rooms Danzo Shimura was grinding his teeth in frustration.
When Danzo saw Zhao Yi Qianming's talent, he did consider pulling him into Root. At five years old he was at just the right age to mold.
Danzo even pictured a future where a powerful ninja under his hand crushed the Hokage faction.
But Zhao Yi Qianming was already an Academy student. Graduates were counted as the Hokage faction. If Danzo wanted to recruit him, he would still have to sound out the Third Hokage.
The Third Hokage was an old fox. He would not so easily hand a gifted child to Root. No matter how much Danzo pressed, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not agree.
This Third Hokage was not yet the fading elder of later years. He had earned the epithet "Ninja Hero." Faced with that strength, Danzo could only bow his head.
And so Zhao Yi Qianming and Root passed by each other.
Academy days were plain. School, then training. Boring, but Zhao Yi Qianming kept at it. To live well in the shinobi world, you needed strength.
After defeating Kakashi, Zhao Yi Qianming became first in the year. Some still insisted Kakashi was stronger and claimed Zhao Yi Qianming had only won through stratagem.
Most civilian shinobi, however, backed Zhao Yi Qianming.
He waited for Kakashi's challenge, but then the rumor spread through the village, and he realized there might never be another chance.
Sakumo Hatake, Konoha's White Fang, had abandoned a mission, causing heavy loss to the village.
Zhao Yi Qianming didn't know what mission the White Fang abandoned or whether the rumors were nudged along by the senior leadership. Such things were far from his life, and he wasn't interested.
There is darkness everywhere. There is politics everywhere. Zhao Yi Qianming didn't care, so long as it didn't touch him.
It was a pity, though, for Kakashi Hatake, a prodigy with astonishing gifts.
His father's death, and later a friend's, would leave Kakashi dispirited for a long time, wasting precious years. Zhao Yi Qianming knew that from this moment on, Kakashi might never again be his equal.
The rumors circulated for days, then one day they stopped. No one in the village spoke of the White Fang again.
That day, Kakashi did not come to school.
Zhao Yi Qianming knew then that Konoha's White Fang had likely taken his own life.
Yet the death caused no great ripple in the village. Most civilians didn't even know he was gone. News of the Hatake Clan vanished without a sound.
As for Kakashi, whom Zhao Yi Qianming cared about, there was no news at all.
Two months later, something major happened at the Academy: five-year-old Kakashi Hatake formally graduated, setting the fastest graduation record in Konoha's history. The impact was huge.
On the day of graduation, the Third Hokage personally presided over the ceremony and tied Konoha's forehead protector onto Kakashi's brow. Most of the cohort came to watch.
Seeing Kakashi walk out of the exam hall, Zhao Yi Qianming felt he was like a dead man. No vitality in him at all. He said nothing, like a puppet.
After the ceremony Kakashi left alone without a word to anyone.
Zhao Yi Qianming went too, only to witness a prodigy's fall.
One could say Kakashi's talent had been cut down by Konoha's darkness. Seeing that lifeless figure with his own eyes, Zhao Yi Qianming repeated to himself again and again that he must never end up like that.
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