Rustle—
The wind swept past the two-story building, and outside, only the sound of leaves whispering against one another remained.
Nothing else.
"An illusion?"
Uchiha Arata muttered to himself, though his gaze stayed fixed—suspiciously—on the densely packed treetops.
Whooo—
The night wind carried the low roar of pine trees from Konoha's back mountains, slipping quietly across the eaves and settling on the crooked-neck tree in front of the house.
Jin stood before the run-down two-story building, one hand holding two bulging trash bags, staring straight at the crooked tree twenty meters away.
In his eyes, streams of light surged.
Dynamic Vision—on!
Whooo—
The wind grew stronger. Between the branches twenty meters away, a strand of silver hair swayed gently in the night breeze—
Like moonlight condensed into spider silk.
"So it really is you, White-Haired ANBU… Kakashi-senpai."
Jin smiled and casually lifted the trash bags, greeting him.
Crack.
Up in the treetops, the relaxed muscles of the figure tensed slightly.
"You recognized me?"
Beneath the mask, Kakashi's throat bobbed. In his exposed single eye, a hint of amusement appeared.
"Didn't expect Konoha to produce such an interesting kid after all these years."
Thinking that, he pushed aside the branches and poked his head out to take a closer look.
The moment he did—
He got hit right in the face.
"So, Kakashi-senpai," Jin said, swinging the trash bags, dropping a massive blame-bomb,
"don't you think someone should teach this kid that expired milk can't be drunk—and that eating instant noodles every day isn't healthy?"
Crack.
A dry leaf snapped underfoot.
Kakashi froze in place, his expression shifting again and again.
Guilt.
Self-reproach.
Truth be told, from the dazed days after losing his teammates, to numbing himself through endless killing on the battlefield…
Kakashi had once been completely lost.
Thankfully, by leaning into laziness and apathy, he'd eventually crawled back out.
But—
That lazy nature never really went away.
Now that it had been bluntly pointed out, a thought crept into his mind:
"If Sensei Minato knew his orphan was living like this… he'd probably be disappointed in me."
Unconsciously, Kakashi halted his step.
He didn't want to show himself.
—or rather, he didn't dare.
He didn't dare face that eerily familiar little face below.
Little Naruto… really does look like Minato-sensei.
With that thought, Kakashi flicked his wrist, slicing through nearby leaves and revealing two ANBU hidden inside.
The two ANBU, who had been eating meatballs while watching the show:
???
Wait—Kakashi-senpai?!
Their movements stiffened instantly.
Reflexively, they turned toward the window.
Six eyes met.
"Ah! Isn't this the cat-face uncle who watched my house every day last month?"
Jin's voice suddenly jumped three octaves, excitement written all over his face.
"Why didn't you come this month? The new cat-face uncle is mute—doesn't say a single word."
"Sigh… just keeps going 'ah-ba ah-ba'…"
啪.
Both ANBU froze solid.
Especially one of them—
Crack!
His mask split open, revealing a pale face beneath.
He was about to cry.
When monitoring the Uchiha clan, he'd spent every day up in trees, being chatted up and teased like a monkey!
To get him to talk more, this damned Uchiha brat had even used bananas as bait.
Bananas!
Did he really think he was a monkey?!
He was a chūnin, damn it! He had dignity!
That was why—after enduring two and a half years—he'd finally requested a transfer.
And yet…
Who could've imagined he'd run into this kid here?!
The buzzing in his ears drove him mad.
Finally, he snapped.
"Shut up already!"
"I've already applied for a transfer—why the hell am I still running into you?!"
"Damn it, I get paid peanuts! Why should I risk my life for this?!"
With that, he turned and bolted.
Behind him, his fellow ANBU hesitated for a moment… then silently followed.
After all, with Kakashi-senpai around, whether they were there or not didn't really matter.
Kakashi: ...
"As ANBU, getting scared off by a kid?" he sneered coldly.
"Too impetuous. Young people these days."
He was about to chase them down—
When the boy's voice drifted over again from the window.
"Kakashi-senpai, you wouldn't want this getting back to your teacher… would you?"
Crack.
Another branch snapped.
Kakashi sighed and stopped.
His silver hair emerged from the leaves, eyes filled with suspicion.
Who exactly is this kid?
A five- or six-year-old who knew this much?
Even his personal secrets?!
This wasn't normal.
Was there something wrong with the Uchiha clan?
…Maybe chatting with this little brat would reveal something interesting.
Thinking that, Kakashi felt even more disdain for the two ANBU who had just fled.
A perfectly good chance to extract information openly—and they ran.
"Sigh… kids these days are too impatient."
He shook his head, standing upright on the tree trunk.
"Relax," Jin said, sitting cross-legged by the window, casually brushing the breeze aside.
"I just wanted to ask—when you use Earth Style: Earth Wall, do you have to carve a dog's head on it?"
Kakashi: I kind of want to leave now.
Three minutes later, Kakashi's brow twitched slightly.
[Conversation Target: Hatake Kakashi]
[Analyzing copyable traits…]
[Frailty (Black), Sharingan·Incomplete (Purple), Fire Release Mastery (Blue), Water Release Mastery (Blue), Lightning Release Mastery (Blue), Earth Release Mastery (Blue), Taijutsu Mastery (Blue), Genjutsu Mastery (Blue)…]
"Whoa! So this is the so-called Little Jiraiya, the six-sided warrior—Kakashi?"
Seeing the scanned traits, Jin was genuinely surprised.
Even knowing this legendary Copy Ninja had countless techniques…
Seeing mastery after mastery pop up still exceeded expectations.
The Sharingan surely played a role—but not that big a one.
Otherwise, why did most Uchiha only specialize in Fire Release?
Did the others not want to master more?!
More importantly—
With so many mastery traits, copying even one should at least yield an excellent trait, right?
With these odds, it couldn't possibly give him Frailty, could it?
Jin didn't believe his luck was that bad.
Of course, if he managed to copy something like Raikiri or Chidori, that would be even better.
Thinking this far, he couldn't help but feel excited about the trait copy ten minutes later.
"Looks like I'll need to chat with Kakashi more often."
Jin thought this, his gaze toward Kakashi filled with anticipation.
Ten minutes.
Kakashi rubbed his temples, feeling irritated.
He'd wanted to extract information—
But this kid just kept spouting nonsense!
And stabbing right where it hurt!
Sure, kids spoke without restraint—
But this was way too unrestrained!
It was like someone repeatedly jabbing a knife into his heart.
If the person in front of him weren't a child, Kakashi felt he might've already pulled out a kunai and shut Jin up for good.
[Conversation with Hatake Kakashi has reached ten minutes. Attempting trait copy…]
[Copy successful. Congratulations to the host for obtaining Special Trait: Thousand Years of Death (Black).]
[Thousand Years of Death (Black): Uses a special posture to strike an opponent's weak point—often producing miraculous results.]
Jin's smile froze.
Well… yes, but—
He really didn't need this.
Was he supposed to jump around the battlefield—
Weak Presence on, Flying Thunder God underfoot—
And go around Thousand Years of Death-ing everyone who took off?
…Whoever flies, gets poked?
"…Should I just… melt it down?"
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/CanonBreaker