Green shadows cast by bamboo, a hazy mist.
Kakashi opened his mouth to answer.
But the scene before him flickered rapidly. As light and shadow shifted, the world changed once more.
The era of Great Jin Jiazi—an age where demons plagued the world.
Dark clouds loomed over the city; the setting sun was blood-red.
Kakashi took in his surroundings. He saw broken walls and debris everywhere; everything was in a state of ruin.
Scorched earth, broken swords, and human corpses.
And then there were the giant carcasses, as large as buildings or palaces, sprawling across the streets.
What is this?
Kakashi's pupils constricted. 'Is this a giant summoning beast? Or something else?'
He looked at the unknown beast's remains and the upper half of a human body hanging from its mouth.
Kakashi's expression turned grim as he looked down at his own hands.
"Where am I?"
"The senior sent me here."
"Could this be related to my father?"
He looked at these hands, which no longer belonged to a teenager.
They were covered in soot and blood scabs, yet thick calluses were clearly visible at the base of the thumb and index finger.
By the look of it, they were obviously formed from years of wielding a weapon.
Clang!
Amidst the sound of metal scraping against rust.
Out of habit, Kakashi reached out and drew the long blade from his back.
The blade was dull and lusterless, covered in mottled rust.
Only on the hilt could the words "White Fang" be faintly seen.
"Whose blade is this?"
As he spoke his confusion aloud.
A weathered, mature voice echoed in his ears at the same time.
'Is this Father's voice?'
'No, this... this is mine!'
'Am I in my father's past perspective?'
'Did Father come here too?'
"Great Hero, thank you!"
"Thank you for killing the demon!"
A man wearing a yellow cloth tunic with the word "Soldier" written over his heart stood up from the ruins, coughing.
Following his lead, several villagers hiding in the dilapidated houses began to emerge.
'Was I the one who killed this so-called demon?' Kakashi wondered.
"Thank you, mister."
A cute little girl with hair in buns stood before him, looking up with her fair face.
Soot fell from her hair, yet it couldn't hide her large, spring-like eyes.
"Mister, are you hurt?"
Kakashi looked down at her, momentarily at a loss for words.
"No."
"That's good!"
The little girl smiled, revealing a missing front tooth.
"Mister, you're amazing! You cut down such a huge monster in one strike!"
"This gourd of wine was brewed by my mother for when I get married."
Sui said, her little face flushing slightly.
"Even though I'm still small, Mother said this is for the most important person."
"Mister saved us, so I... I'm giving it to you."
Looking at the girl's sincere face, Kakashi's hand stopped mid-air as he reached out.
"The demon is dead. You are safe now."
"Head east. There is a government settlement camp thirty miles away."
The soldier with the word "Soldier" on his chest finished speaking with a cough.
The villagers looked at one another. Some began gathering their broken belongings, some picked up their deceased kin, and others just stood there blankly, as if they hadn't yet processed the disaster.
Still holding up the wine gourd, the little girl said in a childish voice.
"Mister, what's your name?"
After a brief silence, Kakashi replied clearly.
"Hatake Sakumo. I am Hatake Sakumo."
"Uncle Sakumo!"
The little girl's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled.
"My name is Sui! When I grow up, I want to kill monsters just like you!"
The scene before him flickered.
The girl's voice blurred and vanished.
When he could see clearly again, Kakashi found himself sprinting toward a certain direction at full speed.
The half-empty wine gourd dangled at his waist, and his recently injured left arm hung limply.
The mountain path was rugged, but with his right hand on the hilt, he seemed to be gliding just above the ground.
The white mist from his breath dispersed the fine rain of the cold night.
Spring thunder rumbled, illuminating the valley.
Ahead, the road was littered with the wailing of traveling parties. Rain mixed with blood, pooling in a monster's footprint half a meter wide.
Regaining control of the body, Kakashi looked past the severed limbs on the ground.
A demon thirty feet long, resembling an armored rhino, was kneeling on its front legs.
A black-haired girl with a round face and hair buns was plunging a long blade into the beast's eye.
"Cough! Cough!"
Mouthfuls of bright red blood spilled from the girl's lips, dripping down her pale chin onto the ground.
Circling to the front, Kakashi saw that the rhino's foot-wide horn had completely impaled the girl's abdomen.
Beneath the horn, only two strips of flesh at her waist still connected her torso to her lower body.
"Mas... Master, I killed a demon too."
"Your techniques... I didn't waste my time learn—"
The word 'learning' never made it out. On her lowered face, the light had already faded from her eyes.
As the hand she had reached into her robes with went limp.
A manual with a blue cover slid into the muddy water.
Rain beat against the cover, where five words were faintly visible.
Zhenwu Hundred Refinements Manual
Kakashi reached out and picked it up.
And time seemed to accelerate with his reach.
Before a small grave, half a gourd of strong wine was poured out.
Donning his bamboo hat once more, the middle-aged swordsman left his home.
Ten years passed in a flash.
Kakashi's steps continued forward.
At the end of the mountain path, firelight flickered faintly.
It was a dilapidated Mountain God Temple. The door was ajar, letting out a dim, yellowish glow.
Several figures huddled around a fire. Hearing footsteps, they all tightened their grips on their weapons.
Among the assortment of items, there were hoes, wood-chopping knives, and wooden sticks.
"Who's there?"
A raspy voice demanded.
Kakashi didn't answer. He simply entered the temple and sat on the other side of the fire.
The firelight illuminated his face.
When those people clearly saw the blade at his waist and the words "White Fang" on the hilt, their expressions changed instantly.
"It's... it's the Great Hero Sakumo!"
Someone shouted in surprise.
Kakashi looked up at them.
These seven or eight people, young and old, were dressed in rags and bore various injuries.
Their leader was an old man in his fifties.
He held a chipped wood-chopping knife, but his eyes were bright.
"My Lord."
"Did you come from the north? How is it... how is it over there?"
The old man stood up, leaning on his knife.
"The northern villages..."
"...are gone."
Kakashi's voice trailed off.
The fire crackled.
No one spoke again.
After a long time, a woman holding a child began to weep softly. The old man's body swayed, and he only stayed upright by bracing himself with his knife against the ground.
He murmured, tears rolling down the furrows of his cheeks.
"Gone, all gone."
"My son, my daughter-in-law, my little grandson... they were all in the north."
Kakashi looked into his eyes.
There was no anger or hatred in those eyes, only bottomless sorrow.
He thought of his father's disciple, Sui.
He remembered her saying "Master, I killed a demon too" before she died.
He thought of the Zhenwu Hundred Refinements Manual she had pulled from her robes.
"Head south."
"There is a government settlement camp thirty miles away."
"My Lord, we can't walk anymore. We have the elderly, the young, and the wounded. We won't make it thirty miles."
Kakashi looked at the group.
It was true.
A boy had a broken leg, wrapped haphazardly in rags, with blood still seeping through.
An old man's cough had stained the front of his robes red.
The woman holding the child was as pale as a sheet.
They wouldn't make it thirty miles.
"And..."
"My Lord, there is something in these mountains."
The old man's voice dropped to a low whisper.
Kakashi's gaze sharpened instantly.
"What is it?"
The old man swallowed hard and said with difficulty.
"We fled from the west. When we passed Black Wind Ridge, we saw... we saw a massive python."
"The demon was as thick as a water vat, and it had horns on its head. It was eating people—eating the refugees."
Before he could finish, a muffled thud suddenly came from outside the temple.
It sounded like something heavy hitting the ground.
Everyone froze instantly.
Kakashi's hand moved to his hilt.
A second thud.
Closer.
The fire flickered violently, as if blown by some unseen breath.
A third thud.
In the darkness outside the temple door, two oily green lights shone like lanterns.
Those were eyes.
The eyes of a snake.
"A d-demon..."
someone stammered.
The temple door was smashed open by a colossal force, sending wood splinters flying.
A massive head peered inside, covered in purple scales with two short horns on top. A forked tongue flicked in and out of its gaping maw.
It was the python.
It was even larger than the old man had described.
The head alone was as large as half the temple.
The oily green eyes looked down at the tiny humans in the temple, firelight dancing in its pupils.
No one screamed.
Pushed to the brink of terror, they were unable to make a sound.
Kakashi stood up.
The python's gaze swept over the people.
Finally, it landed on the standing Kakashi.
And then on the blade at his waist.
A flicker of wariness crossed those green eyes.
But soon, the demon's overwhelming greed suppressed its caution.
It opened its mouth.
A foul, bloody stench blasted toward him.
Then, a snowy white flash of a blade suddenly erupted!
Kakashi drew his blade.
That strike was simple.
There were no fancy moves or dazzling effects.
It was simply fast.
So fast the python couldn't react, so fast the blood mist couldn't spread, so fast it surpassed the speed of sound.
The edge swept through the python's vitals.
The massive head fell to the ground.
Only the snake's body remained, writhing.
Kakashi sheathed his blade.
The hilt revealed the words "White Fang."
He looked down at those two words, then at his own hand.
'How many demons has this hand killed?'
He couldn't count them all.
But he remembered every single strike.
Behind every demon were people like Sui and those in this temple.
"My Lord!"
The old man's trembling voice came from behind.
Kakashi turned around.
The old man was kneeling at the temple entrance, and everyone behind him knelt as well.
"My Lord, you saved us. You saved our lives."
Kakashi looked at them.
The boy with the broken leg, the coughing old man, the woman holding her child.
In their eyes, there was sorrow and fear.
But now, there was something else.
That something was hope, placed in him.
The dream world shattered.
Kakashi sat up abruptly.
Just like last time, he was still in his own yard.
However, a blue-covered ancient manual lay quietly by his side.
Zhenwu Hundred Refinements Manual