Kondō Bangyan's emotions had been a mess lately.
That day, after finishing his patrol, he sat in his room like he always did, weighed down by a tangle of complicated feelings—regret, guilt, and a nagging terror he couldn't shake.
He had never imagined things would end up like this.
White Fang was dead.
Hatake Sakumo… had actually killed himself.
How was that possible?
This was White Fang. Konoha's White Fang.
It was just one failed mission, wasn't it? Just some gossip from villagers and shinobi, right? And that was enough to drive an elite, Kage-level ninja to suicide? It sounded like a bad joke.
Come on, Bangyan thought bitterly. You're Konoha's White Fang. The man who makes everyone on the battlefield tremble. And you killed yourself over something so small? Is your mental fortitude worse than mine? How did you even become that strong in the first place?!
But things had already happened. Thinking like this was pointless now.
Every time he remembered that he'd played a part in driving White Fang to his death, Kondō Bangyan felt like his mind was about to crack.
Even though Konoha hadn't moved against him yet, he could feel it—his comrades' cold stares. Their silence. Their distance. It made him feel like he was living with a blade at his throat. These days, he didn't even dare walk alone at night.
To be honest, when he first heard that Hatake Sakumo had committed suicide, his first instinct had been to run—to defect immediately.
If he hadn't been under such tight observation, he probably would have run.
Now, every day he lived in fear of someone coming to kill him and tie up loose ends.
Because he understood one thing very clearly:
Only he knew the truth—that Konoha's higher-ups had pushed the situation behind the scenes.
He didn't know who exactly that man was who visited him that night, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was someone high-ranking. No ordinary spy could casually arrange for multiple ninja to guard the perimeter during a "simple conversation." What, was the entire ANBU network supposed to be dead?
Under that high-ranking man's pressure and promises—forcible persuasion, maybe even a little genjutsu slipstreamed in—Bangyan made his choice.
He went to Hatake Sakumo's doorstep, publicly "apologized," and dumped all his pressure onto White Fang's shoulders.
A clean, brutal stab in the back.
Kondō Bangyan thought, at most, this would smear Sakumo's name and knock him down a notch—rein him in a little.
But after White Fang died, everything changed.
Smearing a Kage-level ninja's reputation and driving a Kage-level ninja to his death were two completely different things.
No matter how big Konoha was, they couldn't just shrug off that kind of loss. To make it worse, because of White Fang's death, the Third Great Ninja War was now on the verge of breaking out.
He'd stabbed a hole straight through the sky.
And he knew too much.
The more he thought about it, the more certain he became: sooner or later, they'd silence him.
The only reason he wasn't dead yet was because Sakumo had only recently passed. If he, the closest related party, suddenly died too, it would attract too much attention from the rest of the village.
But once time passed and this "storm" settled?
His ending was not going to be pretty.
Even if they let him live, he'd likely be thrown into some dark department somewhere, forced to work in the shadows under a new name, doing the dirtiest jobs until he died.
As Kondō Bangyan spiraled deeper into despair, a heavy BANG suddenly echoed from the front door, followed by a low male voice:
"Kondō Bangyan, you've been exposed."
Already paranoid, Bangyan nearly jumped out of his skin.
He didn't even stop to think. With a crash, he smashed through the window and bolted to escape.
"…What's with him? Acting so guilty?" Uchiha Feiyu blinked as he kicked open the door and glanced at Kakashi beside him. "Is it just me, or is that really suspicious?"
Kakashi had been dragged here by Feiyu. Initially, he'd hesitated about this whole "vent your anger" operation.
But when Kondō Bangyan took one look and immediately fled without even seeing who it was, Kakashi froze for a second—then his expression went icy.
"That guy is guilty of something," Kakashi snapped. "Let's go. Now."
In the next instant, he shot up onto the roof in a blur, faint lightning starting to crackle over his body as he sprinted after Bangyan.
Outside, the cold wind slapped Kondō Bangyan awake. He looked around desperately and… didn't see a dozen ANBU surrounding him.
A bad realization hit him.
Wait. Why am I running? If it really were ANBU coming for me, would they kick the door open and shout first?
As his panic cleared, he turned back—and saw Kakashi land on a nearby rooftop, staring down at him with cold, sharp eyes.
Kakashi… that brat?! Bangyan's face twisted.
If it was Kakashi, then his reaction just now was basically a confession that he had something to hide.
Kakashi stood on the roof, eyes locked on him, voice like ice.
"You bastard," he said. "You going to come quietly, or do I have to beat you down and drag you to the Intelligence Division?"
Intelligence Division.
The phrase made Bangyan's scalp go numb.
Konoha's Intelligence Division was not a gentle place. People who went in rarely came out unchanged.
Those interrogators didn't waste time asking questions. They opened with genjutsu. If genjutsu failed, they used mental secret techniques to rummage through memories directly.
If anything went slightly wrong during that process, the target could easily end up with permanent mental scars.
And what if someone in that department still held a grudge on White Fang's behalf, and "accidentally" pressed a little too hard?
Would he still have a way to live?
Worse yet, even though he wasn't a spy, he had played a disgraceful role in the White Fang affair. And the one who pushed him into that role?
He had no idea who that man really was.
He just knew:
Someone had fanned the flames.
Someone in the village.
Someone high up.
But he didn't even know the man's face.
So what was he supposed to say under interrogation?
"He said he was a Konoha leader, so I assumed he was"?
Bangyan nearly laughed out loud at the absurdity.
He could insist that the man was a Konoha elder, but the elders would never accept that. They would never carry that blame.
In the end, that black pot would sit right on his head.
He'd become the "foreign spy" scapegoat. The traitor who colluded to bring down Konoha's White Fang. Then he'd die miserably.
He's not sending me to the Intelligence Division…
He's sending me to my death!
The more Kondō Bangyan thought about it, the more terrified he became. His expression twisted over and over—panic, fear, doubt, and then…
Determination.
All of it played out clearly in Kakashi's eyes.
As a naturally gifted shinobi—and the son of the former ANBU commander—Kakashi had been trained to observe people.
That's a guilty face if I've ever seen one, he thought coldly.
Slight tilt of the body. Shifting feet. Eyes darting everywhere.
He's thinking about running.
Sure enough—now Kakashi was completely sure.
This man had a guilty conscience.
…And now the expression changed again.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes.
He recognized that look.
He'd seen it before.
That's the face of someone who's about to fight to the bitter end.
"So that's how it is," he thought.
"You really intend to resist… to the very end, huh?"
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