After a full two hours, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, finally finished his opening ceremony speech.
Hakushi stood in place, his legs aching, but he patiently took notes on Hiruzen Sarutobi's speech.
As a 'traitor,' before betraying, he absolutely couldn't show any signs of dissatisfaction or anything strange.
This meant that the things Hiruzen Sarutobi said might be tested in the school.
Although the Third Hokage's speech was even more worthless than the motivational literature he had seen in his past life.
With the speech concluded, the students exited in order and returned to their respective classrooms.
The teachers had to conduct a meeting.
Hakushi was assigned to Class 1-A.
The classroom was arranged in a tiered layout, with each table long enough to accommodate three people, meaning three shared one table.
Hakushi found his name, written in bold as 'Chiba Hakushi,' in the middle seat of the second-to-last row by the window.
When he found his seat, the innermost window seat was already taken.
Sitting there was a girl with long, straight black hair, around the same age as Hakushi, about five or six years old.
One hand propped under her chin, she quietly gazed out at the playground, an aura of unapproachability surrounding her.
"Hello, I'm Chiba Hakushi, nice to meet you."
Trying not to attract attention but not appearing too aloof, this was the position Hakushi had decided for himself.
So, when he sat down next to the girl, Hakushi introduced himself first.
She turned her head slightly, removing the hand from her chin, her delicate and cute face showing a slightly aloof and arrogant expression, her dark pupils exuding a pure and icy aura like snow, speaking to Hakushi from a lofty stance:
"Uchiha Ruri."
A cool, long-haired little loli.
After Uchiha Ruri spoke, Hakushi felt the temperature around him drop significantly.
After that, Hakushi didn't have any further thoughts of talking to Uchiha Ruri.
He quietly sat in his seat, flipping through the prepared textbooks on his desk.
The variety of textbooks wasn't small, including "Chronicles of Konoha Village," "Collection of Hokage Quotes," "First Hokage and the Will of Fire"...
Among them, "First Hokage and the Will of Fire" was placed on top.
Hakushi read very seriously, as it was an important way to gather information.
Because of the previous Third Hokage's opening ceremony speech, Hakushi only had a superficial understanding of Konoha Village's promoted 'Will of Fire,' possibly missing out on some aspects.
Now he needed to delve deeper into what this so-called 'Will of Fire' was all about.
He needed to further understand whether this so-called Ninja School was a brainwashing institution.
Although Hakushi no longer harbored any illusions about this village called Konoha.
"First Hokage and the Will of Fire" Introduction—
Where the leaves dance, the fire continues to burn. The light of the fire will illuminate the village and allow the new leaves to sprout.
The meaning of this sentence was easy to understand.
Youth was the village's future hope, and the older generation needed to trust and protect them.
The sacrifices of the older generation were not without value, but to encourage the young to become the pillars of the village's future.
The flame of the burning leaves was a metaphor for the older generation's heroic sacrifices, and the new leaves symbolized the young people.
The cycle of reincarnation.
This was the core essence of the Will of Fire.
At first glance, it seemed good and sensible.
But considering those kids under ten being sent to the battlefield…
Hmm… it seemed like this was about using the youth's sacrifice to illuminate the older generation…
So, this kind of will was both fake and hollow.
At least that's what Hakushi believed.
Why hadn't anyone else in Konoha Village noticed such obvious flaws?
Hakushi continued to read on, unaware of the time passing around him, but as he turned page after page, he felt his lips dry, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
The contents of this book were of no value, entirely filled with empty utopian fantasies.
The will passed down by the God of Ninja was just this?
Had he even read a book?
Where were the guiding principles of the Will of Fire?
The ideological guidelines?
The detailed standards and criteria?
Hakushi found the content in "First Hokage and the Will of Fire" to be glaringly obvious.
The whole book talked about the First Hokage's ideals, family, peace, protecting children…
But there were no concrete plans at all.
Moreover, the protection of children seemed to be failing as well.
Now, a large number of kids under ten were being sent to the battlefield in Konoha, sacrificed as cannon fodder.
Thus, Hakushi finally realized a fact: on every crooked page of this book, the words "Will of Fire" were written.
But through these countless words of "Will of Fire," Hakushi discovered the content between the lines—multilevel marketing.
Konoha Village was a terrorist organization.
The Ninja School was a brainwashing MLM institution.
What's more frightening was that such books were openly present in the Ninja School, what did this imply?
It meant that the village's upper hierarchy had already brainwashed all the adults in the village, and it was now the turn of the new generation of children.
And unfortunately, Hakushi was also to be one of those brainwashed under this so-called 'Will of Fire.'
Until a gentle voice brought him out of his daze.
"Um, are you okay? You're sweating so much, are you feeling unwell?"
"Huh?"
Hakushi turned his head and saw a cute girl with long straight black hair like Uchiha Ruri. However, unlike Uchiha Ruri's icy demeanor, her pure eyes held a softness that suggested she was easy to get along with.
But her eyes were peculiar.
They were of a pure white color without any impurities.
Cataracts?
"Are you okay? You're sweating a lot."
She continued to ask Hakushi with concern in her gentle voice.
Hakushi then touched his face, feeling the cold sweat, and dryly replied, "I'm fine, maybe I accidentally drank expired milk last night and my stomach feels a bit off."
"Really?"
She looked at him with a doubtful gaze.
"Sorry for worrying you. I'm Chiba Hakushi, and you are?"
"Hyuga Ayane, nice to meet you."
With a gentle and generous smile, she introduced herself, and Hakushi was comforted by her pure smile, nodding as he relaxed a bit.
On the other side, Uchiha Ruri glanced at the book Hakushi had been reading earlier with some curiosity, her intuition telling her that Hakushi's cold sweat and the bewildered, frightened look in his eyes had something to do with that book.
Which made Ruri very curious.
It's just a book, could it really frighten someone to that extent?
This seatmate of hers was indeed a strange one.