Watching Kakashi struggle to digest the "poisonous chicken soup" Feiyu had just poured into him, Sakumo turned to Feiyu with a look that clearly said:
Please… actually help my son.
Feiyu rolled his eyes internally.
But this was his number one soul ally now; he couldn't just ignore Sakumo's hopes. So he continued, turning back to Kakashi.
"I know what you want to say," Feiyu began. "Stuff like 'shinobi are tools,' 'we must obey orders,' 'bonds between comrades'… Yeah?"
"But think about it seriously for a second: who are shinobi made of?"
"They're made of people."
"And as long as they're people, you can't erase humanity and turn them into true tools."
He spread his hands.
"If all shinobi were really just tools, why pick a Hokage? Why bother with ranks—genin, Chunin, jonin? If everyone's just a tool, what, does your hammer get to order the screwdriver around?"
"And if they're all tools, what's the point of a Great Ninja War? Tools fighting tools? Ever seen a toolbox where the hammer and the axe start beating each other up on their own?"
The whole "ninja-as-tools" line was just mental conditioning from the village leadership. The logical holes were big enough to throw a tailed beast through.
If shinobi were truly tools, then what were the Hokage, Mizukage, Raikage?
"High-grade tools"?
If they were tools, why could they give orders?
What kind of power drill tells a nail to go hammer itself into a wall?
Kakashi looked dazed. Feiyu's tirade had left him dizzy.
"So… we should value comrades more?" he managed.
"I already said it." Feiyu shrugged. "Even above comrades, you should value yourself first."
He paused, then added:
"I read something once in an old text: 'Love and respect your own elders, and from that, extend respect to the elders of others. Care for your own young, and from that, extend care to the young of others.'"
"I think that's exactly how most people really work."
The Mencius quote—"老吾老,以及人之老;幼吾幼,以及人之幼"—meant:
Respect your own elders → extend that respect to others' elders
Cherish your own children → extend that care to others' children
In practice:
you love your own first
then, from that base, you try to treat others kindly too
Even so-called sages weren't "equal-love machines." They simply loved more broadly and more deeply—but they still had an inner circle and an outer circle.
As for loving everyone equally, without distinction…
That kind of thing was what ancient philosophers in Feiyu's previous life called "Heaven's love."
If a person sincerely believed they could love everyone as equally as the heavens, they weren't a saint; they were insane.
In Feiyu's eyes, Sakumo's behavior had definitely been tinged with that kind of mental illness—over-brainwashed in his youth, the damage lingering into adulthood.
After death, though, Sakumo's "condition" had improved a lot.
Now the sickness had jumped to his son.
Fortunately, Kakashi's case was still in the early stages.
He'd just received his father's legacy scroll, and Feiyu had force-fed him a mix of "toxic realism" and actual sound logic. Now he looked more lost-in-thought than lost-in-life.
"Love my elders, then others'; love my young, then others'…" Kakashi murmured. "Didn't think you'd quote something that actually makes sense… But then—why did Father choose that path?"
Feiyu almost said:
Because your dad got stuck in a mental dead end and snapped.
But with Sakumo's soul floating right beside him, and the possibility of getting stabbed by a grieving prodigy, he suppressed the urge.
Instead, he toned it down.
"Maybe Sakumo-senpai didn't fully understand that idea," Feiyu said softly. "He cared too much about what other people said."
"Look at me—I've been badmouthed by half the Academy for three or four years now, and I'm still perfectly fine, aren't I?"
Kakashi, who had been reflecting deeply, couldn't help it—he rolled his eyes.
This guy really was shameless.
(But… he's not wrong. If Father had his level of shamelessness, he probably wouldn't have cared about those rumors at all…)
Seeing Kakashi finally show some genuine reaction, no longer like the "emotionless tool" from the original timeline, Feiyu quietly let out a breath.
Then something occurred to him. He turned.
"Wanna go train?" he asked. "You've been holed up in here a long time."
"I picked up quite a bit from Sakumo-senpai's scroll. How about a spar?"
Some color returned to Kakashi's eyes.
Even his old arrogance as "Konoha's number one genius" came back a little. He replied calmly:
"A match is fine. Father's swordsmanship isn't that easy to learn."
"If there's anything you don't understand, I can correct you. At least in the basics, even Father admits I've already graduated."
His pride lasted exactly a few exchanges.
At the training ground, Feiyu's body flashed with lightning, his figure moving like a streak of thunder across the clearing.
A few moves later, Kakashi had a short blade at his neck.
He stared, utterly stunned.
"No way… You've had that scroll for how long? And in that short time, you've already mastered Father's sword style?!"
Aside from lacking wind-nature chakra—which shortened his reach and shaved a bit off his speed—Feiyu wasn't that far off from Sakumo himself.
His chakra wasn't as refined.
His sword-work wasn't as polished.
His battle experience couldn't compare.
But the structure of the style—the forms, the flow, the rhythm—he'd already learned it.
Feiyu sheathed the blade with a grin.
"Well, I am an Uchiha, after all. And my Sharingan leveled up recently. Copy-wheel eyes are pretty handy."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes.
The Sharingan had a reputation for "copying everything," but that was a myth in practice.
What it could really copy easily were standard elemental ninjutsu—stuff within reach of the user's own control and affinities.
But techniques that required extreme chakra control, deep nature transformation, or high-level shape manipulation?
Sharingan alone wasn't enough.
Worse yet, genuine secret arts, yin–yang release, sealing techniques, barrier techniques, complex taijutsu/kenjutsu hybrids, even most kekkei genkai… The Sharingan couldn't just take one look and download those.
White Fang's swordsmanship was a nin-taijutsu hybrid, heavily dependent on both control and lightning nature transformation.
For a normal Uchiha, glaring at it until their eyes popped wouldn't get them anywhere near mastery.
A thought crept into Kakashi's mind.
Could it be… he was actually Father's disciple all along? And they just never announced it?
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