Chapter 2

After a full two hours, the Third Hokage Sarutobi's opening ceremony speech finally concluded.

Baisei stood in place, his legs aching, but he patiently took notes of Sarutobi's speech.

As a 'traitor,' before betraying, he absolutely could not show any dissatisfaction or peculiar behavior.

In other words, what the Third Hokage Sarutobi said might very well be on the school exams.

Although the content of the Third Hokage's speech was even more cliché than the motivational articles he had read in his previous life.

After the speech, the students left the venue in order, returning to their respective classes.

The teachers, on the other hand, had a meeting.

Baisei was assigned to Class 1-A.

The classroom was arranged in a stepped layout, with each desk long enough for three people, meaning three students shared one desk.

Baisei found his name, written in bold, 'Chiba Baisei,' on the second-to-last row by the window, in the middle.

When he found his seat, the farthest seat by the window was already occupied.

It was a girl with long, straight black hair, about the same age as Baisei, around five or six years old.

She rested her chin on her hand, looking quietly out the window at the playground, exuding an aura that made it hard for others to approach her.

"Hello, my name is Chiba Baisei, please take care of me."

He tried not to draw attention to himself but also did not want to appear too isolated; this was the position Baisei had chosen for himself.

So, when he sat down next to the girl, Baisei introduced himself first.

She slightly turned her head, removing the hand that was propping up her chin. Her delicate and cute face showed a slightly cold and proud expression, her pitch-black pupils radiating a pure and cold aura like snowflakes, and she spoke to Baisei in a condescending tone:

"Uchiha Ruri."

What a cold and aloof little girl with long, straight black hair.

After Uchiha Ruri spoke, Baisei felt the temperature around him drop significantly.

After that, Baisei had no intention of speaking to Uchiha Ruri again.

He quietly sat in his seat, flipping through the textbooks that were already prepared on the desk.

There were not few types of textbooks, including "The Chronicles of Konoha," "The Complete Collection of Hokage Sayings," "The First Hokage and the Will of Fire"...

Among them, "The First Hokage and the Will of Fire" was placed on top.

Baisei read it very seriously, as it was an important source of information.

Because of the Third Hokage's opening ceremony speech, Baisei only had a superficial understanding of Konoha's "Will of Fire," and there might be some missing parts.

Now he wanted to delve deeper into what the "Will of Fire" was all about.

He wanted to understand whether this so-called ninja school was actually a brainwashing institution.

Although Baisei no longer harbored any illusions about this village called Konoha.

The opening words of "The First Hokage and the Will of Fire"—

Where the leaves dance, the fire burns eternally. The fire will continue to illuminate the village and make new leaves sprout.

The meaning of this sentence was easy to understand.

Young people are the future hope of the village, and the older generation must trust and protect them.

The sacrifices of the older generation are not in vain but rather to encourage the young to become pillars of the village's future.

The burning leaves of the older generation are a metaphor for their heroic sacrifices, while the new leaves represent the young.

A cycle of life and death.

This is the core essence of the Will of Fire.

At first glance, it seemed quite nice and reasonable.

But thinking about the children under ten years old being sent to the battlefield...

Hmm... This seems to be using the sacrifices of the young to illuminate the older generation...

So, this will is false and hollow.

At least, that's what Baisei thought.

Why didn't the others in Konoha notice such an obvious flaw?

Baisei continued reading, unaware of the passing time. As he turned page after page, he felt his lips dry and beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

The content of this book was completely devoid of substance, filled with nothing but worthless idealistic fantasies.

Is this the will passed down by the God of Ninjas?

Did he even read books?

Where are the guiding principles of the Will of Fire?

Where are the ideological guidelines?

Where are the detailed standards and measures?

Baisei found the content of "The First Hokage and the Will of Fire" very glaring.

It was all about the First Hokage's ideals, such as family, peace, and protecting children...

But there were no specific plans.

Moreover, the protection of children seemed to be a lie.

Currently, a large number of children under ten years old in Konoha are being sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

Thus, Baisei finally realized a fact: every page of this book, slanted and crooked, was filled with the words "Will of Fire."

But through the countless "Will of Fire" on the pages, Baisei discovered the content between the lines—brainwashing.

Konoha was a terrifying organization.

The ninja school was a brainwashing institution.

More frighteningly, such books were openly present in the ninja school. What did this mean?

It meant that the upper echelons of the village had already brainwashed all the adults, and now it was the turn of the new generation of children.

Unfortunately, Baisei himself would also be one of the members brainwashed by this so-called "Will of Fire."

It wasn't until a gentle voice reached his ears that Baisei snapped out of his trance.

"Hey, are you okay? You're sweating a lot. Is something wrong?"

"Huh?"

Baisei turned his head and saw a cute girl with long, straight black hair, similar to Uchiha Ruri. Unlike Uchiha Ruri's icy expression, this girl's pure eyes had a clear, gentle hue, making her seem easy to get along with.

Only her eyes were very strange.

They were a pure white without any impurities.

Cataracts?

"You're okay, right? Your face is sweating a lot."

The girl continued to ask Baisei in a gentle tone.

Baisei touched his face and found a lot of cold sweat. He dryly shook his head and said, "I'm fine, I might have accidentally drunk expired milk last night, and my stomach is a bit uncomfortable."

"Is that so?"

The girl looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Sorry for worrying you. I'm Chiba Baisei, and you are?"

"Hinata Ayane, please take care of me."

The girl smiled warmly, and Baisei was also infected by her pure smile, nodding in relief.

On the other side, Uchiha Ruri glanced thoughtfully at the book Baisei had been reading. Her intuition told her that Baisei was sweating because of the book in his hands, and his eyes showed clear signs of confusion and fear.

This made Ruri very curious.

Just a book, could it make someone so afraid?

My seatmate is really a strange person.