Kill or not?

It's been two weeks since that night with Guy. Unexpectedly, he didn't show up the next day.

There was only a message from his father saying briefly that he would prepare him, teaching a particular technique. You don't have to be a genius to figure out what the jutsu was.

Probably the Eight Inner Gates, the only jutsu that Dai could use in his life.

According to his father, Hatake Sakumo, he had seriously talked to Dai to the point of preventing him from hesitating to teach his son what the ninja world is really like. In other words, preparing him to kill or defend himself. No one would want to send their child to war or train to kill when they're not even 10 years old. Even if the world is cruel.

Obviously, Eiji didn't go after them either. When he's ready, he'll come for training.

Soon, a voice called me. "Eiji, come to the courtyard immediately." He quickly snapped out of his thoughts and headed towards the courtyard.

"What happened, Dad?" Eiji soon noticed that there were the two rabbits that both he and Kakashi received from him to take care of. In front of him, there were two kunai on the ground.

"What's going on here?" Eiji questioned. After all, it seemed like Eiji was the only one bothered by this situation.

"What do you both think is expected of a ninja?" Sakumo questioned his sons. Over time, he had made up his mind and made the decision. His sons needed to experience the hesitation and pain of taking a life. And the cruelest thing would be to kill someone close to them or some animal they had cared for so diligently. It's cruel, but that's the life of a ninja.

"Complete the missions assigned to us," Kakashi answered without hesitation. Eiji frowned and let it pass for now.

"And you, Eiji?" Sakumo calmly waited for his response.

"The ability to kill someone without hesitation, if it's necessary to save the lives of your comrades and accomplish the mission." He thought for a long time and couldn't think of anything else.

"You're both right and wrong at the same time." There was no satisfaction on his face with our answers. His stoic face didn't reveal much.

"Huh?" We both were caught by surprise.

"Obviously, a ninja must kill; if you don't kill, you'll be killed; it's basically the same for your response, Kakashi. A ninja must always complete their mission; if they don't, they're scum," Sakumo spoke calmly, word for word.

"But... an exceptional and expected ninja must endure." Eiji couldn't understand what he meant, and he just silently listened to him continue.

"The ninja they expect everyone to be, regardless of age or position, is simple. A ninja capable of enduring their emotions, capable of enduring killing an enemy, capable of enduring sacrificing a comrade or themselves for the mission, capable of enduring sending their ninjas on a mission, even if it's impossible to complete it." His clarification was completely unexpected.

"But such a ninja doesn't exist, we are human, and we can't kill our emotions, they don't die, they're always there, often unable to endure killing their enemies, they haunt them in their minds. Many wouldn't endure sending their comrade to death... even if they did, they'd be haunted for the rest of their life." At some point, some of his words seemed to carry indescribable sadness.

"..."

"..."

We didn't know how to respond, or rather, we had nothing to say. Only those who have experienced such situations know what they're feeling.

As someone who lived in such a peaceful society that his psyche wouldn't even let him kick a dog without feeling extremely guilty about it, much less kill something or someone. It would be impossible for him to even think of committing such a crime.

"You know that a war is going to happen in a few years, no matter how brilliant you two are or how strong you are here, in a war, that means nothing. Because you two aren't training to kill, and you've never killed anything."

He walked towards us while picking up the kunai that were on the ground and placed them in our hands. We could see that he didn't want to do this, but it was necessary.

"You two are at the Chunin level, but you've never faced other ninjas in the Village, meaning you've never stepped out of your comfort zone. Despite having so much strength and chakra. There are countless ninjas in the Village who can defeat you with their hands tied, why don't they fear death? They have experience with it. There will always be a big gap between people with 'experience' and people 'without experience.' These things can easily change the course of a fight, something that obviously others don't have."

"So, you two will kill these two rabbits that you've both been taking care of, here and now."

Kakashi frowned and grimaced, even someone who didn't show much emotion couldn't resist the urge to reject the idea. Although I think he simply didn't want to kill something as cute as a rabbit.

"..."