"You underestimate me too much," Reiji said darkly.
The wind swept through the clearing, stirring the grass around their feet and rattling the branches overhead with a dry whisper. Several meters away, Sakumo stood relaxed as if none of it mattered, one hand casually resting near the hilt strapped across his back.
At Reiji's words, the jōnin smiled.
Like he had just heard something entertaining.
"Not really, no."
Reiji scoffed loudly, letting irritation sharpen his expression. "I'm serious. Don't blame me if you end up getting yourself killed."
Outwardly he looked furious, shoulders tense and breathing slightly heavier, but inside his thoughts remained perfectly calm.
Sakumo was provoking him deliberately.
The older shinobi had been doing it since the beginning of the team gathering, constantly belittling him, mocking his age, pushing at his pride to bait him into a reckless attack. Reiji understood the tactic perfectly. Sakumo wanted him emotional. Wanted him to overcommit. Wanted him to stop thinking.
So Reiji decided to give him exactly what he expected.
Let him think he lost control.
Meanwhile, beneath the false anger, Reiji's concentration narrowed entirely inward as he molded chakra deep within his coils. Wind and water twisted together inside his body with familiar resistance before slowly merging into something colder, denser. Usually he directed the transformed chakra toward a single point of release—his hands, his lungs, a focused tenketsu where he could expel the Hyōton cleanly.
This time he spread it everywhere.
The chakra circulated through his entire body, flooding every pathway and pressing beneath every tenketsu simultaneously. Arms. Legs. Chest. Neck. Even the skin across his face prickled painfully from the pressure building beneath it.
The strain hit him instantly.
A splitting headache pulsed behind his eyes as he forced the transformed chakra to remain stable without erupting prematurely. His entire body felt tight, overstretched, like a container filled beyond its limits. Worse still was hiding it. Sakumo's instincts were monstrous; any unusual fluctuation in posture, breathing, or chakra flow could expose the trap immediately.
Don't let him notice.
Reiji inhaled once through his nose.
Then moved.
He launched forward, dirt scattering behind him while he leapt directly toward Sakumo. At the same time, his arm snapped outward and the chain of his kusarigama rattled sharply through the air. The sickle spun toward Sakumo's neck in a tight arc, its curved blade glinting briefly beneath the moonlight.
Come on.
Take the bait.
Sakumo smiled.
Then disappeared.
The sickle cut through empty air with a violent whistle before the chain snapped taut behind Reiji. His instincts screamed a fraction of a second later.
Too fast.
Sakumo appeared at his flank in midair and drove a kick directly into Reiji's ribs.
The impact landed like a hammer.
Pain exploded through his side as the force folded his body sideways and launched him violently through the air. Breath left his lungs in a rough burst, the shock traveling through his ribs and spine hard enough to numb his arm for an instant.
And yet—
Reiji smiled.
Got you.
Hyōton: Utsuro.
The instant Sakumo's leg connected, Reiji released everything.
The Hyōton chakra flooding his body erupted outward through every tenketsu simultaneously.
Cold exploded into the clearing.
Ice burst from his body with terrifying speed, expanding so suddenly the surrounding air cracked sharply from the temperature drop, a jagged ice figure frozen in the shape Reiji had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
For the first time since the fight began, Sakumo's expression changed.
Surprise.
His leg remained embedded inside the rapidly forming structure, instantly encased as the ice hardened around him.
Meanwhile, the real Reiji was launched free by the force of the kick, twisting through the air as pain burned through his side.
But he was already moving.
His wrist jerked sharply and the kusarigama's chain redirected instantly through the air. The metal links wrapped around Sakumo's torso and trapped leg with a loud metallic rattle before tightening violently.
Reiji pulled hard.
Fresh frost immediately spread along the chains.
Ice crawled rapidly over Sakumo's body, climbing from the frozen statue and racing across the metal links in thick crystalline layers. The cold intensified so quickly that even the grass beneath Sakumo's feet began whitening from the temperature drop.
For one brief instant, the trap unfolded exactly as Reiji imagined.
Then his eyes widened.
The trapped figure burst apart into crackling blue-white chakra that surged violently through the chains toward Reiji's hands. Sparks illuminated the clearing in rapid flashes as the electrical current raced along the metal links with terrifying speed.
A lightning clone.
Shit.
Reiji immediately released the chains, throwing them aside before the current could reach him, but the realization came too late.
A voice spoke quietly behind him.
"Sorry," Sakumo said lightly. "I lied."
Reiji twisted instinctively, but he was still airborne.
Sakumo's strike slammed into the side of his head.
The impact detonated through his skull.
The world spun violently as Reiji crashed into the ground hard enough to tear through the dirt and grass, his shoulder smashing first before the rest of his body rolled across the clearing in a spray of loose soil and shattered frost. Pain ripped through his ribs each time he bounced against the earth before momentum finally died several meters away.
For a moment he simply lay there, ears ringing loudly while blood filled his mouth with a sharp metallic taste.
And somewhere behind him—
Sakumo laughed quietly.
With his mind still reeling from the impact, Reiji pushed himself back to his feet, sandals grinding against the torn earth of the clearing. A few meters away, the remnants of shattered ice glittered across the ground, slowly melting into the grass where his trap had failed.
"You bastard," Reiji muttered while straightening fully, one hand briefly touching his temple. "You dare lie to your poor student?"
Sakumo raised an eyebrow innocently.
"Don't tell me you actually trust what comes out of a shinobi's mouth." His tone remained light, almost conversational. "I hoped Soichiro taught you better than that."
The jōnin bent slightly and picked up the discarded kusarigama lying nearby, the chain dragging softly through the dirt as he inspected it with open curiosity. The metal links reflected faintly beneath the moonlight, traces of frost still clinging stubbornly to parts of the weapon.
"Whoa," Sakumo said while giving the chain a small shake. "That whole chain is chakra-conductive metal? That must've cost a fortune."
A grin spread lazily across his face.
"Did daddy buy it for you?"
Reiji's jaw tightened.
Then he inhaled sharply.
Cold chakra surged upward from deep within his coils before erupting from his mouth in a violent stream of white snow and freezing mist.
Hyōton: Hakuen.
The technique exploded outward instantly.
A dense white haze spread across the clearing as snow particles flooded the air, carried by freezing winds that rolled low across the ground and between the surrounding trees. Visibility collapsed within seconds. Grass whitened beneath the spreading frost while the air itself became painfully cold to breathe.
Sakumo vanished into the storm.
So did Reiji.
He immediately lowered his body temperature as he moved deeper into the haze, slowing his breathing and suppressing his presence as much as possible by lowering the temperature of his body. The world around him became muted and distorted beneath the swirling white veil.
This was his battlefield now.
Reiji moved carefully through the haze, sandals pressing lightly against the frost-covered earth while he listened for even the slightest disturbance. The snow muffled movement well enough that ordinary shinobi would struggle to track anything inside it.
But Sakumo wasn't ordinary.
A sharp whistle suddenly tore through the haze toward him.
Reiji reacted instantly.
His body bent backward in a deep arch, spine twisting sharply as the curved blade of his own kusarigama sliced through the air barely centimeters above his face. The chain rattled violently as it passed overhead before disappearing back into the white storm.
He's using my weapon to locate me.
Reiji's eyes narrowed.
Reiji's eyes narrowed as the chain disappeared back into the white haze. Sakumo wasn't simply throwing the weapon blindly. The chain kept moving, spinning somewhere within the storm in wide controlled arcs, the metal links cutting through the snow-filled air again and again.
Another whistle cut through the storm.
This time Reiji stepped into it instead of retreating. Frost immediately spread across his forearms and hands, forming jagged armor-like layers of ice over his skin just as the sickle emerged from the haze again.
He caught it.
The impact jolted through his arms hard enough to numb his fingers slightly, but his grip held. Without hesitation, Reiji flooded Hyōton chakra through the chain in an attempt to freeze Sakumo's hands directly through the conductive metal.
Then he heard it.
A violent sizzling crackle raced across the chain.
Reiji's eyes widened as arcs of blue lightning suddenly exploded along the metal links, illuminating the white haze in rapid flashes.
He dropped the weapon immediately.
Electricity lashed across the chain where his fingers had been only an instant earlier, the heat sharp enough to melt portions of the frost coating the metal.
This man really has no shame.
Reiji didn't stop moving.
The moment the chain hit the ground, he threw a kunai wrapped with an explosive tag directly toward the point where the weapon was being pulled from within the haze. At the same time, he kicked off the frozen earth and launched himself upward into the air.
The explosion detonated behind him with a violent roar masking the sound of his jump.
Fire and smoke burst outward through the white storm, shaking nearby branches and masking the sound of his movement completely as he broke through the upper edge of the haze.
Then he saw it.
His kusarigama came flying toward him through the storm.
Tch.
Reiji twisted sharply in midair, narrowly avoiding the spinning blade before immediately retaliating with a rapid flurry of shuriken thrown toward the trajectory the weapon had come from.
But no sound followed.
Only silence.
He's already gone.
Reiji realized it instantly.
His hand snapped outward and wrapped around the chain. The moment the weapon returned to his grasp, instinct screamed at him.
Behind.
Shuriken erupted from the haze at his back.
Reiji pivoted immediately, feet skidding slightly across a frost-covered branch as he redirected the chain around his body in tight, controlled arcs. Metal rang sharply through the air as the kusarigama intercepted the incoming projectiles one after another, sparks flashing briefly each time steel collided against steel.
Reiji landed heavily on the ground a moment later, knees bending deeply to absorb the impact while snow swirled around him in restless currents. His eyes scanned the white haze carefully, muscles tense, breathing slow and controlled.
Sakumo had disappeared completely.
Reiji exhaled slowly and closed his eyes.
Panicking would accomplish nothing.
The white haze still blanketed the clearing in dense drifting snow, swallowing the surrounding trees and reducing visibility to only a few meters in every direction.
Sakumo could not see clearly inside it either.
That mattered.
The jōnin was faster—absurdly so—but speed alone would not allow him to instantly pinpoint Reiji's exact position through the storm. Not unless Reiji made mistakes. Sound would betray movement eventually, and Reiji was patient enough to wait for an opening no matter how long it took.
If Sakumo wanted to wait for Hakuen to disperse naturally, then he would be disappointed.
Reiji's chakra was dense enough to sustain the technique for a long time without losing stability. Minutes, at least.
Slowly, carefully, Reiji began gathering chakra into his hands again. Thin streams of cold mist escaped between his fingers while frost crawled across the handle of his kusarigama. He steadied his breathing and remained perfectly still, listening.
His hearing sharpened to its limit.
The haze muted everything strangely. Snow drifted softly against branches overhead. Wind brushed through frozen grass in uneven currents. Somewhere deeper in the mist, metal shifted faintly.
Ten seconds passed.
Then thirty.
A full minute.
Time stretched strangely inside Hakuen. Every second of silence increased the pressure, forcing concentration tighter and tighter.
Then—
A sound.
To his right.
Reiji's eyes snapped open instantly.
But instead of turning toward the noise, he spun the opposite direction and hurled the kusarigama sharply into the haze on his left. The chain screamed through the air before—
Clang.
Metal struck metal.
"Oh?" Sakumo's voice echoed faintly through the white storm. "How did you know?"
Reiji's lips curled slightly.
"Like I'd fall for something that obvious."
A low laugh answered him somewhere within the haze.
"Ahaha… true." Sakumo's voice shifted position slightly as he spoke, bouncing strangely through the snow-filled air. "Still, for someone from Konoha, you fight a lot like a shinobi from Kiri."
Reiji's eyes twitched faintly at that comparison, but he ignored it.
Instead, he focused entirely on the direction the voice had come from.
I don't care if I regret it afterward.
The moment I touch him, it's over.
Reiji exploded forward.
His body cut low through the haze while at the same time his free hand jerked sharply backward. The kusarigama's chain redirected instantly, wrapping itself tightly around a thick tree trunk to his right before snapping taut.
Then Reiji pulled.
The sudden tension violently accelerated his movement, slingshotting him through the white storm at a sharp angle. Snow burst outward around him as he emerged directly in front of Sakumo.
The jōnin looked almost bored.
Sakumo raised a kunai casually and deflected the incoming sickle with a sharp metallic clash, sparks flashing briefly through the haze.
But Reiji had never intended the first strike to land.
The chain had already wrapped around the nearby tree trunk during his charge. The moment Sakumo deflected the sickle, Reiji pulled sharply on the chain.
The tension redirected the weapon instantly.
The weighted tail of the kusarigama whipped around the tree in a wide arc before snapping back toward Sakumo's blind spot from behind.
Sakumo bent forward smoothly, spine folding at a sharp angle as the chain whistled just above his back before continuing harmlessly through the air.
I have you.
Reiji released the weapon instantly.
Instead of pulling the chain back, he launched himself directly at Sakumo, stepping aggressively into close range while both hands flooded with Hyōton chakra. Cold mist poured from his palms as frost rapidly spread over his skin.
No room to dodge now.
His hands shot toward Sakumo's throat—
But Sakumo caught his wrists immediately.
The impact jolted through Reiji's arms hard enough to stop his momentum completely. Sakumo's grip was iron-like, fingers locking around his wrists before the cold chakra could spread properly.
Too strong.
Reiji didn't hesitate.
Using the captured wrists as a pivot point, he spun sharply on one foot and whipped his leg upward toward Sakumo's head. Mid-motion, a jagged spike of ice erupted violently from his heel, extending the strike at the exact moment of impact.
The timing was nearly perfect.
Sakumo's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then he dropped backward instantly.
The jōnin fell flat onto his back with absurd speed, narrowly avoiding the ice spike as it sliced through the air where his face had been an instant earlier. But Sakumo never released Reiji's wrists.
Instead, he dragged him down together.
The sudden shift destroyed Reiji's balance completely. Before he could recover, Sakumo planted both feet against his stomach and kicked upward violently.
The impact detonated through Reiji's core.
His breath exploded from his lungs as he was launched backward through the haze, body twisting uncontrollably through the freezing air.
Hyōton: Hyōsoku
Still airborne, Reiji twisted sharply and unleashed a freezing breath directly toward Sakumo. The stream of white frost tore through the haze in a violent cone, freezing moisture in the air and leaving crystalline frost hanging behind it.
But Sakumo had already anticipated it.
The jōnin twisted smoothly across the frozen ground, narrowly avoiding the technique before his body vanished back into the white haze once again.
Reiji landed hard several meters away, sandals sliding through frost-covered grass as he regained his balance.
His eyes narrowed into the storm.
So now you stick to no ninjutsu, huh.
Reiji clicked his tongue softly.
Even after all this, Sakumo still thought taijutsu alone was enough to deal with him.
The thought crossed Reiji's mind as he moved through the white haze, snow drifted endlessly through the battlefield, obscuring the surrounding trees and reducing the world to shifting white silhouettes and muffled sound.
Slowly, he began gathering chakra into his hands again.
Far more than before.
The pressure built immediately inside his coils, cold chakra condensing densely enough that thin streams of mist escaped between his fingers and trailed behind him through the haze. Frost spread rapidly along his forearms while the temperature around him dropped another degree.
If Sakumo insisted on restricting himself to taijutsu, then close range became dangerous for him.
That was Reiji's advantage.
Every direct exchange carried risk now. One touch was enough for frost to spread. One mistake was enough to get trapped. Sakumo knew it too—that was why he kept disengaging the moment Reiji threatened to lock him down properly.
So Reiji pressed forward aggressively.
He accelerated into the haze toward the direction Sakumo had vanished, body low and balanced while his senses stretched outward through the storm. Snow crunched softly beneath his sandals as he shifted between frozen patches of grass and exposed dirt.
Then—
Movement.
A foot emerged from the haze directly in front of him.
Too fast to dodge cleanly.
Reiji crossed his arms instantly and blocked.
The kick slammed into his guard with crushing force. Shock traveled violently through his forearms and shoulders, rattling his entire body and forcing his sandals to skid backward through the frost-covered earth. Pain shot up his elbows from the sheer impact.
Before he could recover, something seized the collar of his kimono.
Sakumo.
The jōnin's grip tightened sharply before Reiji was violently thrown downward. The world spun as his body crashed hard into the frozen ground, dirt and snow exploding outward beneath him from the impact.
Pain flared through his back.
But Reiji barely cared.
The only thing that mattered was—
Close enough.
Sakumo was within arm's reach.
Caught you.
The instant his hands hit the ground, Reiji released the chakra he had been gathering.
Hyōton: Hyōkekkai.
Cold exploded outward beneath them.
The earth froze instantly.
Frost spread violently across the ground in expanding rings while jagged ice surged upward around both of them. The terrain groaned loudly as thick crystalline walls erupted from the frozen earth, sealing the surrounding haze away beneath layers of rapidly forming ice.
A dome.
The structure enclosed them completely within seconds.
Darkness swallowed the battlefield.
Only faint blue light filtered through the thick frozen walls surrounding them, illuminating drifting mist and clouds of frozen breath inside the confined space. Ice creaked continuously around them as the temperature dropped even further.
Frost spread rapidly across Sakumo's feet and lower legs where the frozen ground locked him in place.
For the first time since the fight began, the battlefield belonged entirely to Reiji.
Inside an enclosed space this small, Sakumo had nowhere to evade.
No room to retreat.
No room to disappear into the haze again.
Sakumo glanced calmly around the frozen dome, his expression almost bemused as he examined the ice walls surrounding them.
"Now that's a dangerous technique."
Reiji inhaled sharply.
Cold chakra surged toward his lungs.
Now.
Before he could release the freezing breath—
A large hand suddenly clamped around his jaw.
His mouth snapped shut violently.
Reiji's eyes widened.
Too fast.
Sakumo had crossed the distance before he even realized he moved.
The jōnin's grip crushed against his face while his other hand seized Reiji's shoulder. Then Sakumo drove him downward with terrifying force.
Reiji slammed headfirst into the frozen ground.
The impact detonated through his skull hard enough to shake the entire dome. Cracks spread through the ice beneath him while pain exploded across his vision in blinding white flashes.
And then—
Everything went dark.
***
"Reiji…."
The voice reached him from far away at first, muffled and distorted beneath a dull ringing inside his skull.
"Reiji! Wake up!"
His eyes snapped open.
Pain hit him immediately.
For a brief second his vision blurred before slowly stabilizing. He realized he was sitting against the base of a tree, rough bark pressing against his back while pale morning light slowly crept across the forest around them.
Kushina was crouched in front of him with one hand gripping his shoulder, shaking him hard enough to make the headache worse. Her expression carried genuine worry beneath the irritation. Beside her, Hizashi sat quietly against another tree a few meters away, his uniform dirty and torn in places but otherwise mostly unharmed. His blank expression looked calmer than usual, though the slight stiffness in his posture suggested he had not enjoyed waking up either.
"Reiji?" Kushina asked again. "Are you fine?"
"No," Reiji muttered flatly while staring at her. "I'm dead. This is probably hell."
She blinked.
Then her expression flattened immediately.
Kushina released him with an annoyed scoff before standing up and walking away toward Hizashi, arms crossed tightly beneath her chest.
"Well, you seem more than fine if you can say stupid things like that."
"Seems like all my cute students are finally awake."
Reiji's gaze shifted instantly toward Sakumo.
The jōnin leaned casually against a nearby tree with his arms crossed, smiling at them with the same innocent expression he somehow managed to maintain no matter how much psychological damage he caused.
"And whose fault is it we needed waking up in the first place?" Hizashi muttered quietly beneath his breath, low enough that only Reiji and Kushina heard him.
"Hey, you psycho!" Kushina shouted immediately. "Is it over now? Can we leave and never see you again?"
"I second that," Hizashi added without hesitation.
Reiji scoffed softly but remained silent.
His bruised ribs still ached every time he breathed too deeply, and the lingering headache from being slammed into the ice remained unpleasantly sharp. But more than the pain, irritation lingered in the back of his mind.
I knew the difference in strength was massive, but still…
To lose like that.
Like a child helpless in front of an adult.
The thought irritated him more than he cared to admit. After killing enemy shinobi during the kidnapping incident, some small part of him had started believing he could at least pressure Sakumo properly. Not win—that would have been ridiculous—but force him to take the fight seriously from beginning to end.
Instead, even during his most dangerous moments, Sakumo had never truly looked cornered.
Surprised sometimes.
Interested, even.
But never genuinely pressured.
Reiji studied him quietly from where he sat, his bruised pride slowly settling into something calmer and more analytical.
Well…
At least he preferred a sensei like that over someone weak.
The thought alone was enough to reignite some of his excitement. Even now, bruised and humiliated, part of him already wanted another chance to fight him again.
Sakumo hummed lightly while glancing between the three of them.
"Well," he said casually, "your performances were a little lackluster."
Kushina immediately scowled.
Hizashi remained silent.
Reiji sighed quietly.
Sakumo pointed lazily toward Kushina first.
"You, red girl... you've got good instincts, lots of stamina…" Sakumo glanced at her for a second before lightly tapping his temple. " But I think there's a few screws loose up here."
Kushina spluttered in outrage.
"What does that even mean?!"
Sakumo ignored her completely and turned toward Hizashi instead.
"You…" He paused thoughtfully, visibly searching for the right word. "You're boring."
Hizashi blinked once.
"You perform well enough," Sakumo continued lazily, "but there's never any surprise coming from you. Every movement is correct… and exactly what I expect."
Hizashi looked mildly offended by that, though only someone paying close attention would notice the slight tightening around his eyes.
Then Sakumo's gaze shifted toward Reiji.
"You," he said simply, "are arrogant."
Reiji raised an eyebrow slightly but said nothing.
"Not the loud kind," Sakumo continued while scratching his cheek lazily. "The annoying kind. Every plan you make starts with the idea that you're the smartest person in the room."
The words landed more accurately than Reiji liked.
"Problem is," Sakumo added lightly, "eventually you'll meet someone smarter. Or faster. Or simply stronger." His smile widened slightly. "Unfortunately for you, I'm all three."
Kushina rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. We suck, you're amazing, we wasted your precious time." She waved her hand dismissively. "So fail us already. Can we go home now?"
Sakumo glanced toward the slowly rising sun visible through the trees before looking back at them.
"There's barely any light out yet and all three of you are already awake," he said thoughtfully. "As a teacher, I can only appreciate hardworking students." His grin widened lazily. "So congratulations. I officially accept the three of you as my students."
Hizashi blinked.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, genuine confusion slipping into his voice for once. "We failed. We didn't leave the forest before sunrise with the scroll."
"Well, I was moved by your youthful determination—"
"He lied."
All eyes turned toward Reiji.
Reiji remained seated against the tree, gaze fixed calmly on Sakumo.
"This man never cared about the mission itself," he said flatly. "The scroll was just an excuse. He only wanted to see how we behaved under pressure. Dangerous situations, difficult decisions… that was the real test."
Sakumo smiled.
"Am I really that obvious?"
"And what exactly did you learn from me being unconscious?" Hizashi asked dryly. "I got kidnapped by a jōnin and put to sleep. There wasn't much there to observe."
"That's because you're boring," Sakumo answered immediately.
Hizashi's expression twitched faintly.
"Don't get me wrong," Sakumo continued casually. "You're very capable for your age. But I don't need to watch Hyūga Number Sixty-Seven in action. You people are all basically the same."
Hizashi looked like he wanted to argue.
Then stopped.
Because apparently he couldn't entirely deny it.
Despite his normally blank expression, irritation still leaked through in subtle ways like the faint narrowing of his eyes.
For someone so emotionally restrained, he really did wear his feelings openly once you learned where to look, Reiji thought with quiet amusement.
Kushina's expression shifted slightly at Sakumo's explanation, some of the irritation fading into uncertainty.
"So… it didn't matter?" she asked slowly. "Saving Hizashi or abandoning him… either choice would've been the same to you?"
Beside her, Hizashi looked up with quiet interest for the first time since the conversation had started. Even Reiji found himself paying closer attention. He was genuinely curious what Sakumo's answer would be after everything that had happened during the test.
For a moment, Sakumo stayed silent.
The morning wind moved softly through the trees around them, carrying the smell of damp earth and frost left behind from the battle. Somewhere deeper in the forest, birds had begun waking with the sunrise.
Then Sakumo looked back at Kushina.
"What do you think was the right decision?"
Kushina answered almost immediately.
"To save him."
Sakumo hummed quietly before turning his gaze toward Reiji instead.
"And you?"
Reiji side-glanced briefly toward Hizashi before answering honestly.
"I still stand by what I said before. In a real mission, saving Hizashi would've been the wrong move. Abandoning him would've been the correct decision."
Hizashi's expression shifted faintly at that, as if he had thoughts about the answer, but in the end he said nothing.
"I see," Sakumo replied simply.
Then silence settled again.
Kushina frowned impatiently.
"And…?"
Sakumo shrugged lazily.
"I don't know."
For the first time during the conversation, Reiji looked genuinely thrown off.
"What?"
"I said I don't know." Sakumo scratched lightly at his cheek before glancing upward through the trees toward the brightening sky. "I never really found an answer to questions like that."
His voice remained casual, but the usual teasing amusement had faded slightly from it.
"What's the right choice…" he repeated quietly, almost to himself. "Save your comrades? Complete the mission? Follow orders? Ignore them?" His gaze slowly moved across the three of them one after another. "Are the people I'm trying to save even still alive by the time I reach them? Can I even survive the choice I make?"
He fell silent for a moment before giving a small shrug.
"I don't know," he admitted quietly. "I never really did."
Nobody interrupted him.
"People love pretending there's always a correct answer to those situations. That shinobi are supposed to think like machines." His gaze moved calmly between them. "But when things go wrong out there, when people start dying, suddenly it stops being that simple."
The morning wind stirred softly through the clearing, carrying the cold remains of Reiji's frost across the grass.
"At the end of the day, everyone only gets one life," Sakumo continued. "And no matter what choice you make, there's a good chance someone will hate you for it afterward." His expression remained relaxed, but for the first time since meeting him, Reiji thought the smile looked slightly tired. "So all you can really do is choose the decision you think you'll regret the least."
Reiji frowned faintly.
"That doesn't sound like a very sensible thing to teach future shinobi."
Sakumo snorted softly.
"Probably not." He looked directly at Reiji now. "But reality usually isn't very sensible either."
He looked directly at Reiji now. "You already think more like a shinobi than most adults do. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But people aren't as rational as you want them to be." Sakumo shrugged lightly.
"Not everyone can make the kind of choice you would," Sakumo continued. "That's both a strength and a weakness." His eyes narrowed slightly in thought. "Sometimes you'll make the objectively correct decision and still end up alienating everyone around you because of it."
Reiji stayed silent after that, his gaze lowering slightly toward the ground.
For some reason, Sakumo's answer bothered him more than if the man had simply called him wrong.
Before the silence could settle again, Sakumo suddenly clapped his hands together loudly.
"Enough with the depressing topics."
The abrupt shift in tone was so sudden it almost gave Reiji whiplash.
A bright grin spread across Sakumo's face as if they had not just finished discussing life, death, and impossible choices moments earlier.
"Congratulations! We are officially Team Nine now." He spread his arms dramatically. "So, what should we do to celebrate?"
The three of them exchanged tired looks.
Kushina answered first without hesitation.
"Rest."
Sakumo stared at her in complete shock, like she had personally insulted his ancestors.
"Rest?" he repeated slowly.
Then he pointed accusingly toward the brightening sky above the trees where the first proper rays of sunlight were beginning to cut through the forest canopy.
"But you just woke up! Look at this beautiful morning, the day barely even started yet!"
He shook his head dramatically in disappointment.
"No, no, no. The future belongs to people who start their day before everyone else." Sakumo suddenly smiled brightly again. "So what do you say we do a few dozen D-rank missions together to properly get to know each other intimately, hm?"
Kushina immediately went pale.
Horror spread across her face like Sakumo had announced their execution instead.
Hizashi simply closed his eyes for a second with the quiet resignation of someone already accepting his fate.
Reiji looked up silently toward the morning sky while cold wind stirred lightly through the clearing around them.
Well.
It was becoming increasingly obvious life would never be easy with this man around.