After consoling Yuki and talking to her for a while, Kazuki asked her to take him to Ryuma's house, which she agreed to.
Both of them walked toward the Hatake compound, which was very small in size compared to the other clans.
After a few minutes, they arrived in front of a house that was relatively smaller than the others.
Yuki knocked on the door. The door opened, and a woman, likely in her late thirties, came out.
The woman was, in fact, Ryuma's mother. She wasn't looking very happy due to obvious reasons.
She said in a saddened voice, "Yuki, you must be here to talk to Ryuma again. And you've got a friend too."
Yuki said, "Yes, Aunty Yuna. Can we talk to him for a bit?"
She managed a smile and said, "Sure, please come inside."
They both walked inside and went upstairs. They knocked on the door of Ryuma's room, only to get silence as a reply.
Yuki said, "Ryuma, it's me, Yuki. Can you open the door for a bit? I want to talk."
Ryuma said loudly, "What is it? I told you that I don't want to keep being a shinobi anymore."
Yuki replied, "I know that, but can you please open the door for a bit? Kazuki wants to talk to you."
After a few moments of silence, the door opened, and Ryuma was standing there. There were dark circles around his eyes, like he hadn't slept for days.
They went inside the room and took a seat.
Kazuki said, "Ryuma, I heard about what happened to Keiko. I get why you're sad, but why are you quitting being a ninja?"
Ryuma replied, "What does it even matter? I'm so weak that I couldn't even save Keiko. I'm not strong enough to be a shinobi."
Kazuki said, "But you have great talent in kenjutsu. If you train hard, you can become as strong as you want."
Ryuma replied, "No matter how strong I become, there will always be someone stronger than me. There's no reason to fight if I can't even protect those I love. We were lucky that Keiko survived, and I don't want to have that feeling of fear and guilt again."
Kazuki said, "That's your reason? You're more stupid than I thought, Ryuma. What is that going to accomplish? People you love could still die even if you stop being a shinobi, and you would regret not being there for them when they needed you most. You'll think that if you were there, you could have saved them. It would hurt a lot more than this."
Ryuma snapped, "You wouldn't understand, Kazuki, because you haven't lost anyone close to you. What would you have done if it was Yuki instead of Keiko?"
Kazuki said, "Maybe you're right. I probably can't understand what you're feeling right now, but if I were in that situation, I would try to become a person that Yuki could be proud of after waking up. Tell me, Ryuma, what will Keiko think when she wakes up and finds out that she risked her life to save a coward? Do you want to waste your second chance at life that she gave you?"
Ryuma yelled, "WHAT DID YOU SAY!"
Kazuki stood up and said, "Think about what I said. Now it's up to you if you want to keep being a shinobi or not. Let's go, Yuki."
They both walked outside his room and then outside the house.
Yuki asked Kazuki, "Was it necessary to be this harsh on him? What if he becomes even more depressed?"
Kazuki said, "Sometimes you have to be harsh to get results. That's what Kenji-sensei taught us, remember? And don't worry; he'll be fine. He's just not accepting reality right now and finding an excuse to give up. If he thinks with a clear mind, he'll be fine."
Kazuki thought, 'That was some top-tier Talk no Jutsu. Of course it's going to work. Even I was shocked that I could talk like that.'
The next day, Kazuki went to the academy. As he reached the gate, he saw a beautiful lady dressed as a kunoichi standing there. Kazuki was stunned by her beauty; he had only imagined that someone could look like this in his dreams, but now that he was looking at her, he couldn't believe his eyes.
The woman looked at him and said, "Hey, you must be Kazuki Uchiha. I am Akari Sarutobi, your new jonin-sensei."
Kazuki regained his composure and bowed a little before saying, "Good morning, Sensei. It's nice to meet you. I am Kazuki Uchiha."
Akari said, "You're quite the gentleman, Kazuki. Now follow me; you're going to meet your team now."
Kazuki started following her. After a few minutes, they reached a training ground. As soon as Kazuki arrived, he saw that Yuki and, surprisingly, Ryuma were already there.
Kazuki walked toward Ryuma and said, "So, you finally decided to continue being a shinobi, huh?"
Ryuma said, "Yeah, I realised that everything you said was true. All this time, I was just trying to find an excuse to give up. But I want to become stronger and protect as many people as I can so that Keiko still loves me after she wakes up."
Kazuki said, "Good. Let us all do our best from now on."
Akari said, "Yuki told me that you were familiar, but I didn't know that you all were this close."
From that point, the new Team Akari started their journey.
[A/N – The real story is going to start from the next chapter, and the next chapters will all be more than 1500 words. My regular chapters were around 1000 words.]