-Thud.
Rubber soles crunched against dirt. The attackers had been wiped out without mercy. The defenders stood without even a scratch on their uniforms.
Senju and Uchiha squads were ambushed inside Konoha territory-a serious breach. A force capable of attacking two thousand ninja without alarming border surveillance or alerting scouts raised one clear issue: someone had leaked their movements.
Speculation about upper-level betrayal spread fast-but no one paid it much attention for long. What stunned the village and beyond was that not one member of Akira's team was injured. Reports flowed in, each one the same: flawless victory.
Konoha's elders whispered about divine intervention. Some elders even claimed the "God of War" had descended. Outside the Leaf, military planners scoffed-until they saw how much the victory cost. The expense was absurd, enough to fund ten similar campaigns.
No one called it reckless, though-they just cursed the Uzumaki clan's wealth and moved on.
Inside Akira's camp, tension had melted into jubilant noise.
"Hahaha! I killed five of them myself!"
"Only five? If I hadn't burned through my detonation tags so fast, I could've doubled that."
"Didn't you panic and toss them out in one go?"
"Shut it!"
Laughter broke out around the tents. Even mundane chores like trench work became competitive sport. Men and women volunteered for jobs they usually avoided. Most of them were civilians who'd volunteered for combat-they hadn't just survived but walked away with honor intact and pay in their pockets.
Nawaki watched the scene unfold, his arms crossed and face stretched in near envy.
"We should ask my cousin," he said under his breath. "Otherwise when this war ends, we'll be nobodies without credit. How will we ever become Hokage?"
Fugaku frowned. "We haven't even trained directly under Lord Akira..."
"What does that matter?" Nawaki slapped his chest with both hands. "I'll just cry until he folds. He won't leave me out forever-not if I make noise about it."
"You're seriously shameless," Fugaku sighed.
Nawaki grinned. "And you'll cry too-or go beg someone else."
Fugaku groaned but didn't argue.
They found Akira inside his tent-head low over opened documents and maps arranged across the table surface. Nawaki shouted before they entered properly-
"Uncle!"
Akira turned with only the faintest lift of his brow. Nawaki moved to rush inside-but someone stepped in front of him with weight that made the air go cold.
Kakuzu stared them down without blinking. Nawaki stumbled back and scrambled to explain-
"I-I'm just looking for my cousin."
Brief silence hung before Kakuzu turned his head toward Akira. When Akira nodded once, the man stepped aside without words.
Nawaki exhaled hard and stepped through without talking again. Beside him, Fugaku followed-tense but collected.
Akira closed the document with one hand.
"Speak up."
Nawaki straightened his back and launched in. "We came to ask permission to join the next battle."
Fugaku said nothing aloud, but there was determination in how he stood at full height.
Akira didn't move. "Reason."
Nawaki lit up immediately-
"After training these past weeks, we've improved! If we don't apply what we've learned now, we'll turn into bookworms."
Fugaku added evenly, "Neither Senju nor Uchiha are built to sit idle while others fight ahead of us."
Akira leaned back slightly and stared without blinking.
"You might die."
Nawaki pressed forward. "Thanks to your training-and the gear you gave us-I'll be fine out there."
Fugaku nodded slowly beside him. "We're not strong enough to kill jonin... but surviving isn't the issue anymore."
Akira scratched along his jawline in thought.
"It's not impossible."
Nawaki pumped one fist silently in victory while Fugaku dropped his act and smiled without trying to hide it.
Akira gestured to the maps on his table without looking up again.
"You've both seen what happened during the last battle?"
Neither spoke at first-uncertain if it was rhetorical-then Nawaki grinned with forced confidence.
"Definitely!"
Akira's eyes shifted toward Fugaku next.
"And you?"
Fugaku hesitated-but then gave one nod. "Yes."
Akira smiled suddenly-light flickering across his cheekbone.
"In that case-from today on, you're head coach."
Both boys froze where they stood, as if they'd misheard him completely.
"…What?"
"Huh?"
Akira turned back to his maps and spoke as casually as if handing off messenger duty.
"I'm assigning you command of operations moving forward. You want to become Hokage? Start here. You'll find documents on the desk.... mark troop movements… organize responses… direct support squads…"
Neither boy answered-staring frozen where they stood as if their world had spun sideways.
Akira looked up again-with no change in expression-and glanced toward Kakuzu at the entrance flap.
"Protect them."
Kakuzu folded his arms once before answering bluntly and without question-
"Yes."
By the time Nawaki or Fugaku could respond, Akira had already stepped around the desk and headed for the door.
"Lord Akira! Where are you-"
"Being lazy," he called back, never slowing down as he disappeared outside into sunlight and noise.
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