The next day at school, the thought still hadn't left him.
When Sasuke entered the classroom, his gaze unconsciously fell on the girl sitting in the front row.
Short blue hair.
Timid posture.
Hyuga Hinata.
As if sensing someone staring at her, Hinata's shoulders immediately shrank inward.
Her head lowered further, nearly disappearing into the desk.
'Someone like her…'
'The Hyuga Clan is challenging the Uchiha in the village?'
During the break, Sasuke wandered through the hallway.
That blonde idiot—Naruto—was secretly trailing behind him again.
But Sasuke had no mood to deal with him today.
Naruto was always like that anyway.
Sneaking around from time to time, suddenly getting strange ideas, and occasionally doing something unbelievably stupid.
Sasuke ignored him.
But then—
His attention was suddenly drawn to someone else on the training ground.
Long black hair.
Byakugan.
Another member of the Hyuga clan.
His movements were simple, yet precise.
Every strike was clean and efficient.
There was no hesitation in his expression—only the focused calm of a ninja in training.
Sasuke watched quietly from the corridor above.
His eyelids lowered slightly.
His lips pressed into a thin line.
"You—why did you come over here all of a sudden?"
Naruto stood beside him, raising a hand to shade his eyes as he squinted toward the training ground below.
"Are you watching that guy down there, Sasuke?"
"You… are annoying." Sasuke replied coldly.
He shifted slightly, preparing himself.
As expected—
The idiot next to him immediately shouted, "Take this!" and lunged forward, arms flailing wildly.
A moment later, Naruto collapsed face-first at Sasuke's feet.
"I'll definitely win next time!" he declared with complete seriousness.
Sasuke ignored him.
His eyes returned to the boy training below.
'A Hyuga…'
If I can prove the prestige of the Uchiha…
Then Father won't have to keep worrying about the clan anymore, right?
If I can prove that I'm a ninja like my brother—
Someone worthy of the Uchiha name—
Then they won't treat me like a child anymore.
Right?
"This kid doesn't look anything like Minato."
Tsunade held a report card in her hand as she watched Naruto chase after Sasuke across the training field.
Minato Namikaze had always been calm and composed.
Seeing Naruto suddenly charge forward only to get knocked down again moments later, she shook her head.
"And he doesn't resemble Kushina either."
Kushina had a temper—but when she hit someone, it actually hurt.
As Hokage, stopping by the Ninja Academy to handle some work and casually check on several key children in the village was perfectly reasonable.
"Work complete."
Tsunade folded the report card, marking the end of her inspection.
Originally, she had planned to find a place to relax with a drink.
But after glancing at the sky, she reconsidered.
Going to an izakaya this early probably wouldn't look very dignified for the Hokage.
So she returned to the Hokage's Office instead.
"Are there any students suitable for direct entry into the hospital this year?" Roshi asked without looking up from his paperwork.
"Two or three, maybe."
Tsunade replied while casually pulling out sake and snacks from a cabinet.
"Although I was the one who proposed training medical ninja, your ideas are even more radical than mine, Roshi."
She took a sip.
"What do you mean by allowing candidates to enter Konoha Hospital directly without going through the squad system? If they do that, they're barely even ninja anymore."
Roshi finally glanced over at the woman who had just returned and immediately collapsed onto the sofa to drink.
"Individuals with precise chakra control—enough to become medical specialists—are naturally rare."
"Even if teamwork among ninja is important, it's far more efficient for them to enter the hospital's preparatory system first."
He continued calmly.
"After they meet the required standards, those with sufficient combat capability can then be transferred into the squad program."
"Yes, yes…"
Tsunade waved a hand dismissively while drinking.
For a while, the office fell quiet.
Only the faint scratching of Roshi's pen against paper could be heard, occasionally interrupted by the soft clink of Tsunade's glass against the table.
Then suddenly, Tsunade spoke again.
"Children really don't always resemble their parents."
Roshi's pen paused.
"And where did that sudden observation come from?"
Tsunade leaned back on the sofa, holding her wine glass as she closed her eyes.
"Shikaku's son looks almost exactly like Shikaku."
"Choza's kid is pretty similar to him too."
"And Fugaku's sons… they're both quiet types."
"So?" Roshi set his pen down.
"They weren't like that when they were younger," Tsunade said slowly. "But now… they're starting to look a bit like troublemakers."
She frowned slightly.
"Yet none of them seem particularly outstanding in any one area."
Roshi stood up, walked over to the sofa, and leaned slightly closer.
Then he sniffed.
"How many rounds did you drink before coming back?"
The Fifth Hokage immediately waved him away like an annoying insect.
At the same time, she slapped Naruto's report card onto the coffee table.
Roshi glanced at it briefly before returning to his desk.
"That's the Third Hokage's responsibility."
"It has nothing to do with whose child he is."
Putting everything else aside—
If Naruto could simply grow up without going astray after being raised under those circumstances…
That would already be enough.
Tsunade was still shaking her head.
"Hm… I just can't imagine it."
"Imagine what?"
"Your child."
"If you're drunk, go sleep it off over there."
"Will your kid end up being an old-fashioned bore like you," Tsunade mused lazily, "or will they—"
"Get out."
—
The envoy sent to Konoha returned to the Hidden Mist far sooner than expected.
At first, Mei assumed the negotiations for the Joint Combat Exercise had failed. Perhaps the representative the village had dispatched lacked sufficient authority and had been unable to attract Konoha's attention.
After all, simply requesting participation in the Chūnin Exams was not a difficult matter. Konoha had already agreed to it the year before last. Logically speaking, there was no reason they would refuse now.
"Konoha… agreed?" Mei asked, looking at the envoy whose clothes still bore the dust of travel.
"Yes, Lady Terumī."
The envoy bowed respectfully.
"Once the Konoha official responsible for reception understood our intentions, they immediately provided us with detailed documentation regarding participation guidelines, along with specific clauses outlining the distribution of ticket revenue."
Mei fell silent as she examined the documents he had brought back.
This was clearly not a hastily prepared agreement.
The clauses were complete, the details meticulous. It was obvious the documents had been prepared well in advance.
Had the other four Great Nations already anticipated that Kirigakure would eventually be unable to resist joining the arrangement—and therefore reserved a place and a share beforehand?
What she had expected to be a lengthy negotiation—several rounds of bargaining and compromise—had been resolved almost effortlessly.
For Kirigakure, whose goal was simply participation and who currently had no intention of competing for hosting rights, receiving a share of the considerable ticket revenue already fulfilled their most basic objective.
Under such circumstances, it made sense that the envoy—who had no authority to negotiate further matters—chose to return immediately and report.
Still…
Mei couldn't help recalling something.
The first time the event had expanded into the Four-Village Joint Exams had been two years ago—when Kirigakure first participated.
Back then, Zabuza had returned with no agreements at all.
Only a blunt assessment.
'A staged performance.'
'A carefully disguised money-making scheme.'
And now…
When they went again this year, they obtained exactly what they wanted.
Yet the feeling was strange.
The entire negotiation process had been skipped.
It was like sitting down at a dining table and being served a meal that someone else had already prepared—and portioned out in advance.
For small ninja villages, such an arrangement might feel like a generous gift.
But for Kirigakure…
It should not feel this way.
A faint, indescribable frustration slowly settled into Mei's thoughts.
She placed the document—symbolizing this predetermined outcome—on the corner of her desk.
Her fingertips tapped lightly against the wooden surface.
Then her thoughts drifted to another matter.
The child Zabuza had brought back.
According to the reports, the boy possessed the potential to become a successor to one of the Seven Ninja Swords.
When she finally saw him in person, Haku appeared even more delicate than the reports had suggested.
Mei waited patiently outside the academy until classes ended.
Only when she saw the child leaving alone—walking toward the relatively secluded temporary residence near the village outskirts—did she step forward and quietly block his path.
"Haku… that's your name, correct?"
Her voice was gentler than usual.
Haku stopped walking and looked up.
His clear eyes held no trace of panic.
He recognized the woman standing before him.
"Lady Mei Terumī."
He bowed politely.
"Are you adjusting well to life at the academy?" she asked.
"Everything is fine," Haku replied calmly.
Then he added,
"If you don't mind, please excuse me. Zabuza-sama has asked me to take care of something."
It was a refusal.
A refusal of unnecessary concern.
A refusal of familiarity.
A refusal of anything that might blur the line of loyalty he had already chosen.
Mei understood the meaning behind his words.
"We are not enemies," she said softly. "Zabuza and I are not enemies. And I am not your enemy either, Haku."
Haku answered without hesitation.
"I am a tool."
"I do not think about the relationships between masters."
For a moment, a complicated emotion flickered in Mei's eyes.
"A tool, is it…"
She studied the boy quietly.
"Haku… even if Zabuza and I once stood on opposite sides, you should know something."
Her voice lowered.
"In the past, Zabuza was one of the few people who fought most fiercely against the tyranny of a system that treated the lives of shinobi—and their comrades—as worthless."
Mei ultimately chose not to press the child any further.
Nor did she know whether the words she had spoken would leave any impression on him.
Yet after leaving, she felt even more troubled.
Those who had fought against the Bloody Mist… had also been shaped by it.
Even Zabuza—someone personally chosen by Elder Genji—was no exception.
Then what about the others?
What about the children who followed them?
Carrying those doubts with her, Mei went to seek out Elder Genji.
The old man, however, appeared completely unconcerned.
As someone who had lived since the Warring Clans Era, he had long grown accustomed to such matters.
"Mei," he said calmly, "whether it was enforcing the rules that created the Bloody Mist in the past, or dismantling them now… the foundation has always been the same."
"Everything begins and ends with one question—does it benefit the village?"
"If it does, then we act."
"And if the consequences grow too severe… then we change."
His voice remained steady.
"You don't need to burden yourself with too many other considerations. Thinking too much will only restrain your actions."
Mei left the meeting with even greater confusion.
When she returned to her office, she sat quietly for a long time.
Unmoving.
"If it were you…"
She murmured softly.
"What kind of opinion would you have about the Hidden Mist…?"
Almost unconsciously, she unrolled a blank scroll and picked up a brush.
The tip hovered above the paper.
But for a long time, she could not bring herself to write a single word.
Eventually, Mei rolled the scroll back up and set it aside.
—
It was now May.
The weather had begun to warm, the perfect season for outdoor activities.
Unfortunately, those working inside the Hokage's Office barely noticed the change at all.
Tsunade had gone to Konoha Hospital to handle the details of the new internship system for qualified Ninja Academy students, along with the supporting medical courses that would accompany it.
Which meant—
A certain unfortunate laborer had to remain behind and hold the fort.
While absentmindedly planning the second half of the year—I absolutely need to carve out two months to take leave and slack off—Roshi methodically stamped the towering stack of documents piled before him.
One particular application made him pause.
He looked at it again.
It was a request from the Village Hidden in the Bamboo.
They were applying to participate in this year's Joint Chūnin Exams.
Roshi tapped the document lightly with his fingertip, recalling the intelligence summary Kakashi had previously submitted regarding the movements of nearby minor ninja villages.
After thinking for a moment, he finally picked up his pen.
On the application, he wrote:
"Participation Granted."
But just below it, he added another line.
"Strictly review the qualifications and backgrounds of participating ninja."
Then the Hokage Seal descended.
A bright red imprint marked the approval.
Next came another report.
This time, Roshi set the seal aside.
The document concerned the Uchiha Clan.
After multiple failed attempts to persuade Clan Head Fugaku to "strike back" against the Hyuga clan, several individuals within the Uchiha had begun planning something else.
Once the Police Force Branch officially began operations, they intended to secretly create trouble for Hiashi and the Hyuga clan.
Their goal was simple.
To prove the Hyuga were incapable of managing the branch.
Roshi read the report carefully.
The good news was that the Uchiha no longer constantly spoke about confronting Konoha directly… nor were they openly discussing rebellion.
However—
This behavior could not be tolerated either.
If their plan had been to challenge the Hyuga through formal administrative channels—using the Police Force headquarters to audit and supervise the branch's operations—
He might have turned a blind eye.
It could even be interpreted as internal competition.
But secretly sabotaging the branch while bypassing established procedures?
That was an entirely different matter.
Roshi looked up from the document.
His gaze turned toward an empty corner of the office.
"Please ask Kakashi to come here."
For a brief moment, the corner of the room seemed to blur.
A shadow flickered against the wall—
Then vanished.
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