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A few weeks had passed since the seventh anime screening, and during that time, it seemed as though the entire shinobi world had entered a stage of silent anticipation, as if everyone had collectively held their breath while waiting for the next blow.
The later episodes had not stopped appearing above the giant screens hanging over the art stores, and people had not stopped watching them or commenting on them, but something had slowly changed, then settled into both hearts and minds alike.
The anime was no longer the only center of gravity.
During those weeks, people kept watching, marveling, arguing, and training, but their eyes always returned to the same question, the question that never left any gathering, any street, any training ground, or any Kage's office:
'When will Volume 10 be released?'
It's not that they didn't know the exact date of the next update, which was fixed every month, but rather that they simply couldn't wait!
The question was repeated in different forms, but the meaning was always the same.
After what Volume 9 had revealed, and after the moving screens had added yet another layer of clarity and awe, no one treated the manga as something trivial that could be put off until tomorrow anymore.
The new volumes had become like messages arriving from a time that had not yet come, yet they carried enough authority to unsettle the entire present.
And in Konoha, that truth was clearer than anywhere else.
Since early morning, before the sun had fully risen above the rooftops of the wooden houses and shops, Might Dai and his son Gai had been among the first to arrive at the main art store.
That was not strange for Gai, who had started to look at every new manga update as though it were a personal appointment with a stronger version of the world, nor for Dai, who shared his son's excitement with complete sincerity and without the slightest embarrassment about showing it in front of others.
"We got here before almost everyone!" Gai said as he stood on the tips of his toes for a moment, then quickly dropped back down, as if his body simply did not understand stillness even while waiting.
His eyes shone with pure excitement, while his fists were clenched at his sides, as though he were preparing to enter a battlefield rather than merely stand in front of a store.
"That's because the flames of youth do not know how to be late!" Dai said with a bright face and a wide grin before placing his hand on his son's shoulder.
His voice, as always, carried a simple and sincere warmth, but even he could tell that this morning was different from the others.
The crowd slowly forming behind them was no ordinary crowd, but a crowd of people waiting for something that might change their thinking all over again.
And as the store's front display gradually opened, the cover finally came into view.
The moment Gai and Dai laid eyes on it, both of their eyes widened at once.
"What a cover!" The words burst out of Gai quickly, and then he took half a step forward without thinking.
The displayed copy in the storefront was bold and striking, crowned by the word NARUTO in a huge, sharp orange font, with the large number 10 beneath it, as though the cover itself were confidently declaring that what lay inside was anything but ordinary.
But what truly caught Gai and his father's attention was not the title, but the characters drawn above it.
At the top of the composition, the future Might Gai stood in his gleaming green jumpsuit, in a confident pose, his back almost pressed against Rock Lee's, while raising his thumb with that familiar smile of his that blended confidence with enthusiasm.
Right beside him, Lee, younger and dressed in that same green outfit, was delivering a powerful high kick, one leg lifted upward in a precise offensive posture, his features tightened with blazing determination.
And the two of them were not standing on the ground, but atop a giant turtle with a massive shell and overlapping red, yellow, and orange color details, while Naruto himself leaned beside it in his orange jacket, his forehead protected by his Konoha headband, his face carrying that unmistakable vitality.
The entire cover practically screamed motion and energy. The broad white background made the colors pulse even more strongly, as if the artist had deliberately placed Gai and Lee directly at the center of the viewer's attention, not as secondary background figures, but as the true visual headline of what awaited inside the pages.
"That's me!" little Gai said with frank, childlike astonishment, then corrected himself in the very next moment.
"I mean… that's my future counterpart! Look, Dad! Look at the pose! Look at the thumbs-up! Look at Lee! Lee is on the cover too!"
He was speaking so quickly that he nearly choked on his own excitement.
He was not merely seeing a beautiful drawing, but another confirmation of something he had come to believe deep in his soul: that his path in the future would never be insignificant, and that his style, his passion, and the "power of youth" he repeated every day would not remain just something others laughed at.
As for Dai, his gaze remained fixed on future Gai's image for a few moments longer.
He saw the green suit, the confident stance, the raised thumb, and the smile that carried something of his own spirit within it, and then he saw the other boy standing with him on the cover, clad in the same color and burning with nearly the same fiery drive.
"Wonderful…" Dai finally said, in a quieter voice than usual. His amazement was not just because of the art itself, but because the entire cover seemed to him like a clear announcement that his son, or the version of him he would become, would be someone whose presence filled the page. Someone impossible to ignore.
Inside, as the first wave of customers entered, the display card for the volume appeared, with the attached summary beside it.
Gai leaned forward slightly, while Dai read the text with widened eyes, and the two of them remained silent for a brief moment before what was written there:
NARUTO Vol. 10
With only a few matches left to be fought in the preliminaries to the third portion of the Journeyman Ninja Selection Exams, the highly anticipated bout between mysterious Sand ninja Gaara and intense, earnest Konoha ninja Rock Lee begins. Will Gaara's bloodlust and his strange powers of sand manipulation be too much for Lee to handle? Or could Lee prove that dedication and an amazing work ethic are enough to make him a splendid ninja?
The moment Dai finished reading, Gai felt as if those words had turned into real fire igniting inside his chest.
"Gaara… and Rock Lee?" Gai said, more slowly this time, as if savoring both names together.
He knew Gaara from the previous volumes. He knew his cold stare, his unsettling calm, and the way he made so many in Konoha feel that something deeply dangerous lurked behind that stillness. But seeing his name now paired with Rock Lee's, and the battle described as "highly anticipated," made the whole cover gain even more weight.
Lee… That boy who did not need the blood of a great clan, nor some obvious extraordinary talent, nor dazzling visual tricks, but only training, then more training, then an unbreakable determination.
"They're talking about dedication and hard work…" Dai murmured, his broad smile slowly returning.
"And they're asking whether that is enough to make Lee into a splendid ninja." Then he looked at his son with a gaze full of quiet pride, as though he were hearing in that sentence something he knew well, something he had lived by his entire life without ever needing to explain it to anyone.
Outside, the crowd had grown denser. Men and women, shinobi and civilians, children who could barely lift the volumes with their small hands, and retirees who had convinced themselves they had only come to take a quick look, only to find their feet carrying them inside. Everyone had come.
Some out of curiosity, some out of anxiety, and some out of a motive they did not even want to admit to themselves.
Fear… Because every new update no longer meant only new pages, but the possibility that a new name, a new clan, an old wound, or a carefully buried secret might be exposed and begin breathing again on paper.
"Today isn't like the previous times," one man said in a low voice as he pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders, even though the morning was not cold.
He was looking at Volume 10 as though waiting for a final judgment, not a new release.
"After everything that happened, I don't think anyone here sees it as just the next part of the story anymore."
Near the entrance, some children stood on their tiptoes, trying to see the cover from behind the adults. Their faces glowed with pure excitement, that kind of excitement that still did not know the true weight of what was being revealed before them.
To them, the matter was simple and thrilling: a new part of Naruto, stronger characters, new techniques, and scenes they wanted to imitate later in alleyways and academy grounds.
The adults, however, were far less innocent in their expressions.
In recent months, the manga no longer gave them mere entertainment.
Instead, it had started placing their hands on disturbing possibilities and reopening discussions they would have preferred to keep shut.
Clan relations, the weaknesses of villages, the fates of promising shinobi, and the names of those who would later stray from the path.
All of that made the wait for Volume 10 a heavy one, where excitement was mixed in equal measure with tension.
But for Gai in particular, there was one thing in the summary that overshadowed everything else.
Rock Lee would fight Gaara.
In fact, the volume itself posed the question with unmistakable clarity: would Gaara's savagery and his strange power to manipulate sand be too much for Lee to endure? Or could determination, hard work, and discipline raise a person to a level that would astonish the world?
That question was not about Lee alone.
It was about everyone who had chosen to carve out their path with their feet, with their fists, and with training that consumed the body only to rebuild it stronger than before.
Gai felt a shiver run up his spine. He had not read the pages yet, and he did not know exactly how the battle would unfold, but the cover alone, and the summary alone, were enough to plant inside his heart a feeling that was nearly bursting from sheer excitement.
"If Lee is on the cover with my future counterpart… and if his battle with Gaara is the heart of this volume…" Gai said, his voice dropping for a moment from the intensity of his focus, "then that means what we are about to see will be unforgettable."
Dai smiled broadly, the gleam in his eyes growing even brighter, then gave his son's shoulder a light squeeze as he looked once more at the cover, at future Gai, at Lee, at Naruto, and at the giant turtle carrying that entire boisterous scene above the broad orange title.
"My God, this is going to be so good! I can't wait to read the full chapters."
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 186: Rock Lee Face to Face Against Gaara!
Chapter 187: Lee's Secret!
Chapter 188: Amazing!
Chapter 189: A Fierce Battle!
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