Mid-August, in the early hours before dawn.
Recently, it had been Makoto's squad's turn to take the night shift. It was not much of a hardship. Ninja were different from ordinary people; they had methods to quickly adjust their biological clocks and would not let rotating shifts affect their sleep quality.
In the shadow of a building near Minato's residence, Makoto sat quietly, refining his control over white natural energy.
This could be considered a hidden benefit of protecting Kushina—at least for him personally.
It was unclear whether it was because the jinchūriki was nearing childbirth, but the Nine-Tails seemed to see hope of breaking free and had been unusually active lately.
As the most powerful tailed beast in the shinobi world, its activity caused the surrounding red natural energy to become exceptionally aggressive as well, leaving the poor white natural energy even weaker, its power of decomposition greatly reduced. That, however, made it easier for Makoto to absorb it.
Now he could grind away for nearly an entire night without interruption, greatly improving the efficiency with which natural energy transformed his body.
At this moment, he almost wished that Kushina were carrying Ace—if she could hold out for twenty months, that would be perfect.
The east gradually grew pale as the sun began to rise.
It was almost time to get off duty.
As usual, in the final moments, Makoto spread out his perception to eliminate any potential dangers—and then he discovered a certain fellow who liked to visit graves early in the morning.
Was this good? It was not. Who goes to visit graves at dawn? He would have to correct that bad habit.
Makoto made a hand signal to Hayate and Yūgao, telling them to heighten their vigilance, then vanished like a gust of wind.
Before the graves of Obito and Rin, Kakashi stood alone, murmuring to himself about this and that.
After a long while, Kakashi checked the time. It was time for the shift change. He fastened his Anbu mask and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, a hoarse voice rang out from the forest behind him: "Kid, thanks for your muttering. I've obtained some remarkable intelligence. You're quite the good person."
Kakashi was startled. He swiftly drew a kunai and shouted, "Who's there? Show yourself!"
From the shadows among the trees stepped a tall figure. He wore no insignia of any shinobi village, was wrapped up tightly from head to toe, and his appearance could not be discerned.
An enemy-village ninja? A spy? In any case, anyone sneaking around here like that was certainly no good.
Kakashi did not hesitate. He instantly hurled several kunai at the target, then lifted his eye covering and rapidly formed hand seals. A large amount of lightning gathered in his right hand as he charged at the enemy.
He intended to kill his opponent in a single strike. He could not allow him to leave with that intelligence.
The tall figure completed hand seals as well and slammed both hands onto the ground. A modest earthen wall rose before him, blocking the kunai while attempting to hinder the opponent's follow-up attack.
But it was useless. Kakashi was too fast. "Chidori," combined with the Sharingan, and stimulated by Lightning Release, he ran like a bolt of lightning, almost instantly breaking through the distance between them.
Lightning shattered the earthen wall like it was slicing butter, and then—under the tall figure's disbelieving gaze—it struck straight into his heart.
Only then did Kakashi's sharp mind start to sense that something was slightly off. Just now, because of the intelligence leak, he had grown anxious and rattled; all he had been thinking about was killing the other party to eliminate future trouble.
But there was clearly a problem with that. The other party had already obtained the intelligence—leaving quietly would have been enough. Why would he deliberately expose himself and provoke him?
Could it be that his objective was not merely to obtain intelligence, but also to take him down?
Sure enough, the tall figure did not let out a pained scream. Instead, he tightly grabbed Kakashi's forearm with both hands and said with a ferocious grin, "So fast—just as expected of Konoha's genius ninja. But hey… you're finished."
Kakashi immediately tried to wrench himself free, but the other party's strength was too great. At that moment, he sensed a faint movement on the man's body.
'Damn—it's an explosive tag. So it really was aimed at me. I let my guard down.'
Boom—
With a not-so-loud explosion, the tall figure blew himself up, turning into a skyful of wildflowers swirling everywhere.
Kakashi looked them over. These wildflowers were a common type around the cemetery. Judging from the freshness at the snapped stems, they had been picked just now.
He already understood everything. Rubbing his forehead, he was utterly speechless—he… had been played by some bastard.
"Makoto, this joke isn't funny at all. If things go wrong, someone could die."
Makoto walked out from behind a tree. "Oh my, oh my—Kakashi-senpai really is Kakashi-senpai. You figured out it was me that quickly."
The hell—apart from you, who in Konoha has this kind of nasty taste?
"Besides you, I can't think of anyone else. But this isn't fun!"
"Fun? Kakashi-senpai, do you think I'm only playing around? If it weren't me, but a real spy instead—what do you think the consequences would be?"
Kakashi fell silent. Only after quite a while did he say with lingering fear, "I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Makoto. This won't happen again in the future."
"That's more like it, Kakashi-senpai. The dead are already gone. We living people are the ones you should care about—for example, competing with Guy-senpai at least ten times a day. I think if you could do that, Guy-senpai would definitely be very happy."
"Well, let's forget that. It'd exhaust me to death. Come on—it's time for the shift change."
"No problem. But there's something I need to tell you in advance."
"What is it?"
"Tomorrow our squad has a mission out of the village—might be a few days. Things here will have to trouble you a bit more."
"I know. Don't worry—go do your mission."
He did not ask what Makoto's mission was. Not prying into other people's missions was a basic principle shinobi had to follow.
...
Early the next morning, Makoto and the other two flashed out through Konoha's main gate, leaving only the out-of-village permit pinned to the gate.
Now, although Kumomi still maintained the squad relationship with his disciples, because he himself was responsible for forming the Fourth Hokage's Anbu, the Kumomi squad had in practice already been temporarily disbanded.
Fortunately, Makoto and the three of them were not weak. They had already become shinobi who could stand on their own, and no longer needed him to lead them on missions.
Yes. Although they were members of the Shadow Guard, the three of them were also part of the Anbu, so they naturally had to leave the village from time to time to carry out missions.
This was perfectly normal. As ninja, if they went too long without participating in real combat, their strength would decline.
Some things could not be improved through training alone.
Therefore, Genma's squad and Kakashi's squad were the same as them, maintaining a regular rhythm of executing missions. These missions were specially selected by Minato to temper his Anbu.
Today's mission was somewhat special—it involved a rogue ninja from Konoha.
That was normal as well. Years of shinobi war had led to large numbers of rogue ninja emerging from the major villages, stirring up trouble everywhere. Only Kumogakure had very few by comparison.
It had to be said, those dark-skinned brutes were quite commendable in their loyalty to their own village.
But that was not the main point. The client had specifically requested that among the team Konoha sent, it would be best to include a sealing-jutsu ninja of considerable strength.
That was interesting. But when Makoto thought about the fact that the client was the mysterious village called Takigakure, he formed some guesses in his mind and took the mission from Minato.
Minato did not object. At present, in all of Konoha, when it came to Fūinjutsu, Makoto—after more than half a year of training under Kushina—was indeed considered one of the notable experts.
While resting along the way, Yūgao asked curiously, "Hey, Makoto, does Takigakure's Hero Water really have the powerful effect described in the legends?"
"It does. And it's even more exaggerated than the legends say."
Hayate added, "I've heard that legend too. They say that stuff can make a ninja's chakra surge dozens of times over. Maybe that's why Takigakure has been targeted by rogue ninja."
Yūgao thought for a moment and felt something was off. "If it's really that powerful, then why would they still commission Konoha to handle it? And Takigakure's strength seems to decline year by year, doesn't it? Isn't that contradictory?"
Makoto smiled. "It's not contradictory. The Hero Water is real, and what Hayate said isn't wrong. But using that kind of thing comes at a cost."
"Of those who drink the Hero Water, eight or nine out of ten will die on the spot. Even if someone survives, they won't be able to fight for long, and in the end they'll still die. No exceptions."
Yūgao thought to herself that it was just as she had expected. "I wonder what those rogue ninja are thinking. This kind of information should be easy to find out, right? And yet they go and try to seize that kind of poison."
"Because all they have left is their own lives. In order to make themselves stronger, they're willing to try any method that comes to mind." "Is that so hard to understand?"
"I guess that's true. What if the side effects are fake? Then wouldn't they make a huge profit?"
"Just wishful thinking. Let's go—time to continue on our way."
At around four in the afternoon, the three of them successfully arrived outside Takigakure and met up with the client's people.
Sensing the faint fluctuations of tailed-beast chakra amid the surrounding mountains and waterfalls, Makoto thought to himself that it was indeed as expected—they had arrived at just the right time.
Takigakure was the only hidden village among the many minor nations that possessed a tailed beast. The Seven-Tails, Chōmei, was here.
Counting the time, it should also be about when they were due to replace the jinchūriki.
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