Tenzen was furious.
The normally cold and impassive man had not experienced such an emotional upheaval in a very long time.
The last time had been after Hatake Sakumo’s death.
But Guy quickly adjusted his emotions.
Optimism was simply part of his nature.
Perhaps only a single-minded fool like him could cultivate physical techniques to such a level—to that ultimate realm where one could stand against the Six Paths.
Seeing Teacher Tenzen’s expression gradually turn solemn, Guy knew that his teacher was upset on his behalf.
Yet Guy still chose kindness.
He even tried to comfort the teacher who was on the verge of exploding with anger.
"It’s all right, Teacher Tenzen. Didn’t my father fail the Chūnin Exams too? And hasn’t he become a jōnin now?"
As he spoke, Guy clenched his fist.
"Besides, youth is supposed to be bitter and harsh from time to time... I believe that hard work will never betray a person!"
Then Guy turned his head toward Kakashi.
"My comrade... Kakashi! Teacher says you’re a genius, while I’m a genius of hard work!"
"So, to celebrate my participation in the Chūnin Exams today, let’s have a showdown between geniuses!"
With those simple words, Guy had moved himself to tears.
His face covered in tears, he shouted:
"Whether it’s pain or sorrow... we must work hard to the very end!"
"Konoha’s proud Azure Beast—Might Guy!"
"Burn, youth!"
With that, Guy sprinted away, shouting as he ran:
"Kakashi! Whoever reaches the training ground first is the winner!"
"The loser has to run twenty laps around Konoha!"
And off Guy went without even waiting to see whether Kakashi agreed.
The expressionless Kakashi muttered:
"Idiot."
He seemed completely uninterested in accepting Guy’s challenge.
But although his mouth said no, his body was honest.
Kakashi followed Guy’s footsteps anyway.
While running, the two even bumped into each other’s backsides.
Uchiha Kabuto and Tenzen watched the scene with dark lines across their faces.
Of the four members of this teacher-and-student group, three were expressionless, while a husky had somehow wandered into the middle of them and completely changed the atmosphere.
Kakashi and Guy, however, didn’t see it that way at all.
Kabuto was still young, after all.
Children always admired older brothers and wanted to join in their games.
Especially Kakashi, whose reputation as a genius had spread throughout Konoha.
As far as Kabuto was concerned, Kakashi’s credentials were far more substantial than those of Itachi, whose reputation had been excessively hyped.
At least, that was what Kabuto believed.
After all, he and Itachi were around the same age and had become equally famous.
It wasn’t as though they had never competed privately.
Kabuto had never beaten Itachi.
But he had never lost to him either.
So Kabuto looked down on Itachi.
What if Itachi had experienced the Shinobi World War at three or four?
What if he had protected his pregnant mother during Konoha’s civil war at five?
What if he had graduated from the Ninja Academy and become a chūnin at six?
What if he had awakened a three-tomoe Sharingan?
So what?
Wasn’t he still being spun around in circles by the idiot Chā?
And wasn’t he still only able to fight Kabuto to a standstill despite Kabuto having experienced none of those things?
Most importantly, Kabuto had never once defeated Kakashi.
Therefore, Kakashi had become the young Kabuto’s idol.
Calm.
Wise.
Decisive.
Ruthless.
That was the Kakashi in Kabuto’s heart.
He was the complete opposite of his foolish senior, Might Guy.
But why?
Why was the senior who always kept a cold face in front of outsiders able to fool around with that green-haired idiot from his team?
And not merely fool around.
He looked happy.
He was completely immersed in it.
He even seemed to be enjoying himself.
Yet he completely ignored a junior whose personality was supposedly so similar to his own.
Kabuto couldn’t understand it.
He genuinely couldn’t.
Unfortunately, a child in his early teens was ultimately separated by several years from children of five or six.
Kakashi and Guy habitually ignored this little brat.
That made Kabuto extremely jealous.
Watching Kakashi actually fool around with Guy while ignoring him made Kabuto’s jealousy explode.
Senior Guy, I failed the Chūnin Exams too!
I need comforting too!
Why won’t Brother Kakashi even look at me?
Damn watermelon head!
You stole all of Brother Kakashi’s love for his little brother!
If I weren’t weaker than you, Uchiha Kabuto would absolutely challenge you to a duel!
There was nothing he could do.
When strength failed, he could always complain.
That was a child’s privilege.
"Teacher Tenzen, Senior Kakashi is being completely irresponsible. Aren’t you going to do something about him?"
Kabuto spoke with complete seriousness.
His eyes seemed to say:
Heaven, you have to believe me. Please advise Senior Kakashi before he goes any further down this path.
Tenzen looked at Kabuto and shook his head.
Children always worried about inexplicable things.
Complaining was simply part of their nature.
When raising Koshiro, Tenzen had brutally forbidden such behavior.
Back then, he had considered it childish.
Now, however, he found it rather amusing.
Tenzen reached out and stroked Uchiha Kabuto’s smooth hair, his expression unusually patient.
"Little Kabuto, don’t you already have older brothers?"
"Why do you care so much about what other people think?"
"Kakashi doesn’t dislike you."
"How can you force someone to like only you?"
Aside from a period in an orphanage, young Kabuto had experienced very little hardship.
Naturally, he hadn’t developed the bitter outlook he would possess in the future.
With older brothers around him and the affection of his mother and stepfather, he was actually somewhat spoiled.
Of course, he had the capital to be spoiled.
His own strength and his family background were both more than enough to make him proud.
But now that Tenzen had seen straight through his thoughts, Kabuto’s face reddened.
"Well... Teacher Tenzen, it’s not like that!"
"I just don’t understand why Senior Kakashi is so tolerant of Senior Guy."
"He’s even willing to fool around with him!"
Uchiha Kabuto simply couldn’t understand.
He thought that he and Kakashi were the same kind of person.
Both handsome.
Both calm.
Both known as geniuses.
Yet Tenzen could easily see through the problem.
People had never particularly liked those who were too similar to themselves.
He felt it was time to give the child some guidance.
Otherwise, jealousy might eventually erode his kindness.
"Kiddo, you need to understand something."
"Only the clearest of hearts can understand another clear heart."
"Just as only Naka’s autumn understands why the parasol trees let their leaves fall."
Tenzen’s metaphor was far too literary.
Kabuto was still too young.
He could understand the words, but not their meaning.
He could only stare at Tenzen in confusion, silently asking him to explain further.
Tenzen took Kabuto’s hand.
Among the fallen leaves and cool autumn breeze, he led the boy on a leisurely walk, letting him savor the flavor of autumn.
Their tiny footsteps brushed against the coolness of the season.
People could know autumn through the smallest details.
And knowing autumn was also a way of welcoming it.
"Little Kabuto, the Kakashi you see is merely Kakashi with a filter over him."
"You’ve imagined him as someone quiet and calm, just like yourself."
"But that’s nothing more than wishful thinking on your part."
The last remnants of summer’s heat had faded.
The flowers and leaves were clear and bright.
The scenery of heaven and earth had not yet taken on the bleakness of deep autumn.
Instead, it possessed the pure clarity of something just beginning to bloom.
Holding Tenzen’s hand, Kabuto felt a trace of warmth in the autumn air.
He raised his delicate little face and asked:
"Isn’t Senior Kakashi a wise and calm person?"
"Kakashi is merely someone who was forced into silence."
"There were things he couldn’t say."
"Things he didn’t dare to say."
"And that was what created the person you see."
Tenzen’s words dealt a heavy blow to Kabuto.
The Kakashi in his heart and the Senior Kakashi described by Teacher Tenzen seemed like two completely different people.
"No way!"
But Tenzen trusted his judgment.
Although he looked young, Tenzen was no younger than Danzō and the others.
He had seen all kinds of people.
He had seen countless people forced to display one face while hiding another.
Kakashi was what people called tsundere—or rather, someone who hid his true nature beneath a cold exterior.
He had never been cold-blooded.
Quite the opposite.
He was passionate to his core.
Tenzen answered Kabuto with certainty.
"Of course it’s possible."
"Kakashi’s father died bearing a terrible reputation, and the entire pressure of his clan was placed upon his young shoulders."
"How could someone like that dare to openly reveal his emotions?"
"He could only wear a mask before the world."
Then Tenzen asked Kabuto a question.
"But is that the real him?"
"Or perhaps I should ask... who actually cares about the real him?"
Tenzen continued walking with Kabuto toward the training ground.
As they walked, he spoke.
Early autumn was beautiful in its gentleness, never harsh.
Like a person, it seemed to possess its own voice and its own accumulated memories.
Like ash falling from a poet’s fingertips, carrying a mellow, lingering fragrance.
A breeze blew by, half cold and half warm, soft and tranquil.
Early autumn’s gifts were all just right.
Yet scenery like this easily brought old friends to mind.
"I wonder if Sakumo would be satisfied if he saw Kakashi as he is now."
Thinking of that, even Tenzen’s voice became much gentler.
"Little Kabuto, you need to understand something."
"The truth about Kakashi’s father has now been restored."
"Konoha’s White Fang was not a coward."
"He was a brave warrior who took responsibility."
"The former Konoha shinobi whom he saved—the cowardly survivor who later committed suicide to gain sympathy—that man was the real coward."
Kabuto knew about these events as well.
He nodded vigorously.
"Hmph! I understood that a long time ago."
"If that Konoha shinobi really valued the mission more than his own life, then he would’ve killed himself the moment Kakashi’s father decided to abandon the mission."
"Why wait until they returned to Konoha?"
"And even when he killed himself, he made such a huge commotion."
"It was as if he was afraid nobody would stop him!"
As he spoke, Kabuto disdainfully waved his hand through the autumn air, as though merely mentioning such a Konoha shinobi had filled the air with stench.
"Some people are just like that."
"They’re obviously incompetent themselves, yet they blame their failures on other people for not being strong enough."
"I’m weak, therefore I’m right!"
"People like that don’t even deserve to be called human!"
Even after learning that Kakashi was different from what he had imagined, Kabuto still favored him.
And because he favored Kakashi, he naturally favored Kakashi’s father as well.
The first cry of an autumn insect heralded the first trace of autumn’s coolness.
It was autumn’s greeting.
And also the sigh of passing youth.
Autumn insects fill the dusk.
Cooking smoke rises from several homes beneath the fading sunlight.
Seeing his old friend’s reputation restored was the thing Tenzen was happiest about.
Although Tenzen sometimes had to admit that there were many times when people reached the limits of their abilities.
Sometimes they simply couldn’t do something.
Sometimes they couldn’t do it well.
But when responsibility had to be shouldered, someone still had to shoulder it.
A coward was never someone who failed to accomplish something.
A coward was someone who failed to accomplish something and then mocked those who were still trying.
Sakumo was a hero.
Konoha, on the other hand, had been a village full of cowards.
Now the Hatake clan had also been properly protected.
Hatake’s son no longer needed to carry someone else’s life upon his shoulders.
He had a heroic father.
Kakashi should finally be able to reveal his true nature.
"That’s why, Kabuto, the Kakashi you see before you is the real Kakashi."
"He’s nothing more than a handsome version of Might Guy."
"And Might Guy is nothing more than a Kakashi who grew crooked."
As he spoke, Tenzen seriously asked Kabuto:
"Now then, do you still like this kind of Kakashi?"
Suddenly being pressed with such a question by his teacher, Kabuto couldn’t accept it for a moment.
The teacher and student had already reached the training ground.
Kabuto looked at Might Guy, wearing a tight-fitting training outfit and sporting his mushroom-shaped haircut.
He imagined that this was Kakashi beneath the mask.
Then he cried out:
"How is that possible?!"
Tenzen found it incredibly amusing to tease Kabuto and make his normally impeccable expression control fall apart.
"What’s impossible about it?"
"Little Kabuto, most of the time, the people we like are merely people we have imagined ourselves."
"If you genuinely admire someone, if you genuinely like them, then naturally you’ll be willing to accept everything about them."
"Because that’s the real person."
As he spoke, Tenzen pointed toward Kakashi and Might Guy, who had already begun sparring in the training ground.
"So tell me."
"Would you rather like a Kakashi who smiles?"
"Or the Kakashi who bears everything upon his shoulders and pretends to be calm?"
Kabuto fell silent.
He still hadn’t figured out the answer.
Across the fields and beside the small stream, the faint cries of insects rose and fell.
They sounded like whispers.
Or perhaps an orchestra.
In the grass, beneath low windows, crickets, katydids, and countless autumn insects murmured together.
Tenzen had effortlessly destroyed Kabuto’s carefree childhood.
And he didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it.
Children?
The thing they encountered most often in life was disappointment.
Eventually, they would get used to it.
Those freely given insect calls and intimate, vivid autumn colors were what made a warm autumn.
When Koshiro was seven, he once caught a cicada and thought he had captured the entire summer.
The malicious Tenzen had stepped on that cicada and crushed Koshiro’s childhood.
Today, Tenzen had exposed a hidden Kakashi and destroyed Kabuto’s childhood.
They were both his children.
How could he show favoritism?
Now this was Kabuto’s complete childhood.
Tenzen was satisfied.
When people grew old, these were the pleasures they had left:
Raising grandchildren.
Enjoying their later years.
Love and romance?
That was for idiots.
Danzō was a particularly enormous idiot.
After slandering Kōga’s leader, Tenzen finally remembered the matter at hand.
At present, he needed to deal with his disciples’ advancement.
The Chūnin Exams weren’t the only path to promotion.
Perhaps it was time to take his disciples onto the battlefield.
Lord Kei’s plans could not be delayed.
Using the allies to pin down the Mist shinobi from the front while Gen launched a surprise attack on the Land of Water—that was the real plan.
Who knew what Gen was up to?
Why had the disturbances in the Land of Grass grown larger and larger?
"That damn old woman."
"She keeps getting worse with her princess syndrome despite her age."
"Does she really think she can’t survive unless she makes the whole world revolve around her?"
But contrary to Tenzen’s expectations, the disturbances in the Land of Grass were indeed growing larger.
They simply weren’t being caused by Granny Gen.
The battle in the Land of Grass had actually continued for several days.
Kei wasn’t concerned about whether Obito lived or died.
He was concerned about his own subordinates.
If Obito survived, then that was his destiny.
If he didn’t, then that was simply the life Obito deserved.
There was no need for Kei to interfere.
That was why he had not gone to the Kannabi Bridge.
Whether Obito lived or died would not affect Kei’s eventual confrontation with Madara.
It was the war in the Land of Grass that truly interested Kei.
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