At the crack of dawn, Might Guy's passionate voice pierced the sky above Konoha like a hot-blooded war cry.
"GRATITUDE! JUSTICE!"
Nara Kazuki echoed with just as much vigor.
Kakashi, panting and bent over, looked sideways at Kazuki in stunned disbelief. Gratitude? What kind of nonsense was that?
Guy, of course, noticed nothing strange and simply continued his intense routine with overflowing zeal.
By the end of their 4 AM morning training, Kazuki was drenched in sweat. He wiped his forehead and looked to Guy, who was already starting his extra rounds of training. Watching Guy push himself that hard day after day made Kazuki deeply respect him.
"If Guy lived in the world of One Piece, he'd be putting in two hundred times the effort and would've become Admiral King by now," Kazuki muttered. Now that's true hard work.
Might Guy trained every moment he wasn't sleeping. No breaks. No excuses.
And it was that discipline that made him such a beast later on—even though he didn't defeat Uchiha Madara in the end, he pushed him to the brink, forcing Naruto and Sasuke to step in.
"Kazuki, Jiraiya's back," said Kakashi as he tossed a can of juice over.
Kazuki caught it in one hand, cracking it open. The psssht of carbonation somehow made the morning fatigue vanish.
"Yeah, I ran into him yesterday," Kazuki replied casually.
More than just ran into, in fact. He knew why Jiraiya had returned this time—he had been coming to see him. Kazuki had even handed over a "manuscript" he'd been saving. It'd fired Jiraiya up so much he'd nearly sprinted off to the Red Light District right then and there.
Too bad Minato Namikaze had shown up and caught them red-handed.
Yet apparently, Jiraiya hadn't left. That was interesting.
The timeline was starting to shift. With Jiraiya around, Kushina's delivery would be safer. Kazuki couldn't help but wonder—would Obito still try to make a move?
"You saw him?" Kakashi looked surprised, but quickly nodded. With Kazuki and Jiraiya's unusual creative collaboration, it made sense.
Kazuki literally earned royalties off Jiraiya's books.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Kazuki formed hand seals and launched a massive fireball into the sky. It burst with brilliant white heat, painting the Konoha morning in gold and orange.
Kakashi, arms crossed, silently observed from the side. Was it just him, or was Kazuki's Great Fireball getting... bigger?
And the way it exploded—it looked nothing like a standard Katon technique.
"Come on, Kakashi. We've got that debrief with Captain Kitsune," Kazuki said with a yawn. He took a careful sip of juice—he knew better than to chug it right after intense exercise.
Kakashi followed him wordlessly.
Captain Kitsune had told them to regroup at the same location as before—the "interview room," as he called it—for a mission debrief. He wanted to analyze everyone's performance and point out areas to improve.
Apparently, this was his personal team tradition.
When they arrived at the familiar interrogation chamber, the smell of instant ramen hit Kazuki's nose.
Opening the door, he found Kitsune slurping ramen while reading a novel. Today, he had changed his face again—this time, he looked like an unshaven, middle-aged man.
"Oh! Red Stag and Deerwolf, you're here. Your noodles are ready too!" Kitsune grinned.
Kazuki and Kakashi shrugged and sat down to eat.
"Captain, why do you change your face every time?" Kazuki asked, pulling off his mask. Today he'd gone with Kudō Shinichi's face.
Transformation Jutsu was such a joy.
"As a proper ANBU, revealing your real face is forbidden. You only show it if you're about to die—or retire," Kitsune replied, handing both of them sausages to go with their noodles.
Kakashi removed his mask too, today using a completely generic face.
Sure, Transformation Jutsu wasn't foolproof, but none of them had any reason to mess with each other's disguises.
"Maybe... your real face is that of a super cute girl~" Kitsune teased.
Kazuki and Kakashi shuddered in perfect sync. Horrifying thought.
Still, they had to admit—Kitsune was a solid leader.
After the meal, Kitsune got serious and began reviewing their mission.
He pointed out mistakes even Kazuki and Kakashi hadn't noticed themselves. The mission had been short and messy, yes, and clearly had hidden motives—but resolving those wasn't their job.
So Kitsune didn't harp on it.
"Tomorrow, we deploy again," Kitsune said. "Target: a three-man shinobi squad from Kumogakure. Intel suggests they've been operating in a border town. Locate and neutralize them."
Both Kazuki and Kakashi nodded, their expressions sharpening.
Kumogakure. An old rival.
The Third Great Ninja War might be officially over, but covert clashes and spying between villages hadn't stopped.
"Departure: tomorrow morning."
And with that, Kitsune left.
Leaving behind bowls, wrappers, and a mess.
Kazuki and Kakashi exchanged glances.
"Race to see who finishes hand seals slower cleans up?" Kazuki offered, raising a brow.
Kakashi said nothing.
Kazuki's instincts tingled. Something was off.
He pulled out a kunai and stabbed forward—poof.
Damn it. Shadow Clone.
"When the hell did he cast that?" Kazuki muttered.
"This bastard's picking up bad habits," he added with a wry smile before resignedly cleaning up the mess.
Once done, he shut the door behind him and left.
Their next mission would put them up against Kumogakure ninja—and Kazuki could feel the pressure building.
He needed to get stronger.
But most of his jutsu were slowly progressing, and though he had some spare proficiency points, none of his techniques were close enough to the next upgrade threshold to make a difference.
"Body conditioning... still too low."
He glanced at his physical strength proficiency bar.
The stronger his body, the more chakra he'd be able to store.
Time to grind harder.