Gato hurriedly concealed his displeasure. After all, the fighting prowess these two had just displayed was even greater than that of the ninja who could make things explode.
"Thank you both for saving me, honored ninja," Gato said ingratiatingly.
Seeing the underground emperor act this way was a little hard for Yugito Nii to accept at first, but she collected herself and spoke.
"Gato, do you know that disaster is about to befall you?!"
Gato turned pale at once. He hadn't offended anyone from the Five Great Shinobi Villages, so why was he suddenly being told that disaster was about to befall him?
Seeing that the method she had learned from a book worked, Yugito Nii smiled smugly. She really was a genius ninja, all right. With just a few words, she had frightened Gato, a man who had seen it all.
Yugito Nii then naturally brought up the fact that the two of them needed to rest and recuperate in the Land of Waves.
Gato hurriedly said that he hoped they would allow him to play host and provide accommodations for the honored ninja.
"Sorry to impose. If you ever run into trouble, I'll lend you a hand too," Yugito Nii said at last.
Gato then summoned a subordinate and had him take the two to choose their accommodations, while he took the opportunity to tidy himself up.
Seeing how readily Gato had agreed, Yugito Nii gave Might Guy a smug smile.
She then spoke in a voice only Might Guy could hear.
"Well? I told you my method was the one to use, didn't I? See how readily Gato agreed? We can also use this opportunity to prevent another assassination attempt."
Might Guy didn't notice anything wrong either.
After the two left, a vicious look instantly appeared in Gato's eyes. He summoned several more subordinates and ordered them,
"You lot, go investigate where those people came from." As it turned out, Gato hadn't believed what Yugito Nii had told him.
"One of those ninja wears a Konoha Forehead Protector, and the other wears a Kumogakure Forehead Protector. They might be missing-nin who've come here to mooch off me." After thinking it over, Gato still felt he couldn't afford to provoke them yet.
If they fell out, he might not be able to beat them.
But he wasn't a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, either. If they wanted to take a bite out of him, they'd have to live long enough to eat it.
He had already hired Kirigakure's "Demon," Zabuza. When the time came, Zabuza would deal with those bridge builders first, and none of these people of unknown origin could expect to live either.
Zabuza had originally been one of the second generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist from Kirigakure in the Land of Water, and the second wielder of the Kubikiribōchō.
But dissatisfied with the village's tyranny, he had attempted to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage. After failing, he fled the village and became a missing-nin. Gato had worked with him several times, and each knew the other well.
Elsewhere, after Obito joined Team Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto crowded around him, talking nonstop.
"Hey, were you really Kakashi-sensei's teammate?" Naruto asked, looking unconvinced.
"Of course," Obito said proudly. "Kakashi and I have been competing since we were in school. Let me tell you, Kakashi was so full of himself back then. Every day..."
Before Obito could finish, Kakashi hurriedly covered his mouth and said with a smile,
"Obito, whatever else you do, at least let me save a little face in front of my students."
"Mmph, mmph."
Obito could only struggle desperately to break free. He really had forgotten that Kakashi was a teacher now.
"Yeah, right. We're not going to believe that. Kakashi drags his feet all day. How could that be true?" Naruto said, disregarding everything as he exposed his teacher's faults.
"No way!" Obito was a little skeptical.
"It's true! Kakashi-sensei always likes to order us around while he sneaks off to read by himself!" Naruto continued.
Huh, reading? Obito didn't know when Kakashi had picked up that hobby. Fortunately, though, Obito didn't know that a book called Icha Icha Paradise existed, or there was no telling what expression he would have made.
"Let me tell you, Kakashi was amazing when he was little." With that, Obito began telling the three Konoha kids about Kakashi's childhood.
"You're kidding," Sakura said in disbelief when Obito told them that Kakashi had become a Jonin at twelve.
Even Sasuke couldn't connect their Jonin team leader, who did nothing all day, with the genius Obito described, who had passed the Jonin exam at twelve.
"It's true. And by the time Kakashi was twelve, he could already complete S-rank missions on his own."
Naruto's eyes widened even further.
Sasuke looked at their utterly ordinary-looking teacher. He had been so impressive when he was young.
Sasuke had originally just wanted to talk to this fellow member of the Uchiha Clan, but he hadn't expected to hear a secret like this.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn't even become a Chunin yet. The comparison made him even more disappointed. If this was all he could do, how could he take revenge on that man?
But then Naruto asked, "What about you, Obito?"
When Naruto asked him, Obito was a little embarrassed to answer. After all, it had taken him several tries to pass even the Genin exam, let alone the Chunin Ninja Exams.
But Obito was also too embarrassed to lie to his newly made friend, so he could only answer Naruto truthfully.
Contrary to what he had expected, when Naruto heard Obito say he was the dead last, he not only refrained from laughing at him but also strongly identified with him.
"To tell you the truth, even though I, Naruto Uzumaki, am dead last too, I'm definitely going to become Hokage someday," Naruto said with great determination.
"What are you talking about? I, Obito Uchiha, am definitely going to be Hokage," Obito replied, refusing to back down.
Watching the two argue, Kakashi couldn't help feeling that not only were their personalities alike, but their dreams were exactly the same too.
He remembered how Kushina, his sensei's wife, had always hoped that her child would grow up to be as optimistic as Obito.