This One Was an Even Bigger Shot

Kakashi hurried along, racing all the way to the wild lake outside the village.

After arriving, he looked like a frustrated woman deprived of satisfaction, impatiently searching for Uchiha Mai's figure, eager to have a fight with the formidable rival in his mind.

After searching for a few seconds, he failed to find Uchiha Mai, but spotted Might Guy doing handstands as he walked along the lakeshore.

"One, two, one! One, two, one! One, two, one..."

It was not Might Guy who shouted the cadence, but a brightly colored macaw flying beside him.

Since when had Might Guy started keeping birds?

Kakashi frowned slightly and asked, "Might Guy, when did you get here? Have you seen Mai?"

Smack!

Might Guy flipped upright, dusted off his palms, and replied, "I only got here a few minutes ago too. This macaw said Mai asked me to meet him by the lake."

A macaw?

Sensing something was off, Kakashi reached out with both hands and grabbed the macaw's plump body. After examining it for a moment, he realized that, like the hummingbird before it, this large bird had been drawn.

"Let go of me, damn it! Let go of me!

You little brat, you don't have the skills, so you resorted to a sneak attack! You can't afford to lose..."

The macaw, nearly a meter long, flapped its wings and struggled endlessly while spewing trash talk.

"Where is Uchiha Mai?"

Kakashi held his blade to the macaw's neck as a threat. Though he did not know whether threatening a bird that had flown out of a painting would work, he threatened it anyway.

The macaw immediately stopped babbling, raised its head, and pointed upward with its beak. "In the sky, in the sky."

In the sky?

Kakashi and Might Guy looked up and