Five in the morning.
The Land of Water's Kirigakure was still shrouded in thick, damp fog, and most civilians and ninja were still asleep.
"Youth! It won't stop for a little fog!"
A full-throated roar, loud enough to pierce the mist, exploded across the dry, fresh courtyard of the Konoha Embassy in Kirigakure.
Might Duy, Konoha's first ambassador to Kirigakure, had already put on his comfortable, breathable, brilliantly green one-piece Training Suit.
Every muscle in his body was taut. His eyes blazed with fighting spirit beneath his thick brows, and even his trademark gleaming white teeth flashed in the faint light of dawn.
"First training session of the day! One hundred laps around the outskirts of Kirigakure at sprinting speed! Let's go!"
At Duy's command, he charged out of the embassy gates.
But shockingly, he was followed not by silence from the empty street, but by the rhythmic pounding of footsteps!
"Youth! Passion!"
More than a dozen figures in identical green bodysuits ran close behind Duy!
They ran in two columns, chanting in unison. Their movements were less exaggerated than Duy's, but they were every bit as fired up.
And a closer look at their Forehead Protectors revealed that every last one of them was a Kirigakure ninja!
A few months earlier, when Duy had first arrived in Kirigakure as ambassador, such a sight would have been unimaginable.
Back then, to Kirigakure's civilians and ninja, Duy was a demon wrapped in green!
The reason was simple: Duy had forced open the Gate of Death in the Eight Gates Released Formation and single-handedly reduced the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, feared throughout the Shinobi World, to a lucky trio of survivors.
Those three who had managed to flee back to Kirigakure—Jūzō Biwa, Suikazan Fuguki, and Raiga Kurosuki—wanted to hide the shame of running