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The sun was about to set when Hyuga Shinichi arrived at the market. Even at this hour, there were still plenty of people out buying groceries. It was nothing like his previous life, when he'd had to get up at the crack of dawn to buy enough food for the whole day.

On the way over, Hyuga Shinichi had already decided what to cook: beer-braised duck as the main dish, with a few sides. Of course, this world didn't have beer yet, but sake would work just as well. It was made from grain, after all, so it should make the duck even more fragrant and tender.

He soon bought everything he needed. Hyuga Shinichi carried the duck by both wings in his right hand and the side-dish ingredients in his left. The shopkeeper offered delivery for the sake, since Shinichi had bought quite a lot.

The shopkeeper didn't offer to prepare the duck on the spot, so Shinichi had to take it home and do that himself.

The duck was so restless that Shinichi had to tap a pressure point to quiet it down.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shinichi spotted a striking tuft of silver-white hair in the crowd. He looked over and recognized the person. You didn't see him often, so Shinichi hurried over at once.

"Excuse me, are you Hatake Sakumo?"

With silver-white hair and a specially made short blade strapped to his back, the man before him was indeed Hatake Sakumo. During the Second Shinobi World War, he would earn the title of White Fang of Konoha, and his fame would briefly eclipse that of his contemporaries, the Konoha Sannin.

It was the thirty-second year of Konoha, and Hatake Sakumo was only nineteen, yet he had already become a Jonin. He'd taken on many high-level missions in the field, and was gradually shaping up to be an elite Jonin. He was already a step ahead of Tsunade and the others.

"Mm, and you are?"

"I'm Hyuga Shinichi. I've always admired your swordsmanship, and it's such a rare pleasure to meet you today..."

"So you're that Hyuga Shinichi?"

A surprised voice suddenly interrupted Shinichi's words of admiration. He looked toward the speaker and saw a mature beauty with a mole at the corner of her mouth and the same fang markings on her cheeks as the Inuzuka Clan.

He'd been so excited to see Hatake Sakumo that he hadn't noticed the person beside him. And it looked as though he'd interrupted their date. A rare look of embarrassment crossed Shinichi's face.

Seeing that Shinichi had noticed her, the mature beauty smiled and said,

"I'm Gai's older sister, Inuzuka Oto. My little brother talks about you all the time. I've also heard your name mentioned in connection with those herbs that recently improved our clan's secret technique, our sense of smell."

"Hello, ma'am. Sorry for interrupting your date."

At the word "date," Hatake Sakumo blushed. Inuzuka Oto smiled sweetly at him and tightened her fingers around his hand. The two of them were clearly in the throes of romance. Shinichi had just been served a faceful of affection.

"It's fine. We're just out for a stroll on our day off."

"Then I'll leave you two to it. Have a lovely evening. Goodbye."

He said his farewells and hurried off. The two of them were so wrapped up in each other that they didn't react until afterward. Then Inuzuka Oto asked Hatake Sakumo,

"What do you think of that boy?"

"He's carrying a sword, so he's clearly a swordsman. I could sense the sharpness emanating from him. A swordsman from the Hyuga Clan, huh? That's pretty interesting."

"Never mind. I don't understand what you're talking about anyway. You'd better take me shopping tonight. Konoha's had lots of new things come in lately. My brother even brought home something called an electric fan..."

On the way home, Shinichi hadn't expected Kakashi's mother to be from the Inuzuka Clan, though he could more or less guess as much. In the anime, Kakashi had told Kiba Inuzuka that his sense of smell was pretty good, too.

On top of that, Kakashi's summoning beasts were a pack of Ninja Dogs, and techniques like Summoning: Earth Style: Tracking Fang Technique, Lightning Style: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang, and Earth Style: Earth Splitter Fang all sounded very much like the Inuzuka Clan.

Come to think of it, when was Kakashi born? It seemed to be the thirty-seventh year, which was also when the Second Shinobi World War officially broke out.

The original story hadn't said how Kakashi's mother died, had it? Could she have died in childbirth?

That was possible, too. By the time the Second Shinobi World War began, Inuzuka Gai would be thirteen and old enough to go to the battlefield. Perhaps, just like Shinichi's own mother, she learned that her younger brother had died and was so grief-stricken that she passed away after giving birth to Kakashi.

Then he thought of Nawaki. Even as Orochimaru's student, he'd still die when a trap exploded. Inuzuka Gai and Aburame Tomohiro wouldn't fare any better on the battlefield. Lost in thought, Shinichi arrived home.

"Honestly, why am I worrying about all this? I just need to protect them when the time comes."

"I'm home!"

As soon as Shinichi stepped inside, he saw several pairs of shoes in the entryway. Were they having guests?

"Heh heh, Shinichi! It's been so long since you saw me. Did you miss me? I've learned tons of new jutsu, you know..."

He didn't even need to guess who that voice belonged to.

"Poor, foolish Nawaki. Learning a few more jutsu won't be enough to beat me."

"I..."

"All right, are we having guests?"

"Yeah. My sister's boyfriend, Dan Katō, and Jiraiya and Orochimaru are here, too. We're having drinks at home tonight."

"Good thing I bought plenty of ingredients. It should be enough."

"Shinichi, let's fight! I'm stronger now..."

"Fine, fine. Tomorrow, all right? I'll fight you tomorrow. First, help me carry these groceries to the kitchen."

The people in the living room heard their conversation in the entryway. When Jiraiya saw Shinichi walk in, he was the first to speak up, sounding intrigued.

"So you're the Hyuga Shinichi the old man mentioned—the seven-year-old who might become a Special Jonin?"

The "old man" Jiraiya meant was his teacher, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Lately, Jiraiya had often seen the old man deep in thought. At first, he'd assumed the old man was thinking about something lewd.

When he asked, he learned that there was a seven-year-old kid in the village who already had the strength of a Special Jonin. But because Hyuga Shinichi was so young, the old man was still deciding whether to appoint him so early.

Jiraiya hadn't forgotten the Toad Sage's prophecy about the Child of Prophecy, so he paid close attention to gifted young shinobi.

"Good evening, Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Everyone's giving me too much credit. I'm still a long way from being on your level."

Hyuga Shinichi replied modestly.

"You're being too modest, Shinichi. With your abilities, you'd have no trouble becoming a Special Jonin."

Tsunade chimed in from the side.

Shinichi looked at the young man with pale purple hair sitting beside Tsunade and gave him a mischievous grin.

"Dan, should I call you Big Brother or brother-in-law?"

That was right—Dan Katō was the one Shinichi was calling his brother-in-law. The two of them had known each other for a long time.

The year before, thanks to Shinichi, Tsunade had met Dan Katō ahead of time. He hadn't expected them to start dating so soon.

After that, Shinichi hadn't seen them for a long while. Whenever he was home, they were out on missions; whenever they came back, he was away on a mission.

Now that they'd finally met again, teasing them was only natural for Shinichi.

"What nonsense are you talking about, you brat? We're not even married yet, so how can you call me your brother-in-law?"

Tsunade was usually carefree, but at Shinichi's words, before Dan Katō could even answer, she was blushing too much to sit still. She went over and punched Shinichi. Everyone present burst out laughing.

"Shinichi, are you all right?"

Dan Katō hurried over and helped Shinichi up after Tsunade knocked him down. Tsunade obviously hadn't hit him hard; Shinichi was only pretending to have been floored. Dan Katō was the only one who genuinely thought Shinichi had been hit because of him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. But I call you Big Brother, and you want to be my brother-in-law. Don't you owe me, your little brother, a red envelope?"

"Then I want one too, brother-in-law!"

Seeing a chance to get a red envelope, Nawaki hurried over as well. Shinichi noticed Tsunade's gaze flicking between Mito Uzumaki and Dan Katō. Her face was already turning red and steaming.

After getting his red envelope, Shinichi grinned and went off to prepare the duck.