"Kakashi, let's go train!"
"No."
"Our passionate youth has only just begun. Instead of sitting here in the cold, why don't we go run ten thousand meters?"
Sitting on the high wall, Kakashi's mouth twitched. This guy beside him, with a bowl-cut hairstyle and a tight green suit, Might Guy, was really annoying.
Seeing that he couldn't persuade his classmate, Might Guy scratched his head.
Kakashi was a genius student in their year at the Ninja Academy. Guy wanted to work hard and beat him at training, but Kakashi wouldn't accept his invitation.
Flashing his white teeth, Might Guy called out, "Are you worried about Lord White Fang?"
Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi's father, was known as the White Fang of Konoha, a man said to surpass the Sannin.
For the past six months, he had been under immense pressure from public opinion.
During a highly classified mission, Hatake Sakumo had been leading a team into enemy territory when he was forced to make an impossible choice: complete the mission or save his comrades.
The rules strictly forbade abandoning a mission. But he had given it up to save his comrades' lives, and the village's ninja blamed him for the losses the village suffered.
That alone would have been bad enough, but just two days ago, even the comrades he had rescued had come forward to criticize Hatake Sakumo.
It had left the White Fang of Konoha deeply distressed.
As the White Fang's son, Kakashi cared deeply about his father and was full of worry.
Kakashi glanced at Might Guy and clenched his fists, but said nothing.
As the two sat on the wall, swinging their legs, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded from the end of the street.
A boy with red lips, white teeth, and a resolute expression ran past them, his heavy steps kicking up a cloud of dust.
Looking down at him from above, Might Guy's eyes lit up.
"Isn't that Gong Yi?"
Kakashi glanced over, his expression unchanged.
"He's been training hard lately. This is the third time I've seen him run past here."
Hearing Kakashi say that, Might Guy was delighted.
So Gong Yi, who was in the same class as him, was a hard worker too!
"Since you won't come train with me, I'll go find Gong Yi instead."
Might Guy jumped off the wall and followed Gong Yi.
"One thousand meters, five hundred meters, one hundred meters. Finally, I'm done!"
Gong Yi dragged his tired legs and let out a long sigh of relief.
He'd finally finished his thirty-thousand-meter run for the day. It had worn him out.
Might Guy's booming voice rang out behind him. "Gong Yi, are you giving up? Keep going! Don't quit! Youth has only just begun. How can you stop here?"
Watching Might Guy's enthusiastic expression, Gong Yi remained expressionless.
How could Guy know that he'd already run thirty thousand meters, circled all the way around Konoha, and even completed five hundred sit-ups and a thousand push-ups?
"Guy, you can keep going. I'm going home."
"Uh, why are you as cold as Kakashi?"
Gong Yi shook his head without explaining, passed through the Konoha Gate, and slowly made his way home.
He and Kakashi were cold in entirely different ways.
Kakashi, or his classmates Asuma and Kurenai Yuhi, were all from Konoha's elite clans. They were clan ninja, naturally carrying an air of pride.
As for Gong Yi, his coldness was just a way to protect himself, keeping outsiders at a distance so they wouldn't figure out his background.
At a guard post outside Konoha, three ninja watched the little boy walk alone toward the settlement outside the village and discussed him in low voices.
"That kid, Gong Yi, is a war orphan, right? He works hard!"
"I heard Kinoshita Ryota brought him back from Kusagakure. Too bad Ryota died on his last mission."
At the mention of their familiar comrade, all three fell silent.
Grief settled over them.
The ninja world was too cruel. A comrade they'd shared drinks and grilled meat with yesterday might die on a mission tomorrow.
They'd recently completed a few missions and finished their leave. Seeing how hard they'd worked, the village had assigned them an easy duty: keeping watch from a concealed post to protect the village.
One of them suddenly said, "That kid's been training way too hard lately. He's still so young; his body might not be able to take it."
As the saying went, a poor man could study, but only the rich could practice martial arts. Since ancient times, anyone who wanted to make great strides in physical training needed not just talent but also abundant resources.
Ninja raised by clans, for example, had dedicated instructors to guide their Taijutsu training when they were young, in addition to learning the necessary Ninjutsu.
They also received medicinal baths and support from Medical Ninjutsu practitioners from time to time, all to keep them from damaging their bodies.
"He's an orphan. If he doesn't work hard, after graduating from the Ninja Academy, he'll be sent on missions or to the battlefield. Then he'll be as good as dead."
"Shh. Don't talk about going to the battlefield. I hate war!"
"Who likes it? But the situation in the village has been getting more tense lately. Sunagakure keeps stirring up trouble..."
The three chatted, moving from an orphan to matters of state. By the end, they had almost forgotten about Gong Yi.
Like those adults, Gong Yi understood that the lack of resources to support his recovery was his biggest obstacle if he wanted to push himself through such grueling training.
He didn't have enough resources to care for his body, not with such an enormous training load.
Even in the energy-rich world of Naruto, his body wouldn't be able to take it.
But after his first day of training, he stopped worrying about all that.
"Ninja Scholar System: beginner's gift pack issued. Scholar Skill—Omni-Directional Recovery Technique trial card. Duration: one year!"
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