"Hm?"
Why did this kid look so familiar?
In the shaded path to Yu's left,
two boys who looked to be around ten, probably close to graduating from the Ninja Academy, were pinning a seven- or eight-year-old kid against the wall.
Yu hadn't planned to get involved in something like this.
But the kid pinned against the wall had dark skin and long, dark hair tied into a pineapple-shaped topknot. He looked very familiar.
So Yu stopped and said coolly, "Hey, you two!"
"Hm?"
Hearing someone butt in, the two boys from the Ninja Academy immediately turned around.
But when they saw that the person behind them was a kid even younger than the one they were bullying, they burst out laughing.
"A brat even younger than this guy wants to stick his nose in, too?"
Whoosh!!
Before they could finish speaking, the world blurred before their eyes. Yu, who had been standing in front of them, vanished in an instant.
"Thud! Thud!"
Two dull impacts rang out.
The Pineapple-Head Kid, still pinned against the wall, had only just begun to react.
To his astonishment, the two boys who'd been bullying him were already sprawled on the ground, taken down by Yu in an instant.
"H-he's amazing!"
Seeing Yu, who was two or three years younger than him, knock down the two soon-to-graduate Ninja Academy students in the blink of an eye,
the Pineapple-Head Kid leaned against the wall with his mouth hanging open, too shocked to speak.
"Ow..."
"Damn it... How does a kid like that have so much strength?!"
The two boys from the Ninja Academy, both around ten, still hadn't understood what had happened.
They'd been knocked to the ground in a dizzying flash, and now stared at five-year-old Yu in disbelief.
"What are you standing there for?"
"Why don't you get going?"
After taking down the two older boys in the blink of an eye,
Yu turned to the Pineapple-Head Kid, who was still leaning against the wall in a daze, and spoke calmly.
Over the past while,
aside from developing the String-String Fruit's abilities and training in ninjutsu,
Yu had put the most effort into taijutsu, especially after his chakra had reached the Genin level.
Taking on these two Ninja Academy students, who had only just learned to refine chakra, was a piece of cake.
"Uh!"
Hearing Yu's calm voice,
the Pineapple-head Boy leaning against the wall finally seemed to snap out of a dream.
He was about to thank Yu when another voice cut in at the worst possible moment.
"In a situation like this..."
"Do you still have time to meddle in other people's business?"
As the voice rang out, four mysterious figures had somehow blocked the path where Yu and the Pineapple-head Boy stood.
"You're Yakushi Hane, right?"
"After what happened last time, I made a point of finding out your name..."
The four figures blocked Yu and the Pineapple-head Boy's way.
The newcomer wore a sneer filled with hatred. It was Itachi, the Ninja Academy student Yu had thoroughly beaten last time.
"R-run!"
"Itachi and Izumo Kamizuki are here!"
Sensing that something was wrong, the two Ninja Academy students who'd been knocked down scrambled to their feet and hurried away.
Only the Pineapple-head Boy Yu had rescued remained. After a brief hesitation, he gritted his teeth and stepped behind Yu.
"So it's you..."
"The guy who wet his pants last time."
Seeing Itachi, whom he'd thoroughly beaten before, blocking his way with three other upper-year Ninja Academy students, two in front and two behind,
Yu slowly turned around. There wasn't a hint of alarm on his face; instead, he gave a mocking smile. "What? Last time still wasn't enough to teach you a lesson?"
"You little brat!"
Sure enough, Yu's calm words made Itachi grit his teeth in fury.
The painful memory of what happened last time haunted him like a nightmare.
If Itachi hadn't acted on his own and used ninja tools, his parents would have gone after the Konoha Orphanage and Yu.
Instead, he'd had to swallow his anger. After receiving treatment at the Ninja Hospital, Itachi and his brother Inazu had even been lectured by their parents.
"Hmph. Are the new kids at the Ninja Academy always this arrogant?"
Before Itachi could calm down,
the boy standing beside him, with black bangs covering the right side of his face, stepped forward with a cold snort.
"Itachi, you got beaten up by a kid like this? You really are hopeless."
At the same time, the boy on Yu's other side, with long black hair parted down the middle like a hedgehog's spines,
seemed unable to stomach Yu's calm attitude. He stepped forward and mocked him.
"These two?"
Caught between two boys who looked to be around ten,
Yu studied their somewhat familiar faces. Recognition dawned on him. "I see... Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, those two bit players..."
"That's quite a special way to welcome a new student."
Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki.
Both were elite Chunin from Konoha in the original story.
Years of working together and deep trust had made their teamwork nearly flawless.
They were both around ten now, upper-year students at the Ninja Academy.
Yu hadn't expected that these two bit players from the original story had been the Ninja Academy's little tyrants when they were younger.
"All right, Senior Kotetsu and Senior Izumo."
"Enough talk. Let's teach this kid a lesson and go home."
An impatient voice, weak and sickly, urged them on.
The last boy among Itachi and his companions spoke.
He had a pale complexion, a black headband, and such dark circles under his eyes that he looked seriously ill.
Gekko Hayate.
Yu recognized the boy at a glance.
In the original story, he was a Special Jōnin of Konoha and the proctor of the third round of the Chunin Ninja Exams for Naruto's class.
He was also Uzuki Yugao's childhood sweetheart, a short-lived shinobi who died at the hands of Sunagakure Jōnin Baki during Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan.
Of course, the Gekko Hayate standing before Yu was only eight.
He was a year below Kotetsu and Izumo, but his skills were a cut above theirs.
"Quite a few familiar faces..."
"Too bad they're all insignificant bit players."
After recognizing the three Ninja Academy boys before him, Yu beckoned to all four with a finger.
"All right, let's not waste my time..."
"Come at me together. I'm in a hurry to get home."
Before you continue