The Strange Trio

As Bai Ye's swordsmanship steadily improved, the days passed. It was now the spring of Konoha's thirty-third year.

At the window seat in the back row of the Ninja Academy classroom, Bai Ye looked outside.

An old camphor tree stood on the training field. Its trunk was so thick that it took three people to wrap their arms around it, and its canopy covered more than half the field. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, shattering into dozens of patches of light on the ground. Bai Ye stared at those patches for a while.

He had thought school would be like this: one stern teacher, a group of silent students, daily sword swings, hand seals, shuriken practice, the occasional injury, and then more sword swings.

In reality, school was like this: noisy.

Very noisy.

"My Fire Style can burn down the entire training ground!"

"That little Fire Style of yours can't even light a candle."

"What did you say?!"

Sitting by the classroom window, Bai Ye watched expressionlessly as two classmates argued red-faced over whose Fire Style was stronger. Outside, a bird perched on a branch and tilted its head toward the classroom, as if pondering, What exactly are these humans doing? Bai Ye envied that bird. It could fly away, but he could not.

"Bai Ye."

The blond boy in the seat beside him called softly.

Minato Namikaze had enrolled on the same day as him and been assigned the neighboring seat. Bai Ye's first impression of Minato had been, This guy smiles too much. On the first day of school, Minato had smiled as he greeted him. When the teacher called on him in class, he had smiled as he answered. Even when he got an exam paper back and found he had missed two questions, he could still smile and say, "I'll do better next time."

Bai Ye did not really understand people like that, but he did not dislike him.

"What is it?" Bai Ye did not turn around. His gaze remained outside.

"You were spacing out again."

"I wasn't spacing out."

"The teacher called your name twice."

Bai Ye fell silent for a second. "What was the teacher talking about?"

Trying not to laugh, Minato pushed his notes over. "Calculating the trajectory of shuriken throws. It's actually pretty interesting. Want me to explain it to you?"

Bai Ye lowered his head and glanced at the notes. Minato's handwriting was outrageously neat, every line looking as though it had been measured with a ruler. There were even diagrams beside them, marking the effects of angle, force, and wind speed. Not only did this guy not zone out in class, he even expanded on the material himself.

"...Thanks," Bai Ye said.

"You're welcome." Minato smiled again.

After Bai Ye finished copying the notes, a thought suddenly came to him: If Hatake-sensei were here, he would probably pat Minato on the head and say, "This kid's interesting."

The thought made the corner of his mouth twitch. Minato keenly caught that tiny change, his eyes lighting up, but he said nothing. He merely nudged the notes a little closer to Bai Ye.

In the third week after school began, they had a taijutsu sparring class.

"Today's lesson is practical sparring," the teacher said from the middle of the training ground. "Pairs of two. Stop at the point of contact."

Bai Ye was paired with Minato.

Minato rolled his wrists, his blond hair almost painfully bright under the sun. "Bai Ye, go easy on me."

"Begin."

Minato moved.

He was incredibly fast—so fast that Bai Ye barely saw his opening motion. A trailing afterimage flashed through his vision, and Minato's right fist was already coming for his shoulder.

Bai Ye shifted aside, and the fist grazed past his collar.

Minato did not pause. His left foot tapped the ground, his body spun halfway around, and his right leg swept toward Bai Ye's lower body. His movements flowed like water; before one motion had ended, the next had already begun.

Bai Ye took a step back to avoid the sweep, extending his right hand at the same time. His five fingers curled into a claw as he reached for Minato's ankle.

Minato's eyes lit up. In midair, he forcibly shifted his center of gravity, pulled his leg back, and flipped backward. The instant he landed, he had regained his footing.

Neither of them spoke.

Minato was too fast. Even when Bai Ye predicted his movements in advance, he could only barely keep up. He had never seen anyone their age move at such speed. Between the start and end of every attack, Minato's body seemed to move with almost no transition, as though his muscles and bones had been designed from birth for one purpose alone: speed.

But Bai Ye noticed something else.

Minato's speed was straight-line speed. From point A to point B, no one could match his movement speed. But if he suddenly changed direction halfway through, his body would stiffen for a fraction of a second.

The opening was extremely small. Anyone else would never have noticed it.

But Bai Ye did.

Not with his eyes, but with feeling. During half a year of training, Hatake Sakumo had not taught him a single technique. He had taught him only one thing: observe. Observe the opponent's movements.

Before Minato changed direction, the tip of his foot would first point toward his intended destination. The lead was brief, but it was enough for Bai Ye to react.

Minato charged again, even faster this time, his right fist shooting straight for Bai Ye's chest.

Bai Ye did not retreat. He turned sideways, placed his right hand on Minato's wrist, and gave a gentle pull in the direction of Minato's force.

Minato's own momentum pulled his balance off-center. He stumbled half a step forward, and Bai Ye's left hand shot out at the same time, his fingertips stopping before Minato's throat.

They did not touch him. They merely stopped in front of him.

"Stop."

The teacher's voice rang out.

Minato looked down at the two fingers hovering before his throat, then looked up at Bai Ye. His eyes were shining far too brightly.

"How did you do that?"

Bai Ye withdrew his hand. "Your toes moved first."

Minato froze for a moment, lowered his head to look at his feet, and thought for a while. Then he raised his head and gave the brightest smile Bai Ye had ever seen.

"You're amazing!"

Bai Ye: "..."

He had been defeated. Why was he so happy?

"Can you teach me?" Minato moved closer, completely unconcerned with winning or losing.

Bai Ye thought for a moment and gestured with his hands.

"Your force comes straight at me. I don't need to block it. I only need to make it turn. Force won't turn on its own—it needs a pivot. My wrist is the pivot."

Minato's expression shifted from excitement to seriousness. He fell silent for a few seconds, then raised a hand and mimed his previous movement and the angle of his feet. He immediately nodded hard.

"I get it. If I hide the movement of my toes, you won't be able to predict me as easily."

Bai Ye was taken aback as well.

He had only thought about observing Minato's weakness. He had not considered what would happen if Minato hid that weakness. This blond kid who was always smiling thought far faster than Bai Ye had expected.

The two looked at each other.

Then the corner of Bai Ye's mouth truly lifted.

At the edge of the training ground, a black-haired boy stood with his arms folded, watching from beginning to end.

Fugaku Uchiha.

The teacher had called him over to help. Older students occasionally served as assistants in the younger students' taijutsu classes. They were called assistants, but really they just carried equipment and helped maintain order. Fugaku had thought it would be boring. What was there to see in a bunch of first-year brats fighting?

Then he saw Bai Ye and Minato spar.

Fugaku narrowed his eyes.

That blond kid's speed had already surpassed what someone his age should be capable of. Fugaku knew for certain that he himself could never have been that fast as a first-year student. And that black-haired kid, the Uchiha one... the taijutsu he used was not from the Uchiha clan.

Of course Fugaku knew Bai Ye. He was an orphan from their clan, his parents killed in battle. Usually, he was like a shadow in the clan compound. He did not speak with anyone and took part in none of the clan's activities. Fugaku's only impression of him was that kid who always squatted in the courtyard, swinging a wooden sword.

But those moves just now could not have been developed by merely swinging a wooden sword.

Fugaku recalled Bai Ye's movements: sidestep, catch, redirect force, counterattack. There had not been a single wasted motion in the entire sequence.

Fugaku rose from the edge of the training ground and walked over.

After taijutsu class ended, Bai Ye went to Training Ground Three as usual.

Hatake Sakumo was not there today. Apparently, he had a mission and had been away from the village for nearly a month. Bai Ye stood alone in the middle of the field, drew his wooden sword, held it in his right hand, and closed his eyes.

Bai Ye opened his eyes and swept the wooden sword sideways, clean and decisive.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Slow applause.

Bai Ye turned his head and saw two people standing at the edge of the training ground.

Minato Namikaze and Fugaku Uchiha.

"Why are you here?"

"I saw you heading this way after school, so I followed you," Minato said with a smile. "Do you come here to practice every day?"

"...Yeah."

"By yourself?"

"Yeah."

Fugaku surveyed the training ground, his gaze settling on the stone in the center that had been struck countless times by the wooden sword.

"Who taught you?" Fugaku asked.

Bai Ye looked at the wooden sword in his hand. "Hatake Sakumo-sensei."

"Hatake Sakumo?" There was a trace of disbelief in Fugaku's voice.

"Yeah."

Fugaku fell silent.

He knew Hatake Sakumo. He was one of the village's elite jonin, and there were even rumors that his swordsmanship had reached Kage level. Of course, that had never been confirmed, but being an elite jonin already said enough. Yet this clansman of his, who spent all day squatting in the courtyard swinging a wooden sword, had somehow become his student.

"Can I join?"

Bai Ye looked up at Fugaku.

"My Fire Style is decent," Fugaku said flatly, not boasting, merely stating a fact. "My shuriken techniques are passable too. We'll be more efficient if we practice together. And I've already awakened my Sharingan. I can teach you some things about it."

Bai Ye looked at Minato, then at Fugaku.

Minato nodded vigorously beside them. "I'm joining too! I still don't fully understand that taijutsu of yours. I want to learn Fugaku-senpai's Fire Style too, and I want to learn your swordsmanship—"

"You want everything," Fugaku interrupted expressionlessly.

"Yeah!" Minato did not deny it at all.

Bai Ye looked at the wooden sword in his hand, then at the two people before him. Suddenly, the training ground did not seem as quiet as it used to be.

He nodded.

Minato immediately ran to the center of the training ground, rolling his wrists. "So what do we start with? Taijutsu? Ninjutsu? Or are you going to teach me that thing first—"

"Shut up first," Fugaku said with a sigh.

"Okay."

Bai Ye watched Fugaku tell Minato to shut up with a helpless expression, while Minato said "Okay" with his eyes still gleaming. The corner of Bai Ye's mouth lifted again despite himself. This was already the second time today. At this rate, he might become someone who liked to smile. The prospect made him a little wary.

The setting sun stretched the three of their shadows long. Minato's shadow gestured wildly, Fugaku's stood still with its arms folded, and Bai Ye's shadow stood quietly between them with his wooden sword, like a complete circle.

Bai Ye calmly watched the two of them. Right now, he was thinking about something else—Hatake Sakumo should be returning soon.