A Long Road Ahead

After a small commotion, the three of them realized they had skipped lunch.

Hideki immediately suggested they eat together to celebrate, while Obito patted his chest and declared that he would treat them.

The three promptly headed to Ichiraku Ramen. The lunch rush had just passed, so there was no need to queue, but Obito suddenly wilted.

"Um, Hideki... do you still have any money on you?"

"Didn't we give all our money to that old man? Where would I get any money?" Hideki, who had spent the past two days eating instant noodles, was no help at all.

"I'll pay..."

In the end, Kakashi raised his hand and took responsibility for everything.

Obito and Hideki felt a little embarrassed and only dared to order the regular set meal.

But when Kakashi pulled out his wallet and the two of them saw a stack of cash thicker than a textbook, they instantly lost their composure.

"Kakashi, why are you so rich!?" Obito cried in shock.

Hideki was a little unhappy too. As the White Fang's son, Kakashi having better circumstances than him was perfectly normal.

But carrying around several years' worth of living expenses? That was a bit excessive!

"This isn't my money. It's my dad's." Kakashi quickly put his wallet away and looked at them disdainfully.

"It was the payment for his last mission, but he left the village again for another mission, so ANBU left the money with me."

Obito froze for a long time after hearing that.

In the end, he could only let out a long sigh.

"Ah! I really want to graduate already and become a ninja so I can earn money..."

Beside him, Hideki blinked, then gave Kakashi a meaningful look.

Graduate, graduate early, then become a Chunin and a Jonin—Kakashi had such a record.

It was an achievement so impressive that even Itachi Uchiha in the future would not be able to match it.

It was just that the reason behind that record was a little... tragic.

Hideki calculated the timing. That incident seemed to be drawing nearer and nearer.

A powerhouse of his generation would not die on the battlefield, but instead die from his own people's gossip, from his own fragile heart.

No matter how he thought about it, it felt rather absurd.

After lunch, the three of them returned to that familiar little grove.

They had come to train, but rather than choosing a simple and brutal spar, they took out the scroll Orochimaru had left behind.

The scroll contained five common elemental ninjutsu of moderate difficulty. Logically speaking, they were not techniques three apprentice ninjas should have had access to.

But clearly, none of them had such concerns. Kakashi even said that as long as he wanted these techniques, he could simply ask his father for them.

That put an idea in Hideki's head. Maybe he could mooch some ninjutsu off Kakashi's house in the future?

Of course, the White Fang had to stay alive... but that was something that would happen later. Hideki could not do anything about it now.

"Obito... isn't this Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon a little too difficult for you?" Hideki asked with a strange expression. "Shouldn't you completely master Great Fireball first?"

This was not some attempt to provoke him. Hideki was genuinely worried that Obito would bite off more than he could chew.

But if Obito wanted to learn it, he definitely would not stop him. He was just afraid that Obito would fail to learn Great Fire Dragon and forget Great Fireball as well. That would truly be losing the watermelon while picking up sesame seeds.

"I feel like... it shouldn't be a problem." Obito seemed to understand what Hideki meant, but he still wanted to give it a try.

"I'm actually already very familiar with Great Fireball. The hand seals for these two techniques are pretty similar, so it should work."

"All right..." Seeing this, Hideki said no more. Then he looked at Kakashi, his expression turning more serious.

Kakashi seemed to know what Hideki was about to say, and his expression became solemn as well.

"I told you before, Kakashi. My technique to change the world and create a new era ideally requires three people."

"Mm." Kakashi nodded solemnly.

Hideki continued, "You and I will learn this Lightning Release together. That'll make it easier for me to coordinate the chakra later."

"Once Obito learns Great Fire Dragon, we can try using it simultaneously with all three of us."

A combined ninjutsu used by multiple people certainly would not be that simple. Hideki had long understood that.

He might be able to control balls with both hands and even with the backs of his hands, but that was still just himself, with complete control.

Adding another person meant another mind, another set of thoughts. They would definitely need time to coordinate.

"I understand." Kakashi immediately nodded, silently memorized the contents of the scroll, and ran off to one side to train.

Hideki did not idle around either. Compared to Obito and Kakashi, he had the greatest workload.

At present, he could only use three types of ninjutsu: Lightning Release, Water Release, and the Mystical Palm Technique that represented Yang Release.

He could not yet work on the Fire Release Obito needed to master, but he had to learn both Lightning Release and Water Release in order to reduce errors.

At the same time, he also had to continue training the Mystical Palm Technique to ensure he could inject enough Yang Release into Water Release.

It was equivalent to doing three jobs alone, but Hideki wanted more than just that.

What he wanted to master was chakra nature transformation, because the second stage of Hydrogen Release was meant to break through the theoretical barrier of the reaction process.

It could be said that the road ahead was long and arduous...

The three boys trained for an entire afternoon. There was no passionate combat, but an unspoken sense of competition lingered between them.

Obito desperately wanted to prove himself. He wanted to master Great Fire Dragon before Kakashi learned that Lightning Release technique.

Hideki had not initially thought that way, but what if he mastered both while Kakashi and Obito had only mastered one each...

The imagined sense of accomplishment made Hideki's blood boil.

After all, men remained boys until the day they died.

However, their competitive training came to an end before dusk arrived.

Because Hideki had signed a temporary child labor agreement with that strange old man.

Obito went with him. Good brothers were supposed to share hardship and fortune alike. Kakashi had not wanted to go at first, but he could not withstand Obito's provocation.

"Are you planning to secretly train and then surpass the two of us!?"

"Of course not!" Kakashi, having had his thoughts exposed, nearly panicked on the spot. In the end, helplessly, he followed them anyway.

Thus, the three of them arrived at Training Ground Three in Konoha.

Yet after waiting for a long time, until the sun was nearly setting and the shy moon could already be seen in the sky, the old man still did not appear.

"Could he... have forgotten?"

Hideki looked thoroughly puzzled. Had he overthought it?

So, the three of them went back to their own homes and found their own... well, they only went back to their own homes.

What Hideki did not know was that at that very moment, in the area between the Uchiha Compound and Konoha—

A bedraggled figure was fleeing at high speed, repeatedly looking back in panic, his face full of terror!

His nose was bruised, his face swollen, and he was covered in dust, making his original appearance impossible to discern. But the Uchiha clan crest on his clothes still proved his identity as an Uchiha.

It was Uchiha Retsu!

At that moment, Uchiha Retsu no longer had the same swagger he had displayed that afternoon. He had even dared to trade barbs with Orochimaru, putting on an exceptionally tough front.

Now, there was only terror in his eyes!

Within the Uchiha Compound, no matter how reckless Orochimaru was, he would not dare do anything to him.

But just now, he had truly experienced a brush with death!

He had not even seen where his enemy was or how he had attacked!

He only knew that it was an Earth Release ninja, and an extremely powerful one at that. He had no room to resist at all. If his reaction had been any slower, he might have been buried alive underground by Earth Release!

Who knew what had happened? This was Konoha!

"I'm almost there, I'm almost there!" Uchiha Retsu kept muttering.

As long as he reached the Uchiha Compound, his life would be safe!

Behind him, a figure stopped pursuing. He wore tattered clothes and a cheap, low-quality mask that looked like a buy-one-get-one-free roadside stall item.

The man watched Uchiha Retsu's fleeing back and sneered disdainfully.

The laugh was full of contempt, yet somewhat aged. Clearly, he was not young.

"Just this?"

"The Uchiha of today really have declined..."