The Road Ahead Was Long

After a minor 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 in your pocket?"

"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, said he could not help.

"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 took out his wallet, revealing a stack of cash thicker than a textbook, the two of them instantly lost their composure.

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

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

But carrying several years' worth of living expenses around with him was a bit excessive!

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

"This was the reward for his last mission, but he left the village for another mission, so ANBU left the money with me."

Obito froze for a long while after hearing that.

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

"Ah! I really want to graduate soon and become a ninja so I can make 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 such an impressive record that even Itachi Uchiha in the future would fail to match it.

It was just that the reason behind that record was somewhat... tragic.

Hideki calculated the time. That incident seemed to be drawing closer and closer.

A powerhouse of his generation would not die on the battlefield, but instead perish beneath the rumors of his own people and his own fragile heart.

No matter how he thought about it, it sounded 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, brutal sparring match, they took out the scroll Orochimaru had left behind.

The scroll contained ninjutsu for the five common chakra natures. They were of moderate difficulty and, logically speaking, not something three apprentice ninjas should have access to.

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

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

Of course, the White Fang had to stay alive... but that was something that would happen later. It was beyond Hideki's control for 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 a provocation. Hideki was genuinely worried that Obito would bite off more than he could chew.

But if Obito wanted to learn it, Hideki certainly would not stop him. He was just afraid Obito would fail to learn Great Fire Dragon and forget Great Fireball too. That would truly be throwing away the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds.

"I feel like... it probably won'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 that, Hideki said no more and turned to Kakashi, his expression becoming more serious.

Kakashi seemed to know what Hideki wanted to say, and his expression turned solemn as well.

"I said before that my technique to change the world and create a new era ideally requires three people, Kakashi."

"Mm." Kakashi nodded gravely.

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

"Once Obito learns Great Fire Dragon, we can try having all three of us use it at once."

A combined ninjutsu performed by multiple people would certainly not be so simple. Hideki had long realized that.

He could manipulate balls with both hands and even use the backs of his hands, but that was himself, after all. He had one hundred percent control.

Adding another person meant another brain and 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 train by himself.

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

For now, he could only use three ninjutsu: Lightning Release, Water Release, and the Mystical Palm Technique, which represented Yang Release.

He could not yet do anything with the Fire Release Obito needed to master, but he had to learn both Lightning Release and Water Release to reduce errors.

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

It was like doing three jobs by himself, but that was not all Hideki wanted.

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.

The road ahead was long indeed...

The three boys trained for an entire afternoon. There was no passionate battle, but an unspoken sense of competition still filled the air.

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

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

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

At the end of the day, men remained boys until they died.

But their competitive training came to an end before dusk arrived.

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

Obito went with him. Good brothers naturally had to share hardships and blessings alike. Kakashi did not want to go at first, but he could not withstand Obito's taunting.

"Are you planning to practice in secret and then surpass the two of us!?"

"Of course not!" Kakashi, whose thoughts had been exposed, nearly panicked. In the end, helplessly, he followed along.

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

However, they waited for a long time. The sun was nearly setting, and the shy moon was already visible in the sky, yet the old man never appeared.

"Could he... have forgotten?"

Hideki looked thoroughly puzzled. Had he overthought things?

So the three of them went home, each to find their own... well, they could only go home.

What Hideki did not know was that—

At that very moment, in the area between the Uchiha Compound and Konoha—

A disheveled figure fled at high speed, glancing nervously behind him from time to time, his face filled with terror!

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

It was Uchiha Retsu!

At this moment, Uchiha Retsu no longer possessed the imposing manner he had displayed that afternoon. He had even dared to argue with Orochimaru, the very embodiment of boldness.

Now, his eyes contained nothing but panic!

Within the Uchiha Compound, no matter how brazen 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 the 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 underground by Earth Release!

Who knew what had happened? This was Konoha!

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

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

Behind him, a figure stopped pursuing him. He wore tattered clothes and a cheap, buy-one-get-one-free mask from a roadside stall.

The man watched Uchiha Retsu's miserable fleeing figure and smiled disdainfully.

The laugh was filled with contempt, but it carried an aged quality. Clearly, he was not young.

"Is that all?"

"The Uchiha of today are nothing special either..."