Damn! Get Down

"How should I explain it to Kushina when I see her later...?"

The warm sunlight shone over the land. With the spring breeze blowing at noon, the weather was just right.

Minato walked down the street, feeling a little melancholy.

He had promised Kushina that once his mission was over, he would take her shopping.

But the moment he returned to Konoha, another mission had come up.

And it was urgent. He only had three hours to replenish his gear.

Leaving without saying goodbye was definitely out of the question. That might get him killed.

But if he tried to reason with Kushina, three hours probably would not be enough either.

"What should I do... hmm?"

Just as Minato was at a complete loss, he spotted a rather interesting scene within his field of vision.

Two groups of kids were facing off, looking ready to start fighting at any moment.

The side with more people held an overwhelming advantage, both in size and numbers.

But looking at the smaller group—

There were only two of them, and they were clearly younger. Compared to the others, they looked small and pitiful.

Yet the two of them looked utterly confident.

"Fighting isn't good..."

Minato remembered Kushina when she was little. She had knocked out one kid after another with her fists.

But in this situation, he neither wanted to see the larger group bully the weak nor the smaller group get pushed around.

Konoha's Little Sun did more than just smile.

And at that moment—

The spiky-haired boy among the two suddenly took out a... lighter?

"Hm?"

Minato was puzzled.

But when he saw the spiky-haired boy take out a small bottle, then light the unknown object stuck into its cap...

"This is..."

Minato could not understand what the spiky-haired boy was doing.

But he knew that playing with fire was dangerous.

At once, his body became an afterimage. With a Body Flicker, he arrived right beside the boy!

In Konoha, one could always trust Minato's speed.

Even without the Flying Thunder God, his Body Flicker Technique was first-rate.

"Today, we'll settle all the humiliation of the past... huh?"

Obito, who had been about to throw his secret weapon, suddenly froze. The weapon in his hand had encountered some unknown resistance.

"You mustn't play with fire, little one."

Obito looked up and saw an excessively handsome, sunny smile.

Under the sunlight overhead, the man seemed to be haloed in a sacred glow.

But in the next instant—

He heard his comrade's voice.

"Damn! Get down!"

Was it "damn" or "get down"?

Obito's mind crashed at that moment, but Hideki quickly pushed his head down. The two of them both hit the ground.

And in the next instant—

BOOM!!!!!!

About ten seconds passed.

When Hideki's body finally managed to recover from the ringing in his ears.

He looked up, and the sight before him made his eyes widen.

First were those Uchiha brats in the distance.

They stood frozen in place, eyes wide and mouths agape, as if they had stumbled upon adults doing embarrassing things while playing hide-and-seek in the woods.

Following their gazes, Hideki swallowed with difficulty before stiffly raising his head.

He saw an extremely bedraggled figure.

A considerable amount of that cool, flowing blond hair had been burned, and more than half of it had curled up.

Half of the man's face was blackened too, though thankfully it was not torn open and bloody. Otherwise, he would definitely have been disfigured.

What moved Hideki was that the man stood bent over, his arms wrapped around them. He must have reacted at the last moment, trying to shield the two of them.

That was why the two of them had not taken the blast head-on...

"Uh..."

Hideki froze.

Did this count as an accident?

Thud!

The man fell to the ground, and the Uchiha brats saw it all clearly.

"Run... run! Hurry! Obito and Hideki killed someone!"

One Uchiha kid shouted in panic, his voice even cracking into a sob. He was clearly terrified.

If Obito had thrown it at them, they would have been the dead ones!

When had those Uchiha brats ever seen anything like this?

They immediately fled in a panic, crying and scrambling away.

Obito's humiliation had been wiped clean.

But Obito was not doing much better than those Uchiha brats now.

"I-I-I-I... th-th-th-that..."

Obito looked at the man lying motionless on the ground, then turned toward Hideki in panic. He pointed at himself, then at the man.

"I didn't mean to, Hideki! Y-you... you saw it, right? He... he suddenly..."

"Calm down!" The soul of an adult came through. Hideki shouted, and it actually steadied Obito's mind.

Then he hurriedly turned the man over and checked his breathing and heartbeat. Only after confirming that he was not dead did he let out a breath.

"He's not dead, but... we need to get him to the hospital quickly," Hideki said gravely.

He had learned how to handle emergencies in college, but he had never learned how to save someone who had been knocked unconscious by a hydrogen bomb.

No matter what, though, he definitely was not going to run away.

As he had said before, the education he had received would not allow him to do something like that!

"R-right, right! The hospital, hurry!" Obito finally came back to his senses as well.

Obito was kind.

Or rather, before he turned dark, he was still a good boy.

He did not flee after causing an accident, nor did he run after blowing someone up.

On that point alone, he was better than those Uchiha brats.

The two boys struggled for quite a while before they managed to lift the man up.

Konoha Hospital was far from here, and they might not have had enough stamina.

Fortunately, they had not gone far when a kind passerby spotted them.

"Kids! Let me do it!"

A bald, muscular man stopped them. Though a vicious scar ran across his face, he looked incredibly lovable at that moment.

The burly man slung the injured man over his shoulder. With steady strides and incredible speed, he dashed off toward Konoha Hospital in a flash.

Only then did Hideki and Obito breathe a sigh of relief.

The two exchanged a glance, and an inexplicable chill ran down their backs...

"He... should be okay, right?" Obito asked, swallowing hard.

"Probably burns and a mild concussion, probably... I think," Hideki said uncertainly.

"Then we..."

"We should still go after them and take a look."

"Yeah!"

The two boys displayed excellent character and hurried after him.

By the time they arrived, the man had already been carried inside.

The bald, muscular man was speaking to a nurse. When he saw the two boys, his eyes immediately lit up.

"Those are the two children. They were the first ones to find that man. They were carrying him between them, one in front and one behind. I only lent them a hand."

With the bald man shouting like that—

Everyone in the lobby turned to look at Hideki and Obito.

Faint praises of "brave" and "excellent" reached their ears.

Who could have imagined that these two were the ones who caused the accident?

Their little faces immediately turned bright red.

"It's okay, kids. He only has minor burns, no... huh? Little Hideki?"

At that moment, a nurse walked over. She was the same nurse who had changed Hideki's bandages yesterday.

The young nurse recognized the well-behaved child at once, then rubbed both boys' heads.

"Just as expected of little Hideki. You really are such a good child!"

"Come on, let big sister see your hand. Your injury hasn't fully healed yet, so you need to be careful!"

After the young nurse said that—

The praise around them seemed to grow even louder.

Hideki's old face turned redder and redder...