What it meant to be comrades

That afternoon, the party of five ventured deep into the eerily silent Primeval Forest.

Ancient trees blotted out the sky, their thick trunks covered in enormous mushrooms more than half a person's height. The air hung damp and cold with the scent of earth and rotting spores.

Few people ever came here. Only the occasional startled cry of a passing bird broke the silence, making the forest feel all the more lifeless.

Suddenly, Kakashi and Asami Ri stopped almost simultaneously, their gazes snapping toward a shadowy patch of dense woods ahead and to the side.

Minato Namikaze caught their movements immediately. Rather than acting at once, he gave a small, approving smile.

Behind the gnarled branches of a massive tree, Mahiru, an Iwagakure Jonin with a topknot pointing straight up, held his breath and focused. Cold sweat had already soaked through the back of his uniform.

Through the gaps in the leaves, he stared fixedly at the golden figure leading the group, his heart feeling as though an invisible hand had clenched it tight.

That's... Konoha's Yellow Flash!

The orders from Iwagakure's leadership echoed frantically in his mind. If you encounter the Yellow Flash during a mission, you may abandon the mission and retreat immediately. This will not count as a mission failure.

Just as Mahiru hesitated over whether to retreat, Kakashi moved.

Bzz—bzzzt!

A piercing screech erupted. Blue arcs of electricity danced wildly in Kakashi's palm, like a thousand birds crying out in unison.

Chidori's cold light instantly drove back the surrounding shadows.

Minato frowned slightly and instinctively raised his right hand to block Kakashi's path. "Kakashi, calm down first..."

"Sensei."

Kakashi cut him off bluntly, his voice utterly flat. "I'm the captain of this squad now. The squad follows its captain. That's the rule, isn't it...?"

The White Fang's suicide had left a shadow over him that would never fade. To avoid repeating that tragedy, he had bound himself tightly to the rules.

Looking into Kakashi's stubborn eyes, Minato sighed silently and slowly lowered his hand.

"Chidori!"

The shrill thunder erupted again. Kakashi became a blue blur, kicking up a rolling trail of dust as he charged straight into the enemy ranks with explosive speed.

Mahiru's combat instincts prompted him to form hand seals at once. "Shadow Clone Technique!"

With a series of pops, more than a dozen clones scattered into position.

Facing the charging Kakashi, the clones swung their arms together. A dense barrage of kunai rained down, attempting to cut off his advance.

Kakashi neither dodged nor ducked. The lightning in his palm swept out, knocking down every kunai hurtling toward him.

There... I've found the real one!

With Minato covering him from the flank, Kakashi tore through several shadow clones blocking his path.

As the fighting raged, a shadow clone suddenly burst from the earth beneath Obito's feet and reached for his ankle.

"Huh? Aah!" The sudden attack terrified Obito, leaving him frozen stiff.

At the critical moment, Asami Ri shifted and swept to Obito's side like a breeze through the trees.

He slashed backhanded with his kunai, instantly cutting the shadow clone into a rising cloud of white smoke.

"Keep your eyes on the fight, Obito." Asami Ri's voice was calm, but it sent a shiver through Obito.

Meanwhile, Kakashi had already closed in on the real Mahiru.

Holding a sharp ninja blade, Mahiru faced the oncoming Chidori without a trace of fear in his eyes. Instead, they gleamed with vicious intent.

His experience allowed him to spot the technique's fatal flaw at a glance.

Kakashi's charge was so fast that his eyes could not track his opponent's counterattack.

"Kid, your eyes can't even keep up with your own speed!"

With a savage grin, Mahiru sidestepped the lightning strike. His ninja blade traced an arc, slashing viciously toward Kakashi's chest and abdomen.

Just as blood was about to spill, a flash of gold suddenly streaked through the air.

"Flying Thunder God Technique."

Minato appeared out of thin air as if by a miracle. Bracing one hand against the sole of the Iwagakure ninja's incoming side kick, he wrapped his other arm around Kakashi's waist and vanished with him from beneath the blade.

A moment later, Minato and a badly shaken Kakashi were back within the circle formed by Asami Ri and the others.

A bloody gash had opened across Kakashi's right shoulder, soaking his clothes.

Before Mahiru could grasp what had happened, he hurried back into the shadows. He never noticed the strange technique formula that had been imprinted on his boot.

Minato's expression turned cold as he slowly slipped the backpack off his back.

In the instant before the backpack hit the ground—

Whoosh!

An afterimage crossed the intervening space.

Mahiru saw only a flash of gold, followed by a cold sensation at his throat that made his very soul tremble.

He opened his mouth, trying to cry for help or voice his astonishment, only to find his vision rapidly dimming and falling apart.

Only after Mahiru's heavy corpse collapsed onto the grass did Minato slowly put away his kunai. At that very moment, the backpack finally landed with a soft thump.

Rin Nohara immediately stepped forward and crouched beside Kakashi. Gentle green medical chakra lit her palms as she carefully treated his wound.

Once their taut nerves relaxed, the emotions they had been holding back erupted.

Seeing Kakashi covered in blood yet still wearing that stubborn expression, Obito could not help shouting:

"If you'd listened to Sensei instead of insisting on doing things your own way, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

"Hmph." Enduring the fierce pain of his wound, Kakashi gave a cold, derisive laugh. "I don't need someone whose knees went weak with fear telling me what to do. So this is an elite of the Uchiha Clan?"

"What did you say?! I... I just had sand in my eyes!" Obito's face flushed red with anger, his clenched fists cracking.

"Enough. Both of you, stop."

Minato's voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable authority that silenced their argument at once.

He turned toward them, his usual warmth gone. His gaze was so stern that both Obito and Kakashi instinctively shrank back.

"Kakashi, that technique is tremendously powerful, but its extreme speed creates blind spots in your vision. Until you've corrected that flaw, you are forbidden from using it again."

Then he turned to Obito. "And Obito, if you really want to become the 'elite' you keep talking about, stop relying on empty boasts. A ninja's dignity doesn't come from his surname. It has to be proven through his actions on the battlefield."

"I'll say this one last time. The most important thing for a ninja—is teamwork."

The forest fell silent, leaving only the faint hum of flowing medical chakra.

Standing to one side, Asami Ri watched the two fall silent. He knew this lesson about comrades had only just begun.

Unfortunately, fate's cruelty lay in the fact that even if they truly understood this lesson about comrades now, they still could not escape the vast net spread deep beneath the earth.

In the dark, decaying depths underground, a pair of cold eyes silently watched everything.

To Madara Uchiha, lurking in the darkness, all of Obito's growth and struggles—even his moving, heartfelt friendships—were nothing more than pieces to be used in completing his plan.

Asami Ri's fingers trembled slightly, not from fear, but from excitement. He was about to test a theory—a theory that would determine his fate.