After a morning of preparations, Zou Hyuga and Oto arrived at the village gates, where they met Kakashi and Yamato.
Zou Hyuga understood why the Third had agreed to let them head to the front lines and sent the other members of their squad to assist.
Kakashi and Yamato were there to help them, but also to keep an eye on them.
All four squad members knew each other well, so they set off for the front lines without wasting words.
On the way, Zou Hyuga asked about Naruto. Until then, the four of them had been assigned to protect him.
When he learned that Naruto had been left in the care of other ANBU, Zou Hyuga sighed.
Those other ANBU were probably watching him rather than caring for him. After all, Naruto was currently nothing more than the village's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and ninja who had lived through the Nine-Tails' Rampage would only regard him with fear.
As for why the Third had not revealed that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's orphaned son, perhaps he was wary of the Fourth Hokage's enemies.
After discussing Naruto, the squad turned to the Cloud Ninja Envoy Corps.
Hearing that Oto had berated the Kumogakure Envoy had been deeply satisfying. They wished they could have been there themselves.
But the peace that had seemed so close might now be delayed because of it.
Behind his black mask, Kakashi also felt relieved. He had worried that public opinion in the village would drive Oto to extremes, just as it had his father.
His father, White Fang, had been a powerful ninja whose very name struck terror into his enemies, yet rumors had ultimately brought about his death.
Along with his relief, Kakashi wondered, *If Father hadn't cared about those rumors back then, would he have