Youth on the Offensive

Was Might Guy face-blind?

Remembering me was one thing, but he remembered Oto too? Though he seemed to remember only that she was an Uchiha, not even her gender.

Zou Hyuga inexplicably felt relieved. Without Oto on his team, wouldn't he have ended up just like Might Guy?

That would have been too pitiful. Apart from his hot-blooded youth, Guy had practically nothing.

Beside him, Kakashi neither accepted nor refused the gift. He looked at Zou Hyuga in confusion, unsure what he intended.

Zou Hyuga scratched his head. "Captain Kakashi, the Main Family elders asked me to find a way to visit Lord Fourth."

"Minato-sensei is at the Hokage Building," Kakashi said succinctly.

"The Main Family elders want a private visit. After thinking it over, you're the only person I could ask. Sorry for the trouble, Captain..."

Zou Hyuga looked utterly sincere-at least at that moment. He wanted to finish the Main Family's assignment as soon as possible. Whatever happened afterward would have nothing to do with him.

Kakashi watched Zou Hyuga in silence.

He hadn't read many books, but even he knew that this sort of thing called for a little tact.

Zou Hyuga was far too blunt, telling him outright that this was a request from the Hyuga Main Family...

Neither of them made any attempt to hide their conversation from Guy. Looking at Zou Hyuga, Guy recalled their run beneath the setting sun. That was youth that had never faded.

"Zou, let's have a showdown of youth!"

Guy's words broke the awkward atmosphere between Kakashi and Zou Hyuga. Both turned their eyes toward him.

Zou Hyuga covered his Caged Bird Seal. He suspected Guy had mastered the Main Family's secret technique. Otherwise, why did he get a headache every time he saw him?

Kakashi looked at Zou Hyuga sympathetically. Having been forced into becoming Guy's lifelong rival, he could relate.

Once that sympathy took hold, Kakashi found Zou Hyuga much more agreeable.

Your rival should be Kakashi...

Zou Hyuga grumbled inwardly, then pointed toward the Kage Rock with a serious expression.

"Guy, I think a ninja's opponent shouldn't be another ninja, but who he was yesterday. All you need to do is become stronger than your past self."

Guy wholeheartedly agreed. His eyes lit up, and he flashed a mouthful of white teeth.

"I know there's a waterfall in the hills behind the village. It's the perfect place to challenge yourself, for a ninja who loves youth to train..."

After a pause, Zou Hyuga continued, "If one day you can make the waterfall flow backward with nothing but the wind from your punches, you'll be the strongest in the shinobi world-the strongest in taijutsu..."

"I understand..." Guy bowed earnestly to Zou, then left the forest.

Training in the name of youth couldn't stop for even a moment. Now that he knew where to train, he would give it everything he had.

Watching Guy leave, Kakashi said to Zou Hyuga, "Zou, you really know how to handle that hot-blooded idiot. Making a waterfall flow backward with the wind from your punches-even the Hokage couldn't do that, could he?"

"Maybe he could..." Zou Hyuga said unexpectedly.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes slightly. He, too, thought of Guy's father, a hero of the village. Unfortunately, most ninja knew nothing about him.

Though Guy had gone off to pursue his youth, the awkward atmosphere between Zou Hyuga and Kakashi had been broken.

Before Zou Hyuga could bring it up again, Kakashi volunteered that he was going to visit his teacher's home and didn't mind Zou Hyuga coming along.

After Obito and Rin died, only his teacher and his wife could make him feel any warmth. Guy, that hot-blooded idiot, had no idea how to comfort anyone.

Leaving the woods, Kakashi returned home, locked his door, and headed for his teacher's residence.

Zou Hyuga followed Kakashi through a good portion of Konoha before finally spotting a detached villa in the central district. The nameplate read Namikaze.

He had to admit that the Hokage was well-off, able to own a villa right in the heart of the village.

They pushed open the wooden courtyard gate, and Kakashi led him into the Fourth's residence.

Since the Fourth was busy with work, they didn't see him there. Only his wife, Kushina, was home.

With her long red hair, Kushina looked gentle and refined as she chatted with a pregnant, black-haired woman.

A small figure stood beside the two women, looking around in boredom.

Wasn't that Itachi?

Then the woman beside him must be Lady Mikoto, the Uchiha Clan Head's wife and Kushina's close friend.

It was thanks to this connection that relations between the Hokage Faction and the Uchiha had eased after the Fourth took office.

After all, the Uchiha had contributed greatly during the last war, yet had received no corresponding rewards.

The Third's micromanagement and Danzo's suggestions had done much to deepen the rift between the Uchiha and the village.

Before Kakashi and Zou Hyuga even entered the courtyard, Kushina had sensed their arrival. She looked them over and chuckled. "Kakashi, how did you find the time to drop by?"

"The ANBU has been busy lately..."

Kakashi barely managed to squeeze out a few words. Kushina, his teacher's wife, made him feel warm, yet part of him resisted it. He was afraid of losing all this again.

Zou Hyuga glanced at Kushina a few times without activating his Byakugan, simply looking at her normally.

Even so, he could sense the vast amount of chakra within Kushina, as well as the nine-tails chakra leaking out.

What an irritable fox. Being locked up for decades had really left it full of resentment.

Zou Hyuga was highly sensitive to chakra. Sensing the tailed beast's presence within it, he felt his body almost itching to give it a try.

Ordinary ninja struggled even to use ninjutsu under the influence of tailed beast chakra, yet he felt excited.

Was something wrong with ordinary ninja, or was something wrong with me?

Unable to convince himself otherwise, he could only blame the black markings. Everything wrong with him was their fault.

Just as all the village's dirty business could be blamed on that man known as the Darkness of the Shinobi World.

But now that I've joined the ANBU, has that Darkness of the Shinobi World already started watching me?!

While Zou Hyuga studied Kushina, she was watching him too. Any ninja would feel uncomfortable under the gaze of the Byakugan, even when it wasn't activated.

Fortunately, Zou Hyuga's good looks and Caged Bird Seal eased much of Kushina's discomfort.

Only when Kushina stared at him did Zou Hyuga realize how rude he had been. He hurriedly offered her one of the gifts he had prepared. This time, he wasn't trying to make Kushina dislike him; he was trying to win her favor.

A wife's whispered advice was more effective than other methods, and successive Hokage were famously afraid of their wives.

As long as he built a good relationship with Kushina, perhaps he and Oto could be transferred to a safer department, such as becoming permanent teachers at the Ninja Academy.

Kushina opened the gift, surprise in her eyes. Though she had initially intended to refuse it, she accepted this present that "Kakashi" had picked out.

He also left a letter to be delivered to the Fourth.

With his assignment complete, Zou Hyuga didn't linger. After thanking Kakashi, he returned to the clan grounds.

The moment he stepped through his front door, Zou Hyuga discovered two guests in his home.

Hyuga Yu and Oto Uchiha had taken out the tea set and were sitting at his study table, apparently having a delightful conversation. They looked nothing like members of the Uchiha and Hyuga, who normally looked down on each other.

What happened while I was away?

Zou Hyuga sank into deep confusion.