The weekend morning sunlight was just right, spilling through gaps in the leaves to scatter dappled spots across the ground.
"I refuse."
Kakashi Hatake's voice was as cold as ever, like a stone that would not ring no matter how hard it was struck.
His gaze passed over Senju Chen and landed on the bowl-cut boy behind him, who was warming up with high knees, heat steaming off his body.
That inexplicable enthusiasm made the corners of his eyes twitch.
"Why?" Senju Chen tilted his head up, his face full of innocent confusion. "Guy wants to see Hatake Style Kenjutsu too. Besides, wouldn't practice be livelier with one more person? My sister said friends have to spend time together to grow closer."
As he spoke, he discreetly shot Might Guy a look.
Guy immediately caught on. He sprang in front of Kakashi, both fists clenched, fierce flames blazing in his eyes. His voice was loud enough to shake leaves from the trees. "Kakashi! My rival! Let us deepen our bonds in the sweat of youth! Chen told me your father is the legendary hero-Konoha's White Fang! It is my honor, as Might Guy, to visit a hero's home!"
Kakashi: "..."
He looked at the face before him, distorted with enthusiasm, then at the innocent face beside it that all but said, "I'm doing this for your own good." His temples throbbed.
He had a feeling his peaceful weekend had already come to a premature end.
In the end, between Senju Chen's twisted reasoning that "there's strength in numbers" and Might Guy's physical pestering that "youth waits for no one," Kakashi led his two tagalongs home with a dark expression.
Along the way, Might Guy was like a bird just released from its cage, finding everything novel and constantly exclaiming, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" Kakashi, meanwhile, wished he could bury his entire face in his mask and distance himself from the clown beside him.
Senju Chen walked between them, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
Kakashi was too much of a loner, like a blade that had yet to be sharpened-sharp, yet easily broken.
A large part of Hatake Sakumo's tragedy came from having no one by his side who could speak up for him or support him.
If I want to save him, I can't rely on myself alone. I have to make Kakashi learn the power of "comrades" ahead of time.
And Might Guy, that utterly simple, hot-blooded idiot, was undoubtedly the best candidate to melt the iceberg that was Kakashi.
"Sorry to intrude!"
When Hatake Sakumo opened the door and saw the two little boys with utterly different styles following his son, a flicker of curiosity crossed his eyes despite all he had seen.
One was Senju Chen, whom he had just met last week.
The other...
"Hello! You must be the legendary Konoha's White Fang, Lord Hatake Sakumo! I'm Might Guy! Kakashi's lifelong rival!" Guy abruptly bowed ninety degrees, his voice so loud that even the wind chimes in the courtyard trembled.
Sakumo paused, then chuckled.
His gentle gaze swept over the three children before finally settling on his son's stiff expression, which plainly said, "I don't know him." The amusement in his eyes deepened.
"Hello, Guy. Welcome, all of you. Come in."
The backyard.
The same raked gravel ground, the same sturdy pine tree.
Hatake Sakumo did not enter the house. Instead, he casually took three wooden swords of different sizes from the weapon rack beneath the eaves.
He handed two of them to Kakashi and Senju Chen, then gave the last and longest one to an excited Might Guy.
"Since you're here to practice, we can't just talk without doing anything." Sakumo wore a gentle smile. "Let me give you some pointers."
"Great!" Guy responded first. Gripping his wooden sword with both hands, he assumed a broad, sweeping stance. "Lord Sakumo, please instruct me!"
Kakashi silently gripped his wooden sword, his gaze turning focused as well.
Chances to receive personal instruction from his father were rare.
Senju Chen curiously examined the wooden sword in his hands, his little face full of anticipation, while inwardly he burned with excitement.
Here it comes... the main course is finally here.
Hatake Sakumo's swordsmanship, Konoha's finest assassination art. Today, I can watch as much as I want for free.
"Guy, you go first," Sakumo said with a smile. He had not even taken a weapon himself, merely standing there casually without the slightest air of a master.
"Yes!"
Guy shouted, pushed off the ground, and shot forward like a cannonball. His long wooden sword whistled through the air as he brought it down overhead!
This strike embodied all his strength, filled with youthful passion and an unstoppable momentum.
Yet, faced with this fierce blow, Sakumo merely shifted half a step to the left just before the wooden sword reached him.
Just that half step.
Guy's powerful strike hit nothing. The tremendous momentum sent him stumbling, leaving him wide open.
Sakumo extended his hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together, and lightly tapped Guy's sword-wielding wrist.
"Tok."
A soft sound.
Guy felt his wrist go numb as a deft force passed through it. Unable to hold on any longer, he lost his wooden sword. It traced an arc through the air before striking the distant soil with a smack and sticking there.
Barely a second had passed.
The fight was over.
Guy stared blankly at his empty hands, then at Sakumo, who still wore his gentle smile. Confusion first filled his eyes, then gave way to a light a hundred times brighter than before.
"S-so amazing! Is this the power of a legend? I couldn't see it at all! This gets my blood pumping!"
Sakumo smiled and turned to his son. "Kakashi, your turn."
Kakashi took a deep breath, his gaze becoming incredibly sharp. Rather than charging wildly like Guy, he lowered his center of gravity and skimmed along close to the ground at tremendous speed, his wooden sword thrusting straight toward Sakumo's chest like a venomous snake emerging from its hole.
Fast, precise, ruthless.
This was the essence of Hatake Style Kenjutsu.
"Not bad." A trace of approval flashed in Sakumo's eyes.
He still did not dodge. Only when Kakashi's sword tip was about to touch his clothes did he extend his left hand and lightly brush the side of his palm along the wooden blade.
Buzzz-
Kakashi felt a strange vibration travel up the blade into his arm, instantly dissipating every bit of his unstoppable force.
Immediately afterward, Sakumo turned with the motion, his elbow already resting lightly before Kakashi's throat.
The cold touch made Kakashi go rigid.
One move again.
"You have enough speed, but there's too much ferocity, and your blade is too straight." Sakumo withdrew his elbow and offered a gentle assessment. "A sword is an extension of your arm, not an iron rod. Your strength isn't 'alive' enough yet."
Kakashi nodded silently and stepped aside, far more thoughtful than dejected over his defeat.
Finally, Sakumo's gaze settled on the smallest figure, the only one still standing in the practice area.
"Chen, your turn."
Senju Chen blinked, holding a wooden sword barely longer than his arm, and said with some distress, "Uncle Sakumo, I've only just started learning. I definitely can't beat you."
"That's all right." Sakumo's smile remained gentle. "Just do your best."
"Here I come, then, Uncle Sakumo."
Senju Chen's face shifted into a serious expression of determination.
He did not attack.
Instead, he imitated Kakashi and assumed an opening stance of Hatake Style Kenjutsu.
Sakumo's gaze sharpened slightly.
The next instant, Senju Chen moved.
He charged toward Sakumo, his movements immature and his speed unremarkable, swinging his wooden sword without any method whatsoever.
To anyone watching, this attack was no more than a child's game of make-believe.
Yet, for the first time, the smile on Sakumo's face slowly faded when Senju Chen came within three steps of him.
He had discovered something incredibly strange.
Every step Senju Chen took, every swing of his sword, was full of openings.
But whenever Sakumo prepared to seize one of those openings and end things in a single move as he had with Guy and Kakashi, that opening became a different one in the very next instant.
It was as though he were fighting a phantom.
Sakumo stepped forward to catch his wrist, but Senju Chen seemed to trip over a pebble underfoot, just happening to evade the grab.
Sakumo turned sideways and struck with his palm to knock away the wooden sword, but Senju Chen seemed to have overexerted himself and lost his balance early, narrowly avoiding him once again.
He had no desire to win, not even any intention of attacking.
Like a slippery loach, he kept dodging within the inescapable net Sakumo had laid, using the clumsiest, most ridiculous, yet most effective method.
He was not seeking victory.
He was "watching."
Those bright black eyes stared unblinkingly at Sakumo's every movement, every breath, every shift in his center of gravity. This was not a child's curiosity, but something like a master craftsman dismantling an intricate work of art, analyzing every component and every mortise-and-tenon joint.
The feeling gave Sakumo an unprecedented sense of novelty.
Thud.
In the end, "exhaustion" still made Senju Chen trip over his own feet. He landed on his backside, his wooden sword rolling aside.
"Huff... huff..." He panted, his little face covered in sweat, looking utterly worn out.
Kakashi and Guy both sighed in relief. To them, it was already a miracle that Senju Chen had lasted so long.
Only Hatake Sakumo stood quietly in place, watching Senju Chen sitting on the ground without speaking for a long time.
With the sparring over, Sakumo had Kakashi take Guy inside for water and a rest, keeping only Senju Chen behind.
"Chen." Sakumo crouched to meet Senju Chen's eyes. His voice was still gentle, but deep within his calm eyes lay a trace of indescribable complexity. "You seem... more interested in the 'essence' of power than in how to use it?"
Here it comes!
Alarm bells rang in Senju Chen's mind, but he forced a look of utterly uncomprehending, childlike confusion onto his face.
He tilted his head, Sakumo's serious face reflected in his bright black eyes.
"Uncle, what's the 'essence' of power?" he asked in a soft, childish voice. "I don't understand."
He paused, as though struggling to put his words together, then spoke in the tone of someone who had discovered a fascinating new toy:
"I just thought... when you use your sword, you're different from Kakashi."
"Kakashi's strength is like a rock. It's really hard, and it goes really fast when he throws it."
"But your strength, Uncle..." Senju Chen extended a little finger and drew a smooth arc in the air. "...is like water. Sometimes it's here, and sometimes it flows over there. You can't catch it or block it. It's amazing."
Boom!
The comparison exploded like thunder in Hatake Sakumo's mind.
Water...
That was the highest realm of Hatake Style Kenjutsu, something he had spent half his life grasping through countless battles to the death-formless as water, overcoming all obstacles.
He had never even mentioned this principle to Kakashi, knowing that without the necessary experience and state of mind, it was impossible to understand.
Yet now, this five-year-old child had pinpointed its very core in the most innocent words, merely through a "spar" riddled with openings!
Sakumo looked into Senju Chen's clear, utterly unclouded eyes. There was nothing in them but pure confusion and curiosity.
A long while passed.
He slowly stood. His earlier scrutiny had vanished, replaced by a complicated mixture of astonishment and a trace of gratification.
He reached out and ruffled Senju Chen's hair like an ordinary uncle from next door.
"Heh... that's a very interesting idea."
"Keep practicing."
Hatake Sakumo smiled. He felt that perhaps he really had witnessed the birth of an extraordinary genius.
Perhaps this child would one day surpass him, or even... surpass everyone.