As they watched Yuzuru surrounded by girls, the envy in Obito's and Asuma's eyes was practically spilling over.
"That damn guy. So what if his face is a little better-looking? So what if he's a little more proficient with ninjutsu? What's so great about that?"
By the time Yuzuru woke up, class was already over. Two resentful stares came from his side.
Yuzuru couldn't be bothered to turn around. He could have guessed who those two were with his butt.
Looking at the energetic Guy, Yuzuru suddenly said, "Guy, do you want to become a ninja as outstanding as Kakashi?"
"Oh! Of course I do! Kakashi has always been the goal I'm chasing!"
At those words, Guy's eyes instantly burned with fervor.
"In that case, do you want to know how Kakashi gets stronger?"
"Please, you have to tell me!"
Guy bounded in front of Yuzuru in an instant, his speed giving even Yuzuru a fright.
In terms of physical fitness alone, Guy was definitely at Chunin level, and among the very best of the taijutsu specialists at that.
"Tomorrow's the weekend. Head to Hokage Rock bright and early, and you'll find the answer you want."
"Hokage Rock? Got it!"
Guy agreed immediately, without hesitation.
Kurenai, beside them, took the initiative to ask, "Does that mean Kakashi is there?"
"Yes, and not only that, Kakashi climbs the rock face barehanded using chakra five hundred times every day, runs twenty laps around Konoha, and does all sorts of other training. In short, this is Kakashi's youth, a youth he'll never regret.
"After all, Kakashi has also been secretly watching Guy train, so naturally, he doesn't want to fall behind him. He hasn't said so, but I know he already sees Guy as his greatest rival."
Yuzuru spoke with an air of utter seriousness.
Hearing this, Guy was already soaring. His face was flushed red, and he was panting like an ox. Hearing in particular how highly Kakashi regarded him and how his youth refused to lose to him sent Guy's blood boiling.
"Kakashi, you truly are the companion I've always chased! Youth, burn! Starting today, I'll run twenty extra laps around Konoha every morning! If I can't do it, I'll do twenty laps around Konoha on my hands, plus three thousand push-ups!"
With that, he rushed out excitedly, having completely forgotten that there were still two classes left.
Beside them, Kurenai was dumbfounded by Guy's training regimen.
"Training like that would kill someone, wouldn't it?"
Kurenai couldn't help murmuring.
"You're still underestimating Guy."
Yuzuru reached out and pinched Kurenai's soft, slightly chubby cheek.
"Hm?"
"Guy is a true genius. His ninjutsu might not be good, but when it comes to taijutsu, no one in Konoha can surpass him. Not even Kakashi or me."
"Really? But training that intense with a child's body would cause a lot of hidden injuries. It might even affect his future."
Shizune spoke quietly from the side.
"Does Guy look like someone with hidden injuries to you?"
Yuzuru tilted his head toward Guy, who was working up a sweat on the training ground.
"Well... he really doesn't. And his body is in exceptionally good condition."
Shizune was bewildered now, too.
Following Tsunade, she had already read quite a few books about the body. But why was Guy's condition completely different from what the books described? This made no sense at all.
At that moment, Shizune felt that her worldview had suffered a tremendous blow.
Rin glanced at Guy on the training ground outside the window, then thought of Kakashi.
"Yuzuru, does Kakashi really do that much training every day?"
"Of course. Do I look like I'm lying?"
Seeing Yuzuru's perfectly serious expression, Rin couldn't help believing him.
Beautiful women could lie, and so could beautiful men.
Pfft, I mean handsome and refined.
"No wonder Kakashi became a Genin so quickly."
Rin couldn't help marveling. Suddenly, she looked at Yuzuru again. "Come to think of it, Yuzuru, you grew up with Kakashi, so you must train together, right?"
"Uh, more or less. But I don't work as hard as he does, so I'm not as strong as Kakashi, either."
Elsewhere, Sakumo and Kakashi were both learning the Rasengan from Yuzuru's Shadow Clone.
Even Sakumo coveted the value of this ninjutsu. After all, his greatest specialty was Hatake Kenjutsu, and an instantly activated ninjutsu requiring no seals like the Rasengan could complement his fighting better.
However, the process wasn't going smoothly. After all, this wasn't ordinary ninjutsu; they couldn't circulate chakra along a fixed route as they did with ninjutsu that used hand seals.
Watching Sakumo and Kakashi still battling wits with the water balloons in their hands, Yuzuru No. 1 interrupted them again.
"Hold on. That's not how you do it."
Seeing that the water balloon in Kakashi's hand kept moving in a single direction, Yuzuru placed a hand on his shoulder and spoke.
"If you rotate it in one fixed direction, you'll never break the water balloon."
Yuzuru's Shadow Clone reached out, preparing to demonstrate again.
"Watch closely. The paths the chakra follows inside the Rasengan aren't fixed like those of ordinary ninjutsu."
With a piercing sound of air being torn apart, a blue ball of light appeared in the Shadow Clone's palm. Sakumo and Kakashi stared intently at the directions the chakra moved within it.
"Isn't that way too chaotic?"
Kakashi couldn't help asking.
"It has to be chaotic to produce this effect. If it moved in one fixed direction, it wouldn't be this shape. It would flatten out, and you could easily hurt yourself."
"We normally control chakra precisely, making it flow through the body's existing chakra pathways. But the Rasengan is different. You have to expose chakra to the air. Without the guidance of chakra pathways and hand seals, chakra becomes extraordinarily violent."
"And it's precisely this violence that gives the Rasengan its tremendous destructive power. What we need to do is keep that violence as controllable as possible, making it move around the center of a sphere. In other words, make the chakra strike every part of this water balloon at the same time. That way, it'll expand in every direction until it finally bursts."
"Don't deliberately suppress the disorderly chakra. Instead, shrink its range of movement, letting it remain disorderly within a small area."
Sakumo and Kakashi looked thoughtful.
After a while, Sakumo suddenly said, "The form of this ninjutsu of yours is a little like... a Tailed Beast Bomb."
"What's that?"
At this point, Kakashi still didn't know what a Tailed Beast Bomb was.
Yuzuru's Shadow Clone also looked at Sakumo with a "bewildered" expression.
"Well, it's an attack used by some terrifying monsters."
Looking at the two children, Sakumo mentioned it briefly.
"Once we're done training, I'll tell you about the Tailed Beasts."
"All right, then. Let's continue!"
After receiving that guidance, Kakashi and Sakumo began practicing again.
This time, they were clearly doing much better. Both their water balloons began bulging in different directions.
Seeing this, Yuzuru No. 1 nodded, then continued correcting their mistakes.
Elsewhere, Yuzuru No. 2 stood motionless, surrounded by several smooth ice mirrors.
Creating ice mirrors was easy; the problem was how to enter them. This had stumped Yuzuru for a long time. Something involving space really was beyond comparison with ordinary ninjutsu. No wonder this thing was an Ice Release secret technique.