"It's Kurenai."
Mikami Yuu swallowed the noodles in his mouth, looked up at Yūhi Kurenai, and smiled faintly. "Things have been fine. We just finished a B-rank mission a couple of days ago and only got back to the village yesterday."
"Wow, a B-rank? That's amazing! As expected of Yuu! We only did a C-rank mission, and it was the easiest kind too. It wasn't interesting at all… By the way, what kind of mission did you do? Can you tell us about it?"
As she spoke,
Asuma and Namiashi Raidō walked over as well. Seeing how naturally Kurenai had sat down beside Mikami Yuu, Asuma pressed his lips together, then sat on the other side of the bench.
"Boss, two tonkotsu ramen, one spicy and one not, plus one bowl of bamboo shoot ramen."
"Coming right up!"
While they waited for the food, Kurenai kept asking about the things Mikami Yuu's team had been doing, and he and Rin answered one after another. Obito couldn't resist his show-off nature either and threw in a few boasts about his own "contributions."
Then suddenly,
as if remembering something, Obito spoke up:
"Hey, Asuma, let me ask you something. Do you know about the 'White Fang of Konoha'?"
"?"
"I only knew before that he was some really amazing ninja, and then later he died for some reason. I wanted to ask Minato-sensei about it before, but I never got the chance. You're the Hokage's son, so you definitely know the inside story, right?"
"..."
The air around the table went still.
Asuma's hand holding the chopsticks paused. He looked at Obito, confirmed that he was genuinely asking, then sighed.
"Yeah, that's right. Hatake Sakumo-sama really was very famous. Back then, his prestige in the village was almost on the same level as the current Sannin. They say his swordsmanship was so refined it could rival the so-called demigod of the Land of Rain.
"As for how he died…"
"This isn't really some big secret. Basically, a few years ago, during an important mission, he chose to save his comrades instead of completing the mission, which caused the village to suffer heavy losses. Afterward, a lot of people in the village stood up and condemned him. Even the comrades he saved…"
"In the end, he couldn't bear the pressure of public opinion and killed himself at home. Kakashi probably started becoming all gloomy and depressed from that point on.
"You guys are in the same team as Kakashi, and you didn't even know that?"
Mikami Yuu already knew, though his source was the anime from his previous life.
Rin and Obito, on the other hand, genuinely didn't.
After all, when the Hatake Sakumo incident happened, the two of them were only six or seven years old. One had a father who was only a chūnin, and the other was an orphan being raised by his grandmother. Their connection to Sakumo was too distant, so they had never paid attention to those rumors.
Especially Obito.
After hearing Asuma's explanation, he froze completely. Kakashi's dead, lifeless eyes flashed through his mind. The chopsticks in his hand dropped onto the table with a clack, and his eyes reddened slightly.
"So that's what happened… No wonder Kakashi is always like that…"
Honestly, Obito at this stage really did have strong empathy.
Or maybe Konoha's Great Bonding Power had started doing its thing.
He suddenly shot to his feet, not even bothering to finish his meal, and ran for the door.
"I… I'm going to apologize to Kakashi right now!"
"?"
Mikami Yuu and the others stayed seated, staring at Obito's disappearing back in confusion.
"Uh…"
Rin looked a little worried.
"No need to worry about him. Eat first."
Mikami Yuu kept slurping his noodles.
Rin sat there and thought about it for a while, then gradually relaxed. After all, Obito and Kakashi were already constantly at each other's throats anyway. At worst, they'd have another fight. Then she and Mikami Yuu could go smooth things over. There was no way their relationship could get even worse than it already was.
"Oh, right, Yuu."
Kurenai hesitated, then softened her voice even more.
"Are you free this afternoon? I've run into a few problems with practical combat techniques, and I wanted to ask you about them. It feels like I've hit a bottleneck lately."
"?"
Rin immediately looked up, alert. "I'm going too! Lately, every time I watch you training with Kakashi and Obito, I feel like I've already fallen completely behind all of you. If this keeps up, I'm going to end up being the one dragging the team down."
That was honestly true.
Compared to Kakashi, who was absurdly talented; Obito, who had a powerful bloodline; and Mikami Yuu, who had a system, Rin's presence lately really had been a little dim.
Sure, she could take the route of becoming a medical ninja, but even medical ninja needed a basic level of combat strength. At the very least, they had to be able to protect themselves.
Asuma coughed lightly.
"Yuu, I want to spar with you again too. I learned one or two new jutsu recently, but I haven't found a suitable person to test them against yet…"
Good grief.
The moment Obito leaves, all the pressure shifts onto him?
Mikami Yuu had been planning to spend the afternoon trying out the Shadow Prison Phantom Kill Formation…
Also, weren't there five people at this table? How was it that Namiashi Raidō's presence was this low?
Mikami Yuu grumbled inwardly, finished the last of his soup, and wiped his mouth.
"Fine. Three o'clock this afternoon, Training Ground Thirteen. I'm heading home for a nap first. Rin, are you going back too?"
"Okay!"
…
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the tall trees, casting mottled patches of light over the ground at Training Ground Thirteen.
Mikami Yuu, Rin, Kurenai, and Asuma gathered there from different directions.
"Who's first?" Mikami Yuu asked.
"…I'll go."
Kurenai glanced at Asuma. Seeing that he didn't say anything, she stepped forward first and took her place in the center.
"Come on."
Mikami Yuu stood there empty-handed and crooked a finger at her.
"You're not using a weapon?" Kurenai frowned slightly.
"Not for now. First I want to see how much your taijutsu has improved compared to before."
"…Alright. I'm coming!"
Before her words had even finished, Kurenai flung out a handful of shuriken to open the fight. The moment Mikami Yuu shifted aside to dodge them, she used Body Flicker to rush in, her kunai turning into a cold flash as it stabbed toward his left shoulder.
Mikami Yuu barely turned aside in time, then immediately reached out with his left hand to seize her wrist.
"Ah!"
Kurenai twisted her wrist sharply, turning the kunai downward to slash at his fingers.
Mikami Yuu changed from grabbing to slapping, and with a light smack, struck the outside of her forearm. Even though he didn't use full force, the hit still numbed her arm, forcing her to leap back to avoid him.
Truthfully,
Kurenai did have some talent in taijutsu. Otherwise she wouldn't have been given an 8 in taijutsu in the databooks.
From her brief clash with Itachi in the original story, you could already tell that although she was suppressed the whole time, the real problem was just her stats. As a woman without a bloodline limit, her Strength stat was only 4, so she couldn't handle Itachi's offensive pressure. But her reactions themselves weren't the problem.
And now,
sparring with Mikami Yuu felt pretty similar.
Kurenai's fighting style emphasized lightness and speed. Her kunai danced constantly, targeting joints and vital points.
Mikami Yuu, on the other hand, was much steadier. Most of the time he was passively dismantling her attacks, but whenever he surged forward, Kurenai was immediately forced into a scramble. The difference in raw strength was very obvious.
But there was no helping that.
After all, Mikami Yuu had a cheat.
If he was only barely stronger than Kurenai before getting his cheat, and still stayed about the same after getting one, then what would have been the point of having it at all?
~~~
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