"I'm back."
Might Guy shouted energetically as he walked to the door of his home.
"Welcome home. Did you have a youthful day today?" Might Duy asked as he heard Might Guy's voice and welcomed him.
"Of course." Might Guy gave a bright smile and a thumbs up to himself, "I perfectly completed all the recovery training today as well."
"Hahaha, that's my son!" Might Duy laughed proudly and said.
"Come eat quickly; I've prepared a big meal to help you recover soon,"
Might Guy curiously walked to the dining table and took a look. The table was filled with a variety of meats and a medicinal soup made from precious herbs.
"This must have cost quite a bit, right?" Might Guy couldn't help but say.
He felt this meal probably cost as much as a month's expenses before.
"Nothing is more important than a healthy and robust body. Now that I'm a Chunin, I can earn more money. Just eat to your heart's content, Guy," Might Duy said generously.
His situation was different from before. Previously, he was not only a Genin but also had a bad reputation, which led to a lack of missions to do.
Due to demonstrating his strength and being promoted to Chunin, Sarutobi Hiruzen permitted him to perform B-Class and below missions solo.
The minimum commission for a B-Class mission, before tax, is at least 80,000 ryo, and it can even earn up to 200,000 ryo.
"I won't let you down, Father!" Might Guy showed a determined expression at the bountiful table and then began to eat quickly.
Although Might Duy's cooking wasn't as delicious as Teacher Mokgetsu's to the point of tasting like an illusion, it was food that Might Guy never got tired of eating.
Towards the end, Might Guy stopped eating rice and alternated between mouthfuls of medicinal soup and meat, ultimately finishing all the dishes on the table with two satisfied burps.
"By the way, today's mission commission came in. I don't have much to spend on, so I'll leave it to you, Dad," Might Guy handed over 110,000 ryo to Might Duy.
"Guy, you're so considerate. It must have been hard for you before," Might Duy couldn't help but sigh.
He always felt a bit inadequate for Might Guy. Unlike other kids with ninja parents, the help he could give Might Guy was very limited, and the only thing he knew, the Eight Gates, was an extremely dangerous Kinjutsu.
"I don't think it was hard at all, and aren't things gradually getting better?" Might Guy smiled and said.
"Yeah, youth is all about looking forward!" Might Duy, not dwelling on it, laughed and agreed.
"This time, I really owe it to you and Teacher Mokgetsu for teaching me the Eight Gates, which gave me the power to protect my comrades," Might Guy talked about his experience in the last mission.
"It was supposed to be an ordinary C-Class mission, but we encountered a group of strong Hidden Cloud Ninja on the way. I opened the Second Gate of the Eight Gates to defeat the Jonin enemies with my companions."
"Defeating Jonin enemies is truly impressive, even if it was a combined effort," Might Duy showed a surprised expression as he listened to Might Guy's recount.
Jonin are the elites of each village, required to meet standards in strength, merit, and other aspects to be promoted.
"I'm proud of you!" The emotionally overwhelmed Might Duy hugged Might Guy and exclaimed, tears of joy in his eyes.
He always had confidence in Might Guy, but he didn't expect him to walk the path of becoming an outstanding ninja so quickly. To this day, he himself has not defeated a Jonin.
"It's all because of you and Teacher Mokgetsu. Without you two, I wouldn't have this kind of power," Might Guy earnestly said.
"No, most of it is due to your own efforts and Teacher Mokgetsu's excellent guidance. I just contributed a little," Might Duy corrected.
He knew well that Might Guy's current strength was primarily due to Mokgetsu's teachings and Might Guy's own hard work, with little relation to himself.
"Guy, if there's a chance in the future, you must repay Teacher Mokgetsu's kindness. Youth must also be about loyalty and integrity," Might Duy said seriously.
"Of course, I'll never forget the kindness Teacher Mokgetsu has shown me!" Might Guy, moved to tears, said excitedly.
He hadn't forgotten that he was at the bottom of the class in third grade, and without Mokgetsu's help, he wouldn't have reached this point so quickly.
...
After dinner, Obito went to Nohara Rin's house to invite her to hang out.
"Hello, Uncle and Auntie." Obito smiled and greeted them upon entering.
"Is it little Obito? Are you here to play with little Rin? I'll call her down," Rin's family knew this little boy who often played with Rin.
"Rin, little Obito is here to play, hurry down."
Rin hurried downstairs upon hearing the voice.
"I heard there's some event going on recently, Rin, do you want to join?" Obito chuckled and invited Rin.
"Sure, you worked hard in your last mission, so you should relax a bit," Rin replied with a smile.
"Let's go find Kakashi and Guy; they might want to hang out too," Rin suggested.
Obito wanted to say they wouldn't want to, but what came out was, "Alright, let's go ask them."
At Obito's suggestion, they first went to Might Guy's house.
"Play? As long as you have fun. I'm going to do recovery training." Might Guy declined the invitation from the two.
"Then I wish you a speedy recovery, Guy," Nohara Rin said softly.
"Thanks for the support!" Might Guy gave Nohara Rin a thumbs up and then continued to train.
"Why don't we just go play, I feel like Kakashi probably needs to train too," Obito took the opportunity to say.
"Obito, that's not good, you don't know what others think without asking," Nohara Rin lightly laughed and wagged her finger at Obito.
Obito looked carefully and found that Nohara Rin's eyes were so deep and clear, making his heart skip a beat.
"Obito, what are you looking at?" Seeing Obito suddenly in a daze, Nohara Rin leaned in curiously to check on him.
As Nohara Rin's face got closer, Obito felt increasingly drawn to that crystalline clarity.
When he could clearly see his reflection in Nohara Rin's eyes, Obito snapped back to reality, quickly stepped back with a flushed face and said, "Too close, Rin, why did you suddenly get so close?"
"It's just you daydreaming, not listening to me, you deserved being startled." Nohara Rin put her hands on her hips, her lips curling into a little smug smile.
Finally, the two still went to Kakashi's house.
When they arrived, Kakashi was in the yard training to improve his reaction time.
"See, I told you Kakashi would be training, Rin, let's go," Obito said, a gleam flashing in his eye upon seeing Kakashi training.
"We've come all this way, how can we leave without asking?" Nohara Rin said helplessly, looking at an eager-to-leave Obito.
Kakashi noticed the two and stopped to ask, "What's up, is there something you need?"
"Didn't you guys just finish a tiring mission? I think we could all gather to play some games to relax a bit," Nohara Rin explained with a smile.
Thinking he needed to resolve his Thunder Flash issue quickly, Kakashi initially wanted to refuse, but Obito spoke first.
"Kakashi, I know you, you want to train, right? We won't disturb you, we'll be going now," Obito said with a knowing look.
Kakashi changed his mind. Because Obito didn't want him to go, he decided to go. So Kakashi said calmly, "Then let's go play together."
"Rin, did you hear that? Kakashi refused," Obito quickly told Nohara Rin.
Nohara Rin mimicked Teacher Mokgetsu by bringing her index and middle fingers together to tap Obito's forehead, then said:
"Obito, you need to listen carefully to others; Kakashi didn't refuse, he agreed."
"Huh?" Obito was a bit dumbfounded; it wasn't like Kakashi to agree.
"Kakashi, are you sure you want to stop training and come play with us?" Obito couldn't help but ask again.
"I'm sure, didn't Teacher Mokgetsu say that training requires a balance of work and rest?" Kakashi affirmed.
Seeing Obito's frustrated face, Kakashi felt a wave of satisfaction, and his mood from losing the battle earlier brightened instantly.
"Not training well, serves you right to be defeated by me." Walking down the street, Obito couldn't help but grumble.
Finally, a chance to be alone with Nohara Rin was ruined just like that.
Next, the group went to the street holding the event to have fun.
Due to his internal frustration, Obito decided that while he might be unhappy, Kakashi definitely couldn't enjoy himself.
At a large goldfish scooping stall, the three competed to see who could scoop the most goldfish.
At first, they were seriously scooping on their own, but Obito, noticing that Nohara Rin kept observing Kakashi's technique, grew irritated and started to compete for the same fish Kakashi was scooping.
If not for Teacher Mokgetsu's rule against using Sharingan outside, Obito would have activated it to scoop the goldfish.
Thanks to Obito's interference, Kakashi, who initially took the lead, gradually fell behind, and eventually Nohara Rin emerged victorious.
Then, the three went to a booth where they could win prizes by throwing shurikens at targets.
They played together once again, with Obito employing the Uchiha's shuriken throwing techniques to deflect Kakashi's shuriken while hitting the target himself.
Sensing Obito's hostility, Kakashi didn't hold back either; his shuriken throwing was impressive too. Their fierce competition ended with both missing the target.
"You guys, really, must you compete even in games?" Nohara Rin showed a helpless smile.
"Teacher Mokgetsu says occasional competition promotes skill improvement," Obito dragged Mokgetsu into the conversation.
"Indeed it does," Kakashi remarked calmly.
From then on, no matter what, Obito and Kakashi had to compete, making Nohara Rin feel a bit unnecessary.
"It's just as Teacher Mokgetsu said, they're really enjoying themselves," Nohara Rin observed with a smile as the two continued their endless bickering and rivalry without showing any sign of getting bored.