Kakashi was suddenly caught off guard by that comment. He started to say something but stopped, glaring at Hatake Satoru with his droopy fish-like eyes.
"Pfft."
Satoru playfully lifted the area under his eyepatch and made a face at Kakashi.
"Huh? What are you doing here?"
"Teacher."
Suigetsu and Kimimaro froze the moment they saw the two people standing outside Classroom 301.
Suigetsu hadn't seen Hatake Satoru since they parted ways when he was a kid.
Even the last time, when Hatake Satoru dropped Kimimaro off at Kirigakure, it had been a rushed trip.
Suigetsu had gone to see him, but only ended up meeting Kimimaro, who stayed behind.
But now, after so many years, while Suigetsu had grown up quite a bit, Hatake Satoru looked like he hadn't changed at all.
Suigetsu was honestly surprised.
Kimimaro, whose face was usually expressionless, suddenly lit up. After calling out "teacher" a few times, he ran over to Hatake Satoru's side.
Even though he hadn't been back in Kirigakure for long, Kimimaro had basically been raised by Hatake Satoru.
More than just a student-teacher relationship, Kimimaro felt a real bond with Hatake Satoru—like family.
"Well, since it's kind of a hassle to explain, I'll be the one giving you your first exam~"
Hatake Satoru pointed to his own face, lips curved in a cat-like smile.
"You're still amazing! You're actually one of the exam proctors for the Chunin Exams."
Suigetsu nodded thoughtfully. No wonder he was his brother's teacher—being trusted with a role like this in such a big event really said something.
"I won't let you down, sensei."
Kimimaro looked up, sounding pretty confident as he made the promise.
"By the way, who's that guy who looks a lot like you?"
Suigetsu looked up with curiosity and blinked at Kakashi, who was watching them.
"Face mask, eye mask—you guys look like you're meant to meet or something."
Suigetsu had grown older, but compared to Kimimaro's calm and mature vibe, he still had a bit of childlike wonder.
Kakashi's visible dead-fish eye stared at the two boys, a bit stunned.
After thinking for a moment, Kakashi started sweating a little and hesitantly asked,
"…Are these your long-lost sons or something?"
His gaze landed on their Kirigakure headbands.
Kirigakure had always been a pretty closed-off village, so how Hatake Satoru even met these two was a mystery.
And more than that—between their hair colors and how close they seemed to him—it really looked like Satoru had done something shady out there!
Illegitimate kids? He never expected his older brother to go that far.
Unbelievable.
Kakashi glanced back and forth, carefully studying the boys' faces.
Kimimaro and Hozuki Suigetsu didn't look alike, and even their eye colors seemed to come from different mothers.
He had kids with *multiple* women!?
Suddenly, every ridiculous drama plot Kakashi had ever read in adult books flashed through his head.
The guy collecting a harem and fathering kids everywhere... was Hatake Satoru?
And the two kids were getting along just fine, standing next to Hatake Satoru and curiously staring at Kakashi.
"…Stop reading those adult books."
Hatake Satoru curled his lip in obvious disgust.
What the hell was Kakashi thinking? Just look at Kimimaro and Suigetsu's ages—there's no way that made sense.
"They're not my kids, obviously. I was still pretty young when I started traveling."
"Even if I *did* run off and have kids, they wouldn't be this old yet, right~?"
Hatake Satoru lightly patted the heads of the two people beside him.
"He's my little brother, just one year younger than me~"
Hatake Satoru pointed to Kakashi next to him as he introduced him to Suigetsu and Kimimaro.
Kimimaro and Suigetsu nodded thoughtfully.
"You both have white hair, huh."
A soft, gentle voice suddenly cut in. A good-looking boy smiled shyly at everyone while curling a finger through his own hair.
With his long, straight black hair, he felt like he was stuck in a bunch of white hair, kind of out of place.
Kakashi looked up with a smile at the voice but then his smile froze.
His usually tired eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the pale-faced boy.
"…You…"
Kakashi clearly remembered this boy's face — the one he had pierced directly with Raikiri...
The warm blood splattering, the hollow white eyes... those images kept flashing in his mind.
The gentle boy who had protected Zabuza from a fatal attack and used his Kekkei Genkai, the Thousand Hands.
Kakashi looked the smiling boy up and down. No matter how he looked, this didn't seem like the twin brother but the same person.
But he was still alive?!
How was that possible?!
Zabuza and this boy were taken away by the Kirigakure's elite team back then. Kakashi was sure both of them had died.
At that time, the Kirigakure techniques Zabuza used disappeared because of his death.
"Yeah, I'm still alive, Kakashi of the Sharingan. Didn't expect we'd meet like this,"
The boy, Shirai, noticed Kakashi's shocked look and tilted his head with a gentle smile.
"You're not a rogue ninja… what's going on?"
And this guy was only a genin from Kirigakure!?
When Kakashi saw Shirai wearing a mask back then, he honestly thought Shirai was part of the Anbu.
With Shirai's skills at the time, Anbu wouldn't have been a problem.
What kind of monsters does Kirigakure hide!?
Kakashi's mind was about to explode. The elite team was supposed to have killed Shirai and Zabuza and taken their bodies away.
Why was Shirai completely unharmed now, looking fine and even representing Kirigakure in the Chunin exam?
No matter how fast Kakashi thought, this kind of thing was beyond human understanding and hard to accept.
"Haha, it's because we were really close to death back then."
"So the Mizukage sent Anbu to save us. Sorry for fooling you."
"Though we were enemies back then, now I'm just a student taking the exam."
Shirai smiled like a warm spring breeze. Even though he said sorry, he clearly wasn't really apologizing.
So that elite team that showed up in the thick fog was definitely there to rescue them.
Since Shirai was still alive, Zabuza must be okay too.
Kakashi took a deep breath. Kirigakure really knew how to use hidden information — they completely tricked him.
"Woah! Big bro Satoru! Kakashi-sensei!"
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