Chapter 457: Pokemon Egg Hatching
When the fierce white light erupted, everyone except Mugetsu jolted.
Obito reacted on instinct, stepping in front of Rin and shielding her behind him. Guy gathered a surge of chakra at his fingertips, ready to fire off Golden Skyline at any moment. Kakashi nearly flung the Pokemon Egg away.
If the egg had not been a gift from Mugetsu, he would have thrown it without hesitation.
He had never heard of a Nin Beast hatching with light. That level of brightness usually meant a paper bomb trap, the kind with dozens of tags buried underfoot.
Mugetsu, however, remained calm. He simply watched the center of the glow as it rapidly faded.
A light brown puppy with a large white tail appeared in Kakashi's arms.
Kakashi stared at the puppy, stunned, like his entire shinobi worldview had been punched in the face.
Why would a dog hatch from an egg? Dogs were mammals.
And why was it already so fluffy the instant it was born? Should it not have only a little newborn fuzz?
Questions flooded Kakashi's mind one after another. He did not know if he had read too few books, or if he had read the wrong ones.
The puppy sensed the gaze on it and looked up with bright blue eyes. For a moment, man and dog met each other's stare.
Even though it was the first time they had truly seen each other, the puppy did not seem unfamiliar with Kakashi at all. Perhaps because Kakashi had carried the egg for so long while incubating it, the puppy already felt close to him.
"Rock!"
It stuck out its tongue and happily licked Kakashi's face.
Kakashi froze.
Normally, he would have dodged on reflex, but the shock of a dog hatching from an egg had delayed him by a heartbeat.
"As expected of the Nin Beast hatched by my best friend," Guy declared, dispersing the chakra from his fingertips. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "The color of its tail fur is exactly the same as your hair, my best friend."
Kakashi wanted to retort, but could only feel helpless. What did the puppy's fur have to do with him? That was pure coincidence.
"Wait." Obito's eyes lit up. "Did it just speak? It sounded like Rock. So Nin Beasts can talk right after birth?"
Seeing Kakashi's Nin Beast instantly improved Obito's mood.
Because it did not look powerful at all.
To Obito, it looked like a slightly strange local puppy. Cute, sure. Threatening, not even a little.
"Even if eight more of these popped out," Obito thought, "it would not be a problem."
Kakashi shot him a look that could only be described as exhausted.
Right after birth, my foot.
Whether it was a person or a Nin Beast, they had to learn to speak. They could not be born fluent.
But even so, Kakashi had, in fact, heard something that sounded like Rock. It just had not been very clear.
"Rock, rock!"
The puppy barked again, then nuzzled its head against Kakashi's chest.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly.
It was not speaking. Its bark simply sounded different from a normal dog. A normal dog barked woof. This one barked rock.
"So cute!" Rin clasped her hands, eyes sparkling as she stared at the puppy in Kakashi's arms.
Girls had no resistance to cute things, and this puppy was absurdly adorable.
"Hmph." Obito grumbled when he saw Rin's attention completely on Kakashi, or rather, on the puppy in his arms. "What is so cute about it? That white tail does not look good at all."
Obito had a firm belief that people with white hair, when it was not from age, were suspicious.
Like Kakashi.
Or Jiraiya, the guy who once challenged Minato sensei to a one on one fight.
Then he remembered Senju Tobirama, who had tormented him for a while and also had white hair, and his prejudice deepened even further.
As if it heard someone speaking badly of it, the puppy turned its head toward Obito.
Its innocent eyes sharpened.
Given its tiny size, the glare only made it look even cuter, but Obito still felt an inexplicable chill when their gazes met.
He quickly recovered, irritation flaring.
"What are you staring at?" Obito wanted to snap, already half tempted to smack the puppy.
The puppy seemed to sense his ill intent. It immediately shrank into Kakashi's arms.
It was a baby that had existed for less than a minute. It had no fighting ability.
"Obito, soften your expression," Rin said. "You will scare the puppy."
Obito went silent.
Now he wanted to beat that annoying white tailed dog even more. Rin had never said something like that to him before.
"What a mysterious Nin Beast," Shisui said quietly, finally speaking. His eyes were on the puppy's neck. "It was born with rocks on it. Is that part of its body?"
Shisui had been observing the entire time.
A dog hatching from an egg.
A burst of white light.
Rocks embedded on its neck.
Everything about it was abnormal from the moment it appeared.
Kakashi hesitated, then reached out and touched the puppy's neck. A hard, sharp sensation met his fingertips. The rhomboid stone felt real.
The puppy did not resist at all. It even looked pleased, tilting its head slightly. Kakashi's hand slid under its jaw, scratching gently.
The puppy squinted its eyes in comfort.
"It really is stone," Kakashi said, nodding to Shisui.
He could not help feeling that this Nin Beast had a serious background.
The strange birth phenomenon, combined with Mugetsu's earlier emphasis on its potential, made Kakashi believe it would not be weak once it grew up.
His only question was why Mugetsu had not explained anything about the Nin Beast.
With Mugetsu's usual behavior, he should have known something.
Kakashi did not think too deeply about it. Mugetsu must have been considering them, and there had to be a meaning behind it that they simply could not understand.
In truth, Kakashi guessed wrong.
There was no deeper meaning. Mugetsu did not know much either.
Mugetsu knew plenty about Pokemon, but the system localized everything from worlds beyond Naruto. Pokemon would definitely not be exactly the same as in their original world. Saying too much risked saying something wrong.
Not saying anything was the safest choice.
"Kakashi, you should give it a name," Rin suggested. "It cannot go without a name."
Kakashi looked down at the puppy in his arms, thoughtful.
A name mattered. Otherwise, how would he refer to it? He could not just keep calling it dog.
"Since it keeps saying Rock, rock, why not call it Rockruff?" Obito offered immediately.
The name felt a little strange, but Obito believed his logic was airtight. The puppy said rock. Its name had to include rock.
"My best friend's youth is blazing right now," Guy declared, laughing loudly as he gave the puppy a thumbs up. "Call it Youthful Hound!"
The puppy responded with a look of pure disdain.
Guy's eyes widened in disbelief.
A name blessed by youth, rejected on the spot.
Kakashi pretended he had not heard anything.
If he actually called his Nin Beast Youthful Hound, it would not only embarrass the puppy, it would embarrass him.
Other shinobi summoned their beasts like, Come out, Manda, or Please, Gamabunta.
And he would be yelling, You are up, Youthful Hound.
Kakashi felt it was worse than Rockruff. At least the puppy's bark really did sound like rock.
Obito and Guy's suggestions may have been questionable, but they did ignite everyone's imagination.
Rin immediately thought of a few names.
"I think Sadaharu would be quite nice," Rin said. "Of course, it is up to you, Kakashi. If you cannot think of anything, you can also use a flower or plant name. Lily of the Valley is pretty too."
It was Kakashi's Nin Beast. Rin liked it, but she would not cross the line and decide for him.
Kakashi nodded slightly.
Finally, someone reliable.
Compared to Obito and Guy, Rin's suggestions were almost impossibly normal.
Normal, but still not perfect.
They sounded pleasant, but they had no connection to the puppy itself. Any dog, or even any pet, could be called that.
"How about White Rock?" Shisui offered after a moment.
Kakashi's hair was white. The puppy's tail and neck fur were white. Its bark sounded like rock, and it was born with rocks.
Shisui felt that combining what could be seen, even in a simple way, made for a solid name.
Kakashi immediately understood the logic.
Out of all the suggestions, this was the one he liked most. Still, he felt it was missing something.
"If you cannot decide, do not rush," Mugetsu said with a smile. "No one says you must name it immediately."
He had not expected Obito to accidentally guess Rockruff's name, but this was the shinobi world. Species names were not used as names. Every Nin Beast had its own personal name.
So Mugetsu did not comment.
Kakashi nodded.
Rather than choose hastily, it was better to think carefully. A name was something that would follow him for life.
"From now on, I will bring my Nin Beast Egg with me when I train," Guy said, suddenly looking excited. "Then it will hatch into a Nin Beast that trains every day, just like me!"
If that really happened, Guy would personally tailor a green jumpsuit for it.
Even if it was a dog, he would make a dog sized sports jumpsuit.
Mugetsu silently thought that it was entirely possible.
Kakashi hatched a Rock type Rockruff, which suggested the egg was likely influenced by the disciple's abilities.
Given Guy's traits, a Fighting type was extremely likely. And Fighting type Pokemon training their bodies was perfectly normal.
At that point, Guy would even be able to have an honest, fist to fist battle with his own Nin Beast, an experience few shinobi could ever provide him.
After that, Mugetsu gave his disciples a few pointers.
That evening, Orochimaru suddenly called another emergency meeting.
.....
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