Chapter 8: The Burning Flames of Youth
Konoha Year 43, late November. Spurred on by the six-year-old chunin Hatake Kakashi, the training craze at the Ninja Academy showed no signs of letting up.
On weekend breaks, more students than ever chose to come out to the training grounds. Even as the weather turned cold, nothing could dampen the enthusiasm.
Uchiha Obito, who sat near the bottom of the class in theory, had been showing flashes of real talent in practical sessions. Might Guy, the kid who had scraped in through the supplementary list, had become a standout student, excelling in both theory and combat.
"...496..."
"...497..."
"...498..."
"..."
Watching Might Guy sail past five hundred laps and keep right on going, the group sprawled out at the edge of the grounds had gone completely numb. Nobody was laughing at Guy anymore.
"This guy is a genius too."
Sarutobi Asuma's voice carried genuine admiration as he watched the green-clad figure, murmuring under his breath. Beside him, Ebisu was still bent over with his hands on his knees, gulping air, but he straightened up and nodded:
"He really is. Ryosuke-sensei was right. Guy is going to be a fine ninja."
A year had turned it all around. Might Guy had dismantled every assumption his classmates had about him, and his progress had been too consistent and too visible to ignore. The teachers had noticed.
Shiranui Genma, fully admitting defeat, pulled off his headband and dropped onto the ground. Thinking about how Guy would probably graduate early come April, he let out a somewhat sour remark:
"An effort-type genius? I'm not entirely sold on the label, but Ryosuke-sensei isn't wrong."
"Not everyone can keep pushing past their own limits. We're still just kids, after all."
Talented students always stood out at the Academy and earned extra attention from the teachers. Nobody had any complaints about that.
It was the same as Furukawa Osamu being taken under the wing of Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin. When that came up, his classmates felt nothing but pride.
Hands laced behind his head, Asuma looked up at a sky burning orange and red. Being the Hokage's son made comparisons to talented people an uncomfortable thing to sit with.
"What are you thinking about? Asuma, you're already doing really well. Graduating a few years later isn't the end of the world."
Yūhi Kurenai suddenly leaned over from above, her face appearing upside down in his view. At the sight of her concerned expression, Asuma instinctively shifted sideways, a little flustered:
"It's nothing, just a bit of frustration. Thanks, Kurenai..."
He didn't say what he actually meant. What Asuma really wanted was his father's attention, but the Third Hokage was always too busy, and most of his care went to the eldest son.
The two of them slipped back into their usual comfortable back-and-forth. Watching from nearby, Obito felt an odd pang he couldn't quite explain. Rin cared about him, but she was never quite this close...
"What's the big deal about graduating early anyway! Even if I'm a few years behind, I'll catch up to all of them at the chunin level!"
Obito, thoroughly uncomfortable with what he was witnessing, launched into another loud complaint. Before anyone else could respond, Might Guy, still running, turned and thrust a thumb in his direction without breaking stride:
"That's the spirit! That is the burning flame of youth!"
"Every genius is out here working hard. I refuse to lose to any of them in effort."
"If I can't finish eight hundred laps, I'll walk five hundred more on my hands!"
The whole group went quiet at once. The supplementary enrollee had done it again, and everyone felt the blow.
* * *
That evening, at Training Ground Three, Hatake Sakumo watched the two small figures trading blows back and forth, a satisfied smile returning to his face.
"Water Style: Violent Water Wave!"
Dropping back and dodging in the same motion, Furukawa Osamu, still mid-air, released a powerful surge of water from nothing, flooding over his opponent in an instant.
The force knocked Kakashi off balance, soaking him completely. Before he could counter, a sudden crackle of electricity locked up his muscles.
Kakashi dropped to one knee, stunned that his opponent still had the stamina to chain jutsu at this point. By the time he tried to organize a counterattack, Furukawa Osamu was already behind him.
"Remarkable ninjutsu talent, and impressive chakra reserves to match."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Kakashi. Osamu just leaned into his own strengths. You should have picked up on the shift sooner."
Hatake Sakumo watched his son form the reconciliation seal with obvious reluctance and couldn't help smiling as he offered the reassurance.
In the kenjutsu exchange that came earlier, Kakashi had managed to gain the upper hand for once, and pressing that advantage had led him to overlook the chakra problem entirely.
Furukawa Osamu slung his short blade back across his shoulders without any trace of smugness. He was still more comfortable with kunai, honestly. The experience he had absorbed through Gathering didn't cover kenjutsu.
"You were seriously impressive though, Kakashi. That short blade had me completely on the back foot."
Hearing the praise, Kakashi caught the sincerity in Osamu's smile and felt a flicker of something warm, though he turned his head away and played it off:
"I've just been practicing longer."
"Father, is there a way to increase your chakra reserves?"
"Children don't need to be chasing things like that. There's no reason to push yourself this hard at your age."
Hatake Sakumo ruffled his son's hair and smiled gently. The village had no need to send children under ten into combat right now. There was no rush to reach for power.
As the group left the training ground, Furukawa Osamu kept chatting with Kakashi while turning something over in the back of his mind.
His instantly extractable chakra had gone up a notch over this period, and his body's recovery ability had improved along with it. He was sitting at roughly one and a half times a standard unit of chakra now.
Whether that came from Gathering Essence directly, or from the herbs he'd been cultivating with Essence, he still couldn't say for certain.
Either way, the compound he'd been making had clearly changed his body in real ways. As for sage chakra, the reality was turning out rather different from what he remembered.
...
That night, Ichiraku Ramen was doing a roaring trade.
The steady stream of customers had young Teuchi's eyes permanently crinkled with contentment.
"Sakumo-sensei, it seems like the jonin have all been on missions lately?"
Furukawa Osamu looked up from his bowl of tonkotsu ramen and asked. Hatake Sakumo nodded, offering a warm smile in return:
"Requests have just been picking up a bit. Don't worry, the village takes good care of its people."
The most recent mission had taken nearly three months. When Kakashi heard the word "requests" he allowed himself a rare complaint:
"A lot of clients specifically ask for Father by name. Nobody stops to think about whether he gets any rest."
"That is the life of a ninja. As long as it raises the village's standing, every ninja gives it everything they have."
Hatake Sakumo laughed after saying it, clearly proud to be contributing to the village. The other customers nearby chimed in without missing a beat:
"We have Sakumo-sama to thank for the lives we lead!"
"The White Fang of Konoha is a guarantee the mission gets done!"
"No ninja from any other country has a reputation like Sakumo-sama's..."
"..."
Surrounded by the praise, Furukawa Osamu let the same look of admiration settle on his face as everyone else, while quietly turning things over in his head.
Being this young meant he had no access to jonin mission information. All he could piece together was that Hatake Sakumo was deeply trusted by both the village and its clients, and the missions simply weren't letting up.
Kakashi caught the atmosphere and forgot his earlier frustration entirely. His father's accomplishments were something to be proud of.
* * *
A peaceful, happy life has a way of making time disappear.
Konoha Year 44, January 1st. Furukawa Osamu came to Tsunade's apartment again to celebrate the new year.
Perhaps because they had spent enough time together by now, Tsunade wasn't bothering to hide anything. She pulled a deck of cards from inside her robes, and on the very first day of the new year, a card game began.
After drawing several terrible hands in a row and feeling her pride take a hit, Tsunade caught Shizune's worried look, laughed it off easily, and turned to Furukawa Osamu with a serious expression:
"Your card game isn't bad either. Osamu, once you graduate I'll take you on officially. Two years, and you've passed my test."
His results in the medical track had left everyone else far behind. Furukawa Osamu let an appropriate look of excitement and admiration cross his face at Tsunade's words, then pulled it back and answered quickly:
"I'll keep working hard, Sensei!"