Chapter 144: New World, Youth, and Ninjas
July fourth, year sixty five of Konoha.
Tsunade had already been in office as Hokage for some time.
As the former princess of Konoha, she understood better than anyone the tangled logic and hierarchy that made up the village.
Once one of the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade possessed overwhelming strength and unmatched prestige. In a Konoha that had been battered over and over, she was the only one the remaining clans could trust without reservation.
Because Konoha had taken too many blows.
The attack of the Nine Tails, the annihilation of the Uchiha clan, Orochimaru's defection, years of decline and uneasy peace negotiations. All of it had left the village hollowed out and in desperate need of rebuilding.
Compared to many ruined ninja villages, Konoha was still relatively wealthy.
But anyone who walked its streets could see the contrast with its past.
Broken buildings and abandoned houses ringed the village like scars, silent proof of how prosperous Konoha had once been and how desolate it was now.
The price of internal strife was carved into every street.
The great clans no longer had the strength to challenge the Hokage's authority. The largest clan in the village had been wiped out. The second largest had suffered humiliation that would never be forgotten. The remaining families had been shattered in the wake of the Nine Tails and countless other incidents.
Tsunade had inherited this mess.
And that was not even counting the shadow cast by Orochimaru, another of the Legendary Sannin, murdering his own teacher, Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.
For a Kage to die at the hands of a rogue from his own village.
Compared to Konoha in its golden age, the current village was in chaos. Its economy, its military strength, its population, its very spirit, everything had rotted from within.
Even with Jiraiya and Tsunade back and working themselves ragged, they were only patching over a festering wound.
The fresh blood of the clans was gone, and Konoha's reputation was in tatters.
The village that had once stood proudly as the number one ninja village now felt as if it were one strong wind away from collapse.
Yet for all that, Konoha was surprisingly unified.
Aside from Root, led by Danzo, and his unhealthy obsession with the Hokage seat, the rest of the village had been forced into a kind of uneasy harmony. They had no strength left to fight one another.
Especially now that the new generation was starting to shine.
Sasuke Uchiha's defection had cast a long shadow over the village, but talented young shinobi were beginning to rise one after another. Each of the Legendary Sannin already had reliable successors.
Strictly speaking, Konoha was in a better position now than it had been in the final years of the Third Hokage.
Of course, that was only in the sense that things were not completely hopeless.
There were still Jonin with no missions to accept, stuck at home with nothing to do but raise their children and train the next generation on their own.
The village's lost prestige had not erased the petty requests that came up from the Land of Fire.
Someone still needed to handle escort work and minor disputes.
But the big, high level missions had dropped off. Other villages were chosen instead. Konoha no longer inspired the same trust when it came to elite shinobi.
Some sharp eyed people in the village were worried.
Most shinobi, however, were not.
Their education and experience did not lend themselves to thinking in those terms, and many had already achieved a modest, comfortable life. With no burning goals left, they simply drifted from day to day.
The Third Shinobi World War had been far too brutal.
Countless bloodlines and talents had been swallowed up on its battlefields.
Even now, less than twenty years later, the aftershocks were still shaking the world.
This was no longer a time when ninja rushed into wars at the slightest provocation.
The shinobi world had entered a period of stagnation.
Even during such exhausted times, however, there were always people who remained irrepressibly enthusiastic.
People who treated each day with bright, unreasonable hope.
People who shone on everyone around them like the sun.
Or rather, baked them like the midday sun beating down on laundry.
"Hey, Kakashi. I know you are in there. Come out and spar. I have been working on some really powerful taijutsu lately."
"...That voice. Is that a descendant of Might Guy?"
"Oh? Are you having guests?" the voice outside the door answered in a loud, cheerful tone. "You should have said so earlier. Are they an old comrade of Father's?"
Then, as if he had just thought of something profound, the man outside added happily,
"In that case, we definitely have to meet. After all, they are witnesses to my father's youth and mine as well."
What is youth, exactly?
"..."
Feeling Aizen's curious gaze on him, Kakashi sat at the table with his head in his hands and the distinct sense that his world was about to collapse.
He really should have thought this through and chosen somewhere safer to talk.
His house was not quiet, and it was certainly not safe.
Might Guy could appear with some bizarre idea at any moment.
Kakashi was not worried about himself.
He was worried about what would happen if that hot blooded idiot of a taijutsu maniac crashed into a man like Aizen Sousuke.
On one side, an overly earnest, explosive ball of muscle and enthusiasm.
On the other, a calculating researcher with nine hundred different thoughts behind a single gentle action.
If the two clashed, Kakashi could already picture Tsunade waking up to find that Konoha no longer existed.
Whether it was the lingering effects of time travel or simply a night of rest, Kakashi now had a faint, hazy grasp of Aizen's power.
He could not quantify it.
If he had to describe it, though, it felt something like this.
Even if the entire shinobi world tied itself together into one giant rope and attacked him all at once, it would probably still be a fair fight at best.
With his mind working at high speed, Kakashi gave Aizen a tiny nod, then walked to the door and pulled it open.
On the other side stood a middle aged man with a bowl shaped haircut and eyebrows that looked like they were about to leap off his face.
Kakashi stared at him in silence.
"Shouldn't you be doing laps around Konoha with Lee right now?" he finally asked.
"Oh, that would certainly be youthful," Might Guy replied solemnly, "but Lee still cannot keep up with my final warm up exercises. In the end, true youth is still about fighting you, Kakashi."
"I have a guest."
"Right, that person who knows my father." Guy nodded as if everything made sense. "It is fine. I will wait until you finish your talk with your elder. Then we can resume our youthful training."
"What I mean," Kakashi said patiently, "is that we might be talking for a long time. Could you perhaps go train somewhere else?"
"No problem. I will wait right here at the door. Waiting for my rival is also part of youth."
"..."
Staring at Guy's gleaming smile and blinding thumbs up, Kakashi briefly thought that he would not mind if Aizen destroyed this man on the spot.
He tamped the thought down almost immediately.
Frustration with people was no excuse to invite disaster onto the village.
Kakashi forced himself to calm down and started desperately signaling with his eyes and hands, trying to convey that the person inside was very dangerous.
Guy folded his arms and watched Kakashi go through an increasingly frantic series of gestures and expressions.
After a long pause, he nodded in understanding, flashed another thumbs up at Kakashi, and shouted into the house,
"Hey, elder inside. Kakashi looks like he is having facial cramps. Can I take him to Konoha Hospital?"
"..."
Damn it.
What exactly did you think I was trying to tell you?
Do you think you can just yell for the person behind me like that?
Do you have any idea what kind of person you are calling out?
As Guy looked at him with round, earnest eyes and an absurdly proud expression, Kakashi felt his chest tighten and his face literally twitch.
At that moment, a smooth, magnetic voice sounded just behind him.
"...I would not call him a senior," Aizen said. "Strictly speaking, there is not that much difference in our ages."
A calm, gentle chakra spread out quietly behind Kakashi, like a warm hand on a tired shoulder.
In his own world, Aizen rejected chakra as a concept.
Here, adapting to the local rules, he wielded it with unsettling ease.
Soft green light brushed across Kakashi's body, peeling away his fatigue and quietly mending the hidden injuries left by years of harsh training and a childhood spent under crushing pressure.
The chakra flowed along his tenketsu points and then, as if it had found something interesting, turned toward his eye.
It seeped into his Mangekyou Sharingan, his brain, carefully threading together a simple chakra circuit.
From now on, with a single thought, Kakashi would be able to open or close his Mangekyou without that constant, heavy drain.
The realization sent a chill down his spine.
This level of treatment was something not even Tsunade could accomplish, let alone the rest of Konoha's medical corps.
And this was not even what Aizen considered his main field of research.
What were they planning to do with power like this?
"Yes, I have already treated him," Aizen said casually. "There should not be any serious problems. He had a few small internal wounds, but I have dealt with those as well. Perhaps Kakashi kun will be able to return to his peak condition soon."
He looked up at the man with the bowl haircut standing outside the door and could not help a quiet sigh at how persistent certain patterns in the world seemed to be.
Sakumo Hatake had always worn a deadpan expression and preferred to slack off and wait for death rather than fuss over things.
Kakashi looked lazy too, only really serious when he had no choice.
Might Dai, on the other hand, had always burned with strange, boundless energy while assisting with research.
Almost no one had expected that trait to be passed on to his son and amplified to this level.
Back when Guy had been nine, he had not left much of an impression on Aizen. The boy had kept his head down, had shown none of the traits that Aizen valued.
Now, looking at this fully grown man, Aizen had no choice but to admit he had misjudged him.
"You are Might Guy, correct?" Aizen asked gently. "The son of Might Dai. If I am not mistaken, you are also a taijutsu type shinobi. Have you mastered the Eight Gates Formation? How far can you take it? If you can open all eight gates, that is quite an achievement at your age."
"Oh, a descendant of Father, is it?" Guy blinked, then frowned. "But I do not remember Father ever having a descendant like you, and I do not think I have seen you before."
He studied Aizen's calm smile with a seriousness that was rare for him.
Under Kakashi's increasingly pained stare, Guy finally clapped his hands as if he had solved a great mystery.
"You must be a Konoha shinobi who has been away on a long mission," he declared. "Now the village is even recalling shinobi who have been gone for years. That means the Hokage is really preparing to do something great. It makes my youth burn."
He clenched a fist, eyes shining.
"All right. To celebrate your return, I will run three hundred laps around Konoha with five hundred pounds of weights."
"There is no need for that," Aizen replied mildly. "Training that relies entirely on running and strength work has its limits. It also causes hidden injuries and uneven muscular development."
As Guy turned, ready to take off at full speed, Aizen's voice gently stopped him.
"I have some understanding of the theory involved," he continued. "Your father also participated in that research. If possible, I would like to pass some of that material on to you."
"However, there is one thing I still do not understand."
He tilted his head slightly.
"What is this youth you keep talking about?"
"Youth? Youth is youth."
Guy's answer was immediate.
Seeing Aizen's curious expression, he puffed out his chest, raised a thumb, and seemed to radiate an almost blinding light.
"Never giving up," he declared, "always burning bright, always staying young, having the courage to fight yourself and every enemy that stands before you. That is youth."
"...I see."
Kakashi was not sure if it was his imagination, but Aizen's eyes seemed to brighten slightly as he watched Guy.
Kakashi was a very smart man.
The moment he saw that faintly appreciative look on Aizen's face, his mind began racing.
Aizen Sousuke was a fanatic who would do anything to push the world forward.
He was like a train that never stopped accelerating, thundering along its tracks.
No one but the driver knew where it was headed.
Might Guy, on the other hand, was a hot blooded battle maniac whose entire life revolved around fighting, training, duels, and self improvement.
He pushed himself daily in ways that would have broken most people long ago.
Even Kakashi had never seen another shinobi with such an absurd, unbalanced approach to everything.
So why did Aizen's eyes light up when he looked at Guy?
Because he had misunderstood Guy's concept of youth.
If nothing unexpected happened, then something unexpected was almost guaranteed to happen.
As Aizen, now clearly interested, began talking more with Guy, Kakashi could almost see a blurred character for death floating above Konoha.
"Is that so," Aizen said softly. "Very good. In your view, youth is endless advance and endless struggle against your own cowardice and incompetence. It is declaring war on your own limits and on the truth of this world, proving your worth with your own existence. Is that it?"
"Oh, that is right." Guy's eyes blazed. "Youth is passion and enthusiasm. Having comrades you can trust, never backing down from hardship, never fearing a powerful enemy, always moving forward. That is youth."
"..."
I am pretty sure you two are talking about different things.
If they are not, then Kakashi finally understood why that man from the Otsutsuki clan had sounded so desperate when he tried to stop Aizen.
He pictured it.
An entire world full of bowl cuts and green jumpsuits, everyone wearing those same garish outfits and shouting about youth in identical poses.
Yes.
If that was the future, then the correct strategy probably was to stop Aizen Sousuke at any cost.
What left Kakashi even more speechless was how naturally the conversation flowed.
Aizen Sousuke, who should have looked down on Guy from the very first glance.
And Might Guy, who should have been completely unable to understand a man like Aizen.
Yet there they were, cheerfully discussing courage, youth, and the will to move forward.
After only a short exchange, Aizen smiled.
"Hmm. The shinobi of Konoha are truly interesting," he said. "I have decided to stay in Konoha a while longer."
He glanced at Guy's excited face, then turned to Kakashi, who had already started withdrawing into his own private despair.
Aizen's smile softened.
"Witnessing Might Guy's youth is something I am very much looking forward to," he said. "But before that, I would like Kakashi and myself to visit the Hokage Building and file a report."
"Afterward, I can pass certain things on to Guy. What do you think?"
"Oh, no problem." Guy clenched his fists again. "To burn brighter and brighter in youth, waiting is also a form of training."
"Is that acceptable, Kakashi?" Aizen asked.
"...Yes."
At this point, whatever this man decided to do, no one in the village could truly stop him.
Watching his childhood rival nod along without questioning Aizen's identity, eyes filled only with emotion and resolve, Kakashi began to doubt whether he was still awake.
Otherwise, how could he be seeing this?
A refined, gentle researcher with terrifying power, chatting happily with Konoha's most famous hot blooded idiot.
And on top of that, deciding to pass secret techniques to that same idiot.
Kakashi did not gamble. He did not even like taking small risks.
So he stopped thinking altogether.
With his mind blank and his steps slightly unsteady, he walked ahead, leading Aizen Sousuke toward the Hokage Building at the center of Konoha.
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