"Captain?"
The moment Hikaru heard that voice, he instinctively put on a gentle smile and turned around to greet him. He already recognized who it was—even if he hadn't, politeness like that had long since become habit.
But the instant he turned, his body stiffened slightly.
Because he suddenly remembered something very important:
He was on leave.
So why was Kakashi calling him Captain?
Hikaru was momentarily blank. And Uchiha Saya—who had been watching him train the whole time—looked equally confused.
She recognized the newcomer immediately.
That was Hatake Kakashi.
Saya and Hikaru had been in the same class—and back then, they'd even been seatmates. Kakashi, the class celebrity, the absolute prodigy… there was no way anyone didn't know him.
Hikaru's old class had never been small. In truth, no class in Konoha's academy was small—there were just very few people whose names ever ended up in the village's "history."
In Hikaru's memory, Iruka's class in the canon era had been lively too—besides the "Nine," there had been a pile of nameless, faceless students. They all got assigned teams and graduated… they just didn't receive the same treatment.
Konoha's system, at its core, was an elite pipeline.
Even while still in school, students were filtered through tests to estimate talent—
and yes, family background mattered too.
Once those decisions were made, the "promising" children faced an extra hurdle: a final evaluation from their prospective jōnin leader.
But that evaluation wasn't primarily about strength.
Children from major clans—or those already on the leadership's radar—were usually far above fresh genin standards anyway. So that test was about temperament, mentality, and character.
Pass that, and you became a "seed"—a priority investment.
The kind of person likely to grow into the village's future core, maybe even its future power structure.
Meanwhile, students who seemed ordinary—or who came from civilian backgrounds—had it much harder.
Not "no chance," but a grim one.
Jōnin were scarce resources, and their careful mentoring didn't go to everyone.
For most teams, the leader's job was simply to get the new genin familiar with the basic rhythms of a shinobi life—process, protocols, routine missions—while quietly watching to see if they'd missed any hidden gems.
If they found one, they reported it upward.
If they didn't, the genin were left to drift.
In practice, nearly all civilian-born shinobi were cut away by that process.
And during wartime, it was worse—when the front demanded bodies, many didn't even get evaluated at all.
They were just sent out.
Hikaru remembered his class having more than fifty students.
But out of those fifty-plus, he only remembered a handful of names.
As for the rest… he didn't know.
Dead, maybe.
Or alive, but invisible—washed out beneath the glare of people like Naruto and the others.
Except for Saya.
Her future, at least, was easy to guess…
"Captain?"
Saya stared at Kakashi, genuinely puzzled. His appearance here alone was surprising—she'd heard things, like everyone had.
Something horrible had happened to him. Anyone would break under that.
People said Kakashi was like ice now—so cold it was hard to believe. That nobody could reach him, not even old friends.
But the Kakashi in front of her didn't match that rumor.
And the strangest part was this:
He'd called Hikaru "Captain."
Kakashi was supposed to be a prodigy. He'd graduated at five or six and gone to war. He'd been a jōnin ridiculously young.
Someone like that—proud, sharp, untouchable—why would he speak like this?
If Kakashi had a "Captain," wouldn't it be… their old captain?
The Fourth Hokage?
Saya's thoughts tangled tighter and tighter.
Even Kakashi seemed to realize the situation was awkward. He fell silent for a beat.
"Morning, Kakashi," Hikaru said with a resigned smile, smoothing it over. "It's rare to see you at a training ground. That's unusual."
"Cap—… Hikaru. Morning." Kakashi still sounded a little uncomfortable saying his name directly, but he got to the point fast. "It's the Hokage. He wants to see you."
"The Hokage?" Hikaru froze. Saya froze too.
The Hokage wanted to see Hikaru?
Saya's expression grew even stranger. She couldn't make sense of it.
Was Hikaru not "just an ordinary shinobi" at all?
Had he built up a record so impressive that even a genius like Kakashi acknowledged him?
Saya spiraled into speculation.
Meanwhile, Hikaru's face quickly returned to a soft smile.
So his earlier efforts—especially what he'd done for Kakashi—were paying off.
He didn't yet know what Minato would say or do when they met, but he knew one thing:
This wasn't likely to be bad.
He nodded seriously. "Understood. Should we go now?"
Kakashi shook his head immediately. "No. Sensei said… in two days."
"In two days…" Hikaru thought for a moment—then understood.
Two days later, his leave would be over.
As Hokage, Minato couldn't just strip a subordinate's rest—especially not an ANBU break, which was rare and precious.
Once he recognized that, Hikaru forcibly cooled his own impatience.
They'd run into Root just last night.
If he sprinted straight to the Hokage immediately after that, it could invite complications.
Hikaru mentally checked himself.
He really had been swept up by the Flying Thunder God.
The power he currently held was already "good" by normal standards.
But among high-tier threats, it still wasn't enough.
And with his chakra limitation, he desperately wanted a technique that could keep him alive.
Flying Thunder God was exactly that.
Of course his mindset had started to tilt.
Of course he'd gotten eager.
"…Yeah," he admitted inwardly. "I'm rushing."
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