Kakashi returned home in silence.
The house was empty, as always. He let out a quiet sigh—but after so many years of coming and going alone, he'd long since gotten used to it.
He shut the door, dropped onto the floor, and a pained expression crept across his face.
"—Tch… that hurts!"
He squinted and rubbed his shoulder. It truly ached like hell.
Hikaru had made him pay.
Even though it was only sparring, once they really got going, neither of them could fully hold back. They'd restrained themselves—no reckless, high-lethality techniques—but they'd still used ninjutsu.
Kakashi already knew Hikaru could use Water Style. He'd seen it on the mission: terrifying, almost like something inherited from the Second Hokage's school of water techniques.
That part wasn't shocking. The Second Hokage's jutsu had spread widely over the years, and Hikaru was an ANBU squad leader—having access to those techniques made sense.
What caught Kakashi off guard… was Earth Style.
He had to admit it: his former classmate—his current captain—was more gifted than he'd realized, and frankly, more dangerous than most people would ever imagine.
Most shinobi were born with affinity for only one chakra nature. Anything beyond that usually came from hard training.
But some people were born with two—sometimes even more.
Those people were called geniuses.
Kakashi himself was born with two: Lightning and Earth.
During their mission together, he'd only seen Hikaru use Water Style. And by reputation, Hikaru had been "unremarkable" back in the Academy.
So Kakashi had assumed Hikaru was a single-nature type. He hadn't been cautious at all about Earth Style.
Looks like everyone underestimated the captain.
Once the shoulder pain dulled a little, Kakashi exhaled again, equal parts frustrated and impressed.
Hikaru didn't just hit hard—his tactics were slippery and unpredictable.
Thinking back to the fight, it looked like Hikaru had used the Head Hunter Technique and hidden underground.
But Kakashi only realized afterward: the "underground Hikaru" had been a shadow clone.
During the moment Kakashi raised his Earth Wall to block, Hikaru had already created a clone—then his true body vanished entirely.
A clean distraction.
Kakashi's attention was pulled toward the chakra underfoot… and then the real strike came from behind.
"The Sharingan helped early on—when it was just taijutsu and ninjutsu trading," Kakashi muttered. "After that… he basically shut it down."
The more he replayed the battle, the more obvious it became: Hikaru's offense had a consistent purpose.
From start to finish, it felt like he was fighting around Kakashi's Sharingan—pressing its weak points, forcing Kakashi into timing windows where prediction didn't matter.
And since Kakashi still wasn't fully accustomed to using the Sharingan, he'd been dragged into Hikaru's tempo almost immediately.
At that point, losing had been inevitable.
"Was he really… fighting the Sharingan specifically?" Kakashi wondered.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with a satisfying explanation.
In the end, he filed it away as: an extremely successful series of improvisations. Nothing more.
After all, from Kakashi's perspective, Hikaru seemed to have a decent relationship with the Uchiha.
That girl—Uchiha Saya—had watched the entire spar from the side. She clearly knew Hikaru well.
And Kakashi's suspicion had been right: Saya, Hikaru, and Kakashi had all been classmates once.
More than that—Saya had apparently been Hikaru's seatmate back then.
"Academy classmates…" Kakashi murmured.
His shoulder wasn't hurting as much now. He lay back on the tatami, staring up at nothing.
He remembered that short time in the Academy—barely a year, honestly more like a few months.
And for the first time in a long while, he felt it clearly:
He'd been trapped in grief for too long.
He'd missed so many things worth cherishing—worth remembering.
Obito. Rin. Guy. Hikaru…
Kakashi took a deep breath.
He'd already lost too much.
And only after losing it did he understand how precious it had all been—which made the ache in his chest even worse.
"Maybe failure really is the main theme of life," he whispered. "But I don't want to keep failing."
"Obito… Rin… I'll listen to Hikaru. I'll carry your will—and I'll live on."
Saya returned home alone, her mind still spinning.
She truly hadn't expected it.
Her childhood seatmate—the civilian-born boy who'd been sent to the battlefield at around eight, the one who'd left such a strong impression on her—was that powerful now.
Five or six years ago, when Hikaru left the Academy, Saya had been genuinely heartbroken.
War was waiting.
And someone like Hikaru—someone without a clan behind him—shouldn't have been able to survive it.
She'd had no way to help him. She'd grieved for a long time.
But the frontlines gradually improved. Classmates passed back scraps of news.
That was how she learned Hikaru was still alive.
Time moved on.
When she graduated, she went to the Uzushio front with the Uchiha.
By then, Hikaru's face wasn't clear in her mind anymore. Five years was a long time, and they'd all grown up.
What remained was simple: white hair—like Kakashi's, like fresh snow.
His features blurred.
But the name Senju Hikaru stayed carved into her memory.
After the war ended and she returned to the village, she still couldn't find him.
Maybe he was too busy. Maybe he was always on missions. Maybe he'd been assigned somewhere else entirely.
She didn't know.
She could only piece together his situation through what others said.
And then today—
The Uchiha training grounds had been occupied early, forcing her to train in the village instead.
That single choice led her to meet Hikaru again.
And to witness, firsthand, just how terrifying he'd become.
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