"Your jōnin leader isn't here?"
"Ah..."
"We were waiting at the assigned point like we were told. Once we spotted the enemy, we followed them here."
Unlike Obito, who was so flustered he could barely get the words out, Kakashi explained the situation calmly.
In other words, the three of them had originally stayed put where Minato told them to wait, but then Obito spotted a lone shinobi from another village passing by, shouted that they should take him down, and charged after him, only to run headfirst into six enemies.
Kakashi had managed to take out two of them, but with the enemy holding such a big numbers advantage, the situation had eventually turned into a full melee.
"Not bad. For now, head back to your standby point. Your jōnin leader is probably waiting for you," the squad captain said.
"Ahahaha... thank you. Really, thank you for saving us."
Obito laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head, trying to play it cool as he turned with Rin to leave, but stubborn as ever, Kakashi stayed rooted in place.
"You... Kuroshiro Byakuya?"
Kakashi looked straight at Byakuya and spoke without even trying to hide the hostility in his voice.
Byakuya, on the other hand, just felt awkward.
He did not want to admit it, but if he denied it, he had no idea how to explain himself either.
"...No."
"That's obviously you."
What is wrong with this guy?
Byakuya had planned to pretend not to know him and picked the denial option, only for Kakashi to shoot it down on the spot. All he could do was send him a look that clearly said, What exactly do you want from me?
Whether I'm Kuroshiro Byakuya or not, what's it to you?
"So you know each other. That makes things difficult."
The squad captain looked back and forth between Kakashi's group and Byakuya, scratching the back of his head.
First of all, Byakuya's placement in the ANBU was top secret. If that got out, the consequences would be a mess.
After thinking it over, the captain turned to Byakuya with an awkward look.
"You head out first."
Byakuya shot the captain, the one responsible for this entire circus, an irritated glare, said nothing, and vanished on the spot.
Kakashi's eyes followed Byakuya as he disappeared instantly. Even his presence vanished completely, and that made Kakashi's brow furrow.
Now that he had already become a jōnin, Kakashi had thought that even if he could not keep up, he would at least be able to sense something of the other boy's presence. But now he could not catch even the slightest trace.
What bothered him even more was that strange sword that passed straight through the enemy's blade. What exactly was that thing?
"Hm... first of all, this is classified, so you'll all have to keep quiet about it. Now then, how do I handle this..."
The squad captain could not think of a good solution, so in the end he simply walked over to the tense Obito, raised a hand, and ruffled his hair.
"Think of it as the price for me saving you. Can you keep this to yourselves?"
"Ah... yeah. I mean, we really were saved."
Obito, who had clearly been bracing himself for something else, relaxed at once and nodded, though not very enthusiastically.
He had no idea why it needed to be secret, but if the man said it was classified, he had no intention of digging any deeper.
"Then that settles it. All right, hurry back to your standby point. Your instructor's probably getting worried."
"...Understood. Thank you very much for stepping in."
Rin bowed politely, then grabbed the completely unmoving Kakashi and Obito and pulled them away.
She knew perfectly well that getting dragged into something like this for no reason would only bring trouble.
"By the way, why is it classified?"
"You gain nothing from knowing too much about the ANBU. Minato-sensei is waiting for us, so let's go."
"Rin, aren't you curious?"
"I am, but they already told us not to ask. That means we shouldn't ask."
As Rin pulled him along, Obito spent half the walk making guesses in his head, but none of them led anywhere.
Then, at last, Kakashi spoke.
"He killed civilians. That's why he can't move around openly as a shinobi."
"Ah, yeah, I guess that makes sense?"
Obito clapped his hands and nodded, finding Kakashi's explanation fairly convincing.
But Rin remembered the look in Byakuya's eyes when he saved her and shook her head.
"Kurenai told me he had to have his reasons. If it's classified, then there must be something going on that we don't know."
"Who knows. Maybe he really is that kind of person. Or maybe he does have a reason."
Why did Kakashi have such a bias against that guy named Byakuya?
Rin shot Kakashi a displeased glance and spoke firmly.
"Either way, he did save us. Could you at least show a little respect? Honestly..."
"Forget that. What was up with his sword? It just passed straight through the enemy's blade. How does that even work? They were clearly blocking, and it still went right through and stabbed them. That was incredible."
"Yeah, I think it had something to do with the markings carved into the blade, kind of like the formula on Minato-sensei's kunai."
By the time they reached the standby point, Obito was still talking about it, enthusiastically mimicking Byakuya's sword swing while nodding at Rin's explanation.
Now that she mentioned it, it really did seem similar to the formula on Minato's kunai.
"Do you think it's some kind of space-time ninjutsu?"
"Oh, that's so cool!"
Muttering to himself that maybe he could learn it too, Obito pulled out a kunai and started waving it around in a clumsy imitation of Byakuya's movements.
Rin laughed at how little it resembled the real thing, then turned to look at Kakashi, who had been unusually quiet all day.
"Kakashi? What's wrong?"
"...Nothing."
Kakashi, who had still been thinking about Byakuya, shook his head and forced the thought away.
---
News spread through the village that the war was finally about to end.
Byakuya felt nothing in particular.
Was he supposed to be happy about that?
He certainly did not think there was much to celebrate, but the village threw itself into a huge festival anyway.
And the one person who looked completely out of place in all that noise was Byakuya.
He was probably the village's officially recognized outsider.
"You're not going out to join the fun?"
"...No interest."
Byakuya turned his head at the voice and answered. At the moment, he was standing guard for the Hokage, looking down over the lively village from the office.
Part of him thought it was ridiculous that the Hokage was still working on a day like this, but then again, he himself was on duty too.
For all he knew, the only reason he was stuck working was because the Hokage refused to take a break.
"You've gotten pretty good with that space-time ninjutsu of yours. That isn't the sort of thing you learn just by reading a scroll."
"..."
Byakuya said nothing.
"I'll be retiring soon. Once the Fourth Hokage takes over, I doubt we'll have many chances to talk anymore."
Was that supposed to mean he regretted not being able to see him again?
Byakuya nodded and put on just the right amount of reluctant expression.
In reality, the Fourth would die not long after taking office, and the Third would return soon enough, so whether he wanted to or not, they were bound to meet again.
"Your talent is unusual. There probably aren't many your age who could beat you."
"...Ah. Thank you."
A compliment? Out of nowhere?
That strange praise only made Byakuya feel more uncomfortable.
Inside, he thought, This old man can't be going soft in the head just because he's about to retire, can he?
"So, what do you think? Want to learn ninjutsu directly from me? Once I retire, I'll have plenty of time. Whenever you want to train, I can teach you."