[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Konoha, 44.
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...
"Let's see what it's like to have such amazing people on a team!" one of the girls said, looking at Rin expectantly, while the others nodded as well, all eager to gossip, something they hadn't done since graduating from the Academy and finally taking some time to chat.
"Well... I can't really complain, right?" Rin said awkwardly.
What else could she say? They had already taken on lower-rank missions at the beginning, but in ways far more hellish than they had ever expected. Even the higher-rank missions they had gone through afterward seemed easy compared to those cattle-herding and weed-pulling tasks. They had even gone on an SS-rank mission, one they were forbidden to talk about. Even if all she had to do was wait for Minato-sensei and Hanabi-sama to wipe out the Kage.
They had also faced countless dangers, visited many places, and trained relentlessly under the guidance of Minato-sensei and his wives.
She also had incredible people by her side: Obito and Kakashi.
Even though she felt a little inferior to them in terms of strength, and that gap kept growing wider, she couldn't complain and was proud of the strength they were gaining. After all, she was training as well, learning new jutsu, and had already taken lives, proving that she could be strong too, even if she wasn't on the same level as her two teammates.
Even so, she had her own pace, and both her teacher and her teammates respected that.
Their teamwork had been a disaster at first. The bell test had been catastrophic. None of them had truly known how to deal with it. Only after their teacher explained the team's strengths and weaknesses, making it clear that he expected them to work together, did they finally manage to satisfy him enough to pass.
Their teacher had also explained that he had taken that very same test with Jiraiya-sama. Sensei, Mikoto-sama, and Hanabi-sama had all gone through the same trial.
Minato had figured it out immediately back then and found a way for them to fight together, first getting around the requirement that they had to eat something, a condition that hadn't existed during Rin's team's test because Minato-sensei considered it unfair.
Even so, their teamwork training only truly progressed after that, as they fought more and more in sync with one another. She still remembered vividly that, during the last mission before they fully began their training, Obito had saved her life, and that was when he awakened the Sharingan.
She believed that, alongside her friends, she could become stronger. And she was. Even so, she kept telling herself that the gap between them was only growing wider.
To the girls around her, they were still just genin. They had no idea what kind of training they had been going through over the past few months.
The chakra storage seal now gave her an amount of chakra comparable to that of an elite jonin, and her strength could already be compared to that of a lower-ranked jonin, even if her raw power was still far below Obito's and Kakashi's.
"Of course she must be feeling amazing. Maybe in a year or two, she'll already become a chūnin!" one of her friends said, making the others let out envious sighs.
They had no idea how strong Rin had become. She alone now possessed dozens of times more chakra than all of them combined, along with an arsenal of Eagle Style jutsu and medical ninjutsu.
"Well, with Minato-sama as her teacher, you can't expect anything less. Do you think she'll become as strong as his wives?"
That prompted another round of jealous groans. After all, every woman around Minato-sama was extraordinarily powerful.
"And there's Kakashi too..." one of them immediately added.
That caused a stir among all of them. Their eyes filled with heart shapes.
"It must be incredible being on the same team as the most popular boy in the Academy and your teacher being the strongest man in the world. Do you think Kakashi will be the one to inherit Minato-sama's abilities!?" one of them commented.
Rin certainly didn't agree with that. Not when their teacher was now paying more attention to Obito than to the rest of them.
Over the past month, Obito had been undergoing special training. Even Kakashi seemed a little bothered by it. No one knew exactly what it involved, and Obito wasn't saying much either. Rin couldn't exactly demand answers.
Thinking about it, she suddenly couldn't help but notice how close they had once been. They had been almost like siblings. But over the past two months, perhaps because of the training—she really didn't know—Obito had been growing distant.
He was no longer that goofy boy who always made her laugh with his antics. Now he showed a certain maturity, but he also carried a sadness Rin couldn't understand.
"The only problem must be that Obito..." the girls continued talking. Lost in her thoughts, Rin blinked when she heard their dissatisfied groans.
"Wait, what are you talking about? Obito is very capable!" Rin immediately defended her friend.
"Capable? I don't even know why he's on the same team as Kakashi and with Minato-sama! It doesn't make any sense," another girl said, crossing her arms.
Rin was left speechless.
Obito shouldn't be on the team?
In the most recent sparring matches she had seen between him and Kakashi, Kakashi himself seemed frustrated by how much Obito's strength had grown, to the point that even he couldn't believe it.
Ever since awakening the Sharingan, and now having had two tomoe for months, Kakashi had been struggling in every sparring match against Obito. Although he still came out on top, anyone watching their fights could tell that Obito was already able to match him blow for blow at many points.
And now he was receiving secret training directly from Minato-sensei.
While she and Kakashi were training their chakra nature and learning to unleash their power through taijutsu and kenjutsu, Obito was probably already stronger than Kakashi by now.
She felt proud, but at the same time sad, because she felt that they no longer shared the same enthusiasm they once had.
Maybe he had simply become more serious now. She couldn't blame him. Could she?
"I guess it makes sense. The most talented student paired with the worst one in the class. Not even his own clan likes him," the others replied with malicious tones, ignoring her earlier protest.
Rin, who had been listening to all of it, couldn't take it anymore. She had been caught off guard, but now she couldn't tolerate such cruel comments about her precious teammate.
Hadn't Obito saved her not long ago? Couldn't they see how strong he was becoming? Hadn't he himself declared that he would become Hokage one day?
Because she could see that in him.
"Stop it!" she said. "Obito is a precious teammate. I won't let you speak badly about him. Otherwise, I'm leaving!"
She was now furious, and the girls looked quite surprised, exchanging glances with one another.
"Alright, alright..." they finally said. "We figured you'd defend him. We knew you'd do that..."
"I'm not joking!" she shot back, growing even more irritated when she realized they didn't believe her.
"I'd even say Sensei's favorite student is Obito himself. I'm sure of it! Kushina-sama's favorite too. She absolutely adores him. Besides, Obito is incredibly powerful right now! Everyone recognizes that!" She wanted to throw it in their faces that Obito could be just as talented as Kakashi.
The girls looked a little surprised by her outburst, but they soon smiled. "Calm down, Rin, we believe you, Rin. We're just a little surprised," one of them said. She clearly wasn't being serious again.
Rin couldn't help but huff.
"She's always been his friend."
"But let's be honest. I know you only help him because you feel sorry for him."
"That's not true!" Rin immediately denied. Why couldn't they see something so simple or believe her words...?
"I know he's your friend, Rin. So we'd better not speak badly about him in front of you. But let's be honest, Kakashi is way cooler, more handsome, stronger, and more popular. And we all know you've always had a little crush on him," they said, making Rin blush instantly as her anger vanished.
Could she deny it? Could she deny that, deep down, she had a crush on Kakashi?
At that exact moment, someone walked behind her.
Her friends didn't even notice, nor did they seem to pay any attention as they started laughing.
"Look at her! She's blushing all over! She likes Kakashi!" they shouted with the unmistakable squeals girls made whenever they stumbled upon juicy gossip.
"That's not it!" Rin exclaimed, still completely red.
She immediately turned her gaze to the other side of the street, but she didn't see anyone in particular, despite having sensed a familiar presence.
"Maybe I'm just imagining it..." Rin murmured, while her friends continued ignoring her words and went back to gossiping.
'I don't know why, but I feel like my heart is breaking...' a thought surfaced in her mind as she listened to her friends gossip.
...
Naruto had also taken his day off. He decided to spend it strolling around the village.
He headed straight to Ichiraku Ramen, where Teuchi greeted him. Naruto was already a regular customer there. His mother took him to the restaurant at least once a week so they could eat together, and sometimes his father joined them as well whenever he was free.
Teuchi mentioned that Obito and the three Uzumaki students under Miss Hanabi had stopped by together and eaten there some time earlier.
Hearing that, Naruto's overactive mind wandered somewhere on its own... It suddenly made him realize that there was indeed a Hanabi in this world, but not one from his father's generation. In fact, she looked exactly like Hinata Hyuga's younger sister, with the very same name, making him think that this world could still surprise him even after he believed he had already seen everything.
After all, people were being born at points in time completely outside the scope of his knowledge, just as several events had unfolded differently, according to everything his parents had told him since he had arrived in this world.
After leaving Ichiraku Ramen, he wandered through the village a little longer. He spotted the three Uzumakis heading toward the village gate, then began moving across the rooftops until he found little Obito walking by himself.
He also noticed little Rin at an ice cream shop. Curious, he decided to watch their encounter and hid himself in a concealed spot. Around one of his ears, a layer of golden chakra began to emerge until it formed a fox ear.
It was a trick he had learned from his mother to enhance his senses. Since foxes naturally possessed keen hearing and an exceptional sense of smell, he could replicate those traits by concentrating his chakra in either his nose or his ears.
But what he heard displeased him greatly. I mean... how was he supposed to listen to a bunch of girls, no older than eleven, gossiping like that?
They reminded him so much of the girls back at the Academy whenever Sasuke was around, behaving in exactly the same way.
Fan girls... The very thought sent chills down Naruto's spine, and he was surprised that Kakashi-sensei was basically this world's version of Sasuke.
Up until then, Naruto had simply observed the scene. But when they started talking about Rin's crush, he couldn't help feeling a wave of nostalgia, especially when he noticed Obito flinch slightly as he walked right past them, his head lowered until he disappeared from sight.
That made Naruto think back to the conversations he had shared with Minato. Conversations he had never been able to have before: a father teaching his son how to deal with girls the way only a man could.
After all, he should have let Sakura go and moved on with his life, but his father had explained it in a way no one else ever could.
He wished with all his heart that he had been able to experience that back then. If he had, maybe he would have handled all those situations much better.
Now he could see Kakashi-sensei's Team Seven living through a love triangle of their own, just as it had happened with him, Sakura, and Sasuke.
Despite not seeming nearly as chaotic as it had been for them.
Obito also didn't seem nearly as foolish as Naruto himself had once been. After all, until just a few months ago, Naruto still harbored feelings for Sakura-chan. But after everything his father had told him—things that had completely shaken his views on girls and relationships—Naruto began to mature.
Now, watching that scene, he saw a small reflection of something very similar to what had happened with his old team.
He also realized just how foolish he himself had been back then.
So he decided to go where Obito was. He would certainly need a few words.
Naruto was sure his father had already talked to him about things like this. After all, his father managed to maintain a relationship with four wives who possessed enough power to destroy the Hidden Leaf Village in a fit of rage at the slightest display of jealousy. Even so, he managed to keep everything balanced and live a family life with all of them, founded on loyalty and respect.
Minato had shared his belief that those were foundations even more important than love itself within a relationship, because love could not exist without those two pillars.
In truth, love was rebuilt upon them.
He said that, in the beginning, what existed between them had only been passion. The girls felt envy, jealousy, and insecurity toward one another, but they overcame all of that through the sacrifices Minato made and the sacrifices they made for him. That was how love was born.
Even so, Minato always insisted that loyalty and respect were still more important than love itself when it came to sustaining their marriage.
Naruto leaped across the rooftops. He followed until he found Obito standing atop the head of the Second Hokage's statue.
Obito looked at him the moment he arrived, but soon turned his face away again, staring at the setting sun on the horizon.
There were tears in his eyes.
"Hello," Naruto said.
"Hey... What are you doing here?" Obito asked, cursing himself for not noticing Naruto's approach sooner as he discreetly wiped away a few tears.
"I heard everything that happened... I thought maybe we could talk," Naruto said quietly, while Obito stared at him in surprise.
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