"Move out."
Byakuya tucked the scroll safely inside his vest and turned to leave.
He had already decided that if anyone failed to keep up, he would leave them behind without a second thought, so he immediately took off toward the village outskirts at full speed.
The problem was, someone actually did fall behind.
"Hah... hah..."
"Pathetic."
Looking at the group sprawled on the ground, all of them looking like they had barely managed to catch up, Byakuya gave them a simple evaluation in his head.
Were these people really shinobi? With stamina like this, how were they supposed to fight, let alone stay standing on two legs? It was absurd.
With mild interest, Byakuya looked over the three who were still standing, Kakashi included, then turned away.
"Anyone who falls behind gets left there. We keep running straight out of the village without stopping."
"W-wait! You're saying we just leave them? No matter what, they're on the same squad. That's way too harsh!"
The oldest ANBU, who at least had managed to keep up, stepped forward and challenged him.
That made twice now.
Byakuya fixed him with a cold stare and silently decided that if there was a third time, he would remove the man from the squad permanently.
Then he said, "We're moving."
"I'm not going. We wait until the others catch up."
"...Fine."
"Huh?"
Come to think of it, there was still a jutsu scroll he had not finished reading.
Byakuya suddenly remembered. Since waiting was waiting either way, he pulled the scroll out.
"Then we wait."
With that, he found a place to sit and started reading as if none of this had anything to do with him.
The ANBU clearly had not expected him to agree so easily. He froze for a moment, then nodded and stepped back.
"If they're not here in ten minutes, we leave them."
That was already an unusually generous warning from Byakuya, and the older ANBU quickly nodded, apparently convinced the others would make it within ten minutes.
Fortunately, it was not long before the two who had fallen behind found the route and caught up.
Byakuya closed the scroll, stood, and started moving again.
What came next was a long haul that depended mostly on endurance, so he adjusted his pace a little to match the squad's stamina.
The village border covered too much ground. Patrolling it all together would be inefficient. The best option was to split into teams.
"Two-man teams. Patrol the marked sectors on the map. If you notice anything unusual, report to my location immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
"Dismissed."
It had been a while since he had heard an answer that crisp.
Watching everyone scatter, Byakuya turned to Kakashi, who had stayed behind, and jerked his hand in a short signal for him to follow.
Since Minato had asked him to look after the kid, keeping Kakashi close had its advantages.
Kakashi's ability was beyond question. If something came up that required real effort, Byakuya could just use him the way their former captain used to use him.
"Why me?" Kakashi asked in a low voice.
Was this brat trying insubordination too?
Judging by the tone, he sounded like he was demanding to know why he had been paired with him specifically, and Byakuya paused for a second.
Why else? Because when it comes time to actually fight, I can dump all the work on you and coast.
"Because you're the strongest one here."
Byakuya threw out the answer and turned away.
He could feel Kakashi staring at him in surprise, but all Byakuya did was beckon once for him to hurry up, then lengthen his stride.
---
When two quiet people stuck together, the silence around them felt almost painfully empty.
If this had been their old captain, he would probably have been chattering about side dishes for dinner a month from now, and for some reason that thought left Byakuya feeling oddly hollow.
They were going to be working together from now on anyway, so a conversation this small should have been fine, right?
With that excuse in mind, Byakuya cautiously spoke first.
"What are you eating tonight?"
"?... I'm planning to skip dinner."
I see.
Byakuya gave a small nod, and the silence afterward only grew heavier.
Doing something he normally never would left him feeling strangely awkward.
More than that, skipping dinner at an age when the body was still growing was a terrible habit.
Not that Byakuya planned to lecture the idiot who insisted on starving himself, but he could not help feeling a little bothered by it.
More importantly, what was he supposed to do about his own dinner tonight?
Whoooosh!!
"What was that?"
A sharp sound split the air somewhere in the distance, and a red flare shot upward into the sky.
The signal came from the same area Byakuya's squad had been through earlier.
Normally, a shinobi would never use a flare.
It was basically the same as revealing your position to every enemy around. Outside of sailors at sea, no one carried signal flares.
That meant one of two things: either it was a trap, or it was a signal launched by the enemy.
Byakuya glanced sideways at Kakashi. The boy's eyes were fixed hard on the flare.
Byakuya gave him a look signaling that they were moving, then turned away.
Right.
The warning suddenly rang through his head the instant they neared the source of the flare.
Byakuya drew his sword and slashed hard to the right.
"Gah!"
"Damn it! How did he...?!"
Enemies who had been hidden like transparent water all around them suddenly appeared one after another, surrounding Kakashi and Byakuya completely.
Byakuya flicked the blood from his blade and counted them at a glance.
Six?
"Kakashi."
"Yes."
"Go on. You've got this."
"Huh?"
Yeah, I mean you fight them, idiot.
Byakuya gestured impatiently with his eyes for him to stop standing there and get moving, then tilted his chin toward the enemy.
The meaning was pretty clear: Six of them lined up neatly and delivered right to you. Why aren't you already cutting them down?
Thinking that, he sheathed his sword.
Kakashi saw at once that Byakuya genuinely had no intention of helping. He frowned, then chakra crackled into lightning in his palm as he charged the enemy at full speed.
Taking it easy really is the best.
Byakuya pulled out a jutsu scroll from inside his vest and started flipping through it while he waited for Kakashi to finish dealing with them.
It took a little while, but Kakashi managed all six in the end.
Thirty minutes later, Kakashi came trudging back, breathing hard. "You seriously weren't planning to help me?"
"Smell."
"Huh?"
Byakuya ignored the accusation in Kakashi's voice and simply took a deep breath through his nose.
"There's no trace of gunpowder in the air here. A flare is basically just a block of explosive powder. Once it fires, there should be a smell. But there's nothing. That doesn't add up. Which means the person who launched it isn't here anymore. Someone's probably already dead."
Seeing that flare, any squad member nearby might have rushed over here.
He had not wanted to lose anyone on the first day, and now the thought sat heavily in his chest.
Byakuya shoved the jutsu scroll back into his vest and turned to leave.
"Wait! What are you talking about? What smell? What do you mean someone's dead?"
Is this kid an idiot?