Curse of Ice (Part 3)

***Abe POV***

Despite uncertain fates lurking in the future for Hayase, his academy life proceeded normally. Following the foreboding meeting with Danzo and the Hokage, Dean Sarutobi met with Abe so that he might begin preparing Hayase for the worst-case scenario.

"Abe, war preparations are looking more desperate than I had hoped... Although nothing has been decided, I need you to be aware that Hayase's early graduation is on the table. From my meeting, it is clear that certain 'covert' services within Konoha's forces think he might be 'useful.' If it comes to that, the boy will need to be prepared. You'll need to prepare him," stated the Dean, speaking openly of one of Konoha's more poorly kept secrets.

"Sir, to be frank, this seems absurd... his water jutsu talents may be unique, but I hardly think that qualifies him for 'covert' activities' straight out of the academy," replied Abe, trying to catch up with Danzo's three-dimensional game of chess.

"Ah yes, on the surface, it does seem odd... however, his abilities - particularly, his ice, - most resemble the jutsu of Konoha's enemies. Do not forget the importance of 'being seen' during a mission, young Abe-san," replied Dean Sarutobi, "I've seen this with many students whose appearances match other village's clans..."

Reflecting on the Dean's conjecture, Abe found himself thinking, 'They plan on having Hayase imitate Yuki clan members... to stoke anger against Kiri?'

"Is that all they have planned for him?" mumbled the stunned sensei.

Laughing in response, the Dean grimly joked "Abe, I have no idea really that was the first idea that I had. Who knows how many plots those scheming bastards have already cooked up? Stop worrying about that and focus on getting him and his classmates ready! He's not the only one going to war soon! If the war effort doesn't turn around soon, Hayase might not be the only student facing early graduation."

Stiffing at the dean's words, Abe straightened his back and narrowed his eyes. 'All of them... they're far from ready. They're still squabbling over childish fights. How can we expect them to survive the trials of war?!?!' thought Abe.

***Hayase POV***

With a yawn, Hayase stretched as he pulled himself out of bed. Rolling out his shoulders, he could feel the tension in his back from his exercise with Guy the previous evening. Guy, the training maniac that he is, got the amazing idea of carrying rocks up the Hokage mountain before sparring.

In the absence of an alarm clock, Hayase had made the habit of sleeping without any curtains so that he was forced to wake up as soon as the sun rose in the morning. Although the academy didn't start for an hour or so, Hayase needed all of the time that he could get.

As he pulled together a simple breakfast of buttered toast with fried egg, Hayase found himself thinking, 'I barely have any free time anymore... between the academy, training with Guy, doing chakra control exercises, or meditating on my water sense at home, I never just sit around anymore.'

With pop the toast was ready and he slid the egg onto it, before sitting at his table. In the quiet of his humble apartment, he felt walls closing in on him and remembered why he didn't allow himself any free time... 'Even when I'm eating, I feel like I'm wasting precious time. If water bending practice didn't feel as therapeutic as does, I'm not sure I could keep this up much longer,' he thought to himself reminded of the almost spiritual comfort brought to him by water bending.

*Sigh* "I never worry about these things when I'm in class or training with Guy," muttered Hayase.

After finishing his breakfast, Hayase decided to head to the academy early so that he could use the clearing there to train. Throwing on a dark blue shirt and black pants, Hayase burst out his front and into his quasi-senile neighbor, Old man Sato.

"Up early today, kid?" said the old landlord.

"Yep, just off to get some morning training in before the academy starts. Let me know if you need any help with groceries later, you're getting too old to lug those around by yourself." teased Hayase before setting off.

Pausing to consider his mental health, Hayase decided he ought to change his pace somewhat this morning. The early morning beauty of Konoha was a sight to see at times if you knew the right route to take. Avoiding the bustle of shopowners getting ready to start their days and skirting the edge of the village, Hayase could see the change of the morning guard occurring. Squads of chunin and genins turned in from the night shift, bags under their eyes, but their senses still sharp.

Hayase had heard rumors about the night shift of the village guard. Some students thought it was a punishment. Others thought it was where the village put its least 'charming' shinobi to keep them from interacting with civilians. Whether there was any truth to those rumors, Hayase wasn't sure.

He did know, for sure, that night shift training was a crucial component of genin becoming used to sleep deprivation and that the hospital often ended up treating over-sleep-deprived genin who accidentally depleted their chakra in one way or another.

'Sleep-deprivation chakra control... just another thing to add to my list, I guess,' thought Hayase less than thrilled at the new addition, 'I wonder if alcohol could substitute for sleep deprivation for training... drunk driving has some similarities to sleep-deprived driving, would that transfer over to chakra control? Nah... nah... that sounds like a dumb idea.'

Setting aside his bizarre ideas for how to train, Hayase refocused on enjoying the morning air. With the sun still only barely in the sky. The air was still damp and refreshing on his skin. The narrow, but lightly paved path that he followed threaded through some of the smaller wooded areas within the village.

Although these areas weren't much, they became sites for children to play on as the day grew later like makeshift playgrounds for neighborhoods farther from the village center.

Areas like these had been Hayase's playground when he was at the orphanage. He liked the quiet that he each area brought to him now as he walked.

Feeling relaxed as he walked, Hayase resonated his chakra with the moisture that he felt heavy in the air. Without breaking his stride, he drew a small ball of water from the air that moved with his palms until steadied it in the air beside him. There, he spun it almost like he was tossing pizza dough into the air. Playfully as he walked, he let the spinning water spread out into a disk.

'This is why... this is why I like water bending, it really is like playing.' thought Hayase with a faint smile as he gaze at the blue sky. However, there was more to it than that... Although he might not admit it to himself, water bending let Hayase feel in control of his life in a way that he couldn't otherwise feel.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to end and so too did Hayase's playful training exercise with the morning air's water as he arrived at the academy. As he let the water evaporate, Hayase found himself sighing briefly before making his way into the academy. With the slower route that he had taken, some other early birds had also made their way to the academy clearing.

Propped up against a tree, Hana could be seen reading with a small leaf on her forehead. At the sight, Hayase found himself thinking, 'I guess I'm not the only creative one when it comes to chakra control...'

In her focused state, she didn't notice Hayase's arrival, which was fortunate for Hayase as he tended to prefer his quiet mornings.

Less fortunately for Hayase were the energetic first years that had taken to using the academy clearing as a playground before classes began. As a result, he found himself walking to the far side of the academy. Once there, he sat down and began practicing the nature change practice again.

On the previous day, he had only managed to produce small amounts of water, barely more than he sweats after a harsh workout.

'I wasted so much chakra last time, I just couldn't maintain the feeling long enough,' he thought to himself as he sat down again with his hands out.

Slowly molding the chakra in his palms as it flowed, Hayase attempted to grasp what it was that caused his water sense to react to his own chakra.

'It's weird, I normally control the water by resonating my chakra with water, but I don't understand why I can connect to it...' thought Hayase, before wondering, 'Could I be thinking about this the wrong way? Could I use my resonance with water to make it easier for my chakra to become water? Or maybe resonating is just a key that I've been missing somehow?'

Taking a breath, Hayase bends a small amount of water from the air and concentrates on the feeling. He can feel all of his chakra resonating with it, even the chakra in his hands although less strong than the chakra at his center. Trying to split his attention to maintain his bending and mold the chakra quickly proved difficult. Although water bending had gotten much easier for Hayase, he still needed to focus.

Huffing at his failure, Hayase laid back and looked up at the sky, "doing two things at once is fucking tough..."

Remembering Hana's earlier display of multitasking, Hayase thought to himself, ' Dammit, I guess I need to get better at molding chakra dynamically first before I start experimenting with my crazy ideas.' As one of the most skilled civilians in chakra control, it perhaps isn't a surprise that she can handle one leaf while reading when she can normally many more.

Re-assuming his posture, he began practicing again. Moreover, after realizing how difficult it was to maintain the nature change as he brought the chakra to the surface of his palms, he decided to practice that as well.

Based on his water sense, he could tell that his chakra molding was highly inconsistent. Trying to shape the flowing chakra to resemble the movement of water similarly each time gave him mixed results. 'I'm doing the same thing, why is it so difficult? Sometimes it feels like my chakra is fighting against me,' thought Hayase.

Taking a breath, Hayase decided to take a more relaxed approach. 'Water is characterized by its flexibility, it can be soft and hard, fast and slow... maybe doing the same thing over and over is the wrong approach too. It only works sometimes so maybe I should mix up how I manipulate my chakra,' he thought with hopeful confidence.

Where before he had forced his chakra into a simple pattern of movement resembling a circle, he now tried to guide the chakra toward finding a simple flowing equilibrium that was similar to water. At first, it felt odd to partially release control, so to speak, of the chakra in his hands, but Hayase quickly began noticing the benefits.

Like a sculptor slowly revealing a work of art from marble, Hayase felt like he was slowly chipping away at the excess chakra movements that obscured the ability of his water sense to detect the water nature of his chakra.

Smoothing a rigid flow here and softening the sharp edges there. Soon, although still far from perfect, Hayase could feel a much more consistent resonance from his water sense. Feeling the joy at the success fall up in his chest, Hayase sends the chakra up through his hands and into his palms.

Looking down at the small handful of water, Hayase felt proud that he had managed to make more progress. 'It won't be much longer before sensei lets me learn water jutsu, I suppose,' Hayase found himself thinking, with mixed feelings: pride at his growth, but also fear at the prospect of re-attempting the jutsu that almost cost him his life.

Pulled from his thoughts, Hayase heard students beginning to make noise in the academy classrooms so he decided to wrap up his morning training. His class started with conditioning so he made his way over to the track where they would usually do endurance exercises.

Once he arrived, Hayase found himself greeted by the usual class 2B cliques. Luckily, it seemed that Abe-sensei wanted to waste no time this morning.

"Alright listen up! Before we get started, I had a small announcement! I've decided that this class could benefit from some additional survival training Don't think that I've not noticed the tensions between your groups. That's why this training will be special. In two weeks, we'll spend a couple of days in the woods becoming familiar with how to survive like you may need to on the front lines where enemies or traps could be lurking. Understood?" declared Abe-sensei to the small crowd of stunned students before ominously adding, "You'll all need to work together effectively if you hope to get through the nights relatively unscathed."

Their normal survival lessons never mentioned traps or lasted more than a few hours. The new training plan brought murmurs to the crowd. For the students at the center of the tensions, Hana and Reiji, this challenge brought them once again into the spotlight. Abe-sense had made it clear that this training was meant to resolve their class's feud, but neither side seemed likely to back down now. Only their sensei had any idea what was in store for them.

"Keep that warning in mind in these next couple of weeks! You all should make sure your survival skills are fresh. Now, let's get to conditioning! Today, I want to gauge everyone's endurance," said Abe-sensei earning him a groan because the students knew what was about to follow, "As such, each of you will be spending the 20 minutes running as many laps around the track as you can. Everyone line up!"

***About 19 Minutes Later***

By the end, most students were dragging their legs and only a few kept going at a steady pace. Neck and neck at the front were Hayase, Kojima, and Caito with Reiji and Hana trailing far behind. Although Hayase's strength was still far from catching up with Kojima, he was happy that his endurance was beginning to rival the other boy. Caito, on the other hand, relied on his mix of speed and endurance to chart a decent pace.

As Abe-sense began to count down the remaining minutes, their rivalry kept any of them from breaking too far ahead. With one minute remaining, both Hayase and Kojima burst out with their remaining strength. Putting in everything they had, Kojima pulled ahead. His longer strides gave him the edge as time closed out.

"Time!" shouted Abe-sensei, "Good job everyone, I can definitely see some marked improvement from earlier this year. If you all keep this up, you all may just be ready to be genin before you know it!"

In between panting, a few students managed to say, "Thank you sensei," before they headed inside for their next class session.

***History Class Session***

After starting class with a brief refresher on clan histories in the Warring States Period, Abe-Sensei went on to explain the role that clan feuds played once the Hidden Village system was adopted.

"After the rise of Hidden Villages, most clans were forced to either pursue their interests through a village or through a Daimyo. By allying with a village, clans were bound to fight in their wars, but villages were also supposed to defend clans and exact repayment for wrongdoing against clan members by other clans," lectured Abe. Although he knew that students might find this sort of lesson dense, he also felt that could be valuable in more ways than one for them to understand the importance of setting aside grudges.

Continuing, Abe stated, "After the warring states period, many clans had still unfulfilled grudges against other clans. For disputes between clans loyal to a village, the Kage could mediate and enforce an agreement. However, trouble began brewing when clans demanded revenge on clans loyal to other villages in return for their loyalty, and, with those tensions among other problems, the world saw the rise of the First Great Shinobi War. Do any of you remember what other big events preceded the First Great Shinobi War?"

At first, the class was silent. In their first year, they had learned about Konoha's experiences in the first shinobi war, but they mostly focused on basic details like who their enemies had been, not why the war had started.

In the back of the class, one of Hana's friends, a small girl named Mina, raised her small hand.

"Yes, Mina?"

"Um, Lord First Hokage tried to prevent the war from happening..." her soft voice echoed.

Happy to see a typically quiet student speaking up, Abe--sensei replied with a smile, "You're on the right track, Mina. Lord Hashirama knew that other villages feared his combined power with the patriarch of the Uchiha clan so he convened a summit of the Five Kage. At the summit, he tried to create a balance of power by distributing the tailed beasts to other villages. Unfortunately, following Lord First's passing many years later, the fragile balance was broken and we were dragged into war."

Like that, the remainder of the lesson when similarly until it was time for them to take a break before discussing chakra theory.

"Alright, everyone! I want you all back in your seats in five minutes, but there will be no bathroom breaks after that!" stated their sensei plainly.

On their sensei's cue, most students bounded up from their seats either to talk to friends or go to the bathroom.

Hayase, however, had a question burning inside him from the lesson, so he walked up to Abe-sensei's desk.

"Sensei, can I ask you a question?"

"Ah, Hayase, this is supposed to be my break too, ya know? but that's fine, go ahead..." he replied with a sigh.

"If Lord First could capture all of the tailed beasts, why didn't he just keep them for the Leaf village? Wouldn't we have been safer with the tailed beasts on our side?" asked Hayse.

It had always been something that he had wondered about having watched the series. Why make your enemies stronger? With the alliance between Konoha and Uzu, they should have been best positioned to take advantage of the tailed beasts as weapons of war. They could have dominated the battlefield.

"I had a similar question when I first learned about this history, do you want to know what my sensei told me?" replied Abe.

Seeing Hayase nod, Abe continued, "Well, he said that as powerful as the tailed beasts are, they're like ticking time bombs, especially without clans well suited to control them. Having all 9 tailed beasts could give us 9 S or A-rank shinobi, but it just as easily could lead to tragedy. The rare power of a tailed beast is nothing to take lightly."

"But couldn't Lord First easily control the tailed beasts? It wouldn't have been an issue while he was around," Hayase pressed.

"That's true, but how many shinobi since have been able to do the same? Handling only one tailed beast easily is already a Kage-level task, and even for Kage, it requires unique skills like lord first's wood release," Abe-sensei replied looking out the window, "When you go out to war, you'll often find yourself wondering if this all could have been prevented Hayase... I prefer to think that Lord First tried to make a bet on a better future, a bet that gave us more than twenty years of peace after the village was first founded."

'Twenty years of peace... Huh I never looked at it that way,' thought Hayase, 'And it all unraveled with Hashirama's death, he was the linchpin holding the whole system in place.' It was moments like these where Hayase's lived experience in the shinobi world seemed at odds with the anime's portrayal of the world. Or at the very least, it felt like so many details were missing.

"Thank you sensei, I'll have to think about this more..." he finally said in response to his sensei's answer.

"Yes, yes, now go enjoy your break"

***Hayase's Notes from the Day***

Class: Shinobi Basics

- Today's lesson was on military movement and coordination tactics. Abe-sensei told us all about the importance of maximum efficiency in our movements when on missions.

- According to Abe-sensei, for highly sensitive missions, we may be instructed to take more roundabout routes to avoid detection.

- However, most missions prioritize speed of completion as the top priority.

- In wartime, new genin were most likely to be picked off when they broke off from the pre-planned battle plans. "DON'T BE AN IDIOT! STICK TO THE PLAN!" - Abe-sensei's words

Reflections on Taijutsu Spars:

- Sparred against Caito again today, he caught me off guard with an elbow to the ribs today!

- I'm too used to sparing Guy who mainly relies on punches and kicks. I need to talk to him about mixing it up more so I can practice against other types of attacks.

[AN: I'm trying to find the right balance of detail without skipping too much, what do you think about me using the notes? Should I keep doing this?]

***End Notes ***

After eating the small lunch that he had packed from home, Hayase leaned back at his desk and thought back to his morning's success with the natural transformation, 'I'll need to keep working on it, but it feels good to be making progress.'

In fact, he was excited to show his sensei how much he had improved even from the prior day. Thinking back to the minuscule amount of water that he had produced before, he almost felt embarrassed at his prior self's excitement.

As the lunch period came to a close and students filed out to their respective electives leaving Hayase and Abe alone, Hayase waited for Abe to stand and signal that it was time for them to head to their typical spot for practice. Instead, Abe-sensei sat with his eyes closed barely seeming to be breathing.

A strange atmosphere overtook the room as Hayase awaited Abe's movement. A sense of anxiety crept into the edges of his mind at seeing his teacher sit so still. He half-wondered if he might be in a genjutsu, but his chakra didn't give him any indication of tampering.

After what could have been one minute or ten, Abe-sensei cracked open his eyes slowly, almost painfully. His eyes were already locked on Hayase. Taking a deep breath, he spoke, "Hayase, there are ongoing discussions which you need to be aware of... Because of your particularly unusual abilities, village higher-ups are debating whether to have you graduate early and what your role after a specific role after graduation will be. Nothing is certain for now, but, as your sensei, I wanted you to be prepared for what is to come whatever that may be."

Almost as soon as Abe began speaking, Hayase's heart dropped into his stomach. The thought of the people like Danzo watching his growth sent chills down his spine. He had known the risks of openly using his water bending, but a part of him had hoped that the village would think water bending was unremarkable compared to the many other kekkei genkai of the shinobi world.

Still shaken by the news, Hayase gathered himself as best he could and asked, "Sensei, what would I be expected to do after graduating?"

"I'm not certain... From the Dean's conjecture, he suspects you may be expected to play a covert role in imitating Ice-style jutsu of the Yuki clan to stir up trouble for Kiri. However, young Hayase, I don't know if you'll be placed on a normal genin team or not at this point. The Dean and I are advocating for you to still be placed on a normal genin team that assists on particular covert missions as the need arises, but certain village higher-ups would rather induct you directly into covert teams," replied Abe-sensei trying, but failing, to assuage some of Hayase's fears.

"Isn't there anything that I can do to sway their decisions on this?" Hayase asked

"Hayase, I'm sorry, but the most important thing that you can do is be prepared... If you are going to be sent to battle after this year, you'll need to master your abilities at an even faster rate than you've been doing so far!" said Abe, "As a future shinobi of leaf, this is a burden that you must learn to bear... Sometimes, we are called upon to take on missions beyond our current abilities and we must rise to the occasion!"

"Sensei..." muttered Hayase as he found himself wondering how he could somehow improve even fast, 'I'm already reaching my limit as is! This is getting unreasonable!' Exasperated and overwhelmed, Hayase placed his head in his hands and rubbed his face to try and wake up from this bad dream to no avail.

"I don't think I can improve any faster! I'm already training pretty much all day! What more do you expect me to do!" said Hayase, the more he spoke, the more anger slipped into his voice, "What am I supposed to start picking fights with genin for combat experience or something? Am I supposed to stop sleeping and train nonstop? Maybe they're right and I should just stop coming to the academy and train on my own, would that be better?"

Rage boiled up in his chest. Hayase hadn't felt this angry since he had learned water bending. He knew that Abe-sensei was trying to look out for him, but the message was too much to take! He had already worked so hard just to be ready in time for his normal graduation, but now he was supposed to be prepared for 'covert' missions which he suspected meant either working with or being part of Danzo's root.

Interrupting Hayase's rant before he could say something that he might regret, Abe calmly said, "Kid, this isn't about working harder necessarily. It's about learning the right skills and being mentally prepared. The fact is you won't be as well-rounded as you would be with two years of training and there isn't any way around that, but you can lean into your strengths. You're already on the right track. This more changes my personal plans for your training moving forward."

Fists clenched, but reminding himself not to shoot the messenger, Hayase forced himself to ask, "What's the plan then?"

With a small sigh, Abe went up to the board and wrote out a few things:

1. Mental Preparation

2. Lethality

3. Survivability

4. Luck

"When it comes down to it, these are the factors that determine whether you leave the battlefield dead or alive. Now, I can't do anything about your luck, we can work on the other three!" declared Abe before asking, "How do you think shinobi get mentally prepared for war?"

"I don't really know, booze?" replied Hayase, half-joking.

With a snort, Abe replied, "Some might... but no, most shinobi are prepared for war by fighting in smaller skirmishes first away from the larger battles. Only by fighting real life and death battles teaches you to cope with the intense emotions that you feel in those moments... but that also means that there's no easy way to prepare mentally."

"Hah, so you can't help me with that one either?!?," exclaimed Hayase.

"Well not exactly, but one good thing that all of this attention has brought is special privileges. Ever since you demonstrated your ability to freeze water, I have been trying to get the village to schedule a therapeutic visit for you. Now, all it took was an order from the Hokage and the Yamanaka reassigned one of their best to help you!"

"Therapy?" replied Hayase skeptically as he thought, 'will therapy with a Yamanaka really help me be prepared for war? I don't think I want someone rummaging around my mind like a yard sale or an episode of Hoarders.

Laughing at Hayase's dumbfounded expression, Abe explained, "Many shinobi fail to understand just how beneficial it can be. In your case, don't think I've forgotten your accident over the break. Your ability to freeze water with having a panic attack makes this therapy a necessity!"

Hearing the latter part made Hayase realize that this was also about his Ice bending, without his Ice bending he wouldn't be able to imitate ice-jutsu and he would be far weaker. 'If it can really help me learn to control ice, then I guess I can tolerate a Yamanaka therapist,' he thought with some reservations still remaining.

"Besides, you should be grateful, do you know how busy the Yamanaka clan are because of the war? Most of them are working nonstop in the T&I department!" exclaimed Abe, "so getting one of the to take a break to help you is a miracle as far as I'm concerned!"

"Wait! They're from the Torture and Interrogation department!" shouted Hayase. 'What kind of ninja world nonsense is this? Therapist by day? Torturer by night? What kind of erratic drama character is this Yamanaka trying to be?'

Hearing Hayase's question, he looked at him like he was an idiot and replied, "Of course, their clan abilities are perfectly suited for both roles. Hayase, you really need to stop fiddling with your water under the desk and pay attention in class, you should know this!"

With both ears turning red at his sensei's joke, Hayase simply nodded and hoped for the conversion to end soon without any more embarrassing blunders.

"Well don't worry about it too much... The dean was able to schedule the therapy session for tomorrow during our usual class session so we'll need to leave right when lunch begins. As for the next two: Lethality and Survivability. These are where I can help you the most personally!" declared Abe-sensei.

"As a genin, your reach is shorter than your opponents in most circumstances. Most genin deal with this by adopting some kind of weapon like kunai that works at close range and can be thrown. Your 'water bending,' as you've been calling it, gives you a much better range than a typical genin through your water whip and the bursts of water that you can punch out. What you're lacking is attacks that will end combat swiftly and efficiently. Understand?"

Seeing Hayase nod, Abe-sensei continued, "Hopefully, ice can fill that gap in the future, but, for now, I think you should consider combining your water bending with weapons. In both close range and long range, embedding kunai, shuriken, or senbon in the water that you control could make it even more dangerous to your opponents."

Almost instantly, Hayase was enraptured with the idea... especially senbon! 'Senbon needles would be barely visible in the water! And I could mix them in without my opponent knowing!' thought Hayase with an almost sinister glint in his eyes.

He had never thought to combine weapons and water bending, but perhaps he had let himself be too constrained by preconceived ideas of what water bending is supposed to look like.

"Good, I can tell that you're excited by that one!" said Abe, "Now, for survivability, that one is tougher... being in the medical nin elective is already a good first step, but being able to patch yourself only works if you can get away from the fight. So you'll work on your dodging,"

"Dodging, I'm not sure if I like the sound that Abe-sensei. What will I have to dodge?" asked Hayase almost scared to know the answer.

"heh.. Well Hayase," he replied, and with a whoosh, Abe body flickered next to him, "You'll be dodging me! The best way to get stronger faster is just to train against someone stronger than you! Once you figure out how to use weapons with your water, you'll also be able to practice them against me!"

At his sensei's demonstration of speed, Hayase couldn't imagine being on a battlefield amongst genin, chunin, and jonin. His reaction speed felt so insignificant by comparison. 'All of this uncertainty and I don't have any control over any of this! Fuck... maybe therapy will be really helpful,' Hayase found himself thinking before he turned to his sensei, and said, "Let's just get started training for the day, looks like I can't be wasting any more time!"

***Hayase's Notes from the rest of the Day***

Tutoring session with Abe-sensei:

- just a casual bombshell dropped on my life

- Spent most of the time working on combining weapons with water bending, Abe-sensei warned me against experimenting with weapons at home so I guess I'll be practicing the nature transformation outside of the academy and working on these new techniques in class now

Medical Nin Class:

- Learned unnecessarily gory details about battlefield amputation, lots of jutsu leave wounds that are too messy to stitch up, I guess (brutal)

- Obito threw up and had to be comforted by Rin

*** End Notes***

When Hayase made his way over to Guy's house, he could hear the distinct sound of his Duy training. Whereas Guy's first resound with a solid thud, Duy's steady pace and impact were almost like a drum. 'Duy had returned from his mission,' thought Hayase, 'That's great! Guy must be so happy!'

As Hayase peaked around the corner at their residence, he saw the father and son training and laughing to their hearts' content. A beautiful scene... that Hayase didn't want to interrupt with his presence. Leaning against the wall, he thought about his day and wondered if he ought to go home.

He wouldn't want to bring down their mood with his bad news, but just as he was leaving Guy spotted him and shouted, "Oi, Hayase where are you going? Did you forget something? I was just telling Tousan about all of the training that we did!"

"Yeah, Guy says you both came up with some interesting ideas, I'm curious to learn about these burpees that you come up with! Push-ups and Squats together! Haha! That's my kind of workout!" chuckled Duy.

Hayase always forgets how easy it was for these two to sweep you up in their energy. 'It's a nice feeling,' he thought as they began demonstrating a few exercises to Duy that Hayase had shamelessly copied from his memories: burpees, powerlifting with rocks instead of bars, and other things that could be done without much equipment.

Honestly, Hayase had shown Guy these exercises just to see what his reaction would be and Guy's excitement was so hilarious that he just kept 'coming up' with new exercise ideas to show him. Each time, Guy's eyes would shine like stars and he would do the exercise until he nearly collapsed like a child that just got a new toy and refused to stop playing with it. A true exercising maniac. And now seeing Duy's reaction, it was even more unfiltered than Guy's!

Maybe because they were showing him multiple exercises at once, but Duy quickly jumped into a crazy circuit training routine with the new exercises and he had an even bigger smile than normal on his face.

"Yosh! haha! It's been so long since I've had new exercises to do," shouted Duy still gaining speed as he continued rotating between doing burpees and powerlifting the weighted boulder with which he normally does squats.

Not one to be left behind, Guy had immediately joined in as well which left Hayase with little choice but to bow to the peer pressure and join in.

Half an hour later all three of them lay on the ground, muscles aching and panting as they tried to catch their breath. Of course, Duy had chosen some of the most intense of the exercises that Hayase had introduced, but they seemed happy.

Between pants, Hayase asked, "Guy, how were your classes today?"

"Good... *Breath* I got to spar against Asuma today!" replied Guy, "He was really good, but I managed to land a few solid blows on him so they stopped the spar."

"That's great Guy," Hayase replied with a smile. 'Asuma was always pretty skilled, I didn't realize that Guy was skilled enough to beat him at taijutsu at this age,' thought Hayase, 'was it like this in the original timeline? or could this be a ripple effect from my training with Guy? I wish I knew more about how strong Guy was early on.'

Suddenly, Duy said, "Guy! I've been meaning to say, I saw Kakashi while I was out on a mission. He has gotten stronger!"

Trying to feign ignorance, Hayase asked, "Kakashi? I didn't know that you know him, Guy?"

As he asked his question, Hayase could see a look that he recognized on Guy's face. It was the look that he got when he lost a spar, a look of determination.

Replying, he said, "We met outside of the academy when I first failed to get in... and I decided that we would be rivals! I had heard about him being a genius so what better kind of rival to have!"

Adding his thoughts, Duy mentioned, "I had met Kakashi's father on a few occasions, he was a splendid shinobi... If Kakashi turns out anything like him, then he would be a wonderful comrade and rival. Did you ever meet him Hayase?"

"-er, no. We didn't really cross paths before he graduated early..." he said with a sad sigh before shifting his gaze to the sky, 'early graduation... I really hope it doesn't come to that. I'm not a genius like Kakashi.'

"What's wrong, Hayase-kun?" asked Duy with a worried expression. 'Heh, never underestimated the observational skills of shinobi,' Hayase found himself thinking.

"I.. uh.. received some bad news today... I might have to graduate early, I guess some higher-ups in the village think my abilities are being wasted at the academy and could be useful in the war. Nothing has been decided yet, but my sensei has started me on a training plan that basically assumes I'll be sent out into the war after this year, and... I... I just don't feel ready," said Hayase with his voice slowly breaking as he tried to keep it together. At the end, he could barely look at them as he spoke as he feared their reaction.

Hayase had always tried to put on a strong face in front of Guy and Duy. He would have preferred to have not to show them this softer-weaker side of himself. Hell, he preferred if no one got to see this side.

Suddenly, he felt two calloused hands on his shoulders, one small and one large. And then, the Might duo pulled him into a painful bear hug that brutally crushed away the previous anxiety that he was feeling. All he felt now was pain and a weird mix of comfort at their affection.

From above, Hayase could hear Duy softly saying, "It's okay to be afraid of war, Hayase. None of us are ever prepared, not even geniuses ever leave the academy truly prepared. As much as this feels like a curse now, the village is recognizing your talents and we'll be here for you while you get through this!"

Guy, on the other hand, said, "Yeah, you'll have to start joining our morning workouts! I can't believe I might have a second rival that graduates early! HAHA! I sure know how to pick them, don't I, Tousan?"

Ruffling Guy's hair, Duy laughed and said, "Yep, you've sure got an eye for talent! You inherited it from me! HAHA! That's how I know you'll become a splendid shinobi as well!"

With that, all three of them burst out laughing. In moments like these, they really felt like a trio and world and its problems seemed to fade away.

***Later that Night***

As Hayase laid down for bed, he recalled the whirlwind of a day. All he could do is hope that Abe-sensei and the dean could keep him from graduating early or at the very least prevent him from being forced to join the root anbu. All that he remembered of the root made him immensely worried about getting involved in the darkest side of the shinobi world.

'One challenge at a time, I guess,' thought Hayase, 'I should only focus on what I can control... and all I can control is what Abe-sensei and I talked about today, my mental preparation, lethality, and survivability."

Trying to imagine what his interrogator/therapist will be like, Hayase imagined a scarred man with dead eyes or maybe someone like Harley Quinn a psychopathic psychiatrist.

Suddenly worried, Hayase thought to himself, 'I should have asked Abe-sensei if they would be using Yamanaka techniques on me tomorrow, I have no idea if my past life's memories will be visible or if they will just look like dreams or something.'

As he began to worry about his memories being exposed, he began to toss and turn as he tried to find a comfortable enough sleeping position to make the worrisome thoughts less noticeable.

As he lay sleeplessly, he joked to himself, "Tomorrow, I face my greatest battle yet: therapy."