After sending a message to Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin accompanied Kushina Uzumaki to continue with the originally scheduled physical examination. After all, it would still take Obito some time to arrive. As for Kyoichi and the others, Rin arranged for them to rest in an unused conference room at Konoha Hospital.
"Hey, Kyoichi, how long are we supposed to wait like this?"
Inside the conference room,
Momochi Zabuza lay sprawled by the window, watching people come and go in the courtyard below as he asked impatiently.
"What's the rush?"
Kyoichi was flipping through a Fracture Patient Care Manual he had taken from the nearby reading rack. Hearing Zabuza's complaint, he did not even bother to lift his eyelids. "You've only been waiting a few minutes and you're already restless? As a shinobi, how can you get anything done without patience? Sit tight and behave. Don't force me to beat you down."
Zabuza's face turned dark.
He clenched his teeth,
desperately wanting to snap back with, "If you've got the guts, try beating me down!" Yet his reason restrained that impulse. He knew all too well that Kyoichi truly had the ability to do exactly that. If he really said those words out loud, Kyoichi would not hold back in the slightest.
"…It's already been more than forty minutes."
Zabuza lowered his voice.
"That's still early. It's only ten thirty."
Kyoichi spoke again. "Zabuza, why don't you learn from Ameyuri? Stop acting like you're sitting on needles. Can't you just stay put for a while?"
Off to the side,
Ringo Ameyuri sat calmly in her chair,
crackling arcs of lightning bursting intermittently across her body.
She was clearly in the middle of training.
"…."
Zabuza found himself speechless.
With Ameyuri, who never forgot to train no matter where she went, serving as such a stark contrast, even he felt that his own complaints were nothing but petty. Then he glanced again at Kyoichi, relaxed and unhurried, still reading that fracture care manual. Something stirred in his heart, and he began to reflect in earnest.
It seemed that ever since he had successfully joined the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, his temper had grown increasingly irritable. No matter what he faced, he lacked sufficient patience.
Perhaps, he truly needed to learn endurance and restraint. Instead of wasting time on complaints, it would be far better to imitate Ameyuri's habit of training wherever she went. Joining the Seven Ninja Swordsmen was only the beginning. If he failed to keep striving forward, it would not take long before he died on some mission.
Momochi Zabuza finally quieted down completely.
He sat properly in his chair, took out the inheritance scroll of the Longsword: Nuibari, and began studying it carefully once more.
Kyoichi cast a somewhat surprised glance at Zabuza. He had actually listened and settled down. A hint of appreciation flickered in his eyes. Although Zabuza had no kekkei genkai and no inherited secret techniques, his talent was indeed remarkable, a classic example of what one might call a "mutation among commoners."
His chakra reserves were no less than those of shinobi from great clans.
In combat, he possessed abilities far beyond the ordinary.
At the same time,
by trampling over the corpses of all his classmates at the Kirigakure Ninja Academy, he had been forged with the mentality befitting a true strongman.
Combined together,
these traits formed a textbook case of a genius shinobi born from the civilian ranks of Kirigakure.
That said,
geniuses often come with their own flaws: arrogance, impatience for quick success, obsessive perfectionism, and the like.
Zabuza's problem was clearly impatience and a hunger for rapid gains. He lacked sufficient patience and was desperate to grow stronger. Yet even a genius cannot always remain in the fast lane. There are prodigies among prodigies who do so, but Zabuza was merely a genius, not a genius among geniuses.
If he stayed trapped in this restless state, forget returning to a path of rapid growth. He would likely stagnate for a very long time.
Fortunately,
Zabuza now seemed to have realized this himself.
Hopefully, he truly understood the need for endurance and restraint, rather than this being nothing more than a fleeting moment of clarity.
Soon, Kyoichi withdrew his gaze from Zabuza.
He continued flipping through the fracture care manual in his hands at an unhurried pace.
These days, aside from training, all he had done at the embassy was train. Kyoichi felt that the taut string in his mind was stretched nearly to its limit. If he kept pushing himself any harder, he might truly collapse. That was why he had come out today to fulfill his agreement with Uchiha Obito.
Besides the reasons he had mentioned earlier, such as not wanting to be seen as someone who broke promises and the fact that he would be leaving Konoha in a few days, going out to relax was also an important factor.
After all, he had already successfully completed two original senjutsu techniques.
For the time being, he had no new ideas that needed immediate implementation. What he needed now was time to let things settle, to accumulate experience for future innovations.
And so, only the crackle of lightning and the sound of pages turning remained in the conference room.
Time passed second by second,
until just after eleven o'clock.
A series of footsteps sounded outside. Then the conference room door was pushed open. Kushina Uzumaki strode into the field of view of Kyoichi and the others, with Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito following close behind.
"Yo, Obito!"
Kyoichi smiled and waved in greeting.
Obito's mouth twitched, and he failed to return the smile with any composure. These days, he was truly exhausted. Because of the deaths of his clansmen, Uchiha Tsuruha and Sarutobi Takeo, and others, the Uchiha clan had already conducted three full-scale searches from top to bottom in order to confirm the identity of the Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
As one of the Uchiha clan members who could be confirmed as uninvolved on the night of the incident at the embassy, Uchiha Obito had been entrusted with the task of investigating all suspicious individuals within the clan. Of course, he was not the only one handling this duty, but even with multiple people working together, the strain was overwhelming, both physically and mentally.
Physical exhaustion needed no explanation. Such intensive work was bound to be grueling.
As for mental fatigue, it came from three sources. First was the terrifying pressure exerted by the high-ranking figures awaiting the results of the investigation. Second were the strange, scrutinizing gazes directed at every single Uchiha after the incident. Third was the resentment and dissatisfaction of the clansmen being investigated.
Completely worn down in both body and mind, Obito had genuinely forgotten about his challenge to Kyoichi.
It was only after receiving Rin's message today
that he remembered it again.
He temporarily handed over his workload to Shisui, who was also on the verge of collapse from exhaustion, and forcibly carved out time to rush over and honor his promise to Kyoichi.
"Enough talk. We're going to the training grounds now. After the spar is over, I still have work waiting for me!"
Uchiha Obito stared at Kyoichi and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Sure!"
Kyoichi agreed readily.
"Don't worry, Obito. I won't waste much of your time. This fight will be over very quickly."