The door slid open.
Might Guy stepped outside, a steamed bun clenched between his teeth, already dressed in his familiar green bodysuit. Morning light fell across his face, warm enough to make even him pause and stretch with a long, chest-deep breath.
Flowers along the street were in full bloom.
Just seeing them lifted his mood.
"As expected," Guy declared through a mouthful of bun, voice booming, "morning is when youth burns at its brightest!"
He swallowed, laughed, and took off, legs kicking up dust as he charged toward the commercial district.
Then he noticed something odd.
People were moving the other way.
At first just a few. Then more. Soon the wide road felt crowded, foot traffic flowing steadily toward the village gates.
"Huh?"
Guy stopped, scratched his head, then leapt onto a rooftop beam. Shading his eyes, he scanned the streets.
Groups clustered together. Fast steps. Low conversation. All heading toward Konoha's entrance.
"…What's going on?"
Curiosity flickered, but only for a moment. Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with his plans.
He turned and ran in the opposite direction.
Toward the Hyūga compound.
Two months passed in the span of a breath.
Konoha remained calm. Ordinary citizens knew nothing of border pressure or diplomatic games.
Only when news spread that Kumogakure intended to sign a formal treaty did the village react. Shock, followed immediately by pride.
Former enemies seeking alliance spoke loudly of Konoha's strength.
Guy, however, knew none of this.
As a newly promoted chūnin with no political ties, all he noticed was one thing:
Hyūga Shinya had vanished.
Every time Guy went to train with him, someone from the branch family stopped him. Polite. Reserved. Almost… cautious.
"Shinya-sama is in closed training. Please return in two months."
Closed training?
For taijutsu?
Guy hadn't believed it. Not at first.
But the expressions weren't fake. Something had changed inside the Hyūga.
Now, two months later, the time was up.
"Today," Guy muttered while running, "he'd better open the door."
With Kakashi buried in ANBU work and Shinya missing, training alone had nearly driven him mad.
When he reached the compound gates, the guard on duty was familiar. One of the branch members Shinya had once disciplined.
This time, the man didn't block him.
He stepped aside.
"…Suspicious," Guy thought. Very suspicious.
That only confirmed it.
Shinya definitely did something.
"SHI—NYA—!"
Guy shouted as he sprinted toward the house. "Don't pretend you can't hear me! After two months, you'd better have something good! Today you're calling me 'As expected, Guy-senpai!' no excuses!"
The barrier was gone.
The door wasn't even locked.
Guy entered without ceremony.
The moment he stepped inside, his skin prickled.
Not killing intent.
Static.
The air itself carried charge. Fine enough that it raised the hair on his arms, left a faint numbness across his skin.
"This is…"
Frowning, Guy moved carefully toward the training room. With each step, the sensation intensified.
He slid the door open.
The air inside wavered, visibly distorted.
Crackle.
Every conductive object had been removed.
At the center of the room sat Hyūga Shinya, shirtless, muscles sharply defined. Blue electrical arcs crawled across his skin, thin and precise, branching like veins of light.
Lightning Release chakra.
Refining the body.
At the sound of the door, Shinya opened his eyes.
A flash of blue passed through the pale irises.
The electricity recoiled, drawn inward, obediently sinking into his body.
"Guy-senpai," Shinya said evenly. "Are we training today?"
"…."
Guy stared.
At the body.At the control.At the pressure barely contained beneath calm posture.
"Shinya…" he breathed. "You're using Lightning Release to temper your body?"
Then, louder:
"Are you insane?!"
It wasn't ignorance. Everyone knew lightning chakra could enhance the body.
Kumogakure built an entire doctrine around it.
The Third Raikage. The Fourth. Defense and speed taken to extremes.
But knowing and doing were different things.
Lightning chakra was volatile. Violent. Unstable.
Running it through the body required flawless chakra control, intimate knowledge of every pathway and node.
One mistake meant paralysis. Organ damage. Death.
Why were most lightning techniques long-range?
Why so few viable for genin or chūnin?
Because lightning did not forgive error.
Then it hit him.
The Byakugan.
Shinya could see every pathway.
"…You really can do it," Guy muttered.
If anyone could survive this method, it was him.
The implications struck hard.
A body tempered by lightning. Combined with the Eight Gates?
Terrifying.
The silence stretched.
Guy felt a twinge. Frustration. Envy.
Brief. Fleeting.
Then it vanished, burned away by rising heat in his chest.
His gaze changed.
The way he looked at Kakashi.
He raised his thumb, grin wide and sincere.
"Congratulations."
No bitterness. No jealousy.
Only joy.
Joy for Shinya's growth.
Joy for himself.
Because in this moment, Shinya was no longer a companion grasping for survival. No longer a junior to be guided.
He was a rival.
A friend worth standing against.
And that made Guy's blood sing.