"I'm good here; everything should be cleared. How about you?"
Naraku asked Kakashi, who also replied that everything was going smoothly. The two then proceeded together towards the center.
Soon after, the entire team reunited. After reporting their respective kill counts, the captain decided the mission was mostly complete and led the three team members down the mountain for handover.
Once the old village chief sent people to confirm on the mountain, they would receive proof of mission completion to verify back in the village... Their first C-rank mission was completed successfully. Naraku and Kakashi subsequently received several more C-rank missions.
Although their teammates were always changing, they were all reliable and didn't look down on them because of their young age.
Naraku opened the System for the Nth time and found that the Animator had updated again. With anticipation, he clicked on the new episode to see if he appeared.
Fortunately, the Animator didn't disappoint him this time. The episode opened with a calm and peaceful atmosphere. In the steaming kitchen, two half-grown children were busy preparing breakfast.
It was from before he and Kakashi had graduated.
[First!]
[Wow, this episode is Kakashi and Naraku, yay!]
[Naraku's cutting is much more skilled than before.]
[It's Kakashi and Naraku's turn again!]
The camera shifted, showing the two walking to school. Naraku asked Kakashi if he wanted to graduate early, and Kakashi blurted out, "I want to wait for you," and Naraku's instantly melting gaze triggered a large number of bullet comments. His subsequent inner thoughts, which revealed his tsundere nature, made the audience exclaim that they were shipping it.
[What did I hear! Is that a confession!]
[It's a heartbeat, oh no, I can't look away~]
[kswl]
[Our KakaNaru is real!]
[That long sentence, I can only hear the four words "I want to wait for you."]
[Yo yo yo~]
[It's~ not~ that~ I~ don't~ want~ to~ be~ separated~ from~ you~]
[Kashi, remember, when it's time for a direct hit, you have to hit directly.]
[You're in trouble, you're falling in love~]
[Who can resist a boy of Kakashi's caliber?]
[Naraku's smile now is truly like a little sun.]
The two children ran and skipped towards school. The camera moved up into the dense leaves. Suddenly, a leaf fell, completely obscuring the screen.
After the leaf floated past, the scene changed from the path to school to a training ground. Naraku tightened the straps of the tantō in his hand. The camera observed Kakashi from his perspective, highlighting a hint of nervousness.
As Akira Hoshino gave the command "Start," Kakashi and Naraku's blades instantly clashed. Sword light flashed repeatedly, and sparks flew from the colliding weapons.
In a close-up, the two short swords crossed, and faint electric arcs erupted from the point of impact.
The camera blurred for a moment, the colliding blades transforming into hands forming a hand sign. The camera zoomed out, and the two smiled at each other, with Akira Hoshino behind them making a gesture for a draw.
Soon, the audience saw the scene switch again. Kakashi and Naraku were still in their original positions, but this time they weren't forming hand signs; instead, they were each holding a forehead protector.
The next moment, two rushing figures broke through the original scene, lunging towards the audience.
It was Kakashi and Naraku, wearing their Konoha forehead protectors.
Immediately, the two seemed to sweep past the camera, the perspective shifting from Kakashi's side to behind him. It was then that the audience realized they were chasing a small white shadow.
[The best close friend, and also the greatest rival.]
[They are also fellow disciples.]
[Draw!]
[They've graduated already? Am I missing the time to watch their exams? (Annoyed)]
[Kakashi really graduated with Naraku!]
[It would be hard for them not to be together.]
[KakaNaru marry!]
[Brothers cannot become wives...]
Next, the scene shifted. Kakashi's blade flashed across a tree trunk, and Naraku delivered a heavy kick to the tree. A tree as thick as a person's embrace then fell along the knife mark;
Kakashi, shovel in hand, grunted as he dug soil from beneath a giant rock. Naraku, on the other side, assembled a lever with a wooden stick, prying the boulder to roll down the hillside, clearing the blocked path;
Naraku used Kunai and shuriken to guide and force a wild boar into an ambush. Kakashi, lying in wait, seized the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to its throat... In the corner, D-rank mission request forms, marking completed work, piled up thicker and thicker. This continued until the scene appeared where Kakashi was weighing a captured white cat in his hand, and Naraku was assembling a portable cage, at which point the mission forms stopped accumulating.
A red stamp landed on the newest mission form, which was handed to Naraku.
The two eagerly accepted their first C-rank mission, setting off with their captain and the enthusiastic Might Duy. Upon reaching the mission location, Might Duy even shared his experience in bandit suppression. The captain returned from reconnaissance and assigned combat tasks.
[Good heavens, Yuriko has escaped again and again and again!]
[Minato must have caught Yuriko many times back then, right?]
[Is this the traditional project for Konoha Genin? I love it, I love it!]
[Yuriko, the village chief of the beginner village.]
[The moment they are allowed to take on C-rank missions, they truly step into the dark world of Ninja.]
[They're just starting elementary school in our world, aren't they? The Ninja world is so cruel.]
[Oh wow... this old uncle is so sunny...]
[In some sense, Might Duy is quite strong.]
[Father of an E-type, son of an I-type.]
[The old uncle doesn't hold anything back at all.]
[He's so nice. He wouldn't be a tool to make KakaNaru realize the cruelty of the Ninja profession, would he?]
[No, no, no, I don't want anything to happen to Might Old Uncle ④]
— —
Naraku watched up to this point and noticed that the Animator hadn't shown the graduation gift scene. He probably intended to find a suitable moment later, or perhaps he wanted to save a big surprise for the audience.
As a fellow prankster, he thought the latter was more likely.
He just didn't know why the Animator would suddenly have such an idea. Could it be that he already had a premonition that some unexpected change would occur later, causing this gift to become a source of pain?
Naraku clicked to continue with a puzzled expression.
— —
In the bushes illuminated by the cold moonlight, Kakashi and Naraku lay in ambush in different spots, both drawing their swords and advancing silently, taking down several mountain bandits without a sound.
The camera moved forward while rapidly switching, their figures and movements almost overlapping, like a pair of Shinigami dancing in unison under the moonlight, with the same frequency.
Finally, they both performed a clean sword flourish and sheathed their blades.
When they met each other, both had strained, breathless expressions, not from physical exhaustion, but from the shock of taking a human life for the first time.
Even though they were all heinous bandits.
Naraku proactively walked over, and Kakashi met his gaze, letting out a sigh of relief.
The screen went dark, and when it lit up again, it showed the Ninja responsible for mission review picking up a stamp to approve and settle their first C-rank mission. The progress bar also reached the end of this episode.
In the last few seconds, Kakashi and Naraku walked side by side, heading towards the light and the future, their long shadows trailing behind them like two dark cloaks.
[Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah so cool!]
[The officials are forcing the fans to die.]
[Help, he's really good at editing.]
[You stinky Old Thief, what are we supposed to do for our fan creations after you've edited it all?]
[The sword flourish is so cool!]
[Entering the world of Ninja together.]
— —
Naraku was already very satisfied to have appeared for an entire episode. He closed the video and opened the forum to see if there were any new hot posts.
As expected, the new episode caused posts about him and Kakashi to pop up, and several videos even appeared.
After all, his growth arc was enough to compile a mixed edit, and now editing software had templates. If one wanted to save trouble, they could just plug it in, which didn't take much time or effort.
However, there were still highly skilled experts who didn't use templates but relied on their raw talent to create spectacular videos. It just took longer, so they might not be seen for some time.