"Hey!" A palm strike shot forward, rushing toward Saitama's face. Although Shizune had just been promoted to chunin, as Tsunade's disciple, she was well-rounded in every aspect—even in close combat taijutsu.
"Hmph!" The air split with the sharp crack of her palm strike. Saitama slightly turned his head and dodged the attack.
"Young lady, why start off with a slap across the face?" Saitama grinned but didn't say the words aloud when faced with Shizune's serious expression.
"Haa!" Seeing her attack dodged, Shizune wasn't discouraged at all. She knew her own abilities—especially facing someone like Saitama, an Uchiha famed for his taijutsu.
Twisting her body, she lashed out with a kick. Her foot sliced through the air as it sped toward Saitama's waist.
"Shhh!" Saitama took a step back effortlessly evading the attack.
"Boom!" As her foot missed its target, Shizune, who'd kicked low, used the momentum to push off both hands against the ground and sprang upward, her feet flying straight toward Saitama's face.
"Hehe, not bad at all," Saitama thought, impressed by Shizune's strong fighting awareness for coming up with such a combo.
"Smack!"
His hand slapped right onto Shizune's ankle, deflecting one leg while simultaneously grabbing the other one following closely behind.
"Thud!" Gripping one leg, Saitama took two quick steps backward. Shizune's expression shifted—her previously blocked foot quickly landed and hopped after him.
"Hehe!" Saitama smirked, feeling Shizune still lacked combat experience, daring to go all out like this.
"Hmph!" Inside, Shizune felt somewhat resentful. Every consecutive assault she launched had been easily neutralized by Saitama, causing frustration she couldn't explain.
"You're still not letting go?" Her voice carried a slight tremble—this sort of split-like posture embarrassed her.
One of her legs dangled at chest height, held firmly by Saitama, while the other remained awkwardly planted on the ground.
"Hehe!" Saitama released her leg without showing the slightest awkwardness.
"How is it?" Knowing full well that Saitama had the upper hand in taijutsu, Shizune asked.
"Not bad at all," Saitama shook his hand slightly, giving what seemed like a fair evaluation.
"But you're still lacking real close combat experience. Your attacks are too confident. In this kind of fight, each offensive move must keep something in reserve..."
Saitama began his lesson, guiding Shizune through each move. As he explained his approach to close combat, he kept encouraging her to attack again and again, then pointed out her mistakes and progress after each attempt.
Time passed quickly—it had already been more than two hours. Around the camp, aside from the patrolling personnel, everything else fell into deep silence. Some of the campfires burned low, their fuel nearly gone.
Judging the time, Saitama figured it must be around two or three o'clock in the morning—it was time to return and rest.
"Alright, that's enough for today. It's getting late—we should return for some rest." He said to the girl beside him, whose eyes sparkled as she slowly nodded, still mulling over his words.
"Eh? That fast?"
Shizune had become so engrossed in her studies that she lost track of time. When Saitama spoke, she felt slightly dazed and struggled to process his words.
"What else? We should head back first. Come again tomorrow night—I'll keep training you while you teach me a thing or two. This is an equal exchange, don't forget," Saitama rattled off, leaving Shizune momentarily stunned.
"Oh, sure." Now that they had stopped, Shizune did feel a bit tired. She gave a sleepy nod.
"Then how about around ten o'clock tomorrow night here? No problem?" Shizune asked while packing her things.
"Mmm... Probably okay," Saitama thought. Tomorrow's task was just patrol duty, so he shouldn't have any issue returning to camp late.
"Then it's settled?" Shizune's eyes sparkled slightly. She couldn't figure out why she liked this Uchiha kid so much despite just meeting him, but it didn't really matter—mutual help wasn't bad at all.
The twelve-year-old Shizune slowly walked toward her tent after saying goodbye to Saitama. She lived together with Tsunade, officially serving as Tsunade's personal guard, though in reality it was Tsunade taking care of Shizune, who was still on her first battlefield deployment.
"Tsunade-sama should already be resting by now. I need to be quiet when returning so not to disturb her. Tsunade-sama has been very tired recently."
Shizune's thoughts always revolved around Tsunade. To her, Tsunade was both mentor and friend—practically the only family she had left in this world.
Saitama stood in place watching Shizune leave before finally turning to go himself.
This encounter with Shizune was merely fate's arrangement. Saitama didn't find anything strange about it—after all, being part of the same Konoha encampment made their meeting perfectly natural, nothing more than ordinary interaction.
Though in his past life he'd always liked Shizune's character—she was so elegant and refined in the anime—in this real world, he felt those feelings were completely unnecessary and superfluous.
Previously, he'd only known the anime version of her; now this was a real, living person. Plus he had many matters to attend to himself. His memories only gave him a little extra fondness toward Shizune.
Moving lightly, his shadow flitted between tents like a wraith. Saitama had only wanted to take a walk after eating, never expecting to stay out so long.
He needed to go on a mission early tomorrow morning, so Saitama understood he must rest now to maintain perfect energy and spirit for the unknown tomorrow.
As he passed several crackling campfires, Saitama soon arrived at his tent. He went inside, placed his sword beside the bed, and immediately lay down, closing his eyes.
...
Rip!
Shizune pulled open the tent flap and peeked her small head inside first. Her short hair reached just near her ears, swaying from side to side as her head moved.
After glancing around the tent and confirming that Tsunade-sama seemed to be asleep, Shizune let out a breath of relief and tiptoed in.
Once inside, it took Shizune quite a while to adjust to the darkness before accurately locating the bed direction.
This tent was much larger than a regular single-person tent. Inside, there were two beds, and one of them already had someone lying on it.
Shizune slowly walked to the empty bed beside her, carefully took off her shoes, and climbed onto the mattress at a slow pace.
"You're back?" Tsunade's voice was fully awake, not drowsy in the slightest.
"Eh? Tsunade-sama!" Shizune was startled, her leg trembling slightly as she had just lifted it onto the bed.
"Mm, go to sleep early since you're back. We still have things to do tomorrow," Tsunade spoke again. The figure in the darkness turned over, now facing Shizune directly.
"Okay!" Shizune nodded and quickly climbed into bed, pulling the covers over herself as she began to fall asleep.
"Tsunade-sama, are you asleep yet?"
After nearly ten minutes of lying there, Shizune still hadn't fallen asleep. Her mind kept replaying the image of her foot being held by that young boy. Even now, she could still almost feel the warmth around her ankle.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune dared not raise her voice, wanting to confirm once more whether Tsunade was asleep.
"Hmm." Tsunade let out a nasal hum in response.
"What is it?" she asked with a slight nasal tone, noticing something unusual about Shizune tonight after her return.
"Nothing. Let's sleep," Shizune replied, turning over to face the tent wall.
In the darkness, staring at the tent fabric, Shizune seemed to see a pair of very calm eyes and that composed face. This reminded her of a classmate—Kakashi Hatake.
But Kakashi's coldness was different. She couldn't describe exactly what Saitama was like—it just felt really strange, as if she had been talking to an adult man.
"Oh come on, Shizune! You're overthinking this—it was your first meeting, and you barely even talked for three hours!" Shizune felt slightly flustered, as if she had done something wrong, thinking about someone while trying to sleep. It must be because she was curious—that made sense. He looked about her age but was somehow way stronger than most people she knew, she mused silently.
"He feels pretty different from regular Uchiha," another thought appeared in Shizune's mind before she finally started drifting off to sleep.
She found herself looking forward to their next meeting with Saitama. Maybe it was because she was eager to learn more Taijutsu techniques from him—after all, he was a master of hand-to-hand combat.
"Haaaah!" Meanwhile, Saitama gazed at the top of the tent and exhaled deeply. Sleep hadn't come yet—he had taken too long a nap this afternoon.
With his hands behind his head, Saitama let his mind wander through random, unrelated thoughts.
"Just sleep. The mission comes first!" Saitama forced himself to close his eyes.
...
"Morning, Captain!" Uchiha Huo, holding an ear of corn in his mouth, greeted Saitama as he exited the tent.
"Yeah, bring me something to eat first. I'm going to check with Uchiha Mori to find out today's patrol area."
Saitama fully displayed his role as a leader, ordering his teammates around to keep themselves busy. Huo didn't object either and simply nodded, fulfilling Saitama's request.
"Mori!" In a few steps, Saitama reached Uchiha Mori's tent. It was only past six o'clock, and most of the ninjas were already awake. Uchiha Mori himself had also risen.
"Alright, here you go. This is your squad's patrol area for today. I've got more meetings to attend, so just do what needs to be done," Mori said with a rice ball in his mouth, tossing Saitama a rough map marked in red.
"Yeah, no problem. You're busy," Saitama replied. He understood that there was plenty to handle after just returning from the battlefield. Mori, after all, was practically the acting leader of the Uchiha contingent and had his hands full.
"Captain!"
Back in his tent, Saitama found the Uchiha brothers, Huo and Yan, eating together.
As soon as they saw Saitama enter, the two stopped eating and greeted him respectfully.
Saitama waved at them, walked over, placed the map on the table, and grabbed a rice ball.
"This is our patrol zone for today," he said as he sat down to eat. "It's pretty big. Don't expect to be back by lunchtime, so pick up some extra rations from the mess hall."
"Sure thing. I'll head out once I finish eating," Huo stood beside him and nodded.
"When are we leaving, Captain?" Yan asked, swallowing a bite of his meal.
"As soon as you're set."
"Aww, already? Guess I'll head out now." Huo quickly took off with food still in his mouth.
"Tch." Yan clicked his tongue at his brother before continuing his breakfast, unfazed by his sibling's energetic demeanor.
*Swoosh!* A flash of blade cut through the tent. With his mouth full, Saitama drew his blade.
"We should stay battle-ready, Yan." He wiped the blade on a cloth on the table, his mouth still full of rice.
"Understood!"
Though Yan had never seen frontline combat, his past missions had sharpened his instincts and nerves. Even if this was a routine assignment, he remained alert.
"Phew! Let's move out once Huo gets back — time's ticking." Saitama had already finished eating but hadn't felt much like breakfast that morning, only managing a few rice balls and a small sip of water from the table.
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