Seimei had the urge to beat Haneda down right then and there, but he quietly resisted the urge.

Let Haneda gloat for a while.

Sooner or later, he would get the chance to pummel him with his fists and set him straight like a forging hammer beating the heated iron again and again to drive the impurities away.

And while he was at it, he would teach Sarutobi Yuto a lesson, too.

That guy was jumping around all day, spouting nonsense, and infecting innocent children with his stupidity and terribly mischievous personality.

The young Naruto in the original series might have been a prankster, but even he didn't pull as many headache-inducing shit as Yuto.

And his grin…damn it.

It was that kind of grin that made your very soul itch and made you feel an overwhelming urge to grab that bastard by the collar and slap him until his cheeks turned as red as the rear of a wild baboon.

Perfect match. His surname was Sarutobi (The literal translation is monkey jump or jumping monkey), anyway.

Thousands of thoughts and ideas flashed in his mind within the matter of a second. Outwardly, however, his face remained as serene and calm as water.

Of course, whether that serene water would turn into a wild, cascading waterfall powerful enough to break bones or become a highly compressed torrent dangerous enough to cut steel, that was a different matter altogether.

Seimei mentally shook his head and cleared his random thoughts.

Then, he channeled chakra to his feet, silently activated the Body Flicker Jutsu, and arrived right in front of Haneda.

He raised his right hand and patted Haneda's left shoulder lightly.

Seimei smiled and said, "Nice to see you in one piece, my friend."

"The way you and Yuto were fooling around, I thought I would have to offer some chrysanthemum to your graves."

"You dared to have the gall to take missions to the Land of Snow to face off against those Kumo bastards?"

Haneda chuckled and replied, "Yuto invited me to do the mission together. It was just a B-rank mission. The skirmishes near the border between the Land of Snow and the Land of Lightning were being handled by Konoha Jonins."

"At most, we faced off against some Elite Chunin-level Kumo ninjas."

Seimei nodded and added, "Very good. Just don't let Yuto's stupidity affect you. Otherwise, you will die alone."

Nearby, Sarutobi Yuto shouted, "Hold on…"

"Are you saying I am stupid?"

Seimei looked at fuming Yuto and tilted his head innocently, "Aren't you?"

"I thought you knew already…hey, hey, hey…why are you taking out kunai from your ninja pouch?"

Seimei exclaimed and vanished from the spot.

At the next moment, he appeared beside Nara Shikamo, who had been watching the show from the tree branch, and said, "Shikamo, my best buddy. You're still lying down like a lazy pig, huh?"

Shikamo looked at Seimei lazily and retorted, "What are you talking about? It's those Yamanaka guys who symbolize pigs. I am a Nara. A proud and intelligent deer."

Seimei chimed in, "Alright. Enough. Now, let's go down."

Seimei grabbed his shoulder and used the Body Flicker Technique to bring Shikamo to the ground, who could only sigh and mumble, "What a drag."

With that, Seimei, Shikamo, Haneda, and Yuto gathered in one place. In just a few seconds, Keiko and Touma joined them. And finally, Reina also arrived near the group within the blink of an eye.

Soon, they began chatting about each other's experiences in the last few weeks.

Their discussions went on for a couple of hours.

-----------------

At that moment, Uchiha Touma suddenly mentioned, "Guys, how about a friendly spar?"

"It has been a long time since we fought each other. Let me see if you guys are slacking off."

Then, he turned toward Reina and his tone became utterly respectful, as if a humble subject was talking to the royal queen, "Of course, Miss Reina here is an exception."

"Our Miss trains daily and takes missions regularly. She had single-handedly subdued several full-fledged enemy Jonin and Elite Jonin in the last six months."

Hearing this, others couldn't help but feel their lips twitching uncontrollably.

Seimei and the other four: What kind of bootlicking behavior is this? Touma, where's your Uchiha pride?

Meanwhile, Reina closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with mild exasperation.

Seimei thought…

I know that the Uchiha ninjas respect the strong and worship powerful ninjas within their ranks.

But this is still too much.

I still wonder why no Uchiha followed Madara when he left the village.

Maybe even the battle-crazy Uchiha ninjas were tired of constant, meaningless wars and didn't want to abandon the peaceful life they gained after the founding of Konoha.

However, the young Uchiha children of my generation didn't suffer the tragedies of the Warring States Period.

Being a little fanatical about the powerful figures like Reina and harboring the wish to challenge the enemies of Konoha is only natural.

To most of the new generation of clan Shinobi, peace seems boring now.

That's because they have never seen the horrors of war.

Only those who know the pain of war can understand the value of peace.

Then again, in any world, true peace is nothing but a pipedream.

While Seimei was busy in his internal monologue once again, Sarutobi Yuto said, "A friendly spar? Sounds fun. Count me in."

Uzumaki Keiko also smiled deeply and responded with an innocent voice that had some hidden chill, "Nice. I have a lot of new Jutsu. I didn't get to try them yet. Sparring is exactly what I need."

Nara Shikamo sighed so deeply that you would doubt whether he was suffering from a serious case of depression.

Shikamo thought…

Great. Just great.

Now, this battle maniac Uzumaki girl is completely fired up.

Only Sage of Six Paths knows whether I can leave this place in one piece.

Once the fight begins, I will stay far away from her, fight Haneda or Yuto for a minute, and fake my defeat before things can escalate further.

Hmm…let's make a plan.

Seimei and Haneda simply nodded. A friendly sparring? No problem.

Although they wouldn't seek trouble, they would never back out of an interesting, friendly battle.

Reina also nodded silently.

Yuto exclaimed, "Perfect. Everybody agrees. Now, how do we go about it?"

Reina responded, "Let's do it in a battle royale format. Individual sparring matches will take too much time."

"And no explosive tags and Ninjutsu that may cause wide-area destruction."

Hearing this, Uzumaki Keiko, who was enthusiastically pulling out hundreds of explosive tags, froze in place. She reluctantly put those explosive tags away.

Meanwhile, Seimei just muttered, "So no Exploding Water Colliding Wave, Great Fire Annihilation, and S-rank Great Flame Flower, huh?"

Hearing Seimei mutter dangerous things, Touma almost jumped and said, "Hell No!"

"It's a friendly sparring match. FRIENDLY SPARRING MATCH."

"What are you thinking?"

"Nothing. I was just saying. Would I use something so dangerous in a friendly match?" Seimei said as he looked at Touma with a pure, innocent expression.

Hearing this, everyone's face, except for Reina's, darkened.

Everyone except for Reina: Yes. If we don't set the rules, you will definitely do it.

Reina smiled and said, "Okay. Let's not waste any more time."

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