Chapter 1
"Beef, pork belly, lamb, cabbage, eggs, enoki mushroom…" Metal went through the long grocery list he held in his hand, hoping he did not miss out any item. If he did, that would be considered bad luck and he would have to go through the upcoming year at a higher anxiety level than it already had been.
"Is that for your New Year celebration?" asked Inojin while staring at the full shopping bags that Metal was carrying on both arms.
"Yup, we're going to have hotpot," Metal replied.
Above their head, rows after rows of paper lanterns dangled in the wind while on two sides of the road, all the stores were decorating their entrances with fai chun, turning the entire street into a bright red tunnel with golden sparks. This section of the village had always been dazzling and lively during this period, the Lunar New Year. Unlike Shikadai and Inojin with their indifferent attitude, this was an important holiday for Metal. It would be the time when his dinner table would have more than just him and his father. With family and friends joining together for a sumptuous meal, the atmosphere in the house would be much cosier and more fun. Of course, the most exciting part was receiving hong bao. That would give him some extra allowance to spend on X-cards.
"That's an awful lot of food. You and your father can finish all of this?" asked Shikadai with his usual two arms folded behind his head.
"We will have Guy-sensei and Tenten-obasan over tonight as well," said Metal.
"Tenten-san?" The name sounded half-familiar to Shikadai, yet he still could not recall where he heard it from.
"She's Lee-ojichan's teammate," Inojin reminded his friend, having heard this name himself many times from his mother.
Metal nodded, "Yes, she runs a weapon shop just around this corner. Do you want to go see it?"
Shikadai was not exactly curious but since it was not too much trouble, he followed. Come to think of it, he knew that his father belonged to the famous ninja batch called the Konoha Twelve, which was considered one of the strongest ninja batches of all time. The most notable ones were no other than the Seventh Hokage and the renowned Uchiha Sasuke, but the remaining members were not any less impressive. Yet, Shikadai only managed to count eleven of them. This 'Tenten-obasan' that Metal mentioned must have been the last member. She was mysteriously separated from the rest of the crew.
"Why didn't I ever hear anything about her?" Shikadai whispered a question to his blond friend who seemed to be more knowledgeable about this than him.
"My mom said she used to be quite close to her, Sakura-obasan and Hinata-obasan. But ever since a bad breakup between her and Lee-ojichan, she seemed to just withdraw to herself and the weapon shop," Inojin whispered back, watching Metal carefully to ensure he did not hear anything.
"Breakup? Lee-ojichan and her?" Shikadai's eyes widened. "I didn't even know they used to date."
"I wasn't sure. I didn't care too much to ask either," said Inojin.
The conversation stopped as soon as they reached the shop with three "Roll" kanji at the entrance, which read as 'Ten-ten-ten". Metal left one door ajar as he entered, allowing an opening view for his friends to take a peek.
"Oh yeah, I definitely have seen her around," Shikadai was still hesitant to enter the shop, hiding on the side of the closed door.
"She looks young, even younger than my mom," Inojin commented, knowing that his mother was famous for her ageless beauty.
"Yeah, mine too. My father said that's what marriage did to you," said Shikadai.
Suddenly, the closed door that Shikadai was hiding behind was pulled open by Metal from inside the shop, "What are you guys doing? Come in."
"Irrasshaimase!" Shikadai heard a cheerful voice of the shop owner. Her voice made her sound even younger. "Come, take a look at the shop."
They took a slow stroll around the shop displayed with a vast array of exotic ninja tools, from jouhyou to nunchaku to tonfa, which they had never even seen, let alone use them. In the Academy, they were still taught shuriken and kunai throwing, but its weightage to the school grade had been greatly reduced, so there were hardly many students who were proficient in weapons anymore. Not that they needed to. Ninjutsu and genjutsu were far more important. These tools were fun to look at, but they would be butter knives compared to powerful ninjutsu like the Chidori or the Rasengan.
"Anything to your liking?" asked Tenten.
"Erm, these are really cool, but we don't really know how to use them…" Inojin rubbed the back of his head nervously, not sure how he could phrase it nicely so it would not hurt her feeling.
"It's not that difficult. I can teach you if you want," said Tenten with a full eye-smile.
As Inojin was still struggling to reject Tenten's sales pitch, Shikadai knew he had to jump in and save his friend.
"No offense, Tenten-san. But these tools are kind of… useless."
Inojin covered his mouth to stop the gasp he was making, while Metal's jaw was on the floor, shakily looked at Tenten who was trying to contain her fury. Shikadai was slightly flustered by his poor choice of word, but he did not have the habit of sugar-coating.
"Now we already have the Scientific Ninja Tools. Who would use these old-fashioned weapons anymore?"
Metal's face turned blue out of fear for his friend. For Tenten, he knew that weapons and tools were her true love. She spent a fortune trying to maintain the shop, despite its abysmal business prospect. What Shikadai just said was something Metal had thought about for a while but did not have the heart to tell her, at least not so bluntly.
"You're right, Shikadai-kun," Tenten calmly responded unlike what Metal had expected. "These weapons are old and are no match for the modern Scientific Ninja Tools that you kids use nowadays."
Tenten held a kusarigama sadly in her hand. Metal was worried she was going to cry.
"But remember this, it's not the weapon that matters but the warrior holding the weapon."
Shikadai narrowed his eyes, unconvinced, "Oh, we've heard this before time and again. But even Denki can defeat us with the Scientific Ninja Tools."
"Shikadai-kun, that's a little…" Metal tried to step in to break them apart.
"Maybe he can defeat you," Tenten shrugged her shoulders mockingly.
"What?" Shikadai angrily clenched his teeth.
Tenten pointed the kusarigama towards the three kids, "Tell you what, let's do a little challenge. You three with your Scientific Ninja Tool against me and my tools. If you win, I will give each of you a hundred free kunai."
"Us three against you?" Metal was shocked with the condition of the challenge. It sounded too generous to be true. Even though they were all Genin, it was three against one. Plus, the Scientific Ninja Tools could easily turn any normal person to be of a Chuunin level ninja.
"And if we lose?"
"Each of you has to buy a special weapon from me. You can't buy just a kunai or a shuriken."
Inojin glanced at the price tag of each special weapon. If they bought them, they could say goodbye to the X-cards collection this month.
"Oy, this month release will have a limited-edition card. I was saving up for that, you know."
"Are you serious? There are three of us and we can't even defeat her? Also, I have the Kote that Boruto lent me earlier," Shikadai pulled up his sleeves to reveal the gauntlet that resembled a giant digital watch.
"Why am I also involved in this?" Metal weakly protested but everyone had already stepped outside the shop for the challenge. It was too late to back out.
Shikadai carefully observed his opponent whose ability was still an unknown. He had loosely heard that she was a weapon specialist, but how would those antiques fare against a ninjutsu attack from the Kote? Why was she so confident to go against three of them? To test water, he made a high jump and ejected a chakra bullet.
"Water Release Bullet: Orca!"
He squeezed the tiny bullet with the size of a pea and a fountain of water spewed out of thin air, raining down on the others. His friends and the weapon kunoichi jumped up to dodge the attack.
"Bakuryuugeki!"
A fire dragon emerged from Tenten's scroll, dived head first into the water pool and quickly dissolved to a cloud of steam, obscuring the vision of the area. As Shikadai was still protecting his face from the heat with his hands, a flying tonfa hurled itself at him, specifically his gauntlet. It was either the gauntlet or his face which would get whacked by the weapon, and in the flash of a few seconds, Shikadai decided that the former would. He heard a loud cracking sound of the glass and knew he probably had to apologize to Boruto later for damaging his device.
"Oh no!" Inojin exclaimed upon hearing that same dreadful sound.
"Hmm, not bad at all," Shikadai mumbled, but he refused to back down so early. Scientific Ninja Tool was not the only ace he had in his hand. "We still haven't lost yet, guys. Let's work together!"
Immediately after the fog cleared, Metal charged in with his taijutsu attacks. He did not even want to be dragged into the game in the first place, but seeing how heated up the match had become, he could not help but join in.
"Metal, like father, like son. You and your father fight exactly the same way," Tenten calmly commented as she matched the pace of the young boy.
"She's on equal speed with Metal?" Inojin was astonished.
"I should have known. She's Guy-san's student after all," Shikadai clicked his tongue in annoyance. It seemed that he had vastly underestimated her.
"Come on, Metal. You gotta do better than this. Your friends are all counting on you, you know," Tenten teased, and Metal was instantly reminded that his friends were watching him intently from behind. All of a sudden, his anxiety came back, freezing his body and turning his powerful kick into a wimpy one. The kunoichi took advantage of the situation and locked his foot down into an iron statue that she summoned from one of her scrolls.
"One down! Who's next?" Tenten turned to face the other two boys.
"Ninpou: Choju Giga!" Inojin speedily scribbled on his scroll and dozens of purplish drawing of oni-like creatures popped out, racing towards Tenten like a horde of hound dogs.
Tenten laid down two large scrolls in front of her and made some hand seals. The creatures disappeared in a puff of smoke as they stepped onto the scroll, and turned back into drawings. Inojin took out his brush, preparing to summon more of them, but he soon found himself holding two halves of a broken scroll as Tenten appeared in front of him and sliced it with her tantou. But her facial expression quickly changed as she noticed the stiffness in her body.
"Okay, stop right there, dragon lady," Shikadai stood at a distance, clutching his fingers in a Rat hand seal. Below Tenten's feet, her shadow had joined together with his. This was the widely feared Shadow Imitation Technique of the Nara clan. If the opponent was caught by the shadow, it was mostly game over. Everyone's face relaxed at the sight of Shikadai succeeding in trapping Tenten with his jutsu.
"Hmm, this is why I said, strong weapons make the user weak. You did not train your ninjutsu enough. If it was your father who performed this, I would have lost here," said Tenten.
She moved her arm. Though it was a slow movement, she managed to resist the binding effect.
"Shikadai's technique didn't work?" A sweaty Inojin was getting nervous at the chance that they would lose their bet.
She doesn't look it, but she's crazy strong. My jutsu is too weak to bind her. – thought Shikadai as he clenched his jaws tightly to expend all his chakra and keep the kunoichi contained.
With the limited movement she had, Tenten reached for the scroll tucked to her hip and spread them on the floor. The weapons sealed inside flew out towards Shikadai, forcing him to cancel his technique and moved away. As soon as the shadow retreated, Tenten took out her kusarigama and lassoed the young Nara boy while he was still on the air avoiding her kunai. With that, Inojin raised his two arms to surrender.
Inojin tearfully looked at his empty wallet and a shiny fuma shuriken that he just bought from Tenten's store.
"It's your fault, Shikadai. If you had watched your mouth, this would not have happened."
"I said I'm sorry and I already bought the most expensive item. What else do you want?" Shikadai pouted. "But seriously, someone that good and I can't believe I never heard much of her."
"Tenten-obasan is strong. Papa has nothing but praise for her," Metal smiled at his friends. He was the only one that did not seem upset about losing the match.
Shikadai glanced at the green ninja whose resemblance to his father was too uncanny that many wondered if the Konoha Wild Beast had come to Orochimaru's laboratory for a request to clone himself. It was not just his eccentric sense of fashion, but also his speech pattern, lanky figure and intensely thick eyebrows. However, the distinct features that only his father possessed – the circular eyes – did not get passed down to Metal. In some way, they made Metal less goofy and better looking than his own father, according to Chouchou. Almond eyes, she called them. Shikadai caught himself somewhat embarrassed at how he was scrutinizing his male friend like a teenage girl, but his teammate's influence was contagious. He would never have noticed otherwise that those eyes looked staggeringly familiar to the eyes of the weapon user who just tricked him into buying a flying guillotine that would probably gather dust in his house.
"Metal…" Shikadai unconsciously uttered his friend's name out loud upon a weird notion arising in his mind.
"Hmm?"
"Has your father ever told you who your mother is?" asked Shikadai with a serious tone.
Inojin turned around, intrigued by the random question.
"Yeah, he mentioned she's a ninja from Kumogakure. They met while he was on a mission, but she did not like the life in Konoha, so they broke up shortly after that," Metal replied neutrally with no emotional bearing on his words.
"Kumogakure? So, you're just like Chouchou?" Inojin stroked his chin pensively.
"Yeah, I guess…" Metal never thought of it that way as he did not see any similarity between him and the Akimichi sassy ninja. Ever since the Fourth Shinobi World War, peace was established between countries, relocation was made much more flexible. It was not uncommon to see an inter-village marriage and their mixed-blood offspring, but they were still the minority. To have two people with the exact origin was even rarer, but unlike Chouchou, Metal did not see Kumogakure as part of his identity.
"Have you ever met your mother?" asked Shikadai.
"No…" Metal trailed off. He knew that his family structure was unusual, but it sounded slightly tragic when being queried that way.
"Your mother never visited you even once for the last twelve years? Now we already have the Thunder Trains, she's just hours away from Konoha and she doesn't bother to?"
Even Inojin started to get uncomfortable with this line of questioning, but knowing his friend, Shikadai was not the type to be mean for no reason.
"Where are you going with this, Shikadai?"
"It sounds insane but…" Shikadai stopped walking and stared at Metal with an expression almost as if he was going for battle, "do you think it's possible that Tenten-san is your mother?"
There was an extended pause, whereby neither of the three kids reacted nor said a word. Time froze momentarily. Metal broke it by a horselaugh.
"That's a good one, Shikadai-kun! A bit too early for April's Fools, though."
Shikadai did not flinch, "I'm not joking, Metal."
Inojin stepped closer to take a good look at Metal's face, which triggered the latter's anxiety once again.
"Stop staring at me like that, Inojin-kun!" Metal covered his face with the grocery bags.
"He does have similar features to her but… I would say that's a stretch to infer that, Shikadai."
"Think about it. Factoring in what your mother said, don't you think it's strange that she withdrew herself from her friends but is still so close to Metal's family? They even invited her for a traditional family hotpot."
"Ino-san? What did she say about Papa?" Metal turned to Inojin.
"She said that your father and Tenten-san used to date, but they had a bad fallout and their breakup changed her a lot."
A flash of revelation went through Metal's head. It was the first time he heard about the history between his father and the weapon specialist, but in some deep dark corner of his mind, he sensed it. Tenten had been the one to replace the missing motherly figure in his life. She was not with him every day, but she was always around when he and his father needed help. He loved and admired her as much as he did his father and from the way his father looked at her, what Inojin just said did not come as a surprise to him. If true, the logical holes that Shikadai just pointed out held some ground.
Nevertheless, there was a bitter pill to swallow if Shikadai was correct. It meant that all these years, he had been living under a false pretence cooked up by two people he loved the most. Even the mentally strongest would find that hard to accept.
"Papa is not a liar," Metal said with absolute conviction that managed to deliver some impact.
"Actually, it's even stranger if Tenten-san is his mother, Shikadai. Why would she hide it from him?" Inojin was rather swayed by Metal's strong reaction.
"Hmm, both stories don't make sense," Shikadai mused. "But the good news is, it's not difficult to find out which one is correct. The only question remains, do you want to know the truth, Metal?"
The truth was that either he had a mother who disappeared out of his life or both of his parents lied to him since the day he was born. Neither was something he was ready to acknowledge. However, the can of worms had already been opened. He could not just forget about the whole thing and happily moved on. He had to know.
"I do. But how do we find that out?"
"Are you talking about a DNA test?" asked Inojin.
Shikadai waved his hand dismissively, "No, that's crazy expensive. We don't have the money for that. We can just do that by looking around at your house, Metal."
"My house? What are we looking for there?"
"Buried treasures," Shikadai smirked and ran off ahead. Metal and Inojin looked at each other with confusion, but followed regardless.
As Metal turned the handle on his apartment door, he was glad to notice it was locked, as this would mean his father was not home and he could have more time to do some digging. He unlocked the door and invited his two friends inside.
"What time will your father be back?" asked Shikadai while looking outside to check the brightness of the sky.
"Probably in another hour. We have to hurry."
Shikadai clasped his hands to start the motor running, "Let's start looking. Does your father keep a photo album or something like that?"
Metal shook his head and pointed at a few framed pictures around the house, "Besides those that he put there and there, I don't think I have seen a photo album before."
There was one large portrait of the war hero Might Guy, in a 'nice guy' pose, pasted in their living room, like some sort of idol worship. There were a couple more pictures on top of the shelf of Team Guy when they were Genin, Chuunin and Jounin, in which the last one was missing a fourth member. Lastly, on the bedside table were the serial photos of Metal and his father, showing the boy's gradual growth – from a toddler to himself today. No clues of his mother were found.
"This is bizarre. Not even one photo of your mother?" Shikadai once again had to ask the tough question. "What about the storage room?"
Metal walked towards the back of the kitchen, "It's here."
They peeped at the storage closet about the size of a small bathroom. Most were the average household items that were not commonly used like toolbox or old books, stacked untidily against one another. There was no particular order to where the items were placed. In addition, the air was becoming misty with dust the moment Metal opened the door. The job no longer seemed as easy as Shikadai had expected.
"What are we looking for now?" Inojin placed two hands on his hip and glared at the dark storage mess unenthusiastically.
"Anything unusual. Mementos, old items, things that could help us build a backstory."
With that, the search began. For every ten minutes, an idea from someone surfaced and quickly got shut down by the mastermind.
"Lee-ojichan owns a lot of nunchakus and I've seen nunchaku from Tenten-san's shop. There must be some linkage here," was suggested by Inojin.
"The link is that they're teammates. Nothing strange about it," Shikadai face-palmed on his forehead, frustrated at how the suggestions kept getting worse, as if they were all grasping for straws.
"Oh, this weapon is so strange. I don't think I've seen this before," Metal pulled out a giant cleaver-like blade with long hilt and hinges along the blade, which could fold it into third.
"I've seen that. Karui-obasan has one too. It's a common weapon used in Kumogakure," Shikadai dismissed. "Your father could have picked it up during his mission. It doesn't say much."
"This is getting nowhere!" Inojin swung his arms around and toppled the pile of books next to him. Not that it made a difference to the mess in this room.
"Should have brought Chouchou along. She's good at this kind of thing," Shikadai sighed and leaned back against the wall to take a short break. From this angle, the scattered books next to Inojin perfectly aligned themselves, allowing Shikadai to clearly read their titles: Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, The Art of War. Most of them were ancient philosophy books that were long lost in the current generation. He reached out for one of them, out of curiosity.
"Wow, I didn't know Lee-ojichan would read these sophisticated books," Shikadai flipped through the pages that had turned yellow with time. As he turned to the end, a piece of paper flew out and landed on the floor. The three kids put their heads together to see what was stuck in between the old text.
It was a coloured photo of none other than the green ninja in his youthful days, standing next to a brunette kunoichi with the Kumogakure forehead protector on her waist, indicating her origin, and with a baby in her hands. They were standing in a mountainous area filled with grey clouds on the sky and behind them was a monument with the stylized kanji "Lightning". Despite the smiles they both put on their faces for the camera, Shikadai could not help but notice a lingering sadness hidden behind them. He turned to Metal, who seemed to be lost in thought at the moment.
"I guess we have our answer there…" said Inojin after a long heavy silence.
The photo was the evidence clear as day, and yet, Shikadai still could not quiet down the doubting voice inside his head, telling him something was off. Unfortunately, he could not pinpoint what it was exactly that unsettled him. Being the one to come up with the theory, Shikadai knew he would be subjected to confirmation bias, so he took a step back and followed the logics. The photo had mouldy marks which could only come from the passage of time and there was no sign of editing. Most importantly, having heard this from his half-Kumo teammate, the woman was holding a flower bouquet that was especially unique and rare – the blue rose. It was a sacred tradition in Kumogakure to buy a bunch of blue roses as newlyweds; so sacred that the flower was only sold to couples with a marriage certificate signed by the Raikage. This could not have been faked.
Shikadai lowered his head in defeat. It was finally time to accept that he was wrong, "I'm sorry, Metal. You're right. Your father did not lie to you."
Metal did not reply but just focused on the only image he had of his mother. She was not a beauty like Inojin's or Sarada's mother, but she was pleasing to the eyes nonetheless. Her smile was especially gentle, and anyone could have guessed she would be a kind person. What was it that made her decide to not see her son and husband ever? His father may have had his flaws, but it was hard to imagine him doing something so unthinkable that caused her to cut him out of her life. Some part of him was pained by the dark side of his family, and another wondered whether it would be less painful if the opposite was true. A tear started rolling down his cheek and both his friends placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
The New Year dinner was just as warm as Metal had expected, with Tenten, Guy and even the previous Hokage, Kakashi, as an unexpected guest. He seemed to have been dragged over by Guy but enjoyed himself anyway. So did everyone else, except for Metal. His head was filled with questions about his parents, questions that he should have asked years ago. For the entire evening, he kept quiet and amongst the noisy atmosphere created by his father and Guy, it went unnoticed until Tenten started talking to him.
"So, Metal, how's your work as a Genin?"
His mind had wandered some place else, hence he did not even hear the question. Tenten gave Lee a perplexed look and Lee nudged his son.
"Metal, Tenten-obasan just asked you a question."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention," Metal woke up from his trance.
"Are you bothered by something, Metal? You don't look so happy," Tenten looked at the young boy with concern.
"No, no, I'm fine…" Metal waved his hands to avert all the attention away from him, but nobody in the room was convinced by his words.
"Metal, whatever it is that burdens you, you should let it out. Don't bring your baggage to the next year. It's not good luck to start off a new year with worries in your head," Guy raised his beer glass in place of the 'nice guy' pose and winked.
Metal gave himself some time to consider whether to ask his father the question swimming in his head. It would probably reveal a side of his family that he may not necessarily want to know, but not asking them would not make the problem go away. In the end, he decided that knowledge would be better than ignorance.
"Papa, why did my mother leave me?"
Everyone's eyes widened simultaneously at the out-of-the-blue question. Kakashi gave Guy an uneasy look, same as one that Tenten gave her teammate. Breathlessly, they were waiting for a good answer from the taijutsu ninja.
"Why do you ask that, Metal? Did someone bully you…?"
"Just answer my question, Papa," Metal looked up and directly at his father's eyes, with a look of determination and a hint of anger.
"Metal, your mother did not leave you. She's a ninja from Kumogakure and we met when…" Lee proceeded to tell the story that he had told his son a couple times before.
"Then why hasn't she come and visited me? Not even once," Metal interrupted, not wanting to hear the same old story that did not patch up together.
For a moment, Lee seemed to be cornered by his own son's logic and kept quiet.
"Erm, maybe we should get out of the room for you two to talk," Guy uncomfortably signalled to Kakashi and Tenten, but Lee stopped them.
"It's okay, Guy-sensei. I have nothing to hide," Lee glared back at his son with equal intensity. "Metal, your mother and I… we actually had you before we were married."
Metal seemed confused by the implication of what his father just said. Tenten stepped in to explain.
"In the past, having a child out of wedlock was a huge stigma, and this was not accepted by the traditional Lee clan, so there were some conflicts between your mother and your grandparents."
Lee nodded, "They had a huge fight. As a result, your mother returned to Kumogakure and never came back."
Somewhere in his heart, Metal was still hoping that it was just a conflict between his parents and he would be able to resolve it somehow, maybe by sweet-talking with his soft-hearted father. But the issue seemed to run deeper than his capacity. That flickering ray of hope was quickly blown off.
"Did she hate me because of that?" Metal was on the verge of tears.
"No, Metal. She hated our clan for treating her terribly, she hated me for not standing up for her, but she did not hate you," Lee embraced his son tightly, allowing the boy to sob into his jumpsuit. Having seen how sacrificing his friends' mothers could be, it was disheartening to say the least, knowing that his mother did not love him enough to stay with him. After all, Chouchou's and Shikadai's mother must have faced the same issues with restrictive and antiquated clans, but they managed to overcome them. Yet, it would be selfish to expect his mother to sacrifice her happiness for his. It was a dilemma indeed, and Metal did not know who to blame but his own misfortune.
After tucking Metal into bed early for the evening, his guests had already cleaned up the dinner table and were ready to leave, waiting to say goodbye to Lee at the doorway.
"I'm sorry about that. I'm supposed to be the host and…"
"What are you talking about? We're family. No host and guest talk here," said Guy cheerfully as usual as they walked towards a nearby park for a more private conversation.
"I told you this would happen one day," Lee turned to the weapon kunoichi. "Metal would bound to have questions about his mother."
"And you handled it well."
"But I'm not feeling good about this, lying to my own son," Lee looked at her with a serious expression. "Tenten, I think we should tell him the truth."
Tenten's face stayed stoic, "We can't do that."
"Why don't we just tell Metal that it's a top-class secret and he's not supposed to leak it out?"
"And you think a twelve-year-old boy is great on secret-keeping?" Despite Tenten's calmed face, the tension between both had started to escalate.
"If not now, then when will you plan on telling him?"
"When I see that he's mature enough."
Guy stepped in, "I think Metal is mature enough. He's already a Genin, and he learned to beat his own anxiety, and…"
"No, sensei! He's still just a child. It's not his job to handle it," Tenten no longer kept her calm and snapped back when she heard a third person's opinion interfering in their argument.
"Guy, this is between them. Don't butt in," said Kakashi.
"This is concerning Metal, and Metal is family to me as well. Don't tell me to just stand on the sideline!" Guy glared back at his best friend angrily. "And you had a hand in it too, Kakashi. So stop pretending this is just their own affair."
"As a former Hokage, I had a duty back then to protect all Konoha ninja. And I still believe that this was the best course of action to protect Metal-kun."
The four ninjas stood at four corners and exchanged furious glances. Statics were building up so high that some lightning could strike them all right then and there.
"Okay, let's all cool down! It's New Year, right? We wouldn't want to bring the bad mood to the next one," Kakashi eye-smiled and waved his hands around to diffuse the tension.
As the clock stroke twelve, everyone looked away from each other and mumbled a soft 'Happy New Year', but the mood was already dampened. They turned around and went in four different directions.