“OOOOH!” the students could be heard making noises.

“Yes Yamazaki-sensei we’ll be on our way,” Kenji smirked. “Time for your punishment, Kazuo.”

The two boys left the classroom and then walked to the Sage’s office with Kenji leading the way. The remaining children in the class especially the girls started gossiping as to why the two boys had been summoned. Hideo wasn’t having it so he quickly silenced them in one shout before proceeding to begin the lesson. When Kazuo and Kenji arrived at the Sage’s office the latter gently knocked on the door.

“Enter,” came the raspy voice from inside.

Kenji opened the door and the two boys were welcomed by the Sage and Natsumi. Kenji’s smile turned upside down when he spotted his cousin’s katana on Natsumi’s side.

“Where’s Brother Ken?”

Natsumi quickly rushed over to Kenji and gave him a tight hug. “I’m so sorry Kenji-kun,” she said as tears began running down her cheeks.

“No…” Kenji replied with a devastated look. “You were together on a mission weren’t you Sister Natsumi? Why is he not with you?” he further questioned as tears began to fall down his own cheeks as well.

“Kazuo-chan, let us give these two a moment for a bit,” the Sage hinted at his grandson for them to go outside. As they walked Kazuo was only thinking the worst. How was he going to explain what he had done to his grandfather?

Thoughts of being banished again also ran through Kazuo’s mind and he wondered where he would go this time. When they were outside the Sage closed the door and began to speak.

“Kazuo there is something I need to talk to you about,” said Kazutaka stroking his long and white chin beard. He always discarded of the –chan honorific whenever he was being serious. “We received a messenger bird from the Fire village at day break. They were attacked by the shadow ninja yesterday…”

Kazuo sighed in relief. “Wait what? Are hahaoya (my mother) and oyaji (old man) okay?”

“That part I am uncertain as the letter does not state any much further.”

“Shit. I know I said I never wanted to see them again but I hope they’re alright.”

“So what’s the way forward old man?” Kazuo asked breaking the short silence.

“I wanted us to send a team of ninja to gather Intel and find out what took place and why the village was attack. However most of our graduates are out on other missions,” replied Kazutaka. “Would you be alright with going to the Fire village with two other ninja from your class?”

“Yeah sure ojiichan…who?”

“Takumi and Mikoto…the two of them are the closest to graduates we have in this village.”

“Not those two.”

“Alright ojiichan…what can I say,” said Kazuo trying to hide his obvious disappointment. “I’m guessing that’s all, so I’ll be off then.”

“Not so fast Kazuo…I heard about what you did today and I could tell you thought I had called you for that,” Kazutaka laughed out loud as he stroked his beard. “Go and wait for me at the training room.”

Kazuo shyly placed a hand behind his head and apologized. When he was sternly told not to repeat what he had done he bid his grandfather farewell and took his leave. Kazutaka returned to his office after confirming that Natsumi and Kenji had quieted down a bit. Natsumi had gently broken the devastating news to Kenji who after a while accepted it and hugged her back. Everyone knew that death was commonplace for shinobi. Kazutaka offered his condolences to Kenji and although still pained by the loss of his cousin he expressed his gratitude to the Sage.

“Ken would’ve wanted you to have this Kenji-kun,” said Natsumi taking out the katana and offering it to Kenji.

“I don’t think I’m ready to wield that blade yet Sister Natsumi,” Kenji wiped the tears off his face. “I will take it when I’m worthy to wield it and until then may you please hold onto it for me.”

“Alright then,” Natsumi replied before facing Kazutaka. “Lord Sage, we’ll be off then.”

She bid farewell to the Sage and took Kenji out for a walk. Before the two boys had arrived in his office Kazutaka and Natsumi had been discussing what had occurred during the mission. He assured her that Ken and Gen’s bodies would be retrieved and brought back to the village. A ninja was still as valuable whether alive or dead even more so with the latter. Bodies of highly skilled shinobi and rōnin were the most valuable as they held many secrets about that shinobi and their abilities. When Natsumi and Kenji left his office Kazutaka went to the training room to meet with Kazuo who was waiting for him. Along the way he was thinking of what could have occurred in the Fire village and why it was attacked.

“You may be wondering as to why I asked you to wait here Kazuo-chan,” were the first words he uttered upon entering the training room.

“Yeah I thought maybe it’s for training or something,” Kazuo retorted holding his chin.

“Well not quite, you may be my grandson but I still have to treat you like everyone else. What you did is worthy of expulsion but I have decided to give you a punishment far worse!” he paused for a moment. “Now then give me one hundred pushups.”

“A hundred pushups you say?” Kazuo blurted out loud interrupting his grandfather. “That’s easy old man.”

“I was not finished yet, not just any pushups but rather Hindu pushups.”

“Shit I’m fucked. I’ve heard about those from Rohan-sensei, he said next to one arm these are the worst.”

“By your silence I am guessing you do not know how these are done. I shall demonstrate once.”

Kazutaka showed his grandson how the Hindu pushups were done. Kazuo struggled to get through the first ten. His arms were starting to ache and tremble.

“What are you doing? We are just starting and you have ninety more to go!”

“Hey old man this shit isn’t easy.”

“If it was easy it would not be punishment now would it? Get back to it and stop wasting time.”

Kazuo resumed the strenuous task. Some minutes elapsed and he was now halfway and sweating profusely. Kazutaka kept on ordering Kazuo to continue each time he stopped for a moment to catch his breath. When forty minutes had passed since Kazutaka entered the room Kazuo had completed the hundred Hindu pushups. His grandfather then requested a further one hundred sit ups and squats from him which all in all took him an hour to complete. At this point Kazuo looked as if he had just got out of a river.

“That will be all-”

“That’s it right?” Kazuo rushed in trying to get up with his hands which felt like they were made of jelly. “I’m done with this shit.”

“That was only the warm up,” Kazutaka continued before clearing his mouth. “Shall we head over to the main event?”

“Oh man,” Kazuo grunted in annoyance.

The young boy got up with much difficulty and was escorted by his grandfather to the school’s assembly pointed where two buckets and a long bamboo stick awaited them. The students’ classroom was at a vantage point to where the assembly point was, this meant that all the students could clearly see Kazuo and his grandfather from the first floor windows. Kazutaka instructed Kazuo to fill the buckets with water from a nearby sōzu (water fountain). After placing a bucket on either side of the stick he was further instructed to raise the stick whilst it was tied to his hands. Kazuo grunted as his legs started wobbling. He observed his grandfather going to stand under the shade of a nearby tree with his hands behind his back.

“Now then Kazuo-chan…give me one hundred squats.”

 “A h-hundred w-what?” Kazuo murmured trying to hold the stick steady. “You can’t be serious ojiichan.”

No response came from Kazutaka. He was dead serious and Kazuo came to that realization sooner rather than later. Kazuo began his punishment counting each squat throughout the whole ordeal. The warm up in the training room paled in comparison to this. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and the sun’s scorching heat was so unbearable that it made the exercise tenfold as difficult.

“T-twenty two…t-twenty t-three…” Kazuo grunted to himself whilst dripping bucketsful of sweat.

“Damn man,” Haru thought as he stared at his friend through the window. “Kazuo is out there serving punishment for the both of us while I’m here.”

There was a rumble of voices in the classroom especially from the girls who had come to the conclusion that the pervert from that morning was Kazuo.

“Shhh quiet down everyone, we’re still in class,” Hideo ordered his students. He looked around the classroom and spotted Haru lost in a world of his own. “Earth to Mr. Haru you seem to be lost in wonderland.”

Haru jolted back into reality, “Y-yes sir.”

“Would you care to answer this arithmetic question?” asked Hideo. “What is the square root of negative one?”

“I-I,” Haru stuttered.

“Correct!” exclaimed Hideo quickly before Haru could say any further.

Takumi and Mikoto laughed.  

Several minutes elapsed and Kazuo was now in the seventies looking like he had jumped into a pool full of water for the second time. He kept on enduring through the pain with only one goal in mind, reaching one hundred. His wrists, back and thigh muscles now felt like they had been stung by a dozen wasps.

“N-ninety eight, ninety n-nine…” Kazuo struggled but summed up the last bit of energy he still had. “O-one H-hundred!” he fell to the ground feeling though as he had lost all sensory of his limbs. He was still conscious but couldn’t move an inch so he lay there on the ground next to the buckets with water pouring out of them. The sun was still up in the sky but not as hot as before because it was now hidden behind a few clouds that had gathered up. Kazuo had taken close to an hour to complete the punishment.

“Well done,” Kazutaka applauded. He rose from a small wooden chair he had picked up from nearby whilst his grandson was still busy with the punishment. “That will be all Kazuo-chan. I do hope we will not have a repeat of what occurred this morning.”

Not a single word came from the young lad on ground. He just lay there and stared at his grandfather.

“You know it is not what you did that got you punished. Because almost every pubescent shōnen (boys) fantasizes about that,” Kazutaka said walking towards his grandson at a steady pace. “It is that unfortunately you got caught. If you had been in a mission in enemy territory you would have been killed.”

Kazutaka kneeled on the ground with one knee and offered a hand to Kazuo, “There are three tenets we Lightning shinobi have and if you follow these you will never go wrong. One, never be defiled by money. Two, never be defiled by sake (rice wine). And lastly never be defiled by women or men with the case of kunoichi. Not only does money, sake and sex cloud one’s judgment they are also fuel for the ego and a ninja filled with ego is an easy opponent to defeat.”

That short speech went right over the young Inazuma boy’s head. Kazutaka chuckled to himself and helped raise his grandson with the young lad’s arm over his shoulder. Kazuo’s legs were so wobbly he could barely move so his grandfather gave him a piggyback ride to his room.

“Alright I guess I will have to carry you to your room Kazuo-chan,” the Sage smiled staring up at the clouds in the sky.

Kazutaka left his grandson to rest. It was now lunch time so he made his way to Hideo’s classroom and notified him of what had occurred. He told the teacher about Kenji’s loss and the attack on the Fire village.

“On that last note Hideo-kun I’ll also be requesting Takumi and Mikoto to accompany Kazuo to the Fire village to investigate what exactly transpired and why.”

“Understood Lord Sage,” Hideo replied. “Those two are at the top of my class. I’ll be sure to talk to them about the mission.”

“You have my gratitude Hideo-kun,” Kazutaka thanked him. “Please ensure that they are alright with it, this is a level B mission.”

“Noted Lord Sage…”

With that the two men bid each other farewell and Kazutaka returned to his office. When lunch was over Hideo resumed his last class. Before the lecture began he notified the students the reason for Kenji’s absence and they were all devastated.  When the last lecture for the day began time flew by so quickly that it was now dismissal.

“Okay everyone that’s all for today,” Hideo announced and before the students could race out of the classroom he added, “Will Mikoto and Takumi remain behind and as for the rest of you…class is dismissed.”

Hideo remained behind with his top two students and got them up to speed with what the Sage had told him. They were both filled with great joy at the thought of their first level B mission.

“Oh and you will be going with the Sage’s grandson…Kazuo.”

“WHAAAAT!?” Mikoto exclaimed. “The pervert!”

Hideo face palmed and let out a sigh.

“I should’ve known they’d react like this.”

“So I’m guessing you’re not okay with going with him?”

“Absolutely not!” Mikoto rushed in. “He was caught peeping in the girls’ bath this morning.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m for or against it,” Takumi added more calmly. “I mean he does know the place and the Lord Sage must have a reason for picking him. We may not see eye to eye but that really doesn’t matter. All that matters now is the mission.”

“Exactly Takumi-kun,” Hideo commended. “You catch on real quick!”

“That’s something I didn’t consider,” Mikoto said in a low voice but the other two heard her. “Well if it’s for the mission then I guess I’m fine with it. But if he tries anything funny may I have permission to beat his ass?”

Hideo burst into laughter.

“Permission granted Mikoto-chan,” Hideo smiled.

The two students said their goodbyes to their teacher and then went to the Sage’s office.

“Takumi, Mikoto…good afternoon and welcome,” Kazutaka greeted them. “I am sure your sensei Hideo has briefed you on the mission to the Fire village. I would like to confirm that you are okay with accompanying my grandson. This is a level B Intel gathering mission and when you have completed it you are to report back here.”

“Hai!” they both agreed simultaneously.

“Alright then if you are both in agreement you can proceed to pack whatever you may need and we shall rendezvous here tomorrow morning.”

“Yes Lord Sage,” they said again.

Mikoto and Takumi each went to their rooms and packed their things in preparation for the trip. The next day Mikoto bid her best friend and roommate Kohaku farewell and then met up with the Sage and Takumi already waiting for her. The trio then went to Haru and Kazuo’s room. They found the latter alone and about to finish packing his satchel. The eight hour rest, some yoga stretches and a shower had done his body a great deal of good. He had already said his goodbyes to his friend Haru before he left the room.