Chapter 4, Another appears!

Almost three years have passed since Hikaru joined the academy and he was now eight years old. Might Guy has been his mentor even since Iruka convinced Guy to take on a new apprentice. Guy fought hard to get Hikaru to wear the matching uniform but he'd much rather be lightly dressed and not have a full bodysuit. Hikaru still hadn't managed to perform a single jutsu even though he kept feeling his chakra grow stronger inside.

When they had the ninjutsu training he could feel his chakra moving. Hikaru kept trying to convince Iruka-sensei that was the case, but he only thought Hikaru was saying that because he didn't want to be left out.

During these three years Hikaru and his friends had grown stronger bonds with each other. They still met up every single day to train their chakra and their taijutsu. Guy was personally mentoring Hikaru but sometimes helped the common-three as well with their hand-to-hand combat. The four of them had risen in the ranks of their class. They were all in the top 10 of their class nowadays. Hikaru wasn't in the top 10 in all categories of course but his taijutsu made up for him being behind in the ninjutsu department.

Mirai still didn't treat him very well, she mainly ignored him really but it didn't bother Hikaru too much as long as she stayed out of his path. The day he passed her in taijutsu she was pissed at him but she had learned to accept it by now. This day however, neither of them were the main focus. For today they had a new student introduced.

"I'm Hoshine Natsuhi from Hoshigakure, pleased to meet you!" The class was met with a seemingly strict tall girl with purple hair and brown eyes. Her face was completely stale as she made her way over to the middle row right in front of Hikaru. "What's Hoshigakure Iruka-sensei?" asked one of the students.

Iruka smiled at Natsuhi and said with a gentle voice "It's one of the smaller villages which cooperate with Konoha to train their young ones. Natsuhi here has been trained in the basics of their own jutsus but is now ready for a broader education."

Natsuhi didn't really seem interested at all during any of the classes. Her chakra control was incredible but refused to take any notes when Iruka told her how to improve. Her ninjutsus required some work but that's mainly because those are new to her. Her taijutsu was below par but maybe that also was because she wasn't putting the effort in. Tsukune was furious.

"How can you be so talented but not care at all about improving? It's like Guy-sensei says, you need the gift of perseverance as well!" Tsukune was almost yelling at his friends at how mad he was and even though Natsuhi obviously heard him, she simply ignored it and sat down on the grass.

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A couple of days later Guy-sensei was occupied. Apparently the big wedding with the entire country's hero was just around the corner. With no one to force them to work until they dropped, Sansho came up with the brilliant idea to mess with the higher ups now that everyone was busy preparing for the wedding. "What if..we pour paint all over the Hokage stone faces? That's sure to make some of them annoyed at the least" He snickered at the thought

"Should we really go that far? Isn't the third's statue at the academy enough?" Mibuna added to try and bring him down to the ground. She didn't really like all of the pranks Tsukune, Sansho and Hikaru was up to. She wasn't all that against it either of course, she always had a good laugh afterwards. "Don't be such a coward Mibuna! We already have the paint right here!"

Tsukune brought forward four buckets of paint with a wide cheeky grin on his face. "If we're quick tonight they'll never know it was us anyway!" Mibuna took a long time to think it through and eventually Hikaru nudged her with his elbow and chuckled a little. Mibuna couldn't keep a straight face, and with a small gentle smile she agreed.

---Later that night---

It was now pitch-black outside, only some streets were still lit up but they were a bit away from the monument where the gang was currently standing ready with their buckets. They had agreed beforehand that the first three Hokages got one bucket each and the next three got to share one. The first three were the one with the most backing after all, they were the ones who had used the advantage these four commoners never had.

When they had tied a rope around their waist it was time to do some damage! "Three, two, one…GO!" They all jumped at the same time. Hikaru was in charge of the third hokage and actually felt a kind of joy when he splashed all of the pink paint on his face.

He only spared enough to write 'clanpeeps' on the forehead and then pulled himself up. It was only when they all got back up again someone apparently noticed them and sent some ninjas after them.

"Run!" Tsukune yelled and they split up, it was understood that their meeting spot was where they always trained. Hikaru ran towards a nearby river and hid by a couple of trees. After just a couple of seconds he saw the ninja sent to find him.

She had dark blue hair and as she was fairly close he could see that her eyes were all white with massive bulging veins appearing around them. "I can see you, you know. These eyes can see your chakra even if you hide behind a tree."

She was talking in a confusingly calm and gentle voice and when he walked out from the trees and came up in front of her he noticed that she was smiling at him, almost as if she was remembering something happy.

However when she snapped out of the memory she stared at him in a confused and worried manner "What's going on with your chakra young boy?"