I watch him, you know. I watch Kaito all the time, and not just because he's our team leader or because he's strong or whatever else people see when they look at him. I watch him because I want to understand. I want to know what drives a person to carry so much, to shoulder burdens that aren't even his to bear, and still walk as if the weight is nothing.
He doesn't have to say it out loud. I know I'm a liability. Daichi and I, we're just not at his level. We're like two fledgling birds, still unsure of our wings, following the flight of an eagle. But that eagleᅳKaitoᅳnever leaves us behind. He promised to carry us through the Chuunin Exams, and carry us he has, despite it being against all odds and reason.
The match against Neji was a near thing, a fight that even some of the most experienced genin would hesitate to take on. And yet, he fought. He fought with a kind of fervor, a drive that comes from somewhere deeper than just the desire to win. Later, he told us it was a contract, not a favor. But contracts don't make you push past your limits, do they? Contracts don't make you fight until you're spitting blood and can barely stand.
And what about the Grass Genin? What contract bound him to them? They were just unlucky souls who had crossed paths with Orochimaru, the monster who could make even the bravest shinobi quake in fear. They would have been mere collateral damage in the grand scheme of things. Bad for business, he said. But is that all there is to it? Just a business decision?
I saw him then, worn to his last shred, nearly collapsing from exhaustion and chakra depletion. If he was so concerned about business, why would he risk himself to that extent? He pushed himself to the very edge, nearly breaking. But he didn't break. Kaito never breaks. That's not what he does.
Then came the finals. Sasuke Uchiha. Another prodigy, another battle that could have gone either way. I watched as they fought, the air thick with tension and chakra, their techniques almost too fast to follow. And once again, he won. Not just the fight, but something more. He won a kind of...redemption. For himself, for us, for everyone he's carried along the way.
He looked up, locked eyes with me and Daichi, and in that moment, the weight lifted. All those times he could've fallen but didn't, all those times he could've let us fall but didn'tᅳthey culminated in that single glance. And in that glance, I saw something new: not just the hard, unyielding drive that always propels him forward, but something softer, more vulnerable. Gratitude, maybe, or relief. Perhaps even love, in his own complex, convoluted way.
I still don't fully understand what drives Kaito. Maybe it's a blend of ambition, responsibility, and something elseᅳsomething that doesn't have a name, something that's as complicated and paradoxical as he is. But whatever it is, it's unbreakable. And so are we, as long as we're bound to him.
He's carried us this far. Through battles, through trials that would have broken lesser teams. He's carried us, and in doing so, he's carried himself to places none of us could have ever imagined.
Kaito keeps his promises. And because of that, we're all still hereᅳstill fighting, still striving, still bound by unbreakable chains. And somehow, in some inexplicable way, those chains feel like freedom
He doesn't have to say it out loud. I know I'm a liability. Daichi and I, we're just not at his level. We're like two fledgling birds, still unsure of our wings, following the flight of an eagle. But that eagleᅳKaitoᅳnever leaves us behind. He promised to carry us through the Chuunin Exams, and carry us he has, despite it being against all odds and reason.
The match against Neji was a near thing, a fight that even some of the most experienced genin would hesitate to take on. And yet, he fought. He fought with a kind of fervor, a drive that comes from somewhere deeper than just the desire to win. Later, he told us it was a contract, not a favor. But contracts don't make you push past your limits, do they? Contracts don't make you fight until you're spitting blood and can barely stand.
And what about the Grass Genin? What contract bound him to them? They were just unlucky souls who had crossed paths with Orochimaru, the monster who could make even the bravest shinobi quake in fear. They would have been mere collateral damage in the grand scheme of things. Bad for business, he said. But is that all there is to it? Just a business decision?
I saw him then, worn to his last shred, nearly collapsing from exhaustion and chakra depletion. If he was so concerned about business, why would he risk himself to that extent? He pushed himself to the very edge, nearly breaking. But he didn't break. Kaito never breaks. That's not what he does.
Then came the finals. Sasuke Uchiha. Another prodigy, another battle that could have gone either way. I watched as they fought, the air thick with tension and chakra, their techniques almost too fast to follow. And once again, he won. Not just the fight, but something more. He won a kind of...redemption. For himself, for us, for everyone he's carried along the way.
He looked up, locked eyes with me and Daichi, and in that moment, the weight lifted. All those times he could've fallen but didn't, all those times he could've let us fall but didn'tᅳthey culminated in that single glance. And in that glance, I saw something new: not just the hard, unyielding drive that always propels him forward, but something softer, more vulnerable. Gratitude, maybe, or relief. Perhaps even love, in his own complex, convoluted way.
I still don't fully understand what drives Kaito. Maybe it's a blend of ambition, responsibility, and something elseᅳsomething that doesn't have a name, something that's as complicated and paradoxical as he is. But whatever it is, it's unbreakable. And so are we, as long as we're bound to him.
He's carried us this far. Through battles, through trials that would have broken lesser teams. He's carried us, and in doing so, he's carried himself to places none of us could have ever imagined.
Kaito keeps his promises. And because of that, we're all still hereᅳstill fighting, still striving, still bound by unbreakable chains. And somehow, in some inexplicable way, those chains feel like freedom