Konoha Academy :
Training Grounds :
The crowd was hauntingly silent as they watched Uchiha Sasuke walk away, his back rigid, his head bowed in a rare display of defeat.
A belief built over years—nurtured since the very first day of the Academy—crumbled in that singular, fleeting instant.
Sasuke is the best among us.
That was the unspoken law of the classroom. But even as nine-year-old children, the precocious nature of shinobi made them realize a fundamental truth: the "best" had just lost.
Perhaps they had already sensed the outcome; even before the match had begun, a heavy, expectant hush had fallen over the grounds.
Even Sasuke's most vocal fangirls had remained strangely muted, their cheers dying in their throats as they felt the shift in the atmosphere.
Naruto stood alone on the silent training ground. The gossip had died with Sasuke's departure, and Iruka-sensei, looking visibly conflicted and stunned, had followed after the Uchiha boy to offer some form of guidance.
Naruto took in the silence—and the wide-eyed, shifting expressions of his peers—with clear, unblinking eyes.
(...Were they waiting for a final confirmation?) Naruto mused, noting how the air seemed to have been sucked out of the clearing.
The kids couldn't hide the disbelief etched into their faces; even his own friends wore complicated expressions, caught between frienship and the sheer shock of reality.
At that moment, a dark thought flickered through Naruto's mind.
(Should I stick to the plan and beat—no, defeat Kiba and the other boys?) He looked at them, their mouths still slightly agape, then sighed internally, his shoulders relaxing.
(Forget it. They're just kids. There's plenty of time for that later. No need to crush everyone in a single afternoon.)
Naruto slipped his hands back into his pockets and headed toward Shino and the others. As he approached, the heavy silence was finally broken by Shino's level, monotone voice.
"Congratulations, Naruto-kun."
"Huh? What for?" Naruto asked, tilting his head slightly.
"You did it," Shino replied, his hidden eyes fixed on the blonde with unwavering focus. "Defeating Sasuke."
"Yeah... right," Naruto muttered, a small, weary smile playing on his lips.
How many times had Uzumaki Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs that he would defeat Sasuke and become the greatest Hokage? The class had heard it every single day since they were six.
They couldn't even remember how many times that declaration had gone unheard or been dismissed as a nuisance.
But now, faced with the tangible reality of Sasuke on the ground, the realization began to sink in. Shino, ever observant, analyzed the shift in the class's collective psyche in silence.
"You were looking forward to this, weren't you?" Shikamaru asked, his lazy gaze sharper than usual as he leaned against a nearby post.
Naruto looked at him in surprise, but before he could answer, Choji spoke up, pausing mid-chip. "You were distracted since this morning, Naruto-kun. And you even put bandages around your arms and legs just for this fight. You were serious."
"It was just Taijutsu... but yeah," Naruto spoke openly, a genuine sense of accomplishment coloring his tone.
"I finally did it."
As they spoke, memories of their Academy days resurfaced for everyone nearby—the loud, persistent declarations of the "Dead Last" finally manifesting into a reality that none of them could ignore anymore.
The Hokage's Tower :
Gazing into his crystal ball, the Third Hokage sat back in his chair, anticipation flickering in his eyes as he watched the "Young Leaves" spar.
It was a brief respite from the mountain of paperwork that seemed to grow taller with every passing hour.
Sparring had been deliberately delayed at the Hokage's personal instruction. He had wanted to protect the children's morale during the early, fragile days of the Academy.
No one likes to lose, after all, and a defeat too early could stifle a child's growth.
Watching Naruto step forward to stand before Sasuke, the Hokage took a slow, deep drag from his pipe and waited.
Combat was very different from a simple physical assessment—real shinobi fights were never certain, regardless of grades.
(This spar should help them both,) The Hokage thought, watching the two rivals face off.
Just as the Hokage drew on his tobacco pipe, he saw Naruto pull his hands from his pockets and noticed the bandages wrapped tightly around his limbs.
(Odd, Naruto doesn't wear them normally... except for intensive training,) the Old Monkey noted, his eyes narrowing.
When Naruto dropped into a low crouch, the Hokage noticed the glow in his eyes and the unmistakable seriousness on the boy's face.
Suddenly, a powerful surge of chakra rippled through the Academy, striking the Hokage's senses instantly through the scrying. In that moment, recognition—and a deep sense of disbelief—set in.
(With seventy percent of Naruto's chakra locked away suppressing the Kyuubi, the fact that he has achieved this level of output using only the remaining thirty percent is... astonishing,)
Hiruzen thought. He blew a dense cloud of smoke, his mind racing.
(There is also the Kyuubi's chakra interference to consider... and yet, his reserves for that age are already unparalleled.)
Watching the children ready themselves, the Hokage sighed inwardly for the lone survivor of the Uchiha clan.
But what The Hokage truly wanted to see was how Naruto would defeat Sasuke—the process behind the victory. That alone would allow him to judge Naruto's character.
Would he defeat him,
humiliate him,
or show the grace of a leader?
The moment the match began, the Hokage had to widen the view of the crystal ball; otherwise, he would have missed the movement entirely.
At full speed, Naruto closed the distance from Sasuke's right, swept his leg with surgical precision, and dropped him to the ground. Naruto's fist was already poised inches from Sasuke's face before the Uchiha had even finished falling.
"Such progress in just over a month," the Hokage whispered to the empty room. "I have been keeping a close watch, and I even instructed Iruka to use physical assessments to gauge him... but the data from just a month ago was already... outdated."
The speed of his progress was remarkable. It wasn't only his jutsu improving; even his taijutsu had advanced rapidly.
Stupid Monkey realized that if not for the Kyuubi's chaotic interference, Naruto's chakra control would likely already be on par with the village's elite Chunin.
"Naruto's enormous chakra is already an advantage, and he seems gifted in taijutsu too," he mused.
Watching Uchiha Sasuke leave the training ground with a shattered expression, the Hokage sank deep into thought.
(Alas... poor kid... Konoha owes the Uchiha too much. We cannot let him break.)
Having thought it through, the Hokage rose from his seat, donned his iconic red and white robes, and set out to find the last Uchiha.
He was determined to ensure the boy grew up as brilliant as his brother, a true inheritor of the Will of Fire, rather than a victim of his own resentment.
The Nara Estate: The Hidden Alliance :
Sitting in his home office with his long-time friends,
Nara Shikaku, the head of the Nara clan, looked over the scrolls and letters scattered across his desk. The atmosphere was thick with the weight of political maneuvers that would have made a civilian's head spin.
"So?" Inoichi asked, breaking the silence.
"It's going well for now," Shikaku replied, massaging his temples to ward off a headache.
"The clans are showing interest, even if the alliance they're considering is a fragile one. Everyone is walking on eggshells."
"They all seem scared," Choza rumbled, his voice like grinding stones.
"With how the village treated the Uchiha, it's obvious why," Inoichi countered, his tone uncharacteristically sharp.
"Moving without evidence and annihilating a whole clan is totally different from justice. Even if the Uchiha rebelled, the village shouldn't have massacred a whole clan down to the newborns. Executing the troublemakers or even assassinating them in the shadows would have done the job without staining the village's soul."
Shikaku spoke seriously, his eyes dark.
"In the First Shinobi World War, the Second, and even the Third, the Uchiha shed blood and made sacrifices for this village. Even on the night of the Kyuubi's attack, they obeyed orders and remained confined—so that no suspicion would fall on them. They did everything asked of them."
"They were pretty uptight when they were in the Police Force, sure," Choza added, "but Konoha hardly had any internal problems with them around. They kept the peace."
Hearing his friends' words, Shikaku shook his head slowly.
(Only when they are gone will you remember their importance in life,) he thought bitterly. He shifted the topic to the present.
"The Inuzuka and Aburame clans are already on board, along with quite a few minor clans. Only the Hyuga's stance remains unclear. They are still holding back."
"Ugh, they are still stubborn with their neutrality," Inoichi spat.
"After all, they occupy a crucial and irreplaceable role within the Sensor Division," Choza reminded them.
"They feel they are too important to be touched, so they just want to reap the profit without getting implicated in the village's darker politics."
The Nara considered all the factors needed to sway the Hyuga's opinion. He finally remembered a specific wound. "We can use the kidnapping case to bring them on board."
"Didn't the Hokage put a gag order on that?" Choza asked, looking surprised.
"A stubborn clan like theirs would never forget that humiliation," Inoichi said, catching Shikaku's drift. "The demand for the Hyuga clan head's life, and the delivery of the clan head's own twin brother as if he were nothing more than an offering on a plate to avoid war. That rankles them to this day."
"Precisely," Shikaku agreed. "Combine that lingering resentment with subtle pressure—just enough to remind them that standing still and staying neutral could place them next in line after the Senju and the Uchiha. Silence won't save them."
Hearing everyone agree, Shikaku decided to arrange a later meeting with the Hyuga clan head—one where he would pointedly highlight the weaknesses and the growing blindness of the current Hokage's higher-ups.
"How about Danzo?" Shikaku asked, his voice dropping an octave. "Any clues?"
"It's like he has disappeared into thin air... no clue," Inoichi admitted.
"Without the Hyuga clan's Byakugan and their sensor network, it will be difficult to locate that rat from the sewers if he doesn't want to be found," Choza grumbled.
The Nara clenched his fist, then loosened it with a heavy sigh. "Let's start collecting other things first then. What about the other matters?"
"No clue of Jiraiya-sama either," Inoichi reported. "He's a ghost."
"Tsunade-sama was seen in the West, but that information was from a month ago. Now? No idea where she's moved to," Choza added.
"Do we really need them?" Inoichi asked, looking at Shikaku.
"Their reputation is necessary to stabilize the village and even the other nations," Shikaku replied firmly. "They are symbols. If we move to change things, we need pillars."
"It will be difficult," Choza noted. "Jiraiya-sama does not want to shoulder any responsibilities... he didn't even stay with Minato after the Fourth took office."
"Tsunade-sama's condition is not okay either," Inoichi reminded them, thinking of her hemophobia and grief.
"We can't stop trying," Shikaku concluded, standing up. "If they consider the village, then they will move. Otherwise, we will move without them. This is merely a formality—to notify them to either interfere in the village's affairs now, or keep their distance as they had all this time. Tsunade-sama… Jiraiya-sama… even Orochimaru. They all left the village because they understood its darkness better than most. I don't think they will interfere, but we must ask."
He looked at his two oldest friends. "Arrange face-to-face meetings with the Inuzuka and Aburame. No letters. We don't leave a paper trail for the ANBU to find."
"Um," Inoichi nodded.
"That's good," Choza agreed.