The Hokage waited atop the tower his office stood in. He sat with his arms folded in meditation, as he focused his abilities to sense chakra. It had been far too long since he had trained this part of his skills.
He waited and began to feel the world around him in the chakra. Civilians moved below like guttering candle signatures. He could feel the shinobi in the tower and around the town like fireflies moving through the light.
He felt for something moving, something weak.
And found it. Then it was gone. Then again, and gone.
His body tensed as his mind processed what he could sense and plan.
There!
He moved off as quickly as slightly arthritic limbs would allow him, trying his best to focus on where the flickers of movement were coming from.
He didn't follow directly. If Naruto was good, he'd know if he was being trailed. The Hokage wasn't the Hokage for no reason, and his mind soon had it worked out.
There was a pattern to the movement. He followed the pattern forwards, adjusted his movements and stopped on the rooftop as the figure landed on the other side.
He couldn't tell for sure, but it looked distinctly surprised to find him waiting there. He marvelled at the way the small stature blended into the shadows on top of the building. The hood was completely up and the face was hidden inside the darkness of the hood. He caught the slight ripple of the cloak behind in the breeze.
"How did you know Hokage-sama?"
"Know what Uzumaki-kun?"
"Where I was going. Then get there before me without me noticing you."
He smiled.
"I'm the Hokage, give me some credit. First off, I can sense chakra. I must say you're very good at concealing your chakra signature given what you contain."
The figure seemed to shrug, it was difficult to tell given he was barely visible in the dark.
"Necessary skill."
"Indeed. From what I could sense, you were doing a rough loop around the edges of Konoha. You're avoiding some areas though. Mainly the Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Aburame districts. So I worked out this was a pinch point in your root between two of the compounds. Then I saw the rooftops you could have chosen and went for the one with the second-most cover."
There was quiet as the breeze whispered through the rooftops of Konoha.
"You're good. Who taught you?"
"I'm nearly seventy years old. You pick up some of this stuff as you go. The most covered building is almost always well guarded, so you take the second best. Nobody properly guards it."
"Indeed. Can I go?"
"Not yet. I am the Hokage, and whilst I know Danzo keeps little secrets like you from everyone else, I know a lot about you. For example, you are twelve years old. You have so far performed eleven missions which would be ranked B-C rank in the standard system, each of them being an assassassination mission. Although none of them involved contact with shinobi above chunin level, and the target each time had no shinobi training."
The figure shrugged.
"I guess I'm good at what I do."
"Specialism in long range, ambush and stealth."
"What kind of idiot charges in blindly?"
There was silence again as Hiruzen contemplated the question.
"A dead one."
It wasn't immediately obvious, but he could have sworn the figure smiled. He just couldn't pierce the darkness under the hood with his gaze.
"Can I go now?"
"I have an offer for you."
"Not a mission?"
The tone sounded disappointed.
"I'll be plain. As it stands, you are very good at what you do. But you lack several things that I think you'll want in future that you can only really have when you're young."
"Such as?"
Now it was confused.
"Friends? Free time? The feeling of the sun and wind on your face?"
"I know of these things, but do I truly need them?"
"As it stands, you will spend your whole life in the darkness. I want you to spend some of it in the light."
The figure moved slightly forwards out of the darkness. The bottom of the face under the hood was only just visible in the half-light and shadow across it. The mouth was expressionless, but the whisker marks were there.
Oh the whisker marks, he'd forgotten about those.
'Just like when I took him from the orphanage and left him in Danzo's care. I should have done more in his life.'
"So you offer me the chance to gain things I have not yet had?"
"Yes."
"I've never found feelings to be that useful on missions. They mess up my breathing pattern when I'm aiming and distract me. Will they make me better?"
Hiruzen shrugged.
"It's your choice. But I'd rather you took it Naruto-kun. You can always return to your old ways if you don't like it. What do you say?"
There was a long pause.
The cloaked figure moved into a ray of light that shone from the full moon that had risen over Konoha. The moon-shadow behind him swayed in the breeze as he pushed the hood back behind his head.
Blonde hair, cropped short but still somehow spiky adorned his head. The face was almost entirely emotionless, the lips a thin flat line under his nose.
Hiruzen sighed as he took the image in. The eyes, of course the eyes as well. Well, the single eye he could see.
In the silver moonlight, one eye was a pool of cerulean blue that shimmered like a sapphire in the light. The other eye was covered by a strip of black cloth much like the one Kakashi wore. He wondered what was under it briefly.
"I accept. Do I go to the academy for their graduation tomorrow?"
"Not exactly. You won't be in a traditional team as such. With your skill set, putting you into the normal genin mould won't work. As such, you'll be shadowing the genin teams as they go on missions. Intervening as you see fit. Eventually the teams will be informed of your presence and you can interact as much as you want to. Report to the mission room at midday in two days. Try not to be spotted."
The figure smiled.
"I will be there. If you can spot me."
He stepped back into the darkness on the building and pulled the hood back over his head.
"May I go now?"
"Yes. It's been nice to see you again Naruto-kun, or at least one of your shadow clones."
"How did you know?"
"I've pulled the shadow clone replacement trick so many times I can recognise it very fast young Naruto. So go on and dispel to relay your conversation with the actual you."
He suspected the figure nodded before it was gone again, a patch of shadowy darkness moving from roof to roof to find a better place to dispel.
His brain churned as it thought about the encounter. Was he really doing the right thing? What would Minato think of his actions?
He sat on the roof and looked up towards the moon.
'Well Minato-kun, I hope I have. I really do. Hopefully he'll become great like you were.'
He sat in the mission room as the remainder of the desk-chunin left the room after finishing their scribing and recording of the days events.
His eyes were fixed on the clock that hung on the far wall above the entrance. The steady tick of the clock came with the second hand inexorably climbing towards the twelve.
It reached midday and kept going, as time is want to do. Hiruzen waited a few seconds as he reached out his senses into the room. He smiled.
"Come out Naruto-kun."
Naruto dropped lightly from the rafters of the high ceiling and landed before him.
"Hokage-sama."
"How long have you been there?"
"Since the briefing two nights ago. I can wait."
Hiruzen silently marvelled at the patience of the boy before him. ANBU specialists had been known to hold a position silently for hours, Jiraiya had boasted a week to him when they met up, but he was an expert spymaster.
"Nobody looked?"
"It's amazing how many people don't look at the ceiling Hokage-sama."
"And if they had?"
"I had a light genjutsu up, not so much to disguise me but enough to make them not notice me, or at least not want to."
He nodded. His eyes took in the appearance of the young man. He was still wearing the cloak, although it was now a blotched brown. He realised it was blending with the background as he saw it.
A strap crossed his chest, the vague shape of a crossbow on his back. A strap for another weapon was also there.
"Interesting. Your first task is to shadow a team as they take part in their Jonin sensei's exam. It's out on training ground seven. Come back with a verbal report of what you see."
"Hai."
Naruto walked up the walls and left via a roof window. Hiruzen smiled as he brought out his pipe with deft, practised movements at odds with the arthritis that had been building in his fingers.
'This way I should get to hear whether Kakashi has passed this team before he comes to report. And I'll know if I can collect my winnings.'
He puffed gently on the pipe and relaxed. With the missions handed out, he could afford an hour or two's gentle relaxation before the paperwork started to come back in.
Naruto moved quickly from rooftop to rooftop. Civilians barely looked up, and other ninja only used the rooftops if they were in a hurry. That meant they weren't paying attention, and Naruto could hide away without being spotted with ease.
He approached the training grounds and took to the heavy woods that were around ground 7 to survey the test as it took place. He got to a high branch, lay down on it, pulled the cloak over him as it took on the appearance of the leaves, and closed his visible eye and whispered.
"Byakugan."
...
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