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"How did the bell test go?"
"They passed with flying colours. And they would have passed on their own even without the assignment order."
"That is good to hear. But I suspect you didn't come here just to deliver that."
"It's a report on Naruto."
Hiruzen paused. He had ordered weekly reports on any new findings unless something urgent emerged. The fact that Kakashi was here the same day as the bell test suggested the latter. He made a gesture toward the corner of the room and his ANBU operative flickered out without a word.
Several minutes later Inoichi Yamanaka walked through the door to find the Hokage and the Copy Ninja reading the icha-icha book while having nose bleeds.
Inoichi cleared his throat.
"Ah." Hiruzen closed the book and wiped his nose. "Thank you for coming on short notice. Please sit."
Inoichi gave Kakashi a nod as he took the chair across the desk.
"Now then," Hiruzen said, settling into the posture of the Hokage. "What did you want to report, Kakashi?"
Kakashi went through the report methodically. When he was done, Hiruzen used his vast knowledge of ninjutsu to figure out the Force miracle. He could not. Inoichi approached the bell test from a psychological angle, less interested in what Naruto had done than in what the choices behind it suggested about where the boy's head currently was.
"Thoughts?"
"Good or bad," Inoichi said.
"I could use some good news."
"The good is that Naruto is engaging with his teammates. He protected Sakura without being asked to, gave strategic leadership without ego behind it, and demonstrated enough trust to work with people he had no prior positive relationship with. That is a healthier social pattern than anything in his academy file."
"I'm glad Naruto isn't as far gone as we feared," Kakashi said.
"That also leans into the bad news," Inoichi said. "My previous assessment of him could be entirely wrong, partially wrong, or right in ways I cannot say. It is genuinely difficult to say from where we are standing." He paused. "The shift in his stated dream alone, from Hokage to whatever the Chosen Undead means, tells me something significant happened to him. Something that reoriented him at a foundational level. But I can't tell you when, where, or what it actually was."
"You look like you have something on your mind, Inoichi."
"The honest answer is that we aren't looking at the full picture. We are looking at behavior, mysteries and drawing conclusions from it. And any conclusion we reach right now will be shaped by what we want to see rather than what is actually there."
The office was quiet for a moment.
"It is not good to overthink things," Hiruzen said lighting his pipe. "Let's just observe and answers shall reveal themselves in time."
Kakashi nodded and said, "One more thing, I arrived early and observed the trio before I made my presence known."
"When exactly did you plan to mention the surveillance?" Inoichi joked.
"I am mentioning it now." Kakashi continued without particular concern. "Naruto told Sakura he had picked his zweihander up from a corpse while being chased by skeletons."
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
Skeletons.
His mind went immediately to the Edo Tensei.
"Reanimated corpses with chakra and the possibility of an unknown variant of a forbidden jutsu."
"Or," Inoichi said, following the same thread from a different direction, "something analogous to Suna's puppet techniques. Chakra strings used to animate skeletal remains rather than constructed puppets."
"Either way," Kakashi said, "Naruto described his greatsword as the thing that got him out of the encounter. And the sword that killed Mizuki was broken sometime between that incident and this morning."
"The ANBU reported nothing happening," Inoichi said.
"I know."
The office sat with that for a few minutes.
"A summoning realm," Hiruzen said slowly. He had been turning it over since the mizuki incident and it still held together better than anything else. "It would account for most of it. Unknown jutsu, unknown equipment, and foreign entities. If Naruto made contact with such a clan and has been returning to them repeatedly. Then the armor, weapons, techniques and the grief over this Oscar could originate there."
"And he could have left a shadow clone to maintain his chakra signature and fool the ANBU while reverse summoning to this unknown clan," Kakashi suggested.
"If Naruto has been leaving Konoha multiple times without the barrier corps alerting us. Then we have a monitoring problem that goes beyond Naruto specifically. But even if Naruto used shadow clones to mask his presence, we should still be able to detect chakra fluctuations over the past few days."
Inoichi did not need to finish the statement. If their theory held any weight, alarms would have been raised long before now. The absence of those alarms did not close the question. It opened several new ones that none of them currently had answers for.
Hiruzen nodded once.
Both of them flickered out.
The Hokage sat alone in his office for the twenty minutes that followed. When they returned, their expressions told him before either of them spoke.
Kakashi placed the compiled reports on the desk.
"We divided the records," Inoichi said. "Kakashi took the second half. I took the first."
"And," Hiruzen said, keeping his voice level.
"Naruto Uzumaki's chakra signature has not left Konoha's borders." Inoichi said it plainly, because there was no other way to say it. "Not once. Not for a single hour. Every log, sensor reading, and barrier corps report for the past year shows his signature present within the village. There were no detectable issues."
Hiruzen looked down.
The summoning realm theory had just lost its most necessary component. Summoning required crossing a threshold. The barrier corps would have registered that crossing regardless of what substitution a shinobi left behind. The sensors measured the signature in transit, not the destination.
Naruto had not crossed any threshold.
And yet the armor was real. The swords were real. The grief was real. The techniques were real.
"We are at a dead end," Kakashi said.
"Yes," Hiruzen said.
Nobody offered a counter to that, because nobody had one.
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The outer ring of Konoha held a small bar wedged between a bakery and a butcher shop.
The Willow Rest.
A cloaked figure entered, with two ANBU black-ops flanking him. No one at the bar looked up. The ones who recognized the figure understood immediately that they had not seen him. And the ones who didn't were knocked out by a waiter.
Danzo moved toward the back. His cane found the worn brick wall and tapped three times in a slow circular motion. A faint glow webbed outward from the contact point. A fuinjutsu array spreading through the mortar lines between the bricks, and the wall rearranged itself into a narrow door that opened onto stairs descending into dark.
He went down.
The room below held masked figures kneeling in the dark. These were the sleeper agents of Root. Civilians, shinobi, merchants and administrators. Each one living an ordinary life on the surface while answering to the root beneath Konoha.
At the center were Fu and Sai.
"Report."
Fu spoke without hesitation. "Lord Danzo. Naruto Uzumaki has been continuously monitored for the past several days. I have been suppressing Konoha's intelligence by managing the ANBU agent assigned to him. And have taken measures to erase all records of Naruto's absences from the detection barrier. Agent Sai and I have both witnessed the target teleporting away using unknown fuinjutsu."
Danzo accepted the report without expression. The detection barrier around Konoha was connected to the barrier corps directly. A security system designed to flag foreign shinobi entering the village. But it also monitored everyone inside by tracking chakra signatures, flagging anomalies, and recording departures. Fu's position within the barrier corps had given Root a weakpoint that Hiruzen didn't know existed.
Danzo studied the sigils Fu had drawn from observation each time Naruto had used the Darksign. The script bore no resemblance to any fuinjutsu tradition he had encountered. It didn't look like a standard reverse summoning seal.
"When was the first instance?"
"During the incident involving the Forbidden Scroll of Seals," Fu said. "I was the first in the barrier corp to note it. And I've cross-referenced all prior surveillance records. This was the first confirmed occurrence. He used it two more times since then. All evidence has been erased."
"And yet the boy returns a few hours later using fire style, a sword, and an unknown space-time technique," Danzo said.
Fu said nothing. Even with everything Root had gathered, the full picture of Naruto Uzumaki remained just as much a mystery to them as it did to Konoha.
"Lord Danzo," Sai said. "I've observed Naruto using shadow clones to train the Body Flicker jutsu alongside Chunin Iruka Umino. The clones were being used to return accumulated training memories to the original."
Shadow clone training could compress months of development into hours through sheer volume of simultaneous experience. It explained the speed of improvement in isolation. But fire style, space-time jutsu and kenjutsu of that quality required more than just alot of repitition.
"It seems Naruto has inherited some of Minato's talent," Danzo said quietly.
Sai stepped forward and presented a scroll. "I have documented all noteworthy behaviors, relationships, and developments surrounding the target. The first section covers points of immediate interest."
Danzo read through it and set the scroll down.
"Fu."
"Yes, Lord Danzo."
"Prepare a letter for Naruto Uzumaki. If this boy continues to develop through contact with an unknown clan, Root must establish a position with the boy. For the sake of Konoha."
"As you command."
The room answered as one.
"We are the unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth. We are the Root."
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The streets of Konoha were quiet under soft moonlight. A few shinobi moved through the shadows on their routes. One or two of them let their eyes drift toward the armored figure walking down the residential path.
Naruto held the team 7 photo up.
Kakashi with his back to the camera and arms extended, one kunai in each hand. Sasuke off to one side attempting a pose that communicated mystery. Sakura on the other side with a shuriken raised. And Naruto in the center with zweihander infront with his tongue out.
'We look so cool.' The squire thought before stopping.
Lying in front of his door, curled up like a stray cat, was Konohamaru. The kid was sound asleep drooling on a camo blanket.
"What is this little brat doing here," Naruto muttered, tiptoeing toward the door and reaching carefully for the handle.
Creeeeeaaak.
"Boss!"
Naruto sighed and pointed at his own cheek.
Konohamaru wiped the drool with the back of his hand and scrambled upright. "Boss, you have to teach me how to become Hokage! Please please please, I've been waiting for hours—"
"No."
He opened the door and closed it behind him. Konohamaru's voice continued through the wood for a while. Naruto was already heading toward the bathroom. He stood under the hot water for a while, letting the day move through him and wash off. When he was done he dried off and went to the kitchen.
He froze.
On the counter sat a box of ramen with a red envelope attached to it.
[ From a secret friend. ]
Naruto's stomach tightened.
He did not have friends.
He had people he existed near. Classmates he had shared space with for years. Kids he had talked to from time to time when the mood was right or the assignment forced it. But none of them had gone out of their way for him. The ones he had tried to play with as a child had been pulled away by parents. Even the ones who had laughed at a joke or hung out with him, had never once sought him out. Never knocked on his door. Never saved him a seat.
Nobody had ever left ramen on his counter.
From a shy friend, maybe.
He opened the letter.
[ Hello there, Naruto. You don't know me, but I know you. I was a great friend of your parents. ]
His parents.
He had never spent much time thinking about them. They had died in the Kyuubi attack. That was what the matron at the orphanage had told him.
[ Your parents would be proud of the man you've become. ]
The warmth that moved through his chest at those words. He had not expected it to be that large. He pressed his lips together and kept reading.
[ You must not trust Hiruzen Sarutobi. That man has kept a lot from you. More than you even know. ]
The blonde boy drew in a sharp breath. The old man's words and actions were fresh in his mind. And the letter's words landed on that recent wound like salt pressed into the cut.
[ I can't help you directly. If I did, Hiruzen would try to kill me. I can only provide you with information. The truth about who you are, Naruto Uzumaki. Don't you want to know? ]
Who am I?
Naruto Uzumaki. Prankster. Future Hokage. The loudest person in any room because that was how you made sure you existed in it.
But that answer had started to feel like a costume he had put on a long time ago and forgotten he was wearing.
The genin of Konoha or the squire of Oscar. Was he still the boy who had dreamed of being Hokage, or was he the squire who would ring the Bells of Awakening? Was he still the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, or was he an Undead carrying a Darksign on his neck and fire in his palm?
He did not have an answer.
Naruto's eyes dropped back to the letter.
[ Naruto, you have two choices before you. Below this sentence is a storage seal where I have stored the first answer. ]
His gaze found the seal printed below the line.
[ Even if you choose the second option, let me tell you this: the Uzumaki are the only people who can hold the Nine-Tails. ]
The letter crinkling slightly under the pressure of his grip. The implication sat in his chest like something that needed more room than he had available for it right now. He kept reading.
[ The choices are simple. Don't open the seal, and the story ends. You go on believing whatever Hiruzen wants you to believe. Or open the seal, and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. ]
A war inside him.
One side wanted to take the letter directly to Hiruzen and put every word of it on his desk. The other side had a list. Every half-truth, careful omission, smile and silence from the old man across twelve years of deliberately withheld information. That list was long enough to give the first side serious pause.
Whatever it takes. I am done with half-truths. Dattebayo.
Naruto pressed his chakra into the seal.
The letter did not produce the usual puff of smoke. It burned with fire and when it was gone a note and a book.
[ Naruto, you chose wisely. I know you are hungry for more. But I want to test you to see if you are truly ready for information that could cause war. Like who your parents are. ]
Just knowing who my parents are could start a war?!
[ Your test is simple. Keep our conversations secret. No one must know you are receiving this information. I know it will be hard. I know you want to demand the truth from Hiruzen. But don't. Don't give that lying monkey a chance to fool you again.]
His jaw tightened at those words.
[ Remain silent for the next month. Then you will receive information about who your mother is. If you tell Hiruzen or anyone else, I won't help you. Don't disappoint me, Naruto. From your friend and guardian.
The hawk ]
A friend? A guardian?
Naruto wanted to laugh.
Anyone who required him to earn something as basic as information about his own life was not an ally. That much was simple. Oscar had taught him the difference between someone who gave and someone who dangled. And this letter was firmly the latter regardless of what it claimed to be.
And yet.
Buried under the frustration, something desperate and stubborn clawed upward anyway. The part of him that had never fully learned its lesson. The part that looked at every new person and thought maybe this time. Maybe this one will be different. Maybe this one will look at him and see something worth seeing without being asked to.
He hated and loved that part of himself.
His eyes dropped to the book sitting in his lap.
The History of the Uzumaki Clan.