Sasuke had zoned out, but Naruto didn't bother snapping him out of it. Instead, he quietly made a hand seal and used the Transformation Jutsu to change his appearance.
He'd only taken a few steps when his sensory perception suddenly picked up something—the Third Hokage was heading toward his house, and surprisingly, Hayate Gekkō, who hadn't shown up in a while, was with him.
What's going on?
Naruto frowned. But it didn't seem serious—after all, it was already evening. If anything had gone wrong, the Shadow Clone he'd left at home would've dismissed itself to alert him.
And just as he had that thought, the feedback from that clone's memories poured in.
As expected, the Shadow Clone had also sensed the Third Hokage approaching and had dispelled itself.
From what Naruto saw in those returned memories, Hiashi Hyuga had come to pick up Hinata, bringing along Hanabi, her younger sister. Other than that, nothing significant had happened.
Sensing an opportunity, Naruto instantly activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and returned home. Once there, he entered the sealing space within himself.
"Kurama, Muō... the Third Hokage is coming."
Muō stepped forward to say something, but Kurama lazily stretched out a claw and slammed it down on the ox-headed beast, pinning it in his paw.
"I heard you," the Nine-Tails grunted.
Naruto looked up—Kurama's claw was clenched into a fist, and Muō had seemingly vanished from sight.
With a soft chuckle, Naruto withdrew his consciousness from the seal, then created a Shadow Clone and had it apply a Five Elements Seal on him to temporarily suppress his chakra signature.
Now all that remained was to wait.
Before long, the Third Hokage arrived right on time. Naruto led him upstairs and poured him a cup of tea.
Hiruzen sat down, his face warm and grandfatherly as he smiled.
"It's been a while since I've visited. Your homeroom teacher has been giving you very good reports lately. I also heard from Iruka that you even defeated a genius from the upper class."
Naruto immediately frowned.
"Lord Hokage, actually… I wanted to talk to you about that a few days ago."
"Oh?" Hiruzen took a sip of tea. "Why didn't you come?"
Naruto raised both hands, eyes filled with urgency.
"It's because of the Shadow Clone Jutsu! If I didn't know it, I would've lost that afternoon!"
"Neji Hyuga is really strong. His taijutsu smashed through a bunch of my clones. I had no real counterattacks—I just kept creating more clones to stall him."
"And another weird thing—I felt like I should've been able to make even more clones with the chakra I had, but no matter what, the number I could summon always came up short."
Hiruzen calmly placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Is that so? Well, Iruka told me your classmates said you made over a hundred clones that day."
"You know, even I couldn't manage that many."
Naruto, clearly frustrated, shook his head.
"Didn't matter! They all got taken out with one hit! Lord Hokage, I want you to teach me some real techniques—like Shikamaru's shadow techniques, or Chōji's expansion jutsu!"
Hiruzen smiled and nodded, his tone kind.
"I'd love to teach you, but those are clan-secret techniques. Even as Hokage, I don't know how to perform them."
"But don't worry—based on your school records, I've already picked out an excellent jōnin instructor for you. For now, focus on your basics. When the time comes, he'll teach you techniques that suit your unique abilities."
Naruto's eyes flashed, though he kept a dismissive tone.
"Is anyone more skilled than you?"
Hiruzen chuckled.
"Don't worry—this jōnin is very well-known. Speaking of which, that's actually why I came today."
"In two years, you'll graduate. When that happens, who would you like to be teamed up with?"
Naruto answered without hesitation.
"If possible, I want to be on a team with Hinata, Shikamaru, and Chōji. Can we request our own squads?"
The Third Hokage smiled even more.
"I'm afraid not. Squad formation at graduation takes many things into account, and each team has only three members."
Naruto paused, then offered a compromise.
"In that case, could you try to place me and Hinata on the same team?"
"Ha ha ha!" Hiruzen laughed, eyes crinkling with amusement. He stood up.
"I'll do my best. Keep working hard, Naruto. I'll be going now."
Naruto quickly bowed.
"I will!"
After personally escorting the Hokage out, Naruto rushed back to the second-floor balcony, watching as the elderly figure slowly disappeared down the road.
His face was full of excitement—until it abruptly shifted into a colder expression.
Aside from the usual ANBU agents discreetly watching from the shadows, Hayate Gekkō had already left.
Naruto turned and re-entered his bedroom, eyes now full of ironic amusement. He quickly created a clone to undo the Five Elements Seal, then returned to the seal space.
Before Naruto could speak, Muō spoke up first.
"That old man's even trickier than Ōnoki. Even though Han and Roshi are outcasts in their village, they were never treated like this."
Kurama simply grunted.
"Let's see what the old man has planned for you. Shikamaru and the little fat one probably won't be placed on your team. But maybe that Hyuga girl will."
Naruto's eyes gleamed.
"Then let's wait and see how he sets things up."
With that, he took Kurama and Muō into the Mirror World. He quickly found the data puppet for the Third Hokage, but a prompt popped up: Data still updating.
Expressionless, Naruto switched to Sasuke's feed—but it was full of messy internal monologue.
So he turned to Kakashi Hatake instead.
This time, he got something useful. Kakashi had recently returned from the border. The Third Hokage had reassigned him to be an academy jōnin instructor—and only then had he come to visit Naruto.
Kurama and Muō, finding this boring, opened their own frames and went off to battle simulations.
Naruto, meanwhile, accessed the data puppet of the bounty station manager. To his surprise, the results came quickly.
Turns out Jiraiya had been seen in the Land of Demons, helping the Miko (Shrine Maiden) reinforce the seal on a demon. Afterward, he lingered for a while near the borders between the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain.
He probably went to the Land of Rain on the Third's orders to investigate the Akatsuki.
But what was he doing in the Land of Demons helping a shrine maiden?
As far as Naruto remembered from the original timeline, Miroku, the shrine maiden, should already be dead by now. Plus, Jiraiya never had any connection to the Land of Demons in canon.
"Jiraiya hasn't reported back in a long time. The Third's last intel from him was over a year ago. And the shrine maiden supposedly has prophetic powers…"
"Prophecies… Mount Myōboku's Great Toad Sage!"
Naruto's gaze sharpened.
This has that old toad's fingerprints all over it.
If Mount Myōboku had sent Jiraiya there, could it be a setup?
Even though he now had Flying Thunder God, and traps were less of a threat, he wasn't interested in playing someone else's game.
Especially not when that "someone" could see the future.
After all, that Great Toad Sage had predicted the coming of a blue-eyed boy who would tame the nine-tailed beasts long before the Sage of Six Paths chose his successor.
Whether he went or not—the toad might already know.
Naruto fell into deep thought.
That Night
Shikaku Nara arrived at the Hokage's office.
The Third Hokage handed him a stack of documents.
"Shikaku, this is Iruka's class profile. Take a look—who do you think would best complement Naruto and Sasuke on a genin squad?"
Shikaku read in silence for a long time, then solemnly placed the files back on the desk.
"I heard from Shikamaru that Naruto really likes Hinata Hyuga, from the main branch."
Hiruzen's expression grew serious.
"Mm. He does seem fond of her."
"But Naruto's situation is… unique. You understand what that means. That girl cannot be placed on a team with him."
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