This was the first time Naruto had ever seen someone take the initiative to show him kindness.
That alone made him wary.
He picked up the half-cooked grilled fish lying nearest to Hiruzen Sarutobi and moved as if he were going to set it in front of the old man.
"Thank you. You're such a good kid," Hiruzen said warmly.
He truly thought he had seen through Naruto. In his eyes, the boy simply didn't know how to express himself properly. Deep down, though, he must still yearn for gentleness, yearn for warmth, yearn for the approval of a kind old man who just happened to appear at the right time.
Naruto's eyes sharpened. "You-!"
He was already about to yank the fish back.
But just as Hiruzen bent down to take it, Naruto caught sight of the man's clothes. The color. The symbol. The association.
Fire.
And in the next instant, old fragments of overheard conversation flashed through his mind.
Third-generation sir.
Third-generation grandpa.
Naruto's pupils narrowed.
If there was a third generation, then that meant there had been a first and a second. And if the ANBU ninjas following him hadn't stopped this old man from approaching, then there was only one explanation.
The old man sitting in front of him wasn't some random passerby.
He was the boss.
The leader of that whole rotten bunch.
The Third Hokage.
For a heartbeat, Naruto didn't move.
Then his thoughts exploded.
So that was it.
No wonder the ninja tailing him hadn't interfered. No wonder this old geezer could sit down so naturally, smile so naturally, speak so naturally. He belonged to the people who had been manipulating everything around him.
The people watching him. The people letting others torment him. The people protecting him only when it suited them.
And if that strange voice in his head had won - if he had really surrendered to those soft, syrupy whispers urging him to forgive, to accept, to endure - then the life waiting for him ahead would have been even worse than this.
A cold light flickered in Naruto's eyes.
This old man was pretending to be kind because he wanted something.
Power.
If the villagers called him a fox demon, then that meant he must really possess some kind of monstrous power inside him. And if that was true, then everything the old man had done - every indulgence, every order, every calculation - was probably just a way to secure that power for himself.
The thought came together in only a few breaths.
Above the arena, Ohnoki burst out laughing. "As expected, black-frame Naruto never disappoints!"
Then, without even pausing, he added, "Naruto, if you're willing to come to Iwagakure, I'll personally match you with Kurotsuchi!"
Hiruzen's face darkened at once. "Enough, Ohnoki! Are you saying Konoha has no one left worth relying on?"
The Fourth Raikage barked out a laugh. "Whoa, old man, your skin is really thick!"
"No wonder you stole Naruto's grilled fish without even blinking, you shameless fossil. Kumogakure does dirty things too, sure, but we do them openly. We own it. You're just disgusting."
Mei Terumi smiled with dangerous sweetness. "Third Hokage, you'd better behave yourself. Some debts have to be repaid eventually."
Even Tobirama spoke up. "Let me make one thing clear first. As his teacher, I feel deeply ashamed of what the monkey and Danzo did."
Izuna immediately sneered. "Oh? Didn't Hiruzen just say earlier that he'd inherited your will? And didn't you admit it?"
"Now that the wind's blowing the wrong way, you want to back out?"
Before Tobirama could retort, Mito Uzumaki cut through the noise with calm authority. "Enough. Stop wasting breath on unpleasant things. I want to see how Kushina's child handles this."
The chat room quieted.
Down below, Hiruzen chewed through the undercooked fish with a smile that had gone ever so slightly stiff.
"Thank you very much," he said. "It's delicious."
The fish was still half raw. His mouth was full of mud and brine.
Naruto gave him a flat look.
"I never said I was giving it to you," he said coolly. "You took it from me."
His voice was soft, but every word landed cleanly.
"I caught those fish myself. I grilled them myself. One fish costs ten thousand ryo. If you don't pay, you're not leaving tonight."
Hiruzen froze.
For the first time since sitting down, his smile genuinely wavered.
This was not at all the reaction he had expected.
By all logic, a child in Naruto's position should have been frightened. Guarded, perhaps. Awkward, perhaps. But this? Extorting money with a straight face from the Hokage himself?
Still, Hiruzen only adjusted the direction of his thoughts.
The ANBU reports hadn't lied. This child had indeed suffered too much recently. So much pressure, so much grievance, so much pent-up distrust. Of course he would be in a defensive state. Of course he would lash out in this way.
His appearance tonight must have been too abrupt.
That was all.
Once he continued sending living expenses for a while, once he chose a few better opportunities, once he slowly inserted himself into the child's life under the right light and at the right time, this wall would eventually come down.
Thinking that, Hiruzen smiled again.
"All right," he said kindly. "Ten thousand ryo, then."
Naruto's eyes narrowed.
Too easy.
He had definitely asked for too little.
In the Pure Land, Kushina exploded.
"Of course it's too little!" she shouted. "The inheritance I left behind is worth far more than that!"
"Even if there wasn't any cash, any one of the ninjutsu scrolls - especially the sealing ones - would be worth way more than a miserable ten thousand ryo! Three thousand a month? You old monkey, you're really generous!"
"What about my inheritance? Don't tell me you had no intention of leaving it to Naruto at all -"
Her voice was abruptly cut off.
Muted again.
Kushina had expected it, yet she was still so furious that her long red hair seemed ready to stand on end. Then, suddenly sensing something, she whipped around.
Mikoto Uchiha, who had only just arrived nearby, froze under that murderous glare.
"Oh," Mikoto said awkwardly, forcing a smile. "What a coincidence, Kushina. Fancy meeting again after we've both died..."
Meanwhile, Hiruzen kept eating.
The grilled fish was still too hot and not even fully cooked, but he made himself chew with obvious satisfaction. A fish that cost ten thousand ryo had to taste good - even if it didn't.
Then he shifted the conversation.
"Are you short on money?" he asked, though inwardly he already knew the answer.
The ANBU reports had made it clear that almost no one in the village would sell Naruto anything. Only shops moving food close to expiring would quietly accept transactions from him, and even that was because of orders from above.
So if Naruto had managed to eat better recently, there was only one likely explanation.
Ichiraku Ramen.
Naruto glanced at him. "I only get three thousand ryo a month. Is that a lot?"
He spoke without emotion.
"If I eat ramen a few times, I run out."
As expected, Hiruzen thought.
But he let the topic slide.
"Your grilled fish is pretty good," he said instead.
Naruto's brows drew together faintly.
Third Hokage.
Leader of those bastards.
The one behind all of this.
Now that the clues had finally joined together, Naruto discovered something else that bothered him.
Was the old geezer in front of him really the strongest Hokage in the village?
Impossible.
No matter how Naruto looked at him, Hiruzen didn't resemble some peerless expert. At best, he looked like an elderly official. One of the Hokage's attendants. A subordinate who liked putting on airs. Somebody who had stolen authority rather than earned it.
High above, Orochimaru smiled. "Black-frame Naruto has sharp eyes. He figured out the truth quickly."
Hiruzen's face turned darker. "What truth?"
Orochimaru's smile widened. "The truth that someone like you couldn't possibly be Hokage."
"Makes sense, doesn't it? You love the seat too much. You'd rather cling to it than die. Over the years, how many people in Konoha with the potential to become Hokage were quietly smothered under that obsession?"
Compared with Hiruzen's greed, Ohnoki's problem was the exact opposite.
Hiruzen clung desperately to the position of Hokage.
Ohnoki, meanwhile, had spent years being tormented by the lack of a proper successor. He had finally found a disciple with enough talent to maybe become the Fourth Tsuchikage - only for the little monster to get lured away by some nonsense about explosive art and then declare himself a missing-nin.
Before anyone else could build on that, Hiruzen chose to move things to the next stage.
This was the real reason he had come.
He lifted a hand and pointed at the night sky.
"Look at the stars," he said.
Instantly, countless people grew alert.
Here it comes.
Naruto followed the motion and glanced upward despite himself.
The night sky above Konoha was beautiful, washed clean and full of stars.
"Those stars," Hiruzen said slowly, measuring his tone with the practiced timing of someone delivering a script, "one after another - they're actually the same as the sun we see during the day."
Naruto lowered his gaze again.
Another fish had vanished while he wasn't looking.
That shameless old bastard had stolen a second one.
Without hesitation, Naruto said, "Twenty thousand ryo."
Hiruzen: "..."
He coughed. Then, as if nothing had happened, he continued in the same old-grandfather voice.
"This world is vast. Vast beyond measure, perhaps without end."
"Did you know that?"
Naruto didn't answer.
He wasn't interested. But neither did he interrupt. He simply sat there, expressionless, while Hiruzen continued his monologue like a man talking himself deeper into a role he had already rehearsed many times over.
He spoke about the world.
He spoke about life.
He spoke about the village.
Step by step, word by word, he steered the conversation toward the point he'd wanted to reach all along.
By the end, he finally asked, gentle and deliberate, "You are a child of Konoha too. Do you know...?"
"Not interested," Naruto cut in.
He spoke so flatly it was almost rude.
"And don't forget. You owe me twenty thousand ryo."
Hiruzen shook his head with patient helplessness, as if dealing with a stubborn child.
Inside, though, he was already readjusting his strategy.
This boy's guard would not come down anytime soon.
Fine.
That only meant it would take longer. More visits. More carefully staged appearances. More moments of convenient kindness. More opportunities to become indispensable.
In time, the child would trust him.
And once Naruto trusted him, everything else would follow naturally.
Thinking that, Hiruzen decided it was time to bring out the final move - the line he believed could ignite the right longing in the heart of a lonely child.
He drew a breath, lowered his voice, and said with false solemnity,
"Where leaves dance, fire burns on forever."