Inside the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was reviewing documents when Naruto Uzumaki's panicked cries from the corridor outside reached him with startling clarity.
He set down his brush almost at once, pushed back his chair, and strode toward the door. A crease formed between his brows as unease flickered through him.
What happened?
Naruto had never acted like this before.
The moment he opened the door, he saw Naruto standing in the hallway like a frightened fawn. The boy's face was pale, his blue eyes wide with panic and helplessness, his small frame rigid with fear.
As soon as Naruto saw him, it was as if he had found the only thing in the world he could still rely on. He rushed over with a choked cry and threw his arms around the Third Hokage's leg, clutching tightly, his shoulders trembling.
"Grandpa Third... it's so scary!"
Naruto buried his face in the hem of the Hokage's robe. His voice quavered with tears, perfectly embodying the terror of a child who had encountered something unknown and beyond his control.
Between broken breaths and shuddering pauses, he forced out fragments of explanation.
"All of a sudden... I can feel so many people around me..."
"So much bad stuff... all these awful feelings rushing at me..."
"My head keeps buzzing... it hurts... it's so uncomfortable... so scary..."
The instant the Third Hokage heard those words, the gentleness in his expression vanished, replaced by gravity.
His mind jumped immediately to an ability intimately tied to the Uzumaki clan.
Kagura's Mind's Eye.
A sensory power of astonishing range and precision. An ability especially sensitive to malicious intent. The symptoms Naruto was describing matched it too closely.
Could it be...
Had Naruto awakened the sensory gift of his mother's bloodline at such a young age?
The thought flashed through Hiruzen's mind like lightning.
This was no small matter.
Without a second's hesitation, he took Naruto's hand and led him into the office. Then he turned to the ANBU stationed outside and issued an order in a tone that allowed no room for disobedience.
"Pass this down immediately. Everything that happened here just now is top secret. Anyone who learns of it is forbidden to spread it. Anyone who violates this order will be treated as a traitor to the village."
"Yes!"
The masked figures outside answered in unison.
The Third Hokage himself did not possess Kagura's Mind's Eye, but his knowledge was broad, and he understood the Uzumaki clan far better than most. After hearing Naruto's frightened yet exact description of suddenly being flooded by the malice around him, he was already nearly certain.
This had to be it.
This was the awakening of Kagura's Mind's Eye, the signature sensory ability of the Uzumaki clan.
Hiruzen lowered himself into a crouch in front of Naruto and placed both hands on the boy's narrow shoulders. Looking into those still-panicked blue eyes, and remembering the isolation and rejection the child had endured in the village for years, he could not help letting out a sigh inside his heart.
He softened his voice as much as he could.
"Naruto, good boy, don't be afraid. Listen to Grandpa."
He paused for a moment, as though choosing his words carefully.
"The 'bad feelings' you sensed... they were not directed at you as a person."
That was only half the truth, and he knew it.
But looking at Naruto's terrified expression, Hiruzen still chose to tell a version of the story that had been rearranged, edited, and gently wrapped so a child could bear it.
"Many years ago, a giant nine-tailed fox attacked the village and caused terrible destruction. A great many villagers lost family members because of it."
His voice grew low with remembered sorrow.
"You had only just been born at the time. Because you are from the Uzumaki clan, whose people are gifted in sealing techniques, and because your bloodline is special... I had no choice but to seal that nine-tailed fox into your body in order to protect the village."
He made the burden sound like a necessity. A duty. A sacrifice demanded by circumstance.
"The villagers' negative emotions... those came from their fear of the Nine-Tails inside you. And what you awakened just now should be Kagura's Mind's Eye, a bloodline ability passed down through the Uzumaki clan."
He still did not reveal the truth that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Not only that, he cleverly shifted the responsibility for sealing the Nine-Tails into Naruto away from Minato and onto himself, quietly making himself the one who would bear the blame that might someday arise.
As for Naruto's Uzumaki bloodline, there was no need to hide it too carefully. His name was already Uzumaki Naruto, and the Uzumaki clan's skill in sealing techniques was well known.
Hiruzen's thinking was simple, and also deliberate.
He wanted Naruto to grow older first.
He wanted the boy to become steadier, stronger, more rooted in the village, more deeply accepting of the Will of Fire. Then, when the time was right, either he or someone more suitable could tell Naruto the truth.
By then, Naruto would be able to understand what it meant.
He would understand that his father had been a hero who died protecting the village.
Perhaps then, rather than resentment, what filled Naruto's heart would be pride.
Naruto was a sensible child. Over the years, under Hiruzen's careful observation and guidance, he had shown a resilience and maturity that far exceeded his age.
More importantly, he possessed a strong Will of Fire. He admired the Hokage. He sincerely wished to protect the village.
In Hiruzen's view, Naruto was exactly the kind of child who could eventually carry the truth and transform it into strength.
Looking at Naruto, who was trembling because of the awakening of Kagura's Mind's Eye, the Third Hokage's thoughts took another turn.
If Naruto had awakened one of the Uzumaki clan's bloodline abilities, then perhaps...
Perhaps he also possessed real talent for sealing techniques.
It was not an unreasonable guess.
After all, Naruto's parents—Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki—had both been masters of sealing jutsu. As their son, Naruto had every chance of inheriting that kind of gift.
If he were taught sealing techniques systematically, not only would it help him better understand and control Kagura's Mind's Eye, it might also help with the Nine-Tails' seal in the future.
There were scrolls in Konoha that recorded the Adamantine Sealing Chains.
And if Naruto could learn sealing arts...
Then one day, he might even be able to reinforce the seal with his own hands.
"So..."
Naruto's voice was very soft when he spoke again.
His head drooped, and the light in his eyes dimmed in an instant, as though the weight of the truth had suddenly crushed him.
"So I'm... the container used to seal that nine-tailed fox... right?"
The words were quiet, but they hit like a knife.
The Third Hokage's heart tightened. He was about to reassure him, to say something like "You are also a hero of the village," to soften the blow before it sank too deep—
But before he could speak, Naruto suddenly raised his head.
Tears still clung to the corners of his eyes, but the expression on his small face had changed completely. Fear was still there, yes, but now it was mixed with something else—something bright, something resolute, something almost blazing.
His blue eyes shone with a fierce, startling determination.
"Then that's good!"
He wiped his eyes hard with the back of his hand. His voice trembled with emotion, but it rang out far louder than before.
"If... if I can keep sealing the Nine-Tails, then the villagers won't be hurt by that fox anymore! Everyone... everyone can keep living safely!"
He stepped forward and grabbed the sleeve of the Third Hokage's robe with both hands. His fingers clenched so tightly that the fabric wrinkled under them. Though tears still streaked his cheeks, his plea was earnest to the point of making the heart ache.
"Grandpa Third! I want to learn sealing techniques!"
"I want to learn really, really powerful sealing techniques!"
His voice rose, breaking with sobs, yet full of an almost painful sincerity.
"I want to make the seal on that fox inside me even stronger!"
"That way... even if I die one day, that fox definitely won't be able to come out and hurt anyone ever again!"
"Please, Grandpa Third!"
The office fell silent.
For a moment, even the smoke in the room seemed to stop moving.
That declaration—so full of sacrifice, so full of devotion, so utterly devoid of selfishness—struck the Third Hokage like a heavy hammer to the chest.
Naruto...
What a good child.
Hiruzen stared at him in stunned silence. He had expected fear. Confusion. Perhaps anger. Perhaps tears, perhaps resentment, perhaps the instinctive question of why such a burden had been placed on him.
But Naruto had offered none of those things.
Even after learning that he was the vessel imprisoning the Nine-Tails, even after learning that the villagers' hatred and fear were bound to that truth, the first thing he thought about was still the safety of others.
Not himself.
The village.
The people.
Everyone else.
The Third Hokage felt his throat tighten.
The words Naruto had just spoken made his earlier thoughts return with even greater force. He thought again of the reports from Might Guy. Of the boy's bright declarations. Of how, despite growing up in loneliness, Naruto had not twisted, had not darkened, had not chosen bitterness.
Instead, he still looked toward the light.
Still wanted to protect others.
Still reached for the village with both hands, even though the village had given him far less than it should have.
In that instant, Hiruzen could almost see the Will of Fire burning in tangible form inside the child before him.
Pure. Bright. Fierce.
Far purer than it was in many grown men.
His old hands, weathered by war and time, tightened ever so slightly on Naruto's shoulders.
Kai...
He truly had to admit it now.
Might Guy's ability to teach students was extraordinary.
The Naruto that boy had helped shape—this child standing before him, crying and yet determined, frightened and yet brave—had become an almost perfect inheritor of the Will of Fire.
Hiruzen slowly exhaled, but the emotions in his chest did not ease.
No.
They only deepened.
He looked at Naruto with eyes full of complexity, gratitude, relief, and a sorrow so gentle it was almost tenderness.
This child had suffered too much.
And yet he was still willing to give.
Still willing to guard others.
Still willing to throw himself forward first.
If even now Naruto's first instinct was to learn sealing techniques not for power, not for pride, but to ensure that the Nine-Tails could never escape and harm the villagers again...
Then how could Hiruzen possibly refuse him?
More than that—
How could he not feel moved?
"Good child," the Third Hokage said at last, his voice thick and slow, as though each word carried its own weight. "Naruto... you really are a good child."
Naruto looked up at him, eyes still damp, waiting anxiously for an answer.
And in Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart, the decision had already been made.