Naruto the Poop-Slinger

Duanmu had only just walked out of the Hokage Office when he ran into Naruto.

"Duanmu, you finally came out." Naruto was carrying a bucket of paint, with a few still-uncleaned flecks of pigment on his face. The moment he saw Duanmu, he ran over excitedly. "Where did you go just now? I waited for ages. I thought you'd gone home already!"

Duanmu looked at the paint bucket in his hand, then at the pigment on his face. He did not even need to ask to know this guy had bought "cosmetics" from his dad again and was about to go graffiti Hokage Rock.

"Come on, Duanmu, I'll take you to do something fun. It'll be totally exciting!" Naruto winked mysteriously and grabbed Duanmu by the arm, dragging him forward at a run.

Duanmu staggered from the pull, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Hey, hey, slow down! I know exactly what you're thinking. You're going to scribble all over Hokage Rock again, aren't you?"

Naruto chuckled and did not even try to deny it. Instead, he shoved the paint bucket closer to Duanmu. "Come on, what's the big deal? Those old guys wear stern faces all day anyway. What's wrong with drawing some mustaches to make them smile?"

He waved the brush in his hand, nearly splattering paint onto Duanmu's pants. "And you just beat Sasuke so awesomely. We have to celebrate today! This way, I guarantee you've never experienced anything like it!"

Duanmu looked at Naruto's shining eyes. He knew this was one of the ways Naruto tried to attract people's attention. It was clumsy, but there was a stubbornness in it that made one's heart ache.

"Naruto," Duanmu said, his expression turning serious, "we can't go."

The smile on Naruto's face froze instantly. "Why not? No one cared before! Besides, you just beat Sasuke. Shouldn't you do something to commemorate it?"

Duanmu sighed softly. "There are lots of ways to commemorate something. You don't have to graffiti Hokage Rock. Think about it. The Hokage carved into the mountain were all heroes who made huge sacrifices to protect the village. How can we desecrate their portraits?"

He paused, looked into Naruto's somewhat confused eyes, and continued, "And doing this—will it really get you the attention you want? Everyone will only think you're a naughty troublemaker. That isn't what you truly want, is it?"

Naruto lowered his head and clenched the paint bucket in his hand. "But... but everyone ignores me..." His voice was muffled, with a trace of grievance. "I just want them to look at me, to see that Uzumaki Naruto is right here!"

Duanmu patted him on the shoulder, his tone softening. "I know. But you don't attract people's attention with pranks. You do it with strength and action. Like today—when you saw me beat Sasuke, didn't everyone notice me?"

Naruto lifted his head, a glimmer of light returning to his eyes. "Oh, right! What you're saying kind of makes sense!"

"Not kind of. That's exactly how it works." Duanmu smiled and pointed toward the training ground in the distance. "Come on. I'll take you somewhere much more exciting than graffitiing Hokage Rock, and it can actually improve your strength."

"Really?" Naruto's eyes lit up, and he immediately tossed the paint bucket into a roadside trash can. "What place? Hurry up and take me there!"

Behind the scenes, Hiruzen Sarutobi watched all of this through his crystal ball, his aged fingers tapping lightly on the desk as an almost imperceptible curve rose at the corner of his mouth. He picked up the crystal ball on the desk and murmured to himself, "A teachable child indeed... This boy not only has extraordinary talent, but his temperament also seems rather steady. He even knows how to guide his companions. He's much more mature than others his age."

Duanmu did not know he was being "spied on" again. He was leading Naruto toward the training ground.

"Hey, Duanmu, where exactly are you taking me? If you still won't tell me, I'm running off on my own!"

Naruto could not help urging him as they walked. The two had just arrived at the training ground when, from afar, they saw Sasuke training with Itachi accompanying him.

Unexpectedly, Sasuke, who was usually extremely aloof at school, looked like a well-behaved little kid in front of Itachi, calling him "Big Brother" with every other sentence.

Itachi also noticed them at that moment. In a gentle tone, he said, "Sasuke, are those your classmates over there?"

Sasuke followed Itachi's gaze and saw Duanmu and Naruto as well. The obedient look on Sasuke's face instantly vanished, replaced by his usual cool expression. He frowned slightly, seemingly not very willing to have his training disturbed.

"Hmph, it's them," Sasuke said in a low voice, his tone carrying a faint awkwardness that was hard to detect.

"Then can you train with them for a while?" Itachi said apologetically. "Something urgent suddenly came up on my end. I'll have to excuse myself first."

When Sasuke heard this, a trace of disappointment flashed across his face, but he quickly returned to his usual indifference and merely gave a soft "Mm."

As always, Itachi tapped Sasuke on the forehead with two fingers before leaving with the Body Flicker Technique.

Duanmu, however, grew inwardly wary. The instant Itachi turned around just now, he seemed to feel an almost imperceptible pressure sweep over him. He had not expected Itachi to seem as though he wanted to see straight through him with just a single glance.

Naruto did not have Duanmu's sharp perception. He excitedly dragged Duanmu over to Sasuke and shouted carelessly, "Hey, Sasuke! You're training here too? Perfect. Duanmu said he was taking me somewhere even more exciting than graffitiing Hokage Rock. Wanna come?"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto, then shifted his gaze to Duanmu, his eyes carrying a bit of scrutiny and unwillingness to lose. "Exciting? What exciting place could you two possibly find?"

Clearly, his defeat in the practical combat class during the day still weighed on him. Now, facing Duanmu, there was inevitably a hint of competitiveness in his tone.

Meeting Sasuke's gaze, Duanmu said calmly, "Just some basic physical training and chakra control exercises. If you're interested, you can join us." He knew Sasuke was extremely competitive. Inviting him in this slightly challenging way would actually make it easier for him to accept.

Sure enough, Sasuke raised an eyebrow and snorted coldly. "Basic training? I'm not like certain people who need to start with boring stuff like that."

After saying that, Sasuke packed up his things and prepared to leave. Naruto had just been about to step forward and grab him when Duanmu pulled him back.

He shook his head at Naruto. "Forget it. If he doesn't want to, don't force him."

After saying that, Duanmu looked up at Sasuke's back as he packed away his ninja tools and left. He thought that the night of the Uchiha massacre should only be about a year away.

But he did not have much power. Even if he trained for another year, it would still be hard to shake the predetermined course of the Uchiha massacre.

What he could do, perhaps, was only to improve his strength as much as possible before then. Maybe he could save a few people when the time came. In any case, he had to save Itachi's little girlfriend. Also, he could not let Sasuke be completely swallowed by hatred.

"Hey, Duanmu." Naruto's words pulled Duanmu back from his thoughts. "Why is Sasuke so cold? It's not like we did anything to him." Naruto curled his lip, scratching his head in confusion. "He was clearly smiling so happily when he was with his brother just now. What a weirdo."

Duanmu gazed at Sasuke's back as it disappeared at the entrance to the training ground and sighed softly.

Elsewhere, Itachi and Shisui had quietly appeared in the woods at the edge of the training ground. Hidden among the dense branches and leaves, they had taken in the entire interaction between Duanmu and Sasuke just now.

Shisui rested one hand on a tree trunk, amusement in his dark, bright eyes. "Itachi, your little brother seems to have met an interesting companion."

He paused, then shifted his gaze toward the direction Duanmu had left in. "That child called Duanmu—his composure when facing Sasuke just now really doesn't seem like someone his age."

Itachi nodded slightly. Those deep Sharingan eyes flickered with a dim light in the shadows. The faint pressure he had deliberately released just now would have been enough to unsettle an ordinary genin, yet that child had only grown wary for an instant before quickly returning to normal. That mental steadiness was rare indeed.

"His chakra fluctuations are very special—pure and condensed. You saw the practical combat at the school during the day too." Itachi's voice was low and calm, revealing little emotion. "Especially that technique similar to the Rasengan. Although it's still very rough, it..."

"But its principle is exactly the same as the unfinished technique of the Fourth Hokage, right?" Shisui took over, his tone turning a little more solemn. "An orphan without even a clan, able to work out a technique of this level on his own—either his talent is so extraordinary it's monstrous, or..." He did not continue, but his meaning was self-evident.

Itachi fell silent for a moment. In his mind flashed Duanmu's half-true, half-false explanation in the Hokage Office, as well as Hiruzen Sarutobi's meaningful final words.

Shisui's gaze sharpened. "Or someone is guiding him from behind the scenes. Perhaps even... he himself isn't from this era."

This guess was far too bold. Even Shisui himself found it somewhat inconceivable after saying it, but in the world of shinobi, no possibility could be easily ruled out.

Itachi shook his head lightly, rejecting that somewhat bizarre guess. "How could space-time ninjutsu be something ordinary people can touch? Even among Konoha's strongest throughout history, very few have ever achieved anything in that field. I lean more toward the former. He's a once-in-a-century genius, with an intuition for chakra far beyond ordinary people."

He recalled Duanmu's perfectly timed grief and confusion in the Hokage Office. It had not been entirely an act; it was more like a technique for skillfully amplifying and guiding real emotions. "And he's very smart. He knows how to hide himself, and he knows how to use his circumstances to win sympathy."

"Teacher Sarutobi seems to think quite highly of him," Shisui added. He naturally knew that Duanmu had been summoned by the Hokage just now. "Perhaps we should pay more attention to this child. Uchiha... needs more allies right now, not potential threats." A faint worry for the clan's future showed through his words.

Itachi's eyes dimmed for an instant, then returned to calm. "I'll keep an eye on him. But right now, we have more important things to do."

He lifted his head and looked toward the sky. The afterglow of the setting sun had dyed the clouds bloodred, as if foretelling the coming storm. "Root has been moving more and more frequently. That old bastard Danzo will never give up suppressing Uchiha so easily."