The Third Hokage's Gaze

On the third day after classes ended at the Ninja Academy, Shinichi was summoned to the Hokage's office.

Iruka Umino delivered the message, saying the Third Hokage wanted to see him after school that afternoon. Iruka looked relaxed, and his tone was more like he was notifying an honor student that they had received a scholarship. But he probably did not know why the Third Hokage had suddenly singled out a student who had only been enrolled for a few days. Shinichi knew.

When he had taught Naruto Uzumaki the Shadow Clone Technique at the pebble beach, the hairs on the back of his neck had stood up several times. It felt like he was being watched from afar—not with hostility, but by someone observing them through some kind of technique, their gaze gentle and non-aggressive. In Leaf Village, only the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, could use an observation ninjutsu over such a distance: the Telescope Technique.

So he had been prepared.

As he climbed the stairs, he went over his prepared explanation again in his head. Being too nervous would not do, but neither would being too relaxed. What he needed was "the reasonable nervousness of a six-year-old who had just discovered his talent and was facing the highest leader of the village." In his previous life, he had given countless reports and faced leaders at every level, but none of those reports had carried consequences more serious than this one. The door to the Hokage's office was far grander than an ordinary door, its red-painted wood carved with Konoha's whirlpool emblem. Two ANBU stood outside, one in a cat mask and one in a bird mask. When they saw him reach the stairs, they turned in unison and pushed open the door, moving as neatly as mirror images.

The office was brightly lit. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat behind his desk, wearing the conical hat marked with the character for "Fire" and holding a pipe between his lips. The tobacco in it smoldered slowly, sending a thin wisp of white smoke toward the ceiling and partially obscuring a bird's-eye map of Hokage Rock. A stack of documents sat on the desk, along with a crystal ball—the legendary crystal ball that could supposedly see every corner of Konoha.

"Senju Shinichi." The Third Hokage's voice was gentler than Shinichi had expected. It carried none of the crushing authority he had imagined; it was more like an old grandfather asking his junior relatives about their grades during the holidays. "You've been in school for a few days now. Have you adjusted?"

"Yes." Shinichi stood straight, his hands hanging at his sides.

"There's no need to be nervous." The Third Hokage smiled, took the pipe from his mouth, and tapped the ash against the edge of the desk. "I only called you here for a chat. Your class of new students is quite promising overall. Iruka told me that you've been doing very well in theory classes, and that you often demonstrate for your classmates in taijutsu class." He paused, his gaze resting on Shinichi's face for two seconds. "Especially the Shadow Clone Technique. An ordinary student would need at least a full semester to produce multiple solid clones."

Here it comes.

Shinichi lowered his head and answered in the tone he had prepared. "I looked up some books on ninjutsu fundamentals in the library. I practiced a few times on my own, and then I managed to make them."

"The library books do not teach the Shadow Clone Technique." The Third Hokage's voice remained gentle, but now it carried a thin layer of inquiry.

The office fell silent for several seconds. Shinichi looked up. There was neither evasion nor panic in his dark eyes, only the earnestness of an elementary school student sincerely answering a question. He understood perfectly—the Third Hokage was not interrogating him. He was confirming Shinichi's loyalties and the source of his abilities. The awakening of his Senju Clan bloodline would be discovered sooner or later. Rather than hide it and let someone dig up a flaw, it was better to hand it over himself. Of course, selectively.

"Actually, I have Senju Clan blood in me," Shinichi said. His voice was quiet but steady. "A few months before I entered school, I felt it myself. My chakra suddenly became much greater than before. Green sprouts even appeared on my arms when I slept at night. I checked the records on the Senju Clan in the library and found that the First Hokage seemed to have experienced something similar, so I began practicing on my own. I found the Shadow Clone Technique on a torn page tucked into the corner of a bookshelf while I was reading."

Half truth, half torn page. The Hashirama Cells had been absorbed by the system, while the torn page was something he had extracted from the memories of a Root jonin. But the awakening of his Senju bloodline, the sprouts growing from his arms, and his rapidly expanding chakra reserves were all true. The cleverest lies were not fabricated—they were facts cut apart and rearranged. In his previous life, every product manager understood this when writing PRDs. The same feature, phrased differently, could turn from "technical debt" into "infrastructure development."

The Third Hokage was silent for a while.

It was not a suffocating silence, but the silence of an old man who had seen too much of the world processing news that was unexpected yet reasonable. An awakening of Senju blood was not without precedent in Konoha's history. Tsunade's father and grandfather had both belonged to branch families of the Senju Clan. When they were young, they too had experienced sudden chakra surges and plant-like traits appearing on their bodies. The child before him was not a direct heir like Tsunade, but Senju blood had always awakened in unpredictable ways.

The Third Hokage put the pipe back into his mouth, took a draw, and slowly exhaled.

"Let me see your arm."

Shinichi rolled up the sleeve on his left arm. Several faint pale-green lines ran along the inner side of his arm, following the direction of his chakra pathways like capillaries. They extended from the inside of his wrist to the bend of his elbow, faintly glowing in the afternoon sunlight. He had deliberately stimulated them over the past few days with Wood Release chakra—not the uncontrollable leakage from when his bloodline had first awakened, but a deliberately maintained, weak flow of wood nature chakra that left a lingering trace of plant-like transformation on his skin. Obvious enough for the Third Hokage to notice, but not enough to cause panic in the medical department. The balance was just right.

The Third Hokage lowered his head and studied Shinichi's arm for a moment. Then he reached out and lightly touched one of the green marks, his rough fingertip lingering on Shinichi's skin for several seconds. "The First Hokage had marks like these as a child too." He withdrew his hand, and something faint entered his voice. It was not quite nostalgia; it was more like finding an old account in his memories and gently running a hand over its cover. "At your age, his Wood Release had not fully taken shape yet, but his bloodline could no longer be hidden. Whenever his chakra surged, he would wake up with green lines all over his arms. He was afraid people would think he was a monster, so he wore long sleeves every day."

Shinichi did not respond. He could feel that the Third Hokage was not really speaking to him, but to some old friend in his memories.

Sunlight streamed in through the blinds, drawing parallel golden stripes across the desk. The office remained quiet for a long time. The Third Hokage finally withdrew his gaze and patted the desktop.

"Senju Shinichi," he said, "the awakening of your kekkei genkai will be officially recorded by Konoha. This is a good thing. The Senju Clan's bloodline has slept in this village for too long. But remember—Wood Release is a one-of-a-kind kekkei genkai in the ninja world. The First Hokage once used it to bring peace to an age of war, and every ninja village both fears and covets this power. Until you grow strong enough to protect yourself, the fewer people who know about this, the better."

Shinichi nodded. His expression held the earnestness of a good student, but his thoughts were earnest in another way. The Third Hokage's words were almost exactly what he had expected—confirmation of his Wood Release awakening, an official record, and designation as someone Konoha would prioritize protecting. From now on, his Wood Release would no longer be something that needed to be hidden. It would be a legitimate kekkei genkai recognized by the Hokage. If Danzo wanted to make a move against him again, he would have to do so in defiance of the Hokage's orders.

"There is one more matter." The Third Hokage set down his pipe and looked at Shinichi. "Naruto."

Shinichi's ears perked up.

"I've seen you training with him often. Naruto's foundation is weak, but he possesses an enormous amount of chakra. Teaching him the Shadow Clone Technique suggests you understand the characteristics of his body." A faint trace of probing lingered in the Third Hokage's words as he continued, "That is not a simple judgment. Most jonin would not think of using the Shadow Clone Technique to complement Naruto's chakra traits. How did you think of it?"

"I practiced tree climbing and water walking with him. I found that his chakra control wasn't good, but he had a lot of chakra. The Shadow Clone Technique happens to need a large chakra reserve as a foundation, and its control threshold is actually lower than the Transformation Technique." Shinichi paused, and when he spoke again, his tone softened slightly. "Mostly, I saw him training alone all the time. When I had time, I just kept him company."

After hearing that, the Third Hokage removed his hat and placed it on the desk. From behind his pipe, he looked at the black-haired child before him. He had reviewed countless ninja files, interviewed more ANBU members than he could count, and seen both geniuses and hard workers. Yet there were very few six-year-olds who could see so clearly what others needed. Such insight was not talent. It was experience. How could an orphan, with no one to teach him, understand so much?

But he did not ask any more questions. Some questions did not need to be asked yet. As long as this child stood on Naruto's side, he was worthy of trust.

"You may go." The Third Hokage waved a hand. "Oh, and visit the library more when you have time. You can't borrow the Book of Seals, but you're free to browse the materials on ordinary ninjutsu."

The meaning behind those words was clear: I'll accept your torn-page explanation for now. In the future, learn through proper channels. Don't go digging through corners for things of unknown origin again. Shinichi bowed slightly and left the office. As he stepped outside, he noticed that the two ANBU were looking at him differently than before. The cat-masked ANBU no longer had his fingers resting on his waist, while the bird-masked ANBU dipped his chin slightly inward. A child personally received and sent off with a smile by the Hokage automatically gained another layer of protection in the eyes of the ANBU.

By the time he left the Hokage Building, the sun was already slanting westward, bathing the village streets in a warm orange glow. A few children who had stayed late were kicking pebbles beside the Ninja Academy playground. Farther away, several women washing vegetables by a well chatted about how vegetable prices had risen again today. Smoke rose from rooftops throughout the village, and the scent of firewood mixed with miso soup drifted over on the wind. Shinichi stood on the steps outside the building and took a deep breath.

He had obtained an official identity.

From this day onward, he was no longer an orphan of unknown origins in Konoha. He was a Senju bloodline awakener formally recognized by the Hokage in writing. Konoha's registration records would state: Senju Shinichi, Konoha's sixty-year intake freshman, branch-family Senju bloodline, preliminary Wood Release awakening, provisional potential rating: A. The faint warning hidden in the Third Hokage's final words was also a normal response—an old man with white hair, seated in public office, cautioning a clever child while offering him protection in his own way.

And Shinichi's response was this: before entering the Hokage Building, he had still been "that orphan from the orphanage." Now, he had become "the one personally received by the Third Hokage." Within Konoha's upper power structure, that meant he had officially secured a legitimate starting position.

As he was thinking about this, a familiar blond head shot out from an alleyway.

"Shinichi! Why did Old Man Third call you over? Is he making you Hokage?!" Naruto looked frantic. His forehead protector was tied crookedly, though he had not noticed, and his head was covered in dust. He had probably been crouching on some tree branch for a long time again. "Then what number am I?"

"The Eighth." Shinichi walked down the steps and straightened Naruto's forehead protector. "You're the Eighth. No getting out of it."

"Then who's the Seventh?"

"You'll find out when the time comes."

Naruto wore the suspicious expression of someone thinking, He's tricking a kid again, but he did not press the matter. He followed Shinichi toward the ramen shop, walking like a puppy that had just learned to wag its tail. His steps were quick and choppy as he ran half a circle around Shinichi before turning back, declaring that he would definitely treat him today—despite having empty pockets. Shinichi watched Naruto's back, then looked up at the office window where the light was still on.

The Third Hokage was probably still watching them from the window.

That's fine. Let him watch.