An Agreement in the Shadows

Three days after leaving the Hokage's office, Shinichi was summoned again.

This time, Iruka Umino had not passed along the message. An ANBU wearing a cat mask appeared directly in the orphanage's backyard. While Shinichi was hanging laundry, the man stepped out from behind a locust tree and raised the Hokage's seal before speaking. The matron had just come out of the kitchen carrying a basin of freshly washed sheets and nearly dropped it at the sight of the ANBU. Shinichi set down the wet clothes in his hands, signaled to her that everything was fine, and followed Cat Mask away. As he left, he thought, The Third Hokage probably has looks requirements for ANBU recruits. Cat Mask's hair is much neater than Bird Mask's.

They were not going to the Hokage Building this time. Cat Mask led him down an unfamiliar route, up the stone steps along the side of the village, through a small bamboo grove, and finally stopped above Hokage Rock. The Third Hokage was already there. He wore neither his Hokage hat nor held a pipe. He simply sat on a flat stone at the cliff's edge, his feet dangling over the drop, like any old man who had come out in the evening to enjoy the cool air. From here, they could see the outline of the entire Leaf Village—cooking smoke drifting upward, pedestrians moving slowly through the streets like ants, and several children still practicing shuriken on the distant Ninja Academy training ground. Even from this far away, they could faintly hear the sound of kunai striking wooden posts.

"Sit." The Third Hokage patted the stone beside him.

Shinichi sat down beside him. He tried not to look down—not because he was afraid of heights, but because his Sharingan could now make out the direction of every branch at the bottom of the cliff. The sheer amount of information gave him the illusion that he might fall at any moment.

"It wasn't convenient to say much in front of you last time." The Third Hokage did not look at him, his gaze fixed on the distant panorama of Konoha. "I brought you here because I want to ask you a question. What do you think Konoha is?"

Shinichi was silent for several seconds. Not because he had been stumped, but because he was judging the difficulty of the question. The Third Hokage never used such formal language with children. With Konohamaru, he would say, "Grandpa brought you candy today." With Naruto Uzumaki, he would say, "You brat, you painted Hokage Rock again." Using the language of one adult speaking to another meant what they were about to discuss went beyond mere "concern." He decided not to give the standard answer.

"It's a place where an orphan like me can have food to eat."

The Third Hokage turned and glanced at him. The answer contained neither praise nor forced profundity, but precisely because it was so specific, it felt more real than any pretty words. He suddenly chuckled, the sound rumbling dully from his chest before the wind at the cliff top scattered it.

"You know Danzo, don't you?"

Here it comes. Shinichi's fingers tightened slightly on his knee. He had phrased it as a statement, which meant there was no longer any need for preamble.

"A little," Shinichi said. "The modern history textbooks in the library mentioned him. They said he was one of the Second Hokage's disciples and currently a Konoha advisor."

"The textbooks won't say that he controls Root." The Third Hokage turned his gaze back toward the distance.

After the Third Hokage spoke the word "Root," the wind at the cliff top carried it away. The two of them remained silent for several seconds.

"Root is Konoha's dark side, responsible for missions that cannot be made public. Danzo is very capable. But his pursuit of power has no limits. To him, the Senju Clan bloodline within you is a resource he must obtain." The Third Hokage paused, allowing the weight of those words to settle in Shinichi's heart. "You said before that you found some damaged pages in the library, but I know that last autumn, you often left the orphanage at night. In the months before you entered school, the number of orphan disappearances also happened to decrease. I won't ask what exactly you did, but I want to know whether you would be willing to explain it all to me yourself one day."

Shinichi accidentally ran his fingers along the edge of a crack in the stone for a few moments before quickly pulling his hand back. Then he looked up at the Third Hokage's profile. He had originally thought he had been brought to the cliff top to be reprimanded, but the other man had not said a single harsh word. Yet this tone of his carried more pressure than any scolding could have.

"My parents died in the Nine-Tails Rampage, Lord Third," Shinichi said, placing the words between them like an old receipt on a table. "When I woke up, I was already in the orphanage. No one told me what the Senju Clan bloodline meant, and no one taught me how to be a ninja. I could only learn on my own."

After hearing that, the Third Hokage was silent for a long time. Long enough for the wind below the cliff to shift direction, blowing in from the south with the scent of ramen broth. Then he reached into his robes and took something out.

An envelope. Kraft paper, sealed with wax, bearing the Third Hokage's seal.

"From today onward, guardianship of Senju Shinichi will officially fall under the Hokage's direct authority." The Third Hokage did not hand the letter to him directly, but placed it on the stone between them. Then he untied a small cloth pouch from his waist and set it beside the envelope. "No one will pursue the things you did at the orphanage anymore. From now on, you are a Senju Clan bloodline awakener officially trained by Konoha. This is your protection."

Shinichi looked at the vermilion wax seal and did not reach for it immediately. From what he knew of the shinobi world, a transfer of guardianship meant one thing—he was no longer a child of the orphanage. He was now someone under the Hokage's direct authority. If Danzo wanted to make a move against him again, it would be equivalent to challenging the Third Hokage's authority to make decisions.

"What are the conditions?" he asked.

The Third Hokage removed the pipe from his mouth and tapped out the ash toward the setting sun. He put it back, took a puff, and only then said, "Study hard at the Ninja Academy and become a good ninja after graduation. Do whatever missions I assign you. Don't touch the ones I tell you not to take."

That was all? Shinichi was a little surprised. There was no blood oath, no pledge of loyalty, no lengthy speech about swearing to burn himself for Konoha for the rest of his life. The Third Hokage had not even asked where he had trained his Wood Release. Shinichi had expected the "conditions" to be something like, "You may only serve the Hokage's direct ANBU from now on," or "You must regularly report the development of your bloodline limit." Instead, the Third Hokage's conditions were so simple—more relaxed than the orphanage's daily schedule.

"This." The Third Hokage pointed his pipe at the small cloth pouch. "At the start of every month, collect supplies from logistics. Your allowance will be calculated at the special jonin standard. It's not much, but enough for ramen with extra pork."

Shinichi finally could not hold it in. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. Extra pork. The Third Hokage knew he used his own money to buy Naruto ramen with extra pork. After all that serious buildup about Danzo and guardianship, he ended it with one small detail—he was telling Shinichi, I've been watching you, and I approve.

"Understood." He tucked both the envelope and pouch into his robes. The pouch was heavy with copper coins and several scroll vouchers, making a crisp metallic sound as it brushed against his clothes.

The Third Hokage stood, tucked his pipe back into his waist, and dusted off his robes. The sunset at the cliff top was sinking below the horizon, dyeing his snowy white hair a golden brown. Then he turned around and wrapped things up in a sentence devoid of any discernible emotion.

"One more thing—starting tomorrow, remember to wear a dark coat when you go out at night. The one you wore before has been washed so pale that it stands out too much."

Shinichi nearly choked on his own breath. So every time he went out in the middle of the night, the Third Hokage had probably been drinking tea and watching a live broadcast through his crystal ball. He was silent for a moment, pretending that sentence had merely been carried past by the mountain wind.

"Yes, Lord Third. I'll keep that in mind."

The way down the mountain was much faster than the climb up. As he walked, he calculated—his relationship with the Hokage's side had stabilized. He now had a full monthly equipment allowance, and Danzo could not openly make a move against him in the short term. The Third Hokage's parting words, "Don't provoke Root people again before graduation," sounded more like an elder's concern than a warning.

But that protection had limits. Once he did something that clearly harmed Konoha's interests, the Third Hokage could take back that guardianship document at any time. This meant that if he wanted to continue expanding his bloodline collection, he could not use his identity as an "official Hokage subordinate" to do private work. He could not openly continue hunting down Root's remaining members, nor could he use resources directly under the Hokage for secret battles. He had to continue using the method he was best at—hiding in the shadows and leaving no traces.

Just as well, the surveillance around him had gained another layer. Now, not only did he have to avoid Root, he also had to deal with ANBU watching him in secret—the Third Hokage would not merely send people to "protect him secretly"; they would also conveniently "keep an eye on his movements." But ANBU watched people differently from Root. ANBU was, "Let's see what he's doing." Root was, "Let's find a chance to take him back." The former was more annoying. The latter was more deadly. He chose the former.

When he returned to the orphanage, the matron was standing at the entrance with her hands on her hips, her apron still stained with soy sauce from dinner. She watched Shinichi approach from the alley, examined him from head to toe to make sure he had not lost any arms or legs, then snorted and went back into the kitchen to reheat the food. Little Flower stuck her head out from the second-floor window and shouted, "Big Brother Shinichi, what did that masked person want with you?" Shinichi looked up and said, "A school interview." Little Flower shrank back inside, half convinced and half doubtful. He returned to his room and sat on his hard wooden bed, then took the heavy pouch from his robes and poured its contents into his palm—copper coins, several scroll vouchers, and a tiny shuriken-shaped badge. The front of the badge was engraved with Konoha's spiral emblem, while the back bore a line of small words: "Senju Shinichi · Directly Under the Hokage."

He turned the badge over in his hand several times, then placed it under his pillow instead of pinning it to his school uniform. It was better to keep that kind of label tucked away for now.

After dinner, he did not go out. Tonight, he needed to spend time reorganizing Root's patrol routes, the locations of hidden sentries, and the ANBU surveillance the Third Hokage might have placed around him. Having obtained protection, he needed to begin planning the next stage of Naruto's training, as well as how to continue expanding his combat strength without being noticed.

He added a passage to his notebook—"The Third Hokage's promise and its boundaries. The Third Hokage's protection is founded on my attitude toward Naruto and the fact that I have not yet posed a substantive threat to Konoha's security. This line is currently safe, but it must not be abused."

After finishing, he closed the notebook. Moonlight happened to shine through the hole in the window, falling on the floor like a tiny white seal. The pouch he had brought back from the cliff top rested beside his bed, weighing down the corner of his blanket and reminding him with its heaviness—starting today, he finally had a place of his own within this vast shinobi village system.