Sneaking Away

Naruto swallowed the ramen in his mouth, picked up a napkin, and wiped the corner of his mouth. "Delicious, and the ingredients are so generous."

"You used to be able to eat five bowls in one go, shouting while you ate that you were going to be Hokage. Your voice would fill the whole shop."

Iruka reminisced while eating his ramen, his eyes narrowing behind the rising steam.

"You're a lot quieter now, but the way you eat is much more refined than before."

"Before was before. After all, ninjas grow up, Iruka-sensei!"

Naruto picked up a chopstick of bamboo shoots, his tone casual.

After eating noodles for a while and lining their stomachs, Iruka put down his chopsticks, picked up the teacup beside him to take a sip, and asked in a chatty tone:

"Say, Naruto, it's been a while since you became a ninja. Any thoughts?"

Naruto tapped the edge of his bowl gently with his chopsticks, thought for a moment, and said:

"I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage."

Iruka smiled, but he did not refute it.

Whenever Naruto said he wanted to be Hokage in the past, the whole class would laugh, and even Iruka himself would think to himself that this kid probably needed to take a few more falls before he learned to be down-to-earth.

But now when Naruto said those words, his tone was not high and his speed was not rushed. He did not wave his fists or jump up on a chair; he just sounded like a traveler confirming his destination.

Iruka knew that he was serious about this statement.

Teuchi brought out two more complimentary plates of chashu, saying it was to help build up Naruto's strength.

Naruto expressed his thanks, eating and chatting with Iruka as the topic slowly shifted from their experiences in the Land of Waves to interesting anecdotes from their days at the Ninja Academy.

By the time the two finished their last sip of soup, the night was completely dark.

Teuchi started packing up the stall, and Ayame was wiping down the counter.

Iruka paid the bill and walked out of the shop door with Naruto.

The night breeze was slightly cool, pedestrians on the street were already sparse, and the streetlights stretched the two figures out very long.

"Naruto, good luck on the Chunin Ninja Exams."

"Yeah, I will, Iruka-sensei."

The two parted ways at the fork in the road, with Iruka walking toward the teacher apartments and Naruto walking toward his own apartment.

After walking a few steps, Iruka turned back and shouted, "Don't train too late, make sure to get some rest!"

Naruto raised a hand with his back to him, waved it, and turned into the night.

After bidding farewell to Iruka, Naruto walked along the quiet streets in the night back to the yellow apartment.

Walking up the stairs, the sound of footsteps echoed in the corridor. The key was inserted into the keyhole and turned twice, and that rusty door creaked open.

He did not rush to turn on the light.

Standing in the dark, he closed his eyes and slowly spread his perception outward.

Absolute Control allowed Naruto to finely regulate his own senses.

It was not the kind of fanfare-filled detection method that released Chakra fluctuations, but rather mobilizing his hearing, smell, sense of touch on air currents, and faint sensing of chakra all at once, covering an area of about a hundred meters around the apartment silently like a wind-blown spiderweb.

There was no needle-pricking sensation specific to being watched.

The fine hairs on the back of his neck did not stand up, and his scalp did not tighten.

Naruto frowned slightly.

Not feeling spied upon did not mean no one was monitoring him.

The Third might be busy dealing with the upcoming Chunin Ninja Exams. As Hokage, the documents on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk right now were probably piled higher than a person.

But the Telescope Technique was the Third Hokage's signature ninjutsu; as long as he wanted to look, he could look at any time.

Naruto did not let down his guard just because he temporarily did not feel watched.

He raised the precision of his perception to another level.

This time it was a directional probe specifically targeting chakra sources.

With the aid of Absolute Control, he could distinguish the subtle differences between different chakra sources: ordinary villagers' chakra was as faint as a layer of mist, a Genin's chakra was a small flicker of flame, and a Jōnin's chakra was like a tightly compressed bonfire.

And the ANBU's chakra had a very distinct feature.

Their chakra had been deliberately suppressed, calm on the surface, but deep down possessed a highly concentrated density ready to erupt at any moment, like undercurrents hidden beneath calm water.

Two such chakra sources appeared respectively on a large tree about fifty meters to the left of the apartment and behind the rooftop water tower of a residence about seventy meters to the right.

Naruto curled the corner of his mouth in the dark.

Sure enough, there were ANBU people.

Two ANBU, one left and one right, their positions chosen very carefully, capable of covering all entry and exit points of his apartment without blocking each other's line of sight.

This level of surveillance deployment could be considered standard configuration.

For Konoha's Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, two ANBU taking turns tailing him was already the bare minimum security measure.

The Third Hokage ignored him openly, but his arrangements behind the scenes had never slackened.

Fine, since you love squatting, then squat away.

Naruto withdrew his perception and reached out to press the light switch. The dim incandescent light filled the spotless little room.

He took off his shoes, hung his ninja tool pouch on the hook by the door, and walked into the small but clean bathroom.

He filled the bathtub with water and stepped in, undressed. The moment the hot water washed over his shoulders, the muscles all over his body relaxed in unison.

He soaked in the bath while re-perceiving those two ANBU chakra signatures.

Still in their original positions, without the slightest sign of movement.

Normal.

Their monitoring of a Jinchuriki was a long-term mission, operated on a shift system where a group typically watched for six hours before swapping out for the next shift.

Naruto silently calculated the time in his mind. It was probably around nine or ten at night, and there were at least two hours left until the next shift change.

There was enough time.

He stood up from the bathtub, dried his body, and changed into clean loungewear.

Then he walked over to the kitchen trash can, bent down to lift out the trash bag inside, and tied it into a knot.

This action was very natural, very routine, with nothing noteworthy about it.

A ninja who had just taken a shower tidied up the room and prepared to take out the trash-nothing could be more normal.

Yet the moment he tied the trash bag, a shadow clone appeared silently behind him.

No smoke, no sound.

The very instant he launched the Shadow Clone Technique, Naruto used Absolute Control to suppress the chakra fluctuations inside his body to the absolute lowest limit. The hand seals were blocked by his body, and the generated chakra fluctuations were as light as a grain of sand dropping into water.

The shadow clone and the main body exchanged a glance, and then the shadow clone took the trash bag and walked toward the doorway to change shoes.

Meanwhile, the Naruto main body simultaneously launched the Transformation Technique to transform into the shape of a used shampoo bottle.

The bottle itself had no chakra fluctuations, completely identical to those empty bottles placed on the kitchen windowsill.

All presence was suppressed.

Under the precise regulation of Absolute Control, his heartbeat dropped to just a few beats per minute, and his body temperature adjusted to match the surrounding environment entirely.

The shadow clone carried the trash bag out the door and pulled it shut behind him casually.