Leaving in Secret

Naruto swallowed the noodles in his mouth, picked up a tissue, and wiped the corner of his lips. "Delicious, and the portions are generous."

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

Iruka ate his noodles as he reminisced, his eyes narrowing behind the rising steam.

"You're much quieter now, and your table manners are far more refined than before."

"That was then. Ninja have to grow up too, Iruka-sensei!"

Naruto picked up a strip of dried bamboo shoot with his chopsticks, his tone casual.

After eating for a while and filling their stomachs, Iruka set down his chopsticks, picked up the teacup beside him, took a sip, and asked in a conversational tone, "So, Naruto, you've been a ninja for a while now. How does it feel?"

Naruto lightly tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage."

Iruka smiled, but did not refute him.

Back when Naruto said he wanted to become Hokage, the whole class would laugh. Even Iruka himself had thought that the boy probably needed to fall a few more times before learning to keep his feet on the ground.

But now, when Naruto said those words, his voice was neither loud nor hurried. He did not wave his fists or jump onto a chair. He was like a traveler confirming his destination.

Iruka knew that he meant it.

Uncle Ichiraku brought over two more complimentary plates of char siu, saying they were for Naruto to build up his strength.

Naruto thanked him, and he and Iruka chatted as they ate. Their conversation gradually shifted from their experiences in the Land of Waves to amusing stories from their days at the Ninja Academy.

By the time they finished the last mouthful of soup, night had completely fallen.

Uncle Ichiraku began closing up, while Ayame wiped down the counter.

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

The night breeze was slightly cool, and there were few pedestrians left on the streets. The streetlights stretched their shadows long.

"Naruto, good luck in the Chūnin Exams."

"Yeah, I will, Iruka-sensei."

They parted at a fork in the road. Iruka headed toward the teachers' apartments, while Naruto walked toward his own apartment.

After taking a few steps, Iruka turned back and called out, "Don't train too late. Make sure you get some rest!"

With his back to him, Naruto raised a hand in farewell before turning into the night.

After saying goodbye to Iruka, Naruto walked back through the quiet nighttime streets toward the yellow apartment building.

He climbed the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the corridor. He inserted his key into the lock and turned it twice, and the rusted door creaked open.

He did not turn on the light immediately.

Standing in the darkness, he closed his eyes and slowly spread out his senses.

Absolute Control allowed Naruto to finely regulate his own senses.

This was not the kind of detection that loudly released chakra fluctuations. Instead, he mobilized his hearing, sense of smell, sensitivity to air currents, and faint perception of chakra, letting them silently cover an area roughly one hundred meters around the apartment like a spiderweb blown open by the wind.

There was no distinctive prickling sensation of being watched.

The hairs on the back of his neck did not stand up, nor did his scalp tighten.

Naruto frowned slightly.

Not sensing anyone watching him did not mean no one was monitoring him.

The Third might have been busy dealing with the upcoming Chūnin Exams. As Hokage, the documents piled on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk were probably taller than anyone else's.

But the Telescope Technique was the Third's signature ninjutsu. As long as he wanted to watch, he could do so at any time.

Naruto did not lower his guard simply because he temporarily could not sense anyone watching him.

He raised the precision of his senses another level.

This time, he was conducting a focused detection specifically for chakra sources.

With Absolute Control assisting him, he could distinguish the subtle differences between various chakra sources. An ordinary villager's chakra was as faint as a thin mist; a genin's chakra was a small flame; a jōnin's chakra was like a tightly compressed bonfire.

ANBU chakra had one particularly obvious characteristic.

Their chakra was deliberately suppressed. It seemed calm on the surface, but beneath it lay a dense concentration that could erupt at any moment, like an undercurrent hidden beneath still water.

Two such chakra sources were positioned in a large tree around fifty meters to the left of the apartment and behind the rooftop water tower of a house roughly seventy meters to the right.

Naruto curled his lip in the darkness.

So there really were ANBU nearby.

Two ANBU, one on each side. Their positions had been carefully chosen, allowing them to cover every entrance and exit of his apartment without blocking each other's line of sight.

This level of surveillance deployment could be considered standard.

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

The Third ignored him openly, but his secret arrangements had never slackened.

Fine. If you love squatting there, then keep squatting.

Naruto withdrew his senses and reached out to flip on the light switch. Dim yellow incandescent light filled the spotless little room.

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

He filled the bathtub, took off his clothes, and climbed in. The moment the hot water covered his shoulders, every muscle in his body relaxed in unison.

As he soaked, he sensed the two ANBU chakra signatures again.

They were still in the same positions, showing no signs of movement.

Normal.

Monitoring a jinchūriki was a long-term assignment. They worked in shifts, usually with one team watching for six hours before the next took over.

Naruto silently calculated the time. It was probably a little after nine in the evening, and there were still at least two hours before the next shift change.

There was enough time.

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

Then he walked over to the kitchen trash can, bent down, took out the garbage bag, and tied it shut.

The movement was natural and ordinary, with nothing noteworthy about it.

A ninja who had just finished bathing tidied up the room and prepared to take out the trash. Nothing could have been more normal.

But at the instant he tied the garbage bag, a Shadow Clone Technique appeared soundlessly behind him.

There was no smoke and no sound.

At the very instant Naruto activated the Shadow Clone Technique, he used Absolute Control to suppress the fluctuations of chakra in his body to the lowest possible level. His body concealed the hand seals, and the resulting chakra fluctuation was as faint as a grain of sand falling into water.

The Shadow Clone Technique and the original exchanged a glance. Then the clone took the garbage bag and walked toward the door to change shoes.

At the same time, Naruto's original body used the Transformation Technique to become an empty shampoo bottle.

The bottle itself had no chakra fluctuations at all, identical to the empty bottles sitting on the kitchen windowsill.

All traces of his presence were suppressed.

Under the precise control of Absolute Control, his heartbeat slowed to only a few beats per minute, while his body temperature adjusted to match the surrounding environment perfectly.

The Shadow Clone Technique carried the garbage bag out the door and casually pulled it shut behind him.

Add Bookmark

Return to Contents

Report Chapter Error

Share with Friends: