The Secret in the Attic

Konoha's streets were as bustling as ever, with many small vendors beneath large umbrellas hawking their wares in the open spaces along both sides of the road.

Walking slowly along the Ao-stone pavement, the lingering glow of the setting sun painted the towers and upturned eaves in dreamlike colors.

Kato Xu stood silently. Hokage Rock, symbolizing Konoha's highest honor, faced him from afar atop the towering mountains. The blood-red glow swept past his waist, shining brightly in his eyes.

"The human world is wonderful..."

"But Konoha... isn't worth it..."

Beneath Hokage Rock, the bright-red Hokage Building seemed to have merged with the bloody hues at the horizon.

Kato Xu fixed his gaze on the stone likeness of the Third Hokage, hailed as the strongest Hokage. He wondered what the man seated at the center of Konoha's highest authority felt whenever he looked up and saw his own stone face above him.

Compared to those lofty figures, fate seemed to have already drawn the final line the moment commoner ninja like them were born.

"It's about time..."

Pushing aside his thoughts, Kato Xu slowly made his way toward Konoha's center of power.

Perhaps because of their faith in the Hokage's strength, Kato Xu was not questioned much before a young Chunin led him to the Hokage's office door.

"Come in..."

Kato Xu had not expected the Third Hokage, reputedly the strongest, to look somewhat kindly, like an old man next door.

"Genin Kato Xu greets Lord Hokage!"

"Sit..."

The Third Hokage's voice came from behind stacks upon stacks of documents, and there was no further response, only the rustling sound of writing.

Kato Xu quietly knelt on one knee, without moving in the slightest.

The sky gradually darkened. Only when the evening star had become clearly visible in the distance did Kato Xu feel a gaze settle upon him.

"You're Dan Katō's nephew, aren't you..."

"I never expected Dan's nephew to be this grown already..."

The Third Hokage rose to his feet and lit his pipe. Wisps of Ao smoke slowly drifted upward.

"These years in Root must have been hard, right..."

"Reporting to Lord Hokage, Kato Xu has never found it hard."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a light puff from his pipe, silently studying Kato Xu before slowly speaking again.

"Your teacher, Orochimaru, is my disciple. By that reckoning, I am your grandmaster as well. You needn't be so restrained."

"Yes, Lord Hokage!"

"Orochimaru wishes for you to join Minato Namikaze's team. He does not have much spare time to teach you certain basics. You should already know that, correct..."

"I called you here today mainly to meet you..."

Kato Xu was slightly surprised. He thought of the mission Danzo had given him—to join Minato Namikaze's team as a Genin and earn his trust—and roughly understood the sequence of events.

"Reporting to Lord Hokage, Teacher Orochimaru has already told me. If Jonin Minato Namikaze's team has an opening, Kato Xu is willing to join Jonin Minato Namikaze's team."

"Kato Xu, was it? You're a very polite child..."

"Go on. Someone will notify Jonin Minato Namikaze of your reassignment..."

"Yes! Lord Hokage!"

Kato Xu's figure slowly vanished from the Third Hokage's office. Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and stared out the window, quietly smoking, lost in thoughts unknown.

"Danzo... Orochimaru..."

The office seemed like a sea of clouds in turmoil, thick smoke filling every corner of the room.

Only after leaving the Hokage Building did Kato Xu finally feel a sense of relief.

If Danzo was Konoha's hardest shit-stained stone, then the Third Hokage was Konoha's finest politician.

More than thirty years as Hokage seemed to have given the Third Hokage eyes capable of seeing through every fog. At his side, Kato Xu had felt uncomfortable all over, as if every word required careful consideration.

"Minato Namikaze... Minato Namikaze... I think I've heard that name before..."

"Was it that man?"

Kato Xu recalled the blond-haired Jonin he had once seen at the cemetery. If it was him, he did not seem like someone who could be easily fooled.

Konoha's nights remained brightly lit, but by midnight they gradually grew bleak. Aside from the few establishments that stayed open all night, everywhere else had sunk into darkness.

The Kato Clan's training ground was not close to Konoha's center. Nearby lay Konoha's drill grounds, and the somewhat eerie forest training grounds rarely drew vendors during the day, becoming even quieter in the dead of night.

Kato Xu slowly stepped into this place he had been away from for six years. Memories buried deep within him gradually awakened, and a strange mixture of unfamiliarity, familiarity, and the sense that everything had changed flooded his heart.

"Has someone been here..."

There was not much dust in the small bamboo building at the training ground. It seemed someone had cleaned it recently.

"Was it Cousin Shizune..."

Kato Xu truly could not think of anyone besides that cousin he had only met once as a child who would remember to clean this place.

The teru teru bozu hanging from the eaves swayed in the wind, just as they had back then.

He had noticed nothing in the past, but looking now, he finally saw what was different. A flash of blue light passed through Kato Xu's eyes, which seemed to be shrouded in pale-blue mist.

He saw things invisible to the naked eye—faint fluorescent specks glimmered from the swaying teru teru bozu.

Kato Xu gently took it down from its stand and lightly rubbed it in his palm. The fluorescence slowly drifted out of it and entered his spiritual platform.

"This is Uncle Dan's..."

He could sense the deep unwillingness and worry contained within it, even a trace of longing—the unwillingness of someone who had died before becoming Hokage, and longing and worry for his beloved...

Kato Xu slowly went up the bamboo building. In Kato Yuan's room, somewhere absent from his memories, there was also a smiling teru teru bozu hanging there.

"Is this Uncle Yuan's..."

His finger lightly touched it. Fluorescence scattered into the air, and Kato Xu fell silent as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Uncle Yuan... until the very end of his life, he was thinking of me..."

Unlike the other objects from their owners' lives that contained fragments of souls, a clear image suddenly appeared in Kato Xu's mind, flashing over and over. Compared to anything else, it seemed Kato Yuan had wanted to tell Kato Xu the information within that image most of all.

"This is... the small attic..."

As though remembering something, Kato Xu gripped the two teru teru bozu, quickened his pace, and darted toward the attic at the very top...

The moment Kato Xu lightly placed his hand on the attic handle, an unfamiliar suction force seemed to arise from nowhere, causing his consciousness to grow hazy.

A faint phantom began to emerge from Kato Xu's body.

It was a force that acted upon the soul.

"No... I can't resist it..."

Kato Xu felt his vision go black, and then his soul left his body...

As if he had completely lost all weight, and all control over his spiritual body, Kato Xu's soul traveled through page after page, like a tunnel through time and space. Scenes he could not possibly describe with words flashed continuously through his mind.

"It was pitch-black, filled with blue, perhaps pink... There were elephants, spiders, and horses!"

Countless specks of fluorescence began appearing from every direction. Whenever one touched his body, his soul felt an ecstasy-like comfort.

"My spiritual power is continuously increasing. My soul seems to be undergoing some kind of mutation..."

He could not move at all. His entire spiritual body seemed imprisoned by something, and he could only watch as it slowly underwent changes he did not understand.

Outside the attic, beyond his perception.

Kato Xu's body slowly began to float.

His eyes were tightly shut, his heartbeat growing slower and slower. His entire body began radiating a hazy divine light. Thread after thread of mist emerged around its edges, while the outline of his body seemed to have had its colors drawn away, gradually becoming blurred.

The fluorescent lights within his spiritual perception became fewer and fewer, and his spiritual body slowly came to a stop in an endless space of darkness.

After the final speck of fluorescence entered his soul, it was as though he had completely lost his five senses, wrapped in absolute darkness.

He did not know how long had passed before he finally sensed the existence of his spiritual body again. Never before had the connection between body and soul been so faint. Following that weak connection, he dragged his heavy spiritual body—though he did not know why it had become so bloated—back into his body, yet could not open his eyes no matter what he did.

"What... happened to me..."