Old Fox

"You smashed a crater five meters across into the street and damaged a sixty-square-meter house..."

"And you call that a job well done, Kazan?!"

In the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi roared at Kazan.

He was every bit as hysterical as Sengoku was when dealing with Garp.

Kazan said nothing. He stood there so meekly he hardly seemed himself.

"Say something!"

"...All right, then." Kazan scratched his head, then said something that nearly made Hiruzen cough up blood. "I didn't expect him to be so sturdy. Who knew he'd make a hole that big?"

Cough, cough, cough!

Hiruzen nearly choked on his pipe smoke.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Why did you go looking for a fight with Jing Uchiha?"

Looking at Kazan's guileless face, Hiruzen couldn't help roaring again.

Birds perched near the Hokage Building took flight at the sound and fled into the distance.

"I wanted to see how strong I am now. But nobody else at school is strong enough—or tough enough! Kakashi didn't have time, so the Uchiha Clan was the best opponent I could think of."

So you do know the Uchiha aren't to be messed with?

"Do you realize that if I hadn't acted quickly, the Uchiha would have taken you away?"

"Do I need to spell out what would have happened then?"

Hiruzen braced both hands on his desk and spoke irritably.

"Tell me. Why have you been picking fights lately?"

Kazan didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "Old Man Third Hokage, things haven't been peaceful in the Shinobi World lately, have they?"

"Who told you that?"

"No one. I can see it for myself. The shinobi coming back to the village don't look right."

Has it become that obvious?

Hiruzen's anger faded, and he sighed inwardly.

Sunagakure's Third Kazekage had been missing for so long that its shinobi had concluded he was dead.

Chiyo, the Legendary Puppeteer, had taken over as Sunagakure's leader for the time being.

Grandma Chiyo was a woman, but she had a fierce temper.

Now she had set her sights on the other Four Great Shinobi Villages.

Aside from those four villages, none of the smaller shinobi villages had the means to quietly assassinate the Third Kazekage, who was hailed as the strongest Kazekage.

Sunagakure's probing had put the other shinobi villages on edge. As tensions rose, border skirmishes grew more frequent.

Hatred and anger were building rapidly along every nation's border. No one could say when full-scale war would break out.

Hiruzen had no intention of telling Kazan any of this, but his opinion of the boy rose another notch.

Kazan only seemed carefree. In truth, he was remarkably perceptive.

"You don't need to worry about any of that. What you need to do now is promise me you won't go around picking fights anymore, especially with the village's shinobi clans. Can you do that?"

"I'll try."

"I don't want you to try. If there's a next time, even I won't be able to protect you! Now get out there and repair what you damaged. You have my permission to use that technique Kakashi taught you."

So the old man knew after all.

Kazan thought to himself that Konoha's leaders were a difficult bunch to deal with. Still, he put on a look of surprise.

"Old Man Third Hokage, you... you knew?"

"Hmph. Don't underestimate the Hokage, kid."

Hiruzen smiled smugly.

Everything that happened in the village fell within his watch.

Besides the ANBU, his most elite force, he also had the Telescope Technique.

Once he took an interest in someone, information on that person would land on his desk.

Unless their abilities were beyond the ANBU's reach.

People like Orochimaru and Danzo, as well as the Hyuga Clan and Uchiha Clan, could only be watched from a distance. The ANBU couldn't infiltrate their inner circles.

"That old fox is hard to deal with."

After leaving the Hokage Building, a shrewd gleam appeared on Kazan's usually carefree face.

The old man knew exactly how to win people over.

In all his life, Kazan had only spent time with Hiruzen up close on these two occasions.

Yet in those two meetings, Hiruzen had roared at him and acted as though he were helplessly exasperated with his own grandson.

Without Kazan noticing, it had drawn them closer and made the distance between them disappear.

"No wonder he later talked Uchiha Itachi and Shisui Uchiha into turning completely against their clan."

A man like that was terrifying.

"But if he went to the trouble of putting on that act for me, at least it proves I'm on the Hokage's radar. From now on, I've got someone backing me!"

Kazan looked forward to the team assignments after graduation even more.

Would he be assigned to Minato Namikaze?

Though Minato always seemed to arrive one step too late when it mattered most, leaving his life full of regrets.

The Fourth Hokage had few appearances, and the sunny smile he wore in each one made it easy to overlook everything else.

But throughout his life, that regret of being "one step too late" had followed him.

He was known as the fastest shinobi in the Shinobi World.

Yet he hadn't saved his student Obito Uchiha in time.

During the Nine-Tails' Attack, duty had compelled him to deal with the Nine-Tails first, but that had left him one step too late again.

That pattern had followed Minato Namikaze all his life, showing just how fickle fate could be.

Even so, Minato Namikaze would be one of the strongest people to have on your side during the Third Shinobi World War.

"Ah, why am I thinking so far ahead? I've got a road to fix."

Kazan went back to working with cement.

The ANBU were still supervising him. Not far away, the shinobi of the Military Police Force—the Uchiha Clan—gritted their teeth at the sight.

They had already complained to their clan leader, who had gone to the Hokage Building to protest, only to be turned away by Hiruzen.

The Uchiha couldn't understand why the Third Hokage was so determined to protect this brat.

Could a mere civilian really be placed above the Uchiha?

They didn't understand. All they knew was that Kazan had humiliated their clan.

In broad daylight, he had beaten one of their prodigies so badly he'd ended up in the hospital, where he still hadn't regained consciousness.

"Kazan? What are you doing here?"

It was Kurenai Yuhi's voice.

Kazan looked up and saw Kurenai walking with her friends. It looked like they had come out to shop.

"Nothing much. I saw the road was damaged and couldn't help fixing it so it wouldn't inconvenience everyone in the village."

"What do you mean, you couldn't help fixing it? Why don't you tell us who damaged the road? And this house, too."

Mitarashi Anko exposed his lie without mercy.

Konoha wasn't small, but it wasn't that big, either.

While Kazan had been getting an earful from Hiruzen, word that he'd put Jing Uchiha in the hospital had spread through the whole village.

If Konoha had held a popularity poll, the Uchiha would have been the village's most disliked shinobi clan, without question.

That was why plenty of people took the chance to mock the Uchiha.