Hiruzen Sarutobi

"Grandpa!"

Naruto grew especially excited when he saw who was approaching, waving both hands in the air with a radiant smile.

As the Third Hokage walked over, he used the cover of night to take off his Hokage cloak, fold it, and hold it in his arms. By the time Naruto could make him out, all he saw was a kindly old man wearing a fairly thick padded coat.

"Naruto, it's been a while..." The Third Hokage smiled and patted his little head.

"Yeah! I haven't seen you in ages, Grandpa!"

"Have you been doing well?"

"Uh-huh! I'm doing great! You need to take care of yourself too, Grandpa!"

"Heh, don't worry. I may be old, but these bones aren't so frail that you need to worry about me!"

As he spoke, the Third Hokage glanced at the frozen river. There was a small crack where Naruto had been standing, made by striking the ice with a stone.

Hiruzen looked thoughtful. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Naruto, he changed the subject—

"Naruto, it's so late, and you're still out here. It'll get even colder tonight," the Third Hokage said with concern.

"Hehe, it's fine! I figured the fish should be asleep, so they'd be easy to catch if I came now. I'm not afraid of the cold... Achoo! Huh? Why do I suddenly feel so cold?" Naruto had been about to tell the old man that, for some reason, his whole body had felt warm all day. But a moment later, he suddenly felt the biting wind and started sneezing.

Little Naruto looked utterly confused.

Seeing this, the Third Hokage gave him a warm smile.

"Um... Grandpa, why are you carrying that cloak instead of wearing it?" Naruto asked a little sheepishly as he rubbed his hands together.

Hearing Naruto's question, the Third Hokage smiled. "I'm not afraid of the cold either. How about you wear it?"

Although he had phrased it as a question, Hiruzen did not wait for Naruto to answer. He had easily seen through the child's little scheme and was already unfolding the Hokage cloak and draping it over him.

Far too large for little Naruto's thin frame, the cloak wrapped him snugly like a bedsheet. The slightly distorted words "Third Hokage" happened to lie right over his little head.

And in the instant he draped the cloak over Naruto, Hiruzen Sarutobi had already examined almost his entire body.

No Nine-Tails Chakra was leaking.

There were no abnormalities.

The Third Hokage had reached his conclusion.

"Um, um, Grandpa, this cloak is really nice. It'll get dirty if it drags on the ground..." Oblivious to all of this, Naruto pulled the Hokage cloak around himself, then looked at the part resting on the ground with some distress.

"It's fine, it's fine. Naruto, the Hokage is an elder to everyone in the village. In other words, if my clothes can keep you warm, then getting them dirty is worth it." The Third Hokage laughed, then stood and pulled a Smoke pipe from his sleeve. "You wanted some Grilled Fish, right? You've treated me a few times before, so this time, let me treat you."

Then the Third Hokage narrowed his eyes and spun the Smoke pipe in his hand. Its tapered mouthpiece pointed toward the frozen river before it flew from his hand like a shuriken.

Whoosh.

The crisp whistle cut through Konoha's midnight air. Only when he heard the ice shatter did Naruto react, hurriedly turning toward the river.

A Smoke pipe was stuck in the middle of the crack he had just made. Its tapered mouthpiece had already plunged into the water and pierced an innocent river fish swimming past.

"Th-that's amazing..." Naruto stared, dumbfounded.

"Haha, looks like we're lucky today." The Third Hokage was still all smiles. "All right, Naruto, go fetch the fish. I'll get a fire going."

Flames sprang up in a campfire on the Riverside Creek. Three innocent river fish were skewered around it, their flesh sizzling as a delicious aroma drifted into the air.

The old man and the boy sat on opposite sides without worrying about appearances. This time, however, Naruto did not simply stare at the grilled fish as he had before. Instead, he gazed thoughtfully at the cloak around him.

"Grandpa, what's a Hokage?"

At last, unable to contain his curiosity, he asked the Third Hokage about the term he had mentioned more than once.

You finally asked.

Hiruzen Sarutobi thought.

"The Hokage is like an elder of the village, or you could say its chief." The Third Hokage looked at him and explained kindly, "The village chief's duty is to protect the whole village and keep every villager safe, while also maintaining order and making rules. In short, he has to manage all the village's affairs. But that doesn't mean he stands above everyone else. For instance, the Hokage can also help catch river fish with you and fill your belly, like we're doing now, because you're part of the village too, Naruto."

"Oh, so that's what it means..." Naruto only half understood, and he could not help looking up again at Konoha's distant buildings towering into the clouds.

Seeing Naruto's expression, the Third Hokage considered for a moment before finally saying what he had planned to say all along.

"At the same time, the Hokage is the person the village trusts and acknowledges most. Only someone everyone accepts can become Hokage, because he must protect the village's peace and everyone's lives..."

Just as he had expected, when the Third Hokage mentioned trust and acknowledgment, a distinct gleam appeared in Naruto's eyes. That was precisely what he longed for.

Seeing that he had achieved his goal, the Third Hokage stopped explaining and continued carefully wiping the traces of fish blood from his Smoke pipe.

His first reason for coming here was, naturally, to check whether anything was wrong with the Nine-Tails inside Naruto. The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's safety was of vital importance to the village. On his way here, he had also removed quite a few of the spies Danzo had planted.

Danzo's obsession with the Nine-Tails made the Third Hokage uneasy. It reminded him of how Danzo had also taken an unusual interest in the Uchiha Clan after the Nine-Tails' Attack a few years earlier.

The Nine-Tails, which the Fourth Hokage had only been able to seal at the cost of his life, could be controlled by the Sharingan's Eye Power... Hiruzen could guess what Danzo, who had always coveted the Hokage position, wanted to do.

But the Uchiha Clan truly was highly suspicious. Everyone knew the Sharingan was the Uchiha Clan's kekkei genkai. No one else could possess that power and use it to control the Nine-Tails into attacking Konoha.

Thus, the Third Hokage had tacitly permitted Danzo's various harsh measures against the Uchiha Clan. The Second Hokage had done the same back then...

But for the Third Hokage, his greater hope was that Naruto, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, would become a Konoha ninja who embraced the Will of Fire. Minato Namikaze had once told him that Kumogakure's Eight-Tails Jinchuriki could freely wield his tailed beast's power in battle. That power even surpassed that of the current Raikage, who had fought Minato.

So nothing could be better than letting Naruto discover the dream of becoming Hokage while he was still young.